The land of smiles...

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Sawadi kaaa! Sa ba di mi ka?!

There are simply no words for the constant sense of excitement this country brings...I have learned that in Thailand, you can do anything your heart desires...absolutely anything...

We have been moving around and experiencing all sorts of sights, tastes, smells, weather, and adventures galore...

Where to begin? This always happens to me...I spend too long on the road, and not long enough on the computer...I know I said this before, but "I shoulds" are the story of my life...so why mess with a good/constant thing??
...
I should really write mini blogs, instead of waiting for an entire month to splurge on internet and write massive updates...

Until I decide to put that "should" into action, here's an abbreviated version of the past month...I will try and shorten things up while doing a decent job of getting my point across...

After Kaoh Sok National Park we headed west to the town of Krabi and caught a long tail boat to Rai Leigh...a small town only accessible by boat (even though it's not an island)...Rai Leigh is known for its rock climbing and amazing beaches...
We met with the owner of another Canadian travel company, TJ from Beach Travelers, and have since spent much time with some of his and the other companies groups as we all have been traveling the Andaman coast, Koah Sok and the Eastern Islands en route to the May 20th full moon party on Koh Phagnan...

Rai leigh was awesome - a wicked hike, a day of rock climbing including a self rappel down a massive limestone cliff face, heaps of painful, spiky rain in the afternoons, and a day of Kat and I alone with a 22 year old english major at a cooking school in Crabi where we made (and proceeded to eat) 6 dishes!!
Red Curry (which we pounded out ourselves in the mortar)
Pad Thai (noodle dish with chicken)
Tom Ka Kai (lemon grass, coconut soup with chicken and other veg)
and 2 deserts ...
Warm Pumpkin in coconut milk (sounds weird but you just wait!)
Sticky rice with mango (the reason I have not lost my belly from Australia yet - I love this stuff!)

From Rai Leigh we took a lovely sunny ferry to the island of Ko Pi Pi, best known by most for its devastation during the '06 tsunami, and its beach 'Maya bay' which was in the movie 'The Beach' with Leo Dicaprio...

We met some cool cats on the ferry and had enough time to find accommodation, drop our bags and head to the beach before it started to pour again - I bought myself a dry bag (a waterproof bag) which are all the rage here (and deadly inexpensive unlike at home), and had lunch with some new friends...Kat went for a nap and I found an amazing restaurant owned by a really nice American guy, where you lay on cushions, eat or drink and watch movies...I checked out American Gangster and made fast friends with the thai ladies who worked there (they were bored and shared my popcorn)...we also got some spa treatments (cold wax hurts way more!), and got an oil massage (soo relaxing)...

Ok whoa too much detail...

We met up with some of the groups and went out on the town in the rain, watched a few of them get smashed and get bamboo tattoos (less painful than the gun and you can go in the water after only a few days of healing), and helped the thai launders at our resort scrub my muddy runners (I felt they shouldn't have to do that - gross!)

We took a snorkel tour to some islands around Phi Phi including Maya Bay, Bamboo island and Long Beach during a surprisingly sunny day (the weather has been up and down here due to the cyclone in Burma), and met a really great couple from new Zealand/south Africa...

Phi Phi is so corrupt...only about 5 families own all the properties, there is a smelly, gross sewage that runs through the city, there are no cars (small island), stray animals everywhere (well, all over Thailand, really), the beaches and the streets have garbage strewn over them (and it's not caused by the tsumani), and we heard a few stories from the American restaurant owner which convinced me that Phi Phi is not the place many tourists think it is...however, lovely nonetheless and I was introduced to coffee shakes and some sweet cats from PG!

After Phi Phi we got on another ferry back to Krabi, and thought we were taking a mini bus to the east coast, back to Sura Tani to catch an over night ferry to Koa Tao, but due to the weather, the closest ferry running at that time was actually about 5 hours away, to the town of Chumphon...so there we were, Kat and I, a driver, 2 Swedish girls, and 3 British girls and 3 boys stuffed into a 9 seater van for 5 hours...Kat was feeling ill and sat up front with a Swedish but the rest of us had a blast telling riddles and playing summer camp mind boggler type games...

We boarded the night ferry, played some cards and fell asleep on the huge mattresses they have stuffed together as beds...

I LOVED Koh Tao...lovely beaches, lovely people, outdoorsy activities, heaps of diving, lots to do, and great food (as in everywhere in Thailand)...Koh Tao employs many Burmese men who come over to make money to send home, and most work in the resorts or on the diving vessels, driving the boats and maintaining the air tanks...this is a large reason that becoming open water certified (also known as 'getting your PADI' where you are certified to scuba dive to 18 meters), is the cheapest place in the world...We arrived at 6:30am and by 8 were in a classroom ready to start our 3.5 day course...9,000 baht including accomodation - not bad!) Kat was feeling extremely sick by the time we arrived and barely made it through the course...on the final day we hopped onto the back of our instructors scooter who took us to see his friend at the clinic - Kat spent the night there and was given antibiotics for a bacterial infection and put on a drip. She has only since recovered a few days ago, and actually slept the entire 4 days we were on Koh Phagnan and missed the full moon - poor Kat!!

Back to Koh Tao...I had a blast meeting the staff, diving instructors from all over the world, sitting by the water overlooking an amazingly quiet bay and chill restaurant (we chose to stay in the south as opposed to the west coast which is backpacker, party central), heading out at night with some other Canadian girls we met on Phi Phi, hanging out by the pool next door and meeting some French tourists, and hanging with my new friend Daan, a killer spunky 18 year old kid from Amsterdam - but don't let the accent fool you, he sounds Aussie! Daan and I met at a Muay Thai boxing match and he drove me home after on his moped...I rented one the next day to get Kat from the hospital (can you believe it's cheaper to rent a scooter than to get a taxi in Koh Tao...unless you have your own personal taxi like me but he wasn't working mornings), and then headed back into town with Daan on the back of my scooter for some breakfast...

Another plus of Koh Tao, I was at a club on the beach called "lotus bar" and I ran into a friend from home - Paul and I have mutual friends who are musicians and play heaps of open mikes in Victoria...we both almost started crying when we saw eachother - we were escatic!! We had no clue the other was in Thailand! It was the best feeling...a little piece of home!!

We took a lovely ferry with Reagan and Charlotte from Prince George (!!! cool!) to Koh Phagnan where we were excited to meet back up with the Canadian groups, and especially to see Aaron again...we ended up staying at a great place (cheap), right by a muay thai gym ( I got my butt kicked by a German girl at the advanced class, and kicked an English girls butt at the beginner class), and at the same place as Kevin, another leader friend of ours, and his 20 charges (travellers from Canada)...

As I type this I hope it makes sense, I'm in the Bangkok Train station and I've been eating a pack of raspberry chews...quite a lot of sugar!

Anyways, Daan came by the next day and was staying quite far from our resort, but headed down to see me and we spent 2 amazing half days scootering around the island, seeing elephants, locals eating on their porches and working in the fields, we jumped off a huge pier to the delight of some locals with a random Spanish man and his wife, stopped at a local fair and watched bingo for a bit and ate some random food (mystery meat) and grasshoppers and maggots (taste like bbq chips!)...but the best part of our adventure was when we helped a young thai boy after he fell off his bike...Daan carried his broken bike and ran beside the scooter, and I scootered him back to his home off the road in the jungle...as he spoke no english, whenever he would should 'hello' I would turn to see his arm pointing right or left and veer off in that direction towards his home...he left us with a huge smile and a Hi 5 despite his bleeding road rash, and Daan and I almost cried, he was so sweet...

As this is the island of the full moon party, each night leading up to the night is a little one of itself...with about 8,000 less people...the beach is lined with bars and small booths where locals sell buckets (literally, dollar store sand buckets filled with booze and redbull, or pineapple juice or coke or whatever you want), and people run around like mad dancing and jumping into the water and drinking special shakes (mushrooms) from the bar on the hill at the end of the beach...Charlotte and Reagan had to leave a day early to make their flight back to Canada, as they thought the full moon party was on the 19th, so the 4 of us had a full moon party for them a day early with a Thai guy who gave Char a tattoo...a fantastic night with a 6am bedtime - oh dear...

We also met with our friends Tiko, Kyle and Rob from the Spaghetti factory in Vic as well, they were staying at another beach called 'had yuan' which is about a 15 minute longtail ride away - we spent our last day there hanging on the beach with them, and we all agreed that had yuan was the most lovely beach we have seen in Thailand...a few of the other groups were staying there as well, and it was so nice to recognize and know so many faces on one beach...

Throughout all this, poor Kat was in our room which we chose due to its proximity to the islands clinic - right next door...I came home one day to find her shoes outside (you rarely wear your shoes inside businesses here), and she was yet again feeling so down she felt she needed more assistance...like I said though, she's ok now...full steam ahead!

The night of the full moon was amazing, I was told that I would lose or stain (with body paint and general drunkeness) anything I wore, so I bought a really cheap bikini which didn't quite fit and some shorts which everyone was sporting anyways, and we met the other groups next door after dinner for a body painting party - well good, as I had the chance to paint many a beer belly - fun as!

The night was spent drinking buckets, running into about a dozen mates from Canada, Thailand, and Australia who we have met along the way, dancing, watching children as young at 7 sell glow in the dark sticks, hats and flower chains to completely messed up, losered tourists...it was quite the sight, 10 000 people going crazy on one medium sized beach...not to be missed! In the kafuffel, I managed to misplace my flip flops, but found 2 mismatched ones along the way home...so now I sport one turquoise and one white and green sandal of different makes - lovely!

After a day of rest we headed aboard another ferry to the Surat Thani again, a bus to the train station, and headed aboard an overnight screeching, loud, kinda smelly, packed overnight train to Bangkok...Kat wasn't feeling the best (dude, she's always sick!) and had a headache, but I met a bunch of guys from the Netherlands and new Zealand who were staying in a bunk near us and the drinks lady convinced us to head to the 'disco car' ... I've never seen anything funnier, awful western music mixed with a thai remix of happy birthday, beers, heaps of smokers and thais drinking whisky and eating rice, and of course us 'farang' (foreigners) having an equally good time...Kat opted to sleep in the pull out bed above mine, even though we heard it was a rough nights sleep, but I slept like a baby below her in the bunk despite waking up a few times because it was so loud!!

We awoke to our chain chugging past slums filled with Thais (they get up so early!) with powdered faces (a common practice to keep the skin soft and to look whiter), thais making food and pushing their carts and tuk tuks off to work for the day, and a city covered in smog...Bangkok baffles me, I'm not sure how it manages to operate, and I would not like to know the percentage of thais who have never been outside its limits...

After the train we taxied to the bus station and took a bus north east to the town of Kanchanaburi - home to the bridge over the river Kwai...

After being so near the ocean for the past few weeks, it was hard for me not to be near a beach!! We had so many plans for Kanchanaburi - amazing 7 tiered waterfalls, tiger temple where orphaned tigers hang out with monks, intricate and deep temple caves, museums and cemeteries and history of the bridge during the 2nd world war, floating markets, and Kat's birthday which was yesterday, the 24th...however, Kat was ill with a headache, again, and slept in our second day...we also missed the temples by a few hours and got to bed at 4am on our half day...but save money we did!

We had it all sorted - when we were going to go where and how we were going to get there (scooter!)...so we spent the first day there bombing around and managed to head to the death railway museum, check out the bridge over the river kwai (definitely cool to see, but it's just a bridge!), and drive for a bout .5 hour to the tiger temples...we pulled up to the temple and ran into a Thai guy from the south who told us we were too late and that it was closed for the day, but we also heard that the tigers are drugged and it's just a huge tourist trap to get close to tigers...we were ok with not seeing them! We spent the next few days hanging with 2 Thai guys and their 4 friends from the Britain who were all staying at our resort...

Our scooter got a flat on the way there as well, but we were near a petrol station...some lovely Thai guys who were there drove us and our scooter a block down the street where an oil slicked woman fixed our tire for 20 baht - that's not even a dollar!!!! It was so sweet!

The next day, Kat's birthday, she had a headache...I had met some guys the night before while she was hanging with the others at the resort, and after getting a massage with Kat and putting her to bed, I went off with Will and Matt to the most amazing night market where we tried some really weird food, and bartered in Thai with the locals - and I got a phone for 30 bucks with 300 minutes - solid! I have been using Kat's for the past week to keep in touch with people and felt a bit bad for using all her credit!

That night we all went out with some new Thai friends for some drinks and headed to a Thai concert - the best layout for live music I have ever seen, and the 5 of us were the only white people there - awesome! The band loved us - reaching out from the stage, giving us the peace sign, we were estatic...Thai people like to 'cheers' their glasses heaps and everyone seemed to enjoy seeing us there!

Today we hopped in the truck with Goan and Em and the girls and caught a lift back to Bankok...here I am in the train station looking down to the 1st floor to find Daan - we're all heading on another night train to Chaing Mai where we will do some trekking, hiking, extend our visas and get a Vietnam visa for next month...

Kat's friend Jeremy comes to visit on the 5th of June, and I will be splitting up from them around that time...not sure where I will head or what plans are after that, but we will see where the wind takes me!!


So far, Thailand has been overwhelming....the generosity of the people, their daily sacrifices and hard work to make a living, and the complete turnaround of culture has actually been quite a shock - there are many things I do all the time at home that if I did here would be seen as extremely rude and impolite, and my ways of being and thinking and living are foreign and opposite to everything I have previously known...there are white men everywhere with Thai women, families of 5 and groceries on scooters hurtling down the street with no helmets, stray animals and skinny cows all over, construction wrapped up like mummies to get away from the dust, heat and stench, and signs, music, letters, markings everywhere in a language I know nothing about...this is the strangest place I have ever been, and I love the challenge it brings me.

In a week I will be alone...I am absolutely thrilled...I have been on a tight schedule with Kat for months, and although it sounds weird, it has been so long since I've worried about only myself...I have been worrying about my things and someone her things, my sanity and hers, my good times and hers, and have had to plan, adapt and sacrifice to maintain a travel relationship with this other person...I feel that leaving Kat will lift this added pressure and I anticipate a taste of real freedom...
I could just be a total mess, call home and be on a plane within a week, but I highly doubt it...sorry mom!

Once again, if you get this far, you are solid as - a real trooper!

Love you all, think of you heaps, 2 of my mates from home have just had babies - congrats Leslie and Rosa!! Up next is Lisa and Patricia - can't wait girls!!

Erin

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Comments

[g-rah rah]

ni hau! bonjour! sawadeeka!
youre a sexy bugger! come meet me in france in a few weeks!! hehehe xoxoxoxoxo