Blogs from Surat Thani, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 3

On Sunday we drove down to the Ratchaprapa Dam and Khao Sok NP. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever been; definitely the vastest. The hour long boat ride to and from our bungalows was beautiful blue water with erupting rock formations and mountaintops draped in jungle. Mountaintops because the damn was formed over a valley town more than 20 years ago. Our boat driver was a former resident. We got to the bungalows around 4 and went swimming in the warm water upon which our huts buoyed. The night was majestically capped with star gazing during which no fewer than a trillion trillion stars were seen, besides several meteors that looked like shooting stars. In the early morning the mountain tops were sprinkled with mist which was soon licked away by the sun. ... read more

The 28 or so hours from Vang Vieng to Hanoi was uncomfortable in every sense of the word. There was first a connecting bus to Vietienne which was extremely cramped and had no air conditioning, followed by the 24 hour bus to Hanoi. While this had beds, after the first 8 or so hours it became pretty uncomfortable, made even worse that we were stuck at the back where three beds are put directly next to each other. I was stuck next to two girls, neither of them making any effort to talk so after about half an hour i gave up trying to make conversation and so we lay in pretty much silence for the rest of the trip but wedged in on the triple bed, not even able to sit up as the three ... read more

At 3am on New Year’s Eve a fifty-something year old man dressed as a Wizard danced recklessly with a twenty-something girl from the Midwest wearing nothing but red body paint and Devil horns. Back home the man is probably an accountant. But here, in Thailand, he is a psychedelic drug munching Wizard. People come to Thailand thinking they can do whatever they want, and in certain places they can. But, outside of those places where Thailand is itself life is familiar. If you were to walk down the streets of Surat Thani you would recognize life. You would see children being picked up from school, families gathering at restaurants and people exiting convenience stores with minor essentials. Imagine coming home and finding your living room rearranged and painted in colors you’ve never seen. At first you ... read more

Five days after leaving home our long anticipated principle destination was at last within sight. Surviving the first two nights at Stansted Airport, the third night on a 14 hour flight trying to find comfort in some of the most cramped seats in the aviation industry, a brief bit of respite for one night in a posh Malaysian hotel followed by a disjointed nights slumber on a stop-start sleeper train, we were ready for a kip to say the least. The ten hour minibus trek from Butterworth had delivered us to Surat Thani around six pm. Given as the last boat of the day leaves at seven, you'd have thought that Plan A had worked rather well. But - Thailand being the way it is, the 7 o'clock boat from Surat Thani actually leaves from ... read more

Mr. Hong gingerly flexes his arthritic fingers. He has his mother’s fingers. His mother was Cambodian his father Chinese. His father used to make his mother tea from roots and herbs and the ancient magic of Chinese medicine. But, his mother always refused to drink. She said she had field fingers. She said her hands were bent from a lifetime of bending and no foul tasting tea was going to cure that. Mr. Hong does not have his mother’s stubbornness. His fingers are his livelihood. He takes Western pills and drinks Eastern teas and hopes that one will untangle his betraying hands. Mr. Hong fixes things. When he was a young man it was watches and cyclos, today it is electronics that become smaller and smaller as if they are trying to disappear all together. The ... read more