I spent 3 weeks backpacking through Thailand and Cambodia with Sean. Each day I wrote in my pocket-sized journal and made illustrations of the trip. These are excerpts from my travel journal.
Day 1, Saturday 14 January 2012.
Today doesn't really warrant a mention in my journal keeping of Seany and Tjietjie's Winter Wonder Wanderings. All the past 48 hours have done is reiterate that I suck at traveling. In fact, I should have no business of doing it at all! I won't bore you with the mundane airport drama, we were late but then we were on time, had a snack, then we were late again and made it to the boarding gate with not even a second to spare. Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea, felt like the most confusing place in the world as we were going around in circles, up and down Hyundai escalators, trying to find the boarding gate. So commenced a long flight and then, eureka!
Thailand! Such a thing of joy to get what you want, to blissfully land on foreign soil as the sun bathes sky and earth in a red, seductive glow.
Then we got scammed. Twice. Hard. Lost some money in the process, no use crying over it. What's done is done. But it's left me uneasy and put a damper on my optimism.
I learnt two things today:
1. Plan ahead you bloody idiot! At least book a hotel for the first night, get your bearings, and then decide to be a smart ass who gets through life by winging it. And make sure that the lady at the bank in Korea where you currently reside actually understood what you wanted and changed the status of your bank card so that you don't go to Thailand and realise your money's no good there because you can't get it out of the ATM.
2. Don't trust people who approach you. People want something from you.
So that was the first day in Bangkok. Met a nice guy from the Phillipines, hope we see him again. And hope tomorrow will be better than today was.
Day 2, Sunday 15 January 2012
A beautiful breakfast in Banglamphu = very happy Seany and Tjietjie. Just saw an old lady get on the back of a motorcycle taxi. Yesterday we rode in a tuk tuk for the first time, fun and nerve wrecking.
Had an English breakfast at a corner side cafe, the order got messed up, nothing worse than what I did when I was a waitress. We are currently in the popular Kao San Road after spending the night in a beautiful boutique inn a few roads down. Managed to find the backpackers street this morning, and we just bought a bus-and-ferry ride for 950 Baht. Not sure yet what passes for cheap around here, but they pick you up in front of the hotel, so you won't hear me complaining.
"Where are we?" Sean asked.
"Who cares? There's an industrial fan behind us."
The heat and humidity is somewhat intense, especially after the cold snowy Korean winter we just came from, but it's not unpleasant. I'm sweating, but I'm happy. It's not like the cloying Daegu humidity in July. We're at this place called Food Garden sitting under a gazebo. Sean's drinking a Tiger beer that could drown three mid sized GI Joe's, or one Korean Vice-Principal, and I'm delicately sipping on a ice cold mojito. This is more like it. Vacation is supposed to be relaxing. The owner is hosing down the roof and the cobbled ground, it seems to be a daily cooling off ritual in the streets of Bangkok. Behind us is a massage parlour called Worapom Massage and it's open from 10am to midnight and Sean says he bets they offer Happy Endings.
Song over the radio: Well you've been working so hard, I think you need a holiday.
Something about a paradise in the back yard they could go do.
Damn straight. Just splendid.
The place where we stayed the first night was really pretty, with shining floor tiles and air conditioning and gorgeous ornate staircase. Our next accommodation is called Khosan Paradise. Should be cool too, but I keep on reading Khoisan and thinking of back home in South Africa.
Scammed again! (Same day)
We just got scammed again. By an old lady handing out pigeon food. We deserve to get scammed, no one is that stupid. The woman handed us each three bags of pigeon food to feed the millions of pigeons in the public park. First we declined politely but she insisted we take it and motioned towards the pigeons with her arms. Of course we should have asked her how much out front, are we that naive to think a poor old woman with holes in her clothes are helping tourists feed birds out of the kindness of her heart? After we fed the bloody birds, a disastrous activity in itself - pigeons descended from heaven reminding me of that old horror flick "Birds", the woman held out her creased small brown hands and named her price, 300 Baht. Each. We embarked on this journey on a shoestring budget, I have 4 years of school to pay and a mother at home to support, so I didn't like the idea of handing out money to everyone who asks, and everyone asked, but I felt bad. We ended up coming up with 120 Baht, gave it to her and scram. But damn'it, scammed again?
Day 3, Monday 16 January 2012
We're sitting at Ricky's Coffee House on recommendation from our Lonely Planet. I have a sinking feeling that everything is going wrong and all my plans are crumbling around me. I'm so stupid I cannot write anymore. Annetjie out.
***
I'm back! So far this trip has been a serious series of mishaps!
But it's okay. This is how you learn. Our first two days in Bangkok have not been amazing, but now we are on our way to Ko Tao and the beaches and it's going to be awesome. On our very first day in Bangkok we met a guy from the Philippines named Will de Leon on the Skytrain, and we saw him again today at a random pub in Kao San Road. We sat with him had a few beers and shared a plate of onion rings, and he told us his life story. Will was a call centre operator until his girlfriend of four years broke up with him and left him in such a funk he quit his job, gathered all the money he could spare, swung his humongous camera around his slight shoulders and embarked on a spiritual journey of Southeast Asia. He left from Manila been to Cambodia and Thailand and his next port of call will be Singapore. His camera is amazing and he has been taking pictures of all the places he's been and going to as many temples as possible trying to get to a place where he can feel better about the break up. What a cool guy. We took a picture with him in the busy streets of Bangkok, and hope to see him again one day.
We were stressing today because we booked a bus and a ferry through a private travel agent the day before and we felt good about it at the time but afterwards we got some doubts and we were worried we would get scammed again. The very first day we got scammed by a man in a suit who said he was a principal of a high school and he would help us find accommodation but instead he loaded us into a tuk tuk that took us to a dodgy side of Bangkok to a nasty travel agent who wouldn't help us find a cheap place to stay unless we allowed him to plan our entire three week trip for us. So by now we are worn out and tired and confused and befuddled and fighting with each other because that's how we communicate.
There are many other foreigners on the bus and it's not too rundown and there's safety in numbers as the saying goes. I'm looking forward to long sandy beaches and water games and bungalows with hammocks and cocktails, lazing around on a deck somewhere reading borrowed books and eating delicious Thai cuisine. Happy Annetjie ... and happy Seany too (over there)
There was a funny Italian guy on the bus.
Me: Is this the bus to Ko Tao?
Italian guy: Doesn' madder. Chaing Mai, Ko Tao, is all okay...
We also went to a free park with an old white fort by the riverside today. There was a young man outside the park warning foreigners about scams around the pier. Sean mused, maybe it's a counter scam, and came up with...
Scamception = a scam inside a scam (c) S.P.S
This is an important week for the Thai people. Today everywhere we went we could see offerings in doorways to Buddha, we saw fruit, cake, rice, even a Fanta in a glass bottle, incense carrying it all away to the spirits. And no matter how poor people are or how hungry, they will never steal the offerings, because that will bring them bad luck.
Bangkok is probably very nice and the people are lovely, and we would have had more fun here if we were better prepared, but no need to dwell on that now. We can only go further, forward, move along.
Last night we went to an Indian bar named Mombay Blues where we smoked a mint flavoured hookah and Sean had a Singha beer and I had a lemon Bicardi Breezer. We blew bubbles through a tube resting in soapy liquid with the smoke from the hookah, although I think the teenage version of me would have enjoyed the experience a bit more. We lounged on long red sofas outside and enjoyed the warm balmy weather. Thailand is truly beautiful.
Day 4, Tuesday 17 January 2012
Lots of traveling today. Bus boat on foot 4x4 up a rocky trail. Finally we are in paradise.
The resort where we finally rest our heads is called Montalay, previously known as Black Tip, and for 600 Baht per night (300 B each) we get to stay in a beautiful, comfortable bungalow with our own private beach, swimming pool, a clean spacious bathroom with hot water and fresh towels, a grande restaurant with South African wines on the menu, and a quirky beach bar with a remarkable bartender.
(Had a three hour nap and feeling better)
Wednesday, Day 5, 18 January 2012
Last night we had dinner at the Montalay restaurant and ended up at a rickety booze shack on the beach nearby. The bartender was a chatty Burmese guy named Wann, and later we were joined by a brisk blonde German-Dutch couple. Sean had Long Island iced tea and I had a few screwdrivers. It was delicious. The Burmese bartender had a makeshift braai on bricks going on, kind of like the ones we used to make back home, and he was grilling fish for a Russian oke who asked him to do so the night before. We stayed there quite a while and the Russian never showed up. What an ass.
After our cocktails we ended up a little way down the beach at a backpackers called Poseidon. We had Tiger beers and lazed on the upstairs deck. There were some hippies floating about, the smell of their weed penetrating our senses. It was lekker, sitting by a secluded beach between mountains and sea and lush greenery. The vegetation here is amazing, not completely different from the more tropical parts of South Africa actually, and finally we could just swim and relax and drink and not make a fuss.
This morning I thought I'd be hungover after the potent cocktails, but I feel rather refreshed after a good night's sleep under a fan. This morning hasn't really happened yet, so I'll write about it later.
And I've realised I don't like coconuts, ugh!
All the food we've had so far in Thailand...
Pad Thai (delicious, different, every time)
Stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts.
Veggie-Veggie (best green salad ever and spinach soup)
Coconut chicken and fruit soup.
Street food: kebabs, fruit, spring rolls
bacon and eggs on toast (hardly foreign cuisine but after a year in Korea it was like stepping into an oasis of food we're used to in SA, like fresh fruit, bacon, curry, beef, oh god the beef!)
The first Pad Thai I had was at Montalay, and it looked like this: noodles, vegetables, fish cake stuff, prawns, crushed peanuts, cayenne pepper, covered in a doily-shaped omelet. Sean says he's gonna have to roll me out of Thailand.
I brought a pretty blue bikini, but as usual my gigantic breasts don't fit. It was the largest size the lady could find too, and it was in Bangkok! Eish, it's hard being a full sized woman.
So in Bangkok we were fed up with everything and verging on the idea of going home when we found two awesome places by literally stumbling into them. The first was a riverside old fort with amazing architecture, big canons jutting over the edges of the whitewashed walls, and millions of birds fluttering in and on and through the canons and the holes in the walls. The second place was Veggie-Veggie, a quaint, little vegetarian kitchen where we had spinach soup (me), and mushroom soup (Sean) and shared an enormous garden salad with crisp green leaves (all kinds, spinach, lettuce, rocket, more I don't know by name) cherry tomatoes, pumpkin, and homemade salad dressings! Yum!
Back in Tanote Bay
Poseidon is a beach bum's retreat, with its rustic benches, hammocks and island style menu. Everything's made from wood and held together by rope and the floors are the sandy pebbles of the beach not a stone's throw away. We just had a scrumptious late breakfast, Sean's using the ever-present WiFi, and I'm digesting my omelet and mango juice. Addictive stuff mango juice, I can't seem to get enough of it.
We are on the eastern side of Koh Tao, in Tanote Bay, our beach is surrounded by rocky cliffs and steaming green vegetation. Pasty Germans tanned Europeans and sexy Dutch accents share our long stretch of paradise, along with cheeky Thai men and gorgeous Thai women and older women offering massages and men offering kayak rides, and always food, so much food. Sean and I are going snorkeling later when the sun is less hot, our pasty white bodies will char in this equatorial sunlight. If you'd told me a year ago I'd be sitting on a deck smack bang in the gulf of Thailand I would've laughed in your face.
I feel like I've been unfair to Bangkok, but in my defense I've never been one for big cities and milling people. It's not that I'm scared of crowds, it's just that growing up in a Karoo dorpie has left me spoiled for space. I'm reading Kerouac's On the road while I'm traveling through Thailand, and it's making my head mad with desire to write freely.
Thursday, Day 6, 19 January 2012
We left Montalay for the more crowded beaches of Sairee, and what a change! There are thousands of tanned foreigners everywhere! and our bungalow (same price as at Montalay) is ugly and rusted with no hot water to dream of. It's all right though, it's right on the beach and we woke up to bird song and terrible hangovers. Last night we combed the beach for booze and got all cocktail-ed up at an all-night happy hour and today my head hurts and I feel just terrible! But before that we had the most delicious dinner at a beach side restaurant, Sean had Pad Thai and beer, and I had green curry with pork and a Pink Lady. That one Pink Lady knocked me out cold, but I can't write or even think about alcohol now because it's Day 7 of our journey down the South of Thailand and my hangover and the pending boat-ride is making my stomach feel queasy.
Friday, Day 8, 20 January 2012
Welcome to Ko Pagnan! It's the midsized island of the Ko Samui archipelago (Koh Tao is the smallest) and home to the infamous full moon parties (or various other parties for different phases of the moon). The main party beach is Had Rin, and Had Rin is divided into Had Rin Nok (Sunrise Beach) and Had Rin Nai (Sunset Beach). Nai is a bit less crowded and cleaner than Nok with more of a hippie vibe going on, but I'm sure it can get quite busy and crazy during peak times. We're staying at Coral Bungalows, for 500 Baht a night we have AC AND fans, and two beds, which is better than what we got at Sairee, but significantly less awesome than Tanote Bay and the soft headrest of Montalay. It's cool to move on, always further, but I was really sad when we left Montalay and Wann. Wann is the Burmese bartender I mentioned before. He's a really funny guy who's had a hard life in Burma (now Myanmar)where both his parents are teachers, but they earn less in a month than he does in Thailand as a bartender. He was the first of several Burmese men we met in Thailand. He's an educated man who talks about politics and economics and religion in the same aware breath, even world geography, with great authority. I felt sad to leave, I felt like I was leaving him behind. He was telling us about Burma and the government that's run by the military, how when he grew up there were child soldiers with guns in his streets, but how all that has changed in recent years. The Burmese government never before allowed tourists across the border, because they didn't want the outside world to know how badly they've fucked up the country. Wann left Burma seven to eight years ago. Military service isn't mandatory, but once you've joined you've got to stay for 30 years or face imprisonment. He said that's why there are so many Burmese people in Thailand, and also it's easy to get into Thailand and far less easy to get them out again. In seven years he has learnt to speak the language like it's his own, and he gets on well with the Thai people. He was telling us about his experiences as a monk. In Buddhism everyone has to be a monk at least once in their life time. Wann was a monk three times. The first time was when he was only a little boy, and he struggled with the fasting and keeping his mind in the present when he was meditating. He jokes that his mind is lazy, it can't just concentrate on the breathing. He went to the monastery twice for for different periods of time. Wann's mother went into the monastery for 40 days (women can also be monks) and he couldn't believe how she could cope with all the fasting and meditating and staying in the moment stuff for that long. Buddhist monks fast after 12pm until the next morning, when they rise with the sun to collect alms from the people. Sean and I saw monks collect alms in Bangkok. Monks are not allowed to be with a partner, and women are not allowed to touch monks, should their touch awaken sexual desires. Monks are also not allowed to touch money, but nowadays they have to take a taxi or a tuk-tuk to where the faithful live, so they've sadly had to compromise in some areas to keep up with modern living conditions. Wann said that nowadays young monks aren't real monks, they drink and smoke and have panties in their rooms. Why don't they just live normal lives? They don't have to be monks, it's a hard life, if they can't be dedicated to it they should do something else. Then some young Brit who's also a teacher in Korea in Busan joined the party and tried to coax Wann into revealing any hidden contempt for foreigners. Do they annoy you? he asked with his pompous little accent. They annoy the shit out of me, he went on, and you have to deal with them all the time. be honest, what do you really think of foreigners? and so on and so forth, laying all his first world worries on the ground.
Wann, of course, was very polite and chilled, he's a relaxed guy, he likes to make jokes and smoke some weed and talk about this and that with his customers and the Thai guys back at the lodge. So he said he likes foreigners and he wants more of us to come there because it will mean more money for the lodge and for him. And then he said the most obvious thing that broke my heart, he doesn't have any money, he is poor, he sees the tourists and gets to know them for a short time, they talk of places they want to visit and places they've been, and he'll never be able to see any of those places, because he is poor.
And that bloody well mindfucks me till no end, because I grew up dirt poor in South Africa, we never had anything, I never though I'd ever do the things I'm doing now, my family still has only the scraps I can afford to send home, where the hell did I suddenly get all this money from to travel and see places I never even dreamed of? I never allowed myself to dream of traveling the world, I didn't think it was possible in a million years, and now it's happened and I don't know what to do with this, because I didn't think it all the way through. 'I want to go to Thailand' sounds good, sure, but what does it mean? See some temples, eat some local grub, go to parties, get wasted on cheap ice tea? I'm just spending and spending money and that's all I can focus on, and the guilt I feel when I see all the poverty and the shame and the feeling that I don't deserve any of this.
Life is really strange sometimes. I thought that yes, one day I'd have some money perhaps and I'll be happy and save up to do fun stuff, and that one day has arrived faster than I thought thanks to Korea's strong education policy. I also have Sean to thank. He pushes me to be less stingy and spend more time and happiness on myself. In any case, I was sad to leave Wann. The last night with him I complained that I was hungry, and he gave me a packet of noodles to eat. It's a curious characteristic of the poor, even though they have nothing they share what little they do have. Rich people remain tightfisted and closed-hearted. Of course this is a crude generalisation, I can only speak from my own experiences so far.
Today we walked along the beaches of Hat Rin and found quaint little cottages tucked away in the "jungle". We asked about the prices, and turns out people are living there. How marvelous would that be to own a blue seaside bungalow on an island in the gulf of Thailand? Sean could teach at the local primary school, I could write and run a business of some sort, employ local people and run a sustainable development operation, write for a local newspaper from time to time about who said what about whom or what did the silly tourists get up to this time? Later we could buy a second cottage and rent it out to tourists as a home-stay for a few months to help fund the business. It would be absolutely fantastic, it would be the simple life, what more could I ask for?
Earlier today we decided to go for a walk in town and find the other beach. Sean was convinced that where we were staying wasn't Had Rin, neither Nok or Nai. I disagreed but my ovaries exclude me from the realms of reason and intellect. So the great trek to find the beaches began. We walked and walked for hours, following the street signs, getting lost again, cutting through the front yards of rather cosy looking beach-side resorts. We finally gave up and stopped at a place called The laid-back backpackers for an afternoon drink. It was a row of brightly coloured hippie shacks with psychedelic sarongs and murals adorning the wooden walls. Some barefoot, longhair types with Indian jewelry and dreadlocks emerged from the wonky shacks, floating into the afternoon sun with chilled vibes. Then an old Thai man and about four boys came into the clearing carrying two cockerels and Sean and I witnessed our first ever cock-fight. The two were at each other like angry birds, and we weren't sure how to feel about the whole situation, surely there's something wrong with making and even watching animals, and people for that matter, fight for sport. Anyway, cockfight over, both birds were unscathed, it ended up being a lot of feather raising and some pecking but neither party drew blood. It was about time for Sean and I to get going, the beer wasn't sitting well with our hungover sensitive stomachs. Then I saw a guy who works at the resort where we were booked in for the night, and I wanted to call him over and ask him how we could find our way back there again, because we were very lost, but he walked on and then he was too far away and the moment passed. We decided to just take a walk down the beach and go search for our accommodation later, but when we left the hippie shacks, what did we find right next door standing out like a big mass produced sore thumb? Coral Bungalows. We were sitting next door to it this whole time. What idiots we are! And it was Had Rin Nai! I think Sean must listen to me more often when I say stuff, because that's what I said all along!
Saturday, Day 8, 21 January 2012
Today we got to see so much of the island, it was quite spectacular! We don't usually do package tours, because we want to explore the world by ourselves and be spontaneous, but sometimes doing stuff in a group and having a guide to show you around is good too. The day before a pretty blonde girl came up to us on the beach and told us about this Eco-nature adventure tour (great marketing on their part, send a hot chick with a sexy Swedish accent to charm the tourists into feeding the elephants.) Not that we needed much charming, we were in the market for something to do and this seemed like just the thing. The tour turned out to be pretty decent. We did elephant trekking through the jungle, went to a few awesome waterfalls, hiked up the big waterfall to this exhilarating pool, instant hangover cure - sweating and swimming - hiked back down, visited a Chinese temple (a Chinese temple? In Thailand?) and had the most amazing lunch of rice, sweet and sour vegetables, potato curry, and absobloodylutely delicious red fried chicken drumsticks, and watermelon for desert. After lunch we went out to sea, first we snorkeled and then we relaxed on the beach. I can't quite remember where we did the snorkeling, I was worked up in a tight panic at that time at the thought of going into the ocean, but I think it was near Bottle Beach. The beach for relaxing was called Malibu Beach and it's absolutely fantastic, long white powdery sand beach, warm blue water, not a soul in sight. Well, there were other people but they didn't threaten the environment. I also bought a pretty bracelet made from elephant teeth for 500 Baht, which is about less than R140, maybe R120, which is more than I've ever paid for a piece of jewelry but he said it was to buy food for the elephants, and I really do hope it was true. Oh how we mistrust the people who tell us things. Since I got to Thailand I wanted to visit an elephant camp so that was one more thing I could tick off the list.
Sunday, Day 9, 22 January 2012
After the long day of action and adventure yesterday we went out for drinks with a couple who we met on the tour, Mailee and Victor. Sean had a bucket of whiskey and red bull and got really drunk, I felt a tad sick so I didn't drink more than a few beers and a Mai Tai. My system cannot handle strong alcohol. Also, yesterday was such a healthy and holistic experience I didn't want to ruin it by going to a stupid trance party and getting wasted. At the Chinese temple there was a pot full of long sticks with numbers on them. You shake the pot until one stick falls out, and you ask a question while you are shaking the pot, and then you can check the answers on the wall. My question was, will I be happy? and the answer was quite vague, it said, basically, that I have good karma, what I've put in and given away will be rewarded, I will get a promotion soon, and I will be successful in anything I do. That's pretty cool, I needed to hear that. There was also a shrine for the laughing monk. When he was a young man he was very happy and rich and handsome, and all the women wanted him and chased him around. But all he wanted to do was meditate and be happy but he couldn't reach enlightenment because of all the women and their lascivious desires for him. So he started to eat a lot so that he could get very fat, and he gave away all his possessions, and then the women left him alone, and he was free to meditate and reach enlightenment. When he grew older he was always surrounded by children. In Buddhism anyone can reach enlightenment, but it takes a long time.
So the Chinese temple was awesome, and the elephants were also really cool. Today we just chilled out, watched movies at a restaurant called The lazy house, watched the sunset from a reggae bar right on the rock on the beach with a Bob Marley flag flapping in the cool sea breeze.
