Week 2 Update - Thailand
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2007
1
9
26
Trip End
Jan 13, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Sunday, November 11, 2007
first off, thanks to all those that replied to my last email - greatly appreciated and looked forward to.
highlights of this week include the beaches of Thailand, rock climbing, snorkeling, cliff jumping (incl a belly flop), a sting by a sea urchin, search for the ultimate paad Thai, and the hustle bustle of Bangkok.
i last left you on the eve of my departure from KL. we flew from KL to Krabi on Asia's newest low cost airline, air asia, for $50. Krabi is a province in Southern Thailand and a beach town. we only stayed a day at a very nice and clean guest house for $4 ea. much better than the not so clean place in KL. as we were still seriously jet lagged, we slept early and woke up early. took a 40-min long boat ride to Railay beach for $3. Railay is a resort beach with two sides; the west side which caters to tourists willing to pay $100-$300/night in luxury resorts on white sandy beaches, and the east which has a pebbly beach with mangroves and low cost resorts i.e., $15-50/night. So guess where we stayed - that's right, on the East Side - although we had access to the beach on the west side. so we splurged and got a 2-bed room with A/C, hot water, bar fridge and TV for $30. ahh, the luxury was fine. we had planned to meet up with two friends who were coincidentally touring Thailand at the same time. the four of us enjoyed the sunset on the beach and had a nice dinner.
we spent the first half of the next day rock climbing as Railay as it is the rock climbing center of Thailand. it was amazing and invigorating. the view from the top of the cliff, after having climbed it was breathtaking. this cost us $16, which included all the equipment and an instructor. in the afternoon we journeyed by express boat to Ko Phi Phi, which is an island off the Southwestern Cost of Thailand. It is somewhat bean-shaped and was hit by the 2004 tsunami from both sides. over 90% of it has been rebuilt but as i understand it, no significant improvements were made except several signs pointing to tsunami evacuation routes and a tall tower with megaphones pointing in all directions, presumably to warn the population to head for the evacuation routes! Phi Phi was relaxing and is a city with no cars and small streets accommodating pedestrians and carts. the only way to get there is by boat or sea plane. it is extremely touristy and not a place to get an authentic Thai experience. everything is catered to English speaking tourists. nevertheless, i enjoyed it for what it had to offer.
so, being backpackers, we got a fan room with cold water for $20/night. not as luxurious as Railay. spent the evening at a beach restaurant and on the beach drinking and eating logan. there are many clubs on the beach front open late till 2AM. i should mention that we had not gotten a single sunny day yet - overcast, humid, and hot is what we got. so the next morning, it rained till noon. we canceled our day-long island tour and sat at a restaurant called 007 and ate Money Penny's Breakfast Combo. luckily the rain stopped and we booked a similar island tour for $18. out of this we got a personal long boat, a guide and for 4 hours we snorkeled, cliff jumped, and watched the sunset at the other side of the island. it ended up being a great day. whilst snorkeling, i got poked by a sea urchin and for those 'Friends' fans, you may recall an episode where Monica had to pee on Candler at the beach - well, let's say i had a similar experience. cliff jumping off a 10 meter high cliff was amazing. the first jump was Olympic worthy and the next higher jump (12 meters) was a huge failure ending in an almost belly flop - a moment of silence for my pain and inability to breathe for 5 seconds. the sunset at Maya Bay was non existent due to the overcast, nonetheless the beach and bay were breathtaking. that night we stayed in our room and smoked HuHan and talked. one of our friends also nearly belly flopped and for some reason had a lasting bruise and spent the night in utter discomfort.
The next morning, it rained again and after it stopped, we said our farewells, and Gamma and i headed back to Krabi to our fav guest house. everything in Railay and Ko Phi Phi was twice the price as Krabi so it was great to return to Krabi and enjoy the Internet for 1 Bhat per minute as opposed to 2 B in Phi Phi. Watched a movie at a local Internet cafe and ate a whole fish in Thai sauce. so far I've enjoyed the local Thai cuisine, (the Panang curry with seafood being the best), paad Thai and red curries. however, i am sad to report that the paad thai in Vancouver is still better.
caught a plane on Air Asia to Bangkok on Saturday morning and made it a point to get to the popular backpackers spot (Khao San Road) using public transport. that endeavor took us 2 1/2 hrs (in our defense we stopped over at the local train station to book our ticket for Laos). the sky train and metro in bangkok are amazing and it costs a maximum of $1 to get to places. got a cheap room for 200 B ($6) which has only 10% of its floor space available - it suits two skinny guys perfectly! Khao San Road is like a daily carnival with the road closed to traffic and hawkers lining the street from 9AM to 2 AM! we got a room slightly off the beaten path. that night we went to PatPong which is the original red light district from the 50's. now it has become more touristy with a night market. there are still several bars trying to entice tourists to watch live sex shows.
today we went to large outdoor market called Chatachuk market. used the public bus which cost us $0.16 as opposed to the tuk tuk which costs $5-10 depending on your bargaining skills. the market is huge and supposed to be phenomenal! we were disappointed as the majority of the stuff was of low quality and relatively expensive compared to the stuff in KL. got some stuff but not even 1/4 of what we were hoping.
and, now here i am after having shopped the whole day. that was a long email - thanks for reading.
for pictures, please go to
till next week,
sameer in Bangkok - keep those emails coming.
