Bangkok, Phuket and Koh Phi Phi

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The flight from HK to Bangkok was going to take about 2 hours 40 minutes, which compared to some of the flights I have taken seemed very short. The flight was full, and the queue at the boarding gate was long so I took a walk around duty free for a few minutes to let the queue reduce and the boarded the plane. I had been issued a window seat, 54A and I had planned to do nothing but sleep on this flight to Bangkok. The seats were set out in a 3-4-3 formation, and two women were already sat in the B and C seats next to me. ‘Excuse me, do you mind if I squeeze past please’ I say to the mother and daughter in the B and C seats. They looked at me blankly at first and then moved down one seat, so they were sat in seats A and B. ‘Sorry, could I sit by the window please’ I asked them. The mother replies, ‘So, two women have to move for a man’. I was a little take back by this and explained that my seat was A and I wanted to sit in A. They both moved out of their seats and let me through. As I sat down, the mother muttered something again, not in English, which I was sure was directed at me. ‘How did you expect me to get into my seat’ I asked the mother. ‘Sorry, my mum doesn’t speak English’ the daughter replied. To this I started laughing and explained that either she didn't hear mother just speak to me no more than 30 seconds ago in the queen’s English or she was trying to make me look stupid. Her mother then starts speaking to me, in English saying that it wasn’t right that they had to move to let me through and that I had no manners, and asked me if that if that was how I would behave in my country. Red mist was slowly descending over me. She then explained that her daughter needed to be near the toilet. If you sit in the seats B and C which are closer to the aisle then you are closer to the toilet you pair of idiots I said. The daughter then called the air stewardess and insisted on being moved and they would not sit next to me for a moment longer. The stewardess explained the flight was full and there weren’t two seats together on the flight. This made me smile and I asked the stewardess if she could put a seatbelt in the toilet for the daughter as she has a weak bladder. The daughter didn’t not enjoy that and asked to speak to the supervisor. The supervisor came along, listened to the conversation and asked me if I wanted to move. In all honesty I was happy sat were I was, but I said I wouldn’t move out of my seat that I was assigned unless they were carrying me off the plane in a casket, or they were going to upgrade me to first class. Four minutes later I was enjoying a cup of coffee in my first class Cathy Pacific seat, wondering if I would be having smoked salmon for breakfast or would I choose scrambled eggs and eggs Benedict. I saw the two women at the luggage carousel when I got to Bangkok and asked them as I walked past how their economy seats were.

The final leg of my trip, and the starting point was Bangkok. My friend from university, Will was flying out for 3 weeks to spend some time with me. We had planned to start in Bangkok for a few days, then down to Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Samui and Koh Tao

Our first visit took us to the Wat Phra Keao and the Grand palace. The Wat Phra Kaeo is the apogee of Thai religious art and the holiest Buddhist site in the whole of Thailand. It houses the most important image, the Emerald Buddha. When you enter the Grand Palace you have to be dressed appropriately, which means no vests and no shorts. Long trousers must be worn. This sound reasonable, until you experience the heat in Bangkok and after an hour of visiting the temple in adequate clothing, Will and I left as it was too hot to wear trousers and a jumper. Th Khao San road is not far from the Grand Palace, but being new in the town we decided to take a taxi back to our hotel. We jumped into three different taxis that wanted to charge us 150 baht minimum to take us five minutes down the road, or would only take us if we agreed to visit their friends shop. This was a common occurrence throughout our time in Bangkok. Tuk-tuk drivers say they will take you somewhere for 20 baht, but will take you to about 40 of their friends on the way. We decided to walk back to Th Khao San road, and after about 25 minutes of walking through some Bangkok ghettos and taking a few wrong turns we made our way back.

The following day we got up early and got a bus from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi, which is about 120km away from Bangkok. Kanchanaburi occupies the sport where the River Kwai No merges with the River Kwai Yai to become the Mae Khlong. The town of Kanchanaburi is most famous for its World War II role as a POW camp and construction work on the Thai-Burma Railway, chiefly because of the notorious Bridge over the River Kwai, which spans the river. We got dropped off on the outskirts of town and got a local taxi to take us to the River Kwai Bridge. The guy who was our driver smelt like he just spent 3 days in a pub and my theory was proved right when, only 10 seconds into the journey her goes to turn left onto the main road and crashes into a motorcyclist. Luckily, the rest of the journey passed without further incident and we spent the morning in the World War II Museum and also walking the Bridge over the River Kwai. The Bridge is still in use for trains to Bangkok, which when you walk the bridge you wonder to yourself if the bridge is strong enough to support the weight of a train.

The afternoon was spent at the Wat Luang Ta Bua Yanna Sampanno, which is known to people as the Tiger Temple. This is Kanchanaburi’s most expensive attraction and probably it’s most controversial. The temple allows tourist to get up close and personal with tigers. This temple has many tourist options from spending the whole day at the temple, having breakfast with the monks in the morning, feeding the baby tigers afterwards and then watching the tigers, being tigers after the park closes. Outside the World War II museum we managed to get a guide who offered to take us to the temple, wait for us whilst we spent the afternoon there, and they would bring us back to Kanchanaburi. When we arrived at the temple and walked into the enclosure where the tigers are kept you were able to have your pictures taken with the tigers whilst they rested. I was able to get next to these big cats to the point I had my hand on their backs and was stroking them as if they will just normal household cats. All the tigers were very placid and had been hand reared since they were born. It was surreal at times as you had all the handlers and helpers playing with the cats as if it was an everyday occurrence. One of the handlers asked Will and I if we wanted to stay afterwards and watch the cats when they get released into the play area which had a huge pool in which they could play in. This show is open to about 20 people daily, and if anyone gets the chance to do it, I would highly recommend it. People who have visited the temple say the tigers are drugged which is why they don’t attack humans, but from looking at the tigers and seeing how the interact with the humans then I didn’t think that they were drugged.

The next couple of days were spent exploring the sights and sounds of Bangkok. After five days in Bangkok we flew down to Phuket, where we had initially planned to spent two or three days in. To sum up Phuket, I would say it is Thailand’s version of magaluf. After walking around there for four hours, being chased down the Bangla road by a Chinese transvestite and Will having an Iguana thrown on his back, we decided to book our ferry to Koh Phi Phi for the following morning. After crawling in at 4am we had to be up two and a half hours later for our ferry transfer. Will left his camera in the hotel room and it was a wonder how we managed to even get up in the first place, but we made our ferry on time, two broken men, stinking of alcohol, one camera light and the only thing on my mind was if there was a place I could curl up and die on this boat. We found some seats on the lower deck, and that is where I stayed for the majority of my journey trying to sleep of the ‘hangover from hell’.

Will and I had arrived in Koh Phi Phi on Chinese New Year and before we went out and thought it would be a good idea to try and drink the Bangla road dry of Heineken we had looked into booking some form of accommodation on Koh Phi Phi. Everything on every internet web page was booked out, or so it appeared. As we were queuing to board our boat, we spotted a local magazine on a rack next to the entrance. The front page story was about travellers getting to Koh Phi Phi without any accommodation booked, and having to sleep on the beach. We had mentally prepared ourselves for the prospect of having to walk around Koh Phi Phi looking for a hotel. As soon as we disembarked the boat, we spotted a small Thai man offering accommodation. Within ten minutes we were sat in an air conditioned hotel room happy that we didn’t have to walk for ages to try and find somewhere to stay.
The first day was spent on the beach. Our hotel was 30 metres from the beach and 20 metres from the town centre so we had the perfect location. The hotel itself still had the same building that it did before the Tsunami, which was good fortune as the location of the hotel meant that is would have been one of the first things that got hit in Lo Dalam Bay. That afternoon we booked a boat trip for the following day which would take s around the island of Koh Phi Phi Don, and also Koh Phi Phi Leh, and Maya Bay, were the film, The Beach was filmed.

Our skipper for the day was Mr. Dang, who assured Will and I that his boat was the best boat on the island and we got very good price for his tour. His boat seated 18 people and on our trip there were only 8 which meant we had plenty of space to relax, take in the sun whilst Mr Dang took us around the island. Our first stop was to one of the monkey beaches around the corner from Ton Sai (the bay where the ferry terminal is). As we were coming into the beach you could see the monkeys sat on the rocks being fed by people from the other boats. At first it was a little strange to have primates coming up to you for food and totally being at ease around humans, but when I got a little too close, one of the monkeys gave me a snarl and it looked like he was going to jump on me so I moved back. We didn’t have any food to give to the monkeys so Will and I decided to hire a kayak the following day and kayak back out to Monkey Island with some bananas.

The boat trip consisted of a trip around both of the Koh Phi Phi islands (Leh and Don), Leh being the only one which is not inhabited. There were opportunities to snorkel, which the coral was almost all destroyed by the Tsunami back in 2004. A five metres high wave crashed in over hotels, restaurants and sunbathers and a three metre high wave came in from the south and they met in the middle destroying 70% of all buildings and uprooting trees. The rest of the island was barely affected. However, the crystal clear water of the Andaman Sea and the abundant marine life meant that there was plenty to see when you were snorkelling. By mid afternoon we headed across to Phi Phi Leh, and to Maya Bay, which is where the film, The Beach was filmed. In the morning, there can be up to 800 people on this particular stretch of beach, which due to the influx of people has seen a lot of the coral within the bay destroyed due to the docking boats. When we arrived in the afternoon, the bay wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be, so we were able to explore without being in someone else’s camera shot. The bay itself is nice, probably not the nicest part of the island, but only a 10 minute walk from Maya Bay you get to other areas were the marine life in the water is amazing. Just from the boat you could see how clear the water was and the fish swimming past beneath you. This was probably best around the Viking Caves. On the way back to Phi Phi Don, we watched the sunset just before we docked back into Phi Phi.

The following day we hired a kayak from near our hotel and packed with a pair of snorkel masks each and a carrier back full of bananas we set out in search of Monkey Beach again. It took us about 20 minutes to paddle from our beach in Loh Dalum around the corner to the Monkey Beach. We got there a little too early so we spent an hour snorkelling around the rocks nearby. As it was early, the beach was fairly quiet as the tour boats hadn’t left the main port yet. About 10.30 the monkeys started to come down to the beach to be fed and photographed by all the tourists. Will and I had a barrier bag full of bananas, which looking back in hindsight, we should have put them in a rucksack, but, one by one, the monkeys started to come across to us. One by one, we would tear off a banana off the bunch and fed the monkeys. They were surprising gentle. They would come right up to you and take the banana softly out of your hand. Then we saw the alpha monkey. This guy was a ‘lump’. He came across to us for some food. At the time Will had the carrier bag of bananas and I was on camera duty. Will hands him a banana which he takes one look at and goes straight for the carrier bag that will has in his hand. He rips the bag of Will, who at this time has crapped himself and given up the bananas to this bold primate. Will is 6ft and 17 stone, this monkey was 3 foot at best and weighed at the very most 5 stone, yet Will managed to get mugged by the monkey. Everyone who is taking pictures has seen was has happened and the monkey was walked off, calm as a coma about 5 metres from where we were, taken a seat in the sand and started to peel his bounty of bananas. This was great photo opportunity for everyone else, but Will and myself are now banana less and been made to look lower than primates. I try to walk up to the monkey to take the bananas back and he growls at me with his razor sharp teeth. I didn’t fancy getting taken down, so I waited until a lady got too close trying to take a picture and then I pounced. I snatched the bag of fruit from the monkey, turned and ran into the sea. It was almost a perfect Baywatch dive into the sea with the bananas under my arm. Just before I did, I turned to make sure the monkey wasn’t pulling out a snorkel and flippers; otherwise I could have been in trouble. Feeding the monkeys was another amazing experience, because there can’t be many places on the world where you can get this close to monkeys without having to pay for the experience and also not having someone watching over you making sure you keep a safe distance from them. The female monkeys had young and they would come down and take food from you, even with the children. After an hour or so, the tours started to arrive so we made our way across the bay to Nui Bay, which was about 30 minutes in a kayak from Monkey Beach. There were snorkelled and sun baked for about 90 minutes. The beach was only small, but it is a perfect place where you could spend a day just doing nothing.

Life on Phi Phi is very relaxed. There are no cars on the island, only bikes and carts and out of all the places that I have visited has been the closest I would compare to, if there is one, heaven. I met up with a couple of guys that I travelled with in New Zealand and Australia, which was great to see them. Will and I only planned to stay on Phi Phi for 2 days, however 9 days later we got the ferry back to Phuket, with a tear in our eyes, sad to be leaving such a great place. We had booked a flight from Phuket to Koh Samui and were going to spend a few days there, and then from then head across to Koh Tao. Another one of my friends from school was going to be in Koh Samui the day after we got there, so it will be good to catch up with him.

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