Tropical Thailand

What an amazing cultural experience.

Our four week journey started in Bangkok - after a late night flight from Sydney, we cleared customs and managed to take a Taxi to what has to be the craziest place in Thailand. Khao San Road. Even at 1am on a week night this place was a bustling, jostling, smelly, hot and sticky circus of Thai doing anything they could to make a buck and farang (foreigners) trying all sorts of ways to spend a buck.

Struggling with our packs in the heat we managed to dodge the drunks, the partially eaten street vendor food, the dog poop to one of the many guest houses only to be told that it was full. Despair set in. We needed a place to sleep and this was one of the only options the fantastic Lonely Planet gave us. Not to worry though - we stuck out like sore thumbs with our packs on and quickly had the locals offering us their own "guesthouse" accomodation. We hesatantly agreed and ended up in what could possbily be a hospital room. Very stark, white, with just a large bed as furniture - but we didn't care. Finally, after we'd been awake for two days straight, we could get some sleep - in air-con cooled tranquility.

This was our first Thailand experience. I'm pretty sure both of us had crazy dreams and were wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into.

The following day we were herded into a tourist office (TAT) and managed to book a few nights in a nicer hotel as well as book both a train up north to Chaing Mai as well as a three day trek - sweet!

The rest of Bangkok took us to many Wats (temples) - almost too many Wats! It seemed that every place we visited the top tourist attractions were Wats. They were all incredibly beautiful and ordained with so many jewels and gold layers. Our favourite wat in Bangkok was not the Grand Palace (which was indeed grand) but a little small unknown Wat we stumbled across while wandering the streets. It was empty! No other tourists to spoil it's beauty - we had the Wat to ourselves. Such a different feeling.

After three days in in the smelly capital, we ventured up north to Chaing Mai - by night train. The night train is amazing. You get your own bed and literally travel up the country by night. It's like cheap travel and a nights accommodation to boot! Ear plugs are recommended though ..... The trains are very rickety.

We were in Chaing Mai for about 20 seconds before we had packs shoved in our faces and told our Trek was ready to leave and waiting for us! With only seconds to pack enough gear to go tramping for three days, we did remarkably well ... I think the only thing we forgot was underwear for Gini.

The Trek was hard work but thoroughly enjoyable. We trekked through rain forests (and it poured with rain on the first day), along rice fields, through hill tribe villages and down steep rocky paths. We stayed in mosquito netted huts and ate traditional Thai food our tour leader Mambo cooked up. Vegetable curry, fried rice and a noodley dish to name a few. We swam and bathed in waterfalls. We also made friends and shared stories with the other travelers - two Israeli's, 5 Aussies and a Japanese girl.

The Aussies warned us of some of the perils to be had down south. They purchased cheap bus tickets to travel from Krabi up to Bangkok, only to be taken on the slowest most painful bus ride of their lives. On purpose too. When they were good and tired and had fallen asleep, the crafty Thai robbed them. Even bags which were at their feet were riffled though and thousands of Baht stolen as well as a yet to be proposed with engagement ring .... A sad story but one that is quite common! We stayed clear of the "too good to be true" deals that dodgy little travel places touted.

The final day of the trek saw us riding elephants through hills and bamboo rafts down the river. I was scared shitless while on the elephant (we had to have the big granddaddy elephant ...) but Gini thoroughly enjoyed it. To me it felt like I was on some sort of theme park ride - but an unpredictable one at that. Our elephant was a greedy we beasty too. There were stops along the way where you purchased "SOME FOOD TO MAKE FRIENDLY WITH AN ELEPHANT". We bought plenty of sugar cane but our beast was always grumpy when his trunk would return from staring at us empty and he'd snort snotty elephant breath at us. Good times.

The rest of our stay in Chaing Mai was taken up with more Wats, including one 300 steps from the top of a hill which had an incredible view. We hired a moped for the day to check it out. We also visited the Night Bazaar (night market) in Chaing Mai which was the most incredible and over the top market we have ever visited. By the end of our stay we were experts in bartering - the best trick is to appear interested only to walk away part way through. The vendors practically chase after you with decreasing prices until you finally agree or get too far away as to leave their stall at risk.

We also managed half a day of a Thai Cooking school which was great - we learnt how to make spring rolls, Tom Yum Soup and another dish ... before we had to cut it short as Gini fell ill. She'd caught a one day stomach bug!

All in all though, Chaing Mai is well worth a visit and was a great change from Bangkok. Leaving Chaing Mai, we took another night train back south to the old capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya. This nights accommodation was even cheaper than the previous one as we had to go without air conditioning! A hot and sweaty nights sleep on the train, but we made it in one piece.

Ayutthaya took us back about 800 years. The ruins were the main attraction and they were incredible. To think what it would have looked like back then when it was compared to Paris in terms of wealth. A must see - even for us who knew little of Thailand's crazy history.

Leaving Ayutthaya we did what most tourists don't. We headed out east. It was an amazing contrast of the big cities - everything seemed at such a slow pace. There was also very little english to be found - which makes ordering from a menu, without photos, with only Thai script quite amusing! Still, we managed and highly recommend a few places we visited - but we also highly recommend NOT taking the bus between them, as this was a slow and painful method of transportation.

Nong Khai: Where the "friendship bridge" crosses the Meekong River into Laos. It's a short trip to Vientianne, the capital of Laos, but we decided against doing it during our short stay. It's a very small town, and easy to hire bikes to get around. The massive concrete sculpture park is a must as is a river cruise at sunset, dining on scrumptious seafood.

Ubon Ratchathani: We arrived here thinking there was little to do, but a short trip to the TAT (tourist office) opened up a whole range of activities. We hired a motorbike and ventured 100k north to a massive national park: Pha Taem National Park which had many memorable sites - a huge cliff, mushroom rocks, cave paintings dating back over 3000 years and a couple of waterfalls. We arrived at Ubon as they were preparing for their massive candle festival. We saw the sculptors at work, sculpting amazing designs from huge chunks of wax. We wish we had stayed for the festival but unfortunately it was over a week away.

Trying to make the most of our time left in Thailand, we flew from Ubon to Bangkok then from Bangkok down to Phuket for the third leg on our journey.

Not really knowing the area at all, and because it was late, we stayed in Phuket Town hoping to wake up the next day to beautiful beaches. Oops. Phuket Town is this tiny inland town with nothing more than a few tacky Hotels. First thing we did was jump on a bus to get the hell out of there and on towards one of Phukets most famous beaches - Patang.

Patang beach was awesome. The few days we stayed here we swam at the beach, we went out for a boozy night (the bars are just never ending), we did a bit of shopping (Gini bought her much sought after hat), got tattoos and ate whole deep fried fish. It is 100% catering to tourists which we actually didn't mind so much after coming from out East where things were a little different.

From Phuket, we took a slow ride east towards paradise - Koh Samui. After a very painful 15 hour travel ordeal on mini vans and ferries, we made it to the Island Paradise.

Koh Samui was beautiful. We stayed in Koh Samui for about a week and could have happily stayed longer. We can see why so many people come here on their honeymoons, the whole place is magical. Our accommodation was on Chewang beach - the nicest, but most touristy of the Islands beaches. Our guesthouse backed out onto the beach.

Oh the beach. When you enter the water and it feels warm. Where beach venders constantly walk along selling all sorts of goodies - ice-creams, drinks, frisbees??, corn on the cob cooked in-front of your eyes, fruit. You didn't need to go anywhere. The beach stretched on forever - pearly white sand. We spent many hours just lying at the beach and it it's waters. Hiring jet-ski's was a highlight - we both thoroughly enjoyed the rush!

At night time the beaches transformed into restaurants and night bars. Each of them would setup coloured lights and other ornaments to try and differentiate themselves from their neighbours. It felt like walking through an amusement park. We drank cocktails under the stars. We smoked herbal fruit from massive bongs and watched as the party atmosphere took hold.

Besides the beach, the island of Koh Samui had many other sights to see. We hired mopeds for a day - one each this time - and sped around the island visiting, and swimming in pools at the top of two waterfalls. Unfortunately this is where the scariest moment of the trip happened: we were on a mission to find lunch - it must have been about 4pm and we were starved. We were following this truck which was going ever so slowly so I overtook it. Gini followed suit, but as she was half way past, the truck decided it wanted to turn (no indication or anything). Gini only just managed to swerve around it - but ended up sliding the bike on it's side and taking out a Thai ladies wooden table! Bleeding from multiple cuts and bruises, some extreme ones to her ankle and knee, she was lucky to be able to ride away after a short recovery time. We took the rest of that day very carefully ..... The truck didn't even stop to find out of she was ok!

We took a day trip to Ang Thong National Park which was beautiful. An hour of snorkeling along the way was not the spectacle we were expecting (too many tourists have caused the corral damage) but it was still enjoyable and many fishies to be seen. The many islands of Ang Thong were incredible. One in the shape of a monkey, the other a lion. Another of the islands had an inland pool of turquoise. The last adventure of the day was to canoe around one of the smaller islands - through rock caves and warm, tranquil water. Magnificent.

And that is about the extent of our trip to Thailand! Would happily do it all again. Especially to relax on the beaches of Koh Samui.

T