My summer holidays (part 1)

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My mother has been here for almost three weeks; I travelled with her for two weeks which means that I have lots of travel stories...

1) I Love You.

After Mum and I arrived on the beach at beautiful Rai Leh, we set off on a trek to our accommodation. Before we flew down south, I booked us 'beach bungalows' - it wasn't so near the beach, but they certainly were bungalows. I would have booked something a little nicer - maybe with a toilet that flushed, a shower with hot water, and actual bases for the beds rather than just mattresses on the floor - but I had felt no urgency to get accommodation as that's not I've done things in the past - you always just get accommodation when you get there. Not such a good idea when you're going to one of Thailand's most popular tourist destinations at the most popular time of year. Our first task after dumping our bags in our bungalow was to find another place... luckily, a beautiful resort was able to squeeze us in. The obliging bellhop came with me to our bungalows to pick up our luggage, while Mum waited at the resort. We chatted along the way, and he was a very nice young lad; before we got back to the resort he told me, "I like you. Do you like me?" "Yeah, you're all right Khem... I don't really know you though ." "Yes, I don't know you, but I love you already."
Awwwwwww.
Romance, thai-style. It's quick.
Still, telling someone you love them within 20 minutes of meeting them has got to be a record, even for Thai men.
(For the record, our 'relationship' ended badly - i.e. I left. He seemed to take this personally even though he always knew that I would leave, and despite the fact that we'd not had a relationship - he'd started calling my mother his mother-in-law! He was very cross with me on my last night there, but then left a rose with one of his co-workers to give me on the morning of my departure. WEIRD.)

2) My favourite tourists.

While in Rai Leh, Mum and I went on a kayaking tour of the caves in Phang-Na province. The taxi boat was late in picking us up, of course, and I was expecting to get some pointed glares from our fellow kayakers when we arrived at the minivan. Oh, if only that was what we'd got... instead we got four fat beer-guzzling middle-aged Danish male arseholes with two Thai women in prostitution, who I think had come with them from Bangkok. Of course! Who else would I have to share a small mini-van with? (Who lets such people out??!) Mum and I had to sit in the middle row, and so the Danes shouted at each other across us. We asked them to be a little quiet, but to no avail of
course. It was probably a good thing that they spoke in Danish most of the time, because when they did speak in English, it was to talk with the Thai women about 'boom boom' last night and preferred sexual positions etc. Our kayaking guide thankfully realised that this was not a group made in heaven, and so offered Mum and I our own guide, and off we paddled on our own.
A few days later, some fairly well-spoken young British male thought that a ferry ride, with me standing right next to him and his friends, was an appropriate place to regale his mates with tales of how he's been 'giving it to' young Thai women. At least when I told him not to talk about women in such a manner in front of me he apologised. But really... such foul examples of humanity shouldn't be unleashed upon the rest of us.

3) Sweet Home Cambodia.

Mum and I spent three days wandering around Angkor Wat, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. (Photos in next journal.) To those amongst who don't know what Angkor Wat is, SHAME on you! It is an amazing temple complex, with the various temples and monuments built from the 800s to the 1400s, when Angkor was abandoned for Phnom Penh. My favourite temples were the ones which had been left in a state similar to how they were when they were first discovered by foreigners in the 1800s - trees growing all over the temples... I can't describe how amazing it is. Go. You won't regret going to Cambodia at the very least, though seeing the poverty there is heart-breaking. I love Cambodia. I breaks my heart that the government there is so corrupt, absolutely rotten to its very core.

4) New Years Eve.

A subdued affair. I played musical chairs with a bunch of children. Mum and I were in Kanchanaburi, this grim hick town, with the mangiest dogs I've ever seen. Home to the Bridge on the River Kwai and Death Railway which was built by forced Asian labourers and prisoners of war during WWII. The town had no official celebrations, out of respect for the victims of the tsunami.

5) Celebrity.

On New Years Day we went on a tour - Erawan Falls, elephant riding, bamboo-rafting, Death Railway, tiger temple. Erawan Falls are BEAUTIFUL. There's seven falls/floors, and the walk was so much fun, getting steeper the higher you went. There were even step ladders at some points! I didn't have much time so once I got to the top, hot and dusty, I ran straight back again rather than swim up there, figuring that I would just swim in the undoubtedly crowded bottom falls if I had time. Time I had - about ten minutes. So I quickly stripped off, noticing that I was the only farang swimming there and that all the Thai women were swimming in shorts and t-shirts. However, I figured that even though I was in a bikini, I should be OK as most of these holiday-makers were probably from Bangkok and were therefore sophisticated enough to not be too shocked by a young woman in a bikini. Anyway, there were more pressing things on my mind - such as the huge numbers of fish in the pool... As I slipped into the water, I hit about three fish - don't they know they're supposed to get out of my way?! - and one nibbled on my toe as I did a little duck dive. The water was so cold, I could barely breathe as I came up for air - but I could hear ALL the Thai people on the banks cheering me! I wasn't entirely sure why, but optimistically assumed that it was because I'd stuck my head under the water in this blasted fish-infested water. I quickly swam over to a rock so that I could get away from the nibbling fish and get my breath back. While the cold of the water was a blessed relief, the fish were not, and so I planned on walking back across to the other side, to my clothes, mother etc. However, I slowly realised that there was a bunch of boys and young men calling to me. I turned around and they were holding up a camera, wanting to take a photo of me! I kid you not, there were about TWENTY of them shouting at me. I asked them why they wanted to take a photo of me, but they didn't seem to understand the relevance of this. So I just turned my back on them and hoped that they'd go away so that I could walk back. No such luck... the ringleader came over to me, begging me for a photo and telling me I was beautiful. Yeah right... you want a photo of me because I'm in a bikini and, er, let's not beat about the bush, because I'm rather better-endowed than any Thai woman ever has been.. There is no way I'm giving a bunch of 16-year-olds a photo of me in a bikini so that they can do god knows what sort of dirty soiled things with it.
So I jumped back into the water, braving the nibbling fish, to the cheers and shouts of the assembled Thais on the banks. As I tried to climb up the rocks out of the water, once I reached the other side, the group of young Thai women and ladyboys there BEGGED me for a photo. It was soooooo weird. I asked them why a number of times and
they just said because I'm so beautiful. Anyway, they were quite sweet, so I figured I might as well let them have a photo of the weird whitey in her strange swimming attire. As soon as I said yes, they whooshed over to me, assembling themselves around me in a beautiful pose, all smiling and sucking in their stomachs... and insisted upon
two photos.
Finally I was able to return to the safety of my clothes and my mother - who, absorbed by her book, was the only person there who was oblivious to all this!

6) Lazy elephants and tame tigers.

The elephant we rode later in the tour was, according to the elephant handler (whose second question to me was, of course, whether or not I have a boyfriend) lazy. So he slipped off her, from his position on her neck, and got me to come down from our 'sofa' on her back onto her neck! It was great. Much more comfortable than the sofa. Our final stop on the tour was the Tiger Temple. Buddhist temples are often used as halfway houses - someone once brought a tiger cub whose mother had been killed by poachers to this temple and since then, more tiger cubs have been brought there. You can now go and pat and walk the tigers, but have to do so cautiously because they are unpredictable animals. While the merit of keeping tigers at temples, either in small cages or on leashes in a canyon, is debatable, it was nevertheless amazing to see these glorious animals so close. They also have lots of wild horses, wild pigs and cattle there. These animals all looked suitably scared when the tigers were led from their canyon to their cages - much more so than the humans hanging around.

7) See me!

I am coming home for a visit from the 15th to the 30th January, so make sure you save some time to see me. I'll even let you take a photo of me and if you're really lucky, I'll give you my autograph 😉. I understand that there's a fundraiser for the International Women's Day Fair on Tuesday 18th at the Nova, so you can catch a glimpse of me on the red carpet there.

xxx
Nina.

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Photos

Bamboo Island
In Krabi Province

Ao Maya, Koh Phi Phi Leh
Some movie was filmed here.

Krabi
Hat Rai Leh West