hey you long hair! hey you rockstar!
So we’ve been in Thailand for a couple of weeks now, currently residing in Bangkok in a cheap room (2oo Baht: a very hard bed , shared bathroom, no power outlets, small table and a couple of clothes hooks, backpackers delight: CLEAN) and I must say I’m growing to love it more each day. There was a sadness when we boarded the flight from Siem Reap to Koh Samui- no I don’t want to leave an underdeveloped gem, no I don’t want to see hoards of tourists, no I don’t want to go. The beach at Samui was quiet and the water so blue, but it was when we got to koh Phangan that we got to enjoy the sun and sand so soft you couldn’t manufacture it. Full moon party was fun, though maybe I’m just getting old or a lot less tolerant of shitty trance music. I went to bed early, 4.30am, unable to force myself to remain awake for another 2 hours to see the sunrise (and it was beautiful, I really did miss out). We were lucky enough to stay in a nice place for my birthday- air con and my first hot shower in a month. I even got to watch tv, a sort-of-rubbish but also enjoyable Disney film starring Bruce Willis and a questionable hair piece. And my first ever infinity pool. Koh Phangan was where I was introduced to my first bucket, the Millennium trilogy and banana choco pancakes. The street vendors’ pancakes were by and far the best- I remember one diabolical Snickers pancake in a restaurant where I ordered said pancake expecting a choclatey-peanut gooey mess of love. What I received was a stone-cold pancake blanketing a hard oblong outline, reminiscent of the white-man outline at a crime scene. It was just nice to stay somewhere for a relatively long time and not have to schlep my backpack around every couple of days. We met an American trilogy of military men and two very miserable Israeli girls (every time they opened their mouths they complained. Literally. I am aware that I can be a grumpy cow too, but Jesus they were something else. Later we were to bump into them in Bangkok and again they moaned for a full five minutes. Could not wait to get away from that stop and chat. Also made me wonder why some people bother to go on holiday if nowhere matches up to the oh-so high standards of home). We island hopped to koh Tao so I could learn to scuba dive, and I’m not ashamed to say that it was pretty scary. We did some classroom learning, some swimming pool learning, and some open water learning. Seeing such wildlife in such circumstances was pretty awesome. We did 4 open water dives and in that time I managed to see a tiny stingray, butterfly fish, sea cucumbers (GROSS), parrot fish, Harlequin sweetlips (demented little cuties), Clark’s anemone (NEMO!), banner fish, porcupine fish, damsel fish, titan trigger fish, angel fish, white-eyed eel, but the very best was saved for the last dive. We saw, and swam with a hawk billed turtle. It was RAD.
We intended to hop on over to Koh Phi Phi on the night boat, but learned about an hour before we were supposed to board that the boat would not sail due to bad weather. The night was calm and dry. Our options were to risk booking the boat for the next night with the possibility that it could be cancelled at the last minute, or to book the catamaran to Bangkok the next morning. After some deliberation we decided on Bangkok- the boat was a guaranteed sail ( as apparently it was better equipped to deal with choppy waters) and we couldn’t really afford Phi Phi anyways- we’ve been hemorrhaging money since we landed on Samui. We boarded the white knuckle ride the next morning. Honest to God, I swear the boat took off a couple of times, and at one point I selected Radiohead on my Ipod as I wanted to listen to something apt on the way down. The swell was huge, the waves roared, it was as if the Great Wave of Kanagawa had come to life and bellowed right underneath our boat. Everywhere, people around were heaving and chundering into little delicate plastic bags. Wimps. I loved it! Dan asked if I was looking to the horizon to keep me from feeling nauseous. Hell no, I was looking into the waves trying to work whether we’d take off on this one! I could see why our vessel hadn’t sailed the night before and I was glad. We arrived safe and sound, and got on a bus for 8 hours to bring us into Bangkok.
Now, Bangkok does have a bad rep. I will admit that when I got off the bus at one end of the Khao San road I was dismayed to see Starbucks,McDonalds, Burger King and Subway. Many say that BKK is where east meets west. I say it’s where west is attempting rape of the east and has it in a stranglehold. Eastern civilization has got on pretty alright so far thankyouverymuch, and Thai coffee is much nicer than the below-average, over-priced rubbish they sell in Starbucks. But I digress. Many say that BKK is “too seedy” , “too touristy” and “too dirty and polluted” . There is a simple solution. If you think it’s too seedy, stay away from the sex shows and red light district, if you think it’s too touristy stay away from the Khao San road- do your research and go to one of the many districts and suburbs where the locals thrive, and if you say it’s too polluted, well what big city isn’t? Everyone on London is grey no matter what their natural colouring is, LA and Paris aren’t exactly sparkling- quit moaning, it’s not hard. What is hard is trying to resist buying clothes and twak from the street markets, or laughing at the ingenious slogans the suit-sellers come up with as you pass them on the street. It’s a great place, sometimes you feel like you’re in the 70’s with the building architecture and old school air con machines, the pretty coloured formica lanterns and psychedelic tablecloths in the cafes. A wonderful place to be, the bread is excellent too.
