Thailand trip

Bangkok

Hotter Than Hell!

We arrived at Bangkok about 7:00pm and got a bus to the famous
backpacker area, Koasan road about and hour and a half away. The air out side
was still very hot and muggy. When we got there it was packed with travelers
(even though it was the low season) and the streets were lined with markets
selling all sorts of fake goods and food,
including Scorpions, various grubs, grasshoppers, frogs etc. But it was so
hot so I was feeling very weak. We found a place to stay for about $4au but
the air con didn't work, no TV and not even any windows. Just a hard bed and
a fan that just stirred up the stuffy hot air. We went exploring the markets
for a few hours finding all sorts of amazing things. I could have spent so
much already but wanted to find a post office first so we could send our stuff
back to Japan. Found a great massage place, 180 baht ($5au) for an hour foot
and body massage. It was very good but hurt quite a bit at times. After that
we went for a crappy warm beer and went back to our "jail sell"
for a cold shower. Now I'm sitting in our room sweating my ass off again while
writing this. Not sure what we will do tomorrow. Must find the bloody Post
Office!

27/4: Well finally got to sleep around 4ish this morning.
Got about 3 hours sleep and up again to 40 degree temperatures. We went straight
out to find a new place to stay one more night before we will head down to
the south of Thailand to the province of Krabi. Found a nice looking place
called Kaosan Plaza. It cost about 600baht, a bit expensive but very big,
clean, normal toilet and shower, cable TV and a pool on the roof. It felt
like a luxury 5 star hotel after last night anyway so I was not concerned
with the money. After checking in we went of and found the Post Office. Then
we went to see some temples. At the first one just at the end of our road
there was a guy outside waving for us to come in. We were reluctant because
they usually are trying to sell us something we didn't want or he's going
to charge us an arm and a leg to get in we thought. But he said it was free
and that he would show us the way to another big Buddha after we had finished
at this one. Quite amazing in side, Gold everywhere and lots of Buddhas as
you would imagine.

After we came out he met us again. I was still sure that he was trying to
sell us something or would be getting commission from somewhere that he was
trying to get us to visit, but after talking to him for about 10 minuets,
found that he was very nice. He told us that he was a Buddhist and that he
worked at the temple. He gave us lots of great hints and tips for everything
from which travel agency to use, to which Tuk Tuk (3 wheeled motorbike taxis)
to hire and avoid. After the chat he wandered out side with us and flagged
down a Tuk Tuk driver for us and bargained a good price with him and told
him exactly the places that we wanted to visit and that he must not take us
on the regular tourist diversions to the jewelry and tailor made suit shops.
The two must unlikely things you would want to buy on a holiday. The drivers
usually try and take visitors to these places because they can get petrol
vouchers from the owners of the Suit shops when they bring travelers for a
look. So anyway off we went, he was a pretty good guy. We went straight to

the places we wanted to visit then he would wait outside for us, "take
you time" he kept telling us. After about 2 hours of going all over the
place seeing the sights, he dropped us back to our hotel, all for only 100
baht (about $3.50au) not bad! The rest of the day was spent on the roof of
our hotel in the pool and out looking at some shops. Tonight's sleep was heaven
compared to last night. Ohh air conditioning!!

Bus to Krabi day

We got on our double decker bus around 6pm for our 14 hour
trip to the south of Thailand. But had to wait till midnight for our first
break so we could stock up on food, drinks and have a ciggy. Watched a movie
on the bus and slept as much as possible. Finally got to Krabi at 8am the
next day and it was already bloody hot. The place where the bus dropped us
off seemed to be in the middle of no where. Only one small tour office and
a small restaurant. Decided to stay at Krabi beach in bungalows for the first
night before heading to Railay for the better beaches and climbing tomorrow.
They told us that a mini bus would be coming for us shortly to take us to
our home for the night. After about 30 mins and watching a few other mini
busses come and go, an old Ute came in and stopped. "Ok every one for
Krabi beach bungalow, get in!" Not quite the transport were expecting.
About 7 of us
climbed in the back of the Ute with our backpacks squeezed between us and
off we went holding on to the sides tight as our driver speeded off down the
road. No Police seemed to mind that we were all riding in the back, nor that
our speed must have been at least 30km over the speed limit. It was not uncommon
to see whole family's all riding together on one small motor scooter, including
young kids and all with no helmets. The ride took around 30 minuets, on the
way driving past some awesome towering rock walls.



Our place for the night was very peaceful. Just the sound of the ocean, birds
and the geckos. We had the beach pretty much just to ourselves as there were
not many people staying there. So we went swimming and met some of the other
travelers. Later on we went for another ride in the Ute to see some "beautiful"
swimming hole that the owner of the place recommended to us. It only cost
100 baht each so we thought it should be good value for a bit of fun. After
only 10 in into our ride the weather quickly changed from sunny to dark clouds,
thunder and very heavy rain. We all got soaking wet and the speed of the car
made the rain feel like hundreds of needles poking at us. By the time we got
there were all shivering and hungry, not at all interested in the swimming
hole. We got some food from the small village markets and huddled under whatever
shelter we could find while we ate our corn on the cobs and whole chicken
legs, with feet included.


After awhile the rain eased a bit so we walked down to see what this swimming
place was all about. Again not quite what we were expecting, just lots of
mangroves and a small creek filled with muddy water. There were only a few
of the village kids playing in the water so I got some photos and headed back
for shelter again.

The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming back at Krabi beach, eating,
drinking and chatting with the others. Our toilets in our bungalows were a
bit confusing on first sight, a squatting style with no toilet paper and no
flushing buttons of any kind. Just a bucket of water sitting next to it. We
found out that you are not meant to put toilet paper into the toilets because
their treatment plants (if any) are not have the technology needed to dissolve
the paper. And to flush we had to manually pour water from the bucket into
the toilet, quite a messy and frustrating task at night time when you have
to hold a torch at the same time.

Railay
Beach

Next morning we got a long tail boat to Railay Beach and the
home of some of the best Rock Climbing and beaches
in the world. We pulled into an awesome beach with rock walls rising all around
us in a horse shoe shape. We hunted around for a place to stay for a while
before getting a nice bungalow made from bamboo, wood and banana leaves. Railay
is like a beach resort town, lots of restaurants and climbing shops dotted
around the area. We met some interesting people, all very friendly. Went sun
baking and exploring the place. Cats everywhere! At night there was fire stick
dances and man made climbing walls next to the out door pubs and lots of loud
music.


The next day we went climbing with 2 guys we met, a French guy named John
who was living in Bangkok and a Thai fellow who's name I cant remember. Did
some really good climbs of medium difficulty but quite long at 30m high and
overhanging slightly. As we were climbing we would be sweating profusely and
stinging our eyes, but when we rubbed them the climbing chalk from our hands
mixed with the sweat turned to a sticky paste like substance.


At night we went out for a seafood dinner and a movie. Had some drinks and
had a climb on of the man made wall with drunkards all around cheering and
clapping as I got to the top. Did some more climbing in the days following
and lots of beach time. On our last night in Railay we got to see an awesome
sunset as we ate and drank at one of the beach side restaurants.

Koh Phi Phi 5/5

Got a 1 and half boat trip to Koh Phi Phi island today. On
the way we saw the island where "The Beach" was filmed. Phi Phi
(pronounced pee pee) has the most amazing water I've ever seen (no pun intended),
but also a lot more people here than Railay. Dive shops every where and people
selling fake DVDs and CDs all over the place. Also lots of people coming up
to us with photos of the hotels they recommended for us or snorkeling trips
they were working for. As you walk around all you hear is "boat mister?"
"hey where you going?" "Massage?" "Place to
stay?" "Boat boat!!" Found a small place to sleep, only a fan
so was a bit hot but at least it had a shower, toilet and a window. Although
a sign next to the toilet read don't put tissue into the toilet! What are
we supposed to do with it? I thought. Next day we went on a full day snorkeling
tour around the various islands, the first of witch was at Koh Phi Phi Lay
the island where the movie "The Beach" was filmed. The visibility
in the water was amazing, up to 20 - 30m and hundreds of fish swimming all
around us. Diving down to the bottom revealed larger even more colourful fish
and corals. After that we went to Miya bay to see "the beach". But
the boat driver said we had to pay and extra 30baht each if we wanted to stop
on the beach, thinking that he was just trying to rip us off we declined and
headed off to another spot. We planed to go back early the next morning anyway
to get some better shots. The rest of the tour took us to some more snorkeling
places, though we had to get through some ruff seas first to get there. I
thought I would get sick from the small boat crashing into the waves and constantly
thinking how far it would be to swim to the closest island if the old wooden
boat fell apart. We made it to a few other islands, all very nice with very
few people on them, and continued snorkeling every so often before heading
back to Koh Phi Phi Don at the end of the day. The
next day was more climbing, this time 2 30m overhanging climbs. It felt like
the climb would never end and my arms were going to fall off. I fell of once
before getting to the top, again eyes stinging from the sweat/chalk mixture.



Tonight I went out for a foot & body massage. Lightning storms again.
Next morning got up at 6 to walk up to View Point for a great view of the
island and get some photos. After that it was back to Krabi by a big slow
boat, then on the bus back to Bangkok again.

Ayuthaya & Lop Buri

After one night back in Bangkok and our first room with air
conditioning for about a week we got on an old dodgy train headed for Ayuthaya,
about 150km north of Bangkok. As soon as we got off the train a guy came up
to us offering
to help us find a place to stay. So seen as we had no idea how to get into
town we took him up and he drove us into town on his tuk tuk. Our man turned
out to be quite nice and spoke pretty good English, unlike most of the other
drivers we had met. The place we found to spend the night was charging 500baht
but we talked them down to 350 for a big new room with air con, shower and
TV. After a shower we headed out to see the ruins. They were amazing and no
more then 5 other tourists around. The ruins date back from 1400ad . We continued
on into the night going around to many different places. Lots of touristy
markets all selling the same junk, usually some stuff carved from wood, many
large erect penises that were meant to bring good luck. After our private
tour we went exploring the night markets near our hotel by foot. Found a pizza
shop that had barbeque base pizza (my favorite) so couldn't resist as its
been about 2 years since my last one as they don't have them in Japan for
some reason, weird.

First thing in the morning we headed out again to see more
ruins. One that I was hanging to see and shoot was an old Buddha stone head
that a tree had grown over and around during the last few hundred years. It
was awesome to
see it at long last. Later in the day we said good bye to our tuk tuk mate
and Ayuthaya to head further north to the small town of Lop Buri, other wise

known as The Monkey City. I had seen this place on TV and was keen to see
what it was really like. It was so hot walking into the town from the train
station but we still declined the offers from the peddle cab drivers as we
figured it couldn't be that far before we started seeing the monkeys. After
a few mins walking and trying to ask directions by saying "monkey this
way?" we saw our first monkey climbing along the power lines, then more
and more appeared. Then they were every where, some racing up to you to see
what food you might have or climbing down lower so they could jump on you
trying to take our sunnys or hats. We found that they sometimes try to pull
on long hair as they have been known to use it as tooth floss.



Spent a few hours looking around the town and at an old temple with hundreds
of monkeys living in it. It was great, I was the only visitor there so it
was great for photos. Because the sun was cranking down so hard it made the
usually pleasurable past time of picture taking into a "couldn't be bothered"
chore. But I knew I had to get the shots now as there would not be another
chance this trip. So I set out with my trusty cameras, sweat in my eyes and
monkeys chasing me around. After a roll of film and filling all my remaining
digital camera cards we got back on the
old noisy train for Bangkok. Took about 3 and a half hours to get back.

Got back to Koasan road around 10ish. Very different to the
north and south, loud music cranking from every shop,
drunk travelers stumbling around, tuk tuks & Doots(transvestites or tranies)
every where. We found a pretty cheap place to stay the next 4 nights. Very
basic and small but had a TV, air con and shower/toilet, even a large steel
box for locking up your things when not in the room, which proved useful as
we would soon find out. The room was very noisy though as we were window opened
straight onto Kaosan road. A sign downstairs in the "lobby" reads
"If you break in the room, all the guests will be fine!" Perhaps
if I break dance in our room, the other guests will be ok? Hmm still doesn't
make sense. We also have a net caf? in the hotel boasting some of the worlds
slowest computers, and modems with speeds in excess of 5kb/s downloading capabilities.

Also inhabiting the hotel are more Doots right across the hall from us. They
are dodgy as dodgy can be. Sometimes when sitting in the room we would hear
somebody trying to open our door, when I checked who it was, sure enough,
these "tranie" hookers again. Today as we came back to our room
I noticed our door was open with one of the doots standing at the entrance.
When we confronted him/her, they just said that the door was already unlocked.
After debating that, that was not the point they just repeated "Oh I
don't know, is something missing?" I stood for a moment dumbfounded at
the excuse they came up with. So we told the manager and he had some words
with them. Luckily all our important things were well locked up. Each night
we would wake up at an ungodly hour to the sound of them yelling and banging
on each others doors, bringing in new unsuspecting customers. It was not uncommon
to see drunk guys walking
off with these "tranies" after a chat in the street, couldn't help
but laugh.

So it has been very interesting here in Thailand and China
but its time to head back to Hong Kong for one more day and then back to Japan
the day after that. Its been fun but will be happy to relax back home and
not have to think worry about finding a place to stay every night. Cant wait
to play with our new toys. Here's hoping the DVDs and Cds all work fine.