Reading through our Lonely Planet, we came across Rai Leh West, described as 'the best beach in Thailand'. Holy guacamole! The best beach in Thailand? Having loved the beaches on Ko Payam, naturally we were very excited to see this beach.
2 hours in an uncomfortable long tail (a type of boat driven only by inconsiderate psychopaths), we arrive in Rai Leh. The boat either cannot or does not take us right to the shore (rather than shallow waters, I believe that we were made to wade because our longtail driver was a cock). Backpacks on, we wade through the murkiest water and gloopiest mud I have ever seen. John lost a flip flop to the mire, the poor soul. Luckily this was the only victim. In the silty sludge I could make out some strange looking worms with spiky mouths that I had no intention of going anywhere near (not that I could have gotten away had one decided to approach me, the mud was so thick) - luckily, they were more scared of me than I was of them.
I wasn't very impressed with our mud-laden, oil-polluted, longtail-psychopath-infested beach. Rai Leh West wasn't much better; full of European families paying ridiculous prices for everything (more than you'd pay at home most of the time). LP describes Rai Leh sunsets as 'orgasmic' - the soggy, pitiful display was an anti-climatic end in every possible sense, a feeling compounded by the hundreds of people sitting on the beach cooing at the view and running around taking pictures. If only they could see the skies of Ko Payam at night, a deserted beach 6 times as long as Rai Leh West, just you and the symphony in the sky.
Bitterly disappointed, we left sharpish before our wallets and our tempers took any more damage.
Having said that, the sea kayaking in the area was very good (see previous post), and we saw the finals of a 'fire contest' (if you dance and you can do it with fire, you're in). That was highly cool.
On a side note, the other day, we decided to go on a waterfall hunt at the local national park. Dressed for swimming, I was seriously unequipped for the walk to the waterfall, romantically named: 'THE TRAIL OF DEATH'. Wearing flip flops, I got bitten by a leech, on my foot. Ewww. We were about 40 minutes walk from the nearest salt, alcohol or flame (required to remove the leech without leaving it's teeth stuck in you), on a very difficult path covered in leaves and spiders and giant ants. Gravity wasn't being very helpful here, as the slopes were very steep, and the leech had attached itself right to the bottom of my foot - the bigger it got, the more in danger it was of being squashed by me as I slipped down the slopes. Dead leeches don't let go. This left me somewhat panicked and really grossed out. In the end, John was required to save the day by going on without me whilst I got well acquainted with my leech and various other creepy crawlies that decided to take an interest in me that day. It was a gourmet buffet for them, I'm sure. Eventually, the leech came off of it's own accord. I was furious with it. As punishment, I kept it in solitary confinement for 48 hours (in a plastic bottle) before I felt justice had been done and released it back into the wild, to attack the next unsuspecting flip-flop foot that wanders by. Apologies to whoever that is...
We have now reached my 30th post. Anybody bored yet? ;)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Songkran celebrations
As you may or may not have heard, there were a series of riots in Bangkok over the Songkran festival - two opposing political parties, the red shirts and the yellow shirts, basically having it out with one another in the streets of Bangkok. One of the Prime Ministers decoy cars was broken into whilst driving down the street - presumably an assassination attempt. Another important official was shot in the head whilst in his car the other day - there were bullet marks all over the front bonnet - he's recovering in hospital at the moment. Rioters set fire to buses and drove them into one another on major highways. There was a tank on Soh Khan road (the main tourist section of Bangkok). Locals and rioters clashed when the locals tried to protect their homes from the random fires that rioters were setting off around the city - two of the local people are now dead and several others severely beaten. Apparently.
I, luckily, was sitting on a tiny little island 500km away reading about it all in the (extremely biased) Bangkok Post.
Needless to say, I was pretty glad that we had missed all of this (we had been in Bangkok only 2 days earlier). However, the tourists I have spoken to have nothing to report - it seems that either there were relatively isolated attacks or that tourists were relatively isolated from the attacks.
To put the riots into perspective - two people were killed in the riots. 136 were killed because of Songkran.
Now don't get me wrong. Songkran is meant to be a joyous event. It is the Thai equivalent of New Year. Families gather and pour scented water over each other to show their love and mutual respect. It is a holiday where families get together to share food and time and to celebrate (which seems to be a pretty rare occurrence here - they work A LOT).
But, of course, this celebration escalates into a massive country-wide water fight. Which is great. So long as you're prepared for it. My preparation was correct clothing (i.e. bikini) and sunglasses (for the full frontal face assaults). Gotta be careful not to get the water in your eyes - it can be full of all sorts of weird and exciting tropical fungus. The deaths are normally caused by a combination of slippery roads and gung-ho attitudes to motorbike helmets and, you know, holding onto the motorbike whilst it's moving (instead of, for example, holding your groceries, carrying your pets/ children, and texting your mates - no joke. I have seen all of these things.).
So, that's riots and Songkran for you. My Songkran experience was pretty low key - the local children roamed around with buckets of water - I roamed around with my water pistol. One short water fight with a French tourist but generally it was more of a passive soakage event - very pleasant in the heat. I got a lot of yoghurt paste on my face - no one has explained to me what this has to do with Songkran but it was all very endearing just the same.
One night on Ko Phayam, we went out looking for a party. It's a pretty quiet little island - I was hoping for a bit more party-action to be honest - and cheaper cocktails - but all the same, there were plenty of young backpackery types around, so where was the party? After an hour of hunting, we got a tip-off - 'the Hippy Hut is where it's at tonight, guys' - and then couldn't find a taxi to take us there. Disaster. Anyway, about an hour later, we managed to get a couple of motorbikes to shuttle us to the Hippy Hut. Motorbike taxis and island roads work quite well together; they can weave around the potholes and make it along the dirt tracks to the beach. However, when you have 3 people on a motorbike, 2 females and one male (the male being the driver) can lead to some unavoidably closer-than-comfortable positions. I spent the entire 40 minute journey trying to compensate for my overly friendly crotch pressing by arching the rest of my body away from the driver in this weird C-shaped position that no spine should ever have to achieve. Probably doing wonders for my abs though.
The party was decidedly Hip as opposed to Hippy - although there was a lot of weed going round, and cheapish cocktails. Also, a hippy-ish French girl, totally out of it, swinging her full length hair round and round in time to the music. But it was more Bohemian-slash-Rasta than hippy. I spent most of the evening in deep philosophicals, instead of completing my intended 'humiliate my nation with drunken dancing' routine. Aw well. Sometimes even the best laid plans must give way to chaos.
Having done a little sea-kayaking in South Africa. I was keen to go out and try it again (although this time without the whale watching :( boo). My first attempt failed miserably as I, very publicly, made an ass out of myself. Approaching the oncoming wave at a dodgy angle , I tipped out the kayak. Very unceremoniously. I scratched both my knees up. As you now know, there are a lot of weird and exciting fungal diseases you can catch in these tropical waters, so I deemed it unwise to get in the water for a day or two until the scratches had healed over (cue Louise putting alcoholic hand sanitizer on her grazes and nearly biting her own lips off in agony).
Second attempt: much better. Less waves on the shore (although choppier out on the ocean), John and I kayaked around some tiny little islands just offshore. We saw a rope tied to an overhanging cliff on one of these islands. I looked at it. It dangled tantalisingly at me. And then those fatal words escaped my lips 'Hey, John, wouldn't it make a cool photo if...'. How many stupid and half-baked actions in peoples lives have been preceded by that sentence?! So, about 5 minutes later, after some careful manouvering, I hung on a rope surrounded by ocean. John took pictures. I grimace-smiled - as 5 minutes is actually quite a long time to dangle for, you know.
What the rope was doing hanging off a cliff in the middle of the ocean I could not say. It is quite possible that someone was kayaking around, saw the appropriate cliff face, saw the appropriate rope, put two and two together and before they knew it they were saying 'Hey, guys, wouldn't it make a cool photo if...'.
I, luckily, was sitting on a tiny little island 500km away reading about it all in the (extremely biased) Bangkok Post.
Needless to say, I was pretty glad that we had missed all of this (we had been in Bangkok only 2 days earlier). However, the tourists I have spoken to have nothing to report - it seems that either there were relatively isolated attacks or that tourists were relatively isolated from the attacks.
To put the riots into perspective - two people were killed in the riots. 136 were killed because of Songkran.
Now don't get me wrong. Songkran is meant to be a joyous event. It is the Thai equivalent of New Year. Families gather and pour scented water over each other to show their love and mutual respect. It is a holiday where families get together to share food and time and to celebrate (which seems to be a pretty rare occurrence here - they work A LOT).
But, of course, this celebration escalates into a massive country-wide water fight. Which is great. So long as you're prepared for it. My preparation was correct clothing (i.e. bikini) and sunglasses (for the full frontal face assaults). Gotta be careful not to get the water in your eyes - it can be full of all sorts of weird and exciting tropical fungus. The deaths are normally caused by a combination of slippery roads and gung-ho attitudes to motorbike helmets and, you know, holding onto the motorbike whilst it's moving (instead of, for example, holding your groceries, carrying your pets/ children, and texting your mates - no joke. I have seen all of these things.).
So, that's riots and Songkran for you. My Songkran experience was pretty low key - the local children roamed around with buckets of water - I roamed around with my water pistol. One short water fight with a French tourist but generally it was more of a passive soakage event - very pleasant in the heat. I got a lot of yoghurt paste on my face - no one has explained to me what this has to do with Songkran but it was all very endearing just the same.
One night on Ko Phayam, we went out looking for a party. It's a pretty quiet little island - I was hoping for a bit more party-action to be honest - and cheaper cocktails - but all the same, there were plenty of young backpackery types around, so where was the party? After an hour of hunting, we got a tip-off - 'the Hippy Hut is where it's at tonight, guys' - and then couldn't find a taxi to take us there. Disaster. Anyway, about an hour later, we managed to get a couple of motorbikes to shuttle us to the Hippy Hut. Motorbike taxis and island roads work quite well together; they can weave around the potholes and make it along the dirt tracks to the beach. However, when you have 3 people on a motorbike, 2 females and one male (the male being the driver) can lead to some unavoidably closer-than-comfortable positions. I spent the entire 40 minute journey trying to compensate for my overly friendly crotch pressing by arching the rest of my body away from the driver in this weird C-shaped position that no spine should ever have to achieve. Probably doing wonders for my abs though.
The party was decidedly Hip as opposed to Hippy - although there was a lot of weed going round, and cheapish cocktails. Also, a hippy-ish French girl, totally out of it, swinging her full length hair round and round in time to the music. But it was more Bohemian-slash-Rasta than hippy. I spent most of the evening in deep philosophicals, instead of completing my intended 'humiliate my nation with drunken dancing' routine. Aw well. Sometimes even the best laid plans must give way to chaos.
Having done a little sea-kayaking in South Africa. I was keen to go out and try it again (although this time without the whale watching :( boo). My first attempt failed miserably as I, very publicly, made an ass out of myself. Approaching the oncoming wave at a dodgy angle , I tipped out the kayak. Very unceremoniously. I scratched both my knees up. As you now know, there are a lot of weird and exciting fungal diseases you can catch in these tropical waters, so I deemed it unwise to get in the water for a day or two until the scratches had healed over (cue Louise putting alcoholic hand sanitizer on her grazes and nearly biting her own lips off in agony).
Second attempt: much better. Less waves on the shore (although choppier out on the ocean), John and I kayaked around some tiny little islands just offshore. We saw a rope tied to an overhanging cliff on one of these islands. I looked at it. It dangled tantalisingly at me. And then those fatal words escaped my lips 'Hey, John, wouldn't it make a cool photo if...'. How many stupid and half-baked actions in peoples lives have been preceded by that sentence?! So, about 5 minutes later, after some careful manouvering, I hung on a rope surrounded by ocean. John took pictures. I grimace-smiled - as 5 minutes is actually quite a long time to dangle for, you know.
What the rope was doing hanging off a cliff in the middle of the ocean I could not say. It is quite possible that someone was kayaking around, saw the appropriate cliff face, saw the appropriate rope, put two and two together and before they knew it they were saying 'Hey, guys, wouldn't it make a cool photo if...'.
Beach Bumming in Ko Payam
The beaches in Thailand are just phenomenal - picture perfect. And the ocean is warm! Finally, after 5 months of tropical climes, I can actually swim in the sea. You have to be careful though. Apparently when the water is too calm the sea lice come out and nibble on you. Not pleasant I imagine. I've been keeping a wary eye out for anything tropical looking but all I've seen so far are lots of sand-coloured crabs. They are very cute. They all hang out together in big clumps on the beach and when you go too close they panic and rush into their respective living holes. I love the way they move - it's just like I walked into Finding Nemo.
We are living in huts right next to the beach - 5 meters from the tide line - it's really cool (and they are verrry cheap, about two pounds fifty a night). You can hear waves rolling onto the shore as you sleep. You're really out in the jungle here, you can hear all the birds and reptiles singing at each other all night.
I found out that I have a lot in common with frogs. For example; I like open air showers (a bathroom with no roof and flimsy bamboo walls - doesn't work too well when it's raining). Turns out that frogs like to hang out in open air showers. We have a mutual interest. Very good. Another example; I do not like stepping on frogs. Turns out they don't like it either! What a coincidence.
Coming up next: Songkran festival, Bangkok riots, sea kayaking and night time jungle wanderings...Thursday, April 9, 2009
Mai pen lai?
Bad news. I've picked up the Indian side-head-wobble and the Asian shrug.
Although they might sound like side-effects of some terrible disease, I can assure you this is the entirely social affliction of 'mai pen lai' (what to do?). It is the optimistic fatalism that prevents the consistent inconsistency of Asia from turning into heart attacks and strokes. But it's also possibly a factor in the fact that it's been difficult for me to find things to write about for the past couple of weeks. I'm not really sure why. I guess part of it is that Asia isn't so 'new' anymore; seeing an elephant wandering down the street or people having picnics in the back of moving pick-up trucks is pretty much an everyday occurrence. Maybe I'm growing too complacent. Meh. (Accompanied with Indian side-head-wobble and Asian shrug).
Since my last blog entry, I thought I'd go 'way out' and actually try Durian fruit. In a word: don't. Please, for the love of God, don't. It tastes just like it smells.
What else? I decided to spend a few days travelling alone. My Mum will probably die when she reads that. Sorry, Mum. But a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do.
People seem to be far more chatty when they think you're a lone traveller - particularly if they are fellow 'lone travellers'. You spend more time people watching and connecting with the locals. Also, Thai people are more helpful. Especially the women. They all seemed very concerned for me, which was very touching. I hope it wasn't because I was putting out 'help me, I'm in distress' vibes. I wasn't trying to. It was a little bit daunting, knowing the drop in odds you've just acquired going from 'group' to 'lone white female'. But some things can only be learned through action.
Also, Thai is an annoyingly tonal language.
Louise: 'Please, we go Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: 'Sai Mai Tai?!' -looks confused-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: -shrug-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: -head wobble-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: 'Oh! Sai Mai Tai!!' -laughs his head off-
Louise: -sigh-
Now, when speaking Thai this is understandable. The main frustration is when you try and speak your own language. Most Thai's seem to have taken their tonal mentality with them into the world of English - hence, you have to pronounce everything in a Thai accent about 3 times before they'll have half an idea what you're trying to say. If they speak any English at all. It's very hard to speak with a Thai accent without sounding like you're taking the piss.
...there is definitely more to say but my brain doesn't seem to want to get at it right now. It is possible that I have been partially addled by the heat. Or dodgyAsian alcohol.
Meh. Mai pen lai?
Although they might sound like side-effects of some terrible disease, I can assure you this is the entirely social affliction of 'mai pen lai' (what to do?). It is the optimistic fatalism that prevents the consistent inconsistency of Asia from turning into heart attacks and strokes. But it's also possibly a factor in the fact that it's been difficult for me to find things to write about for the past couple of weeks. I'm not really sure why. I guess part of it is that Asia isn't so 'new' anymore; seeing an elephant wandering down the street or people having picnics in the back of moving pick-up trucks is pretty much an everyday occurrence. Maybe I'm growing too complacent. Meh. (Accompanied with Indian side-head-wobble and Asian shrug).
Since my last blog entry, I thought I'd go 'way out' and actually try Durian fruit. In a word: don't. Please, for the love of God, don't. It tastes just like it smells.
What else? I decided to spend a few days travelling alone. My Mum will probably die when she reads that. Sorry, Mum. But a gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do.
People seem to be far more chatty when they think you're a lone traveller - particularly if they are fellow 'lone travellers'. You spend more time people watching and connecting with the locals. Also, Thai people are more helpful. Especially the women. They all seemed very concerned for me, which was very touching. I hope it wasn't because I was putting out 'help me, I'm in distress' vibes. I wasn't trying to. It was a little bit daunting, knowing the drop in odds you've just acquired going from 'group' to 'lone white female'. But some things can only be learned through action.
Also, Thai is an annoyingly tonal language.
Louise: 'Please, we go Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: 'Sai Mai Tai?!' -looks confused-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: -shrug-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: -head wobble-
Louise: 'Sai Mai Tai?'
Taxi man: 'Oh! Sai Mai Tai!!' -laughs his head off-
Louise: -sigh-
Now, when speaking Thai this is understandable. The main frustration is when you try and speak your own language. Most Thai's seem to have taken their tonal mentality with them into the world of English - hence, you have to pronounce everything in a Thai accent about 3 times before they'll have half an idea what you're trying to say. If they speak any English at all. It's very hard to speak with a Thai accent without sounding like you're taking the piss.
...there is definitely more to say but my brain doesn't seem to want to get at it right now. It is possible that I have been partially addled by the heat. Or dodgyAsian alcohol.
Meh. Mai pen lai?
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