Hello all, writing to you from the lap of luxury in a small island called Langkawi towards the North of Malaysia. More specifically, I write to you from the Sheraton's balcony overseeing the sunset going down over the Andaman sea in Langkawi, but perhaps I am being pedantic? The last time I spoke I'd just finished my PADI license and was spending my private time fighting off rat and hornet attacks from the "comfort" of our own superheated room (minus A/C to keep costs low...). So now to write from the very peak of luxury within Langkawi's own Sheraton hotel, I feel it may be the most pronounced contrasting week I've had in my brief, yet colourful, life. Not only that, but I'm not sure I've ever felt so conspicuously out of place.... Needless to say, my backpacker lifestyle doesn't allow for many formal outfits, therefore, my multicoloured Bob Marley trousers will HAVE to suffice! Also, the Harrison clan has grown one stronger, and we've met up with my Dad, although I suppose you could have guessed that by the choice of our hotel, it is anything but coincidental! One thing you do find is that living for luxury usually tends to lead to rather limited blog updates, not much reason to report about the extended hours in bed and by the pool after all. However, I can gladly say that we have avoided this and have maintained our activity, so there is something for me to type after all! It saves you having to read about the different flavoured milkshakes I've been sampling anyway....
The trip down here was a little bit of a labourious one, and I can't say there's much to report save some very extended waits at numerous airports. We left at 9am from our dive centre for a taxi, to a ferry, to a taxi, to a walk, to an airport for a 4 hour wait, for a flight, for a 3 hour wait, for a flight, for a taxi to our hotel! All in all, it took about 16 hours, but when I say that it only involved approximately 4 hours of travelling time, I'd probably be overestimating... Our first hotel in Kuala Lumpur was also a Sheraton, and a damn nice one at that! Highlights can be bottled down to a walk around their aviary/lake/butterfly park which was tres beautiful. The thing about Malaysian climate is that you get 12 hours or sunshine a day with one hour or thunder storms and heavy rain. All in all, it leads to some very green natural landscapes, so that their parks require tiny amounts of attention to give you an incredibly beautiful garden, stark contrast to England, the Hampton Court Flower Show springs to mind as a good example of backbreaking labour being needed all in the pursuit of pretty flowers.... Other memorable bits include a trip to the Petronas Twin Towers, two of the finest looking buildings in the world! A Sheraton buffet with 90ish different choices, including separate desert and cheese (God I've missed cheese...) islands, all of the meals could easily worm their way in to my best food ever list with no hint of exaggeration!
So, now, after a rather pleasant hour long flight, we've made our way to Langkawi, and have settled in rather nicely! Our bungalow has it's own balcony looking out onto the Andaman sea and is home to a plethora of wild monkey families which are one of the most watchable animals in the world, with special watchability status given to the baby monkeys, even my stoney heart feels a little bit of warmth at the sight! Yesterday we had a seafood dinner, up to an including real French white wine and a live fish display before our meal. Today we've rented out mopeds once again, which is probably becoming a reoccuring theme for the most avid of readers, and headed around the island to explore our surroundings. We visited a nearby waterfall which was deserted, and had a bit of a paddle before heading back around the mountain and beach roads. On the most beautiful islands, you don't even need to seek out the beauty it seems, even a commute can be considered a sightseeing occupation! Over the next few days we're going to scout out a bit more diving or snorkelling (depending on how well I sell the idea to Dad....), some jetskis and a few more seafood meals. But, the end target is to be walking a tightline between making the most of luxury, while also reacclimatising ourselves back to the poverty we'll be seeking out in Borneo next week. The bank balance I'm afraid is becoming less of a Cricket score and more of a Golf Par.... Hope you're all well and consumed with Royal Wedding fever, Long Live the Queen and all that jazz!
R
Monday, 25 April 2011
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Live and Let Dive
Hey peeps, writing to you from the paradise island of Koh Tau, 30 minutes after being 18m under the ocean, quite an usual pretext to begin a blog I think you'll agree. This means I am now an officially trained and registered PADI scuba-diver and am licensed to dive anywhere in the world up to 18m deep which, for the moment anyway, is probably deep enough! Briefly, as it won't take much time, I'll bring you up to date with how I got here as is my usual technique and then ramble on about bits that you may or may not care about! We left Pattaya for the second time on the 15th and managed to avoid all of the Songkran finale by getting on a rather fancy nightbus (the beer name Carslberg was used..) and then attempted to get as much sleep as possible during our 19 hour bus journey towards Koh Samui. This proved to be a fruitless endeavour but lucky we're getting quite adept at dealing with sleep deprivation so we soldiered on to the ferry that would take us over to the island. To say the ferry ride can't be compared to the Dover->Calais stretch is a vast understatement; it was beautiful! This was the first taste we got off the blue skies and turquoise water that we've been getting used to ever since, long gone is the hangover of the floods and landslides that some of you may have heard of over the past 3 weeks. Irritatingly, we managed to miss the last ferry to Koh Tau by 10 minutes, so we resigned ourselves to an unintentional night stay in Samui, and in the end, this turned out to be one of the more unregrettable stop offs we've had! We motorbiked off to a waterfall that was nearby, sadly without realising it was a 3km trek away and that flip flops are not recommended attire for such a trip. We only managed to make it halfway before the number of cuts and bruises became suitably overwhelming and we decided to turn back. To console ourselves, we headed to Sunset Beach and had a bite to eat and a coconut (which over the past 3 months has become a minor addiction of mine). The sunset was, quite simply, the finest I've ever seen, eclipsing Pai, Koh Chang and even the natural oasis of Aberystwyth. The pictures will hopefully be up momentarily, but sadly, only me and Ben will realise the sheer loss of beauty from transferring an image from real life to a camera; it can't do it proper justice (although it does an OK job, if I do say so myself). To finish off the evening, we settled down at a street market/party, had a bit of the fastest made Pad Thai I have ever had and settled down for an early ferry to Koh Tau.
On the ferry, we chatted to a Thai lady who recommended Big Blue Diving resort, which is where we've ended up! The PADI is an international diving recognition and takes 4 days to complete. Within the course is a days worth of theory with 5 tests, and a minimum of 4 dives with two to at least 12m and two to at least 18m. We managed to get 5 dives done, and the exams and lessons, as well as making me feel like a spritely 16 year old again, were seen off with a not too shabby 98%... naturally! Diving is nigh-on-impossible to put describe in words to people who haven't experienced it yet. I didn't know what to expect and am aware I wouldn't be able to totally understand if someone had sat down and described it to me. The feeling of abandoning breathable, trustworthy air and placing all of your faith in a small piece of equipment with a rather large air tank, is quite a big step! This makes the first dive a very overwhelming one attempting to remember to do 40 different things and to not do another further 50 different things. But, by the fifth dive, I can easily say everything actually becomes second nature. The kitting up, descent, buoyancy control, skills and ascent are done without thinking, giving you more time to take a look at the incredible numbers of fish around you and explore the numerous towers and spires of coral under the water. Credit must go where credit is due, and I have to say our instructor, a 27 year old girl from Farnham no less, was one of the most competent teachers I've ever had. We had a small group, only 4 people, and, although you can never be sure if it's genuine, we were told we were the best group she's hand in months. Who knows, sometimes it's nice for the praise to go to your head! So, tonight we have the award "ceremony" and the viewing of our underwater video, documenting our various mistakes, as well as moments of glory and then tomorrow... It's time to prepare for leaving Thailand! We fly out on the 22nd to go meet Dad in Malaysia, which both of us are looking forward to beyond words. Yet, it is quite sobering to be leaving a country which, on two occasions, has been so good to us and has formed the perfect mental image of heaven on Earth. I can guarentee this won't be the last visit, and I think it is best to leave whilst the passion is still running high and not depleted like in some of the weary travellers we've met, but it will still be with a heavy heart when we take off from Phuket in two days time. All in all, I have very little to say for the last week or so, and even less photo evidence that anything happened, but I can say with confidence it has been one of the best weeks we've had, and I am glad to have found another passion in diving, I already can't wait to get back under. So, I sign off now from the last blog written in Thailand, and look forward to giving you a nice Malaysian update within the week. Hope all is good back in England and I advice everyone to keep on watching (as I assume you are already are?) Hull City, getting dangerously close to playoffs I see! Give them your support, God knows they need it....
R
On the ferry, we chatted to a Thai lady who recommended Big Blue Diving resort, which is where we've ended up! The PADI is an international diving recognition and takes 4 days to complete. Within the course is a days worth of theory with 5 tests, and a minimum of 4 dives with two to at least 12m and two to at least 18m. We managed to get 5 dives done, and the exams and lessons, as well as making me feel like a spritely 16 year old again, were seen off with a not too shabby 98%... naturally! Diving is nigh-on-impossible to put describe in words to people who haven't experienced it yet. I didn't know what to expect and am aware I wouldn't be able to totally understand if someone had sat down and described it to me. The feeling of abandoning breathable, trustworthy air and placing all of your faith in a small piece of equipment with a rather large air tank, is quite a big step! This makes the first dive a very overwhelming one attempting to remember to do 40 different things and to not do another further 50 different things. But, by the fifth dive, I can easily say everything actually becomes second nature. The kitting up, descent, buoyancy control, skills and ascent are done without thinking, giving you more time to take a look at the incredible numbers of fish around you and explore the numerous towers and spires of coral under the water. Credit must go where credit is due, and I have to say our instructor, a 27 year old girl from Farnham no less, was one of the most competent teachers I've ever had. We had a small group, only 4 people, and, although you can never be sure if it's genuine, we were told we were the best group she's hand in months. Who knows, sometimes it's nice for the praise to go to your head! So, tonight we have the award "ceremony" and the viewing of our underwater video, documenting our various mistakes, as well as moments of glory and then tomorrow... It's time to prepare for leaving Thailand! We fly out on the 22nd to go meet Dad in Malaysia, which both of us are looking forward to beyond words. Yet, it is quite sobering to be leaving a country which, on two occasions, has been so good to us and has formed the perfect mental image of heaven on Earth. I can guarentee this won't be the last visit, and I think it is best to leave whilst the passion is still running high and not depleted like in some of the weary travellers we've met, but it will still be with a heavy heart when we take off from Phuket in two days time. All in all, I have very little to say for the last week or so, and even less photo evidence that anything happened, but I can say with confidence it has been one of the best weeks we've had, and I am glad to have found another passion in diving, I already can't wait to get back under. So, I sign off now from the last blog written in Thailand, and look forward to giving you a nice Malaysian update within the week. Hope all is good back in England and I advice everyone to keep on watching (as I assume you are already are?) Hull City, getting dangerously close to playoffs I see! Give them your support, God knows they need it....
R
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Songkran....
Good'ay readers, welcome to Songkran! For those of you that haven't been made aware, we are now two days into the Thai New Year and two days into Songkran. Once again, for those who haven't even been made aware of what Songkran is, I shall elaborate. Everyday for the week of Thai New Year, the entire country shuts down and turns itself into a venue for one of the world's biggest waterfights. Even as I type, I've had to face a 10 minute walk along Pattaya's beach road and am drenched from head to foot. It's not only children, as it most probably would be back home, but adults as well! Since the beginning of Songkran we've been hit with hoses, supersoakers, buckets, paint-tins, water balloons and even a rather crushingly bad experience with an elephant's trunk, you can't criticise their ingenuity... One of the most devilish techniques is when riding a Tuk Tuk, the driver will be in an unspoken alliance with the "Songkraniums" and slow down when they reach a group of them. The Songkraniums then have you trapped in a Tuk Tuk and you get a vague memory of that infamous final scene at the end of The Great Escape. However, despite my moistness (sorry), I've got to concede that this is the best festival the world has ever seen! Nobody shows mercy during Songkran, but everybody smiles. In the end, I think that is a good compromise!
But, as you may have noticed, we are now back in Pattaya once again, trying to get anywhere during Songkran, which is no easy feat. But, I do have a brief interlude to catch up on between now and where I last left you on the blog. If I remember correctly (which is always a risk) I think we were just leaving Pattaya for the first time when I had to go to avoid getting my laptop wet. This was on the island of Koh Chang, that some Facebookers may have noticed has pictures available now. To get to Koh Chang was a relatively short and traumatically uncomfortable experience, in Thailand it seems the process of counting the number of booked passengers and the number of seats is an optional process in booking a tour. So, 3 hours of being on the floor wedged in between people's bags and then entrance to the minibus door was the only possible outcome. However, every cloud and such meant that we met a couple of holidaying Danish girls as our new companions for a couple of days, and Koh Chang did not fail to live up to it's expectations. Koh Chang is a relatively small island with four major areas consisting of a few bungalows/shacks, bars, shops and hippies. We headed to Lonely Beach after a tip from a rather spiffingly trustworthy sort of Brit, and weren't disappointed. Never have I seen so many colourful hippy trousers in my life, and never have I invested to heavily in clothing! Our bungalow, for lack of a more decrepit word, cost us £1.50 a night and served us very well. In fact, once you got used to the curiously-stained mattress, unflushable toilet with multiple access points and our host of wildlife that moved in to set up camp, it was actually quite a good house!
Whilst we were on Koh Chang, we got into the pattern of doing something in the day and then meeting up with our Danish friends, as well as two quality German guys as well, in the evening for drinks, food and pool. In the days we filled our time with a bit of snorkelling on Koh Wai, which is a truly deserted paradise island with some beautifully clear water and very skin burningly hot sun. We also did a days fishing trip in which I had the honour to catch a fish, even if it did happen to be the single ugliest fish I've ever laid eyes on, and had another great day narrowing down the list of activities suitable for me once I retire. All in all, the 4 days we spent on Koh Chang, like so many others, shot past. In fact, it was on Koh Chang that it hit us that our time left in Thailand was dwindling and that we had to make our way down South if we had any chance of going to Koh Tau for some diving and to get our PADI license and, ultimately, get to Koh Samui for our flight down to Malaysia. At the time of writing, we only have one week left, and the downside of this is that we have to miss out on re-meeting quite a few old friends along the way! This includes Nib and Danni on Koh Samet, Margaux in Bangkok as well as Marco and Jonas on Kao San Road, and a whole host of people brave enough to tackle the weather down in Phuket/Krabi region. It is a damn shame, but sadly, it's an occupational hazard of travelling, seems we make some quality friends all to easily in this job! So now, we're currently sat in our dry bunker of a cafe, avoiding buckets of water and waiting until 8pm to undertake our 14 hour bus journey down to Samui to start the last leg of our Thailand adventure. Honourable mentions of the week go to Simon and Laura for inspiring me to go on a bit of a detox to prepare for Malaysian and Australian alcohol prices, Tottenham for being one of the most entertaining football teams in recent years and to one lady who showed Ben no mercy just an hour ago and introduced an iced bucket of water down the front of his swimming trunks. It's strange.... But ever since I can't hear any noise when he speaks to me, and a whole host of dogs have set up camp at our table.... Strange place Thailand!
R
But, as you may have noticed, we are now back in Pattaya once again, trying to get anywhere during Songkran, which is no easy feat. But, I do have a brief interlude to catch up on between now and where I last left you on the blog. If I remember correctly (which is always a risk) I think we were just leaving Pattaya for the first time when I had to go to avoid getting my laptop wet. This was on the island of Koh Chang, that some Facebookers may have noticed has pictures available now. To get to Koh Chang was a relatively short and traumatically uncomfortable experience, in Thailand it seems the process of counting the number of booked passengers and the number of seats is an optional process in booking a tour. So, 3 hours of being on the floor wedged in between people's bags and then entrance to the minibus door was the only possible outcome. However, every cloud and such meant that we met a couple of holidaying Danish girls as our new companions for a couple of days, and Koh Chang did not fail to live up to it's expectations. Koh Chang is a relatively small island with four major areas consisting of a few bungalows/shacks, bars, shops and hippies. We headed to Lonely Beach after a tip from a rather spiffingly trustworthy sort of Brit, and weren't disappointed. Never have I seen so many colourful hippy trousers in my life, and never have I invested to heavily in clothing! Our bungalow, for lack of a more decrepit word, cost us £1.50 a night and served us very well. In fact, once you got used to the curiously-stained mattress, unflushable toilet with multiple access points and our host of wildlife that moved in to set up camp, it was actually quite a good house!
Whilst we were on Koh Chang, we got into the pattern of doing something in the day and then meeting up with our Danish friends, as well as two quality German guys as well, in the evening for drinks, food and pool. In the days we filled our time with a bit of snorkelling on Koh Wai, which is a truly deserted paradise island with some beautifully clear water and very skin burningly hot sun. We also did a days fishing trip in which I had the honour to catch a fish, even if it did happen to be the single ugliest fish I've ever laid eyes on, and had another great day narrowing down the list of activities suitable for me once I retire. All in all, the 4 days we spent on Koh Chang, like so many others, shot past. In fact, it was on Koh Chang that it hit us that our time left in Thailand was dwindling and that we had to make our way down South if we had any chance of going to Koh Tau for some diving and to get our PADI license and, ultimately, get to Koh Samui for our flight down to Malaysia. At the time of writing, we only have one week left, and the downside of this is that we have to miss out on re-meeting quite a few old friends along the way! This includes Nib and Danni on Koh Samet, Margaux in Bangkok as well as Marco and Jonas on Kao San Road, and a whole host of people brave enough to tackle the weather down in Phuket/Krabi region. It is a damn shame, but sadly, it's an occupational hazard of travelling, seems we make some quality friends all to easily in this job! So now, we're currently sat in our dry bunker of a cafe, avoiding buckets of water and waiting until 8pm to undertake our 14 hour bus journey down to Samui to start the last leg of our Thailand adventure. Honourable mentions of the week go to Simon and Laura for inspiring me to go on a bit of a detox to prepare for Malaysian and Australian alcohol prices, Tottenham for being one of the most entertaining football teams in recent years and to one lady who showed Ben no mercy just an hour ago and introduced an iced bucket of water down the front of his swimming trunks. It's strange.... But ever since I can't hear any noise when he speaks to me, and a whole host of dogs have set up camp at our table.... Strange place Thailand!
R
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Playing catch-up....
Hey readers,
Hope that recent salvo of blogs hasn't deterred anyone... nobody likes a long reading list after all! But, I'm back writing with internet (for free!) however still got quite a lot to catch up on. To give you a preview of the next post, I'm currently sat in a coffee shack on the beach of Koh Chang island. It's a pretty incredibly beautifully AND hippified kinda place, somewhere I can see myself settling for quite a while! It's also the first day of Thai New Year and all the locals (and Farang...) are engaging in Songkran, but as I say, more of that in the next episode.... One slight change that I'm hoping to keep out of my writing style... I am now one year older. At the mature age of 23, you sometimes have to sit back and take stock, whilst at the same time, dispensing articles of sage wisdom to the youth so that their path may be brighter lit than the one that you yourself had to walk. Unfortunately for me/you, most of you reading this are older than me, or at the very least, more intelligent and better looking. So I'll skip the cliches, cut right to the chase, bite the bullet and recommence spinning yarn!
Pattaya, is one of the very strangest places in the world. Fact. In terms of a centre for sin, mischief and taboo, there truly cannot be a rival. And also, just behind the Motherland itself, it is also home to the highest population of Russians within any given city* (*this fact is entirely the product of my imagination). It was probably the most singular birthday I have ever had, albeit, one of the more luxurious (although, if you know me, you can probably cite 3 or 4 that could compete... bit of a snob deep down after all). We started the trek with the finest and most concise bus journey we've had in Asia, starting with making our bus by 5 minutes, continued with making our connection by 3 minutes and finished by arriving in 6 minutes before the rates increased for a bus into town, some guys are just born with it I suppose. We made haste to an address we'd been recommended, whilst all the time failing to notice the vast increase in Cyrillic writing on all the signs/menus etc made camp for the night in the very heart of Russian town... Which made for a rather lonely and quiet couple of days! It wasn't until we stepped up to our executive accommodation that Pattaya stepped up to the plate itself (sorry, last cliche....)
The hotel itself was, obviously, the nicest we've stayed in yet. That should offer no element of surprise. Needless to say the free upgrade to the seaview room was a boost, even despite their erroneous deductions that they were doing a good deed for the gay couple. However, I can gladly say we made the most out of every bit the hotel had to offer. Room service, check. TV for late-night Champions League viewing, check. Swim-to-bar and infinite pool for eating, check. And air-conditioning set to a gentlemanly 22 degrees, check. However, when ever we did lurk outside our newly crafted cocoon of splendour, we headed straight to Walking Street, home to the very finest in live rock music, cheap beer and prostitutes in the world. Can honestly leave it up to your impression of me to decide which one I decided to skip, but either way, there was never a bad night to be had on that road. The beauty of being able to dislike one band's style, get up, walk 30 seconds and find another one mid-way through the Hotel California solo is a luxury far beyond Air conditioned room service on the balcony, one that I will sorely miss when I eventually head back to England.... As a brief run down (as the memories are a bit hazy...) my birthday consisted of an unbelievably good Italian meal (Duck raviolli; thank you for asking) with a real bottle of real Italian wine and then... well... Walking Street! Highlights included a heated political discussion with some Russians over the future of their country, the first of three encounters with a jazz/blues band fronted by the finest operatic voice I've ever heard, a ladyboy dancing to Rolling Stones, staying up for Tottenham/Madrid and finishing the evening with a Paradise City/Freebird encore. As I said before, some of the best features of any good birthday I fancy!
Aside from sheer excess, we also headed out for a bit of sea-fishing and snorkelling one a couple of days. Something rather carnal and chauvinistic about catching your first fish and eating it, shan't dissect that too far mind, my Freudian influences may make it a bit too graphic for such wholesome family-friendly reading. And one of the best advantages of white sandy beaches with transparent turquoise tinted water (I AM living in a postcard) is that the snorkelling is excellent! It also goes quite well with a water proof camera, so keep you're eye out for some photos at some point, I even took a picture of a Boss out of Zelda for those that can picture it, I know a certain Brother that would be able too. Aside from that, all we did is recognise the sheer price increase from North Thailand to the South, bought some of the most incredible trousers I've ever owned in my entire life (even beating my Power Rangers pyjama bottoms, circa 1993) and headed to our current home; Koh Chang. But as I say... That story shall commence another day, don't want to keep tiring out my loyal readers!
On a related note to my loyal readers, just wanted to include a brief extra thank you to everyone that got in contact for Happy Birthday messages. I actually can't avoid sounding like a Oscar award winner, but truly didn't expect it and was blown away with how many of you made the effort! It was truly appreciated, and you made one very old man very happy that day! So thank you once again, and keep enjoying the English sunshine (if I'm not too late....)
R
Hope that recent salvo of blogs hasn't deterred anyone... nobody likes a long reading list after all! But, I'm back writing with internet (for free!) however still got quite a lot to catch up on. To give you a preview of the next post, I'm currently sat in a coffee shack on the beach of Koh Chang island. It's a pretty incredibly beautifully AND hippified kinda place, somewhere I can see myself settling for quite a while! It's also the first day of Thai New Year and all the locals (and Farang...) are engaging in Songkran, but as I say, more of that in the next episode.... One slight change that I'm hoping to keep out of my writing style... I am now one year older. At the mature age of 23, you sometimes have to sit back and take stock, whilst at the same time, dispensing articles of sage wisdom to the youth so that their path may be brighter lit than the one that you yourself had to walk. Unfortunately for me/you, most of you reading this are older than me, or at the very least, more intelligent and better looking. So I'll skip the cliches, cut right to the chase, bite the bullet and recommence spinning yarn!
Pattaya, is one of the very strangest places in the world. Fact. In terms of a centre for sin, mischief and taboo, there truly cannot be a rival. And also, just behind the Motherland itself, it is also home to the highest population of Russians within any given city* (*this fact is entirely the product of my imagination). It was probably the most singular birthday I have ever had, albeit, one of the more luxurious (although, if you know me, you can probably cite 3 or 4 that could compete... bit of a snob deep down after all). We started the trek with the finest and most concise bus journey we've had in Asia, starting with making our bus by 5 minutes, continued with making our connection by 3 minutes and finished by arriving in 6 minutes before the rates increased for a bus into town, some guys are just born with it I suppose. We made haste to an address we'd been recommended, whilst all the time failing to notice the vast increase in Cyrillic writing on all the signs/menus etc made camp for the night in the very heart of Russian town... Which made for a rather lonely and quiet couple of days! It wasn't until we stepped up to our executive accommodation that Pattaya stepped up to the plate itself (sorry, last cliche....)
The hotel itself was, obviously, the nicest we've stayed in yet. That should offer no element of surprise. Needless to say the free upgrade to the seaview room was a boost, even despite their erroneous deductions that they were doing a good deed for the gay couple. However, I can gladly say we made the most out of every bit the hotel had to offer. Room service, check. TV for late-night Champions League viewing, check. Swim-to-bar and infinite pool for eating, check. And air-conditioning set to a gentlemanly 22 degrees, check. However, when ever we did lurk outside our newly crafted cocoon of splendour, we headed straight to Walking Street, home to the very finest in live rock music, cheap beer and prostitutes in the world. Can honestly leave it up to your impression of me to decide which one I decided to skip, but either way, there was never a bad night to be had on that road. The beauty of being able to dislike one band's style, get up, walk 30 seconds and find another one mid-way through the Hotel California solo is a luxury far beyond Air conditioned room service on the balcony, one that I will sorely miss when I eventually head back to England.... As a brief run down (as the memories are a bit hazy...) my birthday consisted of an unbelievably good Italian meal (Duck raviolli; thank you for asking) with a real bottle of real Italian wine and then... well... Walking Street! Highlights included a heated political discussion with some Russians over the future of their country, the first of three encounters with a jazz/blues band fronted by the finest operatic voice I've ever heard, a ladyboy dancing to Rolling Stones, staying up for Tottenham/Madrid and finishing the evening with a Paradise City/Freebird encore. As I said before, some of the best features of any good birthday I fancy!
Aside from sheer excess, we also headed out for a bit of sea-fishing and snorkelling one a couple of days. Something rather carnal and chauvinistic about catching your first fish and eating it, shan't dissect that too far mind, my Freudian influences may make it a bit too graphic for such wholesome family-friendly reading. And one of the best advantages of white sandy beaches with transparent turquoise tinted water (I AM living in a postcard) is that the snorkelling is excellent! It also goes quite well with a water proof camera, so keep you're eye out for some photos at some point, I even took a picture of a Boss out of Zelda for those that can picture it, I know a certain Brother that would be able too. Aside from that, all we did is recognise the sheer price increase from North Thailand to the South, bought some of the most incredible trousers I've ever owned in my entire life (even beating my Power Rangers pyjama bottoms, circa 1993) and headed to our current home; Koh Chang. But as I say... That story shall commence another day, don't want to keep tiring out my loyal readers!
On a related note to my loyal readers, just wanted to include a brief extra thank you to everyone that got in contact for Happy Birthday messages. I actually can't avoid sounding like a Oscar award winner, but truly didn't expect it and was blown away with how many of you made the effort! It was truly appreciated, and you made one very old man very happy that day! So thank you once again, and keep enjoying the English sunshine (if I'm not too late....)
R
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
Born to be Wild!
I can honestly say, it has never been a nuisance or a pain writing these blogs in any sense of the words. However, now, for the first time, I am not in a good place whilst sitting down writing this latest entry. But, it is not due to any sense of boredom, or a feeling of monotony, it is instead because I have to write it whilst sitting down. Motorbiking, is a much more painful occupation than I had ever given it credit for! Since we've last heard from one another, we've probably covered 200 miles of beautiful Kanchanaburian scenary with it's winding, mountainous and... bumpy roads. However, aside from the physical demands of such a hedonistic few days, I'm in very high spirits and am now armed with some breathtaking mental and physical snapshots! The one problem with blogging about this Asian travelling exploration, is it's quite disheartening that my linguistic ability can never stretch far enough to truly describe the things I've seen and experienced. I have a feeling this may another one of those times, but let me attempt at the very least to do justice to my last three days in Thailand, as difficult a job as that may be....
Both of us decided on the drive into Kanchanaburi, that if ever there was going to be a place to get out on bikes, this was going to be it. Despite my current heightened sensitivity, the roads are actually of quite a good quality and it's placement in the midst of the mountains along the Burmese border mean that there wouldn't ever be a dull stretch of road. So we rented out a scooter for the "crazy super cheap" price of £2 a day and set about planning our route. Unless you do an impressive stint of researching, I don't think this will mean much to you, but I'll outline the route nonetheless for those of you that are avid Google Image searchers and fancy seeing some more proffessional photography than anything which I can provide you. To begin with, we explored around Kanchanaburi town visiting a couple of war museums, the P.O.W cemetary and, of course, the River Kwai bridge. We then planned to head North up to Hellfire Pass and it's accompanying museum and find somewhere nearby to stay for the night, preferably on the river again. The third day would consist mostly of heading further North to Soi Yok National park and then head South back towards town, stopping off on the way at the rather Tolkein-y named waterfall, Erawan Falls. Obviously, we knew we'd be stopping off alot on the way as inspiration took force, but we had, unusually for us, a rather concise skeleton for our plan and I can also confirm, it went off without a hitch!
The first day, as I'm sure you can guess, was more about sobering education than anything else. Time for a brief history lesson again I'm afraid... In 1942, The Japanese had started a war against the Americans via their bombing of Pearl Harbour, and had defeated the British in Malaysia and Burma and had, therefore, acquired a strong foothold in South-East Asia, Indonesia and other key areas within the Pacific. However, due to the sheer awesomeness of the British airforce and navy, the searoute along from Singapore up to Rangoon (capital of Burma) was a dangerous one, so the Japanese required a more secure supply route for their armies in Burma. So the Malaya-Burmese railway was devised and is one of the more ugly scars left behind from WWII, which with the Nazis involved, truly is quite the statement. Rather than using valuable Japanese labour to achieve this, the Japanese utilised the 60000 Allied P.O.Ws captured during their Asian offensive along with 150000 Asian labourers, who were initially recruited using misleading and dishonest contracts, and later recruited using intimatidation, kidnap and threats of violence towards their families and communities. The Japanese treatment of these labourers is infamous. Days of backbreaking labour could span across 16 hours, food was limited to two basic meals a day leading to immaciation, starvation or weakened immune systems which led to death from numerous rampant tropical diseases. The workers were given no sleeping quarters, medical aide, clothing and were regularly beaten and punished if there work rate was deemed unacceptable. Over the course of the two year railway construction, it is estimated that 100,000 labourers died and the survivors were scarred for the rest of lives, both physically and mentally. As you can probably guess, the day itself was quite an emotional one as the museums were fortunately/unfortunately (depending on perspective) very good. The images and the stories from the soldiers are truly disturbing and replaced my Cambodian/Vietnamese influenced disdain of American history to Japanese and Korean history, it really is another area I recommend exploring into. I knew of the details quite well before going back, both from a bit of personal research in books and from the first time I came here with my Dad, but it was all the more eye opening this time and is something I think the British, at the very least, should be told more about if for no other reason that out of respect for the soliders who were forced into that situation in the first place.
The second day, for the most part, was a more uplifting one. In fact, our expectations for the drive up North were surpassed by a long way, and I found myself having to stop and take pictures at regular enough intervals that the drive up took an extra hour than it should have on paper. Not that we were being particularly direct about the drive in the slightest having said that. At any point where we saw a quieter, prettier or more adventerous road, we always took it. One the way up, we stumbled across a riverside Elephant trekking base, and pulled over for a bit of good old fashioned tourism. It was my first time riding an elephant, in fact my first time getting as close or touching an elephant as well. All a pretty weird experience to be honest! This may be a bit obvious... But elephants are bloody huge! We talked to the owner of the elephant as he took us around, and we found that he and the elephant were about the same age and had grown up their whole lives together. He seemed to treat it very well, with a rather touching affection, which up here in Thailand is quite a rarity. After a while of talking to him, he let us take turns riding on the elephants neck, which we found required quite a lot more balance than we'd given it credit for. We in the end rode it round a bit of jungle, through and into the river and then came back round to the start with sore enough arses that a decent break was needed before getting back on a bike.... But once we did, it took another hour or so before we finally reached Hellfire Pass.
The museum itself is probably the best out of the three we visited, it is much more informative than the others and appears to be possession of the finest Thai-English translator in all of Asia. One of the nicest appeals to this museum is that once you've walked round and read all that your soul can manage for a day, you step outside to the viewing platform overlooking the Hellfire Pass itself and across the jungle into the mountain range bordering the Burmese Border. Once we had finished in the museum, we wandered down the cliffside through the jungle into the Hellfire Pass itself. The pass is a long valley that was carved through a mountain to allow for the placement of the railway. Once you've climbed down the steep and, seemingly endless, set of stairs you truly get a grasp as to how much rock they would have had to move by hand to carve out such a huge passage through the mountain. In fact, as you walk down the valley, you can still see the pickaxe scrapes, and holes drilled for dynamite etched permenantly into the rock face. With these momentos of the work, and the fact we were on our own in a completely silent patch of jungle, it was a pretty chilling place to be. We were quite glad to get back on the bike and go in search of somewhere to sleep for the night. We found a tiny village about 10km further down the mountain and even lucked upon a tour group who we seemlessly blended into and followed them to their raft for the night and settled down for a bit of hard-earned free food and sleep for the night, the night was topped off with a brief storm, which when sleeping on a river, leaves you with a pretty memorable night!
We woke up early and made good of our escape from the tour group before too many questions were asked and headed up 30km North towards Sai Yok National Park. The National Park itself spans over miles of maintained jungle next to the river, so it's not quite comparable to the national parks of England. Aside from the drive in and parking up of the bike, we didn't see more than 3 or 4 people for the entire morning. We found a rather picturesque, if not slightly rickety, suspension bridge over the river next to a waterfall, a hidden beach on a small greeny-blue bay area on the river and a dense canopy jungle walk with a few too many rustling noises by our feet for comfort. But the morning itself was fantastic, we finished off with a quick D.I.Y wash in a spring river we happened across, which given the rapidly increasing heat of the day, was a very welcome cool down and served as a good preparation for getting back on the bike and starting our 100km drive to Erawan falls. Aside from a brief stop in, what appeared to be, a Thai families house for a bit of homemade chicken noodle soup, we didn't stop between the national park and the waterfall which, in hindsight, was probably not good for bottom-based longevity.... But, two hours later, we arrived at the waterfall and were quite glad to climb/fall off the bike for a bit of a rest. The waterfall was definitely a beautiful place, tucked into another National Park. One downside is that it's a rather popular Thai getaway, so we were far from the only ones there, in fact, I got hit with echoes of a day out at Coral Reef during halfterm in England. But, a bit of a swim and chill along the bank of the waterfall quickly refilled spirits. One of the weirdest parts of the waterfall is that the pool itself is, obviously, home to alot of fish and if you sit alongside the pool and stick your feet in, you'll be treated to a bit of a natural pedicure as they eat away the dry and dead bits of your feet (sorry if anyone was eating there!).
Once we were finished at the waterfall, we made fullspeed haste back to Kanchanaburi, partially because it was quickly getting quite dark, but mostly because sitting was becoming to be a more of mild torture and the faster we drove, the less time we'd have to spend enduring it. We got back to our hostel in time for a beer over sunset again, and time enough that I could write down all of these details before they slipped into a forgotten crevice of my aging, soon to be 23 year old, memory! As I write, the weather has turned slightly, and we're currently in the midst of a rather dramatic lightning storm and I've uncovered that small British part of me that truly does enjoy the sound of heavy rain on a tin roof! Briefly, as I fear this may be quite the marathon blog as it stands already, we've decided that for my birthday we're going to head to Pattaya for a bit of luxurious hotel living, and then a bit of chaos and drinking in the evening, maybe with a bit of 3am Champions League football, or maybe just making the most of the solely Rock themed live music... When I put it like that, it truly does seem to be a tailor made venue for my kind of birthday! So now, time for me to go and find somewhere soft to sit where I can get out of this storm, thank you for reading, do hope you made it this far! It seems we've done more over the past three days than I'd realised...
R
Both of us decided on the drive into Kanchanaburi, that if ever there was going to be a place to get out on bikes, this was going to be it. Despite my current heightened sensitivity, the roads are actually of quite a good quality and it's placement in the midst of the mountains along the Burmese border mean that there wouldn't ever be a dull stretch of road. So we rented out a scooter for the "crazy super cheap" price of £2 a day and set about planning our route. Unless you do an impressive stint of researching, I don't think this will mean much to you, but I'll outline the route nonetheless for those of you that are avid Google Image searchers and fancy seeing some more proffessional photography than anything which I can provide you. To begin with, we explored around Kanchanaburi town visiting a couple of war museums, the P.O.W cemetary and, of course, the River Kwai bridge. We then planned to head North up to Hellfire Pass and it's accompanying museum and find somewhere nearby to stay for the night, preferably on the river again. The third day would consist mostly of heading further North to Soi Yok National park and then head South back towards town, stopping off on the way at the rather Tolkein-y named waterfall, Erawan Falls. Obviously, we knew we'd be stopping off alot on the way as inspiration took force, but we had, unusually for us, a rather concise skeleton for our plan and I can also confirm, it went off without a hitch!
The first day, as I'm sure you can guess, was more about sobering education than anything else. Time for a brief history lesson again I'm afraid... In 1942, The Japanese had started a war against the Americans via their bombing of Pearl Harbour, and had defeated the British in Malaysia and Burma and had, therefore, acquired a strong foothold in South-East Asia, Indonesia and other key areas within the Pacific. However, due to the sheer awesomeness of the British airforce and navy, the searoute along from Singapore up to Rangoon (capital of Burma) was a dangerous one, so the Japanese required a more secure supply route for their armies in Burma. So the Malaya-Burmese railway was devised and is one of the more ugly scars left behind from WWII, which with the Nazis involved, truly is quite the statement. Rather than using valuable Japanese labour to achieve this, the Japanese utilised the 60000 Allied P.O.Ws captured during their Asian offensive along with 150000 Asian labourers, who were initially recruited using misleading and dishonest contracts, and later recruited using intimatidation, kidnap and threats of violence towards their families and communities. The Japanese treatment of these labourers is infamous. Days of backbreaking labour could span across 16 hours, food was limited to two basic meals a day leading to immaciation, starvation or weakened immune systems which led to death from numerous rampant tropical diseases. The workers were given no sleeping quarters, medical aide, clothing and were regularly beaten and punished if there work rate was deemed unacceptable. Over the course of the two year railway construction, it is estimated that 100,000 labourers died and the survivors were scarred for the rest of lives, both physically and mentally. As you can probably guess, the day itself was quite an emotional one as the museums were fortunately/unfortunately (depending on perspective) very good. The images and the stories from the soldiers are truly disturbing and replaced my Cambodian/Vietnamese influenced disdain of American history to Japanese and Korean history, it really is another area I recommend exploring into. I knew of the details quite well before going back, both from a bit of personal research in books and from the first time I came here with my Dad, but it was all the more eye opening this time and is something I think the British, at the very least, should be told more about if for no other reason that out of respect for the soliders who were forced into that situation in the first place.
The second day, for the most part, was a more uplifting one. In fact, our expectations for the drive up North were surpassed by a long way, and I found myself having to stop and take pictures at regular enough intervals that the drive up took an extra hour than it should have on paper. Not that we were being particularly direct about the drive in the slightest having said that. At any point where we saw a quieter, prettier or more adventerous road, we always took it. One the way up, we stumbled across a riverside Elephant trekking base, and pulled over for a bit of good old fashioned tourism. It was my first time riding an elephant, in fact my first time getting as close or touching an elephant as well. All a pretty weird experience to be honest! This may be a bit obvious... But elephants are bloody huge! We talked to the owner of the elephant as he took us around, and we found that he and the elephant were about the same age and had grown up their whole lives together. He seemed to treat it very well, with a rather touching affection, which up here in Thailand is quite a rarity. After a while of talking to him, he let us take turns riding on the elephants neck, which we found required quite a lot more balance than we'd given it credit for. We in the end rode it round a bit of jungle, through and into the river and then came back round to the start with sore enough arses that a decent break was needed before getting back on a bike.... But once we did, it took another hour or so before we finally reached Hellfire Pass.
The museum itself is probably the best out of the three we visited, it is much more informative than the others and appears to be possession of the finest Thai-English translator in all of Asia. One of the nicest appeals to this museum is that once you've walked round and read all that your soul can manage for a day, you step outside to the viewing platform overlooking the Hellfire Pass itself and across the jungle into the mountain range bordering the Burmese Border. Once we had finished in the museum, we wandered down the cliffside through the jungle into the Hellfire Pass itself. The pass is a long valley that was carved through a mountain to allow for the placement of the railway. Once you've climbed down the steep and, seemingly endless, set of stairs you truly get a grasp as to how much rock they would have had to move by hand to carve out such a huge passage through the mountain. In fact, as you walk down the valley, you can still see the pickaxe scrapes, and holes drilled for dynamite etched permenantly into the rock face. With these momentos of the work, and the fact we were on our own in a completely silent patch of jungle, it was a pretty chilling place to be. We were quite glad to get back on the bike and go in search of somewhere to sleep for the night. We found a tiny village about 10km further down the mountain and even lucked upon a tour group who we seemlessly blended into and followed them to their raft for the night and settled down for a bit of hard-earned free food and sleep for the night, the night was topped off with a brief storm, which when sleeping on a river, leaves you with a pretty memorable night!
We woke up early and made good of our escape from the tour group before too many questions were asked and headed up 30km North towards Sai Yok National Park. The National Park itself spans over miles of maintained jungle next to the river, so it's not quite comparable to the national parks of England. Aside from the drive in and parking up of the bike, we didn't see more than 3 or 4 people for the entire morning. We found a rather picturesque, if not slightly rickety, suspension bridge over the river next to a waterfall, a hidden beach on a small greeny-blue bay area on the river and a dense canopy jungle walk with a few too many rustling noises by our feet for comfort. But the morning itself was fantastic, we finished off with a quick D.I.Y wash in a spring river we happened across, which given the rapidly increasing heat of the day, was a very welcome cool down and served as a good preparation for getting back on the bike and starting our 100km drive to Erawan falls. Aside from a brief stop in, what appeared to be, a Thai families house for a bit of homemade chicken noodle soup, we didn't stop between the national park and the waterfall which, in hindsight, was probably not good for bottom-based longevity.... But, two hours later, we arrived at the waterfall and were quite glad to climb/fall off the bike for a bit of a rest. The waterfall was definitely a beautiful place, tucked into another National Park. One downside is that it's a rather popular Thai getaway, so we were far from the only ones there, in fact, I got hit with echoes of a day out at Coral Reef during halfterm in England. But, a bit of a swim and chill along the bank of the waterfall quickly refilled spirits. One of the weirdest parts of the waterfall is that the pool itself is, obviously, home to alot of fish and if you sit alongside the pool and stick your feet in, you'll be treated to a bit of a natural pedicure as they eat away the dry and dead bits of your feet (sorry if anyone was eating there!).
Once we were finished at the waterfall, we made fullspeed haste back to Kanchanaburi, partially because it was quickly getting quite dark, but mostly because sitting was becoming to be a more of mild torture and the faster we drove, the less time we'd have to spend enduring it. We got back to our hostel in time for a beer over sunset again, and time enough that I could write down all of these details before they slipped into a forgotten crevice of my aging, soon to be 23 year old, memory! As I write, the weather has turned slightly, and we're currently in the midst of a rather dramatic lightning storm and I've uncovered that small British part of me that truly does enjoy the sound of heavy rain on a tin roof! Briefly, as I fear this may be quite the marathon blog as it stands already, we've decided that for my birthday we're going to head to Pattaya for a bit of luxurious hotel living, and then a bit of chaos and drinking in the evening, maybe with a bit of 3am Champions League football, or maybe just making the most of the solely Rock themed live music... When I put it like that, it truly does seem to be a tailor made venue for my kind of birthday! So now, time for me to go and find somewhere soft to sit where I can get out of this storm, thank you for reading, do hope you made it this far! It seems we've done more over the past three days than I'd realised...
R
Episode VI: Return to Bangkok
So, another city and another country firmly in the rearview mirror, as I said previously, time is racing past and all you can do is race along with it! However, my new temporary home is within Thailand once again, and I can assure you, it is good to be back! It seems that in the time we've been away, our confidence has grown ten-fold and we've now become masters of the city which, three months previously, had seemed the most dauntingly alien place we'd ever seen in our lives. We had a very pleasant hour long flight and landed in the Bangkok airport to go through the same immigration trials and tribulations that we had to put up with the first time. But this time, rather than wander around in a daze relying on the charitable helpfullness of the airport staff members, we headed straight to the BTS (the monorail system), figured our route and jumped on without a shadow of doubt or confusion. From there we flagged down a Tuk-Tuk, bartered him down to the reasonable price of 30 Baht (and while I'm on the subject, it's nice to have a sensible currency back!) and then landed at our new home down a small side street in a residential area in authentic Bangkok, it seemed we'd fluked our way towards another fine hostel! The hostel itself was relatively unassuming, being nothing more than a very clean quiet place to stay the night and socialise on their roof terrace with a rather spectacular view devoid of the highrises that plagues the central areas of downtown Bangkok. The only features of true merit to the hostel were the rather cool people we met including one of the more upliftingly philosphical Canadians I've ever had the honour of meeting. It was a fantastic top up for the soul to meet a man who, even with such a thing as the restaurant loosing his food order, believed that all misfortune that occurs, must occur for a reason. I will admit, it is rather fatalistic for my taste, however, that type of positive thinking has come in good use, especially in the last few days as news of the flooding and mud slides down South in the islands has filtered through. It appears our plans are in need of some mass restructuring....
For those tha that haven't heard, the Southern islands of Thailand have been hit with a mass of unseasonal weather and have been flooded and battered by rain and wind over the past 5 days. The damage has been catastrophic for such a poor and undeveloped area of the world and has led to thousands of tourists and backpackers being stranded without clean water, food or electricity as well as 30 deaths (I should say, that is the most recent update I've heard, it may even be more by now). The rain should be stopping within the next 5 days or so, however, the key shall be how long it takes them to recover which will dictate the timing of our travels, we'll have to play the waiting game it seems. However, my new found streak of positive thinking leads me to avoid talking about what we can't do and instead focus on what we can and have been doing, much more uplifting! Our first evening consisted off adventuring off with the entire populationof the hostel, or 4 people depending on how you prefer, in search of some Thai street food (it truly is good to be back). We then stayed up in our newly found position as travelling veterans, dispatching all the pieces of advice we've acquired up to this point, a stark contrast to our position last time in Bangkok when we were the ones in the dark in dire need of advice!
The next day had a rather dull taint to it as our mission for the day was to seek out a Fuji repair shop that could see to my "idiot-proof" camera that I have somehow managed to break. However, if you know me in the slightest, you'll be surprised to hear the highlight of the day was a trip to a mall called "Paragon Plaza" in center of Siam square, home to the richest of tourists and locals, needless to say... we stood out. The mall itself is a 7 story building home to a full-sized basement aquarium, Madame Tussauds, I-max cinema, a floor wide food court home to over 40 different restaurants and, notably, a Krispy Kreme. However, the highlight of the mall was after we'd walked past Gucci, Prada, Versace et al., and turned the corner, finding ourselves across from the Lambourgini, Aston Martin and Lotus show rooms. I'll just point on this was inside the 5th story of the building.... Before anyone asks, I don't have the faintest idea, but I presume parachutes play an active role! Once we'd had our fill of sheer unadulterated Westernised capitalism, we headed back to the hostel to prepare for our night out at Lumphini Stadium for a night of Muay Thai boxing, the "Art of the 8 Limbs" because, as became plainfully obvious, if you can cause pain with a specific area of a limb, it is utilised. So unlike in traditional boxing (two fists...) Muay Thai uses hands, elbows, knees and feet and the result is a pretty damn vicious 20 minutes! We decided to have a bit of luxury in our lives, so went for the first class ticket with ringside seats, access to the boxers prep room and, rather dangerously, prompt and cheap beer delivery service. It was a pretty cool evening, definitely something that had to be done in Thailand and 9 fights, a belly full of beer and 5 hours later, we headed back to the hostel for some pretty well sought after sleep to prepare for our last day in Bangkok and our eventual trip to our next destination; Kanchanaburi.
The last day, irritatingly, turned out of be a bit of a waste. My last couple of weeks living in a city had caught up with me and I'd managed to gain full 24 hour access to a pretty bad cough and sour throat combo. Additionally, we'd had a tip that the Bangkok International University is a great place to go for cheap buses, tours and the like, which turned out to be... a whole load of merde (excuse my French). So after wasting a day, and a considerable amount of precious immune system energy, we decided to cut our losses and head to the Bangkok bus station for some basic D.I.Y travel. In the end, we paid 45 Baht (~90p) for our 3 hour trip up North (compare that to the £2 I used to pay getting a bus into Guildford Town Centre....) and set off to our next destination.
Kanchanaburi itself is a small town nestled along the River Kwai (you may even have heard of a famous bridge?) in the mountains of Northern Thailand that, as of the time of writing, is the most beautiful place I have stayed yet. Our current home is a small raft floating on the river with a set of three shacks and a small balcony. So far, the first night has consisted of drinking beer, as we listen to the first set of birds, frogs and insects get quieter as they prepare for sleep, as the second different set start to stir to prepare for the night. We kept watching through as the sun set over the river, and the bats woke up to skim the river for insects. I have taken pictures, but trust me, there is no hope in hell of this night being done justice, you truly have to see it, and I hope one day at least a handfull of you will. Tonight, we're heading off for a massage (as it customary after any travelling of any kind) and to explore the local area for some restaurants and a bit of cheap beer. Tomorrow, we start to plan our motorbike trek for the next three days. I've been lucky enough to come here once before with my Dad, and so am acting as tour guide for a change. There's alot of history, albeit a bit more depressing history, here with the Japanese occupation and abuse of WWII prisoners of war in their pursuit of a railway to supply their troops in South-East Asia. So we'll go to take a look at the famous/infamous bridge over the River Kwai, visit a couple of museums and see Hellfire Pass, an area of mountain carved out by the P.O.Ws that claimed many lives in it's making. But also, we're going to take a look at some of the many National Parks and waterfalls around here, I truly can't emphasise enough how stunning a place this is, it's fantastic to finally be out of the city and I can assure you, it's going to be one hell of a trek!
R
For those tha that haven't heard, the Southern islands of Thailand have been hit with a mass of unseasonal weather and have been flooded and battered by rain and wind over the past 5 days. The damage has been catastrophic for such a poor and undeveloped area of the world and has led to thousands of tourists and backpackers being stranded without clean water, food or electricity as well as 30 deaths (I should say, that is the most recent update I've heard, it may even be more by now). The rain should be stopping within the next 5 days or so, however, the key shall be how long it takes them to recover which will dictate the timing of our travels, we'll have to play the waiting game it seems. However, my new found streak of positive thinking leads me to avoid talking about what we can't do and instead focus on what we can and have been doing, much more uplifting! Our first evening consisted off adventuring off with the entire populationof the hostel, or 4 people depending on how you prefer, in search of some Thai street food (it truly is good to be back). We then stayed up in our newly found position as travelling veterans, dispatching all the pieces of advice we've acquired up to this point, a stark contrast to our position last time in Bangkok when we were the ones in the dark in dire need of advice!
The next day had a rather dull taint to it as our mission for the day was to seek out a Fuji repair shop that could see to my "idiot-proof" camera that I have somehow managed to break. However, if you know me in the slightest, you'll be surprised to hear the highlight of the day was a trip to a mall called "Paragon Plaza" in center of Siam square, home to the richest of tourists and locals, needless to say... we stood out. The mall itself is a 7 story building home to a full-sized basement aquarium, Madame Tussauds, I-max cinema, a floor wide food court home to over 40 different restaurants and, notably, a Krispy Kreme. However, the highlight of the mall was after we'd walked past Gucci, Prada, Versace et al., and turned the corner, finding ourselves across from the Lambourgini, Aston Martin and Lotus show rooms. I'll just point on this was inside the 5th story of the building.... Before anyone asks, I don't have the faintest idea, but I presume parachutes play an active role! Once we'd had our fill of sheer unadulterated Westernised capitalism, we headed back to the hostel to prepare for our night out at Lumphini Stadium for a night of Muay Thai boxing, the "Art of the 8 Limbs" because, as became plainfully obvious, if you can cause pain with a specific area of a limb, it is utilised. So unlike in traditional boxing (two fists...) Muay Thai uses hands, elbows, knees and feet and the result is a pretty damn vicious 20 minutes! We decided to have a bit of luxury in our lives, so went for the first class ticket with ringside seats, access to the boxers prep room and, rather dangerously, prompt and cheap beer delivery service. It was a pretty cool evening, definitely something that had to be done in Thailand and 9 fights, a belly full of beer and 5 hours later, we headed back to the hostel for some pretty well sought after sleep to prepare for our last day in Bangkok and our eventual trip to our next destination; Kanchanaburi.
The last day, irritatingly, turned out of be a bit of a waste. My last couple of weeks living in a city had caught up with me and I'd managed to gain full 24 hour access to a pretty bad cough and sour throat combo. Additionally, we'd had a tip that the Bangkok International University is a great place to go for cheap buses, tours and the like, which turned out to be... a whole load of merde (excuse my French). So after wasting a day, and a considerable amount of precious immune system energy, we decided to cut our losses and head to the Bangkok bus station for some basic D.I.Y travel. In the end, we paid 45 Baht (~90p) for our 3 hour trip up North (compare that to the £2 I used to pay getting a bus into Guildford Town Centre....) and set off to our next destination.
Kanchanaburi itself is a small town nestled along the River Kwai (you may even have heard of a famous bridge?) in the mountains of Northern Thailand that, as of the time of writing, is the most beautiful place I have stayed yet. Our current home is a small raft floating on the river with a set of three shacks and a small balcony. So far, the first night has consisted of drinking beer, as we listen to the first set of birds, frogs and insects get quieter as they prepare for sleep, as the second different set start to stir to prepare for the night. We kept watching through as the sun set over the river, and the bats woke up to skim the river for insects. I have taken pictures, but trust me, there is no hope in hell of this night being done justice, you truly have to see it, and I hope one day at least a handfull of you will. Tonight, we're heading off for a massage (as it customary after any travelling of any kind) and to explore the local area for some restaurants and a bit of cheap beer. Tomorrow, we start to plan our motorbike trek for the next three days. I've been lucky enough to come here once before with my Dad, and so am acting as tour guide for a change. There's alot of history, albeit a bit more depressing history, here with the Japanese occupation and abuse of WWII prisoners of war in their pursuit of a railway to supply their troops in South-East Asia. So we'll go to take a look at the famous/infamous bridge over the River Kwai, visit a couple of museums and see Hellfire Pass, an area of mountain carved out by the P.O.Ws that claimed many lives in it's making. But also, we're going to take a look at some of the many National Parks and waterfalls around here, I truly can't emphasise enough how stunning a place this is, it's fantastic to finally be out of the city and I can assure you, it's going to be one hell of a trek!
R
....My fellow Americans....
Technology presents itself as a double-edged sword. The internet has been one of the most essential tools in our travel so far, right back from the time that we started this travelling notion, up until the booking of our latest hotel. However, the dependency does get a little overwhelming from time to time and it is worrying how much you miss it when it is no longer there... Which brings me to my apology!
With a mixture of British naturally imbred thriftiness leading to my inability to shell out extra for Wifi (it just seems greedy!), aslongside an overdue sense of technological impovishment in rural Kanchanaburi; the blog has grown dusty over the past week or so. However, this is not to say I haven't been documenting my trials and tribulations throughout Thailand, in fact, quite the opposite, I think I may be addicted to this blogging occupation! So, I present to you the collection of entries that I've been stockpiling until I can find sufficiently fast, free and available internet. This shall bring you right up from our departure of Phnom Phen in Cambodia, to our arrival in Pattaya and the celebration of the 23rd year that I have had the fortune to spend on this planet associating with such fine people as yourselves reading this wherever you may be.
So, I hope the apology has gone down with aplom and that there are no hard feelings for the extended test of patience for, both, waiting for new material and now, the neccesity for a long sit down and, perhaps, a bit of eye fatigue! Anyway, I present to you, another week in the life of a rambling man!
R
With a mixture of British naturally imbred thriftiness leading to my inability to shell out extra for Wifi (it just seems greedy!), aslongside an overdue sense of technological impovishment in rural Kanchanaburi; the blog has grown dusty over the past week or so. However, this is not to say I haven't been documenting my trials and tribulations throughout Thailand, in fact, quite the opposite, I think I may be addicted to this blogging occupation! So, I present to you the collection of entries that I've been stockpiling until I can find sufficiently fast, free and available internet. This shall bring you right up from our departure of Phnom Phen in Cambodia, to our arrival in Pattaya and the celebration of the 23rd year that I have had the fortune to spend on this planet associating with such fine people as yourselves reading this wherever you may be.
So, I hope the apology has gone down with aplom and that there are no hard feelings for the extended test of patience for, both, waiting for new material and now, the neccesity for a long sit down and, perhaps, a bit of eye fatigue! Anyway, I present to you, another week in the life of a rambling man!
R
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