(Beware, a novel follows...)
I have really enjoyed Vietnam so far! We arrived last Thursday, the 6th, in Hanoi, a city in Northern Vietnam (possibly the capital?). We had heard before that all of Hanoi was flooded! In the newspaper, the day before we left, there were photos of people in water up to their knees, pushing their motorbikes on makeshift rafts. Lindsay seemed quite concerned about this, but I thought it would be quite the story if we had to kayak to our guesthouse.
We boarding our cheap Air Asia flight to Hanoi which promptly arrived an hour late. I had read much about scams in Hanoi before leaving and was prepared for the worst. Especially getting from the airport to the guesthouse. The taxi drivers at the airport were not as aggresive as in Thailand though, which was nice. And were just bartering with themselves while we looked around forthe shuttle bus ("Ladies! Hanoi $25! .... Ok, $20!!..... I give you special price, $15!!"). They gradually went down to $10, so we took that as the shuttle wanted to charge us $5 each.
I had reserved a room online with a guesthouse, but heard it was hard to get to the guesthouse you want. Becasue one guesthouse will get quite popular, another guesthouse will open and steal their name. And the taxis will get some tea money if they take you to the rip off guesthouse. There was also confusion given that our guesthouse, written as "Manh Dung" was actually pronounced "Mang Zung" as 'd's and maybe even 'g's are pronounced as 'z' in the north.
So we arrived to a 'Mang Dung' which seemed suspicious to me so I started asking the right questions which made the man there know I was on to him. After talking to the taxi driver for 10 minutes, we were taken to the correct guesthouse. But told we had to wait for a few minutes. I tried to find out what rooms were available and at what price. I was told to wait and grew suspicious again. When we were finally given attention (it was around 11pm at this time) we were told they were full but we could stay at their friend's hotel for $17 a night,while I had reserved a room in the $6-10 range at their place. I said no way and took off down the street looking for more guesthouses. Found one right across the lane for $8 a night. Bargain!
The people there were super nice and relaxed. The girl said "you go to sleep now, you must be tired, you check in tomorrow. But are you hungry? My grandfather will show you what is open now". Very sweet family.
So took a while to find a bed that first night, but all worked out in the end and stayed on budget.
The next few days were spent exploring Hanoi, a crazy little city that I quite like. It is very atmospheric. Women everywhere in conical hats selling goods off of those long poles they put on their shoulders, with baskets on each side. I couldn't believe they were actually wearing conical hats, in the city, and not just for tourists to take photos of! The city is centered around a pretty lake with lots of people relaxing and talking. Along the streets everywhere are men and women sitting on these miniature stools, a few feet off the pavement, sipping tea, coffee or beer.
The city is a mess of little alleys each loaded with traffic, of which 90% is motorbikes. Crossing the street is an adventure, which scared Lindsay a lot but I was more prepared after living in Bangkok. There are rarely stop lights and even then, many keep on driving, incessantly honking their horns at everything and everyone. So to cross, you just wait for a tiny break and start walking as many motorbikes swerve around you.
The first day there I had the first of a series of amazing meals. The food here has been so incredible so far. That night we had a noodle dish called "bun bo" which was beef with rice noodles, bean sprouts, greens, freshly fried garlic, and tons of peanuts in a little bit of broth. Sooo good!! Other great food I had there was a sandwich with donair meat (the kind on that big slab that they cut off of) with vegetables and garlic sauce in a great crusty bun. There is so much great french bread here. They sell loaves and treats right off the street for dirt cheap. I had another nice noodle soup dish with wontons and crispy wonton. And we had fresh 'roll your own' spring rolls with carmelized beef covered in sesame seeds, noodles, vegetables, herbs, and pineapple with a sweet spicy sauce and grilled eggplant with garlic. SO incredible!!!!!
The first day we did a bit of sight seeing, but most was closed when we got there (bad timing). We took a cyclo (a bike with a seat for two at the front) to Ho Chi Minh's Masoluem. There was a huge stone arch and large grassy area that was quite nice. But the museum was closed, so we didn't get to see Uncle Ho.
That night we saw a water puppet show. The puppets jump around on the water, controlled by the puppet masters behind a screen. And there was a band playing accompanying traditional music. There were some very interesting instruments. One had all these different strings that make these strange whining sounds. It was cool. Would make good background music for a Quentin Tarantino film. The puppet show was quite different. Perhaps there was a story to it, but it was all in Vietnamese.
The next night and day Lindsay was sick from the hot sauce she slathered on her bun bo. So I explored the city some more on my own. I bought some neat old communist propaganda prints, which I now need to lug around. But they are cool, I think silkscreened on handmade paper. That night I found a 'bia hoi' corner. Bia hoi is a local beer that is made without preservatives, so the keg must be drank that day. On each corner of the intersections are these little bars set up where a little old lady taps the keg for the (mostly) foreigner crowd who all sit on the miniature stools and watch the craziness of Hanoi pass by. All for the low low cost of 3000 dong a glass (20 cents!!). What a great city.
The next day I had a really annoying head cold. So I was sneezing and coughing all day. We visited a silk village on the outskirts of town, but it was quite desolate. Mostly just a row of silk shops and lots of garbage. Spent the rest of the day relaxing, trying to get rid of my cold and eating 20 mini oranges that are so sweet they taste like candy.
The next day we had a tour booked to Ha Long Bay for two days, one night. Ha Long bay is filled with these limestone cliffs and tiny jagged islands everywhere. Quite like Krabi/Phi Phi in Thailand, but much more of them. The scenery was gorgeous and the water was so nice and calm. But I think the best part was staying on the boat. They are these old wooden boats called "junks". It was three levels, with the cabins on the bottom, dining area in the middle and open top for sunbathing. The food was ok, the first lunch was the best, then the food seemed to get progressively worse (dinner was a strange combination of fried tofu, morning glory, fish nuggets, french fries and a whole fish). Other people thought the rooms were too small, but it was practially the size of our room in hanoi so we didn't mind!
The bay was beautiful, but I didn't really like the structure of the tour. I wanted more to sunbath, read and swim. But instead we got on the boat, ate lunch and then visited a bunch of caves. The caves were cool, but I think I'm a bit caved out. When that was all finished it was around 4 pm and the sun was starting to go down. Then they wanted us to kayak, but we were in a shady bay. So I was already starting to get cold and didn't feel like getting on the water. Lindsay wasn't interested either so we drank beer and played card games on this floating restaurant.
The next morning we had to wake up at 8am, eat breakfast and then we got back to shore at 11am! So not at all a two day trip, which was kind of disappointing. It was also quite cold in the night and morning, so I wasn't up to swimming quite yet (the coldness of the trip had just begun though!!!!). But it was still nice to see the bay.
The day that that trip finished we decided to head up to Sapa, North of Hanoi, a small town in the highest mountains of Vietnam. We booked tickets for the sleeper train leaving at 10 pm. I was expecting a sleeper train much like the ones in Thailand (which I thoroughly enjoy taking). But the Thailand trains were much more luxiourous than these ones! In the berth was six beds, three high from top to bottom! And of course, being cheap we bought tickets for the top bed. In Thailand, the beds are first nice big seats with tables that are then made into beds. In Vietnam there are only beds, so you can only lay down or stand in the tiny hallway (and there was no dining cart!). The top beds were soo tiny, I could barely sit up then I would bang my head on the edge everytime I sat down. Lindsay and I also shared our berth with four business men in full suits who got on to the train took off their shoes, then laid down in their beds and went to sleep. It was pretty funny. We stood in the hallway and talked to some guys that were on our Ha Long bay tour and another one from switzerland.
We arrived by train to Lao Cai, the border town with China, then took a 45 minute mini van ride to Sapa. And wow, it was so goregous even from that first drive! Huge moutains everywhere. We got to Sapa and it was soooooooo cold!!! Everyone was in ski gear!! It felt just like a ski resort actually. Cute little town with little alleys perched up on a high hill, very crisp mountain air. I was dying though, I was so cold. I sat in the hotel room under these super thick blankets and was still shivering convusively. I can only really handle Bangkok temperatures now!!! I had to pull out the shoes that I thankfully brought, my jeans and 3 layers of shirts, then I needed to buy another sweater there.
We shared a room with the swiss guy for $6 a night! Great deal. We opted for a room without a fireplace, but then needed to get a heater later when it got colder. The town has tons of bakeries and french food, so we had lots of nice treats (pastries, french bread, cake). In the town there are tons of minority people walking around everywhere (trying to sell you things unfortunately). But its' really cool because each group wears different ethnic clothes. Most of them were wearing these thick blue-black fabrics that they hand embroider with all these little patterns. Many different layers of fabric with jackets, skirts and leg warmers. Also lots of different jewelry. It was really neat to see.
I was checking my email on a computer in the guesthouse lobby and one of the minority women came up asking me for help. First I was confused what she wanted then she gave me a paper with her email and password on it. So I checked her email for her and read an email to her that she had received. She was so happy I helped her out. Then she gave me 1000 dong! I said no, I didn't want it and kept trying to put it back in her hand but she fled out the door. Most of them could speak quite good english though. Each tribe speaks a different language and only some can speak vietnamese.
We then booked a two day trek with an overnight in a homestay in one of the minority villages. It was such a great trip! The first day was a lot of hiking, probably 5 or 6 hours. Lindsay had a hard time, but I really enjoyed it. Our guide was a minority girl about 22 years old. She was really cool, lots of sass. She kept telling us "you too slowly!!!!".
The mountains are full of little villages and these minority people. Since it is so hilly, they make their rice paddies right out of the mountain. So many hills have paddies cut into them, creating a series of different steps up the hill, making really neat designs everywhere. There are tons of farm animals everywhere. Buffalos, cows, pigs, ducks all wandering around the paddies and throughout the villages. We hiked along the paddies, though bamboo forest and up and down many hills. It was a lot of work!
That night we stayed in a village with a few other homestays for tourists. But there were not too many tourists there, which was nice. At our homestay there were 7 others there. We actually ran into the two guys from the train and the ha long bay tour again as they were staying with us! Funny how often this happens when travelling. The homestay was a stilt house made out of bamboo, I think. We all sleeped in one big room with huge blankets and mosquito nets.
They were all minority women that were leading the treks and these women worked so hard! As soon as we stopped hiking and collapsed at the homestay, they started cooking our next meals. Our friends said that in the morning, their guide had woken up at 4 am, hiked 2 km to her house. Woke up her family, cooked breakfast, sent her kids to school and then hiked back before they had even woken. Most of them looked so much older than their age too! This one women had few teeth, no hair (they shave it when they are married), tons of wrinkles and she was only 30.
The food they cooked us was so amazing and so much of it. The first dinner was a huge assortment of meats, vegetables and spring rolls. In the morning they made crepes with bananas, honey, lemon and chocolate sauce.
Near the homestay there were also these neat hot springs. They looked like hot tubs, carved out of huge blocks of stone and placed right next to a huge river. They were not super hot, but were still very relaxing after our long trek.
The next day was sooo much more difficult than the first time. Mostly becasue we were so tired and sore! And the men were hungover from the 1.5 litres of 'happy water' they drank (which tasted a lot like the 'Sapa wine' we bought the previous night, which tasted a lot like vodka). So it was a very difficult day. But we went through more of the villages and saw a very basic traditional house. It was sooo hot that day as well. Which made for hard trekking, but a lot nicer than freezing Sapa. I was so hot and sweaty, we went to a waterfall and I wanted to dive in so bad. Everyone else thought I was crazy becasue it was so cold. But I still did it and felt so amazing afterwards!
The trek back was on a bad route too, mostly a construction site where all the dirt was dug up. It was also all uphill. But we did make it, even though Lindsay was tempted to get a motorbike a few times. But all in all it was a really amazing trip. Lots of exercise, beautiful scenery and really cool people.
That night we decided to head back to Lao Cai and take the train back to Hanoi. We showed up late and could only get sleeper tickets on the 5:45 train, so we arrived in Hanoi this morning at 4:30 am. Not nice! This train was even worse and I had even less space on the top bunk. I shared my berth with a bunch of young vietnamesse people that got a real kick out of me. I was so exhausted and only wanted to sleep. Lindsay and I found some seats for a while to play cards but then needed to give up the seats. I was laying in bed, with the ceiling a foot from my face trying to read my book. And the vietnamesse in my berth kept trying to get me to drink their beer and whiskey and kept asking me questions. They turned off the lights so I couldn't read then gave me these fruits. And I was trying to sleep and they kept saying "laaaandsayyyy!!! You sleep??? Bia!!! Drink bia!!.... Canada? How about whiskey???.. Cigarette..???" It was pretty funny. Everything I said put them into fits of giggles.
So we arrived back in Hanoi this morning, got a guesthouse for the day so we could sleep a few more hours. We are now about to book our open bus tour. These are bus trips with about 5/6 stops at different cities along the way to Saigon. They even have sleeper buses! Hopefully better than the sleeper train though. But some of the trips are very long. Tonight we will be heading to Hue, which is a 14 hour bus ride! I'm thinking about buying some sleeping pills, especially since I can't read on the bus!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Beaches and jungles --- a Thai type of weekend
I have had some good weekends lately visiting many more places around Bangkok. It seems like the opportunity for day and weekend trips is endless!
I went to a small island called Koh Samet a few weekends ago. I couldn't find anyone to come with me, and all my friends were doing their own things, so decided to go by myself. The island is south-east of Bangkok. It only took 3 and a half hours on the bus, then a half hour boat ride to get there. Was amazing to get to a tropical island in four hours and for only 260 baht (~$8). I got there and found a really cool guesthouse for 300 baht. It was a little wooden bundalow on stilts, incredibly basic with only a platform bed with mosquito netting and a little balcony. Very cozy! Unfortunately it began to rain just after I got there and it didnt' stop for three hours. I still had a really nice, relaxing time though. Sat in the open-air restaurant at my guesthouse with a new book and a big bowl of hot curry. When the rain stopped I went back to see the beach. Many people had ran out and were running around, jumping into the water. It got very busy, and was mostly Thai people. I think they were all wealthy Bangkokians since they were dressed really nice and brought their toy dogs to the beach with them.
So did get to spend some time on the beach, but didn't get to do any sun bathing or swimming in the ocean. The island was a lot nicer than I thought it would be. Most people I talked to weren't saying great things about it. But all I really wanted was long stretches of sand and the ocean. There is also a 200 baht entrance fee to the island (for foreigners), since it is a national park. I had read that they meet you at the ferry dock to collect money. But I didn't see anyone. Then everyone from the boat jumped on a sawngtaew, but I decided to just walk since I imagined it would only be 10-15 minutes away (it was) and was being cheap. Then was looking for which way to go and walked past the fee booth three times before a realized what it was! No one stopped me as I wandered around. But then a sawngtaew pulled up and someone ran out to collect all their money! So I suppose it really did pay to just walk.
So didn't do much on Koh Samet, just relaxed and ate some good food. Also watched a good fire show at night. Next morning, it was still very overcast, so just ended up leaving really early which was really unfortunate. It looked like it would start raining again soon, and it did. Was still a very nice weekend though.
The past weekend I went up with some friends to Koh Yai National Park, which is approximately three hours from Bangkok. There were the funniest people there right from the start. We met a guy from the guesthouse at the bus station. He was talking to us and showing us all these photos of the tours. Then asked me what my name was. I said "Lindsay" reluctantly since I knew he would have a hard time with it. He said "Come on!! What's your real name???... Don't you like me!?". Was pretty funny. We stayed in a nice guesthouse and some of us decided to do a half-day tour when we got there. What we signed up for turned out to be all about bats. We had a crazy, old hippy Thai as our guide. He took us to this bat cave underneath a temple. We had to crawl down steep steps into the cave and the cave was filled with bats and Buddhist shrines. The guide was a complete character and told us really funny stories and carried around these two puppies that someone had abandoned at the temple (he explained to us that he loved dogs, but already had 17 at home). He showed us all these disgusting bugs including this huge spider he named Harry. Apparently his name was not because of the huge tentacles coming out of him, but rather because our guide enjoyed the film "Harry Potter" and named him after the title role. So we went crawling through these caves and looked at weird things. The guide showed us some baby bats which were quite cute, since their heads were the same size as the rest of their bodies. He also showed us a dead bat. Apparently they keep clinging onto the ceiling somehow? Then mummify? He may have been lying to us. He kissed the dead bat too, and Harry.
After this, he took us to this large field beside this small hill. In the hill was a bat cave of a million bats. Every night around dusk they all begin to fly out to go into the jungle which was a distance away. So we watched them as they left in this steady stream of bats for over an hour! It was amazing. It was this thick black stream snaking through the sky. There were also falcons or some other sort of bird trying to eat the bats. So the stream kept waving and twisting to escape the falcons. Then clumps of bats would break off and fly away. You could see these big spots of bats far into the distance. It was incredible just how many bats there were! You could also hear the flitter of their wings when you stood right under the stream, even though they were quite a distance up. Our guide made this shrill whistling noises too which scared the bats. You could see the stream break then meet back up. It was really neat.
The next day we went into the National Park. We decided not to take a tour, since they went from 8am to 7pm and we wanted to get home at a good time. We also thought it would be nicer to do it on our own. We were very confused about how to do it though, since there was no transportation. Many people told us to just hitchhiked. So we waited on the road and within ten minutes a big van stopped for us. It was like a luxury van, and said something about an embassy on the front?? It was strange but had very nice plush seats inside. The driver then put on a DVD for us to watch on the TV screen! It was this Irish folk concert. Very weird, but I guess it was the only English thing he owned. Wanted to entertain us on our hitch hike.
We got to the park, but knew that the park was huge so we would need a way to get around it. Other people had rented motorbikes at the park entrance for 500 baht a bike. But only two people in our group of five knew how to drive a motor bike. For some reason the group decided that I would be a good candidate to drive a third bike. I have no idea why. Maybe they think I am a rugged Canadian outdoors girl. I told them I was a good driver and had driven snow mobiles and jet skis, but wasn't sure how I would stack up on a motor bike. We told the people at the park that we wanted to rent them. The guy there looked at us all and said "you can ride motor bikes?!?". He looked very unsure. Two in our group shook their heads while the other three of us looked terrified. He ended up telling us that we should just rent a car and driver for 1000 baht a day. We didnt' know about this option, but quickly decided it would probably work the best.
So that was nice to have someone drive around then wait for us at the ends of the trails (though sometimes he was late). He took us to two hikes and to some waterfalls which were in the movie "The Beach". Was really nice since it was real rainforest. We also went through these grasslands which felt like the savannahs of Africa. There are elephants and tigers in the park, and of course, we were hoping to see some. We did see some macaques (a monkey), and these deers of different sizes. The macaques were at a lookout and climbed into the back of this nice and new looking pickup truck.They found some tamarinds (a fruit) and started to eat them, then got greedy and started pulling this giant bag of fruit out of the truck. Our guide took off his shoe and threw it really hard at this really nice looking truck just as the owners walked up. Was really funny. The waterfall was also nice, I sort of remembered it from the movie. But it didn't look exactly the same since it is the dry season so the stream was not nearly as strong as in the movie. But was still neat to see. Very nice spot. Some of my friends went swimming, but it was really cold and not that hot of a day so I stayed out.
It turned out to be a really nice day with some really nice hikes. We also had a really funny hitchike back to our guesthouse. A truck stopped for us with a family of Thais in the front, and we jumped in the back. It was soo stereotypically Thai though. In the back of this pickup truck was a bag of snakes, a bottle of whisky, two durians and a bunch of other fruit. All the girls sat very far away from the snakes. Then the truck stopped really fast because of a motorbike and everyone forward into me. These durians hit one girl in the back. Almost killed by durian, hahaha.
Our guide going on about something or other yet again. Everyone looks so interested.
The stream of bats in the sky.
One of the monkeys we saw.
I went to a small island called Koh Samet a few weekends ago. I couldn't find anyone to come with me, and all my friends were doing their own things, so decided to go by myself. The island is south-east of Bangkok. It only took 3 and a half hours on the bus, then a half hour boat ride to get there. Was amazing to get to a tropical island in four hours and for only 260 baht (~$8). I got there and found a really cool guesthouse for 300 baht. It was a little wooden bundalow on stilts, incredibly basic with only a platform bed with mosquito netting and a little balcony. Very cozy! Unfortunately it began to rain just after I got there and it didnt' stop for three hours. I still had a really nice, relaxing time though. Sat in the open-air restaurant at my guesthouse with a new book and a big bowl of hot curry. When the rain stopped I went back to see the beach. Many people had ran out and were running around, jumping into the water. It got very busy, and was mostly Thai people. I think they were all wealthy Bangkokians since they were dressed really nice and brought their toy dogs to the beach with them.
So did get to spend some time on the beach, but didn't get to do any sun bathing or swimming in the ocean. The island was a lot nicer than I thought it would be. Most people I talked to weren't saying great things about it. But all I really wanted was long stretches of sand and the ocean. There is also a 200 baht entrance fee to the island (for foreigners), since it is a national park. I had read that they meet you at the ferry dock to collect money. But I didn't see anyone. Then everyone from the boat jumped on a sawngtaew, but I decided to just walk since I imagined it would only be 10-15 minutes away (it was) and was being cheap. Then was looking for which way to go and walked past the fee booth three times before a realized what it was! No one stopped me as I wandered around. But then a sawngtaew pulled up and someone ran out to collect all their money! So I suppose it really did pay to just walk.
So didn't do much on Koh Samet, just relaxed and ate some good food. Also watched a good fire show at night. Next morning, it was still very overcast, so just ended up leaving really early which was really unfortunate. It looked like it would start raining again soon, and it did. Was still a very nice weekend though.
My very humble abode for the night
Firedancers on Koh Samet.
My bedroom / the whole of my bungalow.
The past weekend I went up with some friends to Koh Yai National Park, which is approximately three hours from Bangkok. There were the funniest people there right from the start. We met a guy from the guesthouse at the bus station. He was talking to us and showing us all these photos of the tours. Then asked me what my name was. I said "Lindsay" reluctantly since I knew he would have a hard time with it. He said "Come on!! What's your real name???... Don't you like me!?". Was pretty funny. We stayed in a nice guesthouse and some of us decided to do a half-day tour when we got there. What we signed up for turned out to be all about bats. We had a crazy, old hippy Thai as our guide. He took us to this bat cave underneath a temple. We had to crawl down steep steps into the cave and the cave was filled with bats and Buddhist shrines. The guide was a complete character and told us really funny stories and carried around these two puppies that someone had abandoned at the temple (he explained to us that he loved dogs, but already had 17 at home). He showed us all these disgusting bugs including this huge spider he named Harry. Apparently his name was not because of the huge tentacles coming out of him, but rather because our guide enjoyed the film "Harry Potter" and named him after the title role. So we went crawling through these caves and looked at weird things. The guide showed us some baby bats which were quite cute, since their heads were the same size as the rest of their bodies. He also showed us a dead bat. Apparently they keep clinging onto the ceiling somehow? Then mummify? He may have been lying to us. He kissed the dead bat too, and Harry.
After this, he took us to this large field beside this small hill. In the hill was a bat cave of a million bats. Every night around dusk they all begin to fly out to go into the jungle which was a distance away. So we watched them as they left in this steady stream of bats for over an hour! It was amazing. It was this thick black stream snaking through the sky. There were also falcons or some other sort of bird trying to eat the bats. So the stream kept waving and twisting to escape the falcons. Then clumps of bats would break off and fly away. You could see these big spots of bats far into the distance. It was incredible just how many bats there were! You could also hear the flitter of their wings when you stood right under the stream, even though they were quite a distance up. Our guide made this shrill whistling noises too which scared the bats. You could see the stream break then meet back up. It was really neat.
The next day we went into the National Park. We decided not to take a tour, since they went from 8am to 7pm and we wanted to get home at a good time. We also thought it would be nicer to do it on our own. We were very confused about how to do it though, since there was no transportation. Many people told us to just hitchhiked. So we waited on the road and within ten minutes a big van stopped for us. It was like a luxury van, and said something about an embassy on the front?? It was strange but had very nice plush seats inside. The driver then put on a DVD for us to watch on the TV screen! It was this Irish folk concert. Very weird, but I guess it was the only English thing he owned. Wanted to entertain us on our hitch hike.
We got to the park, but knew that the park was huge so we would need a way to get around it. Other people had rented motorbikes at the park entrance for 500 baht a bike. But only two people in our group of five knew how to drive a motor bike. For some reason the group decided that I would be a good candidate to drive a third bike. I have no idea why. Maybe they think I am a rugged Canadian outdoors girl. I told them I was a good driver and had driven snow mobiles and jet skis, but wasn't sure how I would stack up on a motor bike. We told the people at the park that we wanted to rent them. The guy there looked at us all and said "you can ride motor bikes?!?". He looked very unsure. Two in our group shook their heads while the other three of us looked terrified. He ended up telling us that we should just rent a car and driver for 1000 baht a day. We didnt' know about this option, but quickly decided it would probably work the best.
So that was nice to have someone drive around then wait for us at the ends of the trails (though sometimes he was late). He took us to two hikes and to some waterfalls which were in the movie "The Beach". Was really nice since it was real rainforest. We also went through these grasslands which felt like the savannahs of Africa. There are elephants and tigers in the park, and of course, we were hoping to see some. We did see some macaques (a monkey), and these deers of different sizes. The macaques were at a lookout and climbed into the back of this nice and new looking pickup truck.They found some tamarinds (a fruit) and started to eat them, then got greedy and started pulling this giant bag of fruit out of the truck. Our guide took off his shoe and threw it really hard at this really nice looking truck just as the owners walked up. Was really funny. The waterfall was also nice, I sort of remembered it from the movie. But it didn't look exactly the same since it is the dry season so the stream was not nearly as strong as in the movie. But was still neat to see. Very nice spot. Some of my friends went swimming, but it was really cold and not that hot of a day so I stayed out.
It turned out to be a really nice day with some really nice hikes. We also had a really funny hitchike back to our guesthouse. A truck stopped for us with a family of Thais in the front, and we jumped in the back. It was soo stereotypically Thai though. In the back of this pickup truck was a bag of snakes, a bottle of whisky, two durians and a bunch of other fruit. All the girls sat very far away from the snakes. Then the truck stopped really fast because of a motorbike and everyone forward into me. These durians hit one girl in the back. Almost killed by durian, hahaha.
Our guide with his puppies: Adam and Eve.
The roof of the bat cave.
A gaping hole in the roof of the caves. Would be pretty bad to fall in there!
A shrine in the cave.
Our guide going on about something or other yet again. Everyone looks so interested.The stream of bats in the sky.The waterfall from "The Beach" in Koh Yai National Park.
On one of our jungle hikes.
That red muddy place definately looks like a place where elephants would hang out.
A cool tree.
Trying to avoid the bag of snakes and durians in the back of the truck.
One of the monkeys we saw.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Visa runs, illegal gambling, the zoo, karaoke, and Koh Kred
January has been a very long month (that is still dragging on), especially after getting back in the classroom after returning from beautiful Koh Tao.
As my tourist visa was expiring a needed to go on a visa run. This is a border run to usually either Laos or Cambodia. I went to Cambodia and it was a very strange experience. The whole thing is very odd, since there are companies whose business consists of driving people in order for them to stay longer in Thailand. Just one more thing to spend money on in the pursuit of living in Thailand. So after my one-month extension at 2000 baht ($60), I needed to go on this visa run, since I couldn't get another extension in Thailand. Complete waste of time and money.
Needed to leave my house just after 5 am to get downtown to Sukhumvit to get on the bus for 6:30am. Bus ride takes four hours each way. Arrived at the Cambodian border at noon, and was ushered through numerous lines and then through lines of duty free shopping ("lady!! cigarettes?? whisky?? cheap cheap!!"). Many times had to give the people my passport, then they'd give it back later.. Very strange.
Included in the price of the run was lunch, drinks and a massage? So went past the border, where we had to wait for over an hour to get everything processed (I believe to get Cambodian visas). So were taken to this building for lunch. Then walked into this building with security and metal detectors, and then through rooms upon rooms of people gambling! It was sooo strange, this weird makeshift casino. Had to go through all these rooms until we got to the back and had a boring buffet lunch.
Very weird experience. They were gambling in baht, so I'm guessing they were Thais, but not sure. Gambling is illegal in both Thailand and Cambodia. We had exited Thailand, but not officially entered Cambodia, so they had set up this casino in no-man's land! Sooo weird. Had lunch with all these avid Thai/Cambodian gamblers. Then into this other area for the visa run company, in which they gave us thai massages.
After this, had to wait in line again to get our visas into Thailand, then went back on the bus to Bangkok. Whole thing cost 2200 baht ($70). Just seemed like we were paying for all these strange things that we didn't need though. Very frustrating.
So, back in Bangkok. I was waiting on this letter from the ministry of labour (or education... not sure), inviting me to teach in Thailand. Kept asking about this letter, since I needed it in order to get a non-immigrant B visa. Got my manager to phone operations, the next day, magically, the letter has arrived!! Just needed to do some pressuring, and things work out.. So had received this letter before my visa run to Cambodia, but needed 21 days left on my current visa in order to change over to a non-B in Thailand (yes, the most confusing system in the world.. but it gets worse..)
Came back from Cambodia, needed to visit Immigration three days later to get my non-B visa (so I would still have over 21 days left). Thankfully got my visa (there has been a lot of problems lately, apparently not only if you are a white female do you get your visa the same day), but it cost another 2000 baht ($60)!!! After just spending that much to go to Cambodia... Whole thing is the biggest cash grab ever.
Now I have a three-month visa, good until April. The next step was applying for a teacher's licence, which then gets me a work permit (three months working and I'm still not legal..) Only problem now, is that the ministry is tired of dealing with work permits and now wants the schools to do it themselves. The schools have no idea what they're doing, don't have the paperwork etc. So now may be a long time until I can get a teacher's licence.... This is how things work in Thailand.
That so far is the deal with my visa situation. We also had a day off on the 16th of January for Teacher's Day, a national holiday. The day before at school, we had an assemby for the teachers. Very strange for the foreigners. This involved a lot of gift giving for the higher level teachers. But gift giving involves a gesture called wai krue which is like the typically wai, but the person gets on their knees and shuffles over to the person on their knees (the person is seated, the other person cannot stand higher than them). The person then gives the gift, does the wai gesture (hands in prayer position), but then lays their whole upper body on the ground before them in an almost worship-like pose. They lay like this for a minute or so then raise up, the higher person nods to them, then they shuffle away again on their knees.
A whole group of children around the age of Pratom 2 came up to us teachers and brought us flowers and notebooks sort of in this fashion. One child came to each teacher and waied them, bowed their head and a prayer was said. Quite the experience...
That weekend, it was my friend Lauren's birthday and she decided she wanted to go up north to this town called Korat to visit some friends of hers. So a bunch of us went up there for the weekend. The way there we took a second class bus, which took four hours since it stopped sooo much. Then on the way back took first class, which was only 50 baht more and took three hours. A lot nicer...
Korat is apparently the second biggest city in Thailand, but it seemed quite small. It's the gateway to Isaan (Northern Thailand). Very quiet, not much there. There were no taxis, so we had to take tuk-tuks everywhere, which was quite fun. Also had a very, very nice hotel room. Three other girls and I shared it for 650 baht ($20). Even had a TV with cable!! Felt like we were living the high life.
Went to the Korat zoo on Saturday. Rented bikes (including a two-seater and a two-person tandom bike) and biked around the zoo. Was quite a good zoo actually, very fun. Tons of crazy monkeys. Also there were elephants and giraffes that we feed bananas to.
Went for a nice dinner that evening, had so much good food, including many curries. And Lauren's friends bought red wine! Was such a treat. Went back to their house, in which they surprised Lauren with an ice-cream cake. Apparently British people have never heard of ice cream cakes. It was hilarious. We were eating the cake and Lauren said all of a sudden "my cake is reallllyyy cold. It's so strange..". We said "uhm, maybe because it's an ice cream cake????". Lauren: "an... ice cream..... cake??"
We couldn't believe she'd never heard of an ice cream cake, she came back and told all her friends at home how she had an ice cream cake for her birthday.
After the cake, we went to a private karaoke room that her friend's had rented. It was soo much fun. The room was really nice, with couches and a huge TV and microphones. We were so worried there wouldn't be any English songs, but of course there was a ton. We had a blast singing and dancing to as much songs as we could fit into the three hours that we were there.
This weekend, spent some time in Siam on Saturday doing some shopping. Then watched a Japanese movie, which was quite good. Then yesterday, went with a friend to this tiny island called Koh Kred, which is just in a bend of the Chao Phraya river. It's very close to where we live, and I had been meaning to go for quite some time.
Was only a 15 minute taxi ride away, then got on this little boat to cross the river. It's like a tiny, secluded village so close to the big city, very neat. The main thing they do there is pottery, so everywhere they were making and selling pots. Sold tons of food and other things there as well. We walked through the shops, then walked around some temples. Saw what looked like a cemetary, with many ruins. Then walked around the whole island which took a bit over an hour. Was so quiet and green!! Palm trees and tons of fruit trees, bananas, mangos, papayas etc. Was very swampy, with all the little houses built on stilts. Just seemed so rustic and rural, and was probably half an hour outside the hustle and bustle of Bangkok! Very nice, might have to go there more often, especially since it's so close.
So that's what my January has looked like so far. This weekend may be going to a beach, either Hua Hin or Koh Samet, which are both about four hours away. Am really enjoying these weekend trips, really good way to go back to work on Monday. My friend Meagan has booked her plane ticket and will be coming to visit on February 24th for six weeks. So I am getting very excited about that. Will be traveling for the month of March, hopefully up through Northern Thailand and into Laos. Unfortunately, a bunch of my friends that I've made here are leaving soon, so that will be difficult. The people I met that did the TEFL program only signed 4 or 5 month contracts, so will be going. My Irish friend, Emily, also decided to go back home, so will be leaving soon as well. Can't believe I still have nine months here!!! Seems sooo long at the moment, but I think the next couple of months will fly by.
As my tourist visa was expiring a needed to go on a visa run. This is a border run to usually either Laos or Cambodia. I went to Cambodia and it was a very strange experience. The whole thing is very odd, since there are companies whose business consists of driving people in order for them to stay longer in Thailand. Just one more thing to spend money on in the pursuit of living in Thailand. So after my one-month extension at 2000 baht ($60), I needed to go on this visa run, since I couldn't get another extension in Thailand. Complete waste of time and money.
Needed to leave my house just after 5 am to get downtown to Sukhumvit to get on the bus for 6:30am. Bus ride takes four hours each way. Arrived at the Cambodian border at noon, and was ushered through numerous lines and then through lines of duty free shopping ("lady!! cigarettes?? whisky?? cheap cheap!!"). Many times had to give the people my passport, then they'd give it back later.. Very strange.
Included in the price of the run was lunch, drinks and a massage? So went past the border, where we had to wait for over an hour to get everything processed (I believe to get Cambodian visas). So were taken to this building for lunch. Then walked into this building with security and metal detectors, and then through rooms upon rooms of people gambling! It was sooo strange, this weird makeshift casino. Had to go through all these rooms until we got to the back and had a boring buffet lunch.
Very weird experience. They were gambling in baht, so I'm guessing they were Thais, but not sure. Gambling is illegal in both Thailand and Cambodia. We had exited Thailand, but not officially entered Cambodia, so they had set up this casino in no-man's land! Sooo weird. Had lunch with all these avid Thai/Cambodian gamblers. Then into this other area for the visa run company, in which they gave us thai massages.
After this, had to wait in line again to get our visas into Thailand, then went back on the bus to Bangkok. Whole thing cost 2200 baht ($70). Just seemed like we were paying for all these strange things that we didn't need though. Very frustrating.
So, back in Bangkok. I was waiting on this letter from the ministry of labour (or education... not sure), inviting me to teach in Thailand. Kept asking about this letter, since I needed it in order to get a non-immigrant B visa. Got my manager to phone operations, the next day, magically, the letter has arrived!! Just needed to do some pressuring, and things work out.. So had received this letter before my visa run to Cambodia, but needed 21 days left on my current visa in order to change over to a non-B in Thailand (yes, the most confusing system in the world.. but it gets worse..)
Came back from Cambodia, needed to visit Immigration three days later to get my non-B visa (so I would still have over 21 days left). Thankfully got my visa (there has been a lot of problems lately, apparently not only if you are a white female do you get your visa the same day), but it cost another 2000 baht ($60)!!! After just spending that much to go to Cambodia... Whole thing is the biggest cash grab ever.
Now I have a three-month visa, good until April. The next step was applying for a teacher's licence, which then gets me a work permit (three months working and I'm still not legal..) Only problem now, is that the ministry is tired of dealing with work permits and now wants the schools to do it themselves. The schools have no idea what they're doing, don't have the paperwork etc. So now may be a long time until I can get a teacher's licence.... This is how things work in Thailand.
That so far is the deal with my visa situation. We also had a day off on the 16th of January for Teacher's Day, a national holiday. The day before at school, we had an assemby for the teachers. Very strange for the foreigners. This involved a lot of gift giving for the higher level teachers. But gift giving involves a gesture called wai krue which is like the typically wai, but the person gets on their knees and shuffles over to the person on their knees (the person is seated, the other person cannot stand higher than them). The person then gives the gift, does the wai gesture (hands in prayer position), but then lays their whole upper body on the ground before them in an almost worship-like pose. They lay like this for a minute or so then raise up, the higher person nods to them, then they shuffle away again on their knees.
A whole group of children around the age of Pratom 2 came up to us teachers and brought us flowers and notebooks sort of in this fashion. One child came to each teacher and waied them, bowed their head and a prayer was said. Quite the experience...
That weekend, it was my friend Lauren's birthday and she decided she wanted to go up north to this town called Korat to visit some friends of hers. So a bunch of us went up there for the weekend. The way there we took a second class bus, which took four hours since it stopped sooo much. Then on the way back took first class, which was only 50 baht more and took three hours. A lot nicer...
Korat is apparently the second biggest city in Thailand, but it seemed quite small. It's the gateway to Isaan (Northern Thailand). Very quiet, not much there. There were no taxis, so we had to take tuk-tuks everywhere, which was quite fun. Also had a very, very nice hotel room. Three other girls and I shared it for 650 baht ($20). Even had a TV with cable!! Felt like we were living the high life.
Went to the Korat zoo on Saturday. Rented bikes (including a two-seater and a two-person tandom bike) and biked around the zoo. Was quite a good zoo actually, very fun. Tons of crazy monkeys. Also there were elephants and giraffes that we feed bananas to.
Went for a nice dinner that evening, had so much good food, including many curries. And Lauren's friends bought red wine! Was such a treat. Went back to their house, in which they surprised Lauren with an ice-cream cake. Apparently British people have never heard of ice cream cakes. It was hilarious. We were eating the cake and Lauren said all of a sudden "my cake is reallllyyy cold. It's so strange..". We said "uhm, maybe because it's an ice cream cake????". Lauren: "an... ice cream..... cake??"
We couldn't believe she'd never heard of an ice cream cake, she came back and told all her friends at home how she had an ice cream cake for her birthday.
After the cake, we went to a private karaoke room that her friend's had rented. It was soo much fun. The room was really nice, with couches and a huge TV and microphones. We were so worried there wouldn't be any English songs, but of course there was a ton. We had a blast singing and dancing to as much songs as we could fit into the three hours that we were there.
This weekend, spent some time in Siam on Saturday doing some shopping. Then watched a Japanese movie, which was quite good. Then yesterday, went with a friend to this tiny island called Koh Kred, which is just in a bend of the Chao Phraya river. It's very close to where we live, and I had been meaning to go for quite some time.
Was only a 15 minute taxi ride away, then got on this little boat to cross the river. It's like a tiny, secluded village so close to the big city, very neat. The main thing they do there is pottery, so everywhere they were making and selling pots. Sold tons of food and other things there as well. We walked through the shops, then walked around some temples. Saw what looked like a cemetary, with many ruins. Then walked around the whole island which took a bit over an hour. Was so quiet and green!! Palm trees and tons of fruit trees, bananas, mangos, papayas etc. Was very swampy, with all the little houses built on stilts. Just seemed so rustic and rural, and was probably half an hour outside the hustle and bustle of Bangkok! Very nice, might have to go there more often, especially since it's so close.
So that's what my January has looked like so far. This weekend may be going to a beach, either Hua Hin or Koh Samet, which are both about four hours away. Am really enjoying these weekend trips, really good way to go back to work on Monday. My friend Meagan has booked her plane ticket and will be coming to visit on February 24th for six weeks. So I am getting very excited about that. Will be traveling for the month of March, hopefully up through Northern Thailand and into Laos. Unfortunately, a bunch of my friends that I've made here are leaving soon, so that will be difficult. The people I met that did the TEFL program only signed 4 or 5 month contracts, so will be going. My Irish friend, Emily, also decided to go back home, so will be leaving soon as well. Can't believe I still have nine months here!!! Seems sooo long at the moment, but I think the next couple of months will fly by.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Christmas in Koh Tao
I had ten days off over the Christmas break, so ended up going down to Koh Tao for a great little holiday. Koh Tao is a little island off the pacific coast of Thailand, just north of Koh Samui and Koh Phangan.
Went down with two friends, Lauren and Emily. We met up with many more of their friends throughout our time there. We took the overnight train from Bangkok which left at 7pm on our last Friday of work. We had a very slack last week of classes, especially on the Friday. We were watching some of the Christmas pageant, then I ended up leaving school at 11 am. Was quite a wait til 4pm though, when Lauren got off work!
It was all very exciting getting on the train. We were in a 2nd class carriage with fans. The train has benches on either side, two facing eachother. We all had top bunks since we bought our tickets late. Lauren brought her ipod and speakers and we were listening to Christmas songs as we were waiting for the train to leave. The thai people were looking at us thinking "crazy farang..." as usual though.
We got on the train and almost instantly they starting changing the seats into beds. Not sure why they didn't just have them as beds to begin with. The thai workers come along and quickly pull the beds out and snap everything together and lay out your pillow and blanket. There is a tiny ladder you climb up to the top bunks which have no windows and are smaller than the bottoms, but are fine. Also straps across to keep you in.
Since it was only 8pm and we were so excited for our trip, we couldn't sleep. So we ventured down to this carriage that was transformed into a tiny restuarant/bar. Most of the space was dedicated to the kitchen. They cook food and will bring it to your seat for you. So we sat there for a while and met some people who were going down to Suratthani, then on to Koh Phangan.
Emily and myself were in the same carriage, but Lauren was down one. A thai man happened to know we wanted to get off at Chumpon, so he thankfully woke her up before our stop. We set our alarms, but no one woke up (I think because the train was so noisy -- I was sleeping with my ipod in). He woke her up saying "Chumpon! 15 minutes!!". Because we were not getting off at the end of the line, we had to be ready to get off, since they do not announce any of the stops. So Lauren ran down to our carriage and told us to get out quick. So we jumped out quickly grabbing all our things, then waited by one of the train doors. Unfortunately we had to stand there half asleep for about 20 minutes before we were at the stop. The train was stopped for a while as well, so it wouldn't have had to be a dash of the train anyway..
We got off the train at 4am or so, and there are people saying "Koh Tao?? Koh Tao!!". So we bought a bus/boat ticket from one vendor. He put us on a mini van and then we went to this little bus station/restaurant. It was very strange, had tables, computers, and a sleeping room with many people passed out on mats. Then we took a big bus to the pier, since the first boats don't leave til 7am. The boat was good, but long and the seating area was sooo cold. We all took our towels out and were sleeping in fetal positions in hard plastic chairs. But then realized sitting upstairs on the deck of the boat was a lot nicer, so did that at the end of the journey. Was also nice to see the island start to slowly come into view.
And the island was sooo gorgeous. Had many rocky cliffs and rolling hills covered in trees and palm trees everywhere. Long stretches of beach.
We get off the boat and then take a saewngteaw (a pickeup with seats in the back) to Sai Ree beach where we were staying. Find our bungalows, which were very nice. Just a sandy area shaded by many coconut trees and little bungalows on either side of the trail to the beach. We had to rooms attached by one wall. Each had two small beds and a small bathroom and that was all. Was my first experience with toilets that you have to flush yourself (using a pail and bucket of water). The beach was literally 15 steps away. A couple steps from our door you could see the crystal blue water spread all the way across. So nice.
For the duration of the trip our days looked almost always the same, except for a few special outings. Mostly walking up around 10am, going for breakfast at this amazing restaurant. It was wooden platforms looking over the water. The tables were only a couple feet high and you sit on axe pillows, which are pillows with a back to them to lean on. The food was amazing. Fresh coffee, croissants and other baked goods, omlettes. The best food was Set E for breakfast which was any kind of eggs and any kind of potatoes. Scrambled or fried eggs with mashed potatoes (with all these seasonings in it) was soo good. After breakfast we would maybe walk around the village a bit. Had many little shops, mostly clothes, travel agents, massage places. No one wears shoes, it was very quiet and relaxed, many young people. But didn't really feel like Thailand! So few Thais and I didn't speak a word of Thai...
Then we would go to the beach til around dinner time and eat more amazing food. Then would go out all night! Everythign was a lot more expensive than we were used to. But we had soo many amazing meals. They had many restaurants in the town and set up along the beach. They also had these bbqs set up along the beach. Was very very good. Also had an italian dinner that was incredible. The woman who ran the restaurant was European, so knew what to do. We had the most amazing thin crust pizza and great pasta. Such good ingredients, I have no idea how she got them. And the cheese was soo good!! One thing Thais CANNOT do is dairy products!
We also had a really great Christmas dinner. Many places put on Christmas buffets, but they were quite expensive. At least 500 - 1000 baht a person, which is only $15-30, but when you spend 40 baht on meals at home, it seems a lot! We were sitting in the restaurant at our bungalows, checking out the xmas dinner, which was being served throughout the day. And a guy approached us asking if we had bought our tickets yet, and if we hadn't he could give us some. So we ended up having it for free, which was very nice. Had turkey, ham, potatoes, and many other vegetables, was veryyy good. So much food as well!
So the food was amazing, and we ate very well. I've been sooo hungry my first week back though, not getting three huge meals a day anymore!
So apart from the beach all day, which was very nice, we also went on a hike up the mountain and scuba diving. The tides went kind of strange after the full moon, so we didn't get as much of a beach near the end, which was annoying. At the start during the afternoon, the tide would be quite far out, so there would be lots of space. But then the tides were going out in the early morning and it was high tide in the afternoon. So some days only had a small sliver of beach to claim a spot on. But it was fine and the water was sooo nice. Such blue water, so clear, and very warm. So nice to swim in.
We decided to take a hike one day to work off all this amazing food we were consuming all the time. But we just had a inaccurate tourist map. We did manage to get up most of the hill, but the paths were very confusing. Ended up on this half finished road for a while, but it was still nice. Very hard hike though, was sooo steep. And it was of course, so hot out. But it was nice and we got some nice views at the top. We were all soooooo sweaty and hot though. We ran most of the way down, and literally ran right into the ocean. It felt so good!
We also went on a scuba diving adventure for one afternoon. Lauren has already done her open water course in Vietnam, but she did it in May. Emily, myself, and Lauren's friend Erin all wanted to go and had never been before. So we did a scuba discovery day and Lauren joined us for a fun dive (which is cheaper, but she actually needed a refresher anyway). We left around noon after being suited up and getting a short talk from the instructor. (That was a good thing about the tides, Lauren did her discovery in Koh Tao, and had to leave at 5am to go!) Was a really cool experience all in all, except for our instructor, who was absolutely horrible. We could tell from the beginning that he had no interest in teaching us, and didn't care at all. It was pretty disappointing.
Just from the start, he took us in the equipment room and told us to grab a few things. I was trying on flippers and asked him if the size was right. He said "Yeah, that's fine". Then Lauren happened to look and said "No!! Those are way too big!! Your feet will slip out of the instantly!!". And this really set the tone for the whole dive, Lauren was more our instructor than this guy.
So he gave us a very brief talk about the dangers, then we got on a long tail boat which took us to the big dive boat. We were on this boat with about 10 other people. We then went to the dive site which was this small island off the coast. On the boat we put all the equipment on and jumped in. Our instructor mumbled to us how to do it, then jumped in himself. While in the water, he was trying to yell back to the boat how to do it, using hand motions we didn't understand. The thai helper on board had to show me what to do (hold on the your face things with one hand, and the weights around your waist with the other). We then swam to a small beach close on the island. We stayed in shallow water we could stand in to learn some skills.
But with everything, the instructor would not explain very clearly and then just tell us to do it. He would say something that wouldn't make sense, and then Lauren would explain it to us and show us how to do it. We learned skills like taking air out and in of your jacket, sharing air if something runs out, finding your regular, and purging it of water to get back in your mouth if you lose it.
I did a lot better than I thought I would. I just remembered before, getting nervous snorkeling! And it can be really scary, but just really had to stay calm and breathe a lot. Lots of things to check, but you get used to it very quickly.
So we did the skills, then the instructor was like "Ok, now we'll go, follow me". And just took off and started swimming and didn't even look back!! Lauren had kept telling us how important it is to be really careful and go down really slowly so everything is ok. She said her instructor was really good and stayed by their side and checked everything for them. But this guy didn't attend to us at all!! It was really bad. If anything went wrong, he wouldn't have noticed for a while. I was swimming to keep up with him, trying to stay calm, and go down as slowly as possibly, while popping my ears all the time. It did go really well, only Emily had problems with her ears and he helped her. But still didn't even notice for a while, it was really bad.
Saw many colourful fish and those huge sea slugs. But wasn't really as spectacular as I thought (I think I was invisioning the great barrier reef), but it was still really good as an experience. We also did a really shallow dive, so I think there are way better places to go on Koh Tao.
I think we were under water for about half an hour. We then swam back up the boat and climbed on. I was freezing, even though we were wearing wet suits. Lauren decided to do another dive with another group of people. But the rest of us didn't.
So all in all, was really cool, regardless of our instructor's attitude. Would definately like to try it again, and maybe take a course. In Koh Tao especially, it's all about diving. Usually if you take a course, your accomodation is free.
Those were our two big activities. But was a very nice relaxing trip and a very cool place to visit. They had really neat bars set up along the beach during the night. They would put candles and lit bottles (with gas) everywhere. So the beach would be all lit up. And there were fire dancings, really neat. But only trouble, was that you couldn't take a night off. Well, at least where we were staying. The music would be pumping until at least 3 am. But was still a lot of fun. New Years especially was really neat. We set off a paper lantern into the sky. Was a huge one, about 4 feet tall. When you looked out from the beach, the night sky was covered with consellations of these lanterns. It was really cool. You could see them all going up from the other end of the beach too. We could see our lantern for so long! They go sooo far, so quickly and you don't see them go out. Really neat. There were also tons of fire works the whole night. Some were amazing, right over the water. Some were very freaky. Like when we were sitting at this restaurant which was on a deck over the beach, and the fireworks started going off under the deck. Could have ended badly..
Unfortunately, we had to leave New Year's day. I was kind of ready to go home, and kind of missed my apartment and my students.. haha.
We left our place at 9:30 am, to get a ride to the pier to be there at 10am. We couldn't take the train back, since the boats didn't leave early enough to catch the day train? (And we wanted to get home in the evening.) So we took a boat, then bus. But the nice hour and a half boat ride we were expecting turned into the boat ride from hell!!
We get on the boat and the workers start handing out tons of plastic bags and drugs. We are all confused, but take some. Then think, maybe since it's New Year's Day, they think everyone will be hungover and sick. But it turned into the worst boat trip ever! The waves were sooo high and the boat was rocking violently back and forth. We were inside the boat, but huge waves were crashing over the sides. The boat kept hitting big waves then crashing down really hard.
Needless to say, I don't think a person on this boat didn't puke. People were running to the washrooms, vomiting in their bags, over boat, constantly! It was sooo bad. I saw the thai workers running the ship also puking. It was horrible.
But the worst part was when people started complaining that they couldn't handle it anymore and the boat had to go back. So after half an hour of this boat trip (a third of the way there!!) the boat TURNED BACK! It was ridiculous, I couldn't believe it. Where else in the world does a boat turn back because people don't want to be sick anymore. It wasn't even because it was unsafe. Since after we got back to Koh Tao, we dropped off 3/4 of the passengers and then turned around and went back to Chumpon. So a short hour and a half boat trip turned into over three hours of hell. Just constant vomiting by everyone all the time. It was such a disaster. We had been really careful the night before too and had drank lots of water so we wouldn't be hungover for our trip back. But I was still dry heaving for two hours straight... And the most ironic part ever, was that their dvd choice for the trip was "Waterworld".
But we did finally make it to dry land. And thankfully our bus was soo nice. We had these huge plush seats that reclined. So we just curled up and slept a long time. The bus ride was very slow, and for three hours driving into Bangkok the traffic was crawling. Very annoying. We were expecting to get into Bangkok at 8:30 pm, but didn't get in til past midnight. Were sooo hungry since we had just had a sandwich after the boat. Got some street pad thai then a taxi up north to home.
Was sooo exhausted the next day. Couldn't think at all. But my students were pretty out of it too, so it was okay. Also, first day we are informed that the princess has died (I think early that morning). So we are now in two weeks of mourning, wearing black and white to work every day. But other than that, all is good back here. Am trying to jump back into teaching, and not think too much about the gorgeous tropical island I was on not so long ago...
Went down with two friends, Lauren and Emily. We met up with many more of their friends throughout our time there. We took the overnight train from Bangkok which left at 7pm on our last Friday of work. We had a very slack last week of classes, especially on the Friday. We were watching some of the Christmas pageant, then I ended up leaving school at 11 am. Was quite a wait til 4pm though, when Lauren got off work!
It was all very exciting getting on the train. We were in a 2nd class carriage with fans. The train has benches on either side, two facing eachother. We all had top bunks since we bought our tickets late. Lauren brought her ipod and speakers and we were listening to Christmas songs as we were waiting for the train to leave. The thai people were looking at us thinking "crazy farang..." as usual though.
We got on the train and almost instantly they starting changing the seats into beds. Not sure why they didn't just have them as beds to begin with. The thai workers come along and quickly pull the beds out and snap everything together and lay out your pillow and blanket. There is a tiny ladder you climb up to the top bunks which have no windows and are smaller than the bottoms, but are fine. Also straps across to keep you in.
Since it was only 8pm and we were so excited for our trip, we couldn't sleep. So we ventured down to this carriage that was transformed into a tiny restuarant/bar. Most of the space was dedicated to the kitchen. They cook food and will bring it to your seat for you. So we sat there for a while and met some people who were going down to Suratthani, then on to Koh Phangan.
Emily and myself were in the same carriage, but Lauren was down one. A thai man happened to know we wanted to get off at Chumpon, so he thankfully woke her up before our stop. We set our alarms, but no one woke up (I think because the train was so noisy -- I was sleeping with my ipod in). He woke her up saying "Chumpon! 15 minutes!!". Because we were not getting off at the end of the line, we had to be ready to get off, since they do not announce any of the stops. So Lauren ran down to our carriage and told us to get out quick. So we jumped out quickly grabbing all our things, then waited by one of the train doors. Unfortunately we had to stand there half asleep for about 20 minutes before we were at the stop. The train was stopped for a while as well, so it wouldn't have had to be a dash of the train anyway..
We got off the train at 4am or so, and there are people saying "Koh Tao?? Koh Tao!!". So we bought a bus/boat ticket from one vendor. He put us on a mini van and then we went to this little bus station/restaurant. It was very strange, had tables, computers, and a sleeping room with many people passed out on mats. Then we took a big bus to the pier, since the first boats don't leave til 7am. The boat was good, but long and the seating area was sooo cold. We all took our towels out and were sleeping in fetal positions in hard plastic chairs. But then realized sitting upstairs on the deck of the boat was a lot nicer, so did that at the end of the journey. Was also nice to see the island start to slowly come into view.
And the island was sooo gorgeous. Had many rocky cliffs and rolling hills covered in trees and palm trees everywhere. Long stretches of beach.
We get off the boat and then take a saewngteaw (a pickeup with seats in the back) to Sai Ree beach where we were staying. Find our bungalows, which were very nice. Just a sandy area shaded by many coconut trees and little bungalows on either side of the trail to the beach. We had to rooms attached by one wall. Each had two small beds and a small bathroom and that was all. Was my first experience with toilets that you have to flush yourself (using a pail and bucket of water). The beach was literally 15 steps away. A couple steps from our door you could see the crystal blue water spread all the way across. So nice.
For the duration of the trip our days looked almost always the same, except for a few special outings. Mostly walking up around 10am, going for breakfast at this amazing restaurant. It was wooden platforms looking over the water. The tables were only a couple feet high and you sit on axe pillows, which are pillows with a back to them to lean on. The food was amazing. Fresh coffee, croissants and other baked goods, omlettes. The best food was Set E for breakfast which was any kind of eggs and any kind of potatoes. Scrambled or fried eggs with mashed potatoes (with all these seasonings in it) was soo good. After breakfast we would maybe walk around the village a bit. Had many little shops, mostly clothes, travel agents, massage places. No one wears shoes, it was very quiet and relaxed, many young people. But didn't really feel like Thailand! So few Thais and I didn't speak a word of Thai...
Then we would go to the beach til around dinner time and eat more amazing food. Then would go out all night! Everythign was a lot more expensive than we were used to. But we had soo many amazing meals. They had many restaurants in the town and set up along the beach. They also had these bbqs set up along the beach. Was very very good. Also had an italian dinner that was incredible. The woman who ran the restaurant was European, so knew what to do. We had the most amazing thin crust pizza and great pasta. Such good ingredients, I have no idea how she got them. And the cheese was soo good!! One thing Thais CANNOT do is dairy products!
We also had a really great Christmas dinner. Many places put on Christmas buffets, but they were quite expensive. At least 500 - 1000 baht a person, which is only $15-30, but when you spend 40 baht on meals at home, it seems a lot! We were sitting in the restaurant at our bungalows, checking out the xmas dinner, which was being served throughout the day. And a guy approached us asking if we had bought our tickets yet, and if we hadn't he could give us some. So we ended up having it for free, which was very nice. Had turkey, ham, potatoes, and many other vegetables, was veryyy good. So much food as well!
So the food was amazing, and we ate very well. I've been sooo hungry my first week back though, not getting three huge meals a day anymore!
So apart from the beach all day, which was very nice, we also went on a hike up the mountain and scuba diving. The tides went kind of strange after the full moon, so we didn't get as much of a beach near the end, which was annoying. At the start during the afternoon, the tide would be quite far out, so there would be lots of space. But then the tides were going out in the early morning and it was high tide in the afternoon. So some days only had a small sliver of beach to claim a spot on. But it was fine and the water was sooo nice. Such blue water, so clear, and very warm. So nice to swim in.
We decided to take a hike one day to work off all this amazing food we were consuming all the time. But we just had a inaccurate tourist map. We did manage to get up most of the hill, but the paths were very confusing. Ended up on this half finished road for a while, but it was still nice. Very hard hike though, was sooo steep. And it was of course, so hot out. But it was nice and we got some nice views at the top. We were all soooooo sweaty and hot though. We ran most of the way down, and literally ran right into the ocean. It felt so good!
We also went on a scuba diving adventure for one afternoon. Lauren has already done her open water course in Vietnam, but she did it in May. Emily, myself, and Lauren's friend Erin all wanted to go and had never been before. So we did a scuba discovery day and Lauren joined us for a fun dive (which is cheaper, but she actually needed a refresher anyway). We left around noon after being suited up and getting a short talk from the instructor. (That was a good thing about the tides, Lauren did her discovery in Koh Tao, and had to leave at 5am to go!) Was a really cool experience all in all, except for our instructor, who was absolutely horrible. We could tell from the beginning that he had no interest in teaching us, and didn't care at all. It was pretty disappointing.
Just from the start, he took us in the equipment room and told us to grab a few things. I was trying on flippers and asked him if the size was right. He said "Yeah, that's fine". Then Lauren happened to look and said "No!! Those are way too big!! Your feet will slip out of the instantly!!". And this really set the tone for the whole dive, Lauren was more our instructor than this guy.
So he gave us a very brief talk about the dangers, then we got on a long tail boat which took us to the big dive boat. We were on this boat with about 10 other people. We then went to the dive site which was this small island off the coast. On the boat we put all the equipment on and jumped in. Our instructor mumbled to us how to do it, then jumped in himself. While in the water, he was trying to yell back to the boat how to do it, using hand motions we didn't understand. The thai helper on board had to show me what to do (hold on the your face things with one hand, and the weights around your waist with the other). We then swam to a small beach close on the island. We stayed in shallow water we could stand in to learn some skills.
But with everything, the instructor would not explain very clearly and then just tell us to do it. He would say something that wouldn't make sense, and then Lauren would explain it to us and show us how to do it. We learned skills like taking air out and in of your jacket, sharing air if something runs out, finding your regular, and purging it of water to get back in your mouth if you lose it.
I did a lot better than I thought I would. I just remembered before, getting nervous snorkeling! And it can be really scary, but just really had to stay calm and breathe a lot. Lots of things to check, but you get used to it very quickly.
So we did the skills, then the instructor was like "Ok, now we'll go, follow me". And just took off and started swimming and didn't even look back!! Lauren had kept telling us how important it is to be really careful and go down really slowly so everything is ok. She said her instructor was really good and stayed by their side and checked everything for them. But this guy didn't attend to us at all!! It was really bad. If anything went wrong, he wouldn't have noticed for a while. I was swimming to keep up with him, trying to stay calm, and go down as slowly as possibly, while popping my ears all the time. It did go really well, only Emily had problems with her ears and he helped her. But still didn't even notice for a while, it was really bad.
Saw many colourful fish and those huge sea slugs. But wasn't really as spectacular as I thought (I think I was invisioning the great barrier reef), but it was still really good as an experience. We also did a really shallow dive, so I think there are way better places to go on Koh Tao.
I think we were under water for about half an hour. We then swam back up the boat and climbed on. I was freezing, even though we were wearing wet suits. Lauren decided to do another dive with another group of people. But the rest of us didn't.
So all in all, was really cool, regardless of our instructor's attitude. Would definately like to try it again, and maybe take a course. In Koh Tao especially, it's all about diving. Usually if you take a course, your accomodation is free.
Those were our two big activities. But was a very nice relaxing trip and a very cool place to visit. They had really neat bars set up along the beach during the night. They would put candles and lit bottles (with gas) everywhere. So the beach would be all lit up. And there were fire dancings, really neat. But only trouble, was that you couldn't take a night off. Well, at least where we were staying. The music would be pumping until at least 3 am. But was still a lot of fun. New Years especially was really neat. We set off a paper lantern into the sky. Was a huge one, about 4 feet tall. When you looked out from the beach, the night sky was covered with consellations of these lanterns. It was really cool. You could see them all going up from the other end of the beach too. We could see our lantern for so long! They go sooo far, so quickly and you don't see them go out. Really neat. There were also tons of fire works the whole night. Some were amazing, right over the water. Some were very freaky. Like when we were sitting at this restaurant which was on a deck over the beach, and the fireworks started going off under the deck. Could have ended badly..
Unfortunately, we had to leave New Year's day. I was kind of ready to go home, and kind of missed my apartment and my students.. haha.
We left our place at 9:30 am, to get a ride to the pier to be there at 10am. We couldn't take the train back, since the boats didn't leave early enough to catch the day train? (And we wanted to get home in the evening.) So we took a boat, then bus. But the nice hour and a half boat ride we were expecting turned into the boat ride from hell!!
We get on the boat and the workers start handing out tons of plastic bags and drugs. We are all confused, but take some. Then think, maybe since it's New Year's Day, they think everyone will be hungover and sick. But it turned into the worst boat trip ever! The waves were sooo high and the boat was rocking violently back and forth. We were inside the boat, but huge waves were crashing over the sides. The boat kept hitting big waves then crashing down really hard.
Needless to say, I don't think a person on this boat didn't puke. People were running to the washrooms, vomiting in their bags, over boat, constantly! It was sooo bad. I saw the thai workers running the ship also puking. It was horrible.
But the worst part was when people started complaining that they couldn't handle it anymore and the boat had to go back. So after half an hour of this boat trip (a third of the way there!!) the boat TURNED BACK! It was ridiculous, I couldn't believe it. Where else in the world does a boat turn back because people don't want to be sick anymore. It wasn't even because it was unsafe. Since after we got back to Koh Tao, we dropped off 3/4 of the passengers and then turned around and went back to Chumpon. So a short hour and a half boat trip turned into over three hours of hell. Just constant vomiting by everyone all the time. It was such a disaster. We had been really careful the night before too and had drank lots of water so we wouldn't be hungover for our trip back. But I was still dry heaving for two hours straight... And the most ironic part ever, was that their dvd choice for the trip was "Waterworld".
But we did finally make it to dry land. And thankfully our bus was soo nice. We had these huge plush seats that reclined. So we just curled up and slept a long time. The bus ride was very slow, and for three hours driving into Bangkok the traffic was crawling. Very annoying. We were expecting to get into Bangkok at 8:30 pm, but didn't get in til past midnight. Were sooo hungry since we had just had a sandwich after the boat. Got some street pad thai then a taxi up north to home.
Was sooo exhausted the next day. Couldn't think at all. But my students were pretty out of it too, so it was okay. Also, first day we are informed that the princess has died (I think early that morning). So we are now in two weeks of mourning, wearing black and white to work every day. But other than that, all is good back here. Am trying to jump back into teaching, and not think too much about the gorgeous tropical island I was on not so long ago...
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