Thailand in the end

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correspondence 2:
October 1 2009,

Realization that this update is long in order I have dedicated this raining day to update the blog. In the last post we were only in Bangkok and Autyuata in the north and kata beach in the south just out of phuket, the party central zone of southern thailand it seems. We stayed in kata beach where we met a lot of people including Linus, the german psychology student, the 4 welsh boys, Rhodri, Paul, Matt and Gaz who we are now back near Surat thani with now. After Phuket we headed to the island Ko Phi Phi that was struck by the tsunami too and can the pictures, stories and horrors of the days can be seen throughout the town and the locals. Whether through reading of the stories in books you can buy on the beach or while hiking the view point its amazing what humans are capable of coming back from. The island was devastated and minimal
infrastructure survived and even then it was mostly the big resorts that did. Memorials are being built or have been built all over the west coast of Thailand in tribute to those lost in the devastation and destruction of mother natures path. The island was beautiful and despite the loss of my camera, allison's flip flops and Rohd's shorts, shoes and sandals at the beach party everything was beautiful. The sand was coarser than kata beach so it gave us a different feel to the island. While both beaches were chill and amazing in there own way it was the people that made it. we climbed the 1000 foot view point at Ko Phi Phi to play on the rocks and th top, play tourist for a bit and take lots of pictures. Once we sweated and thought death was eminent we headed back down the hill for a well deserved beer and lunch! The island had beaches on either side and if someone is looking for a chill but fun place that would definately be a recommendation. Moving on through the trip we come to a night in
Krabi town, a small provincial town, where we merely spent a night in watching movies and waiting for the boat the next day. before we left for the boat, despite the ad-vice of our hostel host we were going to take a long tail boat across to railay beach later in the day instead of the morning as we wanted to ship things home etc. Aftera large sum of money was given to the thai post office in Krabi town we headed out to the boats, only to realize there was no one to share the boat with so we would be covering majority of the cost of the boat, not expensive but still not ideal. At high tide we got put right onto the shore and had a story and a half to tell when we met up with everyone again. Not only was tide high but the water was rough and as you glanced down at our floor of the boat we started to notice a large collection of water in the bottom of the boat, which soon came with a strong current and could have moved a small floating toy boat. We started to look around only to find no life jackets, no floatable objects or our long tail boat driver really caring. Once on dry land we were happy to have landed somewhat dryly a shore and headede for our bungalows. The bamboo bungalows we were in were low key,bamboo with two mattresses on the floor and a bug net to cover them in. Of course it wouldn't be us with the bungalor being on a hill with 72 steps to climb just to reach reception. Railay is a rock climbing island, its beautiful, interesting and it too was a testament to how people adjust to natural disasters and recover. While no rock climbing was done by us the island was beautiful in the sun. However, we were stalked by a storm for the entire 4 days we were there. It would hang far away and strike in the late to mid afternoon. The welsh boys came to meet us and ended up on the west side of the island in a pretty nice little bungalows with a pool and the ocean front side. After three days of rain it finally broke and let us climb the view point that that gave us a site overlooking the ocean and the beaches below along with Ton sai ( a backpackers huddle -of sorts off the normal beaches of Railay). From Railay we went back to the mainland to catch a mini bus to the east coast where we would jump a ferry to head back to Surat Thani and Ko Phanang island for the full moon party at the start of october. The trip was pre planned before we left Railay, the tickets paid, the expectations set... this was our first mistake. We did not know was that no matter when we left the island of railay we were still to arrive and wait for a ferry after we hit Domak (sp?) It was a 4 hour wait and a book and half down. Once at the ferry station for the 4 hour wait we got to experience the 2.5 hour ferry ride across the gulf of thailand to see ko phangang. The island is a lot bigger that what we've previously been on but the adventures have been a bit more entertaining. The big 4 wheeltruck we were in.. and I say big but it is more like a small car size at home barrelled us through the night through 90 degree turns, down and up 24% grade hills and numerous speed bumps. While the ride was wild we didn;'t lost a soul on that crazy ride and continued our hike to get a room, food and sleep as it was 12 hours of travel to get there. The resort was in Haad Rin, in the South east of the island, and it was nice
enough with tons of stairs too. After the climb up and the search for clean clothes we all headed for food to the drop in bar and restaurant beach side. To sum up the 3 nights in Haad rin we watched allison and a danish girl skip a burning skipping rope, swam in great waters and found shopping places that accepted visas (alot harder in thailand than one might expect. Allison and I's next best idea while in Haad rin was renting a mo-ped. It was fun till the pavement met body too soon going up a mountain side road. ---more to come on this subject later i think it will be its own story on its own this round. From the crash site we visited a small health clincic where we cleaned ourselves up and headed back to the beach to nurse our wounds and feel sorry for ourselves. Misery was short lived as we had to tell the welsh boys what happened, which led to a couple drinks and forgetting of the days issues. From Ko Phagnang we headed north to haad salad and a beach just on the north west. We stayed at the Sea salad resort in little bungalows that were great to stay in and wonderful to have gotten the chance to stay in. A major contributor to the moving from haad rin to haad salad was to miss out on the chances of having our gear stolen while at the full moon party. So 5 nights in Sea Salad were what we were handed and Allison and I took to it quiet well. The towns small and really only one road but in 30 minutes you can be back in Haad rin or north. We spent one day reading on the beach, one in search of medical supplies, which led us to Chokolakum on the north and another day travelling in the east coast to see the sights. By sights I mean we visited yet another beach in a beautiful cove off the north east. The road there was red clay that with one rain fall would have been unaccessiable and with one flash flood would leave the east coast to find their way around by boat once more. The quaint little beach resort was beautiful with a number of bungalows and resosrts located around it. From the full moon party we headed back to surat thani, spent 8 hours in the train station to get a train to hat yai, so we thought we would go into town to see the 'sights' and get pizza or mcdonalds ( our craving of the day) only to find that for one surat thani has nothing, is a little sketchy and there is nothing there but people staring at you for being so far out of place in a city where little tourism comes in. So we headed back to our train station haven and waited it out, only to be left there till 2:05 in the morning and finally getting on the train to find people in our sleeper bunks, water or pee.. still not sure.. on mine and dirty sheets. Allison slept through her trip nbicely or at least nicer that I as I had to worry of the wet spot and the bug that climbed between my bed and the wall. So little sleep we arrived at Hat yai where we decided to do a straight deal to Butterworth in Malaysia and head for Georgetown on the island, a city that bussles in the day and lights up at night witheverything from china town to little india and western cuisine. We found book stores and traded boooks to get through to new zealand. A week to go and we take off from Singapore, cannot believe time has flown by. We leave for the highlands tommorow morning, and then kuala lumpur and then melaka, a small city in the south that has great history before crossing to singapore for out last nights in asia. Ciao for now.

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pictures
All of these pictures are from throughout the adventure thru Thailand, sorry they are not in order... but for the most part they are.