Thailand

Day 290 to Day 321 (03.10.07 - 03.11.07)

Crossing the border from Malaysia by bus was a 12 hour yet stress-free expedition, the Thai-Malay border is one with relatively few problems of all the borders in S.E.A. We soon saw the cultural differences though, and it was not long until we really knew we were in Thailand - the local food being rice and pork with chillies instead of chicken-rice!

The Kingdom of Thailand draws more visitors than any other country in southeast Asia with its irresistible combination of breathtaking natural beauty, inspiring temples, renowned hospitality, robust cuisine and ruins of fabulous ancient kingdoms. Few countries are so well endowed. Thailand is a perfect balance between East and West, in a foreign-yet-familiar, adventurous-yet-accessible and rich in culture yet cheap to chill in kind of way. Thailand is also the land of plenty, with rice paddies, temples, Buddha’s, exotic fruits, flavoursome foods and its ancient past.

The Thai’s are the warmest, most welcoming people we have met, they are friendly and will go out of their way to help you, and not because they want something from you (mostly) and this hospitality makes Thailand a country one could stay in for a while! Whilst having fun is paramount to Thai’s lifestyle, so is religion and the monarchy which is regarded by many as divine. The love and respect people have for King Bhumibol is very admirable, and we witnessed their devotion to his majesty daily. Whilst we were here, the king was taken ill and spent a few weeks in hospital, the people took it on themselves on to the streets in yellow shirts, the king’s current favourite colour, and waited outside the hospital for him, writing messages in a huge message book, on the day he was release he wore a pink shirt to signify health and so in the weeks following Thai’s paraded the streets in pink shirts! He is the longest-reigning king and monarchy worldwide, with more than 60 years on the throne; the people of Thailand are worried as to what will happen to the monarchy in years to come as the king celebrated his 80th birthday whist we were there.

Koh Samui

Ko Samui is the largest and main transport hub of the group of south-easterly islands, having the only airport and it’s also the most developed, packed with glitzy shopping malls, late night discos and souvenir shops. Despite now being ultra-touristy, Samui still has some quiet bays and corners that symbolize what travellers in the 1970’s called ‘the undiscovered Thailand’. We were lucky to meet a French woman on the pickup bus from the port who now lives here, who advised us to stay on ‘Silver Beach’ a quiet and hidden away spot with a couple of beach bungalows. It was the perfect introduction to Thailand for us, beach, sun and Thai food, so we spent a few days chilling out on the beach.

Koh Pha- Ngan

Next was a 45 minute over-packed boat ride over to the island full of backpacker-folklore - Ko Pha-Ngan where full moon parties and buckets of whiskey-vodka-red bull make this island famous, so of course we had to go! The island is also absolutely stunning, in a complete tropical paradise island kind of way - with swaying coconut trees, rainforest covered brooding mountains and white sand beaches with ribbons of turquoise waters encompassing it. This was our favourite island in Thailand, and the most relaxed and beautiful spot, we will have to go back again!

We stayed at “The Harmony Beach Resort”, which was possibly the most beautiful and most tranquil place we have been so far, if you can imagine that. Owned by an English guy and his Thai girlfriend, with its own private beach, kayaks, pool, 4 dogs, 3 cats and a handful of cosy bungalows right on the beach with tropical rainforest behind them - needless to say people have lost themselves here and ended up staying a lot longer than planned. They say the Thai’s know how to have fun, and so parties are never far away here. Not being there in time for the full moon party, we just happened to be there for the “Half Moon Party”, which unlike the other parties, is held deep in the jungle - a very surreal experience, we’re not sure how the monkeys were liking it though - for 8 hours or something silly we danced away to the tribal trance laser show along with a few thousand others, sweating our hearts out drinking buckets of whiskey and red bull, it was great fun!

Bangkok

Thailand’s capital is a 24 hour city that is constantly on the move where ancient temples are overshadowed by space-age shopping malls, super-cool restaurants next to simple street stalls. Bangkok is an interchange of the past, present and future, where there is something for everyone, you may not like it all, but there are definitely parts that you will love!
Christian’s mum and sister flew out from Sweden to visit us for 2 weeks in Thailand. After welcoming them to the immensely humid Bangkok, we stayed in the 1950’s “Atlanta Hotel” which a Bangkok institute and we spent a few days visiting the must-see’s in Thailand’s biggest city, namely The Grand Palace and the MBK shopping mall!! Temples and malls was a theme that would rule our Thailand travelling, and it was fascinating experience. The Grand Palace was grand indeed, where we had to borrow clothes in order to be dressed conservatively to explore the intricately decorated temples for hours. We also visited Bangkok’s weekend market - which is by far the biggest and best market we have seen on this trip and probably in the world too - 17,000 stalls and 200,000 people each weekend make it the mother of all markets, where within the maze of the market you can forget that it is daylight and indeed which country or time zone you are in - and absolutely everything is sold here, it’s impossible to be disappointed!! We went back several times, and no other market is now as good!

The third time we went back to Bangkok, it being a base of ours, we stayed in the traveller-famous Khao San Road, renowned for its bar street, market and its fun-searching backpackers! People who have a love-hate relationship with this area, but we found it to be great fun. Street stalls line the streets, alley ways and corners, music blares out and people shout you over to engage in whatever it is they are flogging.

Phuket

Known as the Pearl of the Andaman Phuket, a large island in the Indian Ocean, is 867 kms from Bangkok and is the only island having provincial status, with a rich and colourful history. About 70 % of Phuket is mountainous and it is Thailand's largest, most populous and most visited island. A whirl of colour and cosmopolitanism, it revolves around and thrives on tourism, but still retains a spark of the real Thailand. It is the rock and roll of Thailand, and it’s either your thing or it’s not. Despite the 2004 tsunami, Phuket’s beaches are wide and luxurious and squeaky clean. We desperately wanted sea, sand and sun and Christian’s family especially wanted to go home with a tan, but being monsoon season, the west coast of Thailand was having some bad weather unfortunately. In between the daily torrential rain showers, we visited Phuket town for some shopping, rode elephants through the jungle and caught some sun for a few days. Also, typical to a trip to Phuket is the bar street in Patong which is a neon lit zoo after dark and something of an experience. After cocktails in some of the bars, we embarked upon the loud thumping techno music of ‘Tiger Club’ where scantily clad thai girls and ladyboys outnumbered tourists a thousand to one and are more than friendly to anyone who will listen!

Phi Phi Island

Phi Phi is Thailand’s superstar island, and undoubtedly one of our favourite places. It’s the topic of traveller’s conversation all over Thailand, and has been in the movies, even with all the hype it doesn’t disappoint! Despite being pretty much flattened by the tragic 2004 tsunami, Phi Phi island is jaw-droppingly beautiful. Stunning limestone cliffs, translucent water, fine white sand and palm trees make this island a little paradise, and it’s possible to walk all around it in just a an hour. After days of lazing around on the beach and by the pool, a local fisher man took us out on the rough waves for a few hours, where we briefly visited “The Beach” which looked a little smaller than in the film, and had it not been absolutely pouring down would have been an amazing place to send an afternoon, we did get some snorkelling in which was incredible in the beautiful waters here.

Ayutthaya - the old capital

Two hours north of Bangkok is the island of Ayutthaya which is engulfed by three rivers and was the site of the former Thai capital. From 1350 - 1767 Ayutthaya’s domination of Thailand was the desire of many foreign powers, but it successfully maintained its power until after 2 years of war the royal family fled to Bangkok. As an Unesco World Heritage site, Ayutthaya’s ancient temples are scattered throughout this once magnificent city and along the encircling rivers. We explored the crumbling ruins by bicycle and boat over a couple of days, taking in as many temples and palaces as we could, it was really interesting and relaxing and definitely worth seeing especially as the weather was really good.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai has a striking mountain backdrop, over 300 temples and a quaint historical aura and is to Thai’s a natural treasure - a cultural symbol of nationhood. Set in the peaks and valleys of Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai is refreshingly different to the rest of the kingdom. The ancient mountains cascade across northern Thailand, Myanmar and south west China and the altitudes are traversed by the autonomous hill-tribe peoples.

The old city of Chiang Mai has a medieval -style 700 year old wall and feel to it and was a good place to wander around, relax and shop at the night market. We trekked in the forest-covered hills through the wilderness towards a traditional hill-tribe village, through the thick fog and up the steep mountain slopes. It was a tougher trek than we imagined, and after 4 hours of trekking, mostly uphill, we were really out there far away from any civilisation with little obvious hope of getting anywhere in particular. The weather was great, but the previous day’s rain resulted in the muddy path way being ridden with the bastard leeches - outnumbered us a million to one and were unavoidable and annoying but just one of those things that add to the experience - we were alarmed that the hill tribe people purposely get bitten by them, then collect them and fry them for dinner! By nightfall, we finally arrived at the tribes little village, the only way to get here and away being the path we had followed, it was incredible how isolated they were and yet they still had some modernity’s thanks to Thaksin, the previous president who installed solar power so they have 2 hours of electricity per night. The tour we went on was actually great - the guide was a real character and enticed us into the history and culture of his village with his stories, and despite his little English, he enlightened us on all things Thai, made us try buffalo-fat spicy curry and encouraged us to drink his special water (we can only imagine...!).

From here, being close to the border of Laos, we left Thailand behind, but not for long we’re sure!

We are really liked Thailand, its hard not to, and even though some people complain that overindulgent package tourists (also the sex-seeking westerns) have ruined the natural charm of the tropical paradise, we found it to be just the right combination of everything you could possibly want. The food is fantastic, the people are delightful and the scenery amazing, of course there’s overcommerical parts to Thailand, but just around the corner will be the deserted traditional Thailand that you were looking for. Once again on this trip, the weather was against us, for the most part it was rainy monsoon season whilst we were here, but aside from a few powercuts that left us stranded for hours on the islands especially Kho Phan-ngan, we didn’t experience too many difficulties because of it. Thailand’s a country that is easy to feel at home in; every third shop is a Seven-Eleven to satisfy Cadbury cravings, the lifestyle is easy going and full of fun and adventure, everything is ‘same same but different’ in a very likeable way and on top all of we’ve already said, its astonishingly beautiful!

We are so used to this way of life now, we don't know how we will ever live another way! With a month and a half or so left, we continued our travels through Asia onto Laos.

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