thailand = buckets = messy!


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Asia » Thailand
July 7th 2009
Published: July 7th 2009
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luckily for everyone envolved the time came to hit south east asia. our last night in joburg was spent in greenside (the nice area!) with the management of a newly built hostel taking us to an authentic restaurant for a tapas of south african grub served up on a slab of corrugated iron listening to the african drums. cool!

onwards to thailand. and this bit of the whole blog affair should be pretty easy and painless to get through seeing as this was my third time to thailand. so we hit the kok and did the ususal...nothing has changed you'll be pleased to hear, kao san road still bangs its way through life, spilling out in every orifice and direction, still selling their cocktails (the boards say 'really strong' this time) and their chang beaters and insects to munch on when the buckets (mekong whiskey and thai killer redbull is the favorite) have taken effect. the reclining buddha is still smiling as are the catfish who guzzle bread down by the river boats. its all same same!

having spent a few nights back at shanti lodge and rediscovering my favorite haunts it was time to get our arses down to the islands in preparation for the full moon party. we had met some cool dudes over street meat the night before (who will no doubt come to feature a little more in this blog and beyond) and were determined to get down there and hook up to party. me, kate and jason boarded our sleeper train and made our slow bumpy, incredibly hot journey south. off the bus and onto the boat, the loud canadian and somewhat more subdued english man nowhere to be seen! we'd find them later.

ko phangn nang hasnt changed all that much, maybe a few more roads a few more guest houses and the prices a little more expensive but nothing you wouldnt expect. it boasts a thai boxing ring now and elephant rides up in the hills that i dont remember before. the rest is pretty standard. we found a cosy bungalow by the dea on a quiet beach north west and headed to hat rin to check the full moon beach out. found the boys playing volley ball and wandered along the crisp golden beach that would turn to mayhem every night for the 3 nights we were there.

needless to say come the full moon warmup everything got into full swing, including the fire rope! beware the fire rope, you will only hurt yourself, as was discovered by many a drunkard who took on the challange of jumping at the right time, and failing! whoops. full moon itself was messy. thats the only way i can describe it. thousands of wreckheads turn up on the beach to get sloshed, neon paint themselves up and frolick until the sun comes up in which ever way possible, whether that means a trip to mushroom mountain (no explaination required) or taking 5 in the red cross designated 'sleep area', for those that just cant handle it! it was fun fun fun.

after the killer hangover had subsided we went back to the other side of the island for some more chilling before heading to my all time favorite island and one of my top 3 places in the world.. ko tao. ahh ko tao, if only you had remained as unspoiled as you were even 5 years ago. i know im part of the tourism responsible for the mighty rate at which the industry has boomed and along with it the construction of a million guest houses and god knows what else, not to mention the threat to the landscape and wildlife etc etc, it still pains me. ko tao now sports a whole town that didnt exist the last time i went there. a town which of course caters for the masses, an irish sports bar, an authentic italian etc etc. woe.

but i still love it. and it didnt stop me going on a snorkelling trip to naranyan island and round the coves (an ecofriendly tour ill have you know!) and bays. even saw a trigger fish! and nearly sh*t myself in the process, they're bloody massive and very aggressive. whoops! so the crazy dive master who gave us an eco warrior speech - in a dudley accent, im sorry, i couldnt take him seriously even though i partly agreed with him - also pointed us in the direction of a supposedly quality restaurant on the opposite side of the island which we tried out too, it was amazing, especially the freak mutation of a grandaddy prawn that was put in front of mark (the canadian), it was a whopper!

so the other grand plan that i always said i aimed to do, was go back to ko tao and get a tattoo. i have achieved this with the help of a thai man and his bamboo stick. i have a gecko/lizard on my back with its body in the shape of the beaches and coves of ko tao, and i like it very much and no, it wasnt actually that painful.

bit more chilling out on ko tao then it was time for me to start the journey up to meet papa who was journeying from afar to visit me and thailand for a week. a rocky boat ride to ko samui (all that japanese threw up and kept fainting, it was amusing), and very quiet night and a plane ride from mainland surat thani later and i was back in bangkok.. and headed to a very swish hotel, the peninsular! plush, sophisticated and oozing in elegance i felt like id just stepped off the backpacker route and into some form of heaven, where there is ubiquitious air conditioning and clean towels.. and an amazing view of the river, and 2 sinks in the bathroom and its own brand of wine! the food was out of this world, exquisite minatures of every cuisine all laid out buffet style... mmmmm.

up the next day after a sleep in a real bed, that had been turned down for me, and onto a full day of sight seeing. starting with the reclining buddha (again! i know you're reading this dad, but i have seen it a million times! but yes, very impressive), onto the grand palace and then to the golden buddha, 3m high made from solid gold before heading to the chaos that is china town and its windy narrow streets that seem to hold half of bangkok plus street food vendors and mopeds. and sell everything you could every imagine in the world ever... but only in bulk! we sat down amongst the chaos to abit of street food, the type where a woman stands there flinging about 10 ingredients into a bowl with a decades worth of experience and precision and practically throwing it to one side to start on the next. invariably it will be a type of shaved or minced meat wading through a soup like broth trying to find its companions mr noodle and mrs beansprout. you are expected to identify these friends and pick them out decicately and daintily with only the aid of 2 wooden prongs and one hand. genius!

lunch was followed by a long boat cruise (ride) down the river and through the backwaters and canals to an orchid farm. very pleasent. a quick change back at the hotel and it was time to show dad the delights of kao san (see above and for most of you, your own experiences!) then tuk tuking (my preferred form of transport in the Kok) to the bayan tree hotel and up the speediest elevator in existence to the 59th floor, to vertigo, the rooftop bar with the best view in bangkok. spectacular, and very posh. the drinks were even served in slanted glasses. this is what the reviews have to say about it:

' A must-see in every Bangkok travel itinerary, Vertigo is unlike any other bar-cum-restaurant in the world: some 61 floors above the streets of Bangkok, this open-air rooftop lounge gives true meaning to the word 'vertigo' as it grants views that simply take your breath away. Stylish, sophisticated and reaching for the clouds, there is no better place for a glamorous cocktail party or fashion launch than this. Indulge in barbecued seafood, champagne and a wide selection of cocktails, wines-by-the-glass and non-alcoholic drinks. '

sweet!

then of course, what better way to finish off the night than headed to the seediness that is patpong by night, the Koks red light district. ping pong show anyone? we did not indulge but took in the bouncing ladyboys down a side street bar with a load of foreign tourists.

so the highs and lows, the ups and downs, from street food to fine dining and china town to the sky scrapers, we saw everything that is bangkok, the craziness that i love it for and will always draw me back.

down to the islands again then, the west side this time, which ive never been too. decided that would break dad gently into thailand by going to phuket, the largest of the thai islands and the most touristy. luckily our beach at kata (and our hotel) were very nice and we spent a few days doing nowt. mark and kate were there to join us and together we idled the time away playing frisbee, boogie boarding and sampling food, wine and buckets (with great thanks to mark who went on a bucket mission of a lifetime in order to acquire one of our own and make our own bucket fun... buckets dont seem to exist in phuket, can someone explain this to me please?!) . by night kata was a little quiet to say the least, being off season and all, so we went to patong, famed for its expat island answer to the kao san road and patpong combined and even has its own ladyboy only bar! not to mention the wealth of gogo bars to join, all the women play you at the cork,hammer, nail game to win drinks (very simply you all have a nail and take it in turns to hammer it in, first one wins... the thais never lose!, well hardly) and off season meant they were handing out the free drinks regardless, hic! me and mark did venture into one of the clubs where the girls all had numbers on (grim) and made up for the seediness by giving ourselves our own comedy numbers, which was fun until we tried to get into another bar and the doorman stopped me coz he thought i was an actual prostitute.. honestly!

the last thing that we did before heading back to bangkok was a boat trip to ko phiphi, which i had been dying to go to for ages. it was great. we went to a few remote islands before for a spot of snorkelling where the fish surrounded me so much just whilst i was standing on the beach. i think they thought i was a tasty meal coz they kept biting me and i had to get out. we passed by phiphi don (ko phiphi is 2 islands, inhabited and backpacker haunt of phiphi don and the national marine park of phiphi lai) and monkey bay, aptly named for its resident monkeys and went to phiphi lai, all by speed boat. ko phiphi is mainly famed for one thing, 'the beach', yes, that beach, the one that is the subject of alex garlands book and now hollywood blockbuster film 'the beach'. it lived up to its reputation and was stunning, as was the rest of the tropical paradise lagoon island with its conservation area for swallow nests, harvested only by locals for birds nest soup, its hanging limestone cliffs, rich coral reefs and white planes of sand. awesome!

and so concludes so the 3 week thailand extravaganza, one more night busting our grooves with buckets on the kao san road and it was time for us all to depart to our various continents and countries throughout the world. yet again thailand breezes in as a top destination for sun, sea, sand, a vibrant culture and acclaimed friendly nation.

thanks thailand, you did it again!



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22nd July 2009

brill!
hi hols, don't kno if you get these comments, but really enjoyed reading this... whats all that about buckets?! sounds beautiful, you let me imagine I was there :) x

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