Adrian.gfc's travel blogs:
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Thailand
Entry 5 of 10 | show all | print this entry |
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My 4th visit to Thailand now, my passport stamps must make me look like a drug pusher or pervert! Arrived in Satun, and headed straight for Krabi, the gateway to the beautiful Thai islands.
Met 3 Brits on the way, and roomed with Drew, a guy from Ealing for the next few days to save money. The other guys, Louis and Kirsten were from Bristol, and were all really great people. Spent 1 night in Krabi, a bit of an uneventful place really, everyone just waiting to get the ferry elsewhere.
So that's what I did.
Ferry the next morning to Ko Phi Phi Island, a tiny, beautiful island 35kms off the mainland. Some of you may have heard of Phi Phi, as it got badly affected by the Tsunami (Langkawi & Penang also got hit, but under 50 people died). This was my 2nd visit to Phi Phi, I came here with Jim, Neil and Flash in Nov 2003.
And boy was there damage. Carnage! About 70% of the Island was destroyed, 850 dead bodies were found on the island, with over 2,000 still missing today, swept out to sea.
This tiny island is shaped like a dumbell, wide outer bits, with a narrow strip in the middle, with sweeping bays each side. It got battered by both Tsunami waves, the 1st wave was 10 feet tall, hit one side, and the 2nd one was 30 feet high and hit the other side, completely destroying anything in between. One side was totally flattened, the other side major damage.
Lots of rebuilding work has occurred, and is still going on, and will carry on for years I imagine. All the locals have horror stories to tell, but, they are bouncing back. There are loads of travellers volunteering to help clean up etc, as there are no cars or lorries on this island, so things take a while. A good community spirit. I wanted to help, but was short on
time,so was unable to do so.
All that aside, Phi Phi still is a beautiful island, the beach is still superb, the waters are crystal clear, but sometimes you still get Tsunami debris washing up onto the beach. I spent a lot of time just wandering around, taking in all that had happened and watching people rebuild
their lives. But it was still a fantastic place to stay, and the main areas are all rebuilt and up and running again with bars, restaurants etc. And buckets of Vodka/Whisky. Dangerous stuff....I shared a whisky one with one of the Brits I hooked up with - and I hate whisky!
Ko Phi Phi Leh, the neighbouring island is where the Di Caprio flick 'The Beach" was filmed, and that took a hit from the waves too, its still beautiful though, but all the coral is wrecked, and there are now hardly any fish. The lads will remember it with loads of corals and thousands of fish. The water is still crystal though.
So, after 3 days, it was another ferry, this time to the Thai island of Phuket, another one visited in Nov 2003. I was worried about this, as we met some great people back then, and were not sure if they survived the Tsunami or not, so that was my mission for a couple of days - find our friends!
About 5,000 people died on Phuket in the Tsunami, but it is a much bigger island, bigger than the Isle of Wight. First stop, find Karon Bungalows where us lads stayed in 2003. And it was there! And so was the owner, a Thai bloke called Boon. He didn't remember us, but it was great to see him nevertheless - I think he was a bit puzzled why I was really pleased to
see him! I managed to get exactly the same room that me and Flash had stayed in too, at 2003 prices too, as tourism is down ssoooo much on last year - people just don't want to come here. And the room had been upgraded, it now has hot water!
Boon told me about the Tsunami, where the water levels came to, what damage was done etc, and that the Thai Government gave nowt to the locals, it was repaired using saved money, or borrowing. He wasn't that badly affected, lost furniture, personal belongings etc, some rebuilding to ground floors of buildings. But some around weren't so lucky. A travel shop we used last time was wiped out, so was one of the restaurants we ate in, the big
roundabout on the seafront was flattened and replaced with a huge new one with extra thick walls. And the beach - oh my god! It had shrunk by 50%! I could not believe it. It used to be a massive expanse of sand gently lowering into the ocean, but now it¹s a steep drop and the beach is half the size it was.
The beach road was destroyed too and lots of building work was already done, with loads more on-going. Shame the "Girly Bars" weren't wiped out though....
I went looking for a waitress called Ging, who befriended us last time, so went to the restaurant she worked in, no luck. The place was still there, but no-one knew Ging.
One touching moment, was I found the graffiti we all wrote on the walls of the restaurant in 2003 (with the owners permission!), so took some snaps of it for the lads, and wrote another message on it.
I asked around a bit, no luck, then bingo! Someone told me where to find her and she now has her own place, "Ging Restaurant", so I went in. Unbelievably she recognised me straight away! We ended up chatting all night, had some beers and grub and had a right laugh. She remembers all of us well and also told stories about the Tsunami and how it affected the local community.
I was ssooo pleased that she was ok, it¹s always been a worry of ours since Boxing Day.
So, with mission accomplished, I hot footed up to Ranong, a small provincial town on the west coast of Thailand, right on the Myanmar border (Myanmar used to be called Burma).
The border crossing opens and shuts at will, owing to political difficulties, but was open at the moment, so the mission was - Get my Myanmar stamp in my passport. No taxis or Buses in this town, so hired a Motorbike taxi to the port, hired a boy to take me on a 1 hour
journey in his motorised wooden canoe across the river (its a bloody big river!), and arrived at Myanmar immigration, which was a wooden hut on stilts on the river bank, no kidding! Got stamped, went onto the mainland, had a look round for a few hours, got my exit stamp, and boy took me back into Thailand, so now ANOTHER Thailand stamp in my passport!
After a night in Ranong, which was strange as there were very few tourists about, it was now a trip to Bangkok. Unfortunately it took 12 hrs on a crappy bus with no air con, only cost 4 quid though. I got a bit annoyed in Ranong, as the woman at the Bus stop said to me "No 1st class bus today, only 2nd class", so I bought a 2nd class ticket. 10 mins later, a 1st class
bus arrived. I asked to upgrade, was was told no, it was operated by a different outfit, so the 1st class bus went, with me feeling peeved with my rickety old banger, following the deluxe 1st class bus to Bangkok. Four hours later, I had a scary moment. The 1st class bus suddenly lost control in front of us at high speed, went into a ditch, hit some trees, and
toppled over. Many people badly hurt, it was nasty. I think the driver fell asleep, common out here because of the long hours. I thanked my lucky stars and carried on to Bangkok, after picking up some of the walking wounded.
Another bad moment was, when I finally arrived in Bangkok, I realised I'd been robbed. Some toe-rag nicked my coat from the luggage rack, must have been when I fell asleep for a few hours earlier. Thankfully my bag, which was by my feet, was ok. Was just glad to get there really.
So, then arranged to meet my mate Dan, we've been chums for 13 years or so, and seem to keep meeting abroad, this is the 4th time now. Me and the lads met him in Brisbane in Nov 2003, I met him in Melbourne in March 2004, and me and the lads also met him in Bangkok in July 2004. Dan is also a railwayman and loves travelling!
So we hooked up, spent the night drinking nasty strong beer on the Khao San Road, the backpackers area in Bangkok - a total freak show of dreadlocks, pierced navels, sunburn, scruffiness and cheap anything being sold from the hundreds of stalls, CD's, watches, you name it, they sell it!
We are going to stay in Bangkok for a few days, sort some immigration visas out for Cambodia and Vietnam and leave on Tuesday for Cambodia. And also buy a new coat! Oh, and I got my haircut today in Bangkok, 80 Baht it cost (there are 70 Baht to a quid). Bargain. And its quite short. Oh well, should grow back by December!
So, Bangkok.......Well, it was my 3rd time there, so didn't really do much, hooked up with Dan and we all had the same itinerary, so all decided to travel together for a few weeks. We got our immigration visas sorted for Vietnam, had a few nights out together, met lots of weird and wonderful people, went on a mad tuk-tuk drive race through the city, visited Patpong -
the biggest red light district in the world, just to see it for my own eyes (never been there before) - it was interesting to say the least!
Then we left Thailand, and flew to Siem Reap in Cambodia, for a fleeting visit to this beautiful country.
Where I stayed:
Karon Bungalows
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