New Years in Bangkok, Laura's arrival, and an interesting bungalow experience...


Advertisement
Asia
January 11th 2013
Published: January 14th 2013
Edit Blog Post

We touched down in Bangkok a little before noon on December 29th, and were immediately greeted by the heat and humidity of a South Carolina summer. We hailed a cab outside the airport, unaware that this would lead to our first misadventure in Thailand. Our driver couldn't find our hotel, so he ultimately dropped us off about a mile away, and then proceeded with an attempt to overcharge us followed by an outburst when we didn't understand where the extra charges were coming from. He left in a huff, and we were on our own to wander around in the heat with our packs in search of our hotel. We eventually made it and spent the rest of the day planning out our few days in the city as well as coming up with a game plan for venturing down south to the islands once Scott's sister (and my new sister in law!) Laura arrived.

We began our first full day with a trip to the Chatuchack Market, Bangkok's famous weekend market. To get there, we took quite possibly the cleanest, nicest subway I've ever encountered - not only were the cars and stations immaculate and air conditioned, they were even equipped with flat screen TVs (which mainly ran a loop of ads, but were still nice). Once at the market, we walked around and shopped a little before stopping for giant fruit shakes (not a milk shake, more like an icee). These cooled us down quickly and successfully, and we were on the move again. Around lunchtime, we were drawn to a food stand where two Portuguese guys were cooking traditional paella in large skillets. It looked and smelled so delicious that we had to stop and check it out. We were not disappointed, and left the market full and tired. We walked around the city a bit more and stopped at a great little Thai restaurant near our hotel for dinner before crashing for the day.

Our next day started with a trip to Bangkok's Snake Farm. A branch of the local hospital, this organization farms snake venom to create anti-venom for those who are bitten by Thailand's deadly snakes. We got there just in time for a snake-handling presentation, after which I had the awesome (and a little scary) opportunity to hold a giant yellow python. Afterwards, we walked around looking at the various snakes in their enclosed glass cages which resembled their natural habitats. We actually learned quite a bit and were glad to have made the trip. After a hearty lunch of Thai curry, we headed across town to the Grand Palace, home of the famous Emerald Buddha. This would not be a good spot for those of you who experience claustrophobia, as it was extremely crowded, but the reason why was obvious - the buildings were absolutely beautiful. Each was intricately crafted with colorful glass mosaics, gold paint and many elaborate sculptures. Every inch of the palace appeared to be a work of art, and we were left in awe of its beauty. Additionally, we're pretty sure we saw Mary Kate Olsen's twin (well, another one of her twins) at the palace - seriously, she even had the strange hairdo and bedsheet-dress going on. We left the palace and walked across the street for some slushies to cool down before hitting up a Lonely Planet recommended, highly overpriced and crowded rooftop bar. We drank our $3 ginger ales and watched a lovely sunset over the river, then ditched the joint for a big New Year's celebration on Bangkok's backpacker's street. This turned out to be a blast and one of my more memorable New Year's. There were live bands, crews of breakdancers, foot massage parlors set up in the middle of the street, and probably a few too many Chang beers purchased by yours truly from one of Thailand's over 3,000 7-11's. We even ate some sketchy but delicious street pad thai and acquired some interesting dancing buddies...there's a good chance that there are now pictures of me on facebook somewhere in Sweden. We took a taxi back to our hotel just in time to greet Laura, whose 30 hours in transit had finally come to a close, and we all crashed pretty soon after.

The next morning we woke up early to catch our short southbound flight to Trang, a port city with ferries travelling daily to and from the island of Koh Lanta, our next destination. When we approached the front desk to check out, it was 11:00 a.m. and the notoriously absent manager was nowhere to be found. We ultimately resorted to having the cleaning lady knock on the door to his room, from which he emerged clad only in his tiny white briefs (we're not sure if this was a step up or down from the day before, when he greeted us in only a towel). Though a little caught off guard, we got a good laugh out of it and headed to the airport. Our one night in Trang was relaxing and uneventful - since it was New Years Day, most of the shops were closed. We did have the opportunity to try some of the town's famous coffee, which we soon grew to miss once we realized that our future destinations served predominately instant Nescafe. After an interesting trip to the night market, where Scott and Laura tried some spicy papaya salad - complete with a whole, tiny raw crab, shell and all - we got a good night's sleep and hopped into our hotel's van, which boarded the ferry and dropped us off in Koh Lanta. Little did we know that this two night island adventure would be full of unexpected surprises...

As we deboarded our van, we discussed our plans for finding a cheap guesthouse or bungalow on Klong Ning beach, a few kilometers away, with fellow passengers Oscar, from Holland, and Mario, from Germany. We'd all heard that Klong Ning was supposed to be a relaxed, backpacker-friendly area on the island, so we hired two tuk tuks to take us there. One of our new friends had done some research and suggested that we check out some bungalows at a place called Charley Barley's. This ended up being one of the few cheap-ish bungalows we could find, so we prepaid for three nights before thoroughly investigating our chosen lodging...big mistake. We soon discovered that we were paying entirely too much for what could only be described as a dingy shack that had probably not been cleaned since Charley himself opened the place in the 1970s. As if the dust, cobwebs and dirty sheets weren't enough, Laura even began finding various critters in her bungalow every time she entered it. Over the course of two nights, she found crickets, several hermit crabs, a giant moth and the biggest gecko any of us had ever seen. A local guy (who didn't even work at Charley Barley's) always showed up to help Laura rid her bungalow of these unwanted guests. In fact, he pretty much showed up whenever Laura was around and at one point strongly hinted that she should just take him back to Colorado with her. We think he meant well but...yeah, a little creepy. Not as creepy as the rest of the staff, however, who all seemed to be on drugs (which could have been entirely possible considering the bar offered both joints and mushroom shakes to its guests for purchase...). After two nights of overpriced food and just plain weirdness, we decided to cut our losses and move on to a different island. I will say that, despite our disappointments and strange experiences, we still managed to make the best of it and have a good time. We got a fantastic massage, witnessed some impressive flaming baton and chain twirling, and enjoyed a nice dinner with Oscar and Mario on our last night. The next day, we were off to the quiet paradise of Koh Jum island...


Additional photos below
Photos: 28, Displayed: 27


Advertisement



19th January 2013

Golden Pythons and shabby bungalows.....
Well, you are earning your stripes as globe-trotting backpackers.....the bungalow story reminded me of my own....once on a beach in Ecuador, we stayed in a thatched, nasty little cabana...and drunk men would burst in at night...how do you lock a bamboo hut, after all? And of course, we had to hire our money in the bamboo slats...or bring everything with us, to prevent the "staff" from stealing us naked. Where are you now/ Let me know when you are in Vietnam....ok? We are living these adventures along with you...brave of Laura to travel so long and far....to be with you.... TERESE and GAVIN and TOM SHelton, Charleston

Tot: 0.122s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0675s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb