Oh Dang, Ao Nang

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Its fun to watch a town wake up. When I leave for work, I am out the door at 5:15 and I see all sorts of things that most people miss. Over here, its the same thing. This morning, I watched men delivering fish, bags of rice and lots of vegetables. I watched a man wash his face on his balcony. Street Ladies came out and swept the street with brooms and dustpans made of old square cooking oil cans. Everyone was busy getting ready for another day. And then the motorbikes and scooters came out with whole families perched on them. Dad and Mom taking the kids to school. All 6 of them balanced on a single scooter and not one helmet amongst them. The kids all wore white shirts and dark blue pants and the little ones wore either a light pink or yellow smock over that. Very cute.

Candace and I had another American breakfast downstairs in the restaurant. Mmmmmm.... mint tea. Does it get any better? Candace does not seem to really mind the breakfasts that we have been getting except that the bacon is not really cooked. I on the other hand am not liking the American breakfast and will be trying the traditional morning Thai breakfast, Jok. It is a rice porridge with bits of egg and meat in it. Should be interesting.
Our song thaew taking us to Ao Nang for the snorkeling tour showed up only a 1/2 hour late. The only other person who climbed on was an Aussie named Jay who we had seen the night before at the 89 Cafe.
It seems when backpackers meet, after introducing yourselves and where you are from, there is an immediate exchange in where each other has been and where they are heading to. Once this has taken place, it appears that the discussion usually turns to how much each other has paid for different things.
We have heard of people paying up to a 1000 baht more for the same services and this tour was no different. Jay seemed to have put on his best puppy dog eyes and convinced the lady running his guest house to charge him about 1000 baht for the snorkel trip.
We had shopped around and found that the 1200 baht our guesthouse owner asked was they cheapest we could find. We were not upset at all because we're talking about 13 extra dollars for the both of us. As it turned out some others in our group, who incidentally were staying at an expensive guest house, paid almost double what we did per person. Not wanting add insult to injury, neither Jay, Candace nor myself mentioned that we got such a low price.
On the way out of town more people were picked up. The guest houses changed to small resorts, the final one having its own security guard who let us into the gated compound. With a now full song thaew, we started on the curvy road to Ao Nang. We passed scooters loaded with produce, kids and small farm animals and farm trucks with coconuts. Along the way, large karst formations started to rise out of jungle beside the road and slowly the smell of the sea was getting stronger.
After riding in such a wild area, it was rather disappointing to reach the heavily congested tourist strip. We couldn't miss the McDonald's on the right and the trinket stalls already open the left. Tourists had already started their pilgrimage down the street towards longboats that would take them to Railey Beach and Koh Phi Phi. Person after person walked down the street, young girls with big sunglasses and small bikinis, old large fat guys in speedos, hung over guys in board shorts and no shirts. It seemed that everyone had a beach mat in hand.
Once parked close to the beach, we each get a sticker with the name of the tour company stuck on us and we were sent down the beach where 30 or 40 speed boats where tied up. There are a lot of people walking around including tourist police.
Our group starts to board one of the speedboats but before we can get on, Jay, Candace, myself and older German fellow and his Thai girlfriend are asked to follow one of the tour operators down the beach. The tour boat had been overbooked. The tourist police were there to ensure that the boats were not overloaded and that the tourist were not put in any danger.
As we walked back up the beach from where we came, our speed pulled out and seemed to be racing back up the beach as well. I pointed this out to everyone and joked that it will probably meet up with us out of sight of the tourist police. The tour operator gave me the oddest of looks. I thought maybe I had insulted her and was about to say something until I watched the speedboat stop and reverse towards the shore. We were told to climb in.
Thais seems to be willing to give us whatever we want even if our safety is put in jeopardy. The really weird part is how we lap it up. Back home, someone would have complained about this flagrant disregard for everyone's safety by overloading the boat. I can only think of two plausible answers to this on going situation.

People really believe it will never happen to them.
I have watched complete newbies doubling on a scooter in Thai traffic w/o helmets while wearing shorts, tank top and flip flops or any idea that the bike really has no brakes yet will not get on their bicycles at home without donning a helmet and reflective clothes just in case.

At home, we have too many rules.
People realize that we don't need all the safety precautions that we have at home. That having too many rules is actually to stifling and when on vacation, they don't want any rules.

Whatever the reason, perhaps it was peer pressure, or the fact we just spent 20.00 to 30.00 dollars for a day of entertainment or perhaps we just don't care if the 5 life jackets on board were only big enough for the small Thai crew, we all climbed aboard.
Jay quickly pointed out that they saved us the seats in the front and seemed quite happy about it. Being in boats quite a bit growing up, this is not usually a good thing as the bow hits pretty hard in choppy waters. I guess my new Aussie friend, has lived his whole life surrounded by water but has never been in a boat!?! Something is kinda weird!
As we sped away from Ao Nang shoreline, our tour guide came up front and introduced herself as Nok. She cracked a few jokes and gave us a big huge smile and told us to hold on as we were going to have fun with her today!

Our tour consisted of visiting Maya Bay, Monkey Bay, Lohsamah Bay, Pileh Bay, Viking Cave, Phi Phi Don, Hin Klarng and Bamboo Island to do some snorkeling, have lunch and sun tan. With only a few whispy clouds in the sky, it was going to be another hot one.

Our first stop was Monkey Bay. Being one of the first boats there, we scrambled onto the beach where the resident troop of monkeys were just coming out of the canopy to "gather" food. The troop had become accustomed to tourists bringing "treats" for them and now expected to be fed all the time. We were given ample warnings while anchoring not to get too close to the monkeys as they would be extremely aggressive since they had not been fed yet. I'm not sure if the Swedish family on board did not understand the warnings or figured they were just more senseless rules but they immediately went over to the troop.
The daughter, being around 10 years old, ran right into the middle of these wild animals and tried to pick one up. I have never seen fear rise up so quickly in someones eyes before as I did in that monkeys. Suddenly the whole troop closed in on the girl, not biting or truly hurting her but rather pawing at her and pulling her long blond hair. They were looking for handouts.
This of course had the mother shrieking, the father yelling for someone to help his daughter, the daughter crying and the three of us laughing.
I'm sorry but these are wild animals and people have to respect that. Finally a crew member from one of the boats walked over and shooed the monkeys away. I was glad when we got back in the boat but couldn't help but snicker when Jay made some sounds like a monkey. I'm sorry, I couldn't help it.

Our next stop was Maya Bay. What a beautiful place. I'm glad we were able to share it with 300 of our closet friends. Now Candace will only get in the water when she knows she can touch the ground so I figured that Jay and I would go snorkel for awhile and then come back and join Candace who had decided to sun tan on the beach. That was when Jay dropped the bomb on us. He had an huge fear of sharks. I never gave it much thought that anyone living so close to the world's foremost diving site, the Great Barrier, would not do anything but dive.
I wonder if he's really from Australia?
Off I went alone (well with about 100 of my closest friends) to tame the mighty waters, snorkel and mask in hand. And tame the waters I did. Visibility was okay and I saw quite a few fish, crabs anemones and urchins. Too bad I didn't have an underwater camera. It would have been great to get some pics to bring back home for the kids.

After Maya, we went to a shallow bay where we feed the fish bread and then snorkeled in a lagoon and cruised past Viking Cave where they gather bird nest for bird nest soup. We then headed to Koh Phi Phi for lunch. During the whole tour, Nok kept us entertained with her big smile and quick wit. She was very funny and for some reason kept referring to me as Kong Kong or her big ape. She also seemed to have a thing for Jay and kept bringing him cold cokes from the cooler while we had to get our own.

When we arrived on Phi Phi Don, we were welcomed and made to stand while they took our picture. This seemed odd at the time but what doesn't in Thailand? Nok lead us down one soi and up a flight of stairs to a large room set for lunch. There was Som Tam, Panang, chicken,rice, fish, fresh fruit, water and spaghetti with meat sauce. Not the best meal I have ever eaten but they had a bowl of fish sauce so that made it taste pretty good.
After lunch, we ended up walking through the shops where Candace boat some 2 dollar flip flops and a couple of t-shirts. We headed back to the beach and watched both long tails and speed boats constantly drop people off. Nok showed up and we sat, talking about her life in Thailand compared to ours back home. She is a really interesting person.
When it came time to get back on the boat, we were presented with a plastic framed picture of ourselves. Now we understood why they took the picture when we arrived. 200 baht poorer, we had something for our fake fireplace at home.
On the ride home, we tied up at Hin Klarng for some open water snorkeling. Nok tried to convince me that there had been shark sitings here and to be careful. I should have been seen it coming. I had just dove down when I felt something grab my ankle. I admit I panicked only to find Nok had dove down behind me and grabbed me. Even with a snorkel in her mouth I could tell she was laughing at me. Damn that little bugger.
We then stopped at Bamboo Island where we were treated to some bathing beauties that had no respect for the Thai culture and walked around topless. The crew of our boat seemed somewhat curious but also put off by the whole situation. I made sure to snap off a few pictures just in case no one believed me.
Our adventure ended back at Ao Nang. We were going to take the song thaew back but Nok invited Jay, Candace and I to ride back with her. She hit on Jay the whole way who responded by breaking out the chocolate covered Poki. Nothing breaks the tension like some Poki.
The three of us decided to meet up for supper after getting cleaned up. We walked down to one of three night markets and had delicious pad thai (20 baht), some banana pancakes (they are pretty good) and cheap beer. After strolling around we walked to the other two night markets.
The night market is a unique experience. The only 2 things that comes close to a Thai night market in North America would be a flea market combined with a farmers market. Depending on the night market, you can buy anything from hand made knives, to animals, to plants, to clothes, to food, to pirated dvds and cds. This is one element of the Thai market. The other is the social aspect that the Thais seem to have when at the market.
We saw, families eating supper, watching t.v. or listening to music, visiting with neighboring stalls, doing homework, all while manning a stall selling anything from A to Z. Shop owners were able to banter back and forth and there seemed to be a lot of laughter. Standing back and watching this, one gets a sense that perhaps Thais have something that we in North America are now missing. They talk to each other. Its not all about Ipods, walled in malls, seclusion and self importance. People actually communicate face to face.
Why does that sound sooooo odd? How guilty am I as I type this?
We walked back to our guest house and I sat on the balcony and watched the people walk down the street while Candace got ready for bed.
I'm kinda sad that we've all lost touch with something so basic to humanity. A Thai couple walked past me and stopped while she lit a cigarette. I peered down on them and watched as he snuck a kiss. She happened to look up, giggled and waved. I waved back.
I love Thailand!

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Photos

Stop
Security at a posh resort and spa

Jay
Our Aussie friend with the funky shorts

Longtails for hire
Looking down the beach

Nok and Jason
Our crazy but awesome tour guide

Crew on our boat
A Thai rasta on our boat

Crew
Candace took another picture

Monkey Bay
Some of the wild monkeys that beg for food

Leo's Land
The gap in the rocks was photo shopped "closed" in the movie "the beach".