Well it's been a while since my last update. Things have gotten really busy since the end of new years week here in Beijing. I found a room in a Chinese family's apartment- it's far from school but this way I can learn Chinese at home too. School started last Monday. I'm really glad to be progressively learning Chinese again, it should really help. I'll cover more of Beijing as soon as I get the pictures sorted out and finish with the Thailand trip.
CONTINUED from where I left off in ChiangMai Thailand-
February 27th 4 PM
After river rafting, we took a truck back to the home base guesthouse we had left from in ChiangMai. I took a shower and explored the small town a bit while I waited for the 6:00 bus back to Bangkok.
Downtown ChiangMai, it had a really nice guiet friendly vibe to it-
And of course a McDonalds. Ronald's doing the famous Thai bow.
I headed back and caught the bus...
1-28-10 Thursday
I landed in Bangkok today at 6 AM. I felt like a trainwreck. The too, too spicy gas station food I ate during the bus pitstop combined with sleeping pills and unsuccessfully sleeping in the back of a bouncy crowded bus really did a number on me. I walk to a park across the street to sleep for a few hours but upon seeing a dirty native get up, pee in the middle of the lawn and lay back down I have a change of heart. It was still very early to go to the Consulate, but there was nothing else to do that early so I started a slow pace for the subway station. This morning, my usual method of asking natives for directions was a spectacular fail and had me walking back and forth through the city. On the bright side, I came across a giant warehouse produce market that vendors buy from. A few minutes later I passed through Bangkok's China town.. though after living in China, it's not exactly special. Thanks to the misdirection, I made it to the Chinese consulate just 10 minutes before it opened. Here I learned Americans have to fill out 2 visa applications and pay 2-3x the amount as people from other countries. Also the student Visa I had to apply for forbids me from leaving China and expires 6 months before my current visa. This really made me want to pull my hair out and puts a kaibash on my plans to visit nearby Korea and maybe Japan while I'm in Beijing.
On my journey back to Khao San road, Bang called me and said he had a room I could stay in. I killed some time and he picked me up and dropped me off at his place where I showered and slept and slept and slept. I finally felt up for some food so I went to dinner and slept some more.
1-29-10 Friday
Today I woke up and went out with my laptop in hopes of finding some Wifi. The bus system is really bad in BangKok- most bus stops are at random places with no marking (just look for a growing crowd of Thais) and the ones with markings only have bus numbers with no route information or maps. I hopped on the first bus from Bang's place and ended up getting a free ride because the fare lady couldn't be bothered to try to communicate the price to me. I jumped off at a big shopping center, Tesco (like Target but with groceries too). It was just after 9 so I headed in to Tesco to kill some time while I waited for the mall to open at 10. Finally 10 came around and the Dairy Queen downstairs opened. I got the biggest chocolate oreo frostie they had, it really made my day. There was no Wifi here, so I hopped again on the first bus. I could tell soon that I was close to the backpackers headquarters, Khao San road, so I jumped off in search of a travel agent. I wanted to check on tickets to the islands in the South and found out there was a big full moon festival on Koh Phangan island on the 30th. I found a ticket for a 12 hour bus ride and boat ride for about $17 so I jumped on it. I didn't have enough time to go back to Bang's house to get my stuff before leaving so I would really be traveling light. I explored a bit to kill time before the bus came.
This river surrounds central Bangkok, so there are lots of ferries to cross it and many speedboats to travel around it to another part of the city.
Here's some backpackers that had a little too much fun. I saw them at about 5PM passed out on the street. The next time I passed at 6:30, some Thais had put them together and were trying to charge money for pictures.
I'm writing this on the nightbus down to Koh Phangan island. It's about 12AM here.. I'm staying away from the gas station food this time though. I left my laptop with the travel agent so all I have is this notebook and the clothes on my back.
1-30-10 Saturday
This notebook is really handy for killing time. I hope I can type it out to share with the people that care. The night bus made a few really strange stops. The Ko Tao island people got off 2 hours before us Koh Phangan people... even though the same boat goes to both islands. We got off at a travel agent/cafe to wait with expensive waters, paid bathrooms and ridiculous food. I walked around the corner and found a bathroom, a great breakfast and 6 liters of water for about $1.20 or about 5 times cheaper than the agents place. We took a pickup truck 5 minutes to another bus and I sit here now. I think we're about an hour away from the ferry. I'm excited, but know there won't be any decent accommodation when I get there due to the thousands coming in for the festival. I hope there's at least a place to check my backpack and wallet in case I end up sleeping on a beach.
I made it to the docks alright, we set off to the islands stopping at Ko Samui and then to Ko Phangan.
I was really happy about this blue water. On the boat I sat with a couple guys from England who were both traveling alone as well. When we got to Ko Phangan, Stu from England and the 2 girls that sat behind us decided to team up in our search for a place to stay. We came across a bungalow on the beach with one room left so we split a tiny little hut between us 4 people for about $3 each. This is our beach, about 20 meters from the bungalow.
I went for a swim then found a coconut and got to work. There were no tools, but with some determination I finally got to the sweet milk.
Our room seemed to get smaller and smaller... the Australian girl turned out to be very messy and even more annoying. She spoke and spoke in a very condescending manner to everybody she encountered... but we needed her. In order to rent scooters here (which cost the same for a whole day as a single taxi ride), you need to leave a passport and Stu and I had left ours at consulates for Visas. We got the bikes alright though.
This is on our ride out to find some waterfalls.
We stopped for a hearty lunch...
Still no waterfalls in sight, but plenty of beautiful scenery. The bike renter said we wouldn't be able to take the bikes to the full moon festival because the roads are too steep. We pressed on and had a great rollercoaster ride using the momentum from one hill to barely make it up the next.
We made it to Haadrin beach at about 6:30 and explored a bit before the festival started.
People started pouring in and things really got started. It was still early and the beach already had thousands of people and blaring music. My favorite part was fire jump roping. I was able to jump longer than the flame the first time, but later went back to dive over a fresh lit rope just as the twirlers whipped it in the air to get the extra kerosene off. I've got a nice red belt across my stomach and some cool pictures to show for it.
The festival got crazy fairly quickly as about 30,000 intoxicated people crammed the beach. Some guy was walking around completely naked and went to go try the fire jump roping. Luckily the twirlers had a sense of humor and whipped the fire rope between his legs... that'll teach him. It was about time to head back, so I worked up my wits (navigating the hills at night is a very daunting task) and hopped on the bike. The hills were much better than I expected going back as I was riding solo. I got really lost though in the dark and ended up on the wrong side of the island with an empty tank of gas. A nice taxi driver pointed me in the right direction and I made it back soon.
1-31-10 Sunday
Today I woke up and took the bike into town for some breakfast then back to the bungalows.
I returned my bike, hung out at the bungalows for a bit and can't quite decide on my plans now. I wanted to go to Ko Tao, but the boat is expensive, the island is mostly for scuba diving and I will probably have trouble renting a bike with no passport. I keep hearing good things about Laos so I want to head up there, but there's not quite enough time to pull it off. I'm at the point where I either just want to go home now or extend my vacation so I can do other things. I'm really sunburnt now, so the island isn't as fun as it should be.
Some seafood fried rice for dinner.
The sunset from our bungalow as I journal away.
I went out with Stu and Liz to find some "Chips and Gravy". We found a place down the road, I can't quite tell why this dish is so popular in the UK- really lacking in any flavor or texture, just mush.
2-1-10 Monday
I woke up around 8 and hitched to town. I really didn't want to clean the mess the others had left in the room.
A thai breakfast- kind of like a coconut pancake.
I was tired and burnt, ready to head back to Bangkok, but over breakfast I decided it'd be a waste of a trip down here to only stay 2 days. I think I'll just suck up the sunburn and maybe go to Krabi, Phuket or Ko Tao. I really want to do some deep water soloing (in the next post) in Krabi.
As I walked around the pier looking for different places to go I realized I was already on one of the best islands and I still have so much to see here. I found a bike shop that would take a cash deposit instead of a passport, so I got a bike and took off.
I bought a hideous long sleeve shirt and some sunscreen to survive the next few days in the sun. The plan now is just to try and meet some people to share a room with for the night or crash on a hammock somewhere. There's a beach (Bottle Beach) I hear is really amazing but only accessible by boat. I've got a map and a bike though, so I'm going to try my hand at off-roading. Hopefully this won't be my last entry.
It's about 2:00 PM now, I'm writing from a recliner on Haad Yao beach, Ko Phangan. This place is amazing! About a 3/4 mile stretch of shallow beach in between the hills. The water is stunningly clear- you can 'snorkel' above water with no goggles and see everything on the bottom clear as glass.
Today was my best day in Thailand. I went from Haad Yao and continued north looking for bottle beach. I stopped at a couple beaches and one place called Ko Ma island. 2 beaches colliding to form a sandbar bridge to a little island.
I walked to the island, took a look around and hung out with these nice people from Israel on my way back.
I rode around a bit more, saw some more beaches and came to another beautiful one.
I met some guys here that were all UCSB grads and had grown up in Newport Beach/Laguna area. Small world. We hung out on the beach for a bit then walked up to a restaurant for lunch. I had just stuffed myself on Thai noodles, so I had onion rings. It turns out that 2 of the guys, Jianmarco and Garrett are both English teachers in Shanghai.. small small world. After lunch I took them to see Haad Yao beach. It was really nice as the sun was setting.
We swam really far out then played a game of beach soccer against some Thais. You could tell the Thais did this every day.
We went back to their bungalow for dinner. Garrett taught me how to play Chinese chess. It's similar to regular chess, but there's a couple quirky rules that make it much more fun. We had dinner, played some cards and they set me up a spot to crash in their bungalow. I love how things just work out.
2-2-10 Tuesday
This morning we woke up at 6 as the guys had to catch a boat to Krabi early morning. I watched the sunset, had breakfast and took off for bottle beach again.
I stopped at a couple waterfalls on the way, but they were nothing special like the ones in Chiangmai.
I was finally getting close to bottle beach. The road ended abruptly so I made a little rock ramp to get the bike out on the trails. I only struggled through about 200 yards of downhill slippery gravel on rock before parking the bike. I trudged 30 minutes through some thick brush before making it to rocks. I climbed through some rocks, but there were still 2-3 big coves worth of rocks with no feasible path to pass between me and bottle beach. It would have taken all day to get there.
I got back to the bike and decided to try my luck approaching the beach from the other side of the island.
On this side, the road ended and it got really fun. There were 10 km of really hilly dirt roads with sweeping water veins carved by rain. I got the hang of riding on it and had a blast flying through the hills and sliding through the gravel. There were a few smaller beaches scattered throughout. At the first one, a Thai told me it was bottle beach, but it turned out he was merely confirming that it was in fact a 'beach' and not bottle beach. I talked to some other travelers here about cool places to go, but had to get back on my search as the bike was due back soon.
As I went down countless small side roads that all either dead ended or turned impossibly dangerous for the bike it was soon clear that there is in fact no realistic way to get to bottle beach without taking the boat. I could have listened to handful of people that had already told me that, but I had a great time on my quest and now I really know. Plus I got to see some great beaches on the way.
I took the bike back through town, bought a pineapple and enjoyed it immensely (until my mouth bled). I had been to all but one beach on the island and was completely satisfied. On the boat to the mainland I sat next to a guy named Joe from Sacramento. 10 minutes into our talk I found out that he goes to Beijing Language and Culture University- really small world. He said he really didn't find the teaching methods useful though and that classes are really boring. Hopefully that's not the case with Beijing Normal University as well (though I suspect it may be a personal problem).
It's 4 pm and I'm now sitting on a hot bus traversing Southern Thailand from East to West bound for Krabi.
That's all for now. Hopefully I'll get the next part of my trip up soon. I miss you all!
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