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Published: November 23rd 2006
The Three Monkies!
Can you guess this was quite late in the evening?!Hello from a very hot and sticky Bangkok. I hope autumn back home isn't too cold and damp!
Before I rattle on about Thailand just a quick note to say I had a great last night in Vientiane, the capital of Laos with a top bloke called Matt. We had a great laugh in a tex-mex restaurant with a truly dire band playing very bad cover versions (Hotel California was particularly painful) and I got some great tips on where to go in New Zealand. Cheers mate!!!
As I mentioned last time, Terry (old mate from school) and Jill (mate we met in Corfu a few years ago) came over to escape the weather in Blighty and join me for a few weeks in the sun in Thailand. I've just waved goodbye to them after 12 days of fun and frolics - it was great to see the pair of them again.
I was entrusted with the job of tour operator while they were here - so arranged some sight-seeing in and around Bangkok, including some temples for them to see, a trip to a floating market, a visit to the bridge over the river Kwai, and a
trip to the Tiger Temple. We then arranged an overnight train journey to Chumporn, from there a ferry to Koh Tao, then a ferry to Koh Samui, then a plane back to Bangkok. As each place was visited, it was deemed to be another box ticked, and that quickly became the catch-phrase of the holiday!
I arrived in Bangkok airport after my flight from Vientiane two hours before Terry and Jill arrived from London. Laos Air has a bit of a reputation as a slightly dodgy airline with a questionable safety record, but in all my time of flying it was the first time ever I wasn't given a "what to do in case of an emergency" drill by the air stewardesses before take off. They obviously felt very confident nothing could go wrong!
We went on an organised coach trip on Terry and Jill's first full day and the first port of call was the floating market in Damnoen Saduak. I had a very pleasant image in my mind, with long boats laden with fruit and vegetables in narrow canals, but in reality it's just a tourist show. There were loads of tourists there, and they far
Snorkel time!
The last time me and Terry snorkled together was 1990 in Egypt - I was quite emotional! outnumbered the traders selling their wares. Lots of tourist trinkets were shoved in your face as our long boat meandered through the congested main waterway, along with overpriced bananas and coconut drinks.It was interesting to see, but the whole experience was slightly claustrophobic. Oddly all the tourist long boats were rowed by women - obviously not a man's job!
We all went off to do a bit of shopping afterwards, and Jill came back with a tasteful "Floating Market" plate (complete with plastic stand), with a photo of me and her on the boat as it went past a some bloke taking pictures! Very funny and very tacky! Terry wisely didn't want to buy his plate as he wasn't looking at the camera and was looking slightly bored by the whole experience anyway!
Afterwards we got taken to the nearby "Cobra Show" - basically a few mad blokes doing very dangerous things with poisonous snakes. The funniest thing though was the guy doing the commentary while all the acts were being performed in a highly camp chinglish whisper.
"This King Cobra...vely dangerous....vely dangerous indeed....oooh yes...vely poisonous....you not worry though...hospital close.....vemon can be sucked out there....if ambulance arrive
in time....."
I just got the giggles. Jill moved two rows further back when a couple of blokes came into the audience with a bloody big cobra to show how to extract the venom from their fangs. It was all a bit of a freak show, with a mongoose and a cobra put in a perspex box to see what would happen (the mongoose won if you were interested) and some bloke picking up snakes with his teeth.
As we left the commentator tried one last time to scare the punters.
"You check your bags....snake may have crept in.....yes....may get into your bed tonight....vely deadly...vely vely poisonous.... ooh yes....beware the bite of the cobla..."
We all left in hysterics!!
Next up on our tour was the Bridge over the River Kwai - and was well worth the visit, with an interesting war museum (that rather strangely had a Miss Thailand exhibition on the floor above one showing Japenese rifles and uniforms from World War II!). Terry and I had to assist Jill when crossing the bridge itself - there are a lot of gaps to fall through - not good if you are scared of
heights!
The story of the Bridge over the River Kwai is of course a famous one of endurance, heroism and suffering. It's also known as the death railway bridge, and each of the 100,000 sleepers that make up the track is meant to represent a POW that died building it for the Japanese during the Second World War. Engineers originally estimated it would take 5 years to constract the railway to Burma, but human labourers were forced to complete the task in 16 months, with a heavy loss of life. Allied planes destroyed the bridge in 1945 but it has since been rebuilt.
The Wat Pa Luangta Bua Monastry was our last stop - also known as Tiger Temple. Basically, some buddhist monks took in a tiger cub who had lost it's mother some years ago, and since then they have taken on more and more tigers. They are all tame apparently, but was asked to cover my orange t-shirt before entering the tiger enclosure for a photo.
"Tigers don't like orange" I was told, "It can make them aggressive".
I wasn't going to argue, especially as 5 minutes later I was stroking a bloody big
Our last photo on Kho San Road!
Boo hoo! I'm getting emotional!!! tiger the same way you would a moggy in London! I drew the line at rubbing it's tummy though - I didn't want to lose an arm!!
One of the "boxes" we felt we had to tick in Bangkok was a visit to the Patpong red light district to see a "show". I must say it was a strange experience! We asked the taxi driver to take us there, and he gave us a wink saying, "ahh...yes...i know a red hot show...good price....". As we didn't know any better we let him lead the way. He parked outside a fairly non-descript building, but the minute we were out of the car, a man came out and usherred us in. "Second floor" he said, so up we went to the ticket counter, where we had to hand in our cameras and mobile phones, "No photos of ladeez" we were told! We were then led into a dark amphitheatre full of very normal looking tourists transfixed by what was happening on the stage. I know a mixed crowd of people read this blog, so I won't go into too much detail, but some things were just too funny. Poor Jill had
to hold up a balloon while the lady on stage shot it with a dart, and then I had a banana fired at me at great velocity from the stage! All highly amusing, but after 30 minutes of this freak show, the same stuff starts repeating itself and you know it's time to go - a bit like watching BBC World on a hotel TV!!
The following day we got the overnight train to the coastal town of Chumporn. It was like India revisited for me as the three of us climbed into our bunk beds as the train pulled out of Bangkok! Slightly better service in Thailand though as some bloke comes round and makes the bed for you! And someone comes down the carriage selling bottles of beer out of an ice bucket!
We got an early morning boat to Koh Tao (ie 7am) which took around 2 and a half hours. Bit of a bumpy journey but we got there in one piece. We stayed in some lovely beach huts literally seconds from the sea. Koh Tao is relatively unspoilt, with loads of lovely beaches. The main reason people come here is to learn how
to dive - something I'm desperate to do - unfortunately Terry and Jill were not covered to learn on their insurance, so I will have to come back again on my own after my trip to Cambodia.
We did try our hand at snorkelling though, and we had a great laugh when we got a water taxi to a deserted place called Mango Beach and spent the day gazing down at loads of fish!
There were some lovely beach bars too on Koh Tao. It was nice just to chill out with old friends over a few beers, sitting on comfy cushions by candlelight, listening to the waves lapping nearby. Pretty much perfect truth be told!
We took a catarmaran to Koh Samui after a few days on Koh Tao. It was a very bumpy, choppy ride. I managed to keep my breakfast down by concentrating on the film being shown on the plasma screens over our heads - luckily I hadn't seen X-Men 3 before!!
Koh Samui is much more built up than Koh Tao - it's a much bigger island too - and there were bucket loads of package holiday people here to escape
the European cold. Lots of famliar names on the main street near where we stayed in Hat Chaweng - Burger King, McDonalds, Boots, Starbucks, KFC, Pizza Hut - it felt slightly strange seeing these places on a desert island!! The nightlife was livilier here too, and we had a couple of fun nights out in some nice restaurants and bars.
We did another one day coach tour on Koh Samui to see the sights, and had real fun. One of the first places our driver took us to was a "monkey show". We were parked beside a few coconut trees and some bloke came up to us with a monkey on a lead. The monkey then ran up the tree, pulled down 3 coconuts in quick succession, and then ran down again. And that was it - show over! Oh well - less can sometimes be more! We went to a lovely waterfall afterwardsd, with a great "plunge-pool" where you can jump off the nearby rocks into 3 metres of water! Great fun.
After ticking the tiger and snake boxes in Bangkok, we went to a crocodile show in the afternoon to tick another "dangerous animal" box. It
was another bizarre experience, with a dozen motionless crocs laying on an island surrounded by water. This bloke then rocked up, with Europes' "The Final Countdown" playing on a continuous garbled loop in the background, and spent the next half hour trying to get all these crocs in the water, either by tapping them with a big stick or by pulling their tails! All very strange. Once they were all in, he got a few of them back on the island again for some "death-defying" stunts including sticking his head in a croc's mouth and sticking his arm down a croc's throat to pull out a 100 baht note. There was a faint ripple of applause at the end, but I think everyone was slightly flummoxed by the whole spectacle!
The Big Buddha on Koh Samui was worth a visit at the end of the day - especially as the sun was beginning to set. Some nice views from the top!
Jill took the plunge and bought a fake designer watch in Koh Samui for about a tenner. Unfortunately me and Terry had never heard of a "Rado" before so she might as well have bought a Timex
Me in Tex-Mex Alexia, Vietiane, Laos
I try to smile while another song gets murdered! for all we knew! The funny thing was after a couple of hours it was already on the blink. We met to go out for dinner at 7.00 and Jill's new watch was saying 6.30!! After that there were loads of comments flying around. "I'll see you boys for breakfast at 9" Jill would say. "Is that real time or Rado time, Jill? We could do with a lay in!"
Thailand is certainly the place to buy fake watches and sunglasses. I've already succumb to buying a pair of 70s Rayban Aviators - they look really cool until I get hot and sweaty then they start slipping down my nose!
The one thing all three of us have enjoyed over the last 12 days has been a nice relaxing Thai massage. There are loads of different varieties - foot massages, oil massages, head massges - they were especially nice on Koh Samui when you could have one on the beach staring out at the sea. I'm a bit worried about Terry when he gets back to London though - he'll need to find a place to go for a proper Thai massage or he'll get withdrawal syptoms! He
needed a massage every other day while he was out here otherwise he started getting the DTs!!!!
The last day was spent on some serious retail therapy for Terry and Jill - a trip down Koh San Road followed by a visit to the gigantic MBK shopping centre. Eight floors of shops - Jill enjoyed the experience more than the boys I think!!!
Our last night in Bangkok together was truly memorable - a meal in the luxurious Vertigo restaurant on the 66th floor of The Banyan Tree hotel in downtown Bangkok. We actually ate on the roof in the open air - astounding views, amazing food, and a very nice jazz quartet playing in the background (for all you foodies out there I had warm goats cheese and smoked duck salad with roasted walnuts following by a pork loin stuffed with ox tongue, with caramelised apple with calvados and home made ice cream for pudding - yummy!!). We raised our glasses to a fantastic 12 days - it was a special way to end the holiday.
And that is what it had felt like to me, the last 12 days - a holiday! Not saying that
my time so far in India, Nepal, Thailand and Laos hasn't been brilliant - I've loved every minute of it - but eating and drinking lots, doing a few touristy things, and lazing on beaches, I'm feeling fully refreshed and ready the backpacker lifestyle again!
It was brilliant to have Terry and Jill over though and I really appreciated them coming out to see me. Hope they enjoyed themselves as much as I did!
Next for me is a 12 hour mini-bus trip tomorrow morning to Siem Reap in Cambodia to see the temples of Angkor Wat (can't wait), then a few days in Phnom Penh before flying back to Bangkok. I'm then whizzing back down to Koh Tao to do my open water PADI course. Have a lot to squeeze in ahead of my flight to Perth on 7th December!!
Ciao for now.
Sean
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kim
non-member comment
jamming gits!
hi Sean, so glad you, terry and jill had such a wonderful time. I did Loas and Camodia last year, ended up having dinner with the chief of police and his wife when in Vientienne...long story. Thailand is fab isnt it! All the places you have been so far bring back such wonderful memories for me and i am still very very green here, sitting in my office, bored and depressed! oh well such is life. the Pics look gorgeous and it must have been so lovely to have familiar faces around you too. i very much lookward to your next blog mon sweet! Keep safe as always . much love. Kim (your absent friend from Corfu :-( ) x