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Published: January 23rd 2010
I deposited my travel funds with the Thai Farmers Bank, and it was time to go! A friendly taxi driver took me to the bus terminal where I got a ticket to Trat, 5 hours south-east of town. The bus was greyhound style with luggage underneath and passengers on top, but a bit tattier. I sat down and asked my european seatmate "do you speak english?" He did! Me too! Phillip, from Vienna, Austria, and I became friends over the course of the trip. The bus had a TV playing Thai Zombie movies. Hows that for a niche genre??
A couple of Amercian girls adjacent were doing crossword races. Each would start, pencils poised, ready-set-GO! and start scribbling away. Phillip had dozed off, (i wish I could do that on the bus..) and they asked if I wanted to play. sure! says I, and after I had finished mine I helped lovely Sasha with hers. She has a great love of language and wordplay; we got on like a house on fire.
So this bus drops us off on the highway 1/2 an hour away from Trat where we have to buy a ticket from a fly-by-night travel agency for "taxi" and ferry to the island of Ko Chang, the eventual destination. It was a scam but not an enormous one ( I think they marked it up only about 100%, 5 dollars), so we trundled on in a "taxi"...
A word about Thai taxis -- outside of Bangkok, what you've got is a pickup truck with a shelter over the back and two planks running the length of the box. So they can fit 8 or 10 passengers in there, plus one or two in the front, large luggage strapped on top. I will attach a pic when available.
We arrived at the ferry terminal as the sun was setting. Ferry had cars on the deck and 2 levels up top with passenger seating. We went right up top where it was open air. The captain arrived about 20 minutes later, drinking a can of beer, and we set off. 40 minute crossing, under stars we landed on Ko Chang, and got a ride with another Thai taxi.
I didn't have an explicit destination in mind, but I convinced Phillip to chase the girls with me, so we all headed down to a place called Lonely Beach. A backpacker shantytown, we were very late (it was probably 11pm). We managed to find some rather poor bungalows which provided shelter at least. The bungalow was build out of bamboo, on stilts about 2m off the ground, a little wooden stairway up. inside: a bed and the next room was the bathroom which was a toilet but without the back part. Next to it was a basin of water and a bucket. So the idea is, after you've done your business, dump in a couple bucket loads of water and the water pressure causes a "flush". There was a showerhead, cold water only (but ok because the air is hot hot hot!!) and basically the whole room is the shower, with a drain in the corner. I headed over to the restaurant and had a beer waiting for Phil.
He came, and we ate some thai curry with rice (excellent!) The owner suggested we go to "the party" down the road, and so we went. We found our female friends at the Om Bar watching a firespinning show out on the dirt street. Their cans of kersosene were sitting right next to the bamboo walls of the bar, eh, safety first, right?
Had a drink with the crossword girls, but they were beat and checked out. We stayed, there were a lot (~30) people there and a small dancefloor with a pretty decent local DJ spinning some tech/funk/housey beats. I caught the groove and went for a dance, Phil stayed near the bar, sipping the local brew and chatting with an Austrian girl we had met. The crowd when we arrived was exclusively European (except for the staff) but after a couple of hours some Thai girls showed up so I danced with them a bit. There was a petite one who took a fancy to me (i think she liked my hat?) and we danced for a couple of hours. We found it impossible to communicate, except by body language, until her friend came, a ladyboy! (s)he spoke some english and enabled communication at the price of a round of beers. Eventually I got tired and decided to head "home" to my no-star bungablow. LB asked "she come too?" I asked "she wants to come?" Affirmative. Ok, says I, lets go.
When we (me, thai girl, ladyboy translator) get back to the bungalow, they say "you pay now." I says pardon? "It business for her, she come here it business." I disagreed strongly, having met and entertained a young lady....is this culture shock? welcome to thailand, I guess. hmmmmph
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Mark
non-member comment
hey you handsum man
Great blog Todd! Keep them coming. Sounds like you are having a great time. The LB went home right? lol