Contrasts and comparisons

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At times I have been feeling my age, as the following may prove.
Our stay at the sanctuary was very nice indeed, the house we were staying in was, if you all can picture it, like the decking at Underhill with an ‘L’ shaped pitched roof structure placed along the outer straight edges, leaving a smaller quadrant of decking exposed in the centre. It felt very open and airy if a little challenging when we had the heavy wind and rain. We coped. For the first few days there seemed to be a small clique there who had colonised the place, this may have been down to the fact that the owner had been away for four weeks. As her arrival back became more imminent the vibe around the place changed markedly (for the better). Where before there had been a fair number of thirtyish-shouldaknownbetters puffing away and trying to prove they can still party like teenagers (it quite put me off sampling the local delights) the place became more inclusive, chilled and all the more enjoyable. Much like the place is intended to be I suppose. There were still quite a few youngsters there though, believing deeply that they are having some sort of authentic Thai experience. They have this amazing uniform of shapeless baggy trousers with the crotch round the knees and some strange tie-up fastening at the front. At the seaside I saw not one Thai national wearing anything like these, they wore mostly copies of fashionable western clothing. In fact after travelling 1000km through Thailand now I have seen 3 Thai people wearing these trousers and they were all working in the rice fields, doubtless trying to earn enough to buy a pair of counterfeit Miss Sixty’s.
Anyway on to the Burfitt’s intrepid trek away from the seaside.
Fortunately the sea had turned very calm on the day of our departure from The Sanctuary so it was a completely uneventful longtail boat ride round to the thatcherite hippy hell that is Haad Rin. As Barb said to me, “they find it so easy to find their inner child, why do they find it so hard to find the bin?”. Thinking we should save money where we can, when we were offered a cab to the ferry at Thong Sala now for 200baht or wait for a shared ride at 11.30 for 50 baht, as we had met a nice Italian woman to chat to we decided to wait. After all it’s only a 20 min. drive to the port and the ferry didn’t leave till midday. Mistake. Our travelling companions were arseholes, the taxi left at 11.40, stopped 3 times on the way to the port and with our anxiety levels rising eventually had to point out to the driver that we really did need to get to the port NOW.
Never mind, the ferry was half an hour late, completely unlike all the other ferries we’ve been on which have been, to the second, on time.
On to the express ferry to Surat Thani via Koh Samui. The Full Moon Party having taken place 2 nights before I was hoping that we would avoid the worst of the human debris that washes between Samui and Pha-Ngan for this regular party. We may have done, but there was still evidence of the fall-out from the event to be seen. Young kids with thousand-yard stares entirely unaware of anything that was going on. Then there were the ranks of those earnestly in search of the unspoilt destinations that they had read about in Lonely Planet. Every third one of them sat down in the air conditioned comfort of the ferry, dutifully opened their copy and began devouring the details of the ‘undiscovered’ island that only they knew about. Those who had actually discovered somewhere as yet unknown to the masses conspiratorially told their new found friends about it thus ensuring it won’t stay that way for long. Totally unaware of what good little consumers they’re being. The arrival at Surat Thani ferry port was the bunfight that could have been expected. There were buses waiting to take the backpacker hordes to meet other buses/trains/aeroplanes to take them to as many destinations in Thailand as you could think of, except of course to the ‘undiscovered’ ones. The confusion was fantastic, and for some travelling partners (this smug couple not included) the chaos led to, well, let’s just call it heated debate.
Then the coach connection to Surat Thani railway station. Not too much to report here, just the young white valley girl sharing the left channel of her iPod with her new found friend from Brisbane and enthusing about her latest discovery who was, and I quote, “as ghetto as they come”. How would she know? It was only a 30 min or so journey, so it was amusing rather than tedious. Well they do say it’s wasted on the young.
At last Surat Thani rail station,and as I was becoming increasingly aware that I, and it seemed Barb, had been slowly developing ear infections over the last 2 weeks tried to locate a pharmacy. I was told there was one just over the road, but was disappointed to find it was just a shop that sold tons of shampoo but its’ stock of drugs ran to just paracetamol. Ran around for a few more minutes to get some supplies to take on the train and managed to take just long enough to ensure what seems to have become the norm for our travelling, the last minute panic to make the connection. So get on the the train and setlle in to our middle aged, middle class first class sleeper cabin. A bit on the small side, but air conditioned with a wash basin. 15 minutes out of the station a very cheery Thai woman comes round with the dinner and breakfast menu, joy of joys, we didn’t even know it was included and it had a vegetarian option. The dinner was most acceptable, the whole deal, 13 hrs travel and a room for the night cost us 1100baht each, great value. To top it off a shower in the toilet. Within 30 minutes while going out for a ciggie I had met Steve and Jay, a pair of scousers in Liverpool shirts whose first question to me was ‘who do you support then’. Being able to honestly reply ‘Brentford’ gained me untold respect from them and enabled the first footie conversation I’ve had in this country. It turned out that like the other young people I had met they too were in search of an authentic Thai experience, but the Samui women had proved too tiring for them so they were back to Bangkok where they felt they could handle the pace better. Swapped email addresses and I’m sure we’ll keep in touch.
With an hour to wait at Bangkok station I located a pharmacy and got the much needed amoxycillin, within seconds of taking the first capsule I started to feel better. Barb was directed to a different antibiotic so we’ll see who’s the better doctor, me or the pharmacist!
The Bangkok/Chiang Mai rail journey turned out to be the most authentic Thai experience we have had so far, very nearly all the other passengers were Thai and the rail staff spoke no english. But there were so many of the staff, all very smartly attired in crisp uniforms of different designs to denote rank. There was even one guy whose only job seemed to be to sweep up and mop the carriages after refreshments had been served. Great service and just the presence of so many staff made the journey seem safe and secure. A refreshing change from First Great Western or whatever they’re calling themselves this week.
So now we’re in Chiang Mai and strangely enough I’m really enjoying it, there’s a lot of stuff here that is set up for the tourists but it’s also a proper working city and it was really good today to first go to the day (locals) market and then the night(tourists) market. Much of the same stuff at both, just a 400% mark-up at the night one. Only one gripe, I’d just got used to squat toilets and where we’re staying now has western ones, oh shit.
It was nice to get to our room in time to watch the second half of Liverpool v. Man U., all the better ‘cos of the result, made me smile for Steve and Jay.
Despite how all the above may read I’m having the time of my life, probably because I’ve found some great stuff to have a good old bitch about. More soon my lovelies.

Had fab last day at sanctuary, met new faces at dinner, wish Alistair had been there ‘cos Tatiana (swiss banker by day) did fab dance joined by her partners and the whole place erupted. The waiters couldn’t move the tables quick enough - my sort of place, move the tables ‘cos they are too low to dance on! Unlike greece where I had to climb onto the bar to dance!Wandered down the beach with lotte who demanded a spliff then just danced till I could have wrung my trousers out - it’s so hot still at midnight! but all within a step of the beach. - jb was in bed a long time ago - guess just looking at young people wears him out! Breakfast was so funny, the waiter had at last almost got a good impersonation of my giggle and the local long boat guy said goodbye with ok darling! Friends came down for hugs and kisses on the beach to see us off on calm seas! The start of a long journey, second ferry was hard - I know I don’t like boats but that’s only ‘cos they are on the sea, I never actually feel ill on them, but after about 21/2hr felt really nauseous and felt better on deck where it was so hot - but thought I’d rather burn than feel sickly. Was about another 11/2hr to go so not easy, then a coach to get to station for 13hr train journey. It was supposed to be 12 but somehow extra stops had to be made. Got to Bangkok station for 1hr break for next 12hr train journey and thought I should tell the very helpful pharmacist that it sounded like there was a frog in my ear with boots on squelching round. He pointed out frogs don’t wear boots and, yes luv, you have an ear infection! Brilliant, at least I know why I felt so crap on the boat, sort of knew that I should have gone to doctors before I left, but at least you can get antibiotics over the counter, jb got some as well so we are racing to see who’s are best, even the train journey through the mountians coming into Chaing Mai was painful on the ears. Still its soooo fab here much shopping to be done must look into freight costs.Fitted in cocktails -Mai Tai ‘s, found the restaurant that we wanted indian/thai and just fab food, only thing is I broke my rocket dog high wedge flip flops hmmm looks like may have to hit the day market all over again! keep forgetting to mention how lovely thai people are, they really respond to a smile - they smile so much themselves, very rare to smile at someone and not get a smile back, so lovely!

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Photos

Bunfight at the ferry terminal
Preparating for heated debate

Troops salute the King
At 8am every day

Toilet sign
Is this girls/boys/ladyboys?

Our breakfast view
from the garden restaurant here in Chiang Mai

Inside the day market
and there's lots of it

Inside the day market
In fact three floors in this building alone

Thai mannequin
And this is one of the more restrained!

Babs
Surrounded by pink in the day market