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My turn to write on the last few days of our time in Thailand. Nemo is doing the very last of his courses today and so has left it up to me. We last left you in Ao Nang, a brilliant place where we enjoyed ourselves so much that we stayed an extra couple of days. It's made up of 2 beaches - the main touristy beach and a quieter beach called Nopparat Thara where Blue Bayou, our bungalows, were located. As we had a scooter again, we were free to travel about the area.
The main beach is long and clean and sports the same shops, massage parlours, tailors, bars, restaurants, internet cafes and so on as every other tourist spot in Thailand. What everywhere else does not have however is Noodle Boat. We met an English couple at Dawn of Happiness who live in Ao Nang and they recommended this place as the jewel of Ao Nang. So on our first night there we popped along to have a look. The place is a little out of the way but it was nonetheless packed with people. Good reason for that too - all the food on the menu
Girlie Bars in Ao Nang
The only strip of the kind we foundwas 30 to 50B. That's a max of $2. And the food was dead set spectacular. We ate there as often as possible. Which with Nemo around can be quite often indeed.
That night I also had yet another massage. I must confess, I'm a little addicted. I have had one in Phuket, Phi Phi, Lanta, Ao Nang and now another in Phuket. The Ao Nang massage place was near the beach, but the price was reasonable (200B) and the place with just perfect. Little rooms with areas curtained off and quiet music in the background. My masseuse was an older woman who first gave me a pair of fisherman's pants to put on, and then treated me to the best Thai massage I've had. Thai massage is quite unlike any of the Swedish/Shiatsu/Remedial etc massages that I was used to. The technique involves pushing on the muscles, then stretching them rather than the kneading that is common to other types of massage. The masseuse is very physically involved in the massage and uses their hands, elbows, knees and feet. They also assist you in doing some stretches as part of the massage itself. It is quite gentle and
Noodle Boat
This spread cost us 150B, or $6 though there is some variation in the methods used, the general principle remains the same. They begin with you on your back and work on your leg muscles and feet, followed by turning you over and working on the backs of your legs, back and then arms and hands. They then sit you up and work on your neck and shoulders and then finally lay you down and work on your face and head. As I said, I have had some variations, including a different order and even some abdominal massage but overall all the massages were quite similar. Except for my most recent one...
As Nemo was off today I wandered around Phuket a bit and quite near where we're staying I found a place that has massages that are done by the blind. All for 120B for an hour. Seeing as it was for a good cause, thought I should probably try it. The place was gorgeous, cool and light. There were 3 masseuses there - and one was massaging a Thai girl. She saw me come in and explained everything to me (she's married to an Aussie guy and spoke great English). And so I had
a massage done by a completely blind woman. They wore sunglasses and often had to feel their way to my misplaced limb, but the massage itself was divine. The girl getting massages next to me said that these masseuses are very experienced and have often been massaging as a way to make a living since their teens. The experience that I had would absolutely back that up. Needless to say, I left a good tip.
Back to Ao Nang, after a day of rain that confined us to our immediate vicinity, we were over the moon when the following day proved perfect for a scootering adventure to end them all. We have had a few rainy days here and there as well as bus and boat trips and sometimes that means that there are some serious hours to kill. We've played hundreds of rounds of sh!thead, read several books each, engaged random people in conversation (sometimes against their will) and even had discussions on who would win in a battle: a Shaolin monk, Samurai or well armed Knight. And this was an in depth discussion. Many, many hours to amuse ourselves in.
In any case, back to the
scootering epic.
Near Ao Nam Mao there is a Gastropod Fossil that is possibly the best signposted place in Thailand. So we went all the way back there to check out the fossil, only to realise that at high tide we wouldn't be able to see very much at all. We checked out what we could, and then found out that the gastropod (what we'd imagined was possibly a giant dinosaur or something) was in fact hundreds (thousands?) of snails and molluscs that were fossilised in the limestone rock. Ignorant Farang!
Farang is essentially the Thai word for gringo.
Around the fossil, there are half a dozen shops that sell shells and shell products. Some of the shells they have are enormous and there are a lot of beautiful specimens, though I confess I'd rather see them in the ocean. They also have a marvy collection of the most kitsch knick knacks made out of the shells like shell encrusted tissue boxes. Just what you always wanted but never thought you'd have.
We stopped at an Elephant park to have our piccies takes with these beautiful beasts and feed them some delectable treats, however didn't go
Tup Kaek
Near Ao Nang for the elephant ride. I was being a hippie and couldn't bring myself to do it. Sorry Dad. Nonetheless, we found ourselves all excited and giggly at the experience of being so close to them and seeing their different personalities come through. I think I peed my pants a little with joy.
Now I must explain that Thai 'tourism' lacks a little... something. Most Tourism Information offices are in fact what we would call booking agents - people who sell certain products in order to make a commission out of them. And we left home without a guidebook so we were winging it. So when I found a 'natural spring' near Tap Kaek beach on the map, we set off in that direction to find and conquer this place that was undoubtedly going to be a spot of true beauty. Firstly, we couldn't find it. Rode back and forth trying to find the place. Finally, through uncanny deduction, we located what must surely be its immediate vicinity. It was near a resort. Nemo, atypically, went to ask for directions from one of the staff. The guy looked bemused but acquiesced nonetheless and led Nemo to the 'spring'. Calling it
a pond would have been generous. Little cesspool would have been a little more accurate. It took me almost 10 minutes to get Nemo to stop laughing hysterically at the look on my face. We rode to Krabi to buy books instead.
Finally. tired and absolutely filthy, we returned to Ao Nang where we indulged in a refreshing Mojito. When we walked in, they changed the music to western music and we were all of a sudden plagued with "Country road, take me home" and "Homeward bound". Are they trying to tell us something? We're not homesick just yet, mate.
After 3 nights in Ao Nang, it was time to embark on the last leg of our journey to Phuket. Now, I must say that despite the prevalence of 'Thai time' (a little like Cairns time), all of our transfers thus far have been fairly punctual and untraumatic. This one was quintessential Thailand. We were the first picked up by the bus at about 10am. We picked up 2 Finnish girls further up Ao Nang. We drove to Ao Nam Mao where the driver went out to find another girl (Irish) from the dozen sitting at the ferry
wharf. We waited in the bus. The Irish girl got in the bus. The driver didn't. He stayed outside, had a ciggie and pottered around for a bit. Finally, without a word he got back in the bus and onward we went towards Krabi. At this stage all was still well. We get to chatting and find out that the Finnish girls are also travelling to Phuket. Ireland is however going to Malaysia. Oh dear. We then stopped at another stop where the driver tottled off to have a cup of tea. We had to ask if we could go to the bathroom. "Yes, Yes". Later we found out that we were picking up 2 French fellas who also said they were going to Malaysia. They all asked the driver if we were in the right bus and he said yes but didn't elaborate further. Back in the bus we go. Ireland and France were wondering how the hell they were going to Malaysia from Krabi via Phuket. Seriously - look at it on the map and see our confusion. Finally, without explanation, the bus stopped in Krabi again to drop off everyone going to Phuket and took of for
The big shells
Near Gastropod Fossil the border. All without an explanation. It was brilliant. We got on bus number 2, that we and our bags were rapidly bundled into and off we went to Phuket.
The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful, except for seeing another road accident. We've seen 2 in our time here, which seems quite a lot considering we're not driving around much and we've travelled a lot by sea. Driving in Thailand is an EXTREMELY interesting experience. There are a hell of a lot of people on the road, including lots of big pick up trucks (subsidised by the government as commercial vehicles, we were told) and thousands of scooters and bikes. Most people are content to beetle along at a reasonable pace and you only get the occasional person hooning past. Just like home really. Beeping rarely mean "F%*k off, you moron" though. It is usually more like "hello, excuse me, coming through, please be careful". So while the lanes are often poorly marked and people appear to be weaving aimlessly, it is actually quite polite and as a bike rider, pedestrian or driver, people are really courteous. Statistics on road fatalities are however incredibly high. Very
And the kitch shells
Near Gastropod Fossil few motor bike/cyclists wear helmets, though we did see one big bust in Krabi where the cops were pulling over riders who didn't have one on!
After the 3 hour trip to Phuket we again arrived hot, hungry and with nowhere to stay. So off we went and found Thalang Guesthouse which was walking distance from where we were dropped off. All I have to say is 'bingo'. We had no idea that Phuket could be so amazing and such a big part of our trip. After all of the white sand, turquoise water and gorgeous scenery, bungalows on the beach and sunset bars, this little city is so... charming. We're staying in the old town, which is a few square blocks filled with fabric stores, bars that miraculously appear when the sun goes down, book stores, galleries and pharmacies. The architecture is an old Portugese style and it is unbelievably quaint. Our guesthouse is brilliant and we have a room with a balcony overlooking the road. A little noisy but so atmospheric. Perhaps it's the smell of ripe papaya that lingers all through the place. It is cheap, clean and central and the managers have tied themselves in
knots to help us out. The whole area isn't touristy and for once we've had to make our way without English translations on everything. Nonetheless, we managed to not only order ourselves dinner but also an accompanying apple hookah ("shisha") to indulge in at one roadside, so we're clearly not doing too badly ;o)
Nemo even got a hair cut at the barber's here - a little short but an example of fine precision! Nato - this was the place for you.
Yesterday we again hired a scooter (manual this time), and took off to see the giant Buddha at the top of one of Phuket's mountains. Nemo did a splendid job navigating the much more intense traffic in town and then we got out onto the highway. As we began the ascent to the Buddha however, it became quite clear that the scooter was not going to get us up the hill (and the auto changing-but-shouldn't-be gearbox was becoming exceedingly terrifying), so we had to turn about, head home and replace the dodgy scooter with a little jeep.
Jeep served us very well and got us to the Buddha statue (45m high) which is the biggest
of its kind in Thailand and you can see it from pretty much all over Phuket. We drove down to Kata, Karon and Patong as I hadn't spent nearly as much time there as Nemo had before I got to Thailand and I was quite curious. Kata is gorgeous, but sadly the developers own most of the beachfront land and you can only access the beach via the occasional walkway. Karon we've talked about at length at the beginning of our travels. Patong... well now that's a whole different story. Nemo likes to call it 'Dirty Vegas'. It's the kind of place you'd have a bucks weekend. Girlie bars as far as they eye can see, gimmicky shops, old geezers (dragging poor little Thai birds around) and young people living it up. Themed restaurants complete with artificial stone walls and animals (truly, think Vegas). The beach is lovely, but the rest of the town is expensive and there isn't really anything Thai about it.
Finally we headed to Wat Chalong (Chalong Temple) which we caught in the fading light as the evening sunlight caught the gold on the temple itself. This place was so stunning and so peaceful, even
with all of the people milling around and praying. Monks wander around doing their thing and at some point a whole lot of firecrackers went off, scaring the bejesus out of me.
Phuket is an amazing island that is so incredibly diverse. We have had so many unbelievable experiences here in Thailand and seen so much of Krabi province, and yet we could easily spend another 3 weeks here and still not see it all. There have been cats and dogs roaming between our legs, lady boys aplenty and even a couple of (manly-girls?). We've travelled to a soundtrack of reggae, Jack Johnson (much to Nemo's horror, they play it everywhere), Buddhist chanting coming from the temples and Muslim singing ringing from the mosques. We've watched countless Muay Thai trucks drive past, advertising the evening's bouts and been offered massaaaaaage hundreds of times. No one can believe we want to walk anywhere and chase us with offers off tuk tuk taxis. But we have found Thailand to be a place of bright smiles and warm hearts and a people willing to tie themselves in knots to help you, and not for a buck. I have never once felt unsafe,
we never got sick despite eating in some... less established places, and we are leaving with a great fondness for this country and a desire to come back soon - for the food if nothing else.
And that brings us to now. We're flying out early tomorrow and expect to land in Berlin about 9.30pm their time. We should be in Poland a couple of days after that and then... who knows.
From Nemo - I liked Thailand heaps good. The people here make really good food, of which I eat lots and spend much time reading on the toilet. It has been fun and I hope to come back with one day with more money and the Sean, the Nato and the Tiger, for Nato's bucks party - we will go to Patong, meet ladyboys and drink Saengsom until we die. That is all. Fishy out.
:D
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Dad
non-member comment
Promises
Hey !!! That was almost ages ago. Where are the next. Stop drink this bloody (sorry - good beer) and do some work for all of us !