First destination - Khao San Road, Bangkok's backpacker central. A real wacky mix of long term backpackers, counterfeit clothes and souvenirs surrounding every walkway, and $ .70 Pad Thai or $.30 fruit on every corner (usually more than every corner).
The cheapest accommodations, 90 degrees and sticky sweaty humidity with only a fan in the room, makes this the perfect spot to base our hurried exploration of Bangkok.
The highlight of these two days is being kidnapped by the "Tuk Tuk" driver, who offered a cheap ride on our way to the Grand Palace. In retrospect...he was just too eager to get us in his stupid cart. Little did we know its a common scam in Bangkok..these guys drive poor unsuspecting tourists around town taking them to jewelry and tailor's shops...if you buy anything they get free gas..perpetuating their business. After repeatedly shouting at the driver he reluctantly takes us where we're going.
Enough of this, we're going to the beach!
Almost too much fun to even remember it all..First was three or four nights at Tonsai beach on the Railay Peninsula.
A very secluded beach mostly inhabited by rock climbers and a few travelers, along with the few Thai residents who enjoy a pretty laid back life-style.
There was the rock climbing trip where my buddy from the bar the night before was too hung over to come out, forcing me to hike over to the crowded area so I could convince some strangers to let me climb with them..thank you Casper!! A great friend even though I only knew him for a few hours...these are the two routes I climbed, which proved to be all I could handle during my late starting half day of rental.. sadly I have no pictures of myself on them.Outdoor rock climbing is one of the most exciting things I've ever done and I can't wait to do it again.
Next up was hiking/climbing this steep, well hidden trail into an enclosed lagoon. (thanks go out to the nice gent from Boston who told me about it!) The scenery was straight out of Lost World! Really amazing.
Almost forgot, on the way to the hike around 8:30 am...I stumbled upon the only TV on our secluded beach, where most places only have electricity at night, and to my surprise...found a bunch good old fashioned Americans (and one Canadian) watching the Super Bowl!! I was so excited I sat down and ordered a beer...three hours later I was stunned to see the Pats blow their perfect season, and I considered for a few minutes that this surreal scene might have been a dream. Thoroughly buzzed, it was 11 am... and I continued on to the lagoon.Time to move on, we headed for the island of Koh Lanta. When I lost my flip flops on the ferry ride, I decided to continue shoeless for the remainder of the trip..
The first night included a bucket of the famous thai drink:
- one flask sized bottle of Sang Som (Thai rice Whiskey)
- one can of coke,
- one bottle of Thai Red Bull (waayy stronger than ours, I think it would be illegal in the states)
...after the beach rave, live band, and dancing turned into a blur, I went ahead and slept in the next morning...
I then spent the whole day riding a scooter around the fairly large but sparsely populated island...and two hours on a cave tour...around this time I started thinking shoes might have been a good idea...but I stuck it out.
The next day was our snorkeling trip to the islands of Koh Phi Phi, two beautiful islands where the movie The Beach was filmed. It was my first time snorkeling so I enjoyed the close ups of all the tropical fish...although it did involve a lot of salt water in the mouth.One night to relax and it was back to Bangkok for the flight to HK...I noticed that it was a very strange feeling to be going "home" to Hong Kong, but at the same time it was really cool...
 |
| More Pictures! |
till next time,
Brian
