Thailand: Kanchanburi, Ao Nang and Phi Phi

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January 22nd 2010

Published: January 28th 2010

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BenSwarb

The Bridge over the River Kwai

Introduction

After nearly 6 weeks making our way around Northern Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia, we arrived back in Bangkok on 11th Jan, to meet up with James' girlfriend, Lyndsey. This blog entry covers the first half of our last month in South East Asia, which was to be largely spent exploring Thailand's beaches and islands.

Bangkok

With almost military precision, James and I flew into Bangkok airport less than 2 hours before Lyndsey, giving us just enough time to enjoy our last few beers as a travelling duo.

That night we checked into the Premier Residence, the nicest hotel of our trip to date (where they even cleaned the rooms daily - without being asked!). James and Lyndsey spent the next day seeing Bangkok's major sights, which I decided to sit out, having seen them 3 years previously. We met up together that evening though, to fulfil a dream that James and I had been harbouring since Christmas - watching Avatar at the Bangkok Imax. Whilst I'm sure many of you have seen it back home, I doubt that before your performance you were treated to the Thai National anthem, accompanied by a slide show of

Bamboo Rafting

Posh bamboo rafting

King Bhumibol, and where the whole audience stands up to show their respect. Something tells me that they'd have a less impressive response if they tried the same with the National anthem and pictures of the Queen at Cineworld on Broad Street....

Kanchanburi

We escaped the madness of Bangkok early the next morning, on a 2 day trip to Kanchanburi - the location of the Bridge over the River Kwai, built for the Japanese by POWs during the Second World War.

For those that have seen the film, the bridge itself is a bit of a disappointment, although it is possible to negotiating the sleepers, rails, and numerous gaps, and walk out on it... What came as more of a surprise was that the bridge is still in use by trains, despite having hundreds of tourists clambering across it all day - if a train comes whilst you're on the bridge you're supposed to make it to one of the small refuge bays - yet another example of the slightly more relaxed Thai attitude to health and safety.

Bamboo Rafting
After lunch we took part in "bamboo rafting", which James had booked based on the fun

Bamboo Rafting

The Francis'

we'd had in Chiang Mai. Unfortunately this journey wasn't exactly a white knuckle experience, as we just floated sedately down the river, never even at risk of getting wet. In fact, the real adrenaline rush came at the end, when we had to get off and cross a wooden bridge back over the river. I went first, and was made to regret having watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom a few days earlier....

Elephant Riding
Next stop was elephant riding, which we'd also done in Chiang Mai, but which had been fun enough to repeat (despite the elephants stopping every 3 paces for another banana - sold to us for the reasonable price of 20 Baht a bunch...). However, this time turned out to be much more laid back, maybe partly because there were only 5 of us there: James, Lyndsey and I; and 2 German girls, Fran and Paula. When we got to the start, the German girls were put on the seat of their elephant, and set off. It was my turn next, and realising I'd be wanting an elephant to myself, I was given the honour of sitting on its neck, rather than the more

Indiana Jones death bridge

convienient and comfortable seat behind - which the "guide" sat on instead. What followed was an amusing period of me trying to control an elephant with my thighs, whilst realising I had nothing to hold on to other than its head... I must have looked like I was having fun though, as when she saw me doing it, Fran asked if she could do the same on her elephant.

Drinking Games
That evening the 5 of us were taken to a floating hotel on the River Kwai. Luxury this was not, but it was actually a great place, as we sat on tethered bamboo rafts, sipping on bottles of Chang and watching the sun set as the river drifted by. After a marginally better meal than we'd had for lunch, some of the guys that had been doing different afternoon activities rejoined us. A great night then followed, as we drank more and more bottles of Chang, and the Thai guides tried to teach a rag tag bunch of Brits (well, me anyway); Canadians; Germans; Dutch and a South African, various drinking games. Bizarrely, the first of these was "Yee Ha", which I used to play at University during

Elephant riding

In my grandma's words - "poor elephant"

my BUOC days (although it's not the same without Luis shouting "cowgirls" and making obscene gestures). Given the difficulties the guides were having explaining the rules, I tried to help out... although with hindsight I think a Chang filled Ben was always going to struggle there.

It was well past midnight when we called it a night. Not knowing anything about our schedule (as James had booked the trip), I asked Fran when we had to be up, only to be dissappointed with the response - breakfast at 7am... However, being nothing less than a hero I made it for 7 - only to find that I was the first one there! Still, at least this meant I got some breakfast, unlike the Francis', who slept in until about 3 minutes before the bus left.

Erewan
Day 2 was to be more relaxed, with a visit to the famous 7 tiered Erewan waterfalls, before heading back to Bangkok. The group was initially split into 2 minibuses (seemingly along racial lines), before our Thai driver explained the day's schedule to us: "I can always trust you Europeans to be on time, but I've put the "Arabs" on the other

Elephant Riding

Lyndsey feeding her elephant

bus because I know they'll be late. Therefore, when we arrive I'm going to tell everyone to be back at the bus for 12:00, whereas really you have until 12:30. Do you understand?!". Yes, we understood:

When we arrived at Erewan we noticed a sign warning about "aggresive monkeys", which we thought was quite amusing... 10 minutes later we weren't laughing quite so much, as one ran at James and ripped a carrier bag out of his hand. At this point I started to chastise him, telling him that he should have been more careful... midway through my parental-style telling off, one of the little buggers clawed at the back of my head from a nearby tree. As I turned to face my aggressor he jumped down and ran at me... Now, I'd like to claim that I stood my ground and faced him down, man-to-monkey. Instead I ran like a girl, filled with the terror that he was going to bite me and I'd have

River Kwai Hotel

The view from our floating hotel

to rush back to Bangkok for a painful series of rabies jabs. James might have lost a packet of crisps at Erewan, but I think I managed to lose more: the respect of everyone around us....

Bangkok (again)

That night we arrived in Bangkok and hunted around for a cheap room. After a lot of searching and not much success, we managed to find somewhere with 2 double rooms for 400 Baht each. This was much more than we'd been paying in Vietnam and Cambodia, although was a lot more basic. I spent that night boiling hot, staring at the useless fan above my bed, and listening to the various odd noises from down my corridor - in a scene which felt oddly reminiscent of Leonardo deCaprio's experience in the opening scenes of The Beach.

Ao Nang (nr. Krabi)

We had planned to travel down to Krabi, on Thailand's West coast, by sleeper train the next day. Unfortunately we weren't able to get tickets, which gave us 2 options: spend an extra day in Bangkok; or take the 15 hour night bus (which unlike in Vietnam, didn't have beds). The look on James' face gave me the answer - he wanted to get out of

Erewan waterfalls

Don't ask me which one this was - but definitely one of the seven...

Bangkok, and he wanted to do it as quickly as possible.

Bus Journey
Luckily, I'm a pessimist, and therefore the bus journey went pretty much exactly as I'd expected... I was sat next to a big fat Dutch guy, who in between bottles of Chang seemed insistent on dozing off on my shoulder. Every time I shook him off he'd wake with a start, glaring at me for interrupting his doze. I'm not going to lie to you - at around 2am, still wide awake, and stuck on the sodding bus, I hit what was to be a low point for our travels...

The one advantage of the bus, as sold to us, was that it was direct - albeit with a brief stop in Surat Thani to drop off/pick up passengers. This turned out to be a barefaced lie, as we were turfed off the bus in Surat Thani at about 5:30am, and had to sit around for an hour before a completely different bus to Krabi was ready to leave. Our friendly tour agent, Tommy, had let us down badly!

On arriving in Krabi, we took a taxi to the beach resort of Ao Nang,

Erewan

Lyndsey taking a dip in the waterfalls (before the fish started to nibble at her legs and she ran out!)

asking to be dropped off 'somewhere cheap'. The first place we went to quoted 950 Baht for an air con room, which we eventually managed to get down to 600 Baht (using our 2 basic haggling skills of laughing at the price, and faking a walkaway). However, we decided we must be able to do better, so turned it down and moved on. About an hour later we'd learnt a few things: a) you get quite hot and sweaty carrying your rucksack around in Thailand for an hour; b) no-where in Ao Nang will offer an air con room for less than 1000 Baht; c) Lyndsey gets quite grumpy when we're searching for hotel rooms.

Consequently, we headed back to where we'd started with our tails between our legs, and were thankful that we still managed to get the 600 Baht rooms, despite having lost most of our bargaining power.

Kayaking
The next morning we went on a kayaking trip around Krabi's mangrove swamps. This was the 3rd time we'd kayaked on the trip, but the first time we'd been in different kayaks, with James paired with Lyndsey, and me cutting a solitary figure, alone in a 2

Krabi kayaking

man kayak. This turned out to be one of our most value for money trips, as we glided through canals cut through the mangroves, against a backdrop of yet more stunning limestone karst scenery. Fortunately for me, I wasn't too disadvantaged by having my own kayak, as there were plenty of enforced stops, to allow 3 useless Chinese couples to catch the rest of us up. As with many of our other activities, this again taught us a few things:

a) the Chinese are rubbish at kayaking;
b) before you begin one of these "organised" activities, no-one ever asks if you can either swim or kayak, or offers you a lifejacket;
c) despite this, somehow the Chinese always manage to find and then wear their lifejackets; and most importantly
d) when in seperate kayaks, neither James nor I pull to the right...

James Bond Island
Day 3 in Ao Nang, and another trip - this time to see "James Bond Island", the location of Scaramanga's hideout in the Man with the Golden Gun, and one of Thailand's biggest tourist attractions. It's true, the view of the nail shaped island is pretty impressive, and well worthy of the many photos you see of

Krabi kayaking

it all over Thailand. However, what you don't see in those photos are the hundreds of people on the tiny beach, queuing up to pose for photos in front of the island. Still, I can't criticise too much, because I did exactly the same (although I left the camp Bond/Charlies Angels pose to James...).

Key Loss
On our last evening in Ao Nang I managed to inadvertantly lock myself out of my hotel room. No bother I thought, and nipped down to reception to get them to open it with a spare key.... What followed would probably have been funny, had it happened to someone else:

1) Reception sent up a man who tried the door (it was locked...), and then tried the window (also locked). He turned to me and said "oh dear", then walked away.

2) After a long wait I went back to reception to find them all sat around doing nothing. I reminded them of my problem and was advised to go for some food and come back in 30 mins. We returned to find 3 men outside my room, seemingly trying every tool in their tool box to prise open either the

Krabi kayaking

door or the window - zero progress, just a smashed up window frame.

3) The boss turned up, shouted at the other guys in Thai, and then set about dismantling the door handle. We left him to it, and came back an hour later to a door with no handle...

4) Rather than waste my time at reception again, James and I tried our luck. 5 minutes later, and with the aid of his penknife, we had the door open. Our smug satisfaction only spoiled by the realisation that the air con had been turned off, and therefore that we'd been beaten to it...

We packed our bags that night, ready to do a runner should they turn up later on and try and charge me for the damage. Fortunately this wasn't necessary, and the remainder of the night passed without incident.

Phi Phi Islands

After a number of warnings about difficulties finding accommodation on Phi Phi Don, we'd opted for a change of strategy and booked ahead. Even now we're still not sure whether or not this was a good idea, as we paid more than we had in Ao Nang for rooms with

Krabi kayaking

Approaching some wild monkeys - fortunately this time not aggresive...

no hot water, no air con, and no TV. On the plus side though, we quickly realised that this guesthouse wouldn't have problems with keys, as on arrival I managed to unlock and walk into the wrong room with my key!

Snorkeling
The next day we went on a snorkeling/kayaking tour of the Phi Phi Islands. Again, we were pretty lucky, as we ended up on a boat set up for over 30 passengers, but with only 11. We enjoyed a pretty relaxed day of bay hopping, each time taking a dip and snorkeling around the various reefs.

That afternoon we stopped at the local tourist spot - Maya Bay - where The Beach was filmed. James and Lyndsey took a kayak in to the beach, whilst I opted to swim it. I quickly regretted this choice, as numerous speedboats raced past me on their way in and out of the bay. Call me a big girl if you like, but when I finally made it to the beach, I begged for a lift back in James and Lyndsey's kayak!

Buckets
Back on Phi Phi Don we met Fran and Paula for coffee, a meeting which we'd

James Bond Island

arranged the previous day after randomly bumping into them on Phi Phi's main (only...) street. The 5 of us then moved on to a beach bar to enjoy some more substantial drinks, although James and Lyndsey couldn't handle the pace, and bailed early for food (for once I decided to follow Wendy's standard advice to me of "eating is cheating"). The initial gin and tonics were followed by a few "buckets" of whisky and orange, and accompanied by some impressive fire shows on the beach. These shows were then expanded to include audience participation, as a long skipping rope was daused in petrol and lit. No matter how drunk I am, I'm still risk averse Ben... so I decided to sit that one out. The same can't be said for Fran though, who earned herself a free bucket for some quality skipping, all the more impressive for the fact that she didn't get burned!

After a great night out, I spent my last day on Phi Phi with what could be described as a slight hangover. However, I had been taught a valuable lesson: don't meet German girls for coffee unless you're prepared for a big night...

Learning

James Bond Island

Points

James has had a manicure
James has bought a sarong
I think that makes James a metrosexual

Southern Thailand is a little too hot for Ben
Thai hotels don't keep spare keys
You shouldn't play drinking games with Chang

German girls + buckets = much drunkenness
15 hour bus journeys should be avoided at all costs
After $8 a night in Cambodia, Thai hotels seem very expensive

Aggressive monkeys are scary
Cressman needs to work more and bowl less
Riding an elephant bareback is almost as bad as trying to race a camel

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