Pratting Around the World

Ko pha ngan

  After 4 days on phuket, we moved from the andaman coast to the gulf of thailand to visit ko pha ngan.

Our ghetto bus on the way from phuket. yeah, in addition to this amazing bus ride, our journey also involved a few tuktuks and a hour dirt trek through the jungle.

View from the ferry – a really relaxing journey where i managed to get some sleep. yeah the ferry was the best part of the journey. and kho phagnen was worth all the trouble.

Ko pha ngan is one of the three islands in the gulf of thailand. The island is famous for the full moon party which is every month. The island is less developed than the other islands in some places as the roads are unsealed.

yes, we stayed on the very undeveloped east coast and it was so beautiful. i’m glad it wasn’t developed much.

thong nai pain – our village on the opposite side of the island to the ferry port. It took an hour to get there over dirt roads but it was worth it. Our resort consisted of basic bungalows with just a fan and a a cold shower – a bargain at $15 a night.

i loved reading on our little deck.  a little warm water would’ve been nice, but staying right at the beach was pretty perfect. and using a mosquito net was kind of a romantic novelty (for the first hour).

kelly really loves her swings

the bungalows and some restaurants were right on the beach and at night they dug holes and put candles in them. during the day waves broke and went  right underneath a few restaurants’ tables.

the view from our bungalow

no tv. yeah, just like my apt in winnie.

.

our beach seemed almost private with just a few other guests. the first couple days the ocean was clear blue and flat as glass. then the waves picked up and were huge – we played around for hours.

there was an amazing hotel near ours that we investigated one day. it had multiple cascading pools, but was so well-designed that it blended right into the hillside.

tried a bit of muay thai kickboxing. got to learn some techniques from some tough thai bloke. Vicious sport, elbows, knees, kicks and punches.

i had the most amazing thai massage while huddy was boxing. there was a wonderful place that wasn’t sketchy like the majority of places in thailand. and it was only $7.

our last morning on the beach was a depressing one, hard to leave such a cool place. yeah, i(kelly) had to head to the beach one last time. we kept adding days to our kho phagnen visit and when we finally had to leave i was so sad. in a pretty pissy mood about, but then i remembered we still have cambodia, vietnam and india islands to lay around on.

Phuket

we flew into phuket from bangkok. then we took the bus ride from hell in a vain attempt to find our hotel. rain began pouring just as we landed and then the minibus claimed they hadn’t heard of our hotel and wanted to drop us in the middle of a traffic circle. after some craziness, we were dropped off at this piece of shit place located above a sketchy boot shop. although hudson claimed to have reserved a nice hotel for my birthday, i didn’t have much faith. after more craziness and walking in the rain we finally made it to our hotel. which was sooooooooo nice. thank god.

pretty beaches were everywhere. some were a bit crowded, but still nice.

pretty sunset taken during a walk around town over kata beach. we mostly ate from little food stands attached to mopeds. this is also where we discovered the deliciousness of thai pancakes. soo good.

for my birthday we rented a scooter and after a few laps around the block of practice we took off to explore…
dumb and dumber:

and dumberer:

you can just see the giant buddha in the distance.

I didn’t think our scooter would make it up the steep dirt roads to the highest point, but we finally go there.

i guess it’s a buddhist custom to hang these pretty bells and hearts in trees. i also saw them hanging off eaves at the grand palace in thailand.

a little snack on the side of the mountain at sunset.

we went out for cocktails since it was my birthday.

my giant cocktail cost almost as our entire seafood dinner. maybe i should have picked a classier food stall… but the food was great, and only $6 for everything.

no expense spared

Grand palace and wat pho

the grand palace was pretty amazing, so much gold and attention to detail. inside the walls is basically a tiny town of beautiful temples and pointy rooves.

 the people coming here to worship actually outnumbered the tourists, which was surprising. Even if you don’t practice buddhism, the sculptures and architcture are amazing to see.

i brought pants and socks along so i’d be decent for the palace, but it turns out the sleeves on my dress weren’t quite long enough. i had to wear three layers in the blazing sun. ugh. i look like a cross between a mechanic and cafeteria lady. and hobo.

the reclining buddha was my favorite of the day. it’s absolutely huge and covered in gold. it’s hair is made up of coils that create this cool pattern and its toenails are giant.

i liked the look of this guy, below.

in the buildings surrounding the reclining buddha, smaller buddhas (or they could be other gods?) line the walls. they are everywhere and almost taken for granted despite their individual beauty.

i’m not sure of the specifics, but there is a buddhist tradition of dropping coins in a long line of kettles. the line of kettles is located by the reclining buddha and we’ve seen it in a few other temples as well.

intricate sculptures and bas-reliefs are everywhere. the detail is impressive and the number of works is staggering. and we only went to a few temples. so many greats works of art have come from religion; it’s crazy to see real gold sculptures and such lavishness and then see very poor people paying their respects and praying.

Bangkok

After a crazy new years eve in bondi, we set off for bangkok. nothing like an all-nighter before travelling on new year’s day – I think our excitement for bangkok was the only thing keeping us from passing out.

traffic in bangkok is horrendous, it just can’t handle the amount of taxis, tuk tuks, mopeds and cars on the road. There is a skytrain and subway but this doesnt access all of the city, so we had to take alot of taxis and tuk tuks (all really cheap though compared to western countries)

maybe the first person in thailand to think of doing this pose

Patpong is the main area for the sex industry in thailand; i didnt want to go but kelly was adamant. Sad really, lots of young thai girls outside bars whilst pervy men (mostly 40+) look around.
i wasn’t desperate to go, and when we go there was a little disappointed. this area is mostly touristy and has nothing on amsterdam’s red light district. maybe i’d feel differently if i had gotten a dirty massage or something???

good name for a bar

tuk-tuks. pretty fun ride.

weeeee!

i’d heard about crazy powerlines in asia and it’s true. i never realized they are so close to the ground, and many of them had trees and vines hanging all over the place.

China town was a mass of alleyways filled with market stalls. pretty much the size of a real town, this is the biggest chinatown i’ve seen yet. and why is it every city has a chinatown?

the market stalls in bangkok are a really cheap way to eat and try some local food. The only problem was that walking round the streets make you lose your appetite fast. Bangkok has an awful smell due to bad drains and loads of rubbish just lying around. totally unexpected, foodcourts(like in malls) are amazing in bangkok – they are basically just upscale markets, with everything from small foodstalls to western cafes (but with no gag-inducing smells). leave it to huddy to find a food in one of these nice markets so nasty that it did make us gag:

the CENTURY EGG - made by preserving duck, chicken or quail eggs in clay, ash, salt, lime and rice hull for around a hundred days. It looks disgusting, smells horrendous and the taste……………

think this sums it up. not just rotten, the egg looked, smelled and tasted like actual death. we felt pretty brave for trying it until we glanced at a table next to us while recovering with some sweet potato — everyone at the table was munching century eggs like they were fries, so nonchalantly. sick. i’ll never be able to aquire a taste for those wretched eggs.

some weird fruit. tasted like cucumber and banana with a rubbery consistency. not great, but gotta try it.

Chatuchuk weekend market was huge with thousands of stalls. Mainly crap was on offer but it was still fun. there was also a hightop gang – these little kids playing thai flute thingys and hopping around in their colorful converses.

after visiting patpong we snuck onto a hotel’s rooftop pool and restaurant to get some breeze and see the cityscape. very impressive and pretty at night. my first impression of bangkok is that it’s a huge mix. while bangkok seems to adopt western culture readily, it doesn’t lose the thai culture. there are bags of suid guts in black water being sold next to a mcdonalds and both places are equally busy. i expected more people to speak english, but we often resorted to gesturing. the cabbies may have been the worst, except for our one friend we spent two hours with when we got stuck in traffic. he loved practicing his english with us and we had to force him to take our money, but he was definitely a rarity. bangkok is a dirty city(think nasty smells, stray dogs galore and lady boys), but with lots going on and i think not too much of a culture shock. oh, the shopping is pretty amazing, not that i could afford it.