Advertisement
Published: August 25th 2010
Bicycle/Street vendor
Soi Rambuttri, BangkokWell, all good things must come to an end I guess - I just can't believe how fast the last 6 months seem to have gone! And then when I look back at all we have done over just half a year, it seems like we must have been gone way longer!
So as Adam explained on the last blog update, we decided to skip India for a few reasons and instead spend a month unwinding in Thailand before heading back home to Sydney.
When we arrived in Bangkok from Nepal we did not anticipate how we would feel towards it - it was like being back home already!
I remember our first ever trip to Thailand 2 years ago, and how we experienced true 'culture shock' upon arriving in manic Bangkok; the smells, the colours, the language & the sights were all so overwhelmingly different to NewZealand and Australia it blew our minds! However, this time around we felt comforted by all of the above as it was familiar to us of a country we have truly fallen in love with.
After Sri Lanka and Nepal we really realised just how westernised Thailand is - the McDonald's,
the huge Shopping Malls, the 7/11's - all with their blissful AC! The great thing about Thailand is that the country can provide these 'comforts' to tourists whilst still strongly retaining their own culture and therefore providing a comfortable insight into Asian life for western people of all ages to appreciate.
It was a bit of a shock to get used to the amount of westerners around again though. We were staying in a nice place called 'Rambuttri Village Inn' which is on Soi Rambuttri, just one road over from Khao San Road - the main tourist hub in Bangkok. The only Thai faces we saw around the area, were working in restaurants or street stalls, everywhere we looked there were Westerners, young, old, families etc... Completely different situation than the last 2 countries we had been!
Anyway, we adjusted back to life in Thailand immediately spending a few days in Bangkok first. We visited the large flashy malls of Siam Paragon and also checked out Wat Pho (Temple of the reclining Buddha). Somehow when we were in Bangkok 2 years ago we saw The Grand Palace but missed seeing Wat Pho just a block away, so we checked
it out this time around! It was definitely worth visiting - so huge - and a nice surprise that there were awesome temples around it too - I think not seeing them both on the same trip made us appreciate it more. One thing is for sure though - Thailand definitely know how to do temples. The detail and colours are just spectacular and make the temples of Sri Lanka and Nepal (although amazing in their own right) look fairly dull.
On our way out of Wat Pho half a dozen nervous looking teenagers pushed one of their group towards us and he asked whether Adam would mind answering a few questions for them as they are all studying tourism. This seemed like a legit request so Adam agreed and then proceeded to answer a separate question from each of them (some speaking better english than others) with a camera stuck in his face, relating to why we visit Thailand, what do we think of it, are we aware of eco-tourism in Thailand etc... No scam, it was all genuine and it was nice to help them out - we even got a lovely (read...super cheesy tacky) keyring given
to us a thanks!
We of course had to find somewhere to watch the All Blacks play (& beat!) Australia in the Rugby as part of the Tri Nations/Bledisloe Cup. We ended up going to a pub on the corner of Khao San Road with a tuktuk attached to the building over the entrance, where we shared a few Chang beers and celebrated the win with another kiwi guy. The 3 of us then decided to grab dinner together somewhere down Khao San road. As we had had a few (and following Ben's example - the crazy kiwi we had just met), we tried one of the local 'delicacies' on offer from a sidecart on the side of the road... fried cricket! If you didn't think about it, it just tasted of fried and was crunchy - still I only had one and that was more than enough for me. It was a bit disconcerting how none of the local Thai's would take up the offer when Ben offered them one, I could imagine them sniggering together about the crazy 'farangs' and the strange things they eat! I think the crickets were comparatively 'normal' compared to the worms, scorpions
and other weird bugs on offer!!!
After this 'entree' we grabbed some cheap padthai and a couple more beers before heading to the famous Pat Pong Road to see one of the famous Bangkok sex shows. We walked up and down the street for a while just taking it all in - half naked woman outside doorways right behind the market stalls selling all sorts of gimmicky souvenirs. We wanted to be careful about which one we went into as we had been warned about ones that offer a show for 'free' as you get completely scammed once inside. We met a nice enough Thai guy who showed us to a respectable (well comparatively) looking place for a 300 Baht entrance fee, including one free drink. Well it was certainly interesting! As soon as we got in we were literally swarmed upon, when Adam was getting his money out to pay the 'entrance' fee one girl grabbed a 100 Baht note from him and put it in her knickers, needless to say that is where it remained. We were very careful after that and they soon moved away from us when they realised we weren't going to be shelling
Buddha statue inside Wat Pho
Note all the bright coloured glass mosaic tiles at it's base out money left right and centre. Anyway, as seedy as it sounds, it is something that has to be seen (to be believed) when visiting Thailand, and surprisingly enough it doesn't seem that seedy as the girls actually look like they enjoy themselves, I mean it is apparently great money for them. After seeing the complete 'show' including razorblades, needles, balloon popping with darts, coke bottle swapping, drawing a portrait (of Ben - hahaha!), to name a few, we left rather overwhelmed and shocked, hurrying back to Rambuttri to the safety of our room. The crazy thing was we didn't actually see the infamous 'Ping Pong' trick, but honestly after all of the other 'tricks' we saw we were not fussed about missing that one!
After Bangkok we jumped on an overnight train to Chiang Mai, only spending one night before getting the minivan over to Pai. We stayed in the same great place as last time "Chiang Mai Thai House" and managed to find enough time to commission my Ceylonese sapphire from Sri Lanka to be made into a silver ring, at this fantastic jewelers Adam had remembered seeing on our last visit.
The next day, when we
arrived in Pai (funnily enough the drive didn't seem as long or scary as last time - must be since we have since had a lot worse!), we instantly re-fell-in-love with this chillaxed sleepy town. We stayed in a different place this time, somewhere closer to town and conveniently next to our fav restaurant from last visit - Edible Jazz. This proved to be very disappointing - after settling into our room we excitedly headed off to 'Edible Jazz' already both knowing what we were going to order (having been dreaming of it all day), only to find out that the awesome chef had left! So they no longer had the same amazing vegetarian dishes on offer, in fact they only offered 2 very average sounding meals - very sad. Oh well, the place we were staying "Breeze of Pai" was nice and the owners really lovely, so we stayed there anyway. We quickly found another great place to regularly eat dinner anyway, called "Na's Kitchen", which offered the best Thai food we have had so far with the friendliest service, so our fussy tummy's were suitably appeased!
Our sole purpose for coming back to Pai was to get
Buddha line-up inside Wat Pho
Some in a better state of repair than others some more tattoos! I got more added to the butterfly on my back (from last time) by bamboo again, to make a large art deco/art nouveau inspired piece. Adam wanted a more detailed and colourful design so decided to go for machine this time. So basically we had turns at being in pain - me first for 5 hours and then Adam for 13 hours over 2 days. In between we just chilled out either on our own or together. It was quite rainy most of the time - so perfect weather for doing nothing else! In fact the morning we left the river behind our guesthouse had flooded and trapped some tourists on the other side as the bridge had been washed away!
After a week of pain and rest we headed back to Bangkok (with a couple of hours in Chiang Mai to collect my stunning new ring! Yay!) via bus. We would've preferred to go via overnight train again but this was unfortunately full for days due to it being a Thai long weekend/public holiday. So we embarked on our last overnight bus ride on this trip - and thank god for that! I don't think
you can ever get used to and manage to sleep well on a bus and especially not when your seats are between the toilet and 2 very smelly german hippies! Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against hippies, I admire and am sometimes jealous of their carefree lifestyle, but honestly do they need to sacrifice personal hygiene? The girl had the most amazing dreadlocks - all the way to her bottom, but they smelt like wet dog fur and keep falling between the cracks in the seats and tickling our legs!!! Needless to say, at 6am when we got dropped off at Khao San Road we hightailed it to where we stayed last time, checked in, showered and then zonked out for a few hours!
This second visit to Bangkok was spent doing not a lot, as Adam wasn't feeling too well but also because we had only planned to be there for a couple of days before heading south to the islands. Unfortunately, due to the long weekend again, all the sleeper trains were full for a few days, so we had to hang around an extra couple of days before we could get a seat. There
was no way we wanted to do an overnight bus again, and besides it gave our tattoos more time to heal and for Adam to get better.
We did head to the famous Chatuchak weekend market one day though, which was something I had wanted to do last visit but we didn't get around to it. It was impressively huge as promised but not really all that exciting, just more of the same stuff at all the other markets plus some homewares and furniture. It wasn't really 'stalls' as such either, it was more a rabbit warren of narrow lanes containing more or less small shops - some even had airconditioning and doors!!! It was worth checking out anyway and the journey there provided a fascinating view of Bangkok. We caught a tuktuk to MBK (for our standard negotiated rate of 120 baht) and then got onto the 'skytrain' (monorail) all the way to the markets. This gave us an great aerial view of the city where we could see things that we wouldn't have got to see from a cab that's for sure! We also filled in a day wandering around the massive MBK shopping centre filled with
Another view inside Wat Pho temple complex
The blue temple roof in the background houses the Reclingin Buddha super bargains on anything and everything, from DVDs to cellphones to jeans to shoes... you name it, its there and at as ridiculous price (although, of course, 99% of the time they are all fakes/imitations)
Anyway, the time came around soon enough to jump on the overnight train to Surathani to head to the islands. Typical Thailand fashion the train was delayed 4 hours overnight while we slept, so needless to say our connecting bus ride to Krabi had been waiting a while when we arrived. Ourselves and all of the other tourists on the train that also had to get connecting bus rides to various islands through the same company, were herded onto a public bus and driven half an hour into the country (in the opposite direction to Krabi!) to the company base to wait for our connecting buses.
Unfortunately I had a bad headache which was also making me feel nauseous, dizzy and just generally like crap, so my heart sank when a jam packed minivan turned up to take us to Krabi, after waiting in the heat for an hour. The only seats left were right in the back of the van where the Airconditioning
didn't reach, which of course was not ideal conditions when feeling like I did. As the drive was only 2 1/2 hours and we were already 4 hours late, the driver speed his way to Krabi without stopping for a break. Normally this would not bother me, but because I was so hot and dehydrated I was drinking heaps of water, but had to stop about half way through the journey as I was busting for the toilet! This made the journey even more uncomfortable than it already was, so I was so incredibly thankful when some lady-boy Thai also in our minivan managed to get the driver to stop to use the restrooms at a service station about 1/2 an hour away from Krabi. I have no idea how many heads I knocked as I scrambled out of the van and dashed to the toilets but I didn't really care at that stage. Honestly, it was a close call, I could have been writing about a much more embarrasing story here if it wasn't for that lady-boy!
Sure enough we were taken to the Songserm company base in the countryside outside of Krabi, not the bus station where we
were planning on jumping on a Songtaew to take us to Ao Nang. The option was either to wait on the road and flag one down or the company could take us there in another minivan for 200 baht each straight away. This was a ripoff for the 20minute journey, but I felt so rotten I was just over it, so we got in the minivan and 20 hours after leaving Bangkok, we finally arrived in Ao Nang! We decided to spend the night there and catch a boat to Koh Phi Phi the next day.
We booked in for what we thought was the 12pm boat from Ao Nang to Koh Phi Phi, which ended up being the 12pm minivan back to Krabi to catch the 1.30pm boat to Koh Phi Phi! So it turns out we didn't need to go to Ao Nang after all! Oh well, Ao Nang has a better vibe and more accommodation & restaurant choice than Krabi so it wasn't a complete waste of time. We even got to totally spoil ourselves by getting an enormous sundae each from Swensens, a proper sit-down ice-cream restaurant, totally indulgent but we justified it by thinking
Peek-a-boo
The Reclining Buddha's head it was well deserved after a long day of traveling!
When we got to Koh Phi Phi, we didn't have any accommodation organised, so we had the overwhelming task of listening to dozens of touts and reading a few walls of the information kiosk worth of profiles on places to stay. Koh Phi Phi is known as not being very budget friendly and that was certainly the apparent case as we ended up spending a lot more than we normally would, however we think we found a great place for the money spent (comparatively to the rest of Phi Phi options obviously). We checked into 'PP Princess' for 1200 baht per night (including breakfast), a nice hotel-like room in a brand new building with a large plasma TV, aircon, fridge, mini-bar & huge bed AND a pool right on the beach with a swim-up-bar! We had decided to indulge ourselves a bit for our final week anyway, so we were well happy with where we had found to settle for the next week.
The days since we arrived on Phi Phi have been spent eating, swimming, reading, eating, playing cards, massages, eating, sleeping etc... Due to it being
The main street in Pai
Just a typical day in the chillaxed town monsoon season we have had some wicked storms bringing with them incredible amounts of rain that temporarily flood the small Phi Phi village paths. But in between these downpours we are making the most of the sun - making sure we head back home with decent tans!
We did a half day trip on a long-tail to Koh Phi Phi Ley (smaller island where the film 'The Beach' was filmed) which included visiting Monkey beach, Shark point, Pileh bay, Viking cave, Loh Samah Bay and Maya Bay. They were all spectacularly beautiful and some of the most amazing snorkeling I have done yet - the coral colours and variety of fish was breathtaking. I really wish we could justify spending some more money and go scuba-diving here, but we do need to be careful as we are down to the last pennies! It gives us an excuse to come back again one day anyway!
We had been to the Krabi area twice before this visit and both times we never managed to get to Koh Phi Phi for weather, budget and/or time reasons, so needless to say we are really glad we finally got here. It is a nice
View from our guesthouse room in Pai
So lush and green from all of the monsoon rain! place to really relax amongst beautiful scenery and wonderful Thai hospitality.
There was of course another Tri Nations/Bledisloe Cup game that had to be watched while in this paradise. Adam spent the day finding a bar that was going to play the All Black vs South Africa game at 11pm. We had dinner at a place called 'Breakers', which we have made a bit of a favourite due to the amazing food they do, and as we had a bit of time to fill in before the game, we decided to make the most of the drinks special that night and Adam got a jug of beer and I got a jug of vodka/red-bull & coke. Well, before we knew it we were quite 'happy' and having a great time chatting away to a hard-case couple of Liverpool fans who were on their honeymoon. We lost track of time so we dragged Emma and Michael very quickly (and drunkenly) to the Sports bar where the rugby was being shown, just in time for the final 30 minutes. Well - another great win by the All Blacks and a great rowdy night with some random english and other kiwis at
Geena's bamboo tattoo
Art Deco / Art Nouveau inspired the bar! We did pay for it the next day though, both feeling very poorly until the late afternoon - we havn't been used to many big drinking sessions while we have been away!
So anyway, Tour de Fife will be finished in a couple of days and it will be back to reality again! Have we caught the traveling bug? Well, we are looking forward to going back to normal routine for a while and need to save a lot of money before we could do anything like this again but who knows??? We do have to get to India that's for sure. It has certainly been an extraordinary way of living for half a year and I am so glad we got to experience it together.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.13s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0822s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
