Thailand

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20 November - 21 December

Nong Khai

From the bus station in Vientiane, we took a bus over the natural border of the Mekong River, to the humble town of Nong Khai. The crossing was relatively smooth and happily it was free. Apparently South East Asian immigration officials have not yet caught on to the trend of charging extortionate and ambiguous fees to defenseless tourists like their Latin American counterparts do so proficiently. We used our ‘saved’ baht to buy ourselves two delicious Pad Thai’s and a rather disappointing Singha beer. We spent the remainder of the afternoon walking the considerable length of Thailand’s version of the Mekong promenade, unsurprisingly more impressive, and checking out Nong Khai’s market.

It turned out our guest house was situated in the middle of nowhere, and thus, a long search for breakfast ensued after which we returned to pack our bags and make our way back to the bus station. The kind owner offered us a lift to the station which we happily agreed to only beginning to regret acceptance when, 20 minutes after entering the car, we still hadn’t made it out of the drive way. Our kind guest house owner, it turned out, was not much of a driver.

We took a bus to Kohn Kaen as we had heard there was a silk festival there and it was off the tourist trail. Ashamedly, four hours after we arrived when the silk festival was not forthcoming, we took a night bus to Chang Mai.

Chang Mai

We arrived into a grey Chang Mai at around 7am the following morning tired and dejected. We took a tuk tuk to a hostel and were immediately put off by the rudeness of the staff. We took a room none the less and disgruntled, went out for breakfast and booked a room for the following night at a friendlier guest house. We spent the rest of the day wandering around in the drizzle and booked a cooking course for the following day. We spent the evening at the notorious night bazaar and bought various items before rewarding ourselves with a small but tasty dinner in its center.

The following morning we moved to the other guest house and ate some breakfast before being picked up for our course. We had a hilariously enthusiastic teacher who had not only us students in hysterics but also all her co-workers. Initially we were taken around the kitchen garden and introduced to all the different herbs and spices used in Thai cuisine. Next we were taken to the market and learnt all about the different types of rice one can buy learning that old rice, is in fact tastier and more valuable than new rice, much like a good wine or whiskey! Back at school we had a delicious snack of shallot, peanuts, coconuts, chilli, lime and ginger all wrapped up with some gingery syrup in a betel nut leaf. We then set about preparing and cooking our six courses and curry pastes. Between us we cooked the following; spring rolls, yum woon sei (glass noodle salad), pad thai, raad na (stir fried noodle with vegetable gravy), kai pad med ma moang him ma pan (chicken with cashew nut), pad preaw wan (sweet and sour vegetables), tom yung koung (hot and sour soup), tom kha (hot and sour soup with coconut milk), green curry paste, panang curry paste, green curry, panang curry, glavy tod (deep fried banana), khaw neaw ma maung (sweet sticky rice with mango). As you can imagine, we were all rather full by the end of it.

The following day we had a different class to attend; this one was in Thai massage. Again we had a hilarious instructor who insisted on calling us both either ‘honey’ or ‘baby’. It was a surprisingly taxing day and we were both physically and mentally exhausted by the end of it. So much so that we thought we deserved another massage and went to the cheapest one we could find. We were escorted down a dark alley into a rather grotty room where we were greeted by an old woman with a white painted face and a younger woman who looked like a female sumo wrestler. I had the clown, James the wrestler and we spent the following hour stifling giggles and yelps of pain.

We had a train booked to take us to Bangkok the following lunch time and thus spent our last morning taking in some culture. We went to Wat Doi Suthep which is a beautiful temple situated high on a hill overlooking Chang Mai. I had been there several years before and it was as beautiful and ornate as I remember, though even more touristy. There were even two cafes inside. Still, it made for a pleasant morning. The train ride was boring and cold but endurable and we arrived early the following morning in Bangkok.

Bangkok

We took a bus from the train station to somewhere near the Ko San Road and spent the following hour or so looking for it. When we finally arrived we checked out a disgusting hostel with possible peep holes before dumping our bags at a 24 hour bar/restaurant and having breakfast surrounded by drunk western men and their young Thai partners. James then went out to find a room while I stayed with the bags. About an hour later he finally returned with the news that he had found somewhere. We were lucky. We had to wait for our room to be cleaned so we went out to explore some of Bangkok (or at least its electrical superstores). Later, after checking in and showering, we set off in search of wholesalers in the hope of purchasing some cheap clothes. We traipsed around various wholesalers for the rest of the day and were exhausted by the time we returned to the hostel via long tail boat (with very little to show for it). We went out for a delicious dinner and wandered around the Ko San stalls until we collapsed.

After a sleepless night thanks to our rowdy English neighbours, we attempted to book our train to Surathani in the south. We went to three different train stations (all at different sides of the city and all thanks to my misinformed ideas) before finding the correct one, and the one we arrived in from Chang Mai. We bought our tickets for the following day amazed that they were available and then went to celebrate with lunch in China Town. Lunch was very expensive and very average and China Town was so busy that we literally ran away from it. Back on the Ko San Road, I decided to get my hair braided and spent the following 4 hours watching the world go by as two woman yanked at my head.

Our last day in Bangkok was, again, spent shopping. We went to Bom Be and Chatuchek market via boat, sky train and a good deal of walking. We arrived back at our hostel just in time, it turned out, to catch the bus to the train station. There we ate a quick and unappetizing meal before boarding our train only to find that the tickets we had bought were for the following month. After much running about and pleading with various people to hold the train, James managed to get us onto the hard plastic seats at the front of the train. He even managed to get the price of our sleeper tickets refunded which is almost unheard of anywhere we’d been. Uncomfortable but very relieved we settled into our journey.

The Gulf Coast

Neither of us slept on the train and at around 7am we pulled into Surathani and were immediately rushed onto a bus that would take us, via ferry, to Ko Tao. It took us, very long windedly, to the port and there we waited for about an hour for the ferry. On the ferry we managed to buy sandwiches which were a relief as it was midday and we hadn’t had breakfast and had been up all night. At Ko Pa Ngan we boarded another smaller boat which took us to Ko Tao.

Eventually we arrived and found a nice sounding place on the other side of the island and went to eat some lunch while we waited for our lift. It was a very bumpy 4 x 4 ride to our bungalow which was incredibly basic but situated in a very beautiful and secluded bay. The sun was shining and we were ecstatic to be in our island paradise.

The following day was eventful. After a simple breakfast we borrowed the owners’ kayak. She informed us that it had a hole in it but would make it to the next bay. Conscious of the hole we wrapped our books and camera in plastic bags before setting off as an impromptu attempt at waterproofing. We then paddled leisurely to the next bay and all seemed to be going fine until we got to its mouth. Suddenly we stared rocking violently and the slightest movement, it seemed, would capsize us and very soon it did. James held the bag of our belongings above his head while I righted the boat and swam around collecting flip flops and oars. As soon as I attempted to climb in, it capsized again, and again, and again. In retrospect we were lucky it didn’t sink. We swam it to shore and then dragged it as far as we could up the beach where we watched the water drain out of it continuously for at least 15 minutes. I inquired at the diving school on the beach and enrolled on an advanced open water course the following day. One of the perks was that it came with free accommodation and they promised to send a long tail boat around to our bay to collect us in the morning. Before leaving we stuffed the holes with plastic bags in an attempt to seal them and then paddled back as if our lives depended on it.

We woke late the following day and were still packing when the long tail arrived to take us to Tanote Bay. We ate breakfast over there after being bombarded with diving paperwork and being handed a huge text book of which I was supposed to read two chapters by that afternoon. A breakfast, a lunch and some considerable reading later, I met with my instructor. That day I did two shore dives, the first a buoyancy dive and the second a navigation one. Not surprisingly the first was far more successful. The visibility was pretty appalling and even more appalling was the fact that I saw my instructor hit the coral with her fins twice. The buoy line is also tied to some soft coral and I spent both dives internally fuming. To add to my disappointment the weather had closed in and it was tipping down with rain which means that I probably wouldn’t be able to do a night dive and that James was stuck indoors.

The following day I started at 7.45 am. My first dive was a deep dive and the next a fish identification dive. Both nasty in bad visibility. In fact, I completely freaked out during my deep dive which in retrospect I believe was claustrophobia but at the time believed to be the effects of nitrogen narcosis. Either way, it was terrifying and I had to sit on the bottom with my instructor while she calmed me down. Between dives we sat on the boat and I became incredibly sea sick as well. The fish identification dive was disappointing as I couldn’t see anything and by the end of the morning I was having second thoughts about diving. For the first time I was not looking forward to my next dive. Happily, my sea sickness had abated by the afternoon and the wreck dive was far more exciting. We even saw a sting ray. Afterwards I was certified and promised myself to find some clear water to dive in before we left for home. The weather was even worse the following day and we spent all day cowering from it.

Fed up with the weather we decided to leave Ko Tao and took a taxi to the port from where we took a ferry to Ko Samui. In Samui we took the unusual decision to go to the main tourist stop, Chaweng. We stayed in a nice guest house which housed, as well as the tourists, 42 cats and 8 dogs! The weather had slightly improved and we spent the next few days wandering around the stall lined roads and even up the beach.

The Andaman Coast

The trip from the Gulf to the Andaman coast was a surprisingly long one. At 6am we left our guest house and took a mini bus, to a big bus which took us round the corner to a ferry. We all boarded the bus again once we got off the ferry and took a surprisingly long drive to Krabi. In Krabi we waited for hours, booked some accommodation at our destination island, Ko Lanta, and finally were taken in a pick up truck to another tourist office. We waited there for a while as they tried to sell us various hostels and journeys and then got back in the pick up to the bus station. We then had another long wait at the bus station and finally boarded a mini bus to Ko Lanta. The bus took us on two tiny ferry’s and finally dropped us off at a very small bus station. We had been advised that there would be someone from the guest house there to pick us up. There was no-one. After about an hour of telephone calls, finally, a little man on a motorbike with side car rolled up. He had known nothing about picking us up. We all piled in; James, I and a girl named Julie who had also come from Ko Samui, and the little tuk tuk driver turned up the bass on his amazing sound system and we were away. It was like being in a night club, yet far, far more fun! The guest house was also amazing, individual bungalows set in a garden right by the beach. Wonderful.

We ate dinner in the adjourning reggae bar and restaurant and discovered that the other guy who we had met in Krabi, Andreas, had been taken directly to the hostel from Krabi (and we had left before him)!

The next few days were spent relaxing and playing Jenga with our new friends Julie and Andreas. The weather was good and we were once again in paradise. After several days of doing nothing and having a promise to fulfill I began seeking dive trips. We were soon booked onto a trip which would take us to an area which leopard sharks notoriously frequented. Sadly no sharks were sighted but the dives were excellent nonetheless. Our most exciting sighting was a cuttlefish which we identified as being the same as our mystery fish we saw in the Gilli’s. That evening we went to Benz bar where I drank my namesake ‘Benz on the Beach’, on the beach.

The following day we set off to the pseudo island of Riley, recommended by Julie. I say pseudo as it is actually a peninsula off the mainland but impossible to reach by any means other than boat so it feels very much like an island. We unexpectedly spent over a week there as we loved it so much. The first days were largely spent relaxing on the beaches before we got more adventurous and went diving, snorkeling and climbing.

The diving was absolutely amazing. We did a ‘super day’ which entitled us to three dives 3 hours away. The first site was ‘King Cruiser Wreck.’ I was very apprehensive as our planned depth was about 25 meters and I had panicked at 23. The visibility, again, wasn’t great and as James struggled to equalize I hung on to the rope and felt the same waves of panic but when I checked my depth gauge I was startled to find that I was only at 7 meters. Whatever this was, it wasn’t nitrogen narcosis. It suddenly occurred to me that what I was experiencing was claustrophobia and I was amazed I hadn’t recognized it sooner. Looking up to the relatively close surface helped me and gradually I managed to control my breathing and calm myself sufficiently to continue. Luckily nobody had noticed my struggle and we were soon descending the rope into a magnificent wreck. As soon as I was there all panic left me as I swam around in absolute awe at the artificial reef it had become. We saw lion fish, huge schools of brightly coloured fish and the most vibrant and beautiful coral as we navigated through and along the sides of the magnificent wreck. Down at 24 meters James started signaling to me that he was running out of air. Our dive master seemed completely unconcerned and I still had over 100 bar so I signaled him to stay close and that he could share air if he needed. Amazingly we were still swimming around as James got down to 10 bar. The other guy we were with was also down to a similar level. As we reached the rope the dive master signaled for us to share air and the other guy shared air with the dive master. It was rather exciting to have to share and we were glad to have used the emergency skills we had been taught in a safe environment. The second dive was also amazing. This time we saw leopard sharks, 6 of them gracefully circling the smallish coral point we were diving. It was absolutely stunning and they were incredibly curious swimming right up to us. There were also lion fish and a great deal of other interesting marine life. The final spot was also beautiful, this time for its macro life. At the end of the dive we watched as two parrot fish bullied to cuttlefish. Amazing.

As well as the diving trip, we also booked ourselves on a snorkeling trip. The snorkeling wasn’t amazing although we did see a huge jelly fish, two lobsters, a crab and a lion fish. The real highlight of the trip, however, was the evening. We stopped at an uninhabited island and ate dinner there before taking a boat trip to the darkest spot we could find and swimming in the phosphorescence. It was magic.

The climbing was also great but very strenuous. James, of course, amazed everyone at his ability. I think he was the only one of us who had never climbed and did it quicker and with more ease than anyone else. Julie had also turned up and had started a three day climbing course and both she and James showed me up immensely.

We had planned to leave Riley the following day but due to a very boozy evening, neither of us could face the early start and I sent James off (him being the more drunk and least willing to face the journey) to cancel the trip. He managed to get us on a trip the following day and thus we spent the remainder of the day suffering with bad hangovers.

The following day we took a boat to Krabi and from there a bus to Hat Yai just in time to miss our connecting bus to the port, Pakbarra. We arrived in Pakbarra just 15 minutes after the last boat left for our intended destination, Tarutao. We were put up in a grotty guesthouse which we shared with a large spider sitting on an even larger nest. She sat just above the toilet and thus we accompanied each other to the toilet, one person watching the spider while the other did their business.

At 11.30 the following morning we were crammed into a speed boat and sped to Tarutao. The island was beautiful but the weather overcast and sadly we spent the whole afternoon holed up in our room avoiding a violent thunderstorm. The following day was a vast improvement. We set off on a walk to a beach 4 kilometers away and en route saw some macaw monkeys, a large almost ape like monkey, a large crab with scary red pincers and a bird with long tail feathers suspended on a translucent wing. The beach itself was not exceptional though it was deserted and we had a great time accessing it via a very rickety and disused bridge. On the way back, remarkably, James spotted an incredibly well camouflaged green snake in a tree. Back at the beach by our bungalow we cracked open several coconuts and fed them to the macaw monkeys that come down to the beach in the late afternoon. James even managed to hand feed one.

Our final day in Thailand was horrific and we felt like we had learnt almost nothing from our 14 months of travelling. We got off Tarutao easily enough and took a mini bus to a nearby town. From there we took a songthaw which would take us to the port from where we would make our first water crossing between borders. We were heading to Langkawe, an island on the south east of Malaysia. We arrived at the port just in time to catch the ferry to Langkawe and I managed to hold the ferry up while I bought us tickets and we went through passport control. Or so I thought. However, at passport control we got the fright of our trip as we were told that we had overstayed our welcome by 16 days. Instead of having a month visa as we suspected, we in fact only had a 15 day one. The fine was 500 baht per day which amounted to £350 between us for the 16 days. To make matters worse there was no ATM so we had to get money out at the money exchange which cost us an additional £15 in taxes. On top of all this we missed the ferry and had to get a later one which would get us in at around 6pm completely defying the point in going to the island as we would have to leave at about 6am the next day. Our last meal in Thailand was thus a disheartened and incredulous one. We were glad to leave, even if we were being forced.

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Photos

Doi Suthep temple, Chang Mai
(the bit without the cafes)