Thailand

We arrived in Bangkok and didn't even make it out of the airport as we immediately jumped on a plane to Phuket to see Si Twist because there was one available pretty much straight away. So, we turned up without warning - typical travellers, but Si was great and picked us up and took us back to his apartment.

Thailand really blew me away when we first arrived. It was such a change from Singapore. The smells, the food, the people. I spent the first morning walking round in abit of a daze. We headed down to Surin Beach which is a 5 minute walk from the apartment and got our first taste of the south islands life. Miles of white sandy beaches with little huts and bars as far as you can see. It ain't half bad. The sea is wonderfully warm and unlike Oz we didn't have to watch out for sharks or jellyfish so that was treat. I presume most of you know about my Jaws phobia.

I felt quite sheepish for the first day as our knowledge of the Thai language was non-existent and I didn't want to offend anyone, but we managed to get to grips with hello/goodbye and thank you pretty quickly. It is amazing how many people speak at least a little bit of English, which was a good job as we had no other way of communicating.

In the evening Si took us to a little restaurant on the beach which served great Thai food. The following day we spent time around the pool at Si's apartment and in the evening we went out with his family for dinner. After a relatively quiet start to the night we went on to a bar and then we insisted we went to Patpong beach, which is an interesting little spot. The main road is full of bars with dancing 'girls' gyrating. On closer inspection we found that some of these ladies had adam's apples and rather large feet, which was a bit of a giveaway. But one of them took a real shine to Ben, much to my and Si's amusement, but as you can imagine, Ben was not very impressed.

I am not sure what time we got back to the apartment, but I do know we had drunk a few Thai whiskey's (which is actually rum) so when Si woke us up saying we had 20 minutes to get to the harbour in the morning I was not feeling too rosey. We just managed to get on the bus to the ferry and were the last people to board before it left for Koh Phi Phi.

The journey over was not my favourite boat trip. We were squashed on like cattle and the boat was listing from side to side, which did nothing for my nerves. So we did like the locals and tried to get some shut eye. When I woke up we were just turning in towards the island. It is an amazing sight. The island rises up out of the sea, like a scene from the movies. James Bond beach is just around the corner, so you can imagine what it looks like. They also filmed 'The Beach' on Phi Phi.

On our arrival we walked off the pier and we were greeted by loads of poeple trying to sell us acomodation. It was quite frenzied and not really what you want after a night on the whiskey so I took retreat in a cafe and sent Ben to survey the acommodation options. He returned about an hour later looking decidely sweaty, but he had found us a great little bungalow 10 metres from the beach. The only downside, which we had yet to realise, was the morning/lunchtime/afternoon/evening call to prayer from the mosque which was about 3 metres from our place. It was done over the loud speaker so no-one missed it.

Anyway, apart from the loud speaker it was bliss. We sunbathed on the beach for a few hours and found our way around the island and just marvelled at the scenery. But we were walking back from the bar and I noticed a picture on the mosque wall which showed the devastation wrought by the tsunami in Dec 2004. The picture was taken from high up on the hill and showed how the waves swept across the most narrow part of the island causing complete destruction. It is hard to believe how far they have progressed with rebuilding much of the resort, but as you pass across the two sides you can see how much construction work is still taking place. There are still trees and debris washed up about 20 metres from the shore. I also got the feeling that Phi Phi's best days as an unspoilt island destination are far behind them now, as more and more backpackers are passing through each year.

We left Phi Phi after a few days of lounging around and headed for Krabi, as we needed to get back to Bangkok, so we took another dodgy ferry, but this time I was prepared and sat on the very last row, (near the exit) and knew where my lifejacket was in case of emergency. Luckily my paranoia had no founding and we safely arrived and tried to sort out a ticket to Bangkok. As the funds were running a little low we decided to take the bus - a first in south east asia, and it brought back many memories of central america. Very hot and sweaty. Numerous unshceduled stops, but on the whole not a bad trip. We arrived at 5.30am, looking less than glamorous, but we had saved a fair few quid so I was feeling pretty pleased. We walked up the Khao San Road, which is quite nice at that time in the morning. No techno music, very few hawkers, just a few blokes asleep on the pavement. So we sat down, ate some breakfast and found our bearings. We got a room in the Siam Oriental hotel. It was a little box room with no windows but it had a shower and the bed wasn't crawling with little friends so we were pretty happy. After messing around trying to sort out taxi's and flights out of Bangkok we decided to go to the Chatuchak weekend market.

What a place. It was absolutely fascinating. You can buy anything there. Clothes, shoes, food, small animals, lighting, luggage, TV's. My favourite stall was a watch shop where you are presented with catalogue of swish watches and you pick the one you like, Rolex, Omega, Tag anything you want, and the guy goes out the back and brings you your very own. I don't know if it really looks like the real deal, but for a few dollars you can't grumble. It is a bargain shoppers paradise. Nic told me I would love it and she was right. We spent 6 hours there being amuzed by the general craziness. I was even outshopped by Benny boy. So many bargains so little space in my ruckie. Anyway, we had a great time and then came back and walked around Khao San soaking up the neon. The next day was the election in Thailand, (after several weeks of demonstrations an election had been called), which meant no booze on sale for 48 hours. Ben's face was quite a picture. So we went sightseeing during the day and were going for a nice sedate evening sans alcahol when Ben spotted a bar showing the footy with some suspicious looking plastic glasses on the bar. It seems that rules are meant to be broken here and the bar owner felt it was fine to serve westies as they wouldn't be voting anyway. So we settled in for a cultured evening of thai beers and football.

We had planned to go to Chaing Mai from Bangkok and all the local tour agents were quoting ridiculous prices so we took a cab to the airport to see what they could do there. We spied a strange looking desk called Nok Air, (which has a ducks face for a logo), and decided they were just the company we were looking for. We arrived in the airport at 12.45 and booked onto a flight leaving at 1.15! It was amazing. They just sell you the ticket and you fly instantly. No beaurocratic rubbish to slow you down. So within 15 mins we were sat on the plane waiting for takeoff.

Chaing Mai was lovely. It is very green and has a very relaxed feel (especially compared with BK), plus our hostel was great, providing us with lots of local info when we arrived. We went out to the night market which sells just about anything you need, plus lots of things you don't and the place was lit up like a Christmas tree. The smell from the food stalls was incredible and all the different food we tried was fantastic.

The following day we booked to go on a trek into the hills and visit an elephant project, but somewhere along the way we must have had a communication issue as when we started the tour the next day we were heading towards the Golden Triangle, capital of the former drug smuggling trade, and home to lots of tourist tat. We drove for about 3 hours to see a temple and then on to see the famous golden triangle sign, which is just a rather large concrete monstrosity signalling you are at the borders between Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Bhurma). So at this stage we were not particuarly impressed with the tour.


Luckily it did improve slightly as we were offered the chance to go on a rocket boat up the Mekong to Laos for a bit of shopping - although of course this was extra. So we got in a very small open wooden boat which was about 6 inches from the water and we absolutely flew down the river, propelled by a motorbike engine. The boat was swaying from side to side and at one point I did think we were going for a swim. I was pretty petrified, but it was good fun.

I am glad we did go and visit Laos proper after our small introduction during the tour. At Don Xei where we stopped there were many stalls selling Laos whiskey with various animals inside the bottles, including snakes and scorpions, but there was not a lot else to look at. After this we were taken to see a hill tribe, and this was interesting as they still practice many rituals that have been around for centuries. The people there believe that if a woman gives birth to twins then they must both be killed as one must be an evil spirit. The practice is outlawed in Thailand but still occurs in secret today. After giving us a bit of history about the village Chai our guide insisted that these people didn't mind one bit having their photos taken, (which I found very hard to believe) so that was all the excuse one german guy needed to start sticking his camera in the local's faces.

So really the tour was a bit crap. Instead of the promised eco tour, we spent 8 hours in a minibus to go sightseeing for 3 hours. But enough of my moaning. We did get to meet some great people on the tour, and it all adds to the experience.

Happy Easter by the way!

x

NB. I have been trying to add photos to this blog for about an hour so I think I will give up and go and have a beer with Benny boy. I will try again tomorrow.