Second Thailand Update
The first update covered about 2 weeks. I've got another 4 to go, so I may skip a little, but this entry will be HUGE...
Koh Phangan - Playing with fire
The weather on Koh Tao never improved, despite waiting a week for it. So, off to the party island of Koh Phangan, where the famous full-moon festival attracts thousands of party people every month.
The bad news was, it was nowhere near full moon. The good news, they have new-moon and half-moon parties to fill the gaps - fewer people, much the same entertainment.
Koh Phangan is listed in my memories as where I discovered the force of Red Bull. Oh, I've drunk the liquid-jelly-baby red stuff before, and felt a little mild-buzz. But nothing before compares to
The Night Of 6 Bottles of Red Bull
I remember in my youth going out to party. Talking for hours. Laughing like a maniac. Then dancing all night, and seeing the sunrise. In recent times, though, I'm much more likely to have a quiet pint and bitch about work for an hour, then slope off to read a book with a shawl over my knees and be in bed by 10:30. When forced to dance, at the occasional night-club, or even wedding, I'd shake my stuff in a quiet corner for maybe 5 songs, then declare exhaustion and go prop up the bar until whoever had dragged me off dancing would let me leave.
For a night, I channelled Tires from spaced. There were a large number of intensely cool people we hooked-up with from the moment we landed on the island. Paul and Rachael, a brother and sister from near brummie. Kate and jodie, our next-door neighbours. Charlie, a really talkative friendly American. Scores of others I failed to remember the names of. We sat and watched the firedancers, with their poles and their burning balls on chains. We limbo danced under flaming poles. I jumped through a flaming hoop, leaving burn marks on my trousers that I still have now (and, incidentally, completely f****d-up my breakfall in a pathetic way. Headed off smiling afterwards to where nobody could see me to collapse in agony from knocking my lungs empty).
Then, we went to the party. And I danced. Solidly. For hours. Mostly pogoing like a complete loon.
I had a second new experience almost 24 hours later. I call it a Red Bull hangover. It's where you wake up, but don't have the motivation to open your eyes for three hours or so.
We were there for almost a week. Do I have anything else to say, of scenery, learning experiences, thai culture? Nup.
Cloud Jaguars and Tigers and Bears?
From the islands, we hit a national park, supposedly where there once were tigers, but heavy poaching means that nobody has seen any in a couple of years now. This story was repeated to us in two other national parks in Thailand. So, Thai tigers may well be extinct in Thailand, outside of zoos. Great way to usher in the new millenium, human race.
We saw no Tigers. We saw no bears. We saw no clouded leopards. We saw a chipmunk, a couple of snakes (sleeping), some civets, and we each got bit by a leach.
Leaches were a new experience for me, and I was really amazed by how damned fast they are. I thought leaches just hung around in wet mud, or in stagnant pools of water, and bit whatever put its foot next to its mouth. But no. Leaches apparently sense their prey through the electrical field generated by their heartbeat, from several feet away. Then, they charge towards it, moving like an inchworm. They'll hitch onto your boot, then climb up until they reach skin. Frances got bitten on the ankle. Me? I got bitten on the stomach - the leach climbed up from my boot to the first available skin.
Koh Tao - The Return
After a few more days where Frances dragged me south to see "culture", and I mostly sulked and stayed indoors where there was aircon, we returned to Koh Tao. This meant another day in the between-town of Chumphon, where every bar seems to be playing "Hotel California", which is more than a little eirie, when you're stuck there for the second time due to travel inconsistencies. When we finally reached the island, we stayed at the same resort as last time, the glorious BlackTip Dive Resort. We'd liked it a lot last time, and seeing as we'd taken a course there, we got a guaranteed 50% off accommodation costs (for life!), so it was an easy choice.
There was, however, a barman who appeared to hate us, which made us a little nervous. He was a fairly average male-thai beach resort barman. Thin, wiry, many tattoos. Every time he saw us, he seemed to almost flinch for the first 6 days. We thought, perhaps, when the dutch-girl we'd met there had her little tirade about how unfriendly and untrustworthy the Thais were, perhaps he'd gotten offended. And perhaps he thought we agreed with her (misjudging our expressions of disbelief and exclamations of surprise for agreement, or something). So, when he saw us return, and a glazed expression filled his eyes, and he said "Hi, how are you?" with an almost fixed grin on his face, I took The Bouncy Bunny approach.
"Hey, how've you been!" The Gibbon lopes forward, shakes his hand, half embraces him & puts an arm over his back in a friendly way. "We missed this place so much, we had to come back!" The charm offensive seemed to work, and he became somewhat less scary to us from then on. I suspect the main problem was, we always turned up for breakfast, either before the guy's first smoke, or while he was carefully crafting his first smoke.
This time, the diving was fantastic. Excellent visibility. Clarity of water like nothing else. Dropping onto a divesite 30m deep, and seeing the whole thing from the moment we drop below the water. Fish everywhere, every colour imaginable.
After the first day of diving, I scraped my left big toe on a rock hidden in the sand on the beach, carrying our gear back from the boat. This took a cm square off the front of the toe, and meant that the second day, I dived with a toe wrapped in bandages and three layers of polythene, with a slight tendency to swim to the left due to not wanting to put any pressure on my left fin.
On the second day of diving, I scraped my right knee on a rock underwater. This hurt like hell, but didn't noticeably bleed/force me to surface/attract thousands of sharks, so I ignored it. A week later, my knee is swolen up, with a burning red ring visible encircling the kneecap and around 15 degrees hotter than the rest of me.
Bangkok revisited and North
We went north. Another wasted day in Chumphon, the nowhere land of Thailand. We tried to avoid it, by taking the "Express Catamaran" from the island. This got us ashore an hour and a half earlier than the usual boat, a good hour before the last daytime train. But this turned out to be half an hour's drive from the train station, and the driver waited a good hour at the port before setting off, so getting us actually where we wanted slightly later than the slower, cheaper regular ferry. Doh.
Bangkok was the same - hot and intense. We went north into Isaan, and saw many temples. This I shall not describe at length. But, we spent one day in Kao Yai national park that I have to recount.
Again, there are cloud jaguars, bears and the possibility that maybe some of the Tigers aren't dead, just hiding from the poachers. No show by any of them. But, 10 minutes into the park, still on the pickup taking us to the trailhead, a hooting sound echoes across the treetops, and the guide hammers on the roof to get the driver to stop. We bail out of the back, me in the lead next to the exciteable guide, and run back just in time to see - A Gibbon! A White Handed Gibbon! Making his way, lazily across the jungle canopy.
Gibbons are cool. They spend their entire lives playing that game you play in primary school - where you're not allowed to touch the floor. They live in the treetops, moving from one fruit tree to another, for their entire lives, and don't walk a single step if they can possibly avoid it.
Next, a report on Chiang mai, where we are now and have been for a week. But this entry is waaaay too big already, so I'll end there.
Koh Phangan - Playing with fire
The weather on Koh Tao never improved, despite waiting a week for it. So, off to the party island of Koh Phangan, where the famous full-moon festival attracts thousands of party people every month.
The bad news was, it was nowhere near full moon. The good news, they have new-moon and half-moon parties to fill the gaps - fewer people, much the same entertainment.
Koh Phangan is listed in my memories as where I discovered the force of Red Bull. Oh, I've drunk the liquid-jelly-baby red stuff before, and felt a little mild-buzz. But nothing before compares to
The Night Of 6 Bottles of Red Bull
I remember in my youth going out to party. Talking for hours. Laughing like a maniac. Then dancing all night, and seeing the sunrise. In recent times, though, I'm much more likely to have a quiet pint and bitch about work for an hour, then slope off to read a book with a shawl over my knees and be in bed by 10:30. When forced to dance, at the occasional night-club, or even wedding, I'd shake my stuff in a quiet corner for maybe 5 songs, then declare exhaustion and go prop up the bar until whoever had dragged me off dancing would let me leave.
For a night, I channelled Tires from spaced. There were a large number of intensely cool people we hooked-up with from the moment we landed on the island. Paul and Rachael, a brother and sister from near brummie. Kate and jodie, our next-door neighbours. Charlie, a really talkative friendly American. Scores of others I failed to remember the names of. We sat and watched the firedancers, with their poles and their burning balls on chains. We limbo danced under flaming poles. I jumped through a flaming hoop, leaving burn marks on my trousers that I still have now (and, incidentally, completely f****d-up my breakfall in a pathetic way. Headed off smiling afterwards to where nobody could see me to collapse in agony from knocking my lungs empty).
Then, we went to the party. And I danced. Solidly. For hours. Mostly pogoing like a complete loon.
I had a second new experience almost 24 hours later. I call it a Red Bull hangover. It's where you wake up, but don't have the motivation to open your eyes for three hours or so.
We were there for almost a week. Do I have anything else to say, of scenery, learning experiences, thai culture? Nup.
Cloud Jaguars and Tigers and Bears?
From the islands, we hit a national park, supposedly where there once were tigers, but heavy poaching means that nobody has seen any in a couple of years now. This story was repeated to us in two other national parks in Thailand. So, Thai tigers may well be extinct in Thailand, outside of zoos. Great way to usher in the new millenium, human race.
We saw no Tigers. We saw no bears. We saw no clouded leopards. We saw a chipmunk, a couple of snakes (sleeping), some civets, and we each got bit by a leach.
Leaches were a new experience for me, and I was really amazed by how damned fast they are. I thought leaches just hung around in wet mud, or in stagnant pools of water, and bit whatever put its foot next to its mouth. But no. Leaches apparently sense their prey through the electrical field generated by their heartbeat, from several feet away. Then, they charge towards it, moving like an inchworm. They'll hitch onto your boot, then climb up until they reach skin. Frances got bitten on the ankle. Me? I got bitten on the stomach - the leach climbed up from my boot to the first available skin.
Koh Tao - The Return
After a few more days where Frances dragged me south to see "culture", and I mostly sulked and stayed indoors where there was aircon, we returned to Koh Tao. This meant another day in the between-town of Chumphon, where every bar seems to be playing "Hotel California", which is more than a little eirie, when you're stuck there for the second time due to travel inconsistencies. When we finally reached the island, we stayed at the same resort as last time, the glorious BlackTip Dive Resort. We'd liked it a lot last time, and seeing as we'd taken a course there, we got a guaranteed 50% off accommodation costs (for life!), so it was an easy choice.
There was, however, a barman who appeared to hate us, which made us a little nervous. He was a fairly average male-thai beach resort barman. Thin, wiry, many tattoos. Every time he saw us, he seemed to almost flinch for the first 6 days. We thought, perhaps, when the dutch-girl we'd met there had her little tirade about how unfriendly and untrustworthy the Thais were, perhaps he'd gotten offended. And perhaps he thought we agreed with her (misjudging our expressions of disbelief and exclamations of surprise for agreement, or something). So, when he saw us return, and a glazed expression filled his eyes, and he said "Hi, how are you?" with an almost fixed grin on his face, I took The Bouncy Bunny approach.
"Hey, how've you been!" The Gibbon lopes forward, shakes his hand, half embraces him & puts an arm over his back in a friendly way. "We missed this place so much, we had to come back!" The charm offensive seemed to work, and he became somewhat less scary to us from then on. I suspect the main problem was, we always turned up for breakfast, either before the guy's first smoke, or while he was carefully crafting his first smoke.
This time, the diving was fantastic. Excellent visibility. Clarity of water like nothing else. Dropping onto a divesite 30m deep, and seeing the whole thing from the moment we drop below the water. Fish everywhere, every colour imaginable.
After the first day of diving, I scraped my left big toe on a rock hidden in the sand on the beach, carrying our gear back from the boat. This took a cm square off the front of the toe, and meant that the second day, I dived with a toe wrapped in bandages and three layers of polythene, with a slight tendency to swim to the left due to not wanting to put any pressure on my left fin.
On the second day of diving, I scraped my right knee on a rock underwater. This hurt like hell, but didn't noticeably bleed/force me to surface/attract thousands of sharks, so I ignored it. A week later, my knee is swolen up, with a burning red ring visible encircling the kneecap and around 15 degrees hotter than the rest of me.
Bangkok revisited and North
We went north. Another wasted day in Chumphon, the nowhere land of Thailand. We tried to avoid it, by taking the "Express Catamaran" from the island. This got us ashore an hour and a half earlier than the usual boat, a good hour before the last daytime train. But this turned out to be half an hour's drive from the train station, and the driver waited a good hour at the port before setting off, so getting us actually where we wanted slightly later than the slower, cheaper regular ferry. Doh.
Bangkok was the same - hot and intense. We went north into Isaan, and saw many temples. This I shall not describe at length. But, we spent one day in Kao Yai national park that I have to recount.
Again, there are cloud jaguars, bears and the possibility that maybe some of the Tigers aren't dead, just hiding from the poachers. No show by any of them. But, 10 minutes into the park, still on the pickup taking us to the trailhead, a hooting sound echoes across the treetops, and the guide hammers on the roof to get the driver to stop. We bail out of the back, me in the lead next to the exciteable guide, and run back just in time to see - A Gibbon! A White Handed Gibbon! Making his way, lazily across the jungle canopy.
Gibbons are cool. They spend their entire lives playing that game you play in primary school - where you're not allowed to touch the floor. They live in the treetops, moving from one fruit tree to another, for their entire lives, and don't walk a single step if they can possibly avoid it.
Next, a report on Chiang mai, where we are now and have been for a week. But this entry is waaaay too big already, so I'll end there.