Ko Chang, Rayong, Ko Samet

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Greetings!
Hopefully everything is going well stateside! I hear the Badgers are doing well, but my Saturday mornings have been much different than waking up for football games.
The past two weekends, in between my classes, I have done expansive traveling in southeastern Thailand; from Bangkok, all the way to the Cambodian border. The landscape and seascape is absolutely gorgeous, fitting descriptions synonymous with a paradise.
Although the islands I traveled to geographically are not that far away, it took about a full day of travel, arranging cabs, busses, ferries, and island transportation. It's always an adventure because often there is uncertainty as to where you actually end up. The language barrier is quite difficult especially with cab drivers who know no English. But I say, better that way than having everything arranged and secure.
I eventually made it to the island of Ko Chang which is about six hours southeast of Bangkok. The entire island is a national park which has been well preserved, although development is imminent on certain areas of the island. Upon arrival my two friends from Rangsit and I found a bungalow on the desolate Lonely Beach, a bit off the main drag. It was named the Tree House Bungalow, a hippie haven, where reggae and lounge music would carry on until daylight. The bungalows were great, three dollars per night, for a mattress which better resembled a blanket, and a mosquito net. Along with the shared Thai-style (stand up) toilet and bucket shower, I was fortunate enough to get a hammock.
My friends and I spent two full days exploring the island by motorbike. We swam on many deserted beaches. Seeing as it is still low season for tourism in Thailand, other people were sparse outside of the main beach. The island is about 15 miles long of curvy mountain roads, some of which were virtually impassible due to recent landslides, and others which had rivers running through them. We allotted much time in the jungle, searching for waterfalls which we weren’t sure whether they existed, but the waterfalls we did find were remarkable.
We spent another entire day completing a jungle trek on the peak of a mountain on the southern part of the island. The group was great, consisting of Danish, Dutch, and Israeli. Our trekking guide showed us snakes, tarantulas, latex trees, rubber trees, and which mushrooms were safe to eat. We spent much of the day climbing up a river with many waterfalls, swimming and scaling slippery rock.
The relaxing nights were the perfect complement to our busy days. Neighboring our bungalow there was a nighttime beach fire show. The restaurant on our beach was an elevated pier where ocean waves would crash under. Mostly young travelers from all over the world would congregate and take it easy all night. The food was tremendous. I ate Indian food for the majority of our meals. Thai is wonderful, but after an entire month of only Thai, it’s good to eat different food from different ethnicities.
The island was beautiful. We had a great time exploring and being adventurous by day, followed by relaxing at night. The people were nice and the food was tasty, but the highlight was falling asleep in my private seaside bungalow with any conflicting noise being drowned out by ocean waves.


Following another intense session of classes, the International College sponsored a “Welcoming” Beach Trip for students from all over the world. Just about every student attended the weekend long party, crowding into six buses with about 300 students and 15 professors. We stayed at a beach resort in the city of Rayong. This coastal port is in the same direction as Ko Chang, but only about half the distance east. The resort was very nice, with a hot shower and sit down toilet, which was quite an improvement considering what I had been used to. I roomed with three hooligans from Oregon. After brief disco visits, we always ended up on the beach for the remainder of the night, burning palm and bamboo in campfires. Jellyfish were a great risk at night, so we opted not to swim in the ocean, but fortunately the resort had two swimming pools. The university did an impressive job, providing six meals and two days worth of activities for all of us students. During the days we swam and played beach soccer matches.
Seeing as I didn’t have classes until Wednesday, I chose to stay in the area while the others returned to Rangsit at the end of the weekend. Two friends and I wanted to go to an island near Rayong named Ko Samet. I asked the bell boy how to get to the Ban Phe pier to catch a ferry and he told me to hitchhike. We quickly learned that in Thailand you don’t stick your thumb out, but instead wave your hand up and down in front of your stomach in order to catch a ride. As soon as we realized this, the second car that passed picked us up and drove us to the pier. The woman spoke little English, but was very nice. We tried to pay her, but she refused to take our money.
Ko Samet is a nice island as well. It is a bit smaller and more developed than Ko Chang, but still had some very nice white sand beaches. Unfortunately, the coastal cities and islands closer to Bangkok attract some of the more undesirable populations of the big city. We did our best to avoid the large crowds of tourists, so we stayed at the backpacker’s guesthouse which was at the southern end of the main beach. The weather was very nice which made swimming in the sea very pleasant. The water is about 85 degrees.
The highlight of my Samet experience was the boat tour I went on my last day on the island. There were five others on the boat from Sweden and England, but nobody else wanted to go snorkeling so I went by myself. I wasn’t exactly sure where to go because our guides didn’t speak English, but they just pointed then and I swam. The coral was beautiful. I saw some pretty gnarly looking fish. This experience has certainly inspired me to try scuba diving when I make it to the southern islands later in the semester. Following the snorkeling, the boat went to the southern tip of the island but a storm was about to hit and the waves were too big so we had to turn back. The boat ride was really wild before the storm. The waves were about 10-15 feet and some pretty serious waves breached the boat, leaving everything and everybody soaked.
Following the storm we did some deep sea fishing. We only caught little fish about the size of a perch or bluegill, but the experience was enjoyable. When we took the fish off the hook they told us to throw them in a pan with simmering oil. They deep fried the fish while they were still alive. When the fish were cooked through, they offered them to us for dessert. I had a bite, but it was pretty disgusting. However, the Thais scarfed them down like it was a piece of chicken, periodically spitting out bones, but swallowing many. At the very end of the trip we went to a fish farm where we fed sharks, piranhas and giant sea turtles. There were some fish that really didn’t even look like fish, and they absolutely ravaged whatever we fed them. I can’t imagine what would happen if someone fell into one of the tanks.
I returned to Rangsit the following day after another full days travel to prepare two more days of class. The class structure remains to be quite relaxed with little homework. Our midterm exams are coming up in a few weeks. I’m quite apprehensive about how difficult they will be.
The language class has been the most helpful thus far. Grammatically the language is very simple. The vocabulary is quite easy as well, but the pronunciations are just about impossible. When native English speakers try to learn Thai quickly, they use made up pronunciation alphabet, because the Thai characters are different than the alphabet we use in English. The reason the pronunciation is so difficult is because every word has five different tones, each of which has a different meaning: A rising tone, a falling tone, a constant tone, a rising-falling tone, and a falling-rising tone. For example the word sabai can mean anything from cold, to grandmother, to dog droppings, to forest, to street depending on the character that is above the vowels. I believe this is why the Thais laugh at us so much when we try to speak. Even a minute pronunciation error could render a drastically different meaning. It's a struggle, but I have fun sharing the struggle with my friends. We often spend a majority of the class laughing at each other because it is so difficult to try to speak Thai.
My last thoughts of this entry will be about the Burmese political situation. Conflicts like these hit home a bit more when you have more of a direct line to what is actually going on. One of my friends that I met in my program just got out of a Burmese prison after four years, just because he had opposing views which conflicted with the political party in power. It's unfortunate what is going on, and it has drastically affected the lives of many Thais as well. Particularily the monastic populations which is really shameful. I recommend anyone reading this to take the time to get to know a monk if ever possible. (There is a monastery in Oregon, WI, not far outside of Madison, and it would be well worth the trip) They are some of the most enlightened, peaceful, and understanding people. Hopefully the situation will improve.
I'm not sure where I plan to go next, but I will update again following my next travels
Again feel free to leave any questions or comments!

Farewell.

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Comments

[steve]

wow
this place honestly sounds like a paradise. it makes my winter break plans of going to hawaii sound lame

[Aaron Morris]

Ko Samet
Hello Ben, I enjoy reading these because i can relate to some of the stuff you are doing. Ko Samet was amazing I wish i could have gone to Ko Chang however. I played a lot of sand soccer in Ko Samet, I always was amazed at how welcoming the people there are. It sounds like you are making the most out of your experiance and look forward to reading more. Take care and have a "Chang" for me.

[Jori]

Thanks for the great read
Thanks, again, Ben. These were such a treat to read. You really place the reader right there, as much as words on a screen can do.