Thailand Part 1

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Hello Friends and Family,

It has been quite awhile since my last entry. I have so much to say that I think I may have to do two entries. The task at hand is a little daunting but I know it must be done! On Jan 17th we left Korea and headed to Bangkok. We flew with Thai Airways and happened to run into about three other English teachers that we knew. One lives in our town and the other two were friends of friends. Thailand is a very popular spot with the English teachers, and quite understandably.

We arrived in Bangkok at about 5:00, and as we were walking out, we were approached by a man who asked what we were looking for. We told him that we were just looking for a place to stay close to the airport because we had a flight the next morning. He showed us an option and the price was about 30$ per person (27 thai baht to one Cad $). I thought maybe we should ask around but we were both tired and Jonathan was quite happy to take it. I have a thing about being ripped off so I wasn’t so happy but willing to take it considering our state. It was quite close to the airport but that’s about the nicest thing I can say about it. When we arrived two porters showed us to our room and both Jonathan and I carried our backpacks up. The hallway was open and there was a lovely view of a freeway. Then the porters opened our door, showed us the room, and then closed the door and the four of us stood there awkwardly until Jonathan realized they wanted a tip. I was confused because we carried the bags. Is it customary to tip for opening a door? Perhaps I missed that memo. Jonathan asked if they took Korean Won but it was clear they did not. So we said we would give them a tip the next day. Thankfully we never saw them again. The T.V had only one fuzzy channel but thankfully it was Discovery. So that is how we spent our first night in Thailand; maybe not off to the best start.

The next day we were back to the airport and once again approached. Clearly we are targets. This time I was rested and ready. They asked us where we were heading and we told them we were going to Koh Phangnan. They suggested we book a taxi/boat to the island for 1040 thai baht each (mind you our budget for the day is 1000 thai baht). I quickly passed and convinced Jonathan that we should wait. Thankfully we did because upon arrival in Surat Thani we found a much different price of 500 thai baht per person. So we got on the hour and half bus that took us to the ferry terminal. We were told the ferry left at 4:00. We arrived about 5 mins before 3:00 and went to get some food when we realized everyone on our bus had just caught a ferry that left at 3:00, so we had to kick around for an hour. We caught the 4:00 ferry and arrived on Koh Phangnan at 6:30. Koh Phangnan is very famous for these full moon parties; every full moon there is a crazy rave on the beach. But not only is there a full moon party, there is also a half moon party and black moon party. I am thinking about starting up a crescent moon party. It’s about time we started capitalizing on the moon. Anyways we happened to arrive on a half moon party night. They have these hilarious taxis that are basically two benches on the back of a truck. The drivers pile in as many people as possible. We were heading to a great beach for snorkeling recommended by Sally, Jonathan’s Aunt. Meanwhile, all these other kids are piled in the back of one truck, and one guy asks us where we are going. The next day we figured out why he was confused… we told him we were going to a beach (Mae Haad) in the opposite direction of the party. We were all right with missing it considering it was only a half moon party and the location is in some jungle. It sounded a little sketchy.

The next morning we went to go look for a good place to stay. On the way we saw signs for a waterfall and so we decided to go check it out. Then we saw other signs saying forbidden and no trespassing. We were a little perplexed. You had to pass by some bungalows to get there so we figured the signs were meant for the bungalows. In any case we took the risk. The waterfall was quite nice. It was a little reminiscent of the one we saw in Costa Rica, just much longer and higher up. I guess I just figured that all waterfalls in the jungle are supposed to be really big and you should be able to swim in them. I have now seen three and my preconceptions have been corrected. I know the bigger ones exist it is just a matter of being more proactive to seek them out and going closer to the rainy season. Afterwards we found a really nice bungalow on the beach for 20 bucks a nigh - a steal of a deal. In the afternoon we found a nice semi-private beach and chilled out. That evening we decided to indulge in a nice massage. The massages are probably one of my favourite parts about Thailand. The two I had were the best massages I have ever had, and the price is unreal. We had our massages on the beach as the sun set. I think it was the closest I’ll ever get to heaven.

The following day we moved into our bungalow on the beach and found many of the other guests there were injured (in all about 5). We found out later that all of them were in biking accidents. The road conditions were less than par, and to say this is being very kind. They were horrible. The worst I have ever seen. Some sections were new and quite nice, and other sections looked like many pieces of a large asteroid had hit it. So in good fashion we decided to rent a motorbike the next day in order to see the island. We got a nice lecture about not driving fast from the owner. It wasn’t necessary because I was the little nag on the back of the bike making sure we never went over 40 km. It was scary in a truck so we didn’t want to take any risks on a bike. We saw an elephant on the side of the road so we stopped our bikes to take a look. It was an elephant trekking company and we decided to give it a go. Our elephant, Tonkune, seemed pretty tired and I quickly started to feel bad for the big guy. He took us half way up a mountain to get a very nice view. Next we headed into town for lunch and so Jonathan could pick up a good snorkel. We had purchased super crappy snorkels the day before that were just a tease. Then we headed to Pheng national park to view another waterfall. Another waterfall that I imagine is much more beautiful in the rainy season. There was a not so popular hike up the mountain that we took for a great view of the island. It was hard at times to even know if we were on the path. We got the feeling that the vacationers on the islands weren’t really about hiking.

On the proceeding day we went back to the semi-private beach only to find out that the semi-private beach was a fully nude one. We had read earlier about Thai people really looking down on the whole naked bathing idea. I am glad there was this hideaway for the nudists. I decided to go snorkeling off this beach. I was about 50 feet from land when I saw a huge jellyfish about two meters away at the same level as me. It started to billow out, and I believe it was trying to tell me that I was too close and, I am not going to lie, I got pretty scared. That incident cured me of my snorkeling curiosity on Mae Haad beach. In conclusion, I am a wimp.

Mae Haad is a pretty cool beach because it has a sand bar at low tide that connects a smaller island known as Koh Ma to Koh Phangnan. That night we walked across to check out the restaurant there. Once we were there we found out that they didn’t have food so we ordered a couple drinks. Our waitress was a nice Norwegian girl and after about twenty minutes we had met all the staff. They were pretty cool. We found out the Norwegian was a girlfriend of one of the locals and they had only been dating for a couple of days. Jonathan and I thought that maybe she was trying to extend her vacation, not a bad plan.

We stayed on Mae Haad beach for just over a week soaking up the sun and enjoying the awesome sunsets. I now have more sunset pictures than one person should ever need. We took the bikes out again and discovered more of the island. We took a coastal road and found the one lake on the Island. One morning we woke to what sounded like rapid gunfire only to find out it was firecrackers for Chinese new years. I never thought about lighting firecrackers in the day let alone at 8 am in the morning. I am not sure how on board I am with this idea. We also checked out a restaurant on a mountain overlooking our beach rightfully called Utopia. There was a wicked view. So wicked that I made Jonathan walk back up with me on the morning we were leaving Mae Haad to get pictures. We took the bike up there the first time and it was a typically bad road. What is better than a really bad road? Answer: A really bad road that ascends at a particularly steep angle. It was a little frightening.

On Jan 26th we decided to switch up beaches and head for Haad Rin on the other side of the island, home of the “original full moon parties.” We quickly realized upon arrival at the hotel that we had entered a playpen. We were automatically not trusted. We had to put down a 300 baht deposit on our key, which seemed quite high considering our room was only 500 baht. We also had to forfeit a passport. One inspection of our room absolutely confirmed that we had entered the idiot drunken zone of the island. There were 4 separate signs warning against stupidity of all kinds. One was talking about being locked out of your room and saying not to break in because there were bars across your windows, and another sign forbade you to take the hotel towel to the pool….ahh ok.

Haad Rin beach was stunning and super busy. The town around it was super cool. It had a real nice hippy vibe. We headed back there at night and ate at a place called Same Same. Same Same claimed to have the best burgers in Asia. Jonathan confirmed this. Then we walked around looking for a good place to get a drink. Many places had large screen T.V’s and offered a line up of movies and T.V programs. We picked a place that was playing Snatch. I really liked this idea. After sitting down for a bit we looked over and saw these people from our resort back at Mae Haad. We had only talked to one of their party members who had stayed next to us. We had seen them at another restaurant that we had gone to on Mae Haad, so at this point I decided that it was fate to meet them. After watching Snatch and half of Jackass 2 we joined our two parties and set out to the beach. On the beach they sell pales of alcohol. This is mixture of 6 shots of any kind of alcohol, a pop of some kind and a red bull. They have these wicked fire shows. We saw a ten year old kid do some pretty crazy fire tricks. I don’t have the best pictures of him because I didn’t use the flash; I didn’t think it was a good idea to blind the kid while he was playing with fire. One bar had a skipping rope of fire where anyone could jump in as they please. It was pretty easy to imagine how crazy the full moon parties must be. Something about mixing a fire skipping rope and really drunk people seems a little dangerous. All in all Koh Phangnan was a wicked Island with the best beach life I have seen yet in my life. To be continued………

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