Adventures in Thailand

I've been in Thailand for quite awhile already. So long in fact that my 30-day tourist visa ran out the other day. Thankfully Alan mentioned it to me the day before it was due, so I made last minute plans to leave the country and come back with a fresh stamp in my passport. After visiting a travel office, the cheapest and fastest way to do this was to simply pay 600 baht, take a 6 hour bus ride to the Cambodian border, then cross back into Thailand and sit on another 6 hour bus ride back to Bangkok. But I was about to learn that crossing borders in this part of the world is not really that easy. Met some good people on the ride though. We switched buses when we were about 15 minutes from Cambodia, paid the 1,300 baht visa fee, and were loaded onto one of those trucks with an open back covered by a green tarp. Then at the border the bribes began. They told me I overstayed by 1 day (which I didn't). I protested for about 30 seconds before I noticed that a Cambodian military officer with a large gun was glaring at me. 500 baht to get out of that situation. (The officer then gave me a nod of approval). Then our bus operator told me I had to go stand on a 2 hour line for a new Thai stamp, which made NO sense considering we still hadn't gone through Thailand customs. BUT, if I gave him my passport along with 500 baht he would give us VIP treatment and have the stamp for us in 15 minutes. No safe solution to this dilemma, but fortunately he actually came back, I got my passport, and went through the Thai border no problem.

I consider myself to be a fairly experienced traveller and I knew that I was breaking several essential travel rules during this ordeal. But my only other option was to get stuck in Cambodia for who knows how long and probably wind up paying many more bribes to hopefully find my way back. This Cambodian border city of Poipet scared the shit out of me, I was legitimately frightened. The above situations were happening as I was being swarmed by small children pleading for just 1 baht to buy them a candy, tugging at my clothes and my watch and literally petting my arms. Their clothes were filthy and torn, and many were holding naked infants with no parents in sight. The only adults around were trying to sell me lighters and cheap cigarettes. I had to hold my day pack in the front of me so nobody would open it up and take things from it. But I finally did make it back to Bangkok, and the backpacker ghetto of Kho San Road never looked so luxurious.

My visit to Thailand started out quite differently - I spent two awesome weeks with my mom who came to visit me. It was really great to see her. It was also great to stay in hotels. Alan and I arrived the day before her and went straight to the room she reserved for us at the Marriott Resort & Spa. There were people bowing to us and holding doors for us and carrying our bags for us and giving us welcome drinks and refreshing scented moist towels and there were big beds with 4 pillows and bathrobes and slippers and a balcony and a mini bar and room service and buffet breakfasts and dinners and drinks served in coconuts. The next day we met my mom at the airport and besides the bewilderment about the hotel, our days in Bangkok were filled with exploring and shopping and we took a Thai cooking class which was really cool. We cooked pad thai, green curry chicken, spicy papaya salad, and tom yam soup with prawns.

Chiang Mai was the next stop, followed by another flight to the island of Phuket. Mom went bead and pocketbook crazy at the stores and villages and night bazaars. We went to the jungle and rode elephants, saw temples and monks, and ate more good food. Lazed by the pool, watched some world cup games, and drank beer (me) and mojitos (mom).

Unfortunately her 2 weeks went too quickly and we had to go back to Bangkok and say goodbye the next day. I requested late checkout at our hotel so I could relax as much as possible before being relegated yet again to hostels with cold showers and bedbugs.

So, what to do now? Alan was in Europe with his family taking a vacation from his vacation and Bryan was in the Philippines to catch a boxing fight and trying to avoid being bombed or kidnapped. I decided to head down to the island of Ko Phangan where they have the legendary monthly full moon parties. On the plane/bus/ferry/taxi adventure to the island I met a solid crew of fellow travellers, and Petra came to meet me there also. We had a blast. We got there 3 days early because otherwise it is impossible to find accommodation and you'll wind up sleeping on the sand. I have never seen anything like this party in my life. Picture a stretch of tropical beach filled with 10,000 people dancing and screaming and covered with glow in the dark paint amongst endless amounts of beachfront bars. Everyone is carrying a bucket - this is basically a sand pail filled with a bottle of alcohol, mixers of your choice, and a few other magic mystery ingredients. Red Bull is really popular here and the Thai variety is illegal in the States because I am told it is full of amphetamines. This partially explains everyone's ability to stay up drinking and partying for about 24 straight hours.

The island really clears out in the days after the party, and again I really had no plans. Petra was on her way to Fiji and some of the other crew were heading south to Malaysia. But my two new Scottish friends Lisa and Linsay were heading to the nearby island of Ko Tao and said I should come with them, so that sounded like a good plan. We took another ferry ride, this time through a tropical storm (Linsay almost had a panic attack), and showed up with no place to stay. But of course we found an awesome beachfront bungalow at a place with a nice pool, and Ko Tao was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, things then took a serious turn for the worse. Bryan got some bad news from home and Alan and I met him in Bangkok before he headed back to New York to be with his family. We miss you dude.

So now Alan and I are finishing up Bangkok. We saw a movie yesterday in a deluxe theater with personal reclining lazy-boys, pillows, blankets, and waitress service for each person. Steep $10 admission, as opposed to the normal $3 but hey that's a fair price for 2 hours of non-stop laughter. In a couple days we head up to the north of Thailand before crossing over into Laos. Wish us luck.

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