Thailand again !!!

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Strange how things change. 3 months ago I arrived in Bangkok and it felt a lot like landing on the moon. Now I arrived there (from Burma) for the 3rd time and it felt like a safe haven where I could feel at ease and get over the 'bus crash shock'.

Bangkok is also a great place to arrange any kind of thing. This time I got myself a fake student ID which I hope to be able to use in Australia and New Zealand. Also I stocked up on books for the beaches. I went looking for some pirate DVD's but I could not find what I was looking for (the 80's American TV series I grew up with: The A-team, Knight Rider, CHiPs).

Good thing internet is so cheap in Bangkok because I was on the net for hours and hours. Answering mails of three weeks. Even though I think I explained that it was going to be problematic to use the internet in Burma, there were a lot of people that seemed worried not to hear from me in 3 weeks, others got pregnant, got babies, discovered my blog after 3 months.

So after 2 days of getting all my stuff arranged I set off to the South of Thailand. This is the part of Thailand you probably all know from the travel brochures, etc. It definitely is the touristiest part of Thailand. So prices are bit higher and there is more 'euro trash' around again.
But it was not as bad as I had expected from tales of fellow travellers.

After 3 months of fast and almost non-stop travelling I needed a little break from travelling. Sounds funny: "a vacation from travelling".
I was going to meet Marijke (my girlfriend) in Phuket in the beginning of April so I decided to Island hop my way down there and just relax. But first I had to do something that has been high on my 'to do' list for years.

Koh Tao

First stop was Koh Tao, the turtle island. Not that there were a lot of turtles to see there but apparently the island has the shape of a turtle...a strangely deformed turtle maybe.

Anyhow Koh Tao is one of the cheapest places in the world to learn to scuba dive. I had been planning to start diving for years, so now was the time.
I spent 4 days in class, studying, in the pool and of course in the ocean. The cool thing about learning to dive in these places is that you actually get to see stuff while you are doing the dive course (not like diving some cold lake in Belgium where visibility is close to zero).
It's a cliché but diving really opened a new world for me. The fish, the corals, the whole atmosphere under water is different.
Divers also seem to have an own language (BCD's, triggerfish, decompression limits, etc) that I'm hoping to slowly start to learn. For now I'm still pretty ignorant. "How was your dive, Jan?" answer: "Cool, lots of fish". "What kind of fish? Answer " Euhm big blue and yellow ones and... euh... Nemo!".

After 4 days I could officially call myself a Padi certified Open Water Diver. I spent one more day cruising the island with a bicycle. I seemed to be the only one doing that and I soon understood why. This island is for diving not riding a bicycle. The road goes up and down like crazy and all the hills are ultra steep. Almost impossible to get up and very dangerous to go down.

After the whole dive administration was done, I decided to hop over to the next island.

Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan is the best known island for the party crowd. Every month at full moon thousands of travellers come over here for the 'Full Moon parties': huge raves on the beach with lots of alcohol, drugs and techno. People arrive at the island about 1 week before full moon to secure accommodation and most have to stay another week after that to recover.
Since big 'techno' parties are not really my thing (am I getting old and conservative now?), I decided to head over there in the 1.5 week window that the Island is (relatively) party free. It was great... The place was deserted, good accommodation at half price and no 'negative foreign elements' (as the Burma Junta calls them).
I got a bungalow right on a really beautiful beach and spent 3 days reading in my hammock, swimming, playing beach volley, go running in the early morning... great!


I tried to rent a bicycle but I couldn't find any. There are motor bikes for rent all over the place but I don't like those. Especially after all the motorbike injuries I saw on travellers the last 3 months. In Koh Phangan it is the main cause of death I believe. On the travellers trail, they actually have a name for the exhaust burn wounds: they are called a 'Koh Phangan tattoo'. I saw one girl in Laos who had a huge burn wound. She crashed her bike but was so drunk/stoned she didn't even feel that the exhaust of the bike was burning half her leg away. She even seemed proud to tell the story...

3 days and two books later it was time to get over to Phuket.

Phuket

Most of you probably know it as one of the places hit by the Tsunami. Anyone remembers the Miss Belgium or Miss Belgian Beauty (or whatever) talking about "supporting the people in Tsunami' (she thought Tsunami was a country)? Well it turns out she may have been right after all. The phuket region has become a bit of 'Tsunami land'. There is not only signs warning for tsunamis and pointing out safe places. But there are also Tsunami T shirts, exclusive Tsunami DVD's, Tsunami movie castings and even Tsunami tattoos. I saw one guy with a big wave tattooed on his arm saying "Tsunami 26/12/04 Patong Thailand" only the "I was there" was missing. I didn't see that much damage left though. Seems like the place has been almost totally rebuilt. I heard that at Koh Phi Phi damage can still be seen but I didn't make it over there.

Marijke had made sure that we would be staying in a real hotel this time. I felt like a king in the place and I got used to lounging pool side quite fast I must say.
It was good to see someone from back home and hear all the latest gossip and news from my little country.
We spent most of the time hanging around the pool, hopping to different beaches and go for some shopping. Poor Marijke had to drag an extra suit case home with all stuff I had been gathering the last months: among others a small library of 10 or more books, Buddha image, Vietnamese painting, fake clothes, etc.

As these were my last weeks in a Buddhist region (Malaysia is a Muslim country) I wanted to at least get some more basic knowledge on this religion. I bought a 'biography' on the Buddha and it was really interesting. I really like the idea that there is no external God that must be worshipped. Unlike most religions the only source of 'truth' and 'liberation' lies within one self. It was tough reading material for the beach (I had to reread some chapters over and over) but it was very interesting. It also explains a lot about the people's behaviour around here.

Phang-Nga-Bay

For some variation from the beach life, we decided to go have a look at Phang-Nga-Bay and the famous James Bond Island /Rock. This island (one of the most photographed places in Southern Thailand) featured in "The Man with the golden gun" James Bond movie. On the way over there we got to see the movie on the bus...but I fell asleep.
The bay is similar to Halong Bay in Vietnam with big rocks/hills sticking out of the sea. Some of them with little beaches.
A nice stop on the way back was a fishing village that was built totally on the water around one of the rocks. A bit of a human zoo experience but cool anyway.

Exit Thailand

1/2 hr after Marijke had left I got on a bus to Hat Yai, a border town in the rather unstable south of Thailand. 9 hours on a bus with only one 20 min stop and no toilet on the bus. Nice!
Not much to see in Hat Yai. There are a lot of shops where people from Malaysia apparently come and do there shopping. As with every border town a lot smuggled goods and other not so legal stuff to be found here.

I made a run for the border the next morning. There have been several problems with Muslim extremists in this region; bombings, armed attacks, kidnappings. But I got spared of all that. There was however a lot of police and army check points and they had very big guns...

I made it safe over the border...Malaysian border crossing was the most efficient crossing so far. And my 'border crossing descent shirt' did the trick again. I carry 1 nice shirt with me that I put on to cross the borders. Border officials in SEA like it when travellers 'dress up' a bit for these 'official events'. I have been given priority several times (In Cambodia my Visa came through first even though I applied as the 10th or 12th person), I never had annoying questions so far and this time I was the only one to get a 3 month visa instead of a 1 month visa.
Across the border I met some Germans and we got a taxi to the East coast for the Perhentian Islands. But that's for later

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Photos

Tao
Sunset over Koh Tao main pier

Tao
Confined water training ( 'learning how to dive in a swimming pool' in Diverish)

Tao
View from the 'Crystal Dive' bar

Tao
Early morning bicycle tour at Koh Tao

Island hop
Island hoppers

KP
View I got when I threw open the window of my bungalow in the morning at Koh Phangan

KP
another day another sunset.

Phuket
Tsunami warning

Phuket
Patong (aka Silicon Beach)

Phuket
Not bad this line up: Rolling Stones, Guns n' Roses, Metallica, Kiss (reunion?)... or could it be cover bands ; )

James Bond- Marijke
Long tail boats make a lot of noise

James Bond
Phang-Nga-Bay

James Bond
The James Bond Rock

Comments

[Marijke]

Thanks for choosing such a 'sexy' picture Jan! I've received a lot of compliments... ;-) x

[Stef Herman]

een verre groet!
Hallo Jan, Heb eindelijk de tijd gevonden om je verslagen door te nemen. Fantastische documenten. Dat je gefascineerd bent door het boedhisme verwondert me geenszins. Daar heb ik me ook al jaren in vediept. Ik ben benieuwd om van je te vernemen welke impact dit 'geloof' (of hoe je het ook noemen wil) heeft op het gedrag van de mensen daar en op de samenleving in het algemeen. Goeie reis verder en zet je steeds aan de goede kant van de bus! Nonkel Stef, tente Jes , Saartje en Jonas.