Month in Thailand
Updated March 6th, 2001
Sawatii! Our initial plan of going up the west coast of southern Thailand, to the island of Ko Samui, got scrapped after a brief conversation with an Aussie couple in a Penang café. It seems the monsoon had come to the west, so we headed east.
The border crossing from Malaysia to Thailand was made on a frightening minivan ride (what the Thais call a minibus). The jam-packed van ride was elbow-to-ear with people and luggage that kept rolling into the back of our heads. Once we crossed into Thailand the driver really dropped the pedal. We reached speeds that we never thought possible for a minivan and had many near misses with everything from stationery objects to cows, cars, pedestrians and scooters. We have come to learn that this is all in a day’s driving in Southeast Asia.
We reached Krabi, Thailand, in the early evening with a massive hunger. Fortunately, the night market by the Krabi pier is well known for its food stalls. We made haste and found ourselves enjoying wonderful Pad Thais and other concoctions of noodles and veggies.
The next morning we grabbed a songtheaw (mini pick-up with troop seats in the back) to Ao Nang Beach. The area around Ao Nang is surrounded by 400-foot-plus walls of towering limestone, and equally massive limestone formations are sprinkled through out the sea. The highlight of Ao Nang was taking a longtail boat (a long, wooden skiff with a canvas sun screen for the 8-10 seats; it is powered by a two-stroke engine brandishing a 10-foot-long propeller arm. The skipper of the boat steers with the propeller arm between his skinny legs) to Railey Beach where we rented a two-person kayak. We paddled around the limestone formations, through caves and ended up on a wonderfully semi-deserted beach that is only accessible by water.
Moving on from Ao Nang, we took an enjoyable ferry ride to the island of Ko Phi Phi Don. The crystal-clear water, long fine sand beaches and very accommodating village made Kho Phi Phi a tropical paradise. Although we made the mistake of staying in the village, we quickly found that a short walk away we could leave the town behind and listen to the distant longtail boats and the sound of the waves.
For a few days we basked/baked in the sun and cooled off in the very shallow tides. We treated ourselves to a full day snorkeling trip that took us to all of the area’s hot spots. We dropped anchor in the cove on Kho Phi Phi Ley (where the movie The Beach was filmed) to snorkel the clear water, visited an uninhabited island (Bamboo Island) where we found the most beautiful beach and azure water we have ever seen and found a few more brilliant snorkeling spots.
In stark contrast to Kho Phi Phi, we moved on to Ko Samui. Let’s just say we were unimpressed with the over-touristed, dingy island. After two days in Samui we escaped to the mainland and took a night train to Kanchanaburi. We rocked the night away in our very clean personal compartments; complete with pillow, woobie-like blanket and reading light.
Kanchanaburi is most famous for the long-gone bridge over the River Kwai. Although the real bridge is long gone, there is plenty of history left behind in the museums and the parts of the Death Railway that still exist. We took a day trip up the Death Railway, snaking our way toward the Thai/Burma border. This stretch of rail line is named as it is due to the amount of POWs who lost their lives building it during World War II. We were both shocked and amazed by the railway itself and the amount of people who lost their lives building the rail artery.
The northern city of Chiang Mai was our next major stop, after one night in the busy, unimpressive little town of Ayuttaha. Chiang Mai is one of those towns that should not be missed. The ancient walls that once surrounded the city have all but crumbled, but the moat remains. Although it is the second-largest city in Thailand it feels like a small town. During one of our walks around the city, we watched traditional Thai women dancers being photographed at an ancient Buddhist temple; we also fed fish in the moat, had dinner at a roadside food stall and bargained for a backgammon/checker board at the night bazaar.
The day trips are plentiful from Chiang Mai as well. We spent one afternoon in the Bo Sang area, window shopping and touring the factories of the World’s Largest Jewelry Store, lacquer shops, handmade wood furniture shops, and the infamous paper umbrella village – all the while wishing for the days when we’d have the money to buy some of these treasures.
Not having time to do a proper multi-day trek into the mountains, we opted for a day trek. Our day began with an elephant trek, which was very cool at first but turned a bit sour as we were subject to the jockey’s abuse of the animal. Some of the beatings were pretty severe. In spite of the seemingly thick skin on the animal, we both cringed at the sound of the jockey whip as it hit the side of the elephant.
At one point, the jockey climbed down and we were allowed to sit behind the elephant’s head and “drive” him. We climbed through the forest atop the elephant for about 45 minutes and then walked further into the hills to one of the Hill Tribes. Because we were on a day trek and not in the more remote areas of the mountains, the “tribes” were more modern than we expected: they had mini 7-11s and drove through the village by motorbike.
The day was finished with a bamboo rafting trip down one of the shallow mountain rivers. The rafts are made of eight or nine, 30- to 40-feet-long bamboo shoots which are roped together at the front and back and have two thick shoots in the middle that function as seats. The raft is set afloat and steered like a gondola by a man in front with a 20-foot bamboo pole which he uses to push. As we floated down the very peaceful river, we passed through the northern jungle and watched the grazing elephants. We shared our raft with two girls from the UK, and we each took a turn standing on the back of the raft to assist with the “driving.”
After Chiang Mai, our next stop was Sukhothai, known for its lovely Buddhist temple ruins. Similar to Ayutthaya in that it all pretty much looks old, the ruins of Sukhothai are more centralized, cheaper, and much more peaceful. The huge area is a park, and very few cars or buses pass through. We both commented that the grounds felt like a college campus during summer break.
Leaving Sukhothai, we stopped in Phitsanulok to change to a bus headed for the small villages along the Mekong River. Unfortunately, we didn’t do our homework well enough and didn’t realize that we had to change bus stations as well. We ended up getting on a bus that screamed along at ridiculous speeds to a Khon Kaen, 150 km southeast of our intended destination. Being too tired and hungry to care, we found a flea-trap hotel and parked it.
The next morning we found the right bus and made it to Nong Khai, the border town for Laos on the Mekong River, in the early afternoon. Not having much time, we didn’t do much other than walk around the town. We did take a short river cruise that afforded us some beautiful shots of the sun setting behind the Friendship Bridge, which connects Laos and Thailand. After only two days, we had a 10-hour bus ride direct to Bangkok.
We had heard lots of things about Bangkok, so we weren’t certain what to expect. After having seen the rest of Thailand, we knew that it couldn’t be that overwhelming. After a mediocre dinner at a nearby food stall, we wandered up the infamous Khao San Road. What we found was almost too much to comprehend: “holiday hippies” everywhere, hotels squished between Internet cafés and restaurants with tourists literally pouring out, car horns, tuk-tuk horns, fruit vendors. All the creature comforts, smack in the middle of the biggest city in Thailand. Sensory overload.
We spent some time exploring the sights. The Wat Pho was impressive, with its 45-meter-long Reclining Buddha. It was truly massive, more so than we had even imagined! We took a boat ride on the filthy Chao Praya River, walked through some of the shopping areas, and relaxed in Lumbini Park, where we had a nice chat with an elderly Thai man. Most of our time, however, was spent replacing Henry’s passport. Somewhere on the ride from Malaysia, it disappeared. Other than the inconvenience, replacing the passport was not a problem. However, trying to get the proper stamps to leave Thailand was a bit of a challenge. Fortunately, after only two visits to the Thai immigration office, we got everything that we needed.
Our next stop? The peaks in Nepal and the streets of India…
