I woke up at 5:00am Friday (July 24) and watched the Alms ceremony- A sort of monk "parade" where they march down the street single file collecting food offerings from people lined on the streets kneeling. It was pretty cool.
Later that day, I went to Mgong Ngoy, a small rural village 4 hours drive and 1 hr boat ride away. It was soooooooooooo amazing. First of all the scenery was breathtaking. There were carved limestone clifs on rolling green mountains with just the right amount of cloud to make it seem mystical... The village was great! So many adorable children playing happily on the dirt roads with nothing more than a stick, or a rock. They saw the Ko Sahn Monkey "Ping Pong" hanging off my backpack and were fascinated! Once they realized they could squeeze the monkey and he'd let out a HO HO HAAA HEEE HEE HEEE! They were even more excited. Squeezing him over and over again, and passing him around (or sometimes fighting over him). There were so many kids, I couldn't bear to give him to just one, so when they gave him back to me I put in back in my pack, but I knew at this point, it was highly unlikely Ping Pong would be moving on with me for my next adventure....
The following day, I went on a kayak trip on the Ou River to two even further remote villages (Ban Hat Sa Phiue, and Banvattanatam I'll call them HSP and B) about an hour (by long boat) away. It was even more amazing - which is hard to believe. I brought the books and pencils I bought in LPB with me and they were greatly appreciated. In HSP I gave a colouring book and some crayons to a grandfather who was minding 6 children I was playing with, and some to a teacher in the village to save for the school year starting in September. We walked around the village for over an hour, and saw some pretty cool things. One guy was making a wooden bowl from a big stump of wood. Kids were running around everywhere and stray chickens, dogs and ducks were a dime a dozen. On a side note, there are chick-ducks roaming around the villages, spawned when roosters attack the ducks for some polygamy action.
We had lunch in B and it was a really gorgeous little weaving town. I bought a handmade scarf, and went to visit a school house built for the people there by a school in Richmond, BC in 2006. I gave the a stack of books to the teacher's wife as he was out working the farm fields when I was visiting. I saved three books for our trekking guide for his family (he had the cutest little boy with him - 6 years old and he sat with us all day, and kayaked too... never complained once... he got to keep the monkey too), and gave ten to the first village
The next day was a travel day back to LPB. When we got off the boat from Muong Ngoy, we all had the choice of waiting around for 3 hours, or getting in the box of a pick-up truck (tuk-tuk) for the 4-6 hour ride back... I didn't want to sign up for that, but I asked the driver if I could sit in the cab and he said sure, so I rode there with him and his 6 year old daughter. She was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!! We played patty-cake, and she taught me some laos hand games, tried to teach me laos go fish, and random laos words. It was pretty tough, cause she didn't speak any english, other than 12345 and ABCDEFG. hahaha Later we picked up another local who came and road in the cab with us. He spoke some english and told me that the little girl's mother (driver's wife) had died suddenly less than a week ago... suddenly I noticed the girl's eyes were puffy, and the driver looked exhausted.. I had to fight back tears. He told me she has two older brothers as well. I decided this little girl also needed some books... but I had none left.
When we got to LPB, I arranged for a tuk tuk to take me, and the girl and her father into town to Big Brother Mouse, and I picked up ten books, 8 for the girl, and 1 novel each for her older brothers\dad (if he can read). It didn't seem like much, but I thought if the books distracted her from reality for 15 minutes, it would be worth the fifteen dollars it cost me. The father was very humble and thanked me with a long meaningful look and a "Khawp jai" (Thank you). The tuk tuk then drove them back to the bus depot where we were originally dropped off so they could sleep in their truck for the night.
Today was ANOTHER travel day to Vang Viang. It was a looooooong twisty, gorgeous drive through mountains. We almost hit 2 chickens, 5 pigs, 1 motocycle, 1 semi truck, and a dog on various occasions... We also passed a farmer carrying an AK47- no big deal... then we passed another one. Perhaps they were farming poppies??! Tomorrow I will tube down the river, and I'm looking forward to a lazy day. I think I'll stay here for a bit and decompress. They have lazy looking restaurants all over the place that play family guy, and friends reruns alllllllll day long. Giggidy!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Chiang Khong to Laos.... Sllllllllooooooow boat and more!
I woke up bright and early thanks to about four hundred nightmares of being eaten alive in my sleep by mosquitoes and giant spiders and hopped in the van to cross the border into Laos. Everyone travelling had to hand over their passports to the guesthouse to arrange visas for Laos. We got the the bank of the Mekhong River and could see Laos on the other side. A quick 15 minute crossing and we were there. We hopped off the long boat and grabbed our backpacks and ha to stand in a line to have our temperature taken via ear (thank god) to ensure good health and no swine flu before we could go to immigration. Immigration was a small shack with 3 officials and about 100 tourists pipes around trying tiger to the front of the line. At this point I still had no received my passport back but within a half an hour I saw a Canadian passport being held up to the glass and I took that as my cue to run up and get my stamp. Luckily I was the only Canadian.
Once that was sorted I had a very disturbing squatty potty experience and then went to wait for the slowwwww boat. It was a day of hurry up and wait and although we were told we'd be getting on the boat at 9am we didn't leave till closer to noon. The boa was soooooo packed- probably close to a hundred people- and I managed to find a seat on a wooden bench next to another Canadian named Thad. Although it was a long uncomfortable ride, day one proved fairly entertaining between watching the other teacellwrs fall victim to too many Laos beer and playing cards. There was one gut travelling we nicknamed mr. Stinky who is worth an honourable mention- 60+ years old, looking grey hair and beard, no shoes, dirty clothes he wire for 3 days straight and the WORST B.O. IMAGINEABLE!!!!
We stopped for one night at a small village in between huay xai and luang probang and had an uncomfortable nights sleep before getting on the boat for day 2 of the long trek down the meykhong. Day 2 was much more comfortable as we were lucky enough to get on a second boat that was chartered for the day so there was way more room and everyone had a seat. We arrived in luang probang around 6pm and began the long sweaty walk to find a hostel. It took forever as many places were full but eventually we got a tuk tuk to take me and a couple people I met on the boat to a hostel with room.
Yesterday I went to some nearby waterfalls for a few hours and swam in them. It was grrrrreat!! There was a rope swing from a tree that I flew on and got a funny picture of me mud flight with a look of horror on my face. After the falls I had long shower and had dinner. Then I had a Laos massage for $5.... Heavenly. I'm gonna miss my massages when I get home that's for sure!!
Today thad and I did a walk up mount phousi (pronounced like the female body part) and saw some amazing views and temples up there. Luang prabang is an unesco world herratige sight, and I saw it. That's two including borobrudur in Indo... No big deal. ;-) after the long HOT hike we met a guy from the states and grabbed some homemade icecream!! Sooo good! After that I went and explored the night market here which is fabulous and nurses some dehydration at a nearby coffee shop. I also bought a bag full of books and crayons wwritten in English and Laos that I am bringing to a small villiate up north tomorrow to give to some local kids. I'm pretty excited about that.
Tomorrow I'm getting ip at 5am to watch the monks have their morning parade here and then I am atchibg my bus to go north. Probably won't have Internet access for a bit- but who knows!! This place is closing now so I gotta run!! There is a midnight curfew here so everything closed around 10:30. Fun. Hope all is well with everyone!! Sorry I don't have more time for blogging and emailing. Love ya!!
Once that was sorted I had a very disturbing squatty potty experience and then went to wait for the slowwwww boat. It was a day of hurry up and wait and although we were told we'd be getting on the boat at 9am we didn't leave till closer to noon. The boa was soooooo packed- probably close to a hundred people- and I managed to find a seat on a wooden bench next to another Canadian named Thad. Although it was a long uncomfortable ride, day one proved fairly entertaining between watching the other teacellwrs fall victim to too many Laos beer and playing cards. There was one gut travelling we nicknamed mr. Stinky who is worth an honourable mention- 60+ years old, looking grey hair and beard, no shoes, dirty clothes he wire for 3 days straight and the WORST B.O. IMAGINEABLE!!!!
We stopped for one night at a small village in between huay xai and luang probang and had an uncomfortable nights sleep before getting on the boat for day 2 of the long trek down the meykhong. Day 2 was much more comfortable as we were lucky enough to get on a second boat that was chartered for the day so there was way more room and everyone had a seat. We arrived in luang probang around 6pm and began the long sweaty walk to find a hostel. It took forever as many places were full but eventually we got a tuk tuk to take me and a couple people I met on the boat to a hostel with room.
Yesterday I went to some nearby waterfalls for a few hours and swam in them. It was grrrrreat!! There was a rope swing from a tree that I flew on and got a funny picture of me mud flight with a look of horror on my face. After the falls I had long shower and had dinner. Then I had a Laos massage for $5.... Heavenly. I'm gonna miss my massages when I get home that's for sure!!
Today thad and I did a walk up mount phousi (pronounced like the female body part) and saw some amazing views and temples up there. Luang prabang is an unesco world herratige sight, and I saw it. That's two including borobrudur in Indo... No big deal. ;-) after the long HOT hike we met a guy from the states and grabbed some homemade icecream!! Sooo good! After that I went and explored the night market here which is fabulous and nurses some dehydration at a nearby coffee shop. I also bought a bag full of books and crayons wwritten in English and Laos that I am bringing to a small villiate up north tomorrow to give to some local kids. I'm pretty excited about that.
Tomorrow I'm getting ip at 5am to watch the monks have their morning parade here and then I am atchibg my bus to go north. Probably won't have Internet access for a bit- but who knows!! This place is closing now so I gotta run!! There is a midnight curfew here so everything closed around 10:30. Fun. Hope all is well with everyone!! Sorry I don't have more time for blogging and emailing. Love ya!!
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Bangkok- Chiang Mai- Chaing khong
We arrived in Bangkok around 11am and grabbed a taxi to the famous Kho Saan road. We checked into a crappy hostel there and set out on our Bangkok shopping adventure. I found loads of cool odds and ends there and kris got a bunch of tshirts but we could not find any cool knock off purses!! We looked EVERYWHERE! We had two funny tuk tuk experiences in bangkok while shopping.. The first one we grabbed avcidently popped a giant wheelie at a stop light and the second broke down for about ten minutes on the side if the road.. Finally we gave up looking and retired for a long night of listening to drunk people sung karaoke on kho saan rd while we tried to sleep. The next day we went to Chinatown and it checked out theives market. We figures this would be a likely place to find purses- but still we had no luck!! Eventually we asked someone who led us through about 4 stores deep into the market until we were basically in the basement if someone's house. There we could look at purses on a laptop and the. The little Thai guy would run upstairs and retrieve the one we wanted to see. Sooooooo dodgy!! We wound up going upstairs to his storage locker and ruffling through them all till we found a couple we wanted. Too funny!! They were super good quality though and resonanly priced!! Later that day we went to a buddist temple to see the famous recooning budda. A plaster statue covered in gold leaf if budda about to lay down and enter nirvana. It was HUGE!! about 20m long and 7m tall. After that we went back to kho saan and got our things together to catch a taxi to the airport. We made it to our flight on time and arrived in chiang mai around ten at night.
our first day in chiang mai we went to the tiager park where kris and I both snuggled up to baby lions names ben and dave (hahaha) and 3 600lb tigers. It was pretty intimidating but cool. We also went to the snake farm and saw a show with a cobra an annaconda and Thai jumping snakes!! I even held one of the Thai jumping snakes but kris was too scared. To his credit he did mister the courage to pet the cobra though... And so did the eight year old girl beside us. Not that anyone's judging ;-). Later that day I got heat stroke and spent the rest of the night in migraine and nausea hell. Not fun.
The next day we walked around chiang mai aimlessly checking out a few markets and relaxed in the sweltering heat. Kris jumped out of a tuk tuk and hurt his ankle so we laid pretty low. We did make it to the night market that night though which was pretty cool!! I bought a bunch of knock off necklaces there and some other gifts etc.
On our last day in chiang mai we had faaaantastic Thai massages and got organized for kris to catch his flight home. He left around nine pm and this morning I caught a mini bus to chiang khong which is where I am now. Tomorrow I am going to Laos by slowboat and will end up in luang probang after 2 long days. Sorry to keep this so short but I gotta make it back to my hostel to catch dinner at 7... Update soon and will add more details to this when I get a chance. HOLLA!!
our first day in chiang mai we went to the tiager park where kris and I both snuggled up to baby lions names ben and dave (hahaha) and 3 600lb tigers. It was pretty intimidating but cool. We also went to the snake farm and saw a show with a cobra an annaconda and Thai jumping snakes!! I even held one of the Thai jumping snakes but kris was too scared. To his credit he did mister the courage to pet the cobra though... And so did the eight year old girl beside us. Not that anyone's judging ;-). Later that day I got heat stroke and spent the rest of the night in migraine and nausea hell. Not fun.
The next day we walked around chiang mai aimlessly checking out a few markets and relaxed in the sweltering heat. Kris jumped out of a tuk tuk and hurt his ankle so we laid pretty low. We did make it to the night market that night though which was pretty cool!! I bought a bunch of knock off necklaces there and some other gifts etc.
On our last day in chiang mai we had faaaantastic Thai massages and got organized for kris to catch his flight home. He left around nine pm and this morning I caught a mini bus to chiang khong which is where I am now. Tomorrow I am going to Laos by slowboat and will end up in luang probang after 2 long days. Sorry to keep this so short but I gotta make it back to my hostel to catch dinner at 7... Update soon and will add more details to this when I get a chance. HOLLA!!
Friday, July 17, 2009
Paradise- Bangkok - Singapore- Bangkok in 48 hours .
36 hours of travel adventure/misery starts now: we boarded the bus in Ko Phangnan and took a 4 hour ferry to Surat Thani on the mainland. We drove for a couple hours and then pulled into a stop where we were given 20 minutes to eat some dodgy Thai food for dinner. Then we got back on the bus and settled in for a loooooooong journey. Around midnight I finally passed out and woke up 7 hours later at a large bus station in Bangkok. We sat around at the bus station trying to figure out where in the city we were, and whether we should spend the day in Bangkok at the famout chateaushack market, or if we should go to the airport and either get our visas extended or fly out of the country. Eventually we decided to go to the airport and hopped in a cab. Once we arrived, with sugar coated fantasies of having one of those ultra cool from the movies experiences where you show up at the airport and score a wicked price for a ticket to the most amazing country ever, we quickly realized this would be the day from h e double hockey sticks (edited for my mom).
First we tried to extend our visas with Thai immigration. After walking the length if BKK twice being referred back and firth by different agencies we were told it was not possible to extend our visas and we must leave the country before they expired the next day or risk running into heavy fines/being arrested if we didn't. This is when we learned a valuable lesson in the supply and demand principle of economics. We needed to book a flight- the airport knew that we needed a flight- therefore the return flights we had found online the day before for 1200 baht ($40) were now being offered ONE WAY for 16,000 baht. No dice. Eventually we paid $10/hr to find and book two return flights to Singapore for 10,000 baht. Still a rip off, but it was the best we could do.... The only catch was in order to book online we had to get a flight leaving at 7pm which meant 7 more painful hours waiting in BKK. Ugh. To compound this aggrivation we were not allowed to check in, store our bags, or enter the main part if the airport with all the shopping and restaurants until 3 hours before our flight. Boourns. Anyhoooo, somehow we made it through the day without killling eachother, or any airport authorities, and we finally arrived in Singapore around 9pm.
We booked a hotel online in Singapore and took the MRT subway to get most if the way there before catching a cab for the last few blocks. We FINALLY made it to our hotel room, flopped on the bed, and exhaled after the longest day ever.
We slept for 6 hours and then got up to start our Tour de Singapore race against time. We started the day back at the MRT where we snagged some baked goods for breaky before heading to bustling china town. We poked around in some alleys and ate Singapore McDonalds for lunch, then got back on the MRT and a bus to the Singapore zoo. The zoo was amazing!!! It has an open concept so you feel like you're getting up close and personal with all the animals (except the ones you don't want to be too friendly with like cheetas and stuff) and they do feedings you can watch too. We saw the orangutangs being fed right in front of us-touchable close- and we also watched them feed the polar bears. The polar bear feeding was incredible. The bears are massive but super graceful underwater. They also threw a live fish in the tank an let the bear hunt it down. It was pretty cool. We also saw zebras, gireafes, hippos, monkeys, kamoto dragons, lions, and snakes.
After the zoo we high tailed it back down to southern Singapore to hint Sentosa island- a hybrid Disney/Vegas theme park island with hotels, resorts, and park attractions. The island is only 2/3 developed and will be completed in 2010 but the show "songs of the sea" was recommended so we went to that. It was cool, in it's own way, but also awkwardly "Asian" (sailor moon, hello kitty, kinda cheesy and tacky). It was basically a laser and water show with some weird Asian lip synching mixed in. We left not being sure if we were laughing with it, or at it. But in any case the special effects were neat to see.
The next day we caught about 4 hours sleep before catching our flight back to Bangkok. It was a long crazy journey but we really enjoyed Singapore and were granted 30 day visas upon entry to thailand. Mission accomplished. :-)
First we tried to extend our visas with Thai immigration. After walking the length if BKK twice being referred back and firth by different agencies we were told it was not possible to extend our visas and we must leave the country before they expired the next day or risk running into heavy fines/being arrested if we didn't. This is when we learned a valuable lesson in the supply and demand principle of economics. We needed to book a flight- the airport knew that we needed a flight- therefore the return flights we had found online the day before for 1200 baht ($40) were now being offered ONE WAY for 16,000 baht. No dice. Eventually we paid $10/hr to find and book two return flights to Singapore for 10,000 baht. Still a rip off, but it was the best we could do.... The only catch was in order to book online we had to get a flight leaving at 7pm which meant 7 more painful hours waiting in BKK. Ugh. To compound this aggrivation we were not allowed to check in, store our bags, or enter the main part if the airport with all the shopping and restaurants until 3 hours before our flight. Boourns. Anyhoooo, somehow we made it through the day without killling eachother, or any airport authorities, and we finally arrived in Singapore around 9pm.
We booked a hotel online in Singapore and took the MRT subway to get most if the way there before catching a cab for the last few blocks. We FINALLY made it to our hotel room, flopped on the bed, and exhaled after the longest day ever.
We slept for 6 hours and then got up to start our Tour de Singapore race against time. We started the day back at the MRT where we snagged some baked goods for breaky before heading to bustling china town. We poked around in some alleys and ate Singapore McDonalds for lunch, then got back on the MRT and a bus to the Singapore zoo. The zoo was amazing!!! It has an open concept so you feel like you're getting up close and personal with all the animals (except the ones you don't want to be too friendly with like cheetas and stuff) and they do feedings you can watch too. We saw the orangutangs being fed right in front of us-touchable close- and we also watched them feed the polar bears. The polar bear feeding was incredible. The bears are massive but super graceful underwater. They also threw a live fish in the tank an let the bear hunt it down. It was pretty cool. We also saw zebras, gireafes, hippos, monkeys, kamoto dragons, lions, and snakes.
After the zoo we high tailed it back down to southern Singapore to hint Sentosa island- a hybrid Disney/Vegas theme park island with hotels, resorts, and park attractions. The island is only 2/3 developed and will be completed in 2010 but the show "songs of the sea" was recommended so we went to that. It was cool, in it's own way, but also awkwardly "Asian" (sailor moon, hello kitty, kinda cheesy and tacky). It was basically a laser and water show with some weird Asian lip synching mixed in. We left not being sure if we were laughing with it, or at it. But in any case the special effects were neat to see.
The next day we caught about 4 hours sleep before catching our flight back to Bangkok. It was a long crazy journey but we really enjoyed Singapore and were granted 30 day visas upon entry to thailand. Mission accomplished. :-)
Ko Phi Phi - Krabi - Ko Samui - Ko Phangnan
Oh man... I just realized how behind I am on the blog front!!! Yeesh.. I guess when I was travelling alone I had more time on my hands to keep up with these things. Since I last updated we have travelled from Ko Phi Phi- Krabi - Ko Samui- Ko Phangnan- Bangkok- Singapore- Bangkok- Chang Mai!!!!! I'll start with the first part and cover off all the Ko's (which means island in Thai).
So... We left Ko Phi Phi on a boat trip and headed to the city of Krabi where we caught a plane to Ko Samui, an island on the East side of Thailand. We spent 3 days in Samui, which in hindsight was a bit too long since the weather wasn't great, but we enjoyed lazing by the pool when the sun was out and checking out the shops or grabbing a bite to eat when the monsoon made an appearance. Evenings on Ko Samui were a trip... The streets were crowded with people, vendors, and crazy hawkers with gibbons monkeys, boa constrictors, and iguannas that would try and haggle you for money for a photo with their exotic pet. The monkeys were especially creepy with their long slender humanesque hands and creepy baby faces. While I was walking past one of them the handler pushed the monkey towards me and it jumped off and flung it's arms around my neck. Instinctively I put my hands out to catch it and felt it's butthole resting on my arm- this is when I began to freak out and asked the guy to get it off if me... While I'm running around trying to get it off while the handler and kris stand there laughing at me, another handler came up behind kris and plopped a boa around his neck!!! For anyone who knows kris, he's petrofied of snakes and spiders, so he started freaking out and yelling at the handler GET IT OFF ME OR ILL CHUCK IT ON THE GROUND!! I was laughing at kris, he was still laughing at me, and both handlers were killing themselves laughing until kris made a move to grab the boa off him and the guy finally realized he was serious and took both animals off us. Needless to say, I'd have paid ten bucks for some candid camera footage of that. Later on we were walking around to find some street meat and another monkey grabbed my arm from behind me and scared me to death- there was screaming and jumping involved on my part, and a lot if laughter from kris. The whole time I kept wishing my mom was there cause she would have sharted herself if a monkey touched her.
After our time in Samui we took another boat to Ko Phangnan- home of the full moon party. We were referred to a FANTASTIC hostel by a girl kris met in Victoria. The hostel was on the northern part of the island, called Haad Yao, at a hostel called Shiraleah. It had sweet bungalows, a pool, and a dive shop for only 500 Baht (about $15). Our second day there we went scuba diving at Sail rock. We did two dives and saw several hundred thousand fishies. I'm not even kidding... Even though the visability was kinda crappy that day, there were more fish out than I've ever seen before. An entire school of baracudas swam by us, and we saw a HUGE grabber fish- probably 80lbs or more and a giant eel. The next day we ventured to Haad Rin for the full moon party. It was a circus. Everyone there was drunk, on mushrooms, ecstasy, or in some cases on all 3. We got there pretty late so it was a pretty rough scene. People were passed out everywhere, dancing and sweating up a storm, urinating in the ocean, and starring into space..... needless to say, we didn't quite fit in with our mild chang beer and cosmo buzz and left shortly after we got there. The next day was spent poolside while we laughed at everyone else having epic hangovers. Some of them were still up partying when we woke up at 11am so you can imagine the shape they were in by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Hahaha better them than me. Plus, it would have been a waaaaay more painful experience for kris to get a thai bamboo tattoo if he were fighting the 26oz flu...
We felt as though we could have lived at Shiralea for a month, but sadly we had to get moving to Bangkok cause our 15 day visas were expiring. The next day we shed a tear as we left our favorite hostel to date and said goodbye to "sticky island" (named so because it's hard to leave) and boarded a bus to make the EPIC journey to Bangkok. This experience I will cover in my next post, cause it's a story in itself.
So... We left Ko Phi Phi on a boat trip and headed to the city of Krabi where we caught a plane to Ko Samui, an island on the East side of Thailand. We spent 3 days in Samui, which in hindsight was a bit too long since the weather wasn't great, but we enjoyed lazing by the pool when the sun was out and checking out the shops or grabbing a bite to eat when the monsoon made an appearance. Evenings on Ko Samui were a trip... The streets were crowded with people, vendors, and crazy hawkers with gibbons monkeys, boa constrictors, and iguannas that would try and haggle you for money for a photo with their exotic pet. The monkeys were especially creepy with their long slender humanesque hands and creepy baby faces. While I was walking past one of them the handler pushed the monkey towards me and it jumped off and flung it's arms around my neck. Instinctively I put my hands out to catch it and felt it's butthole resting on my arm- this is when I began to freak out and asked the guy to get it off if me... While I'm running around trying to get it off while the handler and kris stand there laughing at me, another handler came up behind kris and plopped a boa around his neck!!! For anyone who knows kris, he's petrofied of snakes and spiders, so he started freaking out and yelling at the handler GET IT OFF ME OR ILL CHUCK IT ON THE GROUND!! I was laughing at kris, he was still laughing at me, and both handlers were killing themselves laughing until kris made a move to grab the boa off him and the guy finally realized he was serious and took both animals off us. Needless to say, I'd have paid ten bucks for some candid camera footage of that. Later on we were walking around to find some street meat and another monkey grabbed my arm from behind me and scared me to death- there was screaming and jumping involved on my part, and a lot if laughter from kris. The whole time I kept wishing my mom was there cause she would have sharted herself if a monkey touched her.
After our time in Samui we took another boat to Ko Phangnan- home of the full moon party. We were referred to a FANTASTIC hostel by a girl kris met in Victoria. The hostel was on the northern part of the island, called Haad Yao, at a hostel called Shiraleah. It had sweet bungalows, a pool, and a dive shop for only 500 Baht (about $15). Our second day there we went scuba diving at Sail rock. We did two dives and saw several hundred thousand fishies. I'm not even kidding... Even though the visability was kinda crappy that day, there were more fish out than I've ever seen before. An entire school of baracudas swam by us, and we saw a HUGE grabber fish- probably 80lbs or more and a giant eel. The next day we ventured to Haad Rin for the full moon party. It was a circus. Everyone there was drunk, on mushrooms, ecstasy, or in some cases on all 3. We got there pretty late so it was a pretty rough scene. People were passed out everywhere, dancing and sweating up a storm, urinating in the ocean, and starring into space..... needless to say, we didn't quite fit in with our mild chang beer and cosmo buzz and left shortly after we got there. The next day was spent poolside while we laughed at everyone else having epic hangovers. Some of them were still up partying when we woke up at 11am so you can imagine the shape they were in by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Hahaha better them than me. Plus, it would have been a waaaaay more painful experience for kris to get a thai bamboo tattoo if he were fighting the 26oz flu...
We felt as though we could have lived at Shiralea for a month, but sadly we had to get moving to Bangkok cause our 15 day visas were expiring. The next day we shed a tear as we left our favorite hostel to date and said goodbye to "sticky island" (named so because it's hard to leave) and boarded a bus to make the EPIC journey to Bangkok. This experience I will cover in my next post, cause it's a story in itself.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Malaysia - Thailand... high speed chases, ladyboys, and HAWT HAWT HEAT!
We checked out of the bug hotel, and found a small 4 door car-sans trunk- awaiting us to drive us to the ferry terminal... there were already 2 large french men inside, and squeezing Kris, me, and our luggage made us look remarkably like a circus clown car... We boarded our ferry and hunkered down for the two hour trip to Thailand. When we arrived, being the docile Canadians we are, we allowed everyone, and their dogs, to bypass us in the line, and eventually found ourselves the last two people to clear customs... We eventually got our stamps, and headed for our "bus" which ended up being a 1984 Nissan pickup truck with 2 dodgy benches in the box for us to sit on. We were quite confused at first since we were promised an air conditioned coach to Phuket for the 6 hour drive when we booked our tickets... soon we realized this pickup was driving us to the bus depot where we would catch our actual bus. We arrived at the bus depot just in time to see our bus leaving it!!!!!!! We shouted at the drivers, who spoke NO English, and they proceeded to doddle around the depot, dropping off the other two passengers in the truck at their bus. We heard them yelling at someone in Thai on a cell phone and the next thing we knew, Kris and I were on a high-speed chase through the streets of Satun trying to catch up with our bus.... In case you're envisioning a polished freeway high speed chase, think again! Satun is a very small village/border crossing city with single lane roads, a buttload of motorbikes, and equally as many dodgy pickups trying to pass each other at any given opportunity.... So... We eventually took some side-roads, and found ourselves driving behind the large pink bus that we were supposed to be on. Our drivers were honking madly, and swerving around trying to get the attention of the bus driver- but the driver was either A. not paying attention, or B. assuming there was some obnoxious prick behind him who merely wanted to pass.... The next red light we made a crazy S maneuver and sped up to pass the bus, while Kris and I waved and yelled at the driver of the bus from our seats (if you can call them that) in the back of the pickup until he finally pulled over. Then we proceeded to be "those ignorant ferengi's" who missed their bus and had to board on the side of the road. Whatever.
Once we had finally stopped laughing and found some seats on the bus, we spent the next 8 hours (Thai time for a 6 hour trip) listening to, and watching Thai-boy music videos playing on the TV screen at the front of the bus, and blasting over the MANY speakers scattered throughout... Kris wanted to lose his mind after about 2 hours... I wanted to barf. So, I took some gravol and road the sleepy train for the rest of the trip.
Eventually we got to Phuket (pronounced Poo-get... not Fuck-it) and entered into a lively discussion in regards to our taxi price to Patong beach... Eventually we bartered buddy down to 300 Baht and were on our way to the lady-boy hub. We checked into a super nice hotel, that we got for pretty cheap and went out for a walk about town before heading back for an early night.
The next day we spent about 6 hours at the beach- Kris got lobster red- and then we got tickets to see the Simon's Cabaret Ladyboy show.... Front row tickets- seriously. We saw nipple on more than one occasion, and Kris was scouring the crotch areas for tucks, and thinks he may have spotted a few, though I argue many were post-op. After the show, we headed outside, and were greeted by a parade of drag-queens who marched me down the street and asked if I wanted a picture... I, being the naive Rupert girl I am, was like SURE!! We handed off our camera to a lady-boy pimp and he took a couple photos of Kris and I with the ladies/men (Kris got kissed by one of them! HAHAHA). After the photo, their nice facade quickly melted away and they demanded we pay them 500 BAHT (about $15)!!! Kris was like NO WAY BITCHES, but ended up giving them 200 so they wouldn't sick their pimp on us... Lesson learned.. always ask HOW MUCH first.
On our last day in Phuket, Canada Day, we had another rough day at the beach, where Kris rode the shade train and got a Aloe Vera massage from a little Thai lady with a bucket of huge Aloe leaves. In the evening, we slapped on one temporary Canadian flag tattoos, and wondered around the streets, being haggled by every other Thai person we passed before seriously considering buying the t-shirts they had available that said NO I DON'T WANT A FUCKING TUK TUK, MASSAGE, or SUIT!!
Yesterday, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the ferry to go to Ko Phi Phi, where the movie The Beach was filmed. It's sooooooo gorgeous here, and basically the most stressful part of any day includes waking up in time for breakfast (before 10), finding a lounge chair, and bartering for the best price on a new t-shirt/dress/bikini. My kind of life!
Last night we had dinner, and then watched some authentic Thai boxing that was going on at one of the bars that literally had a boxing ring in the middle of it. They started with tourists having a go at one another with leg, and face padding... then around midnight they brought out the real deal... INSANE. The boxers wore no face or leg protection and their kicks were about the speed of a professional baseball player swinging a baseball bat to hit a home run.... at one point, the guy wearing red jumped up and actually knocked the other guy flat on his back using his groin. After 4 redbull vodka's Kris was jumping out of his seat every other kick/punch saying WHAAAAAAT??? THAT WAS LIKE THE COOLEST MOVE EVER.... OH MY GOD... NO WAIT, THAAAAAAAAT WAS THE COOLEST MOVE EVER.... you get the idea. Eventually the guy wearing red sustained two serious kicks to the face and got knocked out which indicated the end of the match- we were mildly surprised they didn't fight to the death, cause it was looking that way about half way through....
After the fight, we got some street meat, and headed for the beach to watch some fire dancing. Now... take every smokey the bear safety warning message you ever heard growing up and make it the complete opposite- that is what you will find on the beach. Drunken tourists getting free BUCKETS (literally beach buckets) filled with booze for free every hour during ten minute intervals, followed by drunken skipping- with a rope that is on fire, and then the climax of rewarding drunk tourists who jump through a fire ring with more shots of alcohol if they survive it without any burns. It was a pretty entertaining social experiment to watch actually.
Anyhoooo, It's 3pm here which means it's about time for our ocean swim/nap/afternoon suntan session before we have to go get ready to watch the sunset...
Tomorrow we're taking a ferry to Krabi, and then flying to Ko Samui, on the East Coast of Southern Thailand, where we will snorkel/scuba a bit before heading to Ko Phang Yan for the Full Moon Party on July 9th. Miss you all loads!! E-mail me and let me know what's new in the zoooooo.... HOLLA! xo
Once we had finally stopped laughing and found some seats on the bus, we spent the next 8 hours (Thai time for a 6 hour trip) listening to, and watching Thai-boy music videos playing on the TV screen at the front of the bus, and blasting over the MANY speakers scattered throughout... Kris wanted to lose his mind after about 2 hours... I wanted to barf. So, I took some gravol and road the sleepy train for the rest of the trip.
Eventually we got to Phuket (pronounced Poo-get... not Fuck-it) and entered into a lively discussion in regards to our taxi price to Patong beach... Eventually we bartered buddy down to 300 Baht and were on our way to the lady-boy hub. We checked into a super nice hotel, that we got for pretty cheap and went out for a walk about town before heading back for an early night.
The next day we spent about 6 hours at the beach- Kris got lobster red- and then we got tickets to see the Simon's Cabaret Ladyboy show.... Front row tickets- seriously. We saw nipple on more than one occasion, and Kris was scouring the crotch areas for tucks, and thinks he may have spotted a few, though I argue many were post-op. After the show, we headed outside, and were greeted by a parade of drag-queens who marched me down the street and asked if I wanted a picture... I, being the naive Rupert girl I am, was like SURE!! We handed off our camera to a lady-boy pimp and he took a couple photos of Kris and I with the ladies/men (Kris got kissed by one of them! HAHAHA). After the photo, their nice facade quickly melted away and they demanded we pay them 500 BAHT (about $15)!!! Kris was like NO WAY BITCHES, but ended up giving them 200 so they wouldn't sick their pimp on us... Lesson learned.. always ask HOW MUCH first.
On our last day in Phuket, Canada Day, we had another rough day at the beach, where Kris rode the shade train and got a Aloe Vera massage from a little Thai lady with a bucket of huge Aloe leaves. In the evening, we slapped on one temporary Canadian flag tattoos, and wondered around the streets, being haggled by every other Thai person we passed before seriously considering buying the t-shirts they had available that said NO I DON'T WANT A FUCKING TUK TUK, MASSAGE, or SUIT!!
Yesterday, we checked out of our hotel and headed to the ferry to go to Ko Phi Phi, where the movie The Beach was filmed. It's sooooooo gorgeous here, and basically the most stressful part of any day includes waking up in time for breakfast (before 10), finding a lounge chair, and bartering for the best price on a new t-shirt/dress/bikini. My kind of life!
Last night we had dinner, and then watched some authentic Thai boxing that was going on at one of the bars that literally had a boxing ring in the middle of it. They started with tourists having a go at one another with leg, and face padding... then around midnight they brought out the real deal... INSANE. The boxers wore no face or leg protection and their kicks were about the speed of a professional baseball player swinging a baseball bat to hit a home run.... at one point, the guy wearing red jumped up and actually knocked the other guy flat on his back using his groin. After 4 redbull vodka's Kris was jumping out of his seat every other kick/punch saying WHAAAAAAT??? THAT WAS LIKE THE COOLEST MOVE EVER.... OH MY GOD... NO WAIT, THAAAAAAAAT WAS THE COOLEST MOVE EVER.... you get the idea. Eventually the guy wearing red sustained two serious kicks to the face and got knocked out which indicated the end of the match- we were mildly surprised they didn't fight to the death, cause it was looking that way about half way through....
After the fight, we got some street meat, and headed for the beach to watch some fire dancing. Now... take every smokey the bear safety warning message you ever heard growing up and make it the complete opposite- that is what you will find on the beach. Drunken tourists getting free BUCKETS (literally beach buckets) filled with booze for free every hour during ten minute intervals, followed by drunken skipping- with a rope that is on fire, and then the climax of rewarding drunk tourists who jump through a fire ring with more shots of alcohol if they survive it without any burns. It was a pretty entertaining social experiment to watch actually.
Anyhoooo, It's 3pm here which means it's about time for our ocean swim/nap/afternoon suntan session before we have to go get ready to watch the sunset...
Tomorrow we're taking a ferry to Krabi, and then flying to Ko Samui, on the East Coast of Southern Thailand, where we will snorkel/scuba a bit before heading to Ko Phang Yan for the Full Moon Party on July 9th. Miss you all loads!! E-mail me and let me know what's new in the zoooooo.... HOLLA! xo
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