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Published: January 30th 2006
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After spending some time in southern Thailand, we went back to Bangkok. We arrived after a 12 hour bus ride from Krabi. The roads are good here and the government buses are quite comfortable, but it was still a long trip.
We actually started our journey north from Railay, a town with a gorgeous setting on Krabi peninsula. The town is surrounded by beautiful limestone cliffs, which makes it one of the world's foremost climbing destinations. Climbers from all over the world come to Railay to strut their stuff.
I (Amy) tried rock climbing for the first time. I am already addicted and talking about doing it again. Supposedly, climbing a real wall is hard than in a gym, because you can't see all the hand and foot holds, so I think I did pretty well by making 3 of 5 ascents. I completed ascents of 5 meters, 12 meters and 15 meters. I couldn't finish an 18 meter climb because the last 2 meters were too slippery, and I couldn't get up the last meter of an 8 meter climb that was too technical for a beginner. My knees got pretty banged up, but it was such a
Erawan shrine, Bangkok
One of many Bangkok paradoxes, this shrine is located on the grounds of a luxury hotel on one of Bangkok's busiest shopping streets. great day and I can't wait to do it again.
Although Railay is attached to the peninsula, the only way to get there is by boat, because the place is surrounded by cliffs. We took the ferry from Ko Lanta, but the final approach had to be done by longtail boat, because there is no ferry pier in Railay. To get off a long tail boat at Railay, you have to jump out in knee high water and wade up on the beach. To take a boat from Railay to Krabi town, you have to walk out on the mud and then wade through knee-high water to board the rickety boat offshore. Doing this with a backpack is challenging enough without slipping in the mud, especially since you have to carry your own luggage. This is why it is important not to carry a backpack that is too heavy.
We spent an afternoon wandering around Krabi and hanging out at an Italian restaurant, gorging ourselves on pizza and watching the Australian Open. The matches are shown live because there is only a couple hours time difference between Melbourne and Thailand. I was tasked with buying bus tickets while
Stevan guarded the luggage, so I took local transportation (a pickup truck taxi) to the bus station. Then I got a motorcycle taxi ride after buying tickets at the bus station, which was a fun experience (the motorcycle, not the bus station).
Bus stations always have an interesting cast of characters, and this was no exception. Though not as weird as the Savannah bus station, the Krabi bus station included a ladyboy, 2 leather-baked German guys not wearing shirts, an entire family of Danish backpackers wearing identical packs with Danish flags sewn on them, a Thai Bob Marley lookalike, a mangy flea ridden dog asleep in the doorway, and the usual assortment of food vendors and taxi drivers. Oh. and lest I forget, there was also a Thai guy sporting a major mullet. You know what they say: all business in front, all rock and roll in the back.
In Bangkok, we did errands that are too boring to describe, but if you are really interested, they include laundry, banking, grocery shopping, buying a replacement camera battery, etc. (the same things we do at home during evenings and weekends, only you don't get to see Buddhist monks playing
with laptops and stereos). We also went to a movie. We saw Underworld 2 (in English with Thai subtitles). I liked the first one better, but it wasn't that bad.
The theatre was very similar to what we have in the US (same previews, commercials, etc.), except they always play the Thai royal national anthem before any film starts. The anthem also includes a photo montage of the king from childhood to adulthood, with him meeting heads of state and groups of monks and doing other kingly things. People here absolutely love the king. You see shrines to him in people's homes, hotels, shops, and at many street intersections. Even the rowdy groups of teenagers shut up and stood reverently for the national anthem.
I also went to the Pasteur Institute, where they have raised snakes and milked them for anti-venom since the 1920s. Stevan thought I was weird and bowed out of this, but it was fascinating, since I have always liked snakes and other reptiles. The cobras and reticulated pythons were especially cool. I don't know so much about Asian vipers, so it was neat to learn more about the different species. The king cobras were
very active and looked like they were mating, which was really interesting, because every time I see them at the zoo, they are always sleeping. I got to see them milk a Siamese cobra (such an incredible amount of venom!), which then almost bit his handler before he managed to get the sneaky guy back into a plastic bin.
We leave for Cambodia on February 1. Air Asia has such cheap airfares that we decided to fly to Phnom Penh instead of bussing over some of the worst roads in Asia. We are visiting the temples in Ayuthaya before we take off, so that we can escape the heavy pollution and the insanity of Chinese New Year in Bangkok. The shoppers are out in full force for the New Year's sales and Chinatown is decked out in red. Happy Year of the Dog to all!
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