Krabi Krabi Krabi! Oi oi Oi!

14.03.2004 33 °C

G'day blokes, sheilas and aspiring lady-boys!

After arriving back at the parched, dustbowl that is Pakse (I've already written a proposal to the Lao Tourist Bureau recommending this dump be renamed Poxy), from the relative calm of the Four Thousand Islands, I remedied my thoroughly exhausted self with some fine coffee from the Bolavens Plateau in the air-conditioned comfort of a bamboo-chaired, palm fanned Polynesian style haven, before kicking back at my hotel to finely dine on (not-another-jolly-bowl-of-) flied-lice and having the pleasure to snoop on a Lao wedding reception.....a seemingly most excellent excuse for copious amounts of Lao Lao (Lao rice whiskey) consumption, very bad get-down-and-boogying-post-inebriation, hideous taffeta frills, an Elvis style winter-white bell-bottomed clad groom, and the cacophonic (of course this is subjective) melange that is Lao-reggae music. Absolutely brilliant craic.

My slumber that night came in hiccups thanks to the constant rhythms of the Lao-reggae-after-wedding discotheque from the hellmouth below, and when I finally dragged my woeful self out of bed the next morning, I was running hideously late for my bus to the Bolavens plateau. Upon arrival at the morning market for my local super-comfortable bus eastwards, with the remnant pulse of the Lao-reggae pounding in my head, my physical incapacitation due to the seering heat, and my respiratory resources on the verge of expiry from inhalation of red dirt, tuk tuk fumes, and malodorous Mekong fish, I decided that I rather fancied laying about on a tropical island for a few days.

Of course, this decision afforded me the opportunitiy to learn that you can actually squeeze 30 adults (and 2 children, as well as half a dozen baby peach-faces, and a mangily coiffured poodle), into the back of a 16-seater tuk tuk! At a roasting 37C, for an hour or so on a heavily pocked road, this made for an exceedingly character-building ride, particularly with my being sandwiched between Mr Elbows, and a girl nursing very manky looking baby-birds that sucked on fermented lady-finger bananas, in between writhing and squawking in protest. I also did well to befriend a young Lao man carrying a little excess adipose tissue, who managed to clench my heart after a mere 11km with a touch of old-fashioned enthusiasm, dodgy Aussie-style pick-up lines, his suave slick-backed mullet (all the rage with middle-aged German backpackers!) and a token can of imitation Lao Coca-Cola. My email box has since been inundated with sweet sweet nothings! Bless...

After your average encounter with jaded immigration officials, I re-entered Thailand, where I took another (somewhat less crowded) tuk tuk, followed by a non air-con bus, o'nite train, taxi , air-con bus, boat and tuk tuk, to get to Lonely Beach on Ko Chang, an island on the far east coast of Thailand, near to the Cambodian border. 28hrs all up, including a brief layover on a rather ghosttown-like 6am Khao San Rd - the only signs of life, aside from the saffron-frocked monks on their daily alms-rounds, and the obnoxious tuk tuk drivers touting their girlfriend's half-brother's ex-wife's tailor shop ("velly cheap for you my fliend. I give you special price my fliend"), were of a few somnambulistic farangs, not quite sure where they were, nor why - but still pondering how the heck they made it that far!

I scoured all the travel agencies in Banglamphu (backpacker central) to find one that was open before the 8am bus left, and after finding one at 7.55am, boarded a bus out to Ko Chang, a quite rugged island with thick jungle right across it. Ko Chang provided a perfect chill out place for reading, sleeping and relaxing at the beach, but after 3 days, it got a little boring, so I bussed on back to Bangers, did some 'window' shopping, and booked a flight down south to Krabi!

From Ao Nang town, I jumped on a long-tail boat out to Railay, a beautiful area on the coast that is full of bungalows, al fresco cafes (you can even eat on the mudflats at low tide), climbing schools, monkeys, ridiculously bronzed Swedes using UV rays to cure remnants of Seasonal Affective Disorder, and a colony of stumpy-tailed cats that like to sit on people's laps while they dine.

Upon arrival, I promptly headed over to West Railay for a swim and snooze. All afternoon, there was an incessant flow of smiling (but very annoying) beach vendors, trying their hardest to sell pineapples, coconut milk, pastries, sarongs, bracelets etc. Thankfully they weren't as aggressive as the ones in Vietnam, (e.g. the toothless old wench in Hoi An who decided my sarong was a good place to set up shop for half an hour or so), and no tears were induced by my attempts to ward them off (not mentioning any names you big bully!) .

From there, I wound my way around the heavily-fenced off Rayavadee resort (cheapest rooms go for AUD$450 a night in the off-season, most expensive are AUD$4500 - apparently Colin Farrell stayed there last week) to sit down on the spectacular Hat Tham Phra Nang (Princess Cave Beach) and share the view of the sun sinking into the ocean with a stack of monkeys that swing madly from the treetops right on the beach.

After a few rather lax days on the physical front, I decided some exercise was in order, so went to Cliffs Man, one of the major climbing schools in Thailand and hired Tik to teach me to do spiderwoman impressions up 30m high cliff faces overlooking some of the most gobsmackingly beautiful beaches on earth.

Apparently the cliffs around Railay are amongst the top five climbing sites in the world - not only for the challenges they offer in clambering your way up overhangs and stalactites, but for the magnificent views you are afforded over the Andaman coast when you get up high. If you happen to be the first person in the world to scout out and scale a new path up a cliff-face, you are given the opportunity to name the cliff - consequently, if you so wish, you could attempt to climb "Knights in White Satin", "Ladyboy" and "Greed". My instructor was absolutely brilliant in his relentless pursuit of his student's climbing potential. He wouldn't let me get away with giving up when I was a metre or two from the top - even if my arms and legs were on the verge of dropping off from utter exhaustion! By the end of the second day, those imaginary bumps on the wall Tik insisted I put my feet on and clasp with my fingers had become real and valuable foot perches and finger grips.......I suspect this rock-climbing business could be very addictive....

My final night in Thailand was spent at Cliffs Bar, with some friends I´d made at climbing school, on the backpacker strip of East Railay, watching the climbing instructors clamber like monkeys up the outdoor training wall, inebriated Swedish lads making monkeys out of themsleves trying to do the same, young Thai men doing tricks with flaming sticks/ropes (beats flaming galahs!), and laughing at a very bad Michael Jackson impersonator trying to do magic.

Now it's back to Dublin, ready to gear up for St Paddy's Day this Wednesday. I'm just after arriving off the plane (getting back into the Irish grammar!), and ready to keel over at any second from sheer exhaustion, but am trying to make it through til this evening's fireworks.

Oh yeah and I have to work on Monday!

Cheers

Belinda

xox

Battambong, Bangers and Beaches

21.06.2003 29 °C

I had dreaded the day when I had to make a journey on a pick-up truck.... I'd seen the locals cram together in the back of a ute - up to 20 of them sitting on top of sacks, buckets, boxes etc. and riding along dusty, pot-holed red tracks, holding on for their life should they happen to go over an extra big bump and be thrown violently to the ground below. All the time, swallowing the dust from the vehicles in front of them.

So when I asked the guesthouse manager how I could get to the docks to get the speedboat to Battambong, he said, maybe minibus, maybe pick-up - it depended on the condition of the road. Travelling in the monsoon season has many benefits - one being the extreme lushness of the jungle and the full-to-the-brim moats around Angkor Wat; another being the relatively low crowds. After a few nights with heavy rains, it turned out the ride to the dock was gonna be a long, bumpy one along the dusty red trails.

If you've never ridden on the back of a pick-up truck, Cambodia probably isn't the best place to start. It's uncomfortable, dusty and a tad dangerous. And riding on the roof (holding on to a bar) is certainly not recommended. You do get a great view of the branches hanging down from the trees though - and a few scratches that come complimentarily. It was pretty fun though and you definitely don't suffocate when you're bouncing around on the roof, though you do inhale a lot of dirt!

Anyway, so when we arrived at the docks, they bundled those of us going to Battambong onto one boat, and those going to Phnom Penh onto another. Then there was the ubiquitous baggage handling charge - i.e. $1 for passing the bag from the ground to the boat one metre away - cheeky monkeys! And then.....we sat on the boat for about 10 minutes before being told to get off, hop back on the pick-up truck and drive another 10 minutes down the road to the other docks!

The boat we boarded turned out to be the size of a rubber dinghy and 7 of us crammed in for the four and a bit hour trip - a very hairy ride through narrow canals, in shallow waters, and sometimes through fields of lilies which would tangle in the boat. Really not a very comfortable trip and with no safety measures whatsoever, really probably not the safest way to
go...but it was really fun!! And much more interesting than taking a bus! To add to the experience was the 10 minute pit-stop mid-way at a local shop in a floating village. To get to the toilet, you had to walk across a long 3-inch wide plank, then over a caged enclosure of baby crocodiles!! True.....all that was separating you from the crocs was a chicken wire enclosure....one step off the narrow beam and you'd fall into a cage full of crocs!! Don't know how the feel about swimming around in the toilet water either...but what can you do in the middle of the Tonle Sap in a floating village!

Upon approaching Battambong, the boat slowed to a trickle and we got to pass the riverside villages and wave to all the local kids who were swimming/bathing in the muddy river. Some of them ran along the bank following the boat, staring at us, then breaking into cheesy grins when we waved over to them. All it takes is a hearty Jom Reap Suor or Suor sdei and a little smile for them to go hysterical with excitement.

Battambong, was quite a change after Siem Reap. Whilst Siem Reap was swarming with hoardes of tourists, even in the low season, Battambong, was relatively chilled out, with hardly any tourists in sight. It´s perhaps not the most interesting of places, but I enjoyed moto trips about the nearby countryside, and hiking up to a Buddhist temple with the local monks. It was ridiculously hot here though, and I came down a little ill, perhaps from dehydration and was bed-ridden for 24 hours. Fanta to the rescue!! It was in Battambong that I did my first trip side-saddling a motorbike! I had often seen Cambodian women doing it, and was a little daunted by the prospect of it. But if you´re wearing a long skirt, well, it´s the only way to go! Pretty fun, I have to say, but damn, when they go over all the pot-holes...it can be a little dicey...

After 9 hours travel from Battambong via share taxi, tuk-tuk, bus and tuk-tuk, I arrived back in Bangkok to a cooler, rainy afternoon. A nice change from the scorching temps in Cambodia over the past few weeks.

On Wednesday morning I visited the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute and Snake farm. Hadn't seen any snakes since my brief encounter with one at the Roulous group of temples at Angkor. It was interesting enough initially with them telling you a little bit about the types found in Thailand, but they were a little mean to them - setting the cobras, 3 or 4 at a time, down on the ground and poking them and taunting them so they flare up their necks and start striking at the air, their legs, shoes etc.....crazy guys...but i guess they handle these snakes everyday and know what their limits are. Still, it can't be much fun for the snakes.

After this I strolled through Lumphini park, the most popular park in Bangkok. Not the most rivetting place though......Then I hit the World Trade Centre and very 'inappropriately' named Zen department store - mostly for a bit of air-con! Finished up the afternoon at Siam Square, where there are even more shops!!!

After talking to numerous backpackers whilst in Bangkok and in Cambodia, I decided a week on the Andaman coast of Southern Thailand might be a nice change from the seering heat of
Cambodia. So, I jumped on a bus for the 16hour, 1000km trip down to Krabi. I'd sworn off long overnight bus trips after the last one I took in Europe with a busload of smelly, men en route to Paris....but it was "cheap cheap", so I went for it.

Finally, I arrived in Krabi, from where I took a boat across to Rai-leh beach. I stayed in a beach hut at a budget resort and didn't do much aside from snorkel, swim and relax on the beach. Hat Tham Phra Nang is perhaps one of the loveliest beaches in the world - simply sublime! At one end is a large cave known as the "Princess Cave". The locals believe it is home to a mythical sea princess and the local fishermen place carved wooden 'phalli' in the cave as offerings to the Holy Princess - part of a fertility ritual.

On Saturday morning I took a boat from Rai-leh East to Ko Phi Phi Island, the second most touristed island on the isthmus (after Phuket). Nice boat trip through transluscent azure waters and past the limestone islets. In the afternoon I took a boat across to Had Yao, where I spent a few hours snorkelling with some Israelis, Eyal and Ofa. This is the nicest place to snorkel around Ko Phi Phi Don (there is also 'Leh') though so much of the reef has been destroyed. Still some cool fish though, and colourful sea anemones, the odd bit of blue coral etc....Tomorrow I'm taking a trip out to Ko Phi Phi Leh, around Monkey Island, Bamboo island, Shark Point and to Viking Cave, where they collect birds' nests for the Chinese delicacy of birds´nest soup.

From there, I´m heading to (the dreaded)Phuket to hang out with my Eyal and Ofa for the day, before jetting off to Ireland, where I´ll be for the next 6 months or so.

Cheers

Belinda x

The Seething City of Bangkok

Wat Pho

02.06.2003 34 °C

Sawadee from beautiful Bangkok. OK, so perhaps 'beautiful' is a tad hyperbolic as the city is perhaps better described as, well, a little hectic...

So first impressions.....well it's the "same same but (quite) different" to Vietnam. Firstly, it is much easier to be a pedestrian here than in Saigon (or for that matter, anywhere in Vietnam). There are not so many motos for starters, and because of the abhorrent congestion on the roads and the motorists' relative compliance with road rules (plus plenty of traffic lights!), you can cross the road without fear of being turned into minced-meat. Secondly, I find I'm actually walking on the footpath here rather than along the middle of the road as the motorists' tend to park their vehicles on the side of the road rather than all over the footpath like in Hanoi. Thirdly, the hassle factor is pretty minimal here. Instead of getting 'woo-wooed' by moto/cyclo drivers and getting chased down the street by each and every single enthusiastic driver every 10-15metres, it only happens every couple of hundred metres here. And lastly, noone wears masks here to stop themselves from inhaling the filthy Bangkok air - i think only one tuk-tuk driver I've seen has worn a mask - and he was probably worried about SARS!

If you've never been to Bangkok before, here are some completely useless but somewhat rivetting facts for you (from Lonely planet):

*Bangkok is short for Bang Makok, meaning "Place of Olives". This seems to be somewhat of a misnomer as there are no olive trees here - though perhaps before the city became the whopping metropolis that it is today, olives could actually breathe in the smog-laden air, not to mention oppressive heat.

*In 1824, an English trader spotted an 'eight-legged creature with two heads' swimming in the Chao Phraya river in BKK. It turned out that this 'creature' was in fact a set of conjoined 13 yr old twins (hence the term Siamese twins). He took them touring the world for five years, showing them off at medical conferences across the US and Europe (a la Jim Rose's circus).

*Thai women scare their boyfriends/husbands off infidelity by the following threat "If you don't behave, I'm going to cut IT off and feed it to the ducks". Sometimes the ducks miss out and IT goes flying off into the sky attached to a helium balloon. Thailand happens to have more re-attachment surgery than any other nation.

*Petrol stations across BKK sell comfort-100 portable potties so commuters can relieve themselves when stuck in traffic. The average Thai spends 44 days per year stuck in traffic!!
So there you go....

Anyway, I arrived here Friday morning and after checking into my 170baht a night hotel (AUD$6.50), I set off to explore the city, first heading to Lak Meuang, the city pillar and shrine to BKK. The spirit who watches over the pillar is considered by the locals to be the city's guardian angel hence the place is constanty abuzz with Thais offering such goodies as severed pigs' heads with joss sticks sticking out of their foreheads! (charming). I was delighted to behold the performance of a lady of questionable gender assignment who looked a cross between Barbara Cartland and Vanessa Wagner - on a good day! It must have been the orange lippie and hot pink rouge, along with the orange and green sequinned number that was pulling the crowds cause it certainly wasn't 'her' voice - he/she did have a certain charisma about him/her though.

Next it was on to Wat Pho, the oldest and biggest wat (basically a home and school for monk training) in BKK. It is home to the largest reclining Buddha in Thailand. At 46m long it's quite impressive. At the Wat you can take classes in Buddhist philosophy, meditation, Thai medicine and massage. It's probably one of the few completely legit massage parlours in town!!!
I also visited Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn) and then the Wat Phra Kaew (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha) - it shares the grounds with the Grand Palace. WPK was consecrated in 1782 when BKK first became the capital of Thailand. The wats here are a pretty colourful mixture of gilded stupas, coated in green and orange tiles (the Irish influence?) and the pillars are covered in mosaics. Everwhere you go you can also here the soft tintinnabulation of the bells hanging off the eaves of the rooves. Just as a matter of interest, I was informed that the 'emerald' buddha is actually made of some type of jade. The officials are pretty tight on the dress-code here. If you have bare shoulders or a skirt/pants shorter than your ankles, you are expected to hire some clothes to cover up. And shoes too! But this is only if you are a foreigner. I can, to an extent understand the notion of foreigner pricing (we are all relatively rich bastards after all), but if the covering-up thing is a matter of respectfulness, shouldn't it apply universally?? Ok, my gripe for the day....

Gilbert and George (My new trip mascots - named after the utterly camp pop-artists who pose in the background or sometimes foreground of all their works), my bright green tree-frog companions had to be smuggled in as there were no clothes small enough to fit them.

I finished the day up strolling along the backpacker ghetto of Thanon Khao San. It's a pretty lively street packed with budget hotels, cafes, and shops/stalls selling silver jewellery, pirated clothing, CDs (expensive at US$2.50 each!!), handicrafts, tattoo parlours etc. It's also home to plenty of backpackers who have decided to reveal their inner feral now they have hit SE Asia. Great spot for people-watching.

On Saturday I tuk-tukked up to Dusit to visit the Vimanmek Teak Mansion. It is set on the grounds of the Chitlada Palace (home of the present King and Queen of Thailand - very popular folks according to my taxi driver from yesterday and it is quite obvious they are revered if you look around at the whopping big posters all over town. He is also well liked because he spends time incognito visiting all the folks in the remote villages around the country) and is the largest golden teak building in the world. It used to be the residence of Rama V (King of Thailand, 1868-1910, also very popular), but is now a gigantic museum. The grounds of the mansion are home to a collection of museums exhibiting Royal memorabilia, antiques, lacquerware and Ratanakosin (19th century-present) artworks. It manages to be quite charming in spite of its ostentacity. Here as in about 50% of the places I have visited since I've been here, the museum attendants seem to like to use the museum floor to cut their finger and toenails on (As far as I know, nails lack any sort of natural resin that may be useful to floor polishing)! The present King's son, Vijaralongkorn (?) attended the King's school in Parramatta and also went to the Australian Defence Force Academy in Duntroon (Canberra)! On the grounds of the teak mansion is the Royal Elephant Museum - the elephants now live in hiding at the Chitlada Palace but the museum contains plenty of tusks and a blubber like chunk of who-knows-what sitting in formaldehyde.

While in the area I also visited Wat Benchamabophit (home to 53 Buddha images) and the Dusit Zoo (Gilbert & George's idea). It has a pretty good primate display and also has meerkats and alopeciac emu-like creatures called 'rheas' that don't do much but lie on the lovely dirt floor of their enclosure and gasp for air - not the best zoo!

Next I headed up to Chatuchak Weekend market - home to 8000+ stalls and a couple hundred thousand visitors. Among your ordinary everyday things like clothes, ceramics and food, you can buy green tree snakes, opium pipes, amulets, baby stingrays, fluorescent baby chickens, balding roosters and impossibly cute marmosets (half rodent half monkey). You could also buy about a dozen different types of insects including cockroaches, rhinocerous beetles and locusts - for eating! Mmmmm

Sunday morning was spent doing a walk through Chinatown and Pahuart (Indian quarter) of Bangkok and sussing out all the markets. Though quite interesting, you'd nee plenty of stamina to spend more than a few hours there as it is choked with people and with the heat, sights and smells, can be a little overwhelming. While here I visited the Wat Mankon Kamalawat (Dragon Lotus Temple), the largest temple in Chinatown - and full of people praying for their ancestors, waving joss sticks, and offering gifts of cakes, flowers, fruits and fizzy drinks!
In the afternoon I visited Wat Mahathat and the National Museum, the largest in SE Asia and full of examples of Thai art, musical instruments, ceramics, royal regalia, textiles and weaponry
.
As for the food.....well so far it's been pretty standard fare though much of the food is laced with "mouse-shit peppers" (that's their name!!) which are VERY hot....

I was going go head to Cambodia on the bus tonight but have decided to head out to the border sometime today and get up at the crack of dawn to make the early speedboat to Sihanoukville (south coast, beaches!!!) tomorrow morning. It's a bit of a messy journey as it involves a taxi, bus, bus, walking, taxi, speed boat and moto. And if I miss the 8am boat I'm stuck in the seedy border town of Koh Kong. So fingers crossed the transport works out!

Will write again soon - from Cambodia!!!
Ciao B x