Category: Musings

All greased up

Been a while since my last missive… spent all of that time on Ko Phangan. Decided to do a massage course which was great fun. Have to say that waking up early in Haddrin after a hard night out drinking on the beach is not a pleasent thing – but rubbing oil into cute Thai girls in the name of ‘learning’ definately makes it more palatable. It’s a hard life init.

The Full Moon Party was as crazy as you’d expect. Thousands of people crammed onto a (previously) pristine stretch of fine sand bouncing up and down to whatever music is pumping from the bar in front of them. Great fun – like Glastonbury but with better weather and a beach. Watching the sun come up over the sea was an awesome experience, with a soundtrack of thumping techno to boot. The sun obviously wasn’t in a techno mood, as it hid behind clouds for a good hour which kept things nice and cool – and then it rained! Such a glorious feeling having refreshing rain pouring down on you, until you remember your digital camera’s not in a waterproof bag of course.

The morning sun, as well as bringing rain, also brought the realisation of the damage that the party causes to both the beach and the people. Glass and plastic is strewn everywhere, with the encroaching tide sometimes taking part of it out to sea. Not a pleasent site. The bars here make no effort to tidy up the bottles during the night, and most people aren’t really in a state to think of taking them back to the bar themselves. In fact by the morning many people aren’t in a state for much, except lying on the beach comatose or dancing barefoot like wobbly spinning tops on tops of empty glass bottles. Nice. Rumours were also spreading of a body washed into shore the next day… a caucasian casualty with no name, but there was no official backing to that story.

To recover from the madness I changed rooms at the Sarikanita (formally Bumble Bee) guest house on Leela beach. Leela is a beautiful little beach situated over the hill from sunrise beach where the partying happens. This means it’s quiet, relaxed and only a 5 minute walk into town. The room I stayed in was beautiful, quiet and well designed – with an awesome, sun facing outside shower from which you can see the sea. Beautiful. Was very hard indeed to drag myself away from that comfortable spot and head back to Bangkok to try and see what I could do with my visa, or head north for a last bit of sight seeing in Chiang Mai…

Oh my Buddha!

Another day, another island.. This time it’s the home of the infamous Full Moon Party – Ko Phangan (or Ko Pha Ngan) in the Thai gulf. Another day spent travelling to get here – crossing the Thai southlands from Krabi to Surat Thani then a ferry – with the weathe getting greyer and windier as we went – oops. Currently staying in a small beachside guest house (Chokana) near Tong Sala and contemplating a move to Heddrin (or Hat Rin or however you want to spell it).

Nothing much else to say at the mo though… The local Chokana folk are very touchy feely and prone to saying ‘Oh my Buddha!’ at random, amusing moments. There’s a cool dog called Johnnie who likes to dig up sand crabs and then chase them down the beach – all of which passes for high entertainment value here. Getting mildly addicted to oil massage although the best one I had was still the first one on Ko Phi Phi – with a massage hut right on the beach listening to the waves break as a larger than average Thai woman pummelled the knots out of my back. Bliss. Last night’s massage left my smelling like a coconut which seemed to attract the amorous attentions of this cute black puppy that wouldn’t let go of my leg.. ah, bless.

Planning to move to Haddrin at some point to be more in the thick of it (ie, nearer regular massage facilities) and going to do some yoga and massage courses to keep me off the streets (and away from the cheap and evil local Thai whiskey). Also suspect that the every night beach party on Sunrise beach (Heddrin has two beaches, sunrise and sunset for obvious reasons) will keep me busy some nights with the choice of hip hop, house, chart, techno, trance and whatever else the DJ fancies combined with full on fire twirling shows – sometimes there are four going on at the same time, each with multiple people which is pretty intense.

Right… back off for some more sunning now having narrowly avoided a dialup crash at this cheapy cheap internet place (20 baht an hour).

Going Phi Phi

A slight change of scenery now as in the tropical island paradise of Ko Phi Phi, off the west coast of Thailand. Sun, sand and scuba diving are the order of the day – although not surfing as the sea is as flat as a pancake, great for snorkling off the beach. Have a little beach hut, near the beach with great views of the ocean from my hammock – sweet.

Getting to paradise was slightly less idyllic though. The sloooowest coach this side of coach town followed by a very cramped minibus drive for a few hours. Once we got on the ferry though everything was superb – just from the feeling of being near the sea again (aided by sleep depravation of course).

Republican party reptile – p.j. o’rourke. Collection of short writings sometimes political, sometimes just laddish but always funny and insightful.

Post by Matt Hobbs

Back-kok

In the backstreets of Khao San road, Bangkok once again and after Cambodia everything just seems so sedate and un-unnerving that I can’t believe I felt a bit edgy when I first arrived in Bangkok! Funny how things change isn’t it?

The last few days in Siem Reap were pretty chilled out. By chilled out I mean we didn’t spend the whole day running around temples like Indiana Jones (or Lara Croft in Dom’s case {;) – instead hanging out in town and getting drunk on the local cocktails. Khmer spirit is not to be recommended unfortunately tasting something like lighter fluid, or at least what I imagine lighter fluid tastes like, but with no kick at all. Yashka’s 26th birthday was much reason for merriment and all had a splendid night eating at Dead Fish again and feeding the crocodiles. Then onto Angkor What? where stayed up late chatting with Kate about everything and anything and finding out that Angelina Jolie’s Cambodian pad is only a mere 4 hours by road, but 20 minutes by helicopter, from Siem Raep (thanks to Max for that).

One thing I found out as a side effect of that late night was that Siem Reap is busiest with locals at dawn. Everyone seems to be up and about, with the light lovely for photos and everyone bustling around happily. The boats on the river in the morning mist were stunning.

Next day had to get up early for the bump-tastic ride back to Poi Pet in a van that was nowhere near as plush (or empty – especially with the rugsacs wedged all around me) as the one we arrived in, but made up for that with a manic speed that got us to the border in half the time of the journey down. I suspect the driver’s horn was wired directly to his accelerator, indicator and possibly side mirror adjustment lever though – as it was keeping us accompaniment the whole way back. Cambodian national anthem maybe?

So now back in Bangkok – and it feels very tame compared to Cambodia. Can’t say I’m missing the acrid sting and small of the nightly burn of all rubbish though, but apart from that I am missing everything else – the smiling people, saying ‘Oour kuhm chiran’, the manic street ‘rules’ for cars and just the sheer visceral impact of it all. Oh, except that drinks are now B10 instead of 50 centsplus and the rooms here are dirt cheap – so my budget has suddenly extended out for months more. Huzah! Getting some films developed now for about 50p each.. sweet.

Off to breakfast now… then finalising plans for next stage of trip. Ko Tao is looking to be the next port of call then onto the other islands on that side of Thailand for more diving, sun and chilled times. Looking forward to lying on a beach immensely – but a hammock will do me as the sun sets over the sea. Bliss.

Wat ho!

Cambodia has come a long way in the last 25 years (it was the 25th anniversary of the end of the killing fields the other day) – as witnessed by the fact I’m now sitting in an Internet cafe in Siem Reap. It’s now been a week since I landed in Asia, a few fun, hectic pat thai filled days in Bangkok and then a crazy day of travelling across the Cambodian border and now I’ve been in Siem Reap, near to the awesome Angkor Wat temple ruins, for four days.

First up, the border crossing… Intense and vaguely stressful is probably the best way to describe it – an ‘experience’. Running en masse through the grey muddy marketplace that surrounds the Thai border with small thieving kids watching your every pocket is great fun. The gateway to the Kingdom of Cambodia is highly impressive, but once through you are surrounded by madness – normaly riding a motorbike (or with up to 5 people riding one motorbike). The whole town square is surrounded by motorbikes and people who just watch you all the time which is slightly unnerving. Then one of the guys on our coach to Siem reap got scammed in a most obvious way, but then the threat was ‘if you don’t pay, we leave you in Poi Pet’ – not an attractive prospect so he paid up, be warned! As for the ride, well… bumpy is a bit of an understatement to say the least – but watching the local countryside unfold, complete with ‘danger mines’ signs was awesome.

Briefly now – Angkor Wat… Wow! This is an amazing sight indeed. Such a mix of temple types and all stunning in their own ways. Precipitous steps, overgrown walls with tree roots pushing blocks out, and small children constantly asking you to buy everything for ‘one dollar! one dollar mistah!’. Took so many photos, in fact all of us did… expensive hobby this travelling malarky.

OK – back out into the madness of Siem Reap now. More laterer…

A great first full day in Bangkok later and feeling a lot more settled. So much to see and do but in fact we jump in a bus to Cambodia tomorrow hence going to see the Grand Palace today and the reclining Buddha for a bit of culture.

So as I’m being lazy.. here’s a quick list of high points from yesterday: getting adopted by a cute temple cat with a stumpy tail, watching multi-coloured teams of school kids chanting happily at their school games day, temples temples and temples with wonderful gilt windows and be-robed monks and nuns, my first thai massage (with possible request if I’d like ‘extras’ or me mishearing a simple Thai phrase badly!), lots of little kids selling flowers, cheap knock off sandles and way too much cheap and lush pat thai…

Sawa Dee

Or however it’s spelt… It means ‘welcome’ or ‘hello’ here in Thailand and you here it all the time along with the strangers wai greeting – hands clasped together as if in prayer below your chin and a slight bow.

So yep – in Bangkok now, just round the corner from the infamous Khao San road (which is now less infamous in behaviour due to a major drug crackdown a few years back and everything closing at 1am rather than 4 or later). It’s warm and sticky here and there’s a slight sulfurous smell which is reminiscent of being in New Zealand! Met up with Vera and Dom after an exhilarating (ie, almost sh*t myself at times) taxi ride from the airport, then out for a few roadside Mai Tais costing all of about 90p. Didn’t quite get up the nerve to have my first roast grasshopper but did have a lush pat thai for B15 (30p).

Favourite things so far (aside from how cheap everything is for staying, eating and drinking): the traffic – the tuk tuks (little three wheeled bike cabs) zipping in and out everywhere and the buses that look like de-comissioned tanks, how smiley everyone is even though they’re dealing every day with a continuing stream of (generally drunken) tourists, the food stalls and seeing Vera and Dom again.

Come fly with me

Another day, another flight.. After all the flights I’ve made in my life to wonderful exotic locations (and Pennsylvania) you’d think I’d be good at flying by now. Ah well. Guess I’m just agitated because it’s my first flight in over six months and I’d gotten very comfortable and happy living in Melbourne. Thailand is going to be awesome though – so excited about going diving again, so it’s definately worth the short term discomfort.

Plus it’s also exciting to be going somewhere the currency is nowhere near parity with UK money. Just changed AU$120 to 3000 Thai Baht. Not quite as silly as Italian Lira used to be pre-Euro but still very confusing. Guess I’m a millionaire now.. almost-ish.