We've been getting a lot of questions about what we plan on doing after our 10 month contract finishes in China. After in depth research and extensive soul searching, we're happy to report we have established a comprehensive 26 part plan:
Plan A: Obtain dream job
Plan B: Obtain any job
Plan C: Move to 210 (Christine's family safe house in Palo Alto, CA)
Plan D: Begin playing the lottery
Plan E: Retreat to the mountains and begin life memoir and/or political manifesto
Plan F: Run internet scams. Collect money from Western Union.
Plan G: Start cult.
Plan H: Donate organs and bone marrow
Plan I: Open travel bookstore and coffee shop
Plan J: Take out insurance policy. Collect on policy when bookstore/coffee shop "accidentally" burns down
Plan K: Backpack Europe
Plan L: Become pirates in the Suez Canal and hold an oil tanker ransom for $500 million
Plan M: A bottle of baijiu and a refrigerator size cardboard box
Plan N: Sign up for scientific experimentation
Plan O: Become door to door sales person
Plan P: Rob a 7-11
Plan Q: Tour high schools around the world lecturing teens on life as a felon
Plan R: Write self-help book
Plan S: Appear on late night infomercials
Plan T: Live in a trailer
Plan U: Execute elaborate fine art heist
Plan V: Go to law school
Plan W: Get a job in the reptile house at the local zoo
Plan X: Realize superpowers gained during execution of Plan N. Fight crime.
Plan Y: Become a street performer
Plan Z: Ask mom and dad for money
Geographic locations of said plans have yet to be established.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Chinese New Year Vacation: Part 6, The Journey Home
We spent our last half day in Koh Tao relaxing and enjoying our last minutes on the beach. We needed all the energy we had for the traveling we ahead of us.
While we were at the ferry terminal, we noticed something interesting- there was a trip available that would get us in to Bangkok at midnight the same night. It was interesting because we knew we were not taking that route, even though we would be boarding the same high speed catamaran. Instead, we would be getting off at the first port, riding a bus for 2 hours, and then taking an overnight train. Following this itinerary would get us in to Bangkok at 7 am the next morning (or so we were told). To confuse us even more, the direct route cost 850 Baht while our shorter catamaran ride cost 550 Baht. So, excluding the cost of the bus and the train our longer trip was less than $10 cheaper. We could only imagine that the tour was trying to save the cost of real accommodations in Bangkok by sticking us on the train instead. Christine and I grumbled about the choice, but there was little else to do about it. We've learned that in the future we're much more comfortable being in control.
We bounced from one form of transportation to the next, until we were safely tucked into our beds on the overnight train to Bangkok. We were warned that we would get in ahead of schedule, and we should expect to be up by 5 a.m.
Early the next morning, we're roused from bed and escorted off of the train. It was still dark outside and everyone was groggy. Tar was shoving people into taxis and sending them on their ways. There was no goodbye, there was no breakfast- we were put into a taxi and the tour was over.
Christine and I decided to get into a cab with the Irish girls, since they were going back to the hotel we had stayed in and we had not yet decided where we would spend the night.
Instead of checking in, we found some breakfast and allowed ourselves to wake up a little bit. We were tired and cranky, and a little bruised at the way we had been sent off. We had talked to Lee and Luella about meeting up to see some of the shadier sights in the city, so we decided to find a hotel closer to the red light district.
The nicer hotels in town were located right outside of the "red light" district. I put it in quotes, since this was the seedy part that was built for tourists, as opposed to the seedy part that was actually meant for seedy people. There were two blocks with adult shows, and five star hotels right on the periphery. We found an affordable place in the area, and enjoyed our first good shower in two weeks. After a nap, we were finally in a better mood. It was still early in the day so we went out exploring.
We ate lunch at an American BBQ place. Looking at the menu, the prices seemed ridiculously high compared to what we had been spending the whole trip. Since we were tired of curry, though, and craving meat and french fries, we were willing to splurge. The funny thing was, when we finally did the conversion we noticed we had spent less than $15. Our sense of the value of money is being tested by all of the traveling we're doing.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we were approached by a friendly looking old man. He used some familiar lines on us, asking where we were from and where we were staying. He told us if we wanted to do some shopping there was a good Thai market nearby where we could get "export quality" goods, not like the terrible stuff you get everywhere else. We thanked him, and started walking away. Another man started walking when we left, staying a few paces ahead. When we stopped to check our map, to decide where we really wanted to go, he swooped in. He started giving us his own pitch about where we should go to shop. We thanked him, and let him know we just wanted to walk around. As we left, we saw that both of the men had circled back around to sit on a step outside the same restaurant. Sometimes it wasn't clear to us what game people were playing, but the constant pitches made it clear that we just looked like a couple of dumb bags of money to many of the people we met in Thailand.
While trying to find the downtown area, we escaped sections of town that had been built up for foreign travelers. There were tent cities set up on the sides of the road, and piles of trash sitting in the sun. It was clear that the wealth was concentrated in a relatively small area, and that we weren't meant to wander out of it.
We arrived at the spot on the map we were heading for, but realized there wasn't anything to see. The downtown was made up of a handful of gigantic malls. The most interesting thing was that there were shrines set up on the streets between the malls. The people walking by them would pray and look towards the shrines even as they kept moving forward. Even when they were up a few stories on a raised walkway and the shrines were down at ground level, the local Thais showed their respect.
When we were walking home we stumbled into an area with smaller, more interesting shops. We found one street that had been blocked off for a Pepsi event. They were debuting some new drink called "Green Pepsi" that seemed to be engineered for an Asian audience.
That night we had made plans to meet the Australian couple, the two Irish girls and the two British girls, who we had traveled with, in order to check out Bangkok's seedy underbelly. It was disgusting.
The most entertaining part was not inside any of the shows they had concocted to attract curious travelers, but out on the street. People had been hired to go around and try to lure you into a specific show. They were holding menus of human exploits and shoving them in your face. Their schtick relied on the tourist being speechless, so they could herd you closer and closer to the strip club they wanted to get you in. Christine and I thought it was funny to try and make these guys blush. When they approached us with their pitch, instead of being shy or titillated, we shot back one liners. Eventually, a salesman stopped mid sentence and shook his head at us. He ran his fingers through his hair- I assume trying to decide if we had said what he thought we said- and shooed us away.
The funny thing was, we weren't really being that gross. Compared to the things they were sticking in our faces, we were being downright mild. When it came down to it these guys were a bunch of prudes. They blushed as soon as we started talking back to them.
We walked down a street dedicated to "massages by men for men" and other such fare, since the girls we were with expected the pushy salesmen to try and lure Lee and myself in. Instead of making us feel uncomfortable, though, they actually were pushing the shows on the girls, pulling at them to try and make them choose their establishment.
We found another road that was lined with brothels. Groups of women were sitting outside, on display. Far from being an attraction, seeing these girls just made us sad. Their eyes were dead, they were bored, and it was plain that they were just trying to get through the night.
Once everyone was sufficiently skeeved out, we retired to a friendly bar in one of the alleys.
After else had left, Christine and I stopped at McDonald's. On our way out, Christine noticed a homeless family sitting on the steps. She turned around, went back inside, and bought them a meal.
We started back toward our hotel. We turned onto a main road when we saw two elephants walking down a city street. I'll repeat that, because you may have just skimmed over it: there were two, big, gray, elephants hanging out in downtown Bangkok. A couple of Thai guys had ropes around their necks, and they must have seen our jaws drop because they started following us as we walked by. When we were nearing our hotel, one of the elephants let out a loud honk. I told Christine that they were chasing us, so we ran the rest of the way to safety.
We checked out the next day and made our way to the airport, where we flew back to Hong Kong. We got in around dinner time, and checked back into the same Hostel we had stayed in the first time through. We found a small Italian restaurant, and had a couple glasses of wine. Christine led me to the Peak Tram, which is a trolley that you ride up the Victorian Peak, one of the mountains that Hong Kong is built on. The trolley is pulled up a really steep incline, and you get off inside a shopping complex. After riding escalators to the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. We had our picture taken outside. This is the only picture we have from this last leg of the trip since my camera was broken.
Aren't we cute?
We took it easy the next day, and watched some of the lunar new year's activities. Troupes of teenagers were spread around the city doing a lion dance. Two of them were dressed up in a lion costume, and a few more played a big drum and gongs. The lion would dance in front of a store, and the whole thing led up to the lion grabbing a bundle of lettuce that was hanging from the doorway in its mouth. The lion chewed up the lettuce and spit it out, revealing a red envelope. The envelope was a traditional cash gift given around the new year. This same scene was happening all over the city, with the lion group going from business to business all day long.
When we got back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport, Christine noticed a familiar voice. The man using the phone in the reception room was none other than Larsh, the man we had met in Kao Sok, Thailand. He had followed our advice after all! Unfortunately, we didn't have time to talk, since we were on our way out the door to start the long trip across the border to the airport in Shen Zhen.
The plane ride home we were on Shanghai Air, which is certainly no Emirates Airline. The food was nasty, and we were sitting in the very back row. At one point, someone even smoked a cigarette in the bathroom. When we landed, no one seemed to understand the concept of waiting until the plane comes to a complete stop and the pilot has turned off the fasten seat belt sign. The flight attendants were yelling, but everyone was in a rush to be the first off the plane. When we finally made it out, we were home. Back in good old Shanghai.
It was really nice to get back to our apartment, and familiar surroundings. The trip was fun, and filled with excitement, but nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.
While we were at the ferry terminal, we noticed something interesting- there was a trip available that would get us in to Bangkok at midnight the same night. It was interesting because we knew we were not taking that route, even though we would be boarding the same high speed catamaran. Instead, we would be getting off at the first port, riding a bus for 2 hours, and then taking an overnight train. Following this itinerary would get us in to Bangkok at 7 am the next morning (or so we were told). To confuse us even more, the direct route cost 850 Baht while our shorter catamaran ride cost 550 Baht. So, excluding the cost of the bus and the train our longer trip was less than $10 cheaper. We could only imagine that the tour was trying to save the cost of real accommodations in Bangkok by sticking us on the train instead. Christine and I grumbled about the choice, but there was little else to do about it. We've learned that in the future we're much more comfortable being in control.
We bounced from one form of transportation to the next, until we were safely tucked into our beds on the overnight train to Bangkok. We were warned that we would get in ahead of schedule, and we should expect to be up by 5 a.m.
Early the next morning, we're roused from bed and escorted off of the train. It was still dark outside and everyone was groggy. Tar was shoving people into taxis and sending them on their ways. There was no goodbye, there was no breakfast- we were put into a taxi and the tour was over.
Christine and I decided to get into a cab with the Irish girls, since they were going back to the hotel we had stayed in and we had not yet decided where we would spend the night.
Instead of checking in, we found some breakfast and allowed ourselves to wake up a little bit. We were tired and cranky, and a little bruised at the way we had been sent off. We had talked to Lee and Luella about meeting up to see some of the shadier sights in the city, so we decided to find a hotel closer to the red light district.
The nicer hotels in town were located right outside of the "red light" district. I put it in quotes, since this was the seedy part that was built for tourists, as opposed to the seedy part that was actually meant for seedy people. There were two blocks with adult shows, and five star hotels right on the periphery. We found an affordable place in the area, and enjoyed our first good shower in two weeks. After a nap, we were finally in a better mood. It was still early in the day so we went out exploring.
We ate lunch at an American BBQ place. Looking at the menu, the prices seemed ridiculously high compared to what we had been spending the whole trip. Since we were tired of curry, though, and craving meat and french fries, we were willing to splurge. The funny thing was, when we finally did the conversion we noticed we had spent less than $15. Our sense of the value of money is being tested by all of the traveling we're doing.
As we were leaving the restaurant, we were approached by a friendly looking old man. He used some familiar lines on us, asking where we were from and where we were staying. He told us if we wanted to do some shopping there was a good Thai market nearby where we could get "export quality" goods, not like the terrible stuff you get everywhere else. We thanked him, and started walking away. Another man started walking when we left, staying a few paces ahead. When we stopped to check our map, to decide where we really wanted to go, he swooped in. He started giving us his own pitch about where we should go to shop. We thanked him, and let him know we just wanted to walk around. As we left, we saw that both of the men had circled back around to sit on a step outside the same restaurant. Sometimes it wasn't clear to us what game people were playing, but the constant pitches made it clear that we just looked like a couple of dumb bags of money to many of the people we met in Thailand.
While trying to find the downtown area, we escaped sections of town that had been built up for foreign travelers. There were tent cities set up on the sides of the road, and piles of trash sitting in the sun. It was clear that the wealth was concentrated in a relatively small area, and that we weren't meant to wander out of it.
We arrived at the spot on the map we were heading for, but realized there wasn't anything to see. The downtown was made up of a handful of gigantic malls. The most interesting thing was that there were shrines set up on the streets between the malls. The people walking by them would pray and look towards the shrines even as they kept moving forward. Even when they were up a few stories on a raised walkway and the shrines were down at ground level, the local Thais showed their respect.
When we were walking home we stumbled into an area with smaller, more interesting shops. We found one street that had been blocked off for a Pepsi event. They were debuting some new drink called "Green Pepsi" that seemed to be engineered for an Asian audience.
That night we had made plans to meet the Australian couple, the two Irish girls and the two British girls, who we had traveled with, in order to check out Bangkok's seedy underbelly. It was disgusting.
The most entertaining part was not inside any of the shows they had concocted to attract curious travelers, but out on the street. People had been hired to go around and try to lure you into a specific show. They were holding menus of human exploits and shoving them in your face. Their schtick relied on the tourist being speechless, so they could herd you closer and closer to the strip club they wanted to get you in. Christine and I thought it was funny to try and make these guys blush. When they approached us with their pitch, instead of being shy or titillated, we shot back one liners. Eventually, a salesman stopped mid sentence and shook his head at us. He ran his fingers through his hair- I assume trying to decide if we had said what he thought we said- and shooed us away.
The funny thing was, we weren't really being that gross. Compared to the things they were sticking in our faces, we were being downright mild. When it came down to it these guys were a bunch of prudes. They blushed as soon as we started talking back to them.
We walked down a street dedicated to "massages by men for men" and other such fare, since the girls we were with expected the pushy salesmen to try and lure Lee and myself in. Instead of making us feel uncomfortable, though, they actually were pushing the shows on the girls, pulling at them to try and make them choose their establishment.
We found another road that was lined with brothels. Groups of women were sitting outside, on display. Far from being an attraction, seeing these girls just made us sad. Their eyes were dead, they were bored, and it was plain that they were just trying to get through the night.
Once everyone was sufficiently skeeved out, we retired to a friendly bar in one of the alleys.
After else had left, Christine and I stopped at McDonald's. On our way out, Christine noticed a homeless family sitting on the steps. She turned around, went back inside, and bought them a meal.
We started back toward our hotel. We turned onto a main road when we saw two elephants walking down a city street. I'll repeat that, because you may have just skimmed over it: there were two, big, gray, elephants hanging out in downtown Bangkok. A couple of Thai guys had ropes around their necks, and they must have seen our jaws drop because they started following us as we walked by. When we were nearing our hotel, one of the elephants let out a loud honk. I told Christine that they were chasing us, so we ran the rest of the way to safety.
We checked out the next day and made our way to the airport, where we flew back to Hong Kong. We got in around dinner time, and checked back into the same Hostel we had stayed in the first time through. We found a small Italian restaurant, and had a couple glasses of wine. Christine led me to the Peak Tram, which is a trolley that you ride up the Victorian Peak, one of the mountains that Hong Kong is built on. The trolley is pulled up a really steep incline, and you get off inside a shopping complex. After riding escalators to the top, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the city. We had our picture taken outside. This is the only picture we have from this last leg of the trip since my camera was broken.
Aren't we cute?
We took it easy the next day, and watched some of the lunar new year's activities. Troupes of teenagers were spread around the city doing a lion dance. Two of them were dressed up in a lion costume, and a few more played a big drum and gongs. The lion would dance in front of a store, and the whole thing led up to the lion grabbing a bundle of lettuce that was hanging from the doorway in its mouth. The lion chewed up the lettuce and spit it out, revealing a red envelope. The envelope was a traditional cash gift given around the new year. This same scene was happening all over the city, with the lion group going from business to business all day long.
When we got back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and head to the airport, Christine noticed a familiar voice. The man using the phone in the reception room was none other than Larsh, the man we had met in Kao Sok, Thailand. He had followed our advice after all! Unfortunately, we didn't have time to talk, since we were on our way out the door to start the long trip across the border to the airport in Shen Zhen.
The plane ride home we were on Shanghai Air, which is certainly no Emirates Airline. The food was nasty, and we were sitting in the very back row. At one point, someone even smoked a cigarette in the bathroom. When we landed, no one seemed to understand the concept of waiting until the plane comes to a complete stop and the pilot has turned off the fasten seat belt sign. The flight attendants were yelling, but everyone was in a rush to be the first off the plane. When we finally made it out, we were home. Back in good old Shanghai.
It was really nice to get back to our apartment, and familiar surroundings. The trip was fun, and filled with excitement, but nothing beats sleeping in your own bed.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Chinese New Year Vacation: Part 5, Koh Tao
We rode a ferry for a few hours, and again landed on a picturesque island.
Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Samui, and its inhabitants were much more laid back. It is known as a scuba diving destination, so instead of trying to hawk suits and souvenirs, most of the business revolved around diving and snorkeling expeditions.
We rode in the back of a pickup, and were scared by our first look at the Seashell Resort, where we were to lodge for the next 4 days. I have some advice for the resort's management: If you think its important to have a stagnant green cesspool on your property, you should locate it somewhere out of sight. Please do not put it on the driveway leading from the road to the reception desk.
For some reason, all of the ugliest parts of the resort were right by the entrance. When we got closer to the beach, though, our surroundings were much nicer.
Since my toe was hurt, Christine and I spent our afternoon exploring and relaxing instead of swimming. Longboats were a popular form of transportation on Koh Tao, and they were anchored everywhere along the beach. We were on the west side of the island, so we had a perfect view of the sunset every evening. The falling sun behind the longboats kept us busy with the camera.
We skipped the group dinner, even though they were having what looked and smelled like a delicious BBQ meal. We walked down the beach a little bit and found a restaurant with fresh fish displayed on ice in a small boat. We picked out a white and red snapper, and enjoyed grilled fish on the beach. They served the entire fish, but were helpful enough to cut out some of the guts first. With a baked potato, a small salad, and tasty Thai sauces, this ended up being one of our favorite meals.
After dinner, we met some of our tour mates to watch Mui Thai boxing, Thailand's national sport. There were 7 separate matches, scheduled for 5 rounds each, and they progressed in order of weight class. Each match started with a prayer ritual where the boxers would prostrate themselves in the middle of the ring and then walk in circles, stopping to pray in each corner. Some were more thorough than others.
The smaller guys were not as good at pacing themselves, and the first three matches were over before the third round when one of the two collapsed dramatically from exhaustion.
The bigger guys were slower, but they hit HARD.
There was an announcer speaking English who called the fights. He also acted as a middleman for 50:50 betting. It was easy to tell the favorite during some matches, because all of the bettors would be placing huge amounts of Bahts on one guy.
After the matches, we walked home. On the way we stopped to get "pancakes" from a street vendor. They were crepe like snacks filled with fruits and sauces. We enjoyed this late night snack many times over the course of the vacation.
The second day, we took an around the island snorkeling trip. We ditched our tour group again, even though they were taking the same trip. We opted to go on a small longboat rather than a big party boat. We ended up on a boat with a group of 4 other people, plus our driver. There was a couple from Scotland, who were on the last leg of a 6 month world tour, and a Czech couple, who were on a shorter vacation, like us. Our driver didn't speak much English, so he would just drive us to our spots and talk to us in Thai until we got the point.
I thought snorkeling was the coolest thing we did on the whole trip. The water was crystal clear, and we dove in and around beautiful coral formations. There were schools of curious fish, sea anemone, small shy fish, sea cucumbers, and some elusive Tiger sharks. There were zebra striped fish everywhere that had absolutely no fear. If you sat still for a second, inspecting the sea floor, you would look up to see one of these zebra fish staring you in the face. If you were still enough, they'd even start nibbling on you to see if you were edible.
We snorkeled at 4 different spots, and had lunch on the boat. The tour ended earlier than advertised, but by the time it was over Christine and I were both exhausted.
That night we ate the BBQ kebobs that we had missed out on the previous evening. At dinner, we met a British guy who had been teaching English in Viet Nam. We talked to him about teaching and traveling, and ended up going bar hopping with him after dinner. We were searching for our tour group, since it was Bob's birthday and he had planned on getting "pissed." We ended up running into them, and had a blast watching fire dancers and dancing like idiots on the beach.
Christine, Emma, Sinead, and Tar
We went with the group to a "castle party" that had been advertized on a big sign in the middle of town. It ended up just being a bar in a big house. We basically just arrived, paid cover, decided we were tired and too drunk, and went home.
Unfortunately, at some point during the festivities my camera kicked the bucket. So there might be a shortage of pictures up here until we get it fixed or replace it. Here is the last picture we were able to get:
We spent the rest of our time on the island just being bums. We did a lot of lounging and a lot of reading. Christine and I both agreed that Koh Tao was our favorite spot on the trip. I think it's the one place we would consider returning to.
Koh Tao is much smaller than Koh Samui, and its inhabitants were much more laid back. It is known as a scuba diving destination, so instead of trying to hawk suits and souvenirs, most of the business revolved around diving and snorkeling expeditions.
We rode in the back of a pickup, and were scared by our first look at the Seashell Resort, where we were to lodge for the next 4 days. I have some advice for the resort's management: If you think its important to have a stagnant green cesspool on your property, you should locate it somewhere out of sight. Please do not put it on the driveway leading from the road to the reception desk.
For some reason, all of the ugliest parts of the resort were right by the entrance. When we got closer to the beach, though, our surroundings were much nicer.
Since my toe was hurt, Christine and I spent our afternoon exploring and relaxing instead of swimming. Longboats were a popular form of transportation on Koh Tao, and they were anchored everywhere along the beach. We were on the west side of the island, so we had a perfect view of the sunset every evening. The falling sun behind the longboats kept us busy with the camera.
We skipped the group dinner, even though they were having what looked and smelled like a delicious BBQ meal. We walked down the beach a little bit and found a restaurant with fresh fish displayed on ice in a small boat. We picked out a white and red snapper, and enjoyed grilled fish on the beach. They served the entire fish, but were helpful enough to cut out some of the guts first. With a baked potato, a small salad, and tasty Thai sauces, this ended up being one of our favorite meals.
After dinner, we met some of our tour mates to watch Mui Thai boxing, Thailand's national sport. There were 7 separate matches, scheduled for 5 rounds each, and they progressed in order of weight class. Each match started with a prayer ritual where the boxers would prostrate themselves in the middle of the ring and then walk in circles, stopping to pray in each corner. Some were more thorough than others.
The bigger guys were slower, but they hit HARD.
There was an announcer speaking English who called the fights. He also acted as a middleman for 50:50 betting. It was easy to tell the favorite during some matches, because all of the bettors would be placing huge amounts of Bahts on one guy.
After the matches, we walked home. On the way we stopped to get "pancakes" from a street vendor. They were crepe like snacks filled with fruits and sauces. We enjoyed this late night snack many times over the course of the vacation.
The second day, we took an around the island snorkeling trip. We ditched our tour group again, even though they were taking the same trip. We opted to go on a small longboat rather than a big party boat. We ended up on a boat with a group of 4 other people, plus our driver. There was a couple from Scotland, who were on the last leg of a 6 month world tour, and a Czech couple, who were on a shorter vacation, like us. Our driver didn't speak much English, so he would just drive us to our spots and talk to us in Thai until we got the point.
I thought snorkeling was the coolest thing we did on the whole trip. The water was crystal clear, and we dove in and around beautiful coral formations. There were schools of curious fish, sea anemone, small shy fish, sea cucumbers, and some elusive Tiger sharks. There were zebra striped fish everywhere that had absolutely no fear. If you sat still for a second, inspecting the sea floor, you would look up to see one of these zebra fish staring you in the face. If you were still enough, they'd even start nibbling on you to see if you were edible.
We snorkeled at 4 different spots, and had lunch on the boat. The tour ended earlier than advertised, but by the time it was over Christine and I were both exhausted.
That night we ate the BBQ kebobs that we had missed out on the previous evening. At dinner, we met a British guy who had been teaching English in Viet Nam. We talked to him about teaching and traveling, and ended up going bar hopping with him after dinner. We were searching for our tour group, since it was Bob's birthday and he had planned on getting "pissed." We ended up running into them, and had a blast watching fire dancers and dancing like idiots on the beach.
Christine, Emma, Sinead, and TarWe went with the group to a "castle party" that had been advertized on a big sign in the middle of town. It ended up just being a bar in a big house. We basically just arrived, paid cover, decided we were tired and too drunk, and went home.
Unfortunately, at some point during the festivities my camera kicked the bucket. So there might be a shortage of pictures up here until we get it fixed or replace it. Here is the last picture we were able to get:
We spent the rest of our time on the island just being bums. We did a lot of lounging and a lot of reading. Christine and I both agreed that Koh Tao was our favorite spot on the trip. I think it's the one place we would consider returning to.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Chinese New Year Vacation: Part 4, Koh Samui
A view of Koh Samui from the ferry.We got to Koh Samui and still had another half an hour on the back of a truck before we arrived at our hotel. We were served purple kool aid when we got there, and were given another speech about available attractions. Tar handed out our keys, we checked into our rooms, and then everyone met for lunch at the hotel's beachside restaurant.
After a long half-day of traveling, we were all itching to finally get out on Thailand's famous beaches. Unfortunately, as we were eating we were also watching dark stormclouds approach the island. It started to drizzle, and then it really let loose.
On our way back to our room, we were stopped by a young man trying to interest us in a new cheap suit. Looking up, we noticed that the tailor had a small shop located inside of the resort. Plopping into our room, we noticed we had no sheets, no hot water, and our shower and toilet were on top of one another. We started to getting claustrophobic. Before we really started to feel bad for ourselves, we decided to just go outside anyway. Christine put on her raincoat and I donned a new number I had picked up at the fake market (BIG warning sign) in Shanghai, and we headed out. We picked up Chang beers at a convenience store, and started walking in the general direction of "the best beach in Koh Samui." Since it was so wet, I chose to not take my camera. I apologize in advance for the mass of text you're about to look at. I promise, there will be plenty of pictures when you get to the end.
On top of the bad weather and the unfortunate rooms, Tar had been telling us that it would cost 400 B to take a taxi to the nice beach. A $12 taxi ride on a small island in Thailand seemed ridiculous, and we couldn't help but feel like we were being taken to the cleaners. This was part of the reason we decided to see what we could find if we went on foot instead.
We learned a few Thai phrases that came in handy on the road. Sah-wat-dee is Thai for hello, and ah-ghat-dee-nah translated to something like "my what a nice day." When we weren't using our new vocabulary, we were saying everything else with our finest British accents.
"I say, I fink I see a bit of the sun poking through."
"Guv'na, that's no sun. I fink its more rain, it is."
Our sad situation was made all the more entertaining when I learned that the "fake" in "fake market" is meant to be taken literally. It turns out, they constructed my waterproof rainjacket out of sponge material. I was soon carrying about 30 lbs. of water in my coat, and my t-shirt was soaked through. No matter the obstacles, we marched on.
Eventually, the novelty of speaking with an accent and surprising locals wore off and we found ourselves tired and hungry about 3-4 km from our hotel. We stopped in an Irish pub, hoping someone could let us know where we were.
The barman was an old Irish guy, and he ended up being very friendly and helpful to us. He showed us exactly where we were, and pointed out 2 of his son's restaurants on the strip we were trying to get to. He clued us in to the local forms of transportation. There were moto-taxis and the "red trucks." These were the island's answer to public busses. Red pickup trucks were converted by adding benches and a canopy to the back. You could flag it down anywhere along the road, and then hit a button to get them to stop. You could ride it anywhere along its route for 50 B. So much for the 400B taxi ride our tour guide had told us about. Our new friend warned us against using the moto-taxis, though, since he thought they were too dangerous.
The rain had stopped at this point, so we decided to keep moving forward. The barman walked us outside, saying he would help us flag down a red truck. Instead, a moto-taxi pulled up. Despite his previous warnings, he happily sent us on our way on the back of this dubious form of transportation. We made it to our destination without any incidents, the rain had stopped, and Christine realized that her jean skirt did not behave itself when wet.
Since she was uncomfortable, we started poking our heads into the small shops that lined the road along the strip. They looked nicer than the shops in Bangkok, even though all of the merchandise was the same. The prices were almost double what we had seen in the city. I soon got tired of shopping, so we set out for the beach without buying anything.
The beach was naturally bigger on this end of the island, plus the tide went out at night so there was a wide white beach to walk on. Restaurants were just starting to set up shop, so we watched tables and pillows getting laid out on the sand.
We chose one of the restaurants, and sat down early. It was only 5, so we were the first people to sit down for dinner. We ordered a tentative appetizer of garlic and herb mussels, and had a couple of Chang beers. When the mussels turned out well, we ordered more food.
As the sun went down and the lights turned on, more diners filled out the beach. We later learned that we had found the most popular dinner area on the island, with about 5 or 6 beach restaurants packed side by side. They all had similar set ups- a short table was placed in the center of a platform on the sand. You ate while lounging against a triangular pillow. Each restaurant differentiated itself with its pillows and tablecloths, and the prices on its menu. The hawkers on Koh Samui were relentless, and people with different baskets of stuff kept approaching us. They would shine a laser on you, and then take your annoyance for interest. When it really got dark, some of them started selling big fireworks. I didn't like the salesmen, but I did enjoy watching fireworks arcing over the water. They also sold the floating lanterns that I had first seen on New Year's Eve in Shanghai.
The saddest part of the whole scene was the cadre of young girls, all under 10, who showed up with Connect Four under one arm and garlands of flowers hanging over the other. They challenged us to games of connect four, "You win, you get 100 B. I win, I get 100 B." They tried to sell me flowers "for the girl" and when I turned them down, they called me a lady boy. I watched as they won hundreds of Baht from the tables around us.
We met two Danish girls who, like many of the people we met, were traveling for months on end.
We were dry by the time we finally got up to walk down the beach. We hadn't walked 50 yards when someone grabbed us by the shoulders from behind.
"Well fancy seeing you two here!" Lee yelled when he spun us around. We had ended up eating dinner at the restaurant next door to the one Tar took the whole tour group to. We got there just in time to go see the famous lady boy show (drag queen show).
On our way, Christine and I taught the two Irish girls what a "road soda" is. We stopped in the 7-11 and picked up another Chang beer. We had to wander around a little bit to find our group, and we stumbled into some of the lower tier lady boy shows. The starlets had a little facial hair, but they were still done up quite nicely.
We found our friends right as the show was starting. There venue was outside, and there was no cover to get in. You just had to buy an overpriced drink to stay. Lee came up to us again when we got there and showed us his Singapore Sling. He said he was used to drinking beer, but this funny stuff was pretty good. I got one myself, and Teen got a sprite, and we sat down for the show.
This drag show had a tongue-in-cheek sort of humor, and they went all out on their songs. They had dance lines of men (lady boy understudies, if their delicate features were any indication), and story lines. Christine, used to the drag show scene from her time in South Carolina, started egging the Queens on with whistles and catcalls. I worry that we offended some of the stiff upper lip crowd, but we were having fun.
Then, Lee proposed to his girlfriend Luella. He had not planned it, he did not have a ring, but he popped the question and she said yes. As soon as the lady boys found out, they were on stage for a reacreation of the moment. He got down on a knee and asked the question again, and she said yes again. Then, they dressed him up in a wedding gown and marched him around.
We went to a couple of out door clubs, and we ate some overpriced Burger King. Christine and I got back on a moto-taxi and made it back to our hotel room, wrapping up a long, eventful day.
Thankfully, the weather was beautiful on our full day in Koh Samui. We spent the morning reading on the beach, and walked down a little to find a really nice lunch spot. We ate our Masmun curry lazily, and we read our books some more in the shade.
Christine reading on the beach.
Hawkers!
A view from our lunch spot.On the way, we ran in to Tar, and she told us that we could rent a kayak. She sent us next door to a man, who, lo and behold, had kayaks for rent. We had a lot of fun out on the water. We rowed out to a small island and back in an hour. We were exhausted by the time we got back.
We were heading back to our room when Christine decided to dive into the hotel's pool. I was distracted while watching her when I stumbled on the moat around the pool and sliced open my toe. It wasn't too bad of an injury, but it was bleeding and it sent the transgendered girl at the poolside restaurant scrambling to find some first aid. I wrapped up my toe and snapped some sweet pics.
Near where I cut myself. 
That night we headed back out to the better beach for dinner. We took a red truck bus, and ended up riding with a group of Chinese nationals. We started a brief conversation where we spoke in broken Mandarin and they spoke in broken English. We walked around the strip for a while, being propositioned every 20 feet by Indian men trying to sell us cheap suits. The most annoying thing about their sales pitch was the approach.
He would step into your path with a hand extended and say something like "Hey, boss, where are you from? England?" as if he were trying to be your friend. It was only after a second or two of chit chat that he would introduce you to his wide array of bargain basement tailored goods. Little do they know that Shanghai tailors do it for half the price and with a small fraction of the conversation.
BBQ joint on the strip.
There were lots of cool book stores.We chose a tiny "italian" restaurant for dinner and got a bottle of cheap white wine. We had first tried to order a red wine, but were turned off when we found out all of their reds were kept in the refrigerator. What can I say, Sonoma County turned me into a wine snob. We had a decent italian style pizza for dinner.
With a nice wine buzz, headed out to the beach. We were in a romantic mood, and spent some time just admiring the night and enjoying eachother.
We found a really fancy restaurant, about a kilometer down the beach from the more crowded area we had dined in the night before. We stopped there for dessert, a fruit crepe, before taking another red truck home. They claimed that priced doubled after 6pm, and we had no choice but to pay them 200 B for the ride.
During desert.We got up early the next morning to enjoy the free breakfast before our long ferry ride to Koh Tao.
I could make a whole slideshow entitled "Sleeping Teen." This is on the ferry to Koh Tao.Chinese New Year Vacation: Part 3, Khao Sok
After much travel we finally arrived in the Khao Sok National Rain Forest. We were greeted by a friendly staff with a nice pineapple welcome drink.
Jeremy and I thought a lot about whether or not to join a tour group in Thailand. While we were confident in our ability to grab a Frommer's guide to Thailand and go, after many difficult transportation situtations in China we knew we'd appreciate having someone else worry for us. So, after weighing the pros and cons, we ultimately decided to go with a group. We used Intrepid Travel, a company that had the exact trip we had in mind down the southern coast of Thailand.
Our tourguide was a very friendly Thai woman named Tar (pronounced Da) who spoke English pretty well. There were 16 people in our group including us: 2 German girls who had just finished High School and were taking their year off to travel before university, 2 Sweedish sisters who were born in '86 and '89, 1 British girl who had taken 9 months off from her job as a software engineer to travel around the world, 1 British girl who had just quit her job as a nurse and was moving to Australia to find a job, a British couple who had a month off and had just finished traveling the Northern half of Thailand, 1 French girl who didn't really talk much, 2 Irish girls, Sinade who was a hairdresser and Emma who worked with people with disabilities they were continuing on to Australia for 2 months, 1 Brithish guy named Bob who owns a bar near Whales and thinks breakfast was the best invention that came out of America (everywhere in Asia calls eggs, pancakes and bacon "the American Breakfast"), and another couple from Australia named Lee, the welder, and Luella, who did some CSI-type job.One great thing about the tour group was there was immediately a group of people to meet and hang out with. One not so great thing was that our tour guide made us meet and hang out every night. Immediately when we got to Khao Sok Tar shuffled us to a huge table and gave us a sales pitch for activities: elephant ride 500 bot, lake tour 1500 bot, tubing 200 bot, trip to smelly flower 750 bot, etc., etc. Not only did she tell us all that, but she wanted us to decide immediately, and then scheduled a 7pm meeting and dinner that night- all this and we hadn't even dropped off our bags yet. We told her we'd get back to her later and went to our bungalo.
The rain forest bungalo
We just wanted to get into our swimsuits and relax by the water!
Tar continued to push activities, all of which just seemed really forced and touristy, which was so unappealing we opted out of them all to explore the rain forest on our own. We told her we would not be able to make dinner and went out exploring.On our way out we found a coconut grove:
And a hot party spot (which I'm pretty sure has that sign every night:
We never made it there:
We walked into the very small town surrounded by these gorgeous mountains.
We found a cute restaurant bar with some great hammocks and laid down and read/fell asleep. The lady who owned it was very nice and we talked to her for a while and also met her daughter who was about 4 years old. She was so cute, you could tell she was surrounded by English speaking tourists a lot because she wasn't shy at all. Being English teachers we were happy to engage her. Her favorite thing about English was the letter W and the word monkey. She knew internet web addresses as www.c-o-monkey.
The next morning we had a nice dinner on the porch of our hotel and ordered sandwiches to go for lunch so we could spend the whole day in the rain forest. Over breakfast we met a really nice grandparent aged British couple who spent the winter months in Thailand because their son was teaching English there. They were so happy to be in such a beautiful place and excited to tell us about their past travels to America. They had been to Texas and California and met a young American who thought it was "just amazing" that they were traveling. The old man did this in an imitation American accent, and leaned over and said, "well you know how Americans talk." haha! Yep, we do. They also kept telling us about "That old geezer" the he couldn't get a picture of because it would go down as soon as he got his camera ready. It took us a minute to figure out he was talking about a geyser. You know how those Brits talk.After breakfast we went to the Khao Sok National Rain Forest. It is the oldest rain forest in the world and absolutely gorgeous. However, we were there during dry season, which meant all the large animals such as monkeys and elephants had migrated north. So there were no large animal sightings, but lots of snakes and lizards. Jeremy even saw a flying snake in the trees!
Two tough hikers!
Half-way through our hike we came to a rest area. This is where the well beaten path ended and you kind of went at your own risk. It was dry and the water was low, so it wasn't very dangerous. So we continued on. Here is some great broken signage on the ground, needless to say, we found our own way (which made it that much more exciting).
We found this swimming hole and set up our picnic lunch.
Then we hiked back to some more rocky waters. Where we were able to jump across the water on huge rocks that are normally covered. It was a lot of fun and a little scary.
Apparently during rainy season the park is full of waterfalls and it was toward the end of our hike, and we were getting a little disappointed that we hadn't seen one. Then we turned the corner and there it was! It was so beautiful. You could tell it would be a huge rushing waterfall during rainy season, because part of the rock had been carved out from continual water impact.
We figued out we ended up hiking almost 3 miles that day. We were beat! As we were walking out of the rain forest, hot, sweaty and tired, it started to rain a warm refreshing rain. It was gorgeous. That night we had another group meeting and dinner. Since we skipped the night before we decided to be social and try it out. So we went to dinner as a group of 16. Tar had us bussed to another hostel down the road (walking distance) which was clearly an Intrepid place because she knew everyone and started waiting tables. The place could not support such a large group. Many people's orders were messed up, and Jeremy and I didn't even get part of our order. We decided that was the last time we would attend a group meal.
Since we were still hungry after not getting our order we found another restaurant and ordered green curry (which was phenomenal). Also having dinner was a very large Swedish man named Larsh, so we sat with him and started talking. He was retired and had been backpacking for three months through Vietnam, Cambodia, and Loas before he had gotten to Thailand. It turns out he worked at HP in the 1970's which at that time was the same company as Agilent, so he and Jeremy had an interesting conversation. After Thailand he was heading to Hong Kong and asked if we knew of anywhere to stay. We gave him the card of the place we had stayed, said goodnight and walked home.
The next morning we were up before the sun and loaded onto the back of converted pickup trucks on our way out of Khao Sok.
We were on the trucks for 2 hours to get back to the same breakfast spot the at the train station. I guess some restaurants are just good enough to hit twice. This is where Bob told us about his love of American style pancakes. I never realized that flap jacks were so rare in England. We started talking about culturally unique cuisine, and he thought of one that he refused to describe while everyone was eating. Once we were loaded on a bus, he told us about "Black Pudding," or "Blood Sausage" as it is sometimes known. I'll let you use your imagination, or Wikipedia it if you're really curious. He assured me that it actually tastes very good, and that it just has a bad reputation because its made out of blood. I told him I thought I'd stick with pancakes in the morning.We got onto a ferry that had an open upper deck for laying out. We decided to hang out on a lower floor though, since the smoke stacks made the whole top area smell like diesel. We found a comfortable corner spot where we were able to watch the sea and the islands. At this point in the day, the weather was gorgeous.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
