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Published: November 23rd 2006
view from Golden Mount - Bangkok
on my discoveries of Bangkok after Mickey leftWell, back in London and I'd like to make an analysis of my journey, but first let me tell you about my last days in Thailand.
My boyfriend Michael left on the 11th of November back to London, as he had to start work again, as for me, I had decided to stay another 11 days in Thailand by myself.
After Michael left, I was rather lonely and sad for a couple of days, went visiting areas of Bangkok that I did not know yet, relaxed a little and got on with beint there.
changed hotel, and moved to a rather horrible guest house where the service was really bad, no way one could raise a smile from the girls working there!!! "My House "guest house on Rambuttri road, not reccomended, as it is dirty, unpleasant and not less expensive than others that offer single rooms!
I started a Thai massage course at Wat Po, known to be the most reliable place to take such a course; It was a fun and intense course, if in some ways a bit unfair, not to me but to other pupils, but I will tell you about that latter...
children playing int the canals of Bangkok
how they dont catch typhoid one wonders!!! We started the course with "Aey" our teacher, showing us all the moves of the course in the first 2 hours, this seemed a lot to take in, but it was going to be split in 5 sections that we would learn over 3 days, then have 2 days to memorise them and take the exam...6 hours a day, of intense massaging madness, surrounded by a bunch of indonesiand/dutch couple, many japanese, some USA, a german girl, a couple of OZ women and some Thai, but they were kind of kept separate from us...???
During the first hour I asked the teacher about some move, and as I asked, I forwarded my hands to her neck to find out if that was the right move?, as I did this I felt an hand doing the same thing to my neck, which left me rather surprised as I still had not made contact with any other fellow students, when I turned to see who this was, I saw the most gorgeous man I have seen for a long time, so as You can imagine, I let him get on with touching my neck...hahaha!
This turned out to be Conrad
a US/canadian that is a model for a living and who is traveling with fellow pupil Tim, a US/Laotian guy who is gay and they are good friends, they are traveling with Tim's brother as well!
I also made acquantance with Anita and Dea, she's a nice dutch lady and her gorgeous Indonesian boyfriend, very nice couple, fun openminded and very, very cool! as the rest of the class was.
I ended up having Conrad as my massage partner during the whole course, he was always late, so one day I got put with a muscled Indian guy, who claims to be the strongest heavy weight lifter of India! and so, as Conrad comes in and sees this, he kicks a fuss to the teachers and tells me...only one day and you're already cheating on me??!!! so this broke the ice about him knowing about my homosexuality, and it did so for the whole class, which was fine with me!
We all had fun, and laughed a lot, Conrad and I were having a hard time as we both like hard massages, which is what Thai massage is meant to be (it gets softenned down for tourists!)
and so we ended up sweating our heads off, but here comes what was unfair of the course and I really dont know why this happened.
All pupils shared 1 teacher to 6 pupils, but for some reason Conrad and I most of the time had 3 teachers to just us two...??? I don't know why and I think if I had been another student I would not have been happy with that, but no-one said anything and we just enjoyed the attention we were getting. He is a real attention seeker and needs to be the focus of everybody's attention, but he does that with a sense of fun, he is caring and nice, openminded and just a cool guy!
On the other hand, I felt a little jeaousy from Tim, but this seems rather logic, so I tried to break the ice there and we ended up having fun any way. Tim is a really sweet guy, but maybe a bit too controling!
We spent 5 days in each others' company, I went out one night with Tim and Conrad, introduced them to my new made friends from Vietnam (Kathy and Aziz) whom I mention
earlier in this blog. ending up in a sad gay bar off Rambuttri road where karaoke was being played and where Kathy and Conrad ended up taking the stage and all the attention!
Most of us passed the exam, I believe many of us will cherish the time spent together, and as for the teachers they told us that our group had been one of their most enjoyable and they were sad to see us go.
As for my health, I got an ingrown hair on my knee which was sore due to sitting on our knees all day to massage each other, I tried squeezing it out and the next day, it was infected, my leg has been getting thicker and thicker everyday, it is double the size of my left foot and leg!
Also due to strong massage on the exam by Conrad, I got totaly bruised (as I am on Warfarin to avoid blood clotting after lung clots last summer) on my left leg and a torn muscle, which is rather painful and swollen as well.
I am now in London getting intravenous antibiotics given, was supposed to be taken into hospital but
I refused, but ended up being taken in any way as the infection worsened as the once a day intravenous drug was not helping.
After the course I travelled to Koh Chan, a little island that is growing fast in fame, as it is more laid back than the other know islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Phuket!
Here I enjoyed 3 days of relaxation, unable to DIVE due to my intake of Warfarin, as I gor blood clots in the longs last year, I had to make do with a day of snorkeling, which was nice too. (I just hope I can stop taking Warfarin soon to be allowed to dive again, in Manado soon!!!)
I also took a morning on an elefant jungle tour, which due to my past experience with elefants in the circus, they allowed me to ride on the neck of the elefant rather than on the tourist seat at the back, the culmination of these 3 hours of fun was swimming in a river, with the elefants, standing on its head and diving into the river and on the comands of its mahoot, getting the elefant to grab my
foot and pull me under water, for fun! I loved it and made me really glad I traveld 5 hours to be on this island.
My beach hut was approximately 25 metres from the sea water, the food was very good, although more expensive than the main land, (there is no fresh fruit cultivation on this island as it is a natural reserve, so fruit has to be bought from the main land) the beaches are of light sand and no much waves in the water, visibility to dive approx. 25 meters and water temperature 29degrees celcius.
The whole island is part of a natural reserve and marine park, for which only a certain ammount of developpment can happen, as its forests still heaving with monekys and hornbill birds, are protected and so are its sea creatures and other marine wildlife!
in the evenings all one can hear, is the sound of the sea, mixed with the crickets as the sun goes down and the many birds singing from the forests, I also got to see a beautiful eagle dive into the sea to catch a large fish and fly back to the jungle...
My journey
has been a very varied one, as you may have been able to read in these blogs, Michael and I have enjoyed most of it, there are always moments that one regrets, but it all has been a great experience.
We've met a bunch of very nice people with whom I hope to keep in touch, and whom I here with want to greet and thank for their fun companionship along the way.
the people met in Halong Bay and on the Mekong Delta tour, you know who you are, and the fellow students of my corse in Bangkok.
So, what do I feel about Vietnam? well, it is rather difficult, because I have actually enjoyed the experience, but it is for the first time that on visiting a country, I have left it with the feeling: "Nope, I don't need to visit this country ever again!".
The attitude of the people in the north stinks, the attidute of the police does so too (By the way, I never did get a police statement sent home either, from the rubbery at the Thai Binh Hotel in Hue!), the food can be excellent, (whatch out for MSG)
but on tours it can be really bad.
As in most developping countries the attitude to rob the white man is strong but at least in other countries I have found they are straight forth about it whilst here it happened by deceiving constantly.
The landscapes we've seen are beautiful but what it also very striking is the lack of wild life any where, it really seems that all forms of wild life, terrestrial or marine have been eaten!
The system that calls itself communism to me is more similar now days with fascism, as communism is based on the equality of rights of the whole social spectrum whilst now that this country has an open market, all that remains of communism is that it is a policed state, in which some people are aloud to get rich and the others, well they do OK. As the one thing we've not seen in Vietnam is extreme poverty, that is the one thing that the communist system has been able to do, or hide from the tourist, any way!
The communities in the countryside don't have much confort, but we cannot say that we've seen many beggers,
people had food and work, and disabled people seemed at first sight, to be taken care of and accepted within society, as much concerning mental health as physical disability! we saw many wheel chair users along the way, working hard too.
It is a beautiful country, the people of the south are friendlier and more accepting of us, the capitalist tourists. The constant propaganda that we felt confronted with, was tidious and boring, many lies get told about the destruction of Hanoi by the US as for one example (as we were told by old vietnamese who fled and saw), Also the sound every morning and evening of loud speakers speaking propaganda talk, makes one thing what are they telling them against us capitalists...??? and although we know that the US did much wrong, the attitude of the Vietnamese system is still now, creating a bad feel towards westeners.
They like our dollars, but they definately don't like us!!!
- Hanoi was very deceiving and not much fun, a very claustrophobic feel to the place.
- Halong Bay is beautiful, but the fact of beeing transported like cattle did not warm it to our hearts.
- Ninh Bihn and surroundings were for us, the image of real Vietnam (if you visit don't hessitate to stay at the Xuan - Hoa Hotel, 31d Pho Minh Khai, good service and great tours into the mountains to see Sapa style tours but without the huge crowds found in Sapa).
- Hue, might one day be a beuatiful site to visit but for the moments just a bunch of destroyed buildings, some tumbs are nice, but culturally not the most amazing architecture, one feels it could be China instead of Vietnam.
- Hoi An a beautiful spot to visit and it has enchanted us with its gorgeous houses, good food and cool ambience.
- Nha Trang was nice as it gave us the beach relaxation factor and good sea food but for its party scene, well there isn't much of it!
-Saigon or Ho Chi Min City is a nice place, but again with not much night life or much else to it other than chaotic traffic, one can find everything one may want but when it comes to beheading monkeys for their raw brains for dinner, I just rather it weren't there!!!.
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The Mekong Delta is gorgeous and well worth visiting on a tour, ours was great! beautiful scenery, river trips, gorgeous fruits and strange foods!
As for Thailand, well, it is a great place, where ever you go, if you know how to handle it. I will always go back to it, it has the fun factor, adventure factor, party factor, culture factor, food factor, nice people factor...what more can one say!
So, This is it, another adventure over! already planing the next one. For Michael probably Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, for me probably Indonesia...but time will tell, Insh Allah! God Bless
ahh also as a result of the wound on my leg when I returned to London I was on intravenous antibiotics and injections on a daily basis for 2 months! the doctors for a while though I could die, and flying with such an infection is definately not wise! but I am still here now, healed and fighting for quality of life and travel!
Still doing well after 20 years living with HIV!
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