Kho Koh Khao to Krabi

We only decided the night before we left Kho Koh Khao where we would go on our next stop in Thailand. We decided Krabi, because with our time running out it was both easy to get to, easy to get away from, and close to a bunch of awesome stuff.

Turns out it was a little crazy to get to. At the stop, we ask the bus we flagged down if they are going to Krabi and they grab our bags and put them on the bus, so without yet knowing where we are bound for, we are off. The bus was so packed that I ended up sitting on the floor for part of the trip. We had some communication problems with the attendant, but thanks to some helpful people and simple picture drawing, we figured out how much it cost and when we were to get off. Despite the madness on the bus, we got to watch Hulk in Thai on tv and like all our transportation, made it to our destination.

I was a little worried when we got to Krabi, because the bus station was an absolute dump. Then, the only taxis were bemos (motorcycle taxis). So with our big backpacks on we hopped on the back of the bikes and clung for dear life as the drivers broke nearly every western traffic law while getting us to our destination. My thoughts during the ride included; 1) please don't let me die, 2)I wish I had a helmet, 3) I promise I will be a good boy, and 4) Don't let it end like this, I still haven't seen Kho Phi Phi

We made it. And our hostel turned out to be the second nicest hostel I have ever stayed at behind the Wombat in Berlin. Krabi it turns out, has a lot to offer. There was a fair going on, markets, and plenty to do and see. We took full advantage.


Nice selection of fried insects and worms at the Krabi street market adjacent to the fair


Amazing array of different meat and fish on a stick


After pacing up and down the market and eying every stall carefully, I picked the most delicious looking meat skewer as my lucky winner


One bite in and I was in trouble and hurting badly. Suggestions, always ask if it is spicy. Unfortunately that was a chili sauce and not a bbq sauce... I sprinted to the nearest drink stall and got coco juice, which didn't put out the fire. I pressed coconut against my lips to control the burning.



The street dog has a much better taste for spice than I do. After all, he is Thai. I am glad someone enjoyed it.

Similan Islands

Led by Benjamin, our hilarious American-turned-Thai beach bum guide for Sea Star Adventures, we explored most of the Similan Islands and surrounding waters. It was a really nice day trip...Great snorkeling, tons of fish, the clearest water I have ever seen, the most amazing beaches you could imagine, turtles, and much more ensued.

The pictures don't even do it justice.



Similan Island number 5. Awesome bungalows right on the beach, great place to stay the night. Also ate lunch here. It was a Thai feast that we shared with fellow day trippers. One guy at our table ate everything with his hands... even right out of the main dish. This Island, as you will see in the next picture has the clearest water and the softest sand I have ever seen. Like walking through flour. It was also hilarious to see all the Eastern European guys taking pictures of the girlfriends who were scantily clad and rolling around in the waves and on the beach, posing like wannabe models/porn stars. I tried to get Rachel to imitate as a joke, but she is too classy. Damn.


Wow. I was tempted to put a million other pics up of these islands, I'm still in awe.


Sail Rock from below




Up to Sail Rock we go


Up on Sail Rock


Everyone was excited to be up on Sail Rock. I couldn't help but creep on these two S. Korean newlyweds. Classic.


Rachel was smarter to sit down. I am a lucky guy.


Posing before my wrong step


One wrong step and I almost fell to my death, luckily that bloke was one step away and saved me. Rachel filmed the whole thing instead of helping. She needed to save her strength for putting Sail Rock back into place (see below).


Benjamin also took a spill over the edge, go figure. Good thing everyone had seen cliff hanger.


Sail Rock began to fall into the water, luckily Rachel was there to push it back into place


Our snorkeling friend the sea turtle

I would recommend this trip to anyone. Sea Star Adventures runs a great trip. I want to go back, like, now.

Less is More in Koh Kho Khao

Our arrival at sunrise

Koh Kho Khao was an absolute paradise. Devastated by the 2004 Tsunami that wrecked havoc on Southern Thailand, this small island is slowly recovering and may not remain a quiet secret much longer. We encountered hardly any English as a first language visitors and many of the tourists we came across were families and laid back vacationers. The island has a white beach that stretches as far as the eye can see and nice restaurant huts along the beach. What I enjoyed most of Kho Koh Khao was the genuine friendliness of everyone and that there wasn't excess of anything. For example, there were nice restaurants on the beach, but it was not so crowded with restaurants as to take away from the feeling of being somewhere far away for normal life. There were people giving massages and selling things, but you did not get hounded every 10 steps to buy something or asked if you wanted a massage. Everything to enjoy yourself was there, and you could make us of it as you pleased.


The KIB, our home for 3 days
After a fabulous breakfast at the Koh Kho Khao Island Beach Resort, our hotel and home for the next 3 nights, we made it a beach day. Our hotel was right on the beach, so we didn't have to go far. We enjoyed the relaxed vibe and never ending beach. For lunch we took a stroll down the beach and ate under a bamboo hut on the beach at Siam restaurant. It was on tilt, as most meals of the trip were. More beach time followed.


Our view from lunch, pineapple shakes are something I could get used to

For dinner, we strolled along the beach at sunset all the way into town. Town was actually just a small stretch of shops, restaurants, and bars clustered on one road by the arrival pier. The small island set up gave off a great feel, and Koh Kho Khao is the perfect example of how less often is more. We settled in for dinner at Ko Kai, where we were served by a girl no older than 8 or 9, who worked at her father's restaurant. At one point in our meal, I look over to see her leave on a bike and come back some 5 minutes later, bottle of liquor in hand. Of course the bottle was for someones drink at the restaurant but still, where else would a 5 year-old be able to go to a bottle shop and pick up a bottle? Got to love Thailand. After the delicious meal we rented a scooter and sped off through the darkness to The KIB, rounding out our first day in Paradise.

Day 2:

The weather on day 2 couldn't have been any better for exploring the island. Clear skies, sun's out, guns out. We made good use of our rented scooter, exploring the island from end to end. Our day in pictures follows:


We pretty much went on every paved road the island had to offer. Probably not the safest thing for me to do while driving but had to be done, sorry mom. I was actually more worried about getting hit in the face with one of the many massive bugs flying around.


We cruised as far as the road would allow us, ending up at the opposite end of the island and Sunset Beach, where we spent our day lounging in hammocks and swimming in the water. Awesome day!


Before meal


After meal


I was excited and felt the need to do a handstand on the beach


Cruising down the main road.... doing about 60 (okay, maybe not since it shows it in the pic... but we definitely red lined her a few times)


White sand beaches for miles at Ha Pla


Ha Pla Bar/Restaurant and cottages, a nice pit stop on the way back for drinks


Not bad scenery for showering off before a nice swim in the pool at sunset

I don't have pictures of the end of our night but we ate unreal fish tacos at Taco Time and walked around town. Taco time definitely did not disappoint. We hit the hay ready for our snorkeling adventure to the Similan Islands the next day.

On to the Islands

When the person in charge of our hotel in Bangkok asked where we were going next and didn't know where it was when we told him, it was either a sign that we did some bad research or were heading to a hidden gem.

But, that is getting ahead of myself a bit. Before we found out about that, we had to take an overnight bus, a taxi, and then a longtail boat to get there. After taking our beloved bus 40 to the station, we boarded our fashionably hot pink overnight bus, equipped with reclining chairs, pressure controls on the seat (they didn't work, but it was still cool to think about having it)meals/drinks provided, and of course the hot pink interior and curtains... oh yeah, and a ladyboy attendant decked out in hot pink high heels, hot pink tight pants and hot pink top.

In the middle of our trip, we stopped for a 20 minute break at a rest stop. Everyone disappeared into this little room and we were wondering, wtf? We decided to follow suit and were treated to rice porridge with random stuff in it, included in the ticket price. It was all quite confusing and hilarious, and of course awesome at the same time.

Rachel looking as confused as I was about our late night snack stop
Perhaps more hilarious was our ladyboy bus attendant, who was twirling around and flexing his/her butt while looking at him/herself in the mirror and making sexy faces. Great midnight entertainment. The rest of the bus trip was a bit of a blur, but every time I woke up it seamed like we were driving really fast on crazy roads. Regardless, we made it to Takua Pa bus station in one piece two hours ahead of time at 5am in the morning. From Takua Pa, we caught a songthaew to the pier, and from there took a longtail boat the 800 meters across the water to Koh Kho Khao. The transitions so seamless that we arrived on the island about 4 hours earlier than we thought we would, and thus 4 hours ahead of when we said we would check in. Because of this, we were treated to an awesome view of the sunrise. It split into thick rays coming up over the neighboring island, a gorgeous sight and great way to start our island time. Because we were so early, to do the opposite of make up for lost time, we decided to walk the couple km to our hotel. Still we got there way too early, and when we rocked up with our packs bright and early in the morning they were a bit confused. We got our room and an awesome complementary breakfast and so started our time in Koh Kho Khao.

Bangkok in a 2 Days, 1 night

After getting bogged down by an obnoxiously drunk German and English guy at the Jolly Frog, we escaped via minbus to Bangkok. It didn't take us long to get there because our driver was pretty much red lining the whole time.

We were let off at a random place in Bangkok and really had no idea how to get to our Hotel, which we forgot to get directions to. Having no clue where to go, we turned to getting help, which was plentiful from the friendly people of Bangkok. We ended up taking a taxi to the main station and then wandering around for an hour before finally finding the place. The only problem from there was that they had mistakenly given our room away and were full. Happy New Year! It actually wasn't that big of a deal because despite most of the city being shut down for the holiday, we ended up landing a place right next door for cheaper so it all worked out.

Not having a lot of time in the Capital, we set out for the weekend market straight away. We took the subway and sky rail which were pretty sweet. The subways had these cool plastic tokens as tickets that you waved in front of an electronic sensor to get in. Then, when the subway arrived, they did a search of the whole subway before letting anyone on. We transferred to the sky train for the second half of our journey, and got a nice areal view of Bangkok.

When we arrived, we were definitely not expecting what we saw. The market extended for literally over a mile. I'm pretty sure you could find anything at this market. You could buy your groceries, furniture, clothing, sex toys, and fighting cocks all in one go. We basically got lost in the endless stalls for a few hours, only to realize that we had gone in circles and covered not even a solid chunk of the entire thing. I found heaven in the form of a strawberry smoothie and was quite happy just walking around and looking at everything.

Trying to find our way back, we again got lost but the friendly people of Bangkok again came to the rescue. I really can't emphasize how friendly and helpful people were, and willing to stop and ask if we needed help even when we didn't ask for it.

We finally found our way, only to realize that we needed to purchase our overnight bus tickets away from Bangkok a day in advance. So we hopped on public bus number 40 to take us to the south bus station. Bus 40 was what I would like to call the ultimate Thai transportation experience. We got on the bus and the bus driver told us to sit down. We soon found out why. Before we had a chance to get our butts on the seat, he already had the bus cruising down the street. He was driving the bus as if if were a motorcycle, weaving in and our of traffic. The bus attendant, who was a young guy, probably in his late teens, wearing a camo jacket was flying around the bus, using the polls like a monkey to stop his momentum and collect money. The bus was red lining all over central Bangkok, taking bridges and bumps at high speeds. Even the locals were looking at each other wondering if they would make it to their destination in one piece. The driver would pick people up and drop people off without coming to a complete stop, rev the engine at red lights, lay on the horn like he was playing in a band, all the while keeping a cool face and reclining way back in his seat. This trip was indescribably insane. It took us twice as long to get back as it did to get there on this bus, and was my favorite form of travel (in hindsight, since we didn't crash and die) on the trip.

We got to the station, which was almost equally crazy and got out tickets for the following night. Then we headed back to the center of BBK and Khaosan Road, aka tourist central.

By now I was a veteran bargainer, and when it came to buying a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, tonight I was drawing a hard line. Me and Mai, who worked at the shop directly to the right of Khaosan Park Resort played a nice little game of cat and mouse with the prices. He started way too high, I started low... we did the economic tango and in the end sealed the deal at a price we were both happy with. In reality, I am not such a hard bargainer... I liked the guy so I gave him a little more than I wanted. Khaosan Road was pretty much like being back in Legian or Kuta, Bali with people trying to sell you everything under the sun and a bunch of drunk English and Aussies running around.

The next day, we rounded our time in Bangkok out by exploring the Grand Palace, including one of the most holy temples in Thailand, and Chinatown. The Grand Palace was spectacular, boasting beautiful architecture, temples, and housing the royal palace. We had to rent clothes to wear to cover up for the temples, and checked the place out in style. I think pictures will do the place more justice than my description.

Chinatown was also insane, and was our last stop before hopping on a more tame bus 40 to the South Bus Station. Our time in Bangkok done but not forgotten.


Guard at Royal Palace/me hoping that the guard wouldn't snap and stab me with his bayonet

Check out our sweet temple wear!!! In front of the Royal Palace

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

Grand Palace

Joy is Up in 2011... well done Ms. Esboldt, your fame and positive outlook has reached Bangkok

New Years Eve in Kanchanaburi

From Ayutthaya we took a minibus to another ancient capital and place made most popular from the WWII atrocities that took place during the construction of the Death Railroad and River Kwai Bridge.

Kanchanaburi had a little more going on than Ayutthaya it seemed. We stayed at the Jolly Frog, a super cheap and basic but very nice place nestled right on the bank of the River Kwai. For our brief stint there we did mainly WWII stuff, going to the War Museum, walking the River Kwai Bridge (and seeing what was left of the old one), checking out the WWII cemetery and going to an underground cave temple, made of 7 different cave rooms.

Kanchanaburi also provided us with one of the funniest and most memorable happenings of the trip. While doing the usual bartering over transportation prices, we encountered a haggling tactic that we had never seen before. After deciding that one driver was offering a ridiculous price, we were chased down by another guy, this one more elderly and apparently much wiser than his friend. He set his price of 200 Thai Bhat, which we thought was high. And then as we debated it, he started making expressions of pleasure and sex-like noises every few seconds to show us how nice the trip would be. "We take you to cemetery, temple, and cave... uuuuhhh, yeaaaaah... very nice. Yeaaaaah. Uuuuuuh. Mmmmmm. Uuuuuh huuuu. Oooooh yeaah."

Rachel and I were laughing hysterically. In fact, we laughed so hard we both had tears coming down our faces. We were speechless, our negotiating power taken away by laughter and the inability to speak. After we agreed, our friend pawned us off to one of his drivers who took us around to all the sights. I know this description doesn't do it justice, but it was hilarious.

Somewhere along our stay in Kanchanaburi, I noted in my notebook that I wished Ayutthaya had been more like this. This may have been right after our Thai Massage... but probably not as the small Thai lady absolutely destroyed me. At nightfall, Rachel and I both went in for another cheap massage, but this was my first Thai style massage. Pretty much the lady brought the pain, using her hands, feet, arms, legs and everything else to leave me sore for 2 days. All that was going through my head as I lay there too chicken to ask her to go softer was, will I live through this? What would Drobny do? Does she know this is killing me and get enjoyment out of it? Anyways, she did some cool stuff with her feet and bending me in all different shapes and I survived the experience a better man because of it.

After the massages, we decided to head out for some dinner. As it would turn out, there was no need to pay for dinner because all along the river, as part of the New Years Eve celebration they had free buffets at a lot of the restaurants, offering all sorts of good food to those who would open their pocket book for a few drinks. We had no qualms. Our first stop was at this bar with flashing light all over and the best buffet of the strip. We split a bucket or drink (literally a bucket you would see a kid using to build sand castles on the beach) and enjoyed dinner around some other obnoxious tourists. Our next stop was across the street, where we sat at an outside bar serving 10B drinks (32 US cents). Amongst the liquor bottles was the OBAMA Blended Spirit, so of course I had an Obama and coke. Next was the Reggae Bar, which of course doubled over as a dreadlock repair shot. They gave each guest a board game with their drinks, so we played some variation of Chinese checkers and joined in with fellow patrons who were playing everything from Scrabble to Mancala. We bounced around the strip quite a bit that night, having a low key New Years Eve and turning the page on the decade in travelers style. Again, fireworks were exploding all over the streets and next to peoples heads. No big deal. Just another night in Thailand.


Chungkai War Cemetery for the POW's who died building what became known as the Death Railway. "Their Name Liveth For Evermore" reads the cemetery entrance.


Rach walking down the tracks of the River Kwai Bridge


The River Kwai Bridge, built by POW labor during WWII. Construction of the bridge and railway cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives.


What is left of the old River Kwai Bridge


Just in case you need your dreads repaired

On to Ayutthaya

I love transportation in SE Asia. Our 9 hour train ride form Chiang Mai to one of Thailand's ancient capitals, Ayutthaya, helps to illustrate why. Travel in Thailand is a mixed bag and you rarely know what you are going to get. Our situations ran from buses without AC so crowded you didn't get a seat to heaps of leg room, reclining seats, and the like.

We rushed to catch the train, making it just in time. As we were rushed, we didn't have time to get any snacks. We thought that would be a killer but were pleased when one of the conductors came around handing out free food. So excited by the free food, I dove in, only to have my mouth catch absolute fire. This was somewhat of a pattern during the trip, some people just never learn. The ride was going pretty well, I got nailed in the head with some falling fruit, but other than that it was a lot of rice patties some magnificent looking jungles/mountains, and smooth sailing. When the sun went down, our once clean train was exposed for what it really was... a dirty train. We soon found that along the window, a groove acted as a cockroach freeway. We spent the next hour and a half, watching the roaches scurry by, stomping about 25 of them, and keeping them off of us. When we rolled into Ayutthaya around 9, we were happy to get off.

When we got to our hotel, we were pleased to find that it was probably the nicest/cleanest we had stayed in yet... no roaches.

We spent 2 nights in Ayutthaya, and although we enjoyed it, I think Rachel and I both felt in hindsight like on such a rushed trip we would have rather gone elsewhere. While we were ther, we did have a fun day riding around on bicycles. It was tough trying to ride crazy enough so that we could keep up with the flow of traffic, but safe enough so that we didn't die. I was just amazed that neither of us got hit.

On our bike tour, we spent a lot of time ridding to the various ancient temples and palaces. It almost felt like being in Rome again, except not really. There were plenty of ruins to explore. Another highlight of Ayutthaya was the breakfast our hotel gave us as part of the nightly fee.


Tough traffic ahead



Taking a rest from our biking circuit atop some of the ruins



Rocking a sweet hat



My favorite thing in Ayutthaya, a Buddha head entwined and fastened in place by the roots of a tree


The ruins may have been able to stand the test of time, but can they stand my destructive mood?

End of Chiang Mai

Rachel and I instantly fell for Chiang Mai's charm, and we really loved the vibe the city gave off. We decided to stay a day longer than we had planned. Day 2 featured a smorgasbord of activities. After finding out that we would have to stay another few days to do the all-day elephant camp we originally had wanted, we settled on an all-day adventure trip that included riding elephants through the jungle instead.

We piled into a songthaew, the last to be picked up in our group that featured 2 Germans, 3 Portuguese, 2 Australian, 1 French, 1 Austrian, 1 Belgian, and us two Americanos.

The day started with a stop at an orchid/butterfly farm. The flowers were beautiful, okay... but after tigers the day before I have to admit I was a little bored with it after a few minutes. Okay, I'm becoming a travel brat. It made for some nice pics (see below)


Orchids
Our next stop was at a settlement of the Padong Tribe(aka Long Neck tribe), a tribe known for the custom where its women lengthen their necks through a painful looking process of putting copper coils that can way up to 5 lbs around their necks. This process starts with young girls as early as 5 years-old. Long ago, women kept getting attacked by something that would bite their necks resulting in a fatal wound. Since they didn't know what beast was responsible, women began wearing the coils as a protection. As a result, the women were saved and the tradition born, or so the legend goes.

Padong Tribe Member

I must admit, this stop was sad, as I felt like I was visiting a refugee camp. From what we were told/gathered, the tribe had fled from Burma and since they are not legal residents per se, they are confined to this village. Perhaps they were happy there and their situation must better there than where they had come from, but I couldn't help but feel like I was imposing. I guess they earned extra money from us tourists buying the scarfs, clothing and crafts they make, but it just didn't feel right being there although the women were very friendly and gracious.

Our next stop, which was the original purpose for us going on the trip was a visit to an elephant park and a ride through the jungle on elephants. Riding the elephants was fun and they are very cool animals. We took a ride down to a river that had very pretty views of the hills and jungle that surrounded it. Although we didn't see any poor treatment, we did have some concerns about how the elephants at this camp were treated and it made us wish we had planned in advance for the all day elephant camp where you are with one elephant all day, bathing it, riding it, feeding it, etc. I guess you have to save something for the next visit, right?


View from our Ele at start of the trek


A hungry trunk? Gotta get that nana


Eye of the Ele



After lunch, our next stop was at a trail head. We spent the next hour or so hiking through the jungle to a waterfall. This part was fun, and the waterfall a nice spot to relax and enjoy where we were.



After hiking back, it was time for some white water rafting. We hit the rapids for a bit, again passing through some gorgeous scenery along the way. At the end of our rafting, we transitioned to bamboo rafts to take us the final Km or so. That was also fun, despite our raft not working all that well and being under 6 inches to a foot of water the whole time.

While I may have painted parts of this adventure tour in a negative light, what made the day fun was the group of people we had, all sociable and interesting, with travel stories from the various places they had been . The people you come across while traveling never ceases to amaze me. We spent plenty of time bouncing around in the back of the songthaew together and having a good time. The second part of the day was a lot of fun, and despite feeling like everything was a bit rushed, it was a nice way to do a lot of things in a short time, and time was something we didn't have a lot of.


Our "air conditioned van" (that is what the ad said) and fellow travelers
We made it back to the hotel and showered up before heading out for a dinner and stroll through the again endless stalls of the Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. We walked home, coming accross quite an interesting street. It was also on this stroll home that while stopping to take a picture of the fried cricket stand, I picked up a convo with a lady who just bought a batch of the small sized fried crickets.

After chatting for a bit, she showed me how to eat them... holding the head and biting off the rest of the body.. legs and all. You discard the head and enjoy the delectable taste of Thailand's fine foods. Having seen how the process was done, the lady then held out her tray of crickets and offered me to try one. I turned to Rachel who already knew I was a goner. When in Thailand, right? I devoured the cricket, which tasted like a chip or something flavored that is crunchy. Protein in the bank. Rachel wouldn't kiss me the whole walk home until I brushed my teeth. Go figure.