Pacific Rim, Part VIII: Thailand

Sun, Mar 16
We get to Hat Yai and I realize that I have a layover and need to change buses. My driver is awesome and while he doesn’t speak English, he’s taken me under his wing and shown me the ropes. (This was especially handy at the half-way truck stop where I changed my ringgit to baht and at the border.) He walks me into the transit joint and hooks me up with a chick that speaks perfect enough English to explain the next step. I leave at 09:30. Be back at 09:15, and it’s 08:50. Good enough. I walk the street and grab some food. I’m back in about 15 minutes, but the place is already getting busy with school aged kids. They have their passports, so I’m guessing they’re all on their way to Malaysia – not my bus. At about 09:30, they all load up and leave. Where’s my bus? I realize at about 10:00 that there was a time change, and it’s now 09:00. Oh well. I wouldn’t have done much in the last hour anyway.

Another white person shows up. It’s a girl, and I hear her speaking French on the phone. I don’t even bother talking to the French anymore, because I’m tired of them sticking their noses up at me when I mention that I’m American. I map and wake to see that four white guys have shown up. They have fins, and I start talking to one named Matt to find if they’re heading north or south so that I can pick his brain on dive sites up north. Well, come to find that not only was he heading north to Ko Samui (useless for brain picking), the fins aren’t for diving, they’re for underwater hockey. WHO KNEW! He says he plays for the English national team, and I wonder when underwater basket weaving was going to become an Olympic sport. (In all seriousness, he was very cool, and I want to look into the sport – it sounded really hardcore.) At the same time, I finally spoke to the girl – Sophie. (She’s French Canadian and has been on the road for 19 months. She learned English in Australia, like so many other folks and stayed there working for a year before starting her Asia trip. Wow!) I’d actually seen her at the truck stop but didn’t think much of it. Now I find that she’s left Penang and is headed to Krabi also. We board the bus together and can’t shut up for at least a couple of hours. We’re now best traveling buddies and decide to room together in Krabi. When we arrive, we’re approached by a guy named Lek. You need a room? What are you doing here? All of the basics. He turns into our travel agent and hooks us up with a room, the best places to eat, a snorkeling trip, and even sets up our bus/ferry to Ko Tao, our next destination. I’m sure that this all came at a small premium, but he’s certainly worth a couple bucks.

Lek takes us to our hotel and shows us around. It’s a basic room with a bathroom, but it’s got a great little balcony that looks over a little valley. Very nice. We meet a Frenchman named John at the front desk. He’s getting advice from Lek on things to do, and decides to visit a Buddhist Temple named Wat Tham Sua. We want to go too, but convince him to loiter a bit so that we can be there for the sunset rather than too early. We grab some drinks and enjoy them while sitting and chatting on the river.

I remembered the change a little too late. If sunset comes an hour earlier, we needed to get moving. We catch a truck to the temple and hangout a bit with the monkeys before starting our 1,237 step climb to the top. The temple is built on the top of a sheer cliff, and the climb is almost as bad as Wainu Picchu. The advantage here is that the monks (I’m guessing) have actually build concrete steps and provide a handrail. The worst part though, is that the steps aren’t uniform. Some are about 6” tall and deep while others are 12” tall and 4” deep. Yikes! After an incredible cardio workout, we make it to the top. The sun had set, but the view was still really nice. Now for the really hard part, going down with only the moonlight to guide us. My knee’s killing me by the time we reach the bottom, but it was worth it. We head back to town and grab some food. On the way back from dinner, we ran into another French Canadian named Pascal. While I was exhausted and needed a shower and bed more than anything, Sophie decided the night was young and went out for a drink.

Mon, Mar 17
We need to be ready for our snorkeling trip around Ko Phi Phi at 07:45, but I’m up early and go grab some breakfast. Our ride picks us up, and we pick up an awesome couple, Mick and Kirsti, from England. We go to Ao Nang beach where a billion boats appear to leave for Ko Phi Phi. I realize that we’ll be herded like sheep all day and don’t really mind too much; I am a tourist doing something very touristy. We group together on the beach like kids practicing a fire drill in the school yard and get stickers. I’m looking for a flag or umbrella to follow, but that’ll likely come next year. We board our speed boat and head southwest.

First stop is Monkey Bay. The water was a little silty, so the snorkeling wasn’t outstanding. I still prefer Cancun or Kawaii. Next stop is Maya Beach, where The Beach was filmed. I can’t imagine fitting more boats in the bay nor more people onto the beach. This place is a tourist nightmare with everything from Brazilian swimsuit models to beached whales in bikinis. The four of us have had enough, so we spend our time crossing the island to explore.

We board the boat, just to loop around Ko Phi Phi Leh to where we had walked for our next snorkeling event. A bunch of other boats are there now too. The water is deeper and more protected than the first site, so the water is clear and the snorkeling is great. We swim around, working up an appetite. We ride by a cave and into a tiny bay before stopping for lunch on Ko Phi Phi Don (the bigger island entirely overpopulated with brand new resorts that were rebuilt after being entirely destroyed by the tsunami). It’s overrun with tourists, but we have a nice lunch and are thankful that we’re staying in Krabi. At lunch we get to know a South African couple, Dean and Kayleen, a lot better too. They’re spending the next week in Thailand and are moving from South Africa to England the following week. Nearly everyone I meet is in the middle of some type of life transition, and I feel like we’re all family somehow.

Back to snorkeling, we stop at an incredibly awesome spot. The fish were colorful and plentiful but the coral was even more spectacular. I’d never seen stuff before. It looks like deer antlers and come in various shades of green, brown, and red with either white or purple tips. In addition, they were these sea urchins with spines about a foot long. Better yet, they had these fluorescent purple dots across the top of them. Thankfully, Sophie has an underwater case for her camera, took some awesome shots, and is willing to share them with me. Last stop was a beach, and we were done with that.

Back at Ao Nang, we all parted ways. Sophie and I went to grab some food after the most awesome showers ever. Did I mention that I hate saltwater? Yuck! Anyway, we head out for food when we see Pascal. He comes with us, and we decide to grab a bucket on the way back. We meet some Dutch girls and chat with them for the rest of the evening before heading home for again a great night of sleep.

Tue, Mar 18
Our transportation to Ko Tao begins with a 15:45 pickup at the hotel, so we’ve got some time to kill. We decide to hang in Krabi town for the afternoon and shower before we leave. We go to the market where locals eat and order several dishes for about $0.60 each. They’ve got a huge buffet type setup with about 25 different dishes. You tell them what you want, and they serve it up. It’s nice to be able to see your food before you order it, well generally. I ask for chicken and they have only one. I look, and it’s got more claws than meat, so I go vegetarian. Sophie’s much more adventurous and orders a snail dish, a fish dish and a pork dish. Two are too hot for her, and suddenly, she’s not feeling well. She didn’t get sick, but I think the spice was a little too hot for her. She sleeps while waiting for a tuktuk.

We go to the real bus station, and wait. There’s a lot of hurry up and wait… We finally get onto a Surat Thani bound bus at about 17:30. The ride was very uneventful, and we make it in one piece. There are only 2 other folks going to Ko Tao, so I feel the need to introduce myself at the ferry dock. One is Nitsan, an Israeli girl going to get scuba certified, the other is a German guy named Reiner going to dive.

The night ferry is a trip! It’s like an old wooden fishing boat with two levels. The lower level is for the crew and the actual load. The upper level is for the passengers, and it’s set up like a huge dormitory with two beds for 50 people. There are mattresses placed next to mattresses along the entire length of the boat, and there are numbers painted about every 2 feet. You’re assigned a number when you check in, so you know where you’re sleeping. It really felt like a flashback to the slave trade to me, yet I’m sure they had not only a ball in chain but lacked many of the luxuries we had, like pillows and mattresses. Regardless, I sleep amazingly well.

Wed, Mar 19
We arrive at the pier at 07:00, an hour after scheduled. We get bombarded by people advertizing rooms and scuba shops as soon as we dock. I’d sent an e-mail inquiry to a bunch of shops on the island a few days earlier, and I had Buddha View and Sunshine Divers on the list of places to visit. I heard that there are 45 dive shops on the island, and they all offer the exact same services and dive locations – Open Water certification for 9,000 baht and fun dives for 900 baht. The only real difference between shops then is the crew and equipment. Essentially, the beach is divided up into long strips, like any beach in the US. Each strip has a hotel with a dive shop, travel agency, restaurant, and bar attached on the sandy end.

We went to Sunshine Divers on the south end of the island first, and I really liked Greg, so we stayed there. The south end is much more relaxed than Sai Ree Beach, and we decided that we didn’t need the extra noise and headache. I’m convinced that I’ll see whale sharks off Chumphon Pinnacle, so I plan my dives around their dive site schedule. It’s scheduled tomorrow morning with White Rock. I’m not terribly interested in White Rock, but everyone’s got two morning and two afternoon dives. If I only want to take one, I take it, but I’m on the boat the whole time. Four dives a day is rare, so it says something about how easily accessible these dives are… In addition, I’m also planning to take the afternoon dives – Mango Bay and Japanese Gardens. They’re both shallow dives, and Sophie can come on the boat and snorkel while we’re out. Very cool.

Now that my dives are planned, we can explore. Sophie and I cross over to Shark Bay and take our snorkel gear. We grab some pad thai for energy and ask a couple of Englishmen – Peter and Chris to watch our things while we’re out. They agree, and we swim. At first, the snorkeling is horrible. Like in so many places, the coral is dead, and the tide is lifting the sand and covering what is there up. But, we keep swimming and Sophie sees snorkels ahead. We move in that direction and we notice that we’re being swarmed by black tip reef sharks. WOW! There were so many, and I swear they must have been up to six feet long. We stay out for nearly an hour, and Sophie gets all kinds of photos. Once we come in, we get to know the Englishmen a bit. They’re very cool. Chris is interested in the sharks, so I go out with him for round two.

We all clean up and meet back at the beach. Reiner is there too, and we all head for one of the resorts to watch the sunset from the pool bar. Sophie and I share a couple of buckets before making our own with good from 7Eleven. My dive starts at 07:30 so we head home early, but I get there to find a note that says Chumphon Pinnacle’s been changed. YOU’RE KIDDING! Oh well; we sleep.

Thu, Mar 20
I take the new trip to Twin Rocks and White Rock. The boat’s got an Open Water course and some Rescue Diver students and me. I’m the only Fun Diver, and I get my own Dive Master. Kind of cool to be able to do whatever I want… It’s pretty but a little murky and I don’t see a whale shark. Dang it! Oh well. We did see some barracuda and all kinds of coral and colorful fish. Of everywhere I’ve been, I still like Cancun best, but Ko Tao has so many dive sites, I wouldn’t mind coming back to check out the other sites. At $25 a dive, all expenses included, I could spend a while here without breaking the bank.

It’s time to make a serious decision that I’ve been putting off. Do I make my way to Bangkok tomorrow for my Hong Kong flight on the 22nd, or do I give in to Sophie’s reasoning and postpone my flight to participate in the Full Moon Party with her tomorrow and continue to travel with her to Cambodia? Fear is the only reason not to, and there are lots of reasons why I should. It costs me about $200/week to live comfortably in Thailand, and I spend more than that at home. I confirm with Cathay Pacific that I can change my flights, and change my Hong Kong flight from the 22nd to April 3rd. Deciding to stay here an extra two weeks is probably the ballsiest thing I’ve done since I quit my job, and it’s seriously getting a little easier. I suppose this may be my way of practicing to be more flexible with my schedule.

Dives complete, I need to clean up and grab some food. Sophie and I eat the usual, Thai, and stop into one of the travel agents to get our ferry tickets to Ko Phangan in the morning. We run into the guys and repeat the prior night – buckets – but in a new location. We went to Sai Ree Beach to check it out. It looks like it might get crazy, but we call it an evening early, maintaining our energy level for tomorrow night.

Fri, Mar 21
It’s the day of the full Moon Party on Ko Phangan, and we need to get there. Check out time is 09:00, and we’ve got a tuktuk picking us up at 09:30 for the 10:00 ferry. I don’t have a room reservation, and I understand that rooms are scarce, expensive, and require multiple night stay. I don’t mind too much; Sophie’s got a room with a friend, and I can squat there. Besides, everyone sleeps (or passes out) on the beach the night of the Full Moon Party.

We make it to Ko Phangan and find a couple of Sophie’s friends – Batile and Lan – both French Swiss. I’m exhausted from carrying my pack, and we decide to get a scooter for our stay. Thank goodness! We start our trek to the Silverly Moon and find that the island isn’t flat. In fact, there are some pretty treacherous hills to climb and the scooter has difficultly pulling the two of us with our baggage. At one point, I thought we might flip, but thankfully, we didn’t. I was pretty happy that we’d gotten the helmets, just in case…

Our room is pretty standard. I’m getting used to the mattress, fan, and a few pieces of bamboo furniture with a bathroom made off a toilet and a shower that sprays the whole room. What this place has though is an amazing private beach. Nothing’s really private, but you have to take a boat to get to it. There are hammocks and bamboo lawn chairs everywhere, and it’s simply superb!

Sophie’s friend Alex shows up and doesn’t mind that I’m there. In fact, he’s already got a room that he loves, so he’s happy to let me have his side of the bed in favor of his hotel. We decide to meet up at the Full Moon Party at 18:00, giving Sophie and me a couple of hours to clean up, relax and get our bearings sorted out.

We stop at probably the scariest road food joint I’ve eaten at yet and have a superb Pad Thai. I’m a little worried that I may push my stomach a little too far one of these days, but today isn’t the day. We meet up with Alex at the most enormous fraternity party I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m not sure when it started, but kids have decided to party on Sunrise Beach to celebrate every full moon. It starts in the late afternoon and ends whenever. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and I’m not sure that I can describe it now. There are probably ten resorts on this beach, and each of them puts up little stalls to sell random food items, florescent body painting, beer, and “buckets.” We’d heard that the bucket was a Thai thing, but I think it’s a Sunrise Beach thing. There are probably 20,000 kids in their early 20’s walking around the beach with a bucket and about 6 colorful straws hanging out of them for sharing. I’m not sure why they have sharing straws, because everyone’s got their own bucket. Anyway, the music gets louder and louder as the night gets darker and darker. People start dancing and stumbling more and more. By about midnight, the party’s just getting to full speed, but the early risers are starting to fade. I’m not sure when it all dies down, but I left at 04:00, and there were plenty of people still looking to hook up or to dance, or to drink, or to do whatever. I’m guessing that there are a number of recreational drugs being passed around, but I don’t see any.

I can’t find Sophie, and she’s got the key. I’ve been warned that a bunch of folks drive home drunk from the party, so I’m a little worried about walking. I’ve seen a bunch of people with bandaged arms and legs from scooter accidents, and I can only imagine that I’d rather fall from a scooter than be hit by a car. I manage to make my way back to the room and decide to sleep in the hammock outside, since I can’t get in. What a night!

Sat, Mar 22
Around 07:00, I’m up after what seemed like a short nap in the hammock. A neighbor, Chris, comes by on his way to the woods behind our bungalow. I’m not sure why, and I don’t want to ask. Anyway, he’s up, although he shouldn’t be. He’s LIT from a long night at the Full Moon Party and seemingly can’t sleep. We chat a while and Sophie comes home. I’m happy to see that she survived, and I’m also looking forward to getting inside the room to take a long needed shower. The salt, sweat, and sand from the night before are getting to me. Somehow I think the composite on my skin is attracting mosquitoes; I’m being eaten alive.

By the time I get out of the shower, Sophie’s sleeping. I walk the 40 feet over to the beachside restaurant and get a coffee with my red curry and chicken. Sure, every restaurant I’ve seen so far offers an American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, coffee, juice, toast and jam), and English Breakfast (eggs, beans, coffee, juice, toast and jam), and a Continental Breakfast (coffee, juice, toast and jam), but why would I get the “American Breakfast” in Thailand? You know I want to do the local thing…

At 11:00 I wake Sophie to ask if she wants to go to town. I’d promised to deliver a couple of beers to Peter and Chris during their ferry layover from Ko Tao to Ko Samui around noon. She’s exhausted after pulling an all nighter, so I tell her I’ll try to get there on the scooter without her. She’s grateful, and I make the hike up the hill. I manage to get the scooter out of the driveway and up the hill, but unfortunately, I have trouble maintaining it on the way down. I think it was more fear than anything, but I end up on the wrong side of the road as a truck is coming up. I’m destined for a head-on collision when the truck turns a bit, and I brush it with the scooter. I drop it in the middle of the road, right on my ankle and thank God that I haven’t become a statistic. (I’d imagine that you could Google the number of deaths each year in Ko Phanang by scooter and get a pretty high number and maybe even a percentage of tourists.) I get up and confirm that I am among the living. The truck drives away, and another scooter pulls over to help get mine off the road. I’m a bit dazed and confused, but I manage to walk home, lick my wounds, and deal with the pain. The cuts and scrapes are terribly ugly, but I think they’re purely cosmetic at this point and won’t need medical attention.

I lay down on our hammock with my foot over my heart to prevent swelling and rest. I think I’ll spend the day at our bungalow, but when Sophie wakes, we decide to go to Sunrise Beach to check out the town, shop a little, and pick up our train tickets. More importantly, I stop into a pharmacy to get some dressing for my ankle. The guy at the counter (presumably a pharmacist), also prescribes 5 days of antibiotics, and I gladly accept the dose of mystery drug. I think there are so many motorbike accidents here that there’s probably a recipe that all of the pharmacies share – antibiotics, iodine, gauze, compress, and tape. At least that’s what I got, and it cost me about $24. Apparently having an accident is cheaper in Thailand too, because I’d pay more than that in the US just to get the prescription.

Our tickets aren’t available when we arrive, so we loiter at the ice cream shop next door. It’s run by a Danish guy, and a few of his friends are visiting, so Sophie and I are outnumbered by big burly for about a half hour. It’s strange to me, because the Thai guys aren’t very big, nor are the foreigners we’ve run into. We go back for the tickets, but we’ve been forgotten – come back tomorrow.

Back at the bungalow, we eat and wait for Alex. Everyone decides to go to Haad Rin (Sunrise Beach) again, but I decide to give my foot a break, elevate it and got to bed at 20:00.

Sun, Mar 23
It’s Easter, but the egg in my Pad Thai was as close as I’ll get to a hunt. I don’t mind. What’s Easter to me other than an opportunity to spend some time with family and friends? My leg feels pretty good after a full night of rest. The shock seems to be gone, because the swelling has come on in full force. I cleaned it up, and I don’t see any infection yet, so maybe the pharmacist knows what he’s doing. I’ll look for a bandage today to hold everything together.

Sophie wakes after a very brief rain, I think my first since Australia. We decide to see the island. It’s rather large compared to Ko Tao, and many places are only accessible by foot. I don’t think I’ll do too much walking today, but I’ll give it a try. First stop is Penang Waterfall, which should be awesome with the morning’s rain. We get about as close to it as possible and hike up to the little drizzle coming down some pretty heavy duty rocks. I can only imagine how enormous this trickle gets during the rainy season. Wow! It was cute enough, but my ankle started to bug, so I went back and lounged under a tree canopy while Sophie went all the way to the lookout above.

Second stop was an elephant ride closer to the north end of the island. They’ve got about eight Asian elephants with baskets on their backs to hold a couple; for now, that’ll be Sophie and me. The elephant climbs up a pretty steep hill while being poked and prodded by a Thai guy that climbs up to and down from the elephant’s neck. Thankfully, he’s small, but I feel badly for the elephants regardless. Ultimately, we get to a northern lookout with a very nice view of the water and go back down. In hindsight, I can’t say it was worth it, but I at least hope that they take care of their elephants. I can’t imagine that feeding them is cheap.

Next stop was for ice cream and cold drinks at the corner 7Eleven in Chaloklum. We sat and watched the world roll by for about 15 minutes before heading back towards Thong Sala. The resorts on the northwest end of the island are much more opulent and relaxed than the southeast end geared toward Full Moon Partiers. We make a quick stop at one of the resorts to rest and enjoy their beach. It was at this point that I began to clarify the difference between vacationers and backpackers. Vacationers go to paradise for a short period of time. They do a few excursions, but in general, they have their hands held, hang out with their own, eat familiar foods, live in familiar hotels, etc. Backpackers, on the other hand, look for opportunities to expand. They enjoy meeting new people and sharing insights and opinions. They look forward to finding the coolest local hangout and spend time hiking, swimming, and exploring. I’m definitely more a backpacker, and the resort seems a little too white for me. There are two American boys (maybe 25 with an 18 mentality) a couple chairs over. These vacationers are the people that give Nationalities a bad name. They’re lounging with their SPF 30 a day after they got fried, drinking their Mai Tais and appreciating the fact that a lovely Thai girl brought it to them. Aside from the Thai girl, wouldn’t it have been cheaper to go to Cancun? Maybe they’ve been banned from there.

We hit the north end of Thong Sala and see The Mason’s Arms, a very British pub. They’ve advertized Stongbow, Sophie’s favorite cider, so we stop. The place is run by a bunch of arrogant English expats, and we decide to leave before ordering. Instead, we go straight to Piggy’s, the place where we rented the scooter to explain our story and see how much it’ll cost me. Unfortunately, they’re closed. Bummer, not in that I don’t know how much I’ll pay, but because Rob also make all of the pies for the island, and I was really looking forward to trying one. Ever since we rented the scooter and I saw his pies, I’d craved one. Maybe I miss New Zealand and Australia?

On our way back to Haad Rin to get our tickets, we see a wine shop. Since we’d decided to turn the scooter in early and hang out at the bungalow all day tomorrow, we thought a bottle of wine may be in order. Well, tequila was on sale, 2 for 1, and we thought that may be a good idea instead. There appears to be a hefty wine tax, because a 6 bottle in the states is $20 here, yet we got two bottles of tequila for the same price. Maybe they just appreciate the hard stuff. Anyway, the idea is a bottle tomorrow and a bottle on the train to Bangkok.

We get our tickets this time, and I’m done. I thank my lucky stars (Sophie really) that I make it back in one piece. Sophie’s an awesome scooter operator. I need to keep my operating to four wheels, and even then, many would disagree. Back at the bungalow, I go to sleep early, taking it easy on my ankle. It’s very worn out from a day of abuse, and the swelling is getting the best of me.

Mon, Mar 24
No matter what time I go to sleep, I’m always the first one up. Perhaps I should have brought MiSuk with me to keep my company during the morning hours, but it’s kind of nice to watch the sun rise over the beach and palm trees. I make my way to the restaurant and have a seat. Silverly Moon is owned and operated by an incredible couple named Beat and Koi. My guess is that Beat, a Swiss man, came to Thailand and met Koi, the woman of his dreams. They’re a terribly cute couple with no children, although arguably they’ve got about 20 of us at any given time. Judging my the love they show all of us, their four cats and at least two dogs, they’d be amazing parents. Every time they see me, they show concern for my ankle and ask how it’s doing. My response is always that it’s getting better, and it is.

Anyway, they do everything we could hope for and are amazing hosts. The restaurant opens at 08:00 and closes at 20:00. During that time, they cook nearly anything you want off of their fairly extensive menu. In addition, they’ve got a completely stocked refrigerator with every type of drink you’d want. The drinks and ice cream are on the honor system, so you take what you want and add it to your tab; very convenient. They even offer laundry services, which I was happy to enjoy.

So, back at camp, Koi opens shop and Sophie and I order iced coffee and a banana pancake. Nadav comes up at this point and orders the same. He’s a 22 year old Israeli that’s just finished his required military service. I can’t even imagine what that must be like, but he explains that the whole Palestine-Israel thing is actually very localized and doesn’t reach most of Israel – OK.

Nick is the next to hang out with us. He’s from the south of England, along with a whole series of folks at the Moon. He’s a bad boy, but he’s got a heart of gold. He offers to return the scooter with Sophie to help reason with Rob – Englishman to Englishman. I’m not sure that he’ll be able to help, but he wants to go. Meanwhile I’ve decided to catch some rays. I hobble over 30 feet to the beach, load up on sunscreen and almost immediately catch some z’s. I wake about 30 minutes later and find my way to a cover gazebo to rest some more.

Sophie and Nick return later with a bunch of juice for the tequila and a beef and ale pie for me. I love these guys! Rob worked out that the damage to the scooter was going to cost me about $400, but as Sophie explained the whole story, he kept knocking off different costs until he came to a final bill of about $125. Big scheme of things, I’ve escaped death for under $200 and hopefully only a few minor scars to remind me of what an idiot I can be.

The rest of the afternoon was dedicated to tequila and juice. I think it did wonders for my ankle, and aside from the fact that I had to use the restroom a little more often than normal, I stayed off my foot. Koi made dinner for us around 20:00, and as usual, it was amazing! I think it serves the same purpose as Tabasco sauce too. I’ve noticed about a 75% reduction in mosquito bites since eating Thai all day. I love this stuff!

Tue, Mar 25
Time to leave Silverly Moon. Sophie and I are Bangkok bound today, and I think my foot is good enough to walk on a bit. It’s still really swollen and chewed up, but it’s doing well. Tequila is a miracle drug! We hang for a leisurely breakfast, then Beat takes our bags to the top of the quarter mile incline for us. I get a head start, because I have no idea how long it’ll take me, and I’d hate to miss our taxi. As it happens, I’m early, and the taxi is late.

No worries, the taxi gets us to the pier early enough to hobble over to Piggy’s for another pie for the ferry to Sarat Thani through Ko Samui. Yummy! It’s amazing how the transport system works in Thailand. All of these travel agents seem like they’re completely off their rockers when you start to talk to them, but there’s some incredible organization working behind the scenes. You just tell them where you’re staying and where you’re going, and they work out everything in the middle. The taxi picks you up, granted a little late, but they’ve got all kinds of buffer in there to take care of the unexpected. You get to the pier, show your ticket, and get a sticker. The sticker is color coated and may have some writing on it, but there’s no need to be bothered by any of the meaning. JUST DON’T LOSE YOUR STICKER! As soon as you’ve been branded, you follow the sheep when you’re told. You get onto the ferry, and hand your bag to the guy waving you down. They know your sticker, so you don’t have to… You get off at the port when they tell you. You get onto the bus they tell you to take. You go to the train they tell you to get on. Granted, the wait time increases travel by about 30%, but it sure beats missing a leg, and being a sheep isn’t so bad when you’re in a crazy foreign country.

At the train station we meet a Belgiun named Klaas. We share a couple of drinks with him while we wait the hour that the train is late. He’s on his way to Bangkok to fly home in a couple of days and decided to be conservative rather than miss his flight. He’s been to Bangkok before, so we decide to tag along with him before heading to Cambodia. This way Sophie can get her New Zealand work visa particulars resolved with the Embassy, and get her Vietnam visa too. I never really thought about the fact that if you travel to and from all of these places, you need to learn your way through the visa network.

The train finally arrives and waits for no one. It may have stopped for about 5 minutes, and I was able to hobble on and find my bed. I can’t say that the train is luxurious, but we’re able to be horizontal for 11 hours, and for only $17, that’s pretty freaking awesome bargain. We’re not ready to sleep, so we make our way to the restaurant/bar car and hook up with a ladyboy immediately. There’s no question that this car is the party car, and we’ve arrived in 1st class. I can’t tell you how many locals stuck their hands out to brush across my legs. It was a little strange, but it didn’t hurt, so I smiled and walked on. The car was a little too crazy for me, so I did my usual, go to bed early.

Wed, Mar 26
We arrived to our stop an hour late. I suppose it should have been expected, but we made it to Bangkok proper at least an hour before we made it to our stop. I think I could have walked faster, even with my bad ankle. I can’t imagine why the train traveled so stinkin’ slow through town… If anything, it just stopped all east and west bound traffic for the hour that it crawled. Maybe someone got hit in the past, but please, a snail could have crossed the tracks before we’d hit it.

Anyway, it’s 09:00 and we’re in Bangkok. We decide to get a room immediately to drop our bags. We grab a tuk tuk and go to Khao San Road, the usual backpacker hangout, but with Klaas as a guide, we know where not to go. That’s helpful. We end up at Orchid Guest House, and Sophie and I splurge on a room with air conditioning. That turned out to be a very well spent $1.25 each day.

After dropping off our bags, we decide to make our way to the New Zealand Embassy. That’s first on our list, because Sophie’s been carrying around an x-ray of her chest since Malaysia. She’s applied for a work visa, and since she’s been in Asia for more than 3 months, they think she might have tuberculosis. Damn! I guess I may too. Maybe that explains my coughing fits all the time.

Getting to the embassy was quite the pleasure ride. First we walked to the river through all of the alleys selling clothes, bags, knock-offs, jewelry, food, drinks, etc. We then take the river taxi south to the “zero” stop where you hop off and walk a bit to a staircase that raises you to the first SkyTrain platform. We take it a few stops and get off thinking we’ll find the Cambodia embassy, but apparently they’ve moved. We do however find an iced coffee cart, and drink up. We walk farther to the New Zealand embassy. It’s in a really nice high rise, and honestly, none of us are appropriately dressed. Oh well, we’re here on business, so we get badges and take the elevator to the 19th floor. Within minutes, Sophie’s been approved, and our work here is done. We head north to a different SkyTrain station when we pass the Vietnam embassy. Officially, they’ve closed for visa applications, but Sophie manages to get it in. It’ll be ready tomorrow, so we’re staying in Bangkok another day.

We head north again when we realize that the commute and associated walking (keep in mind that I’m slowing everyone down too) is terribly time consuming. Klaas is starving and needs some food. He stops and gets some “chicken” which may have been chicken liver, but I can’t be sure. He spits it out and decides to wait until we return to Khao San Road. We return the way we came and make it back just before dark. We stop at one of the restaurants, but Sophie and I aren’t interested in Western food. We’re in Thailand after all.

Klaas and I end up eating over-priced food at a place where he can at least sit down. They only have beer, so I think I’m having another sober evening. Instead, we decide to take the party back to our a/c room, equipped with an iPod and speaker, after a quick stop at 7Eleven for some Bacardi Breezers. I know, but it’s the best I can do for a reasonable price.

Round one complete, Sophie and Klaas leave for more and for a cigarette break. They come back with an English girl named Dominique. She was looking for a converter when Sophie offered hers. Now we’ve got four people drinking in one room, and I’m ready for bed. No problem, I can sleep through anything.

Thu, Mar 27
Another day in Bangkok. I’m up early, and Sophie and Klaas sleep in. I spend some time walking the streets, but I find nothing of interest. Khao San has definitely gotten on my nerves. Compared to the other places I’ve been staying, it’s just a dirty city with too many people trying to sell things. Well, I suppose it’s a step up from Kuta Beach where the people grab you and do their best not to let go.

Everyone’s up, and we go to a restaurant Klaas had seen with an American breakfast for 69 baht, just over $2. Sophie and I would rather eat the street vendor food for $0.50, but I try to be a sport and have my first American breakfast since leaving America. Two eggs over easy, bacon and toast – hard to mess up. The sausage and tomato were much more English than American, but I ate them anyway. At least nothing was offensive. Shortly thereafter, Sophie got her Pad Thai, and we both got our iced coffees from the lady on the street that serves them up to us real good.

Sophie and I’ve got a day of sightseeing planned, and Klaas is done with Thai temples. He goes back to Belgium tomorrow, so he’s more than happy to spend his last day getting pampered with massages, etc. The only thing on my must see list is the reclining Buddha, and that’s at Way Pho. As long as I see that, I’m happy. Sophie’s list includes picking up her passport at 15:30. Klaas recommends hiring a tuk tuk for the day, so we start asking for the going rate. One guy was off his rocker asking for $50, but another agreed to $5 with a couple of shopping stops. We see temples and Buddhas for several hours, and they all start to blur. I light a few incenses for and donate a couple of bucks to the lucky Buddha in hopes that he fixes my leg up well.

The shopping stops are a trip. We go to Top Ten, a clothing manufacturer, first. They say they make designer clothes for Armani and other top labels. You look through their books and pick what you want, get fitted, then choose fabrics - all this for a fraction of the designer label price. All well and good, expect, I’m not interested in any Armani quality clothing to carry on my back… We leave after about 8 minutes. We find out later that we didn’t stay long enough for our driver to get a petrol voucher. He says it’s worth about $10, but we need to stay 10-15 minutes to earn it. OK, we’ll make it happen next time.

We stop at the Golden Mount. I think it may be a mountain in the middle of the flat plain of Bangkok, but it’s actually a concrete structure made to give a temple a tower view over the city. I’m sure it has a little more symbolism, but I was fairly unimpressed, especially considering the fact that I’m doing all of this on a gimpy leg, and climbing stairs isn’t high on my priority list.

Now we’re ready for Chaang’s jewelry shop. As soon as we walk in, we mark the time. It’s 13:05, so we have to stay until 13:20 to be on the safe side. I’d guess Mr. Chaang himself approaches us once we walk in asking what he can help us with. I just start looking. I’m wearing my “Same Same But Different” t-shirt, so he knows I’m a tourist and probably coming from Khao San Road on a tuk tuk. He tells us that the silver is upstairs. I loiter downstairs while Sophie goes up. We’re on a race with the clock, hoping to lose. I make it upstairs after about 5 minutes. At about 8 minutes, Mr. Chaang tells us that they’re closing for lunch and we need to leave. I find it hard to believe that they close at all, much less at 13:15, for lunch. He gets pretty aggressive with us, so we go downstairs to find a bunch of people that we can blend with. Sophie finds a ruby ring to fixate on for another 5 minutes or so. At this point, we’ve made the 15 minute mark, and Mr. Chaang is pissed. I wonder if the petrol voucher comes directly from his profits but get side tracked by his growing anger. Sophie asks for a card, and he says cards only go to wholesalers. I pick up a card and hand it to her. Mr. Chaang agrees to let her keep it but calls her crazy and a good actress. I have to agree. He says he knows her story, and she tells him that he’s a big dickhead while we get whisked out in front of everyone. I have a huge smile on my face, because not only did we lose to the clock, he created a terrible first impression for the people inside that may have actually bought something. I can’t see any reason for him to be like that…

Next stop is the Grand Palace. Now we’re racing for time instead of against it. We want to see The Grand Palace, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun in about an hour before we start toward the Vietnam embassy. The tuk tuk driver kind of laughs at us when we tell him, but he says he’ll be there at 14:45 when we return. I can’t believe how quickly time flies, but if you consider the time wasted in haggling over prices and getting from one place to another, I suppose it’s all accounted for. We walk across the street to the Grand Palace and get stopped. Sophie’s inappropriately dressed, as is nearly half of the visitors. No sleeveless shirts, no shorts, no short skirts… The list goes on, but nearly all of the white people were quarantined in a room, waiting to borrow pants and shirts. The good thing is that they only require a deposit, but the bad thing is that it takes forever! On our schedule, that’s time wasted. We make it to the Grand Palace to find out that there’s an entry fee, and it will take a whole day to see. The jade Buddha will have to wait for another visit, because the relining Buddha is higher on my priority list.

We walk nearly 1 km to Wat Pho, and I understand why the tuk tuk driver laughed at us. Realistically, he should have driven us, but I’m thinking he’s got his voucher, so we may be on our own. Good thing I’ve learned to pay at the end. Wat Pho isn’t too impressive, but I don’t have time to explore. I pay to see the reclining Buddha, take a few photos and leave. We make it back to the tuk tuk about 10 minutes late. He’s no where to be seen. We wait about 10 minutes and decide to make our way to the embassy on our own. It’s 15:10, and we’re supposed to be there in 20 minutes…. We can do the river taxi/SkyTrain thing, but that may take an hour or more… Instead, we take bus 508 for about $0.50 nearly all of the way there and walk the rest of the way. We make it by 16:10, and they close at 16:30; we’re in good shape. Sophie gets her passport, and we’ve both hit the day’s highlights.

We take our time to get back on the SkyTrain/water taxi for our 18:00 dinner date with Klaas. We do a little shopping along the way and grab food at a local hangout. We buy our bus tickets to Siem Reap from a travel agent down the street from Orchid Guest House. I swear the woman there stole 500 baht from me, but it all happened so fast, I’m not sure. I remember putting down 500 for me and handing 500 to Sophie. The next thing I know, my money’s gone, and she says that I put it back in my wallet. Sophie seems to remember the same, so I pay again. I try to shrug it off, but I’m bitter. Maybe I made a mistake, but I’m feeling violated.

My ankle’s had a super workout today, and I’m exhausted. It feels good overall though, and I’m happy to be getting some mobility/flexibility out of it again. I just think it’s time to give it a rest, so I go to sleep early. Besides, we have a 07:30 bus to Cambodia in the morning. I may as well be ready for it.

Fri, Mar 28
Sophie wakes before me; I’m not sure why. She tells me that Nick and Kelly made it to Bangkok and bought their tickets to Siem Reap for 07:30 too. Yeah! Up, Sophie and I make our way to the travel agent about 07:00. They’re closed. We walk around and get a coffee at 7Eleven. Still not open. I finish my Internet credit and grab an iced coffee and an iced tea from our favorite lady as she’s opening shop. Still not open. We sit and wait. Finally at about 07:50, a Chinese guy come over and tells us to follow him. We do. He’s gathering more and more people and finally gets us to a bus by 08:30. This isn’t the bus we signed up for, but at least it’s got a/c.

The guy tells us that we’ll need 4 hours to the border, an hour at the border, and 6 hours to Siem Reap. The Cambodia ride is only 154 km, but he says the roads are so bad that we have to travel at 25 km/h. I can’t imagine how roads could be so bad… Anyway, I do the math to determine that we’ll arrive around 19:30. We’d hoped to be there before dark, but we’ll manage. Nick and Kelly are already an hour into the ride, and I’m getting angry that we’re leaving so late. It may just be my bitterness left over from the skeptical robbery last night, so I try to shake it off again.

We get close to the border around 12:30, and we’re told that we need to pay them $40 for a visa, but visas only cost $20. I refuse, telling them that I’ll get mine at the border. Our host tells us that he’s expediting them and that the bus won’t wait for people that take more than an hour to get across. We’re forced to wait at least an hour at this place, wasting time. We finally make it to the border, and our “host” tells us that Cambodia is terribly corrupt. Kids will beg and pick pockets. ATMs will break down and keep your cards for up to 15 hours. The list goes on and on. I start to realize that he’s really doing nothing more than creating mass hysteria among all of us, and I start getting more and more pissed off. I borrow Sophie’s Lonely Plant guide to read up on Cambodia… I read that there’s a “Bangkok-Siem Reap Bus Scam” that’s working like clockwork. You get a bus ticket for a low price, they overcharge you for a visa, they make you wait, and wait, and wait, until you finally arrive in Siem Reap at their hotel late at night, exhausted and simply ready to die. You’ll do anything to get some rest, so you pay too much for your room. That might be well and good, but I won’t have any of it. We’re only talking a few dollars, but it’s extortion! I’m onto his game, but I’m also in the middle of it, approaching a more-foreign country. DAMN, if only I’d taken the train like the guide recommends…

We get to the border, and I get out of Thailand. I walk through seemingly no mans land and get close to Cambodia’s border. We’ve met up with a couple of Germans- Anna and Niels, and a Swede – Jane, and we’re sticking together. At this point, they’re trying to divide and conquer, but I’m onto that and we’re all agreed to stay together – safety in numbers. I want to go all the way, but they’re exhausted and decide to break down and pay $33 for the visa. Oddly enough, ours is ready before the folks that paid the full $40.

We make it through the border in about 10 minutes, faster than getting to the US at LAX, AND faster than the folks that already paid the expedite fees. The only problem here is that we’re told that we get a different bus to Siem Reap. No one has a ticket any longer, only a pink piece of tape to signify one thing or another. I feel another scam coming on, and sure enough… Those of us playing hardball get told to wait for a bus. The other is too small for everyone. Hmmm? Our bus comes first but takes us to a “bus station” about 100 yards away. The divide and conquer thing… We’re still in good company though. A bunch of other white folks are here waiting for a bus too, so I think I’ll sit tight.

Wait. Wait. Wait… They offer us a faster way to get to Siem Reap, and at a 33% discount! I explain that I already bought my ticket, so I’m waiting for the bus. They tell us to sit and wait. I feel a waiting game coming on, and I’m up for the challenge. For starters, I’m stubborn as hell when someone’s pulling a fast one on me, and secondly I read about the scam in the book. I suppose I’m expecting to arrive in Siem Reap around 22:30, so we have to leave before 16:30. With an approximate departure time, I decide to venture out. Just as I found a couple of ATMs and a phone card company, I get coerced into returning. Suddenly, the bus arrives and we start our long haul. I think I may have jump started our journey but to no avail. Instead of waiting at the border, we end up waiting at a roadside stop in the middle of nowhere and in the dark. As planned, we arrived to a guest house far from town at 22:30. We tell them we have reservations at Popular Guest House, which we don’t, but at least we think Nick and Kelly are there. All five of us take a couple of tuk tuks over and call it a night.