Goa in Thailand

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16-Dec-06

Well well, almost seems like a distant dream since I had the accident on 10th November. Was planning to go to Gangtok. Instead landed up in Thailand. Had a difficult start yesterday since we had to take a 8:40 AM flight, which meant being in the airport by 6:40 AM. Add to that we had to drop off my mom-in-law at the domestic airport and as usual I was late. Which meant she missed her flight. Total chaos. I was really sorry about it coz i got her into trouble and she was herself having a very difficult time fighting fever while on a journey. Anyway, when the chaos settled, we finally made it to the aiport for our flight well on time. This was my wife's first international flight and I was kind of proud to get her an international holiday. Unfortunately it was an Air India flight with scary looking aunties acting as hostesses. You cant dare ask them for anything else you may incur their wrath. Watched Lage Raho Munnabhai on the way and had to bear some really sad breakfast. However did finally manage to get over with the flight (not that we had a choice). Landed at Bangkok and was surprised to find that it was very difficult to exchange Indian Rupees. Finally had to charge Bhat on the credit card to process the Visa fees on arrival. I had been to Bangkok before but the new airport was pretty astounding. We took a bus from the airport and head for Silom. Was able to withdraw cash from an ATM using the trusted ICICI bank ATM card. I swear with the number of good things I write about ICICI Bank, I can soon be their brand ambassador and be paid for it. Had a lot of trouble finding vegetarian stuff for Dimple. Finally ate at a Burger King joint. Thereafter we took a taxi and headed for Hua Lumphong, the railway station. Bought tickets for Koh Samui which consisted for train, bus and ferry. Had to while away about an hour and a half at the station. During the wait browsed the net at a ridiculous rate of 20 bhat for 5 mins. During the wait my leg started hurting and the acidity also attacked. Anyway finally boarded the cute meter guage train. Had to order dinner on the train and it was bad. Once you are out of India you realise how much roti & butter chicken means. Dimple and me ordered one dish and somehow filled our stomachs. Finally we slept and slept like a log.

The one thing I wondered throughout the day is, Bangkok being such a tourist place, people hardly know any english. It is very difficult to communicate with people. This includes people like taxi drivers and bus conductors.

Budget Travel Info:
Travel from Bangkok Airport - Get out of the terminal, come to the extreme right of the airport. Take an escalator down to the lower level. You can get nice AC buses to the city. The cost is B150 per head. If you have to travel to the south of the country, you can obviously take flights to koh samui, surat thani or phuket. Else you can also choose to travel budget on the trains. You can take a train straight up to Surat Thani. Better still, you can buy combines train, bus & ferry tickets from the railway station or a travel agent straight up to Samui, Phoenang, Ang Tauo, Krabi or Phuket. Alternatively you can also take direct buses from Bangkok. Note that there is no train to Phuket. You have to come to Surat Thani and then take a bus from there. Or take a direct bus to phuket.

17-Dec-06

Reached Surat Thani pretty early at about 6:30 AM. Since we had a combined ticket, we boarded a bus which took us to the Don Sak ferry pier. I guess about 45 mins of travel time. Had bananas at the pier costing B10 per banana. From there we boarded a ferry which was to take us to Samui. The ferry was pretty nice and had air conditioning. The projected travel time was 2.5 hours but I guess it took us about 4 hours because of bad weather and rough seas. There were huge waves on the sea and made Dimple really sea sick. Even I wasnt feeling so good. The trip was almost never ending. However once we got off the boat, an amazing sight welcomed us and I was already comforting myself saying the trip was definitely worth it. Came out of the pier and took a shared taxi to Lamai Beach where our hotel was. Met a polish guy on our trip who was on the lookout for a silent beach. He was coming there for the second time and was lloking to find accomodation for B300-400. Apparantly that is not a problem at all here. He also was narrating stories about German jail in Frankfurt. Apparently it has swimming pools, gym, place where you can get a drivers licence so that you can be employed as soon as you are out and sony playstations. I guess that one of the reasons why we dont have such great facilities in Indian jail. Else the crime rate would increase further.

The driver dropped us off at a wrong place so we had to walk quite a bit to get to our hotel. Reached the hotel only at about 2 PM. The name of our Hotel was Orchid Suites. We were disappointed to find that there was no lunch arrangement in the hotel and we had to go out. However the view from the hotel was amazing. We were put up in cottages with a sea view. It was great. This hotel is definitely worth a recommendation. We had booked the hotel through Agoda.com and costed us $56 for two nights including breakfast. We freshened up and left the hotel for lunch. We ate at a small place. I had burgers and Dimple had salads. We always knew that food would be a problem for her but didnt think it would be such a big problem. Post lunch rented a bike for one and a half day. The were quoting B200 per day. Finally managed to negotiate it down to B250 for one and a half day. Once mobility was established we needed to check out the good places. Went to the Lamai beach and sat by a bar on the beach and ordered beer. THe bartender was kind of cool and kept on blabbering constantly. The biggest attraction was that he was playing Pink Floyd. It was great to just sit, watch the sea and sip beer. Met two other couples. One of them was a old couple. The other couple from Australia were horny as hell and just couldnt manage to keep their hands off each other. We decided at the small shack that we would not take the ferry on our way back coz the trip to Krabi by ferry and bus was likely to take 6.5 hours officially. Given the bad weather it would take at least 8 hours. On top of that Dimple was clearly not comfortable on such long journeys on the boat. Since we didnt want to lost the day, we changed the travel plan. We decided to go to phuket instead and take a bus from there to krabi. On our way back we checked out the details in an internet cafe. Spotted an Indian restaurant opposite the net cafe and stopped by for dinner. It was so good to have rotis and dal. Met a friendly chap from Darjeeling who was running the place. He said that he was here for the past 6 years primarily coz there was lack of employment opportunities back home.
Had a hefty meal. On our way back Dimple shopped a little around the flea market. She also had the small glimpse of the Thai prostitution racket. It is so funnily open. All the frontend people dealing with customers are ladies. Also stopped by a travel agent (there are too many of them in any case). We were told that diving is not happening due to the rough seas. Hence that trip was totally called off. We decided to see the rest of the island the next day.

After hanging around a little on the streets of Lamai, where Dimple hand the first hand experience of the prostitution racket, we retired to our hotel. We planned to do all the sight seeing tomorrow.

Although not budget travel at all, I would recommend people travelling to Samui to take a flight to Samui straight from Bangkok. It is much less troublesome specially on bad weather days.

18-Dec-06

Couldn't begin writing earlier coz the laptop was low on battery and we couldnt locate a three pin plug. Since our agenda for the day was to look around the place, off came the bike that we hired the previous day and the trip began. We first went to a place called Hin Tai-Hin Yai. Legend has it that a couple went on a she trip from a neighbouring island to ask a local cheiftain's daughter's hand in marriage for their son. However they were never able to make it. To prove their noble intentions, they transformed themselves to rocks and can be seen even today. However I have no clue as to why the rock is shaped like a phallus. The views from this area is superb and definitely worth a visit. There was some local shopping options in and around that place from where some shopping happened. While driving around, we reached a place where there was an acquarium and a tiger show all for B400 per person. That was reason good enough for us to chuck the place coz there are enough and more tigers to be seen in Indian zoos and circuses. Close to the same area was a butterfly garden. Tickets per head was for B170. Went into the place. Wasnt amazing or anything. Just about ok. Definitely not worth the price of the tickets. Post that we went to a waterfall. Pretty complex name, will write in if i recollect. However if you go from Lamai, it is the first waterfall. We had to drive up a way, buy tickets for B20 each, and then trek for 15 mins to get to the waterfall. And it was a grave disappointment. I was left wondering the might of the Bhagsu Falls near Mcloedganj and comparing that to this. It was actually no waterfall but some water trickling down the hillside. We got out of there and reached the more famous Nao Muang waterfall. But when we got to the foot of the hill, we realised we had to do another half an hour of trek. By then my injured foot had started giving way. So didnt go finally. In an around they also have ATV rides and elephant safaris for people who are interested. ATV rides for full day costs about B700 per person. Elephant rides, well I didnt bother to find. Drove around the place some more before getting into a net cafe to buy air tickets to phuket. Post that we headed to our good old Indian joint for Dal & Roti. Thereafter we got back to our hotel and freshened up. Thought of a round in the pool but it was not very clean. So chucked it. One end of the Lamai beach was right under the hotel. So climbed down to the beach. This end of the beach was more wavy than the one on which we went to have our beer. Very picturusque place. Thereafter we went back to the other end of the beach which had our beer drinking spot. Had beer while seeing the sun sink in. What followed was the usual stroll on the streets and dinner, this time at an Italian joint, opposite Mcdonalds. Post dinner we were back to our hotel.

Koh Samui is a place like Goa. You go there, walk around, chill around and have a great nightlife. As we saw even later, everything was very organised. The people worship the king. You dont see photographs of God in the shops but the king. On Monday, they wear special yellow TShirts given by the king as a respect to the king and wish him a long life.
While there are several beaches on the island, the tossup between places to stay is Lamai and Chewang. Staying in Chewang is like staying in a town. Very loud and populous place. Lamai is more serene and chilled out and we would definitely recommend it as the place to stay. Decent accomodation in peak season is available for B300 - B 1200.

There are two other islands that are near Koh Samui. Koh Phangan and Koh Tao. Koh Tao is further and smaller. It is the place where one can fidn the best dive sites. Koh Phangan is famous for its full moon rave parties. The set of these three islands is definitely worth the money spent. One visit can be organised not to go anywhere but to these three islands. Koh Tao is a cheap place and foreigners come and stay there for months together.

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Photos

Backwaters
From Surat Thani to Koh Samui

Koh Samui
Windi Ferry port

View
From our hotel room

Lamai Beach
First view of Lamai Beach

Lamai Beach
The seashore bar

Lamai Beach
The perfect table

Lamai Beach
The beach bar

Hin Tai Hin Yai
What does the rocks resemble?

Hin Tai Hin Yai
What a legend!!

To Phuket
Cute planes