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Published: January 15th 2008
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Lost in China Town
I believe I read that Bangkok's China Town is the largest settlement of Chinese outside of China After a the bumpy bus ride from Cambodia, I arrived in Bangkok a day early so I make sure I could get bus tickets down south to Ko Lanta. It's a good thing I came in early too because with the holidays we almost didn't get a seat. I met Carny at the airport at 1am to help ease her adjustment to Bangkok. We only had the day in Bangkok and since she is only here for a short period of time she wanted to actually do something in Bangkok - Something I really hadn't done because of my initial bad experience there. So we wandered over to the Grand Palace and then took a water taxi to China Town. It was really nice that she got me out to see a little more of Bangkok.
We headed down to Ko Lanta for New Years, an island off of the West Coast of Southern Thailand. We figured that it would be a little more low key than a lot of the other islands but still containing the excellent beaches and a lot of sun. Lanta was nice because it is larger than a lot of the islands so you could
go and explore more beaches and get away from people. We spent New Years Eve traveling around the island on a scooter and even Kayaked to a small deserted island which was fun. One of the best things that we found on Ko Lanta was the mangos and sticky rice which is all over Thailand but seemed so much better there.
After four nights on Ko Lanta we headed to Ko Phi Phi to see the island and do some snorkeling. We did a snorkeling tour one day which was amazing but my camera got sand in it and got stuck open right as we got to Maya Beach, one of the most beautiful places on the island. After freaking out only a little bit we were able to get it functioning properly with a little bit of force later that night. So unfortunately I do not have pictures from the majority of that day but if you watch the movie "The Beach" just imagine us there since it was filmed on Phi Phi.
After reading about camping on the beach in Lonely Planet we decided it would be a great idea for our last couple nights down
Sunset on Lanta
Ko Lanta was our first stop down south where we settled down for a few days. south so we headed to the National Park at Nai Yang. After priding ourselves a little too soon for getting there early in the day so we could get settled and still have the day, we ended up walking around the park and town for 4.5 hours trying to figure out where to get a tent. Lonely Planet Lied! We couldn't find the campground that they were talking about and no one could give us any good information. At the end of our wandering (with our packs on I might add) we had narrowed our options to three: 1. Use my mosquito net as a tent and set up under a tree 2. Rent a car and sleep in it 3. Give in and get a hotel room. We ended up staying at this really nice B&B - a little more than we were planning on spending, but it was a really good thing because druring dinner that night it poured buckets. The beach at Nai Yang was one of our favorite spots because it was a lot less touristy than everywhere else and therefore a lot less crowded.
After beaching ourselves out, we flew up to Chiang Mai
Exploring the Island
Spent New Years Eve running around Ko Lanta on the night of the 8th - getting about two hours sleep at the airport because the air con was so cold. Upon arriving in Chiang Mai we hurried to find a cooking class to attend for the day after dropping off our bags. We found one just in time that was a lot of fun and really good for me because now Sarah knows how to cook the dishes so I don't have to remember. My favorite dishes were the cashew chicken and the mango and sticky rice, yummy! We then took a nap before heading to the night market which was a very successful and overwhelming trip.
The following morning we took the bus to Pai where we spent the remainder of Carny's time. Our first day in Pai we rented a motor bike just because it is nice to see the outskirts of the town. We ended up going elephant riding and they took us to the river to play with the elephants. We thought this meant splashing and the elephants would spray us. We were on the elephants back (which is not comfortable at all) in the river and all of a sudden the elephant
On Ko Phi Phi
An island with great snorkeling and where the movie "The Beach" was filmed starts shaking its head and going crazy and the guide is yelling and I'm thinking that the elephant is freaking out. Carny ends up in the river and the elephant stops and then I realize that they were trying to do that all along. So we get thrown off the elephant a few times, each time with the goal of landing as far away from the animal as possible - so we usually jumped. After elephant riding it was a nice dip in the hot spring fed tubs at the elephant camp.
To burn the rest of the gas in our tanks before turning them in we went for a drive through the mountains. We pulled off the road at the top of a hill on to take a picture. There was quite a ledge to get back on the road and was difficult to get the bike back upthere. Carny gunned it a little to fast to get back up but made it on the road as a scrawny, long haired, leather wearing, Harley driving, tattooed local drives up and gives us a lecture about how this is not the place to learn to ride a bike and
View from top of Phi Phi
The look out is actually the Tsunami evacuation route which came in handy back in '04 about safety. He then makes us follow him back to town, with the speedometer never crossing 20 km/hr while giving us random thumbs up and shout outs along the way. Somehow, we made it back to town safely but throughout the rest of our stay we definitely met many people that could use his safety advice.
Saturday morning we did a Muai Thai Boxing training session at True Bee Gym. It was a lot of fun to do again and just as good of a work out. It's amazing how hard it gets to hold up your arms! There were four others training as well and three of them are long term - for 3 to 6 months getting ready to actually fight. To reward ourselves for our efforts we went for Thai Massages afterwards - a mixture of pressure points and stretching - amazing!
Instead of going on an organized trek, we figured it would be more fun to create our own and chose one of the many nice waterfalls surrounding Pai to hike to. After a two hour hike, luckily through trees to keep us in the shade and on a trail that crossed the river
Skim Boarding!
Couldn't find surfing so this will do 20 times to keep us cool, we surprised a naked hippie who was taking a little bath in the waterfall (So I guess I cannot call him a smelly hippie). Luckily he was considerate enough to put on a towel upon our arrival and we were able to enjoy the waterfall.
Our final day in Pai we attended another Thai boxing training session and had lunch at Mama Falafel's. We took off for Bangkok in the afternoon since Carny was unable to get her flights changed. For the final 10 days of my journey I am on my own again, sad. I'm heading off to Koh Tao tomorrow though to get my diving certification!
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Cheryl
non-member comment
Fun!
Hi Jessica, I loved your journal entry! I could just picture you in the water jumping from elephants (hey, maybe it is the alternative to swimming with dolphins). You are a talented writer -- when you are a published author, I can say, "I knew her when...."! Hope you are enjoying the rest of your trip. Love, Cheryl