The rest of Thailand

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Chiang Mai

So after strolling through Chiang Mai's Sunday market, we bump into the Dutch couple we had done the mahout training with. They told us about the blind massage school in Chiang Mai. So feeling very achy from the elephant training we decided to get an hour long traditional Thai massage. The masseurs have all been trained in the main massage training centre in Bangkok, and supposedly the senses of their touch is a lot stronger at finding knots in muscles. I think its just they push a lot harder, because they ant see the pain in your face. But it turned out to be quite an experience. Hannah was given a pair of local fisherman's trousers (this is the style, not some dirty old mas longs) to put over her skirt, because the massage is performed fully clothed. So the hour starts and they start their digital talking stop clocks. Hannah had a woman masseuse and Brendon's was male. Hannah massage was very relaxing, it was also very fulfilling watching Brendon get tortured for an hour. He was pulled left right and centre, and pushed in spots he didn't realise were problem areas. He winced in pain a few times, but all the masseuse would do is laugh, he seemed to enjoy taking his anger out on him. The hour appeared to be worth it, because once Brendon had been used and abused, he seemed to be very lethargic, and totally relaxed (and even a little spaced out!)

The very next day we book a day adventure tour with one of the local companies and get picked up really early the next morning. We get on the back of a Songthaew, which is basically a pick up truck (or bakkie for the South Africans out there) with 2 benches placed in the back, and meet the people we are to spend the rest of the day with. A couple from Canada, Australia (well brother and sister) and some very very loud American (apologies to all the yanks out there!). Turns out that that yanks have only had a couple of hours sleep and are still drunk hence the volume issues.

After an hour or so, the yanks are quieter (or we just get use to them) and they are not a bad bunch! We stop off at a Orchard Farm… nuff said. Then some hill tribes and long neck ladies, there were girls as young as 5 or 6 wearing the neck braces. Hannah tried one on and it was really heavy. So the reason that the tribe exists is because a long time ago, a village woke up to find that one of their young girls had been killed in her bed during the night, and she had 2 puncture wounds in her neck. The village were so scared or the creature that killed the young girl. So one of the local men made a device for the ladies, and it was a coil of metal which they should wear every night to bed. Our guide advised us that the girls in the tribe only remove the neck braces maybe twice a year, and also that it is false that there neck cannot hold their head, and in fact it is stronger as it has to hold the weight of the neck brace. Unfortunately the whole thing felt a little staged, but was nice enough.

After another hour or so in the Songthaew we head over for some “Elephant Riding”. After having been to the Elephant sanctuary, we thought this was really sad to be honest. The loop that they did was not even 200 meters, and it took the elephants an hour to do it. They were not trained elephants and were not happy. The 'mahouts' just hit them a lot, and they looked very sad. We were a bit upset about this. Next.......

We hike to a waterfall. The Aussy guy Joe, true to form bought a couple of cans of beer (or Tinnies) which got the hike nicely started, but after about 40 mins both of us are huffing and puffing and say to one another…. “when are we going to get fit!”. We get to the waterfall and the eight of us all jump in. Its freezing, but the jungle was so hot that it’s a very welcome reprieve. The hike back seemed shorter now that we aren’t baking hot.

This was followed by some white water rafting, which is the part that we had both been looking forward to the most. We load the inflatable up with about 8 people and after some very brief instructions we head off into the water. We had only gone 10 meters before we got stuck for about 10 mins. The instructor shifted us all around a bit, as he had got the weighting wrong. So we get going and there is a cheer around the boat…. Only to be stopped by yet another rock. GREAT! If this is what its all about, then we might as well call it quits now! But we manage to get the hang of it, by everyone jumping up off their bums everytime a bump was in sight, and we are soon rushing down small water falls and some rapids. About an hour or so later, we swap from the inflatables to bamboo raft for the final 200 meters. As we do this, the heavens open up and its pissing down with rain. Our guide mentioned that we must have done something to get on Budda’s bad side. The rain was coming down hard, and Brendons raft left just after ours, and his raft is as buoyant as a egg cup supposedly and is completely submerged and it’s a slog to get the last couple of meters. Whereas Hannah was on a raft with the 2 Americans and we had decided we would not listen and we would stand on our raft. It floated well, and we made it back really quickly, and were able to start drying of in the songthaew, whilst Brendon was still 10 minutes behind.

As he gets off the raft, guess what… it stops raining! Typical, but a great day.

We head back to the Citys Old quarter and check out some of Chiang Mai’s sights and temple’s (called wat’s) and one of the biggest ones is Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, which is lovely, and we happen to bump into one of the dutch couple’s that we did the mahout training with.

Brendon goes for some Thai cooking classes at Baan Thai Cooking School for one early evening. Got taught what fresh ingredients to get from the market, how to make red and green thai curry paste, pad thai (Brendon’s favourite) spring rolls and some Tom Yum Soup. Brendon cooked all the dishes under supervision, and got to eat the results. Compliments to the chef indeed! Hannah was at home being sick and didn't get to attend and instead she took a stroll and called her mummy.

We really enjoyed Chiang Mai, the pace, the people and the weather was even nice. Next we prepare ourselves for a long journey down to Koh Samui. We were going to catch a train to Bangkok, and flight to Surat Thani and then a ferry to Samui, as the flight prices direct were just ridiculously expensive.

So we board our sleeper train to Bangkok at about 2:40pm and enjoy the sunshine, reading and some snacks. Hannah gets the same tea lady as on our previous train journey. She is in awe of Hannah's hair and skin colour. She thinks Hannah's skin is so beautiful and white (Hannah is not amused as she has been working weeks on getting a tan).

Then when sleeping time came, the train bed makerer converts the seats into beds and we are just amazed by this. We didn’t book air con as they didn’t have any seats available, and also had upper beds, but we had a good nights sleep and Brendon woke up around 430 as we needed to stop at the airport (the domestic one) which is next stop. After chatting to the conductor, we realise that our train is about 1 ½ hours late, but that is fine as our flight to Surat Thani is at 7am. But we will be cutting it very fine. We jump off the train (and its still dark) and walk along the highway to the airport for what feels like forever, but we manage to make it all in time. We board our plane, we have booked through a company called Nok Air, and their planes are all painted to look like birds. Once in Surat Thani we get ripped off by the mini buses taking us to the ferry port but we didnt appear to have many other options, so we have to accept, and luckily we manage to make the ferry to Ko Samui in time.

Ko Samui

So we finally get to our accommodation on the north of the Island, only to find that the lady we spoke to on the phone had made a mistake and not booked us a room. So they kindly upgraded us to the family accommodation (which had 2 bedrooms and a kitchen) for the same price. We don’t really care, as we have now been travelled, by train, plane, bus, ferry and Shongthaew for over 21 hours, we were simply exhausted. The resort we stayed in was very nice if we were staying for a 2 week holiday (except if you wanted a spot on the beach - as there was a lot of Germans) but it was not designed for backpackers. So we took advantage of the upgraded room for 2 nights and checked out.

Koh Samui is lovely, on our first night we took a stroll along the beach, and found a really quaint restaurant on the beach. The moon was almost full, and the view of the sunset had been beautiful.

The next morning we hired a couple of mopeds (yes Mummy Fordham she is wearing a helmet) and explore the island. Samuis's whitest beach Chaweng is also its busiest, luckily we were there in off season, because it was still full of tourists on jet skis. You also get lots of Hawkers walking the beach trying to sell bits and pieces. There are even ice cream men, who serenade you with songs. We sat and had lunch on the beach and then headed to the hospital because Hannah's stomach wasn't getting any better. Everytime she ate she would have what felt like heart burn. The doctor diagnosed her with a stomach ulcer which was brought on from the Malaria tablets she was taking. The Hospital was really smart and efficient, we were in and out with medicine within an hour. So anyone taking doxycycline, make sure you take it with a meal and a big glass of water, and don't lie down for 2 hours. The doctor told her to stop taking it because there is no malaria in the areas we are visiting. Bloody £180 bill!

So were back on our 'road trip', and we happen to drive past a MAHOOSIVE tescos supermarket. So we were intrigued and had to look in. This is where we purchased skippy (Before the trip Hannah advised Brendon that Skippy is the best peanut butter in the world, he disagreed until he tried it, now we literally have seen it around the whole world) and some English toiletries and a plain black vest top for Han.

As we leave the car/bike park Brendon gets a little happy with the throttle, and zooms through the park and stops just before the exit. Hannah on the other hand decides to take the corner too slowly, yes too slowly and the next thing Hannah's bike is on the floor. A local man helps her and her bike up whilst Brendon rushes over. Luckily only Hannah's ego is bruised but the locals did have a good laugh around her! (Han should stick to push bikes!)

Road side cafe is our meal, where they didn't speak a word of english and just served us the same dish as everyone else - Pork and rice soup which is really nice and what the doctor instructed Han to have. This meal is by far the cheapest yet at a £1.80 for both our meals and drinks, we cant complain.

Koh Phangan

We decide to leave the next day to Koh Phangan as Samui is great but feels a little resorty and built up. Ferry is only 1 hour late (things are improving) and we phoned our accommodation to pick us up at the dock. Mike (a retired Londoner) picks us up but we head to the bar for a couple of beers as there is another guest that he is picking up in 45 mins and just easier that way.

Turns out the guest is a lady called Caroline who packed teaching in in England to work at the backpackers. We stayed at Shiralea Backpackers, which is located up the north west coast and pretty far from the party side of the island. Ten simple, clean and well built bungalows (well British supervision with Thai labour) with a hummock on the porch and 2 double beds (all for only £7 per night). Its only a short walk to the beach, with a great restaurant and cool communial area with more hummocks and a massive TV etc. But the best part of the place is the people. Friendly, lovely people and the travellers what are staying there are all just great. I don't think that there was any people that we didn't get on with.

We do some beach chilling and then get ready for the infamous Full Moon Party in the south of the island. Hannah has a couple of Baileys (due to the ulcer) and Brendon starts to knock back some Thai Red Bull and Vodka's. We share a mini van with a bunch or Americans and get there for about 1am. There are just spans of people around (well around 20,000 give or take a few). The stretch of beach in Hat Rin has revellers dancing on speakers, shouting, screaming and having fun (or so it appears) clearly Brendon and Han aren't drunk enough for this. Everyone seems to have some sort of glow in the dark body paint on them, snogging some girl/boy whilst still clinging to a “bucket” (bucket is what it sounds like a beach sand bucket with a drink potion of your choice). Its a good night, but by 5am we decide to head back, and got entertained by a local popping wheelies on his motorbike, with someone on the back, which ending as we all though..... in tears on the floor! Looked painful.

After Brendon recovered from a thai redbull hangover (the stuff is lethal) we rented a bike and explored the island with Melanie and Kamaal who we met at the backpackers. Hannah being on the back this time after the Tesco incident. The night market served up some great food and we feast on some mahoosive prawns done on the bbq. The local fishing harbour is great (we see a massive sailfish being carried on the back of a motorbike) and catch a longtail out to bottlebeach. This place is bliss, only 2 backpackers and 1 slightly more up market place. It almost feels like the movie “The Beach” including the crazy ass locals at the restaurant. We race back to the Amsterdam bar, which suited Kamaal as he is a dutchy, to make it just in time to see a great sunset. The bar is true to its name obstructing the sunset slightly with its own cloud of smoke.

We enjoy our stay in Phangan so much that we extend our stay there until we have to get back to bangkok. But there is one more activity that we have to do. Diving.

We arrange with the dive school that is at Shiralea for a dive at chumpon pinacle. This is about 10 km north of Koh Tao. Not to see turtles or coral, but BULL SHARKS. We leave early the next morning to catch our speed boat to the dive site, which is 1.5 hrs away, but 15 mins in we get some bad news. The engine drive shaft is pulling away from the engine mounting, which means our dive hopes are over. We are quite deflated as we fly tomorrow night which means our diver trip is over. We head back and the dive shop owner makes a couple of phone calls, and we hijack one of his boats that are already on a different dive. The downside.... the 1.5 hrs trip will now take 4 hours. But we don't care! Everyone on the boat is elated.

Our first dive we manage to see a couple of sharks, but only in the distance and visibility isn't very good, around 10 to 15 meters and there are a couple of boats moored at the site who keep their engines running which isn't ideal. Our second dive around 4pm is much better, because all the other dive boats have left and there is less noise. As we decend on the mooring line we signal left, right, below to point out the sharks, and they are much closer this time, around 5 to 10 meters away. We get to see about 15 sharks in total and these creatures are amazing. Some of the sharks are almost 3 meters and you become quite casual about them after awhile until you realise, crap these things could kill you. But we keep our distance and they theirs (thankfully).

We stay down as long as possible, and Brendon finishes with only 20 bar left in his tank. Back on the boat everyone is smiling, chatting loudly and sharing their experiences. We head back for the 4 hrs journey home, but noone is complaining as it was absolutely brilliant. We get to watch a beautiful sunset on the boat, and a little nap, because we're all knackered. This is the biggest adrenalin rush we had I reckon.

After catching the morning ferry back to Samui, and saying our farewells at Shiralea we hop on our Nok Air Flight to Bangkok. (If you ever get the chance, Samui airport is wonderfully strange).

Bangkok

We get to Bangkok lateish on the Thursday night and try and found some accommodation in Ko San road, Bangkok's famous backpackers street. We had called and reserved a room in a midrange/budget hotel. But when we arrive they have no record of our booking. So we check out numerous spots, and have no luck, our only option is to check into the only place with accommodation left called The Buddy Group. This is probably the most expensive in the area, but at least it had a roof top pool which was great in the heat and the rooms were great too!

We do the sites the next day, checking out the temples and all the touristy spots leaving Mai Thai Kick boxing for the last night we have in Bangkok. We have some great dinner down one of the alleys and got entertained by maybe a dozen or so local kids performing break dancing in the street, with even some of the tourists jumping in to show off their 'skills'. There was some kids as young as 4 or 5 years of age, got some great videos.

We try flagging a taxi down to take us to the boxing, but as it was 9pm already we missed it as on that particular night they finished at 10 and not the usual midnight. We are both a little bummed, but at least we will have something else to look forward to the next time we are in Bangkok.

Thailand is an amazing place, where the word “No” doesn't exist. Its a beautiful place with amazing people, changing and contrasting landscapes and is ever evolving and adapting to its tourists needs. There are still hidden jems to discover if you search hard enough, and even though its very touristy in some places they return time and time again for a good reason!

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Comments

[Elsie]

wow
Sounds absolutely wonderfull what an amazing experience, sorry to hear about Han on the bike and the ulcer. Thanks for sharing it, miss you lots but looking forward to the next blog. All our love