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.
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