Our Itinerary
| 21st Jan | Thurs | Sydney 6.05pm to Bangkok 11.10pm (9 hrs flying Qantas) |
| 22nd Jan | Fri | Bangkok overnight train to Chiang Mai (15 hours) |
| 23rd Jan | Sat | Chiang Mai |
| 24th Jan | Sun | Chiang Mai |
| 25th Jan | Mon | Chiang Mai |
| 26th Jan | Tues | Chiang Mai overnight train to Bangkok (15 hours) |
| 27th Jan | Wed | Bangkok |
| 28th Jan | Thurs | Bangkok |
| 29th Jan | Fri | Bangkok fly to Phuket |
| 30th Jan | Sat | Phuket |
| 31st Jan | Sun | Phuket |
| 1st Feb | Mon | Phuket |
| 2nd Feb | Tues | Phuket |
| 3rd Feb | Wed | Phuket fly to Singapore (1.5 hrs flying Tiger Airways) |
| 4th Feb | Thurs | Singapore 9.30am to Sydney 8.20pm (8 hrs flying Qantas) |
Thursday 21st January, 2010
Sydney to Bangkok
Lauren caught a train to Sydney yesterday and went home with Josh to Wisemans Ferry. He’ll drive her back to Sydney with him this morning so she’ll hang out in a park with Taxi till we meet her at Central this afternoon. At eleven o’clock Mark and I walk down to Hamilton Station with our backpacks and catch the 11.30am train to Sydney. As usual I sleep most of the way while Mark reads the paper.
So we’re excited to meet Lauren on Platform 23 at Central where we catch the train to the airport arriving at 2.30pm. Although we’re three and a half hours early, there are long lines already at the check-in counter. We finally manage to get three seats together – a window, an aisle and one in the middle. Not great but the plane is apparently full. Sydney airport has changed since we were here last year – newer but not for the better, we think. After McDonalds and a ciggie in the courtyard, we go through immigration and hang out in the book shops.
This trip means a lot for the three of us. It’s eighteen months since Angie left us and this trip will bring us a little bit of joy that we’ve lost since she died. Our beautiful Angie is gone but we’re blessed to still have our precious Lauren.
Our Qantas plane leaves half an hour late at 6.30pm. I’m on the lookout and soon see two empty seats next to a window and grab them for Lauren. This means she can lie down the whole way and manages seven hours sleep with the help of half a sleeping pill. This also means that Mark and I have three seats between us so I can lie down for a lot of the time as well – Mark too big. I get to have a few hours sleep (also with the help of half a sleeping pill) while poor Mark gets none.
We land in Bangkok at 11pm (3am home time) after nine hours flying. Always love arriving in Thailand although we prefer the old Don Muang Airport to the new ultra-modern one which is now used for all international flights. This new Suvarnabhumi Airport is huge and impressive but seems to lack the soul of good old Don Muang.
Anyway, the terminal is incredibly busy and it takes a while to get through immigration and baggage pick-up though we’re waved straight through customs. Outside the usual heat and humidity hit us – love it! We line up for a taxi (400Bht) for the thirty six kilometer trip into the city and Banglamphu where we always stay.
Pulling into Soi Rambutri about 1am, we feel like we’re arriving home. It’s two years since Mark and I were here last, and even longer for Lauren, but only a few things have changed. The laneways are still busy even at this hour with street stalls, tuktuks, music and all the cafes still open and packed. There seems to be even more tables and chairs set up along the temple wall now but the main difference is the massage chairs everywhere.
This is a brilliant idea – after an ‘exhausting day’ shopping and sightseeing, you can have a massage on the street while you watch the world go by. Another change is that you can smoke sheeshas at most of the cafes. This place is getting crazier and better every time we come although I think a day or two of this will be enough. If we were staying here longer I think we’d move to the quieter, local area over near Soi 1.
Taking all this in as our taxi inches its way through the crowds, we now walk from guesthouse to guesthouse looking for a room – it’s not easy at this time of night. Finally we book into a triple room at Sawadi Smile Guesthouse. A triple room sounds quite grand and we do have an air-conditioner and our own bathroom but it’s as dodgy as hell – and, of course, we love it. It’s also only 750Bht for the three of us and to keep it till six o’clock tomorrow afternoon.
Now we dump our backpacks and head out in search of alcohol. We spy a spare table across from Sawadi Guesthouse (a different Sawadi Guesthouse from ours) and have a lovely time eating noodles and drinking cheap margaritas. Before bed we have more margaritas at our guesthouse then crash out about 2.30am.
Friday 22nd January, 2010
Bangkok
Love waking to our first morning in Thailand. We love to get up early (unlike at home) and wander the quiet alleyways and through the temple grounds. The partygoers are all sleeping off hangovers and we get to see the local stallholders, monks and people cooking breakfast on the street.
Before having our own breakfast, though, the three of us catch a tuktuk to Hualumphong Station to pick up tickets for tonight’s overnight train to Chiang Mai. We’ve booked them on the internet but we’ve tried booking other things in Thailand on the net and it hasn’t worked so we’ll see what happens this time. We really want to get up to Chiang Mai as soon as we can as we’ve got a lot of things planned for the north.
Inside the station with its huge coloured glass arched window at one end, we find the Advance Booking Office and surprise, surprise here are our tickets. Now we’ve got that out of the way, we can relax for the rest of the day so we head back to Khao San Road in another tuktuk.
We walk back towards Soi Rambutri through the temple and decide to have breakfast in the temple grounds. This has always been one of our favourite places to eat and one that most people don’t know about because it’s tucked away inside the temple gate. We order noodles with egg, pad thai, soup and fresh orange juices.
Now we want to do a klong tour of Thonburi so we all walk down to the river and the ferry wharf. We book a one hour longtail boat tour with two French girls. Crossing the busy Chao Praya River we have a wild ride as the water is very choppy today. As we enter the canals on the western Thonburi side everything is calm again and we see the more traditional Thai way of life where the local people live right on the water – washing clothes, bathing and selling food from tiny boats.
Weather-worn wooden verandahs are overhung with pink and purple bougainvillea and decorated with pots of orchids and frangipani. The traditional scenery of weathered teak homes, temples, stilted shacks, floating vendors and orchard farms is something that will probably disappear in the not-too-distant future. So now we feel very blessed to be able to still see this simpler and sweeter way of life.
Passing the floating market, we then stop at a temple to feed bread to hundreds of ugly swarming catfish. I don’t know how many times we’ve already done this but it’s still a thrill especially when they take the bread straight from Lauren’s hand. We also see one of the giant lizards that live in the canals sunbaking on a stone wall and some fat speckled frogs having a rest on water lilies hidden amongst the purple flowering water hyancinth. We stop twice for ages at lock gates but never get bored – always so much to see – ancient rice barges that people still live on and little ladies wearing conical hats paddling up to us in tiny boats to sell us drinks or souvenirs.
Back at Banglamphu we visit the temple and watch white-robed nuns preparing food while orange-robed monks chant inside. I never get tired of watching these Buddhist rituals. But we can’t hang around now – something much more important to do.
In Khao San Road we head straight for Mumas. We’ve all also been here many times but this is the best massage place in Bangkok and I know we’ll always come back. Mumas is set up in an old teak house – dark polished wooden walls and raised beds with silk covers. But this is no luxury place – it’s rundown and oozing with character – it’s the real thing. We all have a one hour Thai massage for 160 Bht each (about $6 AUD).
As we leave Mumas it starts to rain so we take shelter in a cafe and order spring rolls, chilli chicken and egg salad. Sunny again, Mark decides to go off looking for somewhere to get cheap contact lenses while Lauren and I wander through the markets in Khao San Road.
Later we spend an hour in a beauty parlour in Soi Rambutri to have our hair washed and straightened (150 Bht each). Back in the room for a shower and to meet Mark. We’ve got time for a short rest before packing and finding a tuktuk at 4.45pm for Hualamphong Station.
Here we sit in a café upstairs overlooking the vast central area of the station. Mark and Lauren order spring rolls and noodles with egg while we watch the crowds down below. At 5.50pm it’s time to board the train and find our sleeper seats – not made up into beds yet but Lauren is so tired she’s almost asleep by the time the train pulls out half an hour late at 6.30pm – Thai time, as they say. While she sleeps Mark and I have beers and Bacardi and remember lots of other trips we’ve done just like this. At 7.40pm they make up our beds – so cosy and comfortable. We love these overnight trains.
Saturday 23rd January, 2010
Chiang Mai
It’s still dark when we all wake up and eager to get ready for our seven o’clock arrival in Chang Mai. We soon find out though that the train is running two hours late (Thai time again) so we just have to enjoy it. Lauren is hanging for a ciggie.
The train pulls in at 9am and it’s so exciting – Mark and I haven’t been to Chiang Mai for thirteen years and Lauren for seven years.
The station is just how we remember it – sunny, cute with flowers and plants and much smaller and quieter than Bangkok. Outside we throw our gear into a tuktuk and head for Julie Guesthouse. Half way there Lauren’s backpack falls out and skids along the road behind us. Our driver jumps out and runs back to get it, laughing all the way – so nice to be back in Thailand with these happy people.
Julie Guesthouse is in the Old City which was built seven hundred years ago by King Mengrai (the Old City not Julie Guesthouse). Then it was an exotic city of Buddhist monks, artisans, merchants, soldiers and elephants. It was also entirely walled and surrounded by a moat.
Today the moat is still here but is now pretty with spraying fountains that are lit up at night. Part of the wall is still here as well particularly the great brick bastions at the four corners and the original gates in the middle of all four sides.
We pass through the main gate, Thapae, on the eastern wall that faces the Ping River. It’s been rebuilt, complete with a stretch of wall so people can see what the walls were once like. Like most of the cheap places to stay in the Old City, Julie Guesthouse is in a narrow laneway surrounded by local homes. It’s a trendy rabbit warren of rooms on a couple of levels and a very cool hanging out area complete with day beds, couches, cushions, rough wooden tables and chairs and woven bamboo walls. The desk is here as well so Lauren runs in to ask if they have a triple room for tonight. We’re in luck because it’s popular as a Lonely Planet favourite.
We like the atmosphere – busy with lots of backpackers coming and going and, as usual, Mark and I are the oldest. We can’t have the room till 11am so we have breakfast, store our bags and hire a driver for the day. We don’t want to waste time hanging out here for our room. We’re already running two hours late and we’ve got heaps planned – pandas, temples and tigers.
Lauren asks about getting a driver and soon a sweet young man called Wishim turns up and takes us out to a songthaew parked in the laneway. Songthaews are trucks with two bench seats fixed along either side of the back and a roof for shelter. It can hold twelve people so one for just the three of us will be excellent as well as being really cheap. The first place we want to go is the Chiang Mai Zoo to see the pandas – but more about that later.
The zoo is on the outskirts of the city in the foothills of Doi Suthep which is the mountain-top temple that overlooks Chiang Mai. Under stunning blue skies, it only takes ten minutes to arrive at the incredibly busy and very lovely entrance. It’s an exciting family atmosphere with lots of stalls set up outside under the trees and heaps of cars and buses unloading passengers.
Inside, though, it’s so big that it’s really peaceful and we head straight for the pandas seeing other animals on the way. A real surprise is how much we enjoy all of it. So beautiful when a bus load of orange-robed young monks whizz past and they all smile and wave as we take their photo.
Now we see gorgeous pink flamingos then hippos in a deep pool at the bottom of the hill. Amazingly they come right up to the edge and with wide open mouths – they’re huuuge!! We’re only a metre away from their massive teeth and tongues – it’s quite cute really like they want us to feed them.
Next are the giraffes which we feed with snake grass then Lauren and Mark feed fruit to the elephants. This is really a hands-on zoo and probably totally politically incorrect but this is Asia after all.
But, the highlight, of course, is the panda exhibit. Chuang Chuang and Lin Hui are the zoo favourites in their multi-million baht enclosure. This is designed to simulate the cool mountain climate of China which makes it a nice place to hang out for us melting tourists as well. The pandas are sooo cute – fat and cuddly with those funny black eye-patch markings. One sits on a seat facing the crowd and munches away on a carrot then strips a long piece of bamboo. Very happy to have seen them – maybe a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
On the way back we stop to look at the lions then a pair of ostriches having sex! At the gate, Wishim sees us and runs off to get the songthaew. Before leaving, we buy buckets of strawberries from a row of tables set up in the shade. From here we head uphill to the top of Doi Duthep.
This mountain is a powerful presence for the people of Chiang Mai especially the temple built at the top. This is called Wat Prathat Doi Suthep and is Chiang Mai’s most famous temple because apparently the pagoda in its centre contains relics of the Lord Buddha. This means that it’s also an important Buddhist pilgrimage site and why it’s packed with visitors every day.
The road to the summit is so steep and winding that we’re all glad to get there. We’re also happy to see that there are a lot of cafes and market stalls up here so we’ll be able to buy something to eat after we visit the temple (or wat as they’re called in Thailand).
You have two choices to get up to the wat from the road – walk the 304 steps of the Naga Staircase or get the cable car. So after we get the very scary cable car, we have a lovely time out in the sunshine watching the hundreds of worshippers. Lauren and I buy incense and candles to light for Angie placing them in front of a gold leaf shrine – don’t know what we’re doing but just follow everyone else.
Then we’re blessed with water from a monk sitting cross-legged in a beautiful colourful room. We have to crawl towards him as our heads can never be higher than his. Then we hold out our hands, palms up, while he splashes water on our heads then ties white cord around our wrists for luck – cool.
Now the three of us walk up to the main stupor where I suppose some of Buddha’s ashes are kept. We check out all the little niches that hold more Buddha statues then make our way down the steps to the markets for lunch.
We choose a popular open-air place with wooden tables and chairs. It’s wonderfully basic with a cement floor and a tin roof overlooking thick green vegetation. The cooking is done right in front of us so we can watch a lady pounding chillis and garlic in a mortar and pestle and cooking our chicken in a large wok. While we eat our pad thai and fried chicken I give Dad a call – he says the same thing every day, ‘what are you calling me for?’, because he doesn’t want us to waste our money but I know he’s secretly thrilled.
Back in Wishim’s songthaew, we head back down the mountain towards Chiang Mai. On the outskirts of town, though, we turn north and drive forty minutes to Mae Rim. We pass through open countryside and a few small towns – enjoy it all! Finally on the Maesa Road we reach Tiger Kingdom where Lauren is going to get “up close & personal” with a tiger! Of course I’d rather she didn’t but she’s determined to do it.
But I do like the look of the Tiger Kingdom itself. The main building is very Thai looking with polished stone floors and teak walls and ceilings. Inside are lots of comfortable lounge areas to hang out in and a nice restaurant with tables overlooking some of the tiger enclosures.
Mark and I wait in line with Lauren to get her ticket to go inside one of the cages. The fees are based on the age group of the tigers – about 500Bht for 15 minutes with the five month-old cubs, 280Bht with the teenagers and 320Bht with the fully grown adults. She decides to go in with the six month-old babies as well as the huge adults – definitely not happy about that but then she talks us into doing it as well. What the hell – we’ll never get another chance! There’s no way, though, that I’m going in with a fully grown tiger so we pick the littlest ones – only four months old.
After paying for our tickets, we follow a guide into the grounds and to the enclosure where Lauren is to go in with the six month-old cubs. Oh shit, they’re nearly as big as her. She doesn’t care and pats and cuddles them and even lays her head on them. It’s good to see that there’s a young handler with her all the time. He carries a stick to tap the cub on the nose if it gets too playful. It’s also good to see how clean it is here and how healthy the animals look. And another great thing is just how lovely the grounds are – so green with lots of trees and bamboo and flowering shrubs. There are even pretty ponds and we can hear the sound of fountain water.
Now it’s time for Mark and I to visit the babies. They’re so adorable but their paws are big enough to slice your face in two so I’m very wary. Mark is fine, of course, and we have a lovely time with these little cuties.
Now Lauren is ready for the big tigers. Mark and I race up to the restaurant verandah so we can get a better view and take lots of photos. I really don’t know how she can do it. There are three massive tigers in the enclosure and two handlers to each tiger. Lauren pats them and leans on them to have her photo taken. A great experience for her but I’m glad when she’s finally out.
Now we’re all tired so we jump back in the songthaew to take us back to Chiang Mai and Julie Guesthouse. We’re given our room which is on the bottom floor at the back. It’s full of sunshine and colour with bright orange walls, yellow curtains, a purple spread on the double bed and a hot pink spread on Lauren’s bed. There are louvred windows right along two walls and we have our own bathroom. After showers we all lie around on the day beds in the hanging out area for cool drinks and to plan our night.
Since it’s Saturday, we decide to go to the Saturday Walking Street Market (as opposed to the Sunday Walking Street Market which will be on tomorrow, of course – ha ha). The Market is on Wualai Road and starts at five o’clock. We decide to walk over now and get something to eat there as well.
Walking down to the moat and across a bridge we see part of the old city wall and one of the original gates. Just near the gate is an interesting food night market – lots of carts with all sorts of foods being cooked. We don’t stop to eat though as we want to check out the Walking Street Market first.
The market goes from late afternoon till about eleven o’clock. The street is closed off to traffic with the stalls set up along the pavements. Most of the items on display are unique to the Chiang Mai area and are part of the OTOP Programme (One Tambon One Product) which encourages each district (tambon) to produce its own local specialities like handicrafts, clothing and furniture.
It’s a great idea but it’s a bit of a disappointment really. There are lots of daggy handmade things for sale and actually nothing any of us want to buy. This is really amazing since Chiang Mai is famous for its great shopping. I guess things have changed in the thirteen years since we’ve been here.
It’s still interesting people watching though. We also find an interesting café to tuck into rice and noodles – very simple and homey with the chaos of the market just outside. By now Lauren is feeling tired so we walk her back to Julie Guesthouse.
Mark and I continue on to Moonmuang Road that runs alongside the moat to find Johns Place from the Lonely Planet. This is a rooftop bar overlooking the moat and the busy street below. There seems to be so much traffic tonight – I suppose because it’s the weekend. After a few beers and margaritas we catch a tuktuk home at 8.30pm.
What happens next, I can hardly bear to think about. Around eleven o’clock I’m aware of a strange smell and I’ve got a terrible metallic taste in my mouth. But I’m still half asleep and I just keep drifting off. At the same time I feel Mark crawling over the top of me to turn on the light switch. “Get up girls, the room’s full of smoke!”.
There’s a terrible burning smell as well so we open the door into the corridor to see where it’s coming from. The corridor is full of smoke but we soon realize that the source of it is coming from our own bathroom. The water heater on the wall is melting and sending off smoke and poisonous fumes. If Mark hadn’t woken up I’m sure we’d have all been poisoned! And that’s not being drama queen about it. We could have all literally been dead in minutes.
Lauren and I wrap sheets around us and we all race down to wake someone. We find a guy who comes to have a look. He gets someone else and they dismantle the heater and it’s all over in half an hour. We open all the windows and turn the ceiling fan on full blast to get the leftover smoke out of our room. Not easy to get back to sleep after this.
Sunday 24th January, 2010
Chiang Mai
Today we’ve organized to do a one-day hill tribe/elephant riding/bamboo rafting/white water rafting trip – a big day. We could do the three day version but we don’t have the time and besides we’ve all done the hill tribe trek before and besides we’re too lazy to walk around for three days.
At seven o’clock we wake to the alarm and still feel spooked from the drama last night. We’d get the hell out of here except that we won’t have time to change guesthouses because of the day trip and they’ve removed the heater anyway. We tell the western guy on the desk about what happened but he doesn’t give a rat’s arse – lazy prick!
For breakfast we walk down the laneway to Bunny Juice. We sit on cane chairs on the verandah and order a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs. Strangely we get a fork and a cleaver each.
At 8.15 we meet our friendly driver and guide, Woody, as well as two Dutch guys and a young Polish couple who are also on the tour. Driving through town, we pick up another young couple – these ones Germans. In yet another part of town with lovely English-style houses, we wait for ages to pick up another couple who don’t show up. Good, it means more room in the songthaew.
For an hour or more we drive north-east to one of the hill tribe villages. Northern Thailand is home to lots of hill tribe groups like the Karen, Lahu, Hmong, Lisu, Akha, Mien, and Padaung. They’re all colourful ethnic minorities who migrated here from China and Burma over the last hundred years. What’s so fabulous about them is that they still hang on to their own customs, language, dress and especially spiritual beliefs.
Even though they all wear amazing traditional clothes, it’s the Padaung people who are the most well-known and recognisable. These are the long neck or giraffe women, as they’re sometimes called. And this is the village we’re seeing today.
It’s really beautiful with lots of thatched shacks at the entrance and more across the flooded rice paddies. As we get out of the songthaew we chat with a little boy who shows us how to shoot a home made bamboo arrow – the three of us have a turn. We lose the rest of the gang and wander around the huts looking at the handicrafts for sale.
Even though it’s nice here, we don’t have a lot of time and we want to get to the part of the village built up the hill where the longneck women live. On the way, we pass waterlogged rice paddies where farmers in conical hats are ploughing the fields with the help of water buffalo. Beside the track, village ladies are working in gardens thick with corn, leeks and other vegetables and fenced in with bamboo stakes.
We finally reach the village houses where longneck women are sitting on their verandahs. Some are weaving the cloths they sell to make a living and others are playing with their children. They’re called the long neck women because they have scarily long necks caused by the heavy brass ornaments they wear from under the chin to the chest. They look like separate rings but are really a continuous coil of brass that can weigh up to twenty-two kilos. We lift up one that they give us to hold and can’t believe that these tiny women carry these weights around all day every day. The rings are for life because to remove the full coil of brass would cause the collapse and fracture of the woman’s neck.
Most of the females here are adults but there are a few teenage girl and even a few little girls wearing the rings. YoungPaduang girls actually start wearing rings from the age of six, adding one or two more coil-turns every year, until the age of about 16.
It’s a myth, though, that the brass rings stretch the neck – the long neck is actually a visual illusion. What really happens is that, over the years, the weight of the brass rings pushes down and deforms the collar bone and the upper ribs, so that the collar bone seems to be part of the neck. Hideous but apparently a sign of beauty in this tribe.
We have a nice time with these little ladies and even get to hold a baby. Lauren also buys a few bracelets and I buy some earrings. Even though they make money by selling their handicrafts to the tourists, this is a true village where the people work and live. These Padaung people actually fled Burma and now live in these refugee-villages set up by the Thai government.
Back through the rice paddies and chickens and roosters, we meet the others at the songthaew and soon pull into the Butterfly and Orchid Farm. It’s pretty tragic – the butterflies are horrible and look like moths and the orchids aren’t really thrilling us. We’d much rather get to the elephants.
These are actually in the Mae Rim area so it’s a fairly long drive. For the last ten kilometers we drive along a dirt road by the river and every now and again see elephants down by the water at the many elephant camps. Finally pulling into one of them, we’re taken to a tall platform which we climb to get on the elephant’s back. Lauren wants to ‘drive’ so she sits on its head while Mark and I sit in the basket behind. I try to hold onto her because I’m scared she’ll fall off especially going down the steep bits.
Our elephant is nuts. She’s making a deep growling noise and then throws her trunk in the air and blows like a trumpet – it’s deafening and bloody scary. I’m terrified she’s going to go beserk and throw Lauren off. Mark thinks it’s because she knows we have bananas so we just keep feeding them to her. Every few steps her trunk comes back and feels around for something to eat. Meanwhile we have a baby elephant beside us doing the same. Its tiny trunk is so cute.
Then our big elephant stops and we have to make ‘hhffing’ noises to make her move. She’s flapping her ears (still angry?) against Laurens’ legs. This is really the weirdest elephant ride we’ve ever been on. Thank God it’s only for an hour. She seems happier after having a drink in the river but then we have to head back into the trees where she does more of the flapping ears, trumpet blowing and snorting snot on us. Glad to get off in the end.
Now after washing our hands we all sit at a long rough wooden table with bench seats for lunch. It’s cooked by the family who live here and who alsoown the elephants so it’s pretty basic – rice, watermelon and pineapple – but nice especially in these pretty surroundings.
From here we drive half an hour further up the dirt track then get off for a one-hour walk to see a waterfall. I set off with everyone but stop after ten minutes – bugger this and anyway we’ve reached a little bamboo house and cafe in the forest and it looks so lovely. I’d rather stay here and soak up the atmosphere – Lauren and Mark can show me the photos.
I do some diary writing but mainly watch green birds perching on the railings and a little puppy rolling around in old fire ashes. I also try to catch some baby chickens running behind their mother but no luck. I talk to the lady who owns the house and buy some bracelets that she’s made to sell to tourists walking past. Then her husband arrives home with their little boy called Pi – a real cutie.
Now Mark and Lauren arrive back after their two-hour trek to see the waterfall. They say it was good and they could even swim but there were too many people around. Mark also cut his foot on some bamboo and it’s bleeding a lot.
Back to the truck, we now drive to the place where we’ll start our white water rafting. We each have to wear a helmet and a life jacket and use an oar each. We split into two boats with an experienced leader on each one. The water looks bloody wild – much rougher than our white water rafting experience in Bali a few years ago. Lauren has done it twice before in Bali as well so she doesn’t look worried at all. We’re given instructions of what to do when our leader yells out ‘forward’, ‘back’, ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘down’ – then we have to practice.
Now we push off and it’s so fast and wild. In the quieter parts of the river we have water fights with some crazy people on another boat. The nicest bits are when we float gently past village houses where locals are washing down on the water’s edge.
It’s starting to get cool by now as the sun is slowly fading. But the excitement isn’t over yet as next we transfer to bamboo rafts for the last half an hour. By this stage we’re shivering and glad to pull into the bank. After cold showers we change back into our dry clothes and set off for the one and a half hour trip back to Chiang Mai.
After a quick change in our room, the three of us catch a tuktuk to Johns Place where Mark and I had been last night. Tonight we sit at a table on the street and order food, beers and margaritas while the bar girls do a little dance. On the way back to Julie Guesthouse we walk through the Sunday Walking Street Market but can’t be bothered staying long. Nicer to get back and have a few more drinks on the daybeds.
An early night
Monday 25th January, 2010
Chiang Mai
After a sleep in we decide to look for another guesthouse over near the temples. On the way Lauren sees a small place that prints things on t-shirts so she orders one for Josh with “TAXI” written on it.
Finally get sick of walking so we catch a tuktuk to Lampang House in Soi 7. Sadly it’s full because we really the look of it but our driver tells us of his friend’s place, called Muan Baan, across the alleyway. It’s so cute with fake grass, umbrellas, painted garden furniture and a tiny shop at the front. We have a look inside but they don’t have triple rooms which is always cheaper than having separate ones. But they do have a big room with bathroom and balcony for me and Mark and a small but very hot room for Lauren. She likes it anyway so we say we’ll take it and head back to Julies to get our gear – not sorry to get out of this death trap – screw you Julie Guesthouse.
It’s still only early so Lauren gets a tuktuk to Talan Wororot to do some market shopping. Meanwhile Mark and I set off for Chiang Mai Ram Hospital to hopefully get insulin for Mark – he didn’t bring enough with him and he can’t do without it. The hospital isn’t far, past the moat and just outside of the Old City. This is such a pleasant surprise – it’s so big, clean and cheery inside that it puts some of our hospitals to shame. The nurses are all in pristine white uniforms with starched caps like they used to wear at home. After lining up at a series of windows and being sent to a waiting area, we see the doctor two hours later – not bad, we think.
Mark finally has his insulin and off we fly in another tuktuk to find Lauren at Talan Wororot. We can’t see her but it doesn’t look like there’s much here she’d be interested in so we guess she’s gone off somewhere else. In the mean time, Mark and I decide to eat in the food hall downstairs. This is so fabulous with fresh Thai noodle soup cooked in a couple of minutes – great people watching too.
We wander around for a while buying a spicy sausage thing and green tea. Outside we find some rickshaw drivers to cycle us back to Muan Baan. Rickshaws, or samlors as they’re called Thailand, are still found here in Chiang Mai and great fun riding slowly through the streets. As we pull up outside the guesthouse Lauren calls out from across the laneway – she’s having a massage.
At six o’clock the three of us squeeze into another tuktuk and head for the famous Chiang Mai Night Market on Chang Klan Road. This is way over the other side of town which means we get to see a lot more of the town on the way. It’s also dark by now and thrilling to see all the coloured lights strung through the trees and along the moat – Thais love coloured lights.
At the Night Market, Mark decides to wait in a bar as his foot is hurting a lot tonight. Lauren and I leave him at the Red Lion up a short alleyway while we head into the market. We spend an hour or so buying earrings, hair chops, winter capes, bags, shirts and pants. Back at the Red Lion, we find Mark having a lovely time, drinking beer and watching the soccer on a big screen tele.
I’ve had enough shopping but Lauren wants to keep going so Mark and I get a tuktuk back to the guesthouse with all our purchases. From here we walk back down to the moat looking for a cafe area we’ve read about in the Lonely Planet.
We finally find it and it’s fantastic – lots of traveller bars and cafes congregated around a few big trees. We find a very chilled out area under a tree where we can lie back on cushions while drinking and smoking and listening to great music. This is so Thailand. I am stressing about Lauren after a while but finally get her on her mobile. She gets lost finding us but soon she’s showing us all her bargains – mainly lots of crazy hats for Josh.
Now we all get into the margaritas and drink too many. Lauren and I find the toilets which are a bit out of the way so next time Mark and Lauren weewee behind some bushes on the footpath – definitely drunk by now. Later the rain starts pelting down on us so we move inside then tuktuk home. Just before we drop off to sleep Mark thinks he hears Lauren’s door open and he finds her downstairs in the foyer saying that she wants to go out and party. She won’t remember any of this in the morning.
Tuesday 26th January, 2010
Chiang Mai to Bangkok
Today is our last day as tonight we catch the sleeper train back to Bangkok. We decide to have a lazy day mainly because no-one is feeling too well after last night. Mark just wants to sleep all day so at two o’clock Lauren and I catch a tuktuk to Wat Umong in the foothills of Suthep mountain.
This is called a forest temple which is why I wanted to see it. And it’s no disappointment. The temple is surrounded by thick forest – an overgrown, mossy, magical place with tall shady trees, flowering plants and vines. Lauren burns incense at the stupas and we walk down to the lake. The major attraction of the temple though is the tunnels built underneath in the late 14th century. Apparently the maze of tunnels were to keep a resident mad monk from wandering away.
Now we tuktuk back to the Women’s Prison where you can have a massage from one of the prisoners. No luck today – all booked out so we walk back to our street. It’s so nice around this area. What’s fabulous about staying within the Old City walls is strolling around the myriad of sois full of guesthouses, small shops selling local crafts and art, beautiful wats and plenty of great places to eat and drink.
Back near our guesthouse we find another massage place called The Silver Hands. We have a lot of fun here. We follow a laughing lady and a transvestite upstairs to a cute room and have a great massage each.
At 4.30pm we pack then walk down to the main road for dinner at a cheap cafe – three meals plus water for 100 Baht (AUD $3). At the nearby Seven Eleven we buy junk food for the train then catch a tuktuk to the station. With all the stuff we’ve bought here, we’re virtually packed to the rafters. Lauren has to squeeze in the front next to the driver but most of her is hanging outside so it’s a funny trip to the station flying through the streets this way.
At the station we leave right on six o’clock and soon settle in for a long sleep.
Wednesday 27th January, 2010
Bangkok
All sleep well with Lauren taking the top bunk this time. At 6.15am we’re woken by someone calling out “Bangkok next station” – so anyway, at eight o’clock (one and three quarter hours later), we finally pull into Hualumphong Station.
With all our gear we cram ourselves into a tuktuk and head straight for Soi Rambutri. Still in the same area as the Sawadi Smile where we stayed last week, is the Baan Sabaii Guesthouse where we find a triple for tonight. It’s actually the same room that we stayed in when we were here with Julie and Steve in 2008. It’s a big, clean room on the bottom floor with a wide window overlooking a central courtyard garden and fish ponds. The showers and toilets are clean as well so it’s a good deal.
The room won’t be ready for an hour so in the meantime, we use the internet and have breakfast at a stall across the laneway. We sit on baby sized plastic stools to eat our muesli, fruit and yoghurt.
After booking in we walk along Soi Rambutri to Khao San Road to hang out in the market. Later Lauren and I have a neck and shoulder massage from some ladies near our guesthouse – very painful – then we all have lunch at a small café near the fort.
Lauren wants to shop till she drops so Mark and I walk around the Banglamphu local market for ages. At 5.30pm we all have pizza in a small café then find a tuktuk to take us to Patpong Road. This is the third time we’ve been and we hate it every time but it could be better this time.
After a look through the Night Market – same, same tourist shit – we have drinks at The Beer Garden across the road. The traffic noise is relentless but there are lots of weirdos walking past to keep us amused. Further along, Lauren finds a strange alleyway full of gay bars and clubs with names like Balls, Banana Bar, New Beach Boys and Bangkok Boys. It’s fun really so we try a couple of bars sitting on stools looking onto the laneway. A lot of old Western men are drinking on their own, obviously waiting to pick up. The young Thai boys are friendly and very groomed – they spend half the time fixing their hair.
At one bar, Lauren is befriended by an old local called Chi who takes us to a girlie bar called Sideline – 500Baht (AUD$17) each for entry and a drink. The topless girls are all wearing thigh high shiny black boots and a red g-string. They perform sad tricks like ping pong, smoking, whistle blowing, bananas and birthday cake candles – no need to explain.
It all becomes too awful so we quickly escape with Chi not looking too happy – freak! Soooo relieved to get back to the normality of Soi Rambutri. Before bed we have wonderful margaritas at the Wild Orchid and Sawadi Smile.
Thursday 28th January, 2010
Bangkok
A whole day to hang out in Bangkok! We have a bit of a lie in after a late night then have breakfast in the temple grounds. From here we walk through the university to get to the Mahatat Amulet Market. This is a favourite haunt and we’ve bought many treasured keepsakes from here over the years. Today, though, we just buy a few miniature monk photos and some framed coins. Lauren decides to get a taxi back to Khao San Road to shop for clothes so Mark and I wander around on our own. Wat Mahatat is just across the road and we can’t leave without a visit. I don’t know how many times we’ve been here but we always love it. It’s a vibrant temple always alive with worshippers and monks. We especially love the shaded arcades on all four sides with rows and rows of life-sized golden Buddha statues.
A taxi takes us back to Mummas where we meet Lauren at one o’clock. Today we splurge on a full body oil massage each – AUD$10 instead of AUD$8 for the usual Thai massage. From here we walk around to Soi Rambutri near the Viangtai Hotel for a drink while I have a fish massage. This involves sticking my feet in a tank of water full of tiny black fish that eat away at my dead skin – it tickles – a very weird experience. Mark’s foot is till sore from the cut he got up north and Lauren has blisters so they can’t have a go.
Now we shop in Khao San Road and buy new backpacks for a mere AUD $35 each. We’ve had our old ones since we first came here in 1997 and they’ve taken us all over the world – hard to let them go in a way. Back at the guesthouse we dump our shopping and while Lauren and Mark read, I go off for a manicure, pedicure and a hair wash.
On dusk we all sit on the verandah of Baan Sabaii and order chips and spring rolls then we’re lucky to find a table on the corner near the Wild Orchid. This is perfect people watching and we stay for ages. Lauren buys tribal leggings and headwear from a couple of little women of the Lisu tribe then we all get drunk on margaritas outside the Sawadi Guesthouse. We don’t stay up late though as we’ve got a very early start in the morning – flying to Phuket to meet Julie and Steve!
Friday 29th January, 2010
Bangkok to Phuket
Mark has set his mobile alarm for 4.30am and we’re soon in a taxi flying through the dark and nearly deserted streets to the airport. With the new freeway it’s a quick forty minutes. I sit in the front with the driver and we talk the whole way.
He’s such a sweet little man and I ask him about his life. His wife and children live near the Laos border so he only sees them every few months when he saves up enough money to go home. The rest of the time he lives in his taxi which he doesn’t even own – I give him a 400Baht tip.
At the airport we need to eat and order Burger King – bad move and we soon all feel like throwing up. Glad to finally board Air Asia for the one and a half hour flight south to the island of Phuket. All three of us, and Julie and Steve as well, have been to Kho Samuii off the west coast so we decided to try the eastern side of the Thai peninsula for a change.
As we fly south we have spectacular views of limestone islands poking up out of the clear blue waters of Phang Nga Bay.
At Phuket’s International Airport, we quickly find an air-conditioned taxi (it’s sweltering already) for the one hour drive to Patong Beach. The road is surprisingly good but then Phuket is where droves of daggy tourists (mainly from Australia) come when they say they’ve been to Thailand. We can pick them a mile off – ‘so you went to Thailand – where did you go – Phuket – really? – I’d never have guessed!’ And Patong is where they all congregate but we want to see it anyway and, who knows, it might be fun – one night will probably be enough, though.
Mark rings Julie and Steve and we plan to meet them in town at a guesthouse we’ve picked out from Lonely Planet. As usual we haven’t booked anything in advance which is how we all love to travel. Our taxi drops us off near a guesthouse we like the sound of so Lauren goes in to see if they have a couple of rooms. No luck even this far from the beach.
Julie and Steve soon arrive and we try a few more places but still no luck. We think we’ll check out a cheaper area up the hill so we find a small songthaew-style minivan and all pile in. This area is way, way from the beach as well as the main area of bars and shops so we’re not too enthused. We get dropped off near a café then Steve sets off to see what’s down the hill. Meanwhile the rest of us ask about rooms around here.
Still nothing and we’re not happy with this area anyway so we decide to head back into town. It takes a while to find a songthaew but finally we get dropped off back where we started. Finally Mark and Lauren find two cute bungalows at the Touch Guesthouse. It’s set at the end of a narrow alleyway just a short walk from all the action and only one block from the beach. Besides that we have a little verandah each with gardens outside. To save money, Lauren shares with us again but has to sleep on a mattress on the floor.
A quick change into our swimmers and we head for the beach. Actually, it’s now that I realise that I’ve left my only (and very expensive) swimmers on the verandah of the guesthouse in Chiang Mai. Luckily Julie has a spare pair of swimmer bottoms and I just wear a black singlet top.
From Touch we walk along Bangla Road where we’ll be coming later to check out the nightly freak show. I don’t think any of us are greatly impressed with Patong so far and it’s really living down to our expectations. The beach though is quite lovely despite the thousands of umbrellas and deck chairs. I suppose they only add to the colour of the brilliant blue water, blue skies, golden sunshine and the two kilometre strip of golden sand. Parasailers, jet-ski operators and beach vendors are doing a roaring trade.
After hiring umbrellas and deck chairs ourselves, we spend the next few hours sunbaking, reading and general people watching. Lauren hires an inflatable lilo to float around in the water – she looks so beautiful. Mark proudly says she’s the prettiest girl on the beach.
The water is warm and calm – just how we girls like it – no waves here from about November to April because of the north east monsoon. I swim out to Lauren and we have a lovely time lying across the lilo and kicking our legs. I say happily, ‘I just did a weewee’ – to which Julie says, ‘in my swimmers’ – sorry about that, Jules. For lunch we walk up the beach to buy salad rolls from a cart then head back to the guesthouse for a rest and showers.
On dark we walk down to Thawi Wong Road, the street that runs alongside the beach where most of the restaurants are set up. These would have all been wiped out in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami that killed hundreds of people here in Patong. Of course after all these years everything has been rebuilt. We choose an open-air seafood place and sit at a round table in the garden. Lauren and I share a pizza while the others have seafood.
Nothing seems to be happening on the beach unlike the great nightlife on Ko Samuii and Ko Phan Ang – a missed opportunity, we think. Anyway, we’re ready for a few drinks and to check out the girlie bars. Leading off Bangla Road, the main ‘bar street’, are a number of sois including Soi Eric. We must go in here and I have my photo taken under the sign for Dad, our own darling Eric!
Sadly, the first two songs coming over the speakers make us very upset – ‘Angie’ and then ‘Angels’. I have to go for a walk and I can see her star up there looking down on us – yes, my darling, you’re here with us – don’t be afraid, my love – I’m always with you.
It’s hard to be okay after this but I can’t ruin Julie and Steve’s night so we move on to another bar to have some fun. One proudly displays a sign at the front – ‘Maybe 20 gorgeous plus a lot of ugly girls and a few fat ones’! At other girlie bars very young girls pole dance on top of the bar itself.
At another bar Lauren gets chatted up by a sleazy old western guy then she has her photo taken with some of the lady boys who are parading up and down the street in elaborate costumes. They’re lots of fun and look incredibly beautiful.
Soon Lauren decides she’s had enough and we walk her back to the room while the rest of us have a drink in a bar next to our hotel. An early night ready for our trip to Phi Phi tomorrow.
Saturday 30th January, 2010
Phuket to Ko Phi Phi
Waking to yet another perfect sunny day, by seven o’clock we’ve all showered and packed and looking for a songthaew to take us to Phuket Town on the southern end of Phuket Island. After half an hour we pull up at the very busy ferry wharf and soon have our boat tickets. This place is packed with tourists (don’t you hate other tourists), some going to other islands but a lot headed for Phi Phi like us. Most of the visitors to Phuket just do Phi Phi as a day trip so hopefully not everyone is after a room as we haven’t booked anywhere to stay as usual.
The heat and the sunshine as well as the many tourists create a happy holiday atmosphere. The ferry is lovey, too, and much more comfortable than the ones we’ve been on to Ko Samuii. We all have a seat each on the deck which is shaded from the hot sun with a striped canvas roof. There’s also a little shop and free tea and coffee.
We leave with three other boats at 8.30am for the one and a half hours to Phi Phi Don. Lauren and I check out the front of the boat but water is spraying over the deck so we stay in our seats. The scenery is beautiful the whole way but especially pretty as we reach the main island.
The Phi Phis are said to be some of the loveliest islands in Southeast Asia. They consist of two islands – Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. The smaller Phi Phi Leh is totally uninhabited and the whole island is actually a national park. Phi Phi Don is the biggest and where all the accommodation is built.
As we approach the stunning turquoise waters of Tonsai Bay sheer cliffs rise up on either side. The bay is busy with ferries, yachts, dive boats and longtails. Coral reefs fringe each side with the deeper waters near Tonsai Village allowing the ferries to pull up against the busy wharf – picture postcard material and it’s hard not to fall in love at first sight. We’re still a bit worried about the hundreds of passengers being unloaded and know we’ll have to get rooms as quick as we can.
Straight off the wharf and we’re smack in the middle of markets, cafes and lodgings. We head away from all the crowds and soon find two rooms in a small hotel with a wood lined reception area open to the laneway. We have air-conditioning and hot water which is a bonus and even a television. Lauren shares with Mark and I – 1500 Baht or about AUD$50 – a bit expensive but we’ll look for a cheaper place tomorrow.
None of us waste time changing into our swimmers and we set off for the beach. This takes about two minutes along a sandy path which leads straight to Loh Dalum on the opposite side of the isthmus to Tonsai Bay. You can actually walk to most places in Tonsai Village within ten minutes so this will definitely be a lazy few days. The special beauty of Phi Phi is that there aren’t any roads, cars or even motor bikes, which means no noise!
Loh Dalum Bay is idyllic with a wide sandy beach fringing the small bay with a string of rustic restaurants and cafes under the trees. Even though it’s only a 150-metre walk from Tonsai Bay, the atmosphere is very different – quieter, less upmarket and just how we love it. There aren’t any waves at all so the water is flat enough for kayaking which we might try while we’re here. Also, unlike some of Thailand’s other islands, there aren’t any jet-skis to spoil the ‘serenity’.
Lauren, Julie and I head straight for the massage ladies who’ve set up some mattresses in a small open-air shack with thatched sides and roof. After swims we head back to the room for a rest then wander around the village to look for a place to eat and have a drink. We want somewhere with a television so we can watch Serena Williams and Justine Henin play the Australian Open. The only place we can find has a guy starting up a fire at the front for the seafood barbeque, so we sit inside. Julie and Steve turn up and we all have hamburgers and nachos. Meanwhile Lauren has clogged up the loo and has to unclog it with her thong – Asia!
At six o’clock we wander through the village to Tonsai Bay where the streets are filled with diners looking for a place to eat as well as people booking trips at the many dive shops. The streets are even busier at night when most of the shops come to life and even a few nightclubs are starting to heat up. We don’t really like it here, though – too upmarket with daggy tourists so we head back to Loh Dalum Bay where the nightlife is more laid-back and definitely our style.
We sit on plastic chairs on the sand and order drinks from the Chao Bella Cafe behind us. Happily I’ve found that the Seven Elevens sell cheap Bacardi so I’m set for the rest of the holiday. Lauren falls in love with a couple of cats – one has a bandanna around its neck so we call him Bandanna and the other one is a little girl so we call her Little Girl – very original. They’re playing hide and seek with each other on a big piece of driftwood down near the water.
By now the tide is out and we can see the lights of fishing boats far out on the horizon. Later some fire twirlers entertain us – so typical on these Thailand beaches so we feel very at home. These guys also set long skipping ropes on fire and play very loud music. A good day.
Sunday 31st January, 2010
Ko Phi Phi
Up at eight o’clock, Lauren, Mark and I decide to walk up to Phi Phi viewpoint which is just a short walk through the village, up lots of stairs and then along a rocky path.
At the top we’re happy to see a shack that sells drinks and ice creams. And here are more cats!
The view is beautiful – we can see Phi Phi Leh in the distance and all of Tonsai and Loh Dalum bays with the narrow isthmus in between the island’s two long limestone ridges. The man who owns the shop tells us about the tsunami that hit Phi Phi on Boxing Day 2004. Most of the inhabited part of Phi Phi Don was devastated because the isthmus on which it’s built is only six feet above sea level.
He says that he was actually standing where we are right now when just after 10 am on that morning he heard it coming and saw the water from both bays recede. When the tsunami hit, at 10.37 am, it came in from both bays, and met in the middle of the isthmus. The wave that came into Ton Sai Bay was three metres high and the wave that came into Loh Dalum Bay was seven metres high. There were ten thousand people on the island that morning and, although it will never been known exactly how many people died, he thinks it was probably about four thousand.
He tells us that the island had to be evacuated and it was another six months before the debris was cleared and buildings rebuilt.
Now we ask him about boats to Phi Phi Leh and he says that he’ll arrange for his friend – ‘a black man’ – to take us in an hour and to meet him at the bottom of the stairs.
From this viewpoint you can go further up to two other lookouts. Mark and Lauren walk up to the next one but I’m happy where I am thank you very much. Now Julie and Steve turn up and can’t believe their eyes to see me up here – they must think I’m really lazy or something – how very dare they. After pineapple shakes, we all walk back down to the village and find a lovely café built high above the path. It’s very pretty here except for someone using an electric saw.
We like the look of a guesthouse called Shana’s Place just down below us and want to move there this morning. Always love to move around and I’m not really happy with where we are anyway – a bit too fancy. Shana’s Place is anything but fancy and our room stinks with a spider hanging from the ceiling. Julie and Steve’s room isn’t much better – we’ll move again tomorrow.
Now we walk back to the stairs that lead up to the view point where we’re supposed to meet our boat guy. We find our ‘black man’ but it takes ages for Steve to convince him that we are the ‘five people’ he’s supposed to meet. Finally persuaded, we follow him through the village to Tonsai Bay and walk through shops and houses that back onto the water.
It’s beautiful here – hot, sunny with a row of colourful longtail boats anchored in the shallow blue water. We all wade out to our boat and are soon chugging out of Tosai Bay towards Phi Phi Leh. Our boat is a picturesque longtail with a canvas roof for shade. We’re the only passengers so we can stop where we want and come back when we want.
On the western side of Phi Phi Leh we slow down near the Viking Cave where we can see tall bamboo ladders that the locals climb to pinch swifts’ nests built high up in the cave. Apparently the nests are made of solidified saliva and are used to make bird’s nest soup which is a delicacy here in South East Asia.
Next we pull into the amazingly beautiful Pileh Bay with vivid turquoise water surrounded by steep limestone cliffs. The water is so clear that we can see the sandy bottom – perfect for snorkeling. We hand-feed colourful fish with muesli bars and Mark dives down to the bottom to see clams and long skinny silver fish.
Now we head for Maya Bay on the other side of the island – this is the main draw card for all the boat trips to Phi Phi Leh. It was here that the movie The Beach was filmed in 1999 starring Leonardo Di Caprio. It doesn’t look exactly like the beach in the movie because they actually planted lots of coconut palms so it looked more like everyone’s idea of a tropical paradise. Then, because Maya Bay is actually a national park, the movie people had to dig them up and take them away when they’d finished filming.
As we turn the point into the bay we can see just how many other boats are here as well. Despite this, as well as the lack of palm trees, Maya Bay is still stunningly beautiful. It’s sheltered by one hundred metre high cliffs on three sides with several beaches inside the bay. The main one is about two hundred metres long with silky soft white sand.
Apparently, the whole bay is one big reef of colourful coral but we decide not to snorkel here – a bit snorkelled out by now. We decide to just jump out and have a wander around. The good thing about all the other tourists being here is that we don’t get hit for the 200 Baht entry fee into the park and we can just get some photos and go for a swim.
Back at the guesthouse, everyone else goes off shopping but I just want to hang out on the verandah. I talk with the guy who runs the guesthouse. His name is Hang and has an economics degree but prefers to live a peaceful life here on Phi Phi. He tells me that the Australian woman who owns the guesthouse now lives in Krabi on the mainland. Sadly her little girl, only five years old, drowned in the tsunami so she doesn’t want to live here anymore. At the time, Hang had his own guesthouse but it was destroyed and he couldn’t afford to rebuild it and so now just manages Sasha’s Place. So may sad stories.
I play with a lovely cat that now lives at the guesthouse after his owners also drowned in the tsunami. Hang tells me that when the tsunami flooded the guesthouse, the people staying in our rooms couldn’t get out but they were lucky to have a couple of inches of air beneath the ceiling so they could breathe until the water subsided. We can actually see the mark on the wall where the water rose to.
At six o’clock we all walk back down to the beach but decide to walk up the far end for a change. The Ibiza Bar is playing trendy music with mats laid out on the sand surrounded by candles. We lay on triangular cushions drinking beer, Bacardi and eating pizza. Around us are tall cone shaped sand piles with fire burning in the middle. Soon the fire twirlers appear to round off another great night.
Monday 1st February, 2010
Ko Phi Phi
Our room still stinks this morning so we’ll definitely be moving but it’s what we love to do anyway. With Julie and Steve we all have breakfast at the Garden Restaurant. While we’re waiting for our orders to come we see a pamphlet on the wall for the Garden Guesthouse so we decide to check it out. This is just a short walk and not far from the stairs up to the view point. We like the look of it and book in. Julie and Steve have a downstairs bungalow with a view of the lovely gardens while Lauren, Mark and I have an upstairs bungalow with a view of the washing line.
Today we spend most of our time on the beach. We all hire deck chairs and umbrellas, have swims, eat hamburgers for lunch, shop and rest in our rooms.
Tonight we’re back down on the beach for our usual sunset drinks on the sand. Dinner is delicious seafood skewers and fish. Steve feels sick (not from the food) and goes back to the room while the rest of us stay for more drinks. No-one comes to give us the bill so we just leave with Julie feeling very guilty and the rest of us cheering.
Tuesday 2nd February, 2010
Ko Phi Phi to Phuket Town
Today Mark, Lauren and I are catching the ferry back to Phuket Island then flying to Singapore tomorrow. We’re not leaving till 2.30pm so we’ve still got plenty of time to go to the beach. Everyone, except me, wants to go kayaking but I walk over to the beach with them. When I see that I can share one with Mark, I decide to go too.
Mark and Steve talk to some guys on the beach then we all follow them out to the kayaks on the waters edge – a long way from the main part of the beach because the tide is out. Lauren has her own single kayak while Julie shares with Steve and I share with Mark in doubles. Leaving Loh Dalum we paddle to the left side of the bay around the point to Yong Kasem Bay.
This is a small jungle fringed bay inaccessible by land and empty of people at this early time of day. We all pull into Monkey Beach with its beautiful soft white sand and, as the name promises, monkeys. They come running down the rocks towards us and look definitely feral so we don’t get too close. We throw them some muesli bars we’ve brought with us and so cute to see a mummy monkey with twin babies.
Julie and Steve go for a paddle and Mark finds some caves under the overhanging cliffs on the western side of the bay. Meanwhile Lauren and I walk along the beach and she finds a swing hanging from the trees that almost come down to the water.
Back to our guesthouse to shower then we all have breakfast in a basic café near the market – good place to watch the locals but too many flies. While Mark goes back to pack, Lauren and I have a head and foot massage in her favourite massage place where I also have my nails painted. Lauren has made friends with one of the girls and she teaches her how to make a duck out of one of the hand towels – why not? Before we leave we have ice creams in an open-air café up the hill from our guesthouse. It looks nice up here and a good place to stay if we ever come back.
About two o’clock we find a guy to trolley our packs to the boat which is leaving soon. Julie and Steve walk through the village with us – they’re staying another night then going to Krabi tomorrow. Tonsai Bay looks beautiful as always and we say sad goodbyes to our mates. The ferry leaves on time and I sleep most of the way.
Back on Phuket Island, we find a taxi to get us into Phuket Town. This is the provincial capital of Phuket and is a nice surprise after the tourist nightmare of Patong. Its historical Old Town is especially pretty with shrines, temples, beautifully preserved shophouses and cute cafés.
Yesterday we rang to book a room at the Talang Guesthouse in the centre of town. It’s an old Sino-Portuguese shophouse, now a rambling three storey guesthouse. The whole street is lined with these old shophouses built by the Portuguese and the British who lived here from the sixteenth century. Apparently they originally colonised Phuket to pinch the tin. And since most of the tin mining was carried out by Hokkien Chinese, there’s a lot of Chinese architecture in the old city as well.
Talang Guesthouse is painted a brilliant white with gold trim around the pretty arches on the verandahs of the top two floors. The bottom floor is open to the street with a desk and café. We’re greeted by the very cute Mr Sawet. He’s a tiny smiling little man who shows us to our room down the side alley on the bottom floor – clean and huuuge with a white tiled floor and yellow cement walls. We have three single beds, a fridge and a tiny bathroom.
After a quick change we set off to find the market in search of triangular pillow/beds for Lauren. With a lot of searching through busy streets and alleyways we can’t find what we want so we find a taxi driver to help us. He promises that he knows where we should go so off we fly in his dodgy old car – don’t think he’s a taxi driver at all but what the hell.
Of course it’s an expensive touristy shop, exactly like others we’ve seen in other Asian countries. The prices are about ten times what we’d pay in a market so we leave in minutes. Next he tells us of another place which ends up being a huge shopping complex on the outskirts of town. One look and we know it’s another dud. We wander around for a while anyway but then decide to forget the pillow/beds and just go back to our guesthouse.
On dark, after showers and washing our hair, we set off in search of bars and cafes. Unbelievably, in a shophouse directly across the road we find a whole shop full of pillow/beds. They’re shutting up but happily invite us in. At last Lauren has two beautiful beds at only AUD $40 each – very bulky but we only have to get them to Singapore and then home so it won’t be too bad.
Taking them back to our room we’re now ready to celebrate. The first bar we find is exceptionally groovy. It’s a tiny place with lounges near the footpath and the walls lined with books and posters. We hang out for a while drinking Bacardi Breezers then find another very interesting basic place in a side street. Next is another bar with a band playing but we’re all feeling tired so we head back to our room. Anyway, we’ve got an early start in the morning for our flight to Singapore.
Wednesday 3rd February, 2010
Phuket to Singapore
At 6.30am we’re all up and showering before having breakfast in the guesthouse café. Mr Sawet is being cute again and rings a taxi at 7.30am for the one hour drive to the airport. There’s not a lot to do in Phuket’s tiny terminal and we’ve still got a three hour wait. At 11.45am we finally take off on Tiger Airways for the ninety minutes to Singapore and the last leg of our trip.
Because we’re flying on a cheap airline we land at the crappy budget terminal instead of Singapore’s beautiful international Changi Airport. Never mind as the trip from the airport makes up for it. The whole way is so pretty – tall trees line the road with flowering gardens in between. Like before, were amazed at how clean and manicured Singapore is compared to the rest of Asia – also less appealing in many other ways though.
As we reach the river we can see the almost finished Marina Bay Sands hotel and casino. Its fifty-five floors soar above the water with its three towers connected by a one-hectare sky terrace on the roof. Apparently, it will have over two and a half thousand rooms – must get back here one day to check it out.
Of course, we’re not staying anywhere that posh and wouldn’t want to anyway. We’re heading instead for the excitement and the cultural melting pot of Chinatown where Mark and I have stayed before. And because we’ve stayed there before we know that our taxi driver is taking us on a merry ride in the wrong direction. Mark gives him the chat and won’t pay him what he says we owe when we finally pull up at the end of Mosque Street – not a happy cabby.
Anyway, for a change we’ve actually got a room already booked because of Chinese New Year which is happening in a few days time. Chinatown will be packed out and we definitely want to stay here. I checked out the internet and picked The Backpackers’ Inn which is a cheap hostel in the heart of Chinatown on the famous Mosque Street. This is apparently the new Backpackers’ Inn – hate to see the old one – and as usual it’s a death trap if a fire broke out. Thank god we’re only staying one night.
Also, according to the ad, on the ground level is the legendary (for what?, we wonder) Cow & Coolies Karaoke Bar that also belongs to the Inn owner. We have to walk through the bar to get to the stairs and the music is blaring – typical of Asia for some reason that we’ve never worked out. Up two flights of steep narrow stairs, we find that our rooms are more like cupboards with wall to wall beds and people are sleeping in double bunks on the landing. I don’t know how many people are staying here but there’s only one shower and one toilet for everyone – a real dump.
Before going out, we all do a repack as Lauren is going straight to Josh’s place at Wiseman’s Ferry when we get home so we’ll take a lot of her gear with us. Now it’s time to show Lauren as much as we can in the few hours we’ve got here. Firstly we’re off to Raffles Hotel.
Mark and I visited Raffles in 2006 when we went to Malaysia and we want to show Lauren how beautiful it is. Built in 1887 by the Sarkie Brothers, it was named after Singapore’s founder Sir Stamford Raffles. This gorgeous colonial hotel is glowing a brilliant white as we pull up at the main entrance. A big black man wearing a pure white uniform and a red Indian turban opens the car doors for us. Tragically we’re not staying here but nice to be treated like royalty anyway. Inside we wander around the gorgeous tropical garden courtyard and arched arcades till we come to the Long Bar.
This is a two-storey bar inspired by the Malayan plantations of the 1920s – exposed timber ceilings and beams, with a spiral timber staircase in the middle of the room joining both levels. Of course, the bar is very ‘long’ – solid dark timber with brass fittings. Overhead are motorised rattan punkahs (like little hand fans) that, in colonial times would have been operated by a punkah-wallah (fan man) with a string attached to his finger or toe.
Besides the historic architecture, the Long Bar has also become famous as the home of th Singapore Sling. This iconic pink cocktail was created in 1915 by a Chinese bartender and is what everyone seems to be drinking. The original recipe used to be Gin, Cherry Heering, Dom Benedictine and fresh pineapple juice but I’ve read a few other variations – anyway, it’s horrible AND it costs $25 AUD. Mark’s beer also costs the earth at $15 AUD. No problem, it’s worth it for the experience.
To make up for it Mark does try to eat his way through $50 worth of peanuts. This is another Long Bar tradition. Wooden boxes of unshelled peanuts are on every table and at the bar. The protocol is to eat the peanuts then chuck the shells onto the floor – a funny custom for super-clean Singapore.
As we can’t afford to have any more drinks here, we catch a taxi back to Chinatown to the Temple Street Market. Because Chinese New Year is only days away, the streets are decorated with banners, coloured lights and cherry blossoms and there are definitely a lot more people here than before. At the market I buy a hand-made patchwork skirt with shells sewn into it then four more cushion covers.
Needing more money, we go down back down to the ATM in an underground station then find the Dartz Bar for a drink. The bar is very dark inside with lots of young people playing darts (Dartz Bar, okay?) so we sit at a table on the pavement – one gin, one Bacardi and one small beer for AUD $25 – so bloody expensive here!
For dinner we find the food market and sit at a table in the centre of the walkways – chicken and pork satay skewers and satay rice. More drinks then, sit outside the Cow and Coolies – still bloody expensive. Bed at 10pm for the final night of our holiday.
Lauren has been wonderful to be with and I’m so grateful for the time we’ve all had together – so many amazing experiences that we’ll never forget. I’m so happy for her and Josh and I know she can’t wait to get back home to see him.
Thursday 4th February, 2010
Singapore to Sydney Up at 5.40am to get to the airport. The usual three hour wait – Lauren and Mark sleep on the floor. We have a pleasant surprise when we realize that we’re flying on an A380 back to Sydney – another thing we’ve wanted to do. Back in Sydney at 7am. Lauren heads back to Wiseman’s Ferry with Josh while Mark
Very Big Adventures 