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Ko Samet
Entry 20 of 24 | show all | print this entry |
COFFEE DRIPPER, LOVELY JUBBLIES and THAILAND'S OWN BILLY JOEL
For my last morning in Vietnam, my first project is to find a Vietnamese
Coffee dripper. Done for $2, and the deluxe model at that. Plus 200 grams of
the world's finest ground beans for those other countries in SE Asia that
don't make quality coffee - ie. any country outside of Vietnam.
Breakfast was another fine serving of Pineapple Pancakes. As the waiter
plonked them on to the table, he said to me "Lovely Jubbly". He thought I
was English. I explained to him that I was Australian, and if you want to
impress Australians, you should present the food and say the words "Beauty
Mate!". So he practiced. I apologise to all Australians from hereon
travelling to Vietnam who hear the words "Beauty Mate!" from waiters. It
could have been worse, I could have taught him "Get 'Em India Mate!" or
"Show Us Your Norks" I guess.
Irish Ollie and his girlfriend with the unpronouncable name are sitting in a
travel agent's office as I cross the road after breakfast. They've missed
their bus to Phnom Penh, because they were sitting in the travel agency next
door to the one they'd booked the tickets in. "That sounds very Irish of us,
doesn't it" said Ollie. Ta be shore Ollie, ta be shore....
The flight from Saigon to Bangkok was 1'10". I decided that rather than stay
another night in Bangers, I'd attempt to get to Ko Samet in one go. So I
caught a bus to the Bangkok eastern bus terminal to assess the options.
As it a 3 hour bus ride to Ban Phe, plus a half hour on a boat, I decided to
head to Pattaya instead, as at least its over half way. After arriving I
checked into a hotel and headed out. "Pattaya" is the Thai words for "Fat
German tourist looking for Thai hooker". At least it seems that way as the
place is full of overweight middle aged Europeans with lil thai girlfriends
a third of their ages toddling along next to them holding hands. Pattaya
does have some decent night markets however, so I've stocked up on t shirts.
Again.
I struggled to find a decent Thai restaurant here as its all catered for
'westerners'. In the end I ate Italian Lasagne, with New Zealand beef, in a
German brewery restaurant. At least the beer I had was Thai.
Thailand and Vietnam are very different. Apart from the obvious language
differences, (must stop saying "Come On!" as it means "Come On! Hurry Up!"
in Thai rather than "Thank You" in Vietnamese) the place just feels
different. Perhaps its the less frantic and dangerous traffic. Perhaps its
the lack of Westerners with local girlfriends in Vietnam. Perhaps its the
fact that I'm back in Manoa Soda country. (hoorah - thats a positive). I do
miss something about Vietnam that Thailand doesn't have, or probably once
had but has lost it.
I decided its time to head home when the band in the restaurant play Billy
Joel's "Uptown Girl". According to them "she's been liver rin her uptown
world..."
LOST SONGTHAEW, BEACH BUNGALOW and MANGEY DOGS
I can't get on a trip to Ko Samet until 11.30am so I head of to the Thai
Airways office to put my Honkers flight back a few hours. A 10.30am flight
means its impossible to get to the airport from either Ko Samet or Pattaya
on the same day. Getting to the office in North Pattaya was fine, getting
back wasn't. Apparantly there is more than one Soi (Alley) 12. Hence I ended
up north of North Pattaya before the Songthaew driver realised the error,
and took me the long way back. I almost missed the minibus to Ban Phe jetty,
but quickly threw my stuff in the backpack and made it in time. After
arriving at the jetty, half an hour later the boat left for Ko Samet.
Although its only a few kilometres from the mainland, Ko Samet has its own
weather pattern. The weather was crappy in Ban Phe, with its surrounding
mountains sucking in the clouds. But only a few k's out into the Gulf of
Thailand, and the sun shines on the island's beaches. I arrived at a
different beach to what I expected. It was a small beach without a jetty,
therefore you had to jump from the boat into the water and walk to the
beach, and hope not to ruin another camera in the process by dropping it.
I shared a Tuk Tuk taxi with another couple and headed to Ban Phai beach, a
few beaches around. I found a great little bungalow with fan overlooking the
water, for a lazy $20. Niiiiice. I wandered up and down the beach for a
while and grabbed a late lunch, and then wandered back for a swim (yes,
taking my life into my own hands by swimming less than an hour after
eating). Only 20 metres from shore are some rocks and fish, but alas no
coral. I swam a few laps up and down the beach, and booked a snorkelling
trip for tomorrow.
Ko Samet is quite lovely, with clean water and squeaky white sand. Alas the
main bummer is the amount of flea-bitten hobbling mongrels all around the
place. Ko Samet is the home of the mangey dog. Prior to dinner I was growled
at menacingly three times while walking up the beach. It appears stray dogs
don't find my look appealing. Then during dinner (a fine barbeque on the
beach) I watched two unscheduled dog fights erupt on the beach, with locals
trying to separate them by belting them with brooms and pool cues. Just in
time too, as one dog was dragging the other into the surf after biting the
living daylights out of it. Rather unpleasant, and nerve-wracking when they
look at you and bare their teeth.
GIVE US A KISS REXIE, MAGICAL SUNSET BEACH and HAND FEEDING THE SHARKS
Ko Samet is humid at night (maybe its the non-air con room!) so its up early
for a big breakfast prior to the snorkelling trip. Its a clear and sunny
day. Ye-hah!
First stop in the boat is some way out from shore and into the Gulf.
"Pishing" we are told as we are handed hand lines to try our luck. The first
spot resulted in one Scottish bloke catching a tiny fish, before we were
moved on by some big commercial fishing boats heading round us who wanted a
crack at the area we were in. The second spot didn't appear much better,
with a few small additions to the catch. At the end of proceedings I pulled
up my line to finish up, and what do you know, there's a fish on the end of
it! A massive red snapper. It had to be all of 3-4 inches in length! A big
fifteenth of a pounder! Big Rexie, this one's not for kissing and releasing,
this one's for eating!
We then headed back towards the island, and started snorkelling around some
rocky coast. There were some fish around, and the water was quite clear, but
there was only dead coral around. So after about 30 minutes we headed back
to the boat, for lunch, and to watch the large blue jellyfish float by -
they were about a foot wide.
Lunch was rice, vegetables, fruit, and the 7 or so small fish barbequed on
board. Glad they provided the rice..... Next stop was Ao Phrao Beach, or
Sunset beach as they call it, even though we weren't there at sunset. It was
one of the most pristine beaches I've seen all trip, with an excellent but
apparently expensive resort and long stretch of white sand.
Back in the boat after an hour, we then head to the turtle and shark farm.
Its located in the water, and is basically large net 'tanks' with buoys and
wooden plank walkways surrounding them. Most tanks contained large fish, but
one contained a number of turtles, a grouper about the size of a small
whale, and three sharks. Two of the locals took to hand feeding the sharks
fish. I hope the photos turn out.
It was then back to shore and the bungalow by 4.15pm for more wandering
round and lazing on the beach, plus the now compulsory bark and growl from a
dog. Is it my deoderant?
Dinner was Red Chicken Curry, and was mighty fine. It made my forehead sweat
profusely but despite the heat it was sensational. While eating the
restuarant screened the film "Sweet Home Alabama". Somehow I managed to keep
down all my food, even though it was a Reese Witherspoon flick.
LOST EMAILS, TIME CRISIS and DRAG (QUEEN) 'EM IN AND SHOOT 'EM DOWN
Another early morning due to beach bungalow humidity in Ko Samet. I'd opened
a packet of choc chip biscuits last night, and by morning they are as soggy
as if I'd left them in a glass of milk. After breakfast, and another
growling dog, I headed to the beach (all of 20 metres away) from some beach
sitting, reading, wading in the water and listening to music.
At 11.30am I headed to the ticket booking office for the trip back to
Pattaya. I've decided that 4 1/2 hours back to Bangkok airport in one day,
plus a flight to Hong Kong, is a bit much. Instead I'll split it up again by
spending another night in Pattaya. Besides that, the dogs are freakin' me
out.... As always there is confusion over what you have to pay for in terms
of transport, as I now have to pay for transport to the jetty. Its the Asian
"yes" to every question they don't understand problem.
The boat is due to leave at 12pm but instead leaves at 11.45am. Thankfully
the tuk tuk got there on time. We arrived at Ban Phe for a 75 minute wait
for the 1.30pm minibus to Pattaya, so I decided to send an email or two.
Somehow I managed to delete all of my emails just as the internet cafe
server crashed. The guy who ran it (a westerner) and I spent 20 minutes
trying to work out the problem, but I had to leave so I left him to it at
1.20pm.
Downstairs, the bus was ready to go, early, like the boat. Thai's have no
idea about time. "Ten minutes" can mean an hour, "12.00pm" can mean
11.45am... its all guess work. The driver looked at mean sternly as to where
I'd been, even though I'd turned up 5 minutes before it was due to leave.
Sheesh! I worked out why he was in a hurry soon after. We stopped after ten
minutes so he could pick up some packages to deliver. The customer is not
always right in Thailand.
I checked into the same hotel as before and went out wandering to the other
end of town that I hadn't been to before. I needed to buy a replacement day
pack already, as the one I bought in Hoi An's has a dodgy zip, and its
cheaper to buy a new day pack here than replace the zip at home. I returned
to the hotel in the late afternoon, with new day pack with an extra tough
zip, for a swim and to watch Mark Feel-A-Poo-Sis play his semi at Wimbledon.
Heading out for dinner in a songthaew I couldn't help but overhear (they
were less than a metre away) a western guy and his thai 'girlfriend' arguing
over the price for him to "stay with her" another day. They settled on the
fee, and got off the songthaew hand in hand. Ah, ain't "love" grand... its
just all so romantic.
Dinner was at a Dutch Restaurant that served decent Thai food, followed by a
further wander back towards the hotel. I passed a venue called "Tiffany's".
Its an enormous regal looking structure similar to Buckinghuge Palace, all
lit up at night. There are two parts to the place. One part is "Tiffany's
Cabaret" which from the posters is a drag show. The second part is
"Tiffany's Shooting Range" which is as the name suggests, a place where you
can go shoot a gun for a few baht. I would think that combining your
favourite weapon, with target practice on a rady-boy, is not an option. I
didn't go into either by the way.
It did leave me wondering how they came up with the concept of the two
combined.... "ok that covers all the spare drag queens we've got, but what
are we going to do with all the guns and ammo?"
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