The Hangover 3, day 2

Koh Phi Phi day 2

Now for the account of day 2 – I was originally going to put days 1 and 2 together, but it was have been WAY too long.

I can’t fully remember what time Karima and I returned to our hotel from the beach party, but it was quite late. Fortunately, we were able to sleep in until about 11 – it was also raining all morning so we didn’t miss much. When I woke up, I had sand in my hair; body paint still on my arms, back, and face; and a burn on my foot from the flaming skipping rope. A night well spent, I would say!

  

The orientation/Australian people were going on an all day booze cruise, but we decided we wanted to do something else. There are tours offered to a nearby smaller island, Koh Phi Phi Leh (uninhabited). These tours feature snorkelling and a stop at Maya bay – a very beautiful beach where the movie “The Beach” was filmed. These cost about 350 Baht including national park fees, so we thought it was a good deal, and would be a good way to pass the afternoon. However, it was still raining a bit and the agency we approached wasn’t sure if the tours would be running and told us to come back later. We had breakfast in an Indian/Thai restaurant and tried and failed to coordinate things with other people around. After breakfast, the rain stopped so we were able to buy our tickets.

At 1:30pm, we left the agency for the pier. The walk consisted of us following a man on a bicycle through the streets. There are no cars in the main village on Koh Phi Phi, and you get around on foot or on a bike. You would be walking along, and suddenly hear a Thai person yelling “Beep! Beep!” at you...slightly chaotic. The closest thing back home it reminded me of was the village at Mont Tremblant. There were restaurants, tour agencies, guesthouses and shops EVERYWHERE. It was somewhat unreal. Also, several open air tattoo parlours where you can get the famous Thai bamboo tattoos. Anyway, our walk also took us through the part of the town where the locals live – it was much shabbier and the pathways were all muddy. It makes you feel really bad about your accommodation, etc., on the island when you see how the locals live. 

We eventually made it to the pier, and were loaded into our long-tail boat. These are one of the iconic images of travelling in southern Thailand. We had the option of going in a speedboat, but it was more expensive, and we wanted to ride in the long-tail boat anyway. Our first stop was a cove where there are lots of monkeys. We threw bananas to them, and one even climbed on our boat. We also saw some swimming to get the bananas that had fallen in the water. Twas pretty cool!

From there, we went to our first snorkelling stop in another cove. There were lots of fish to see, and the cove itself was gorgeous with its steep cliffs and turquoise water. At one point, one fish full out attacked me. I must have swam over its rock or something. It actually bit my thigh before I was able to scramble away. It was moderately terrifying and I had/still have a visible bite-mark. I spent a while hoping it wasn’t the variety of fish that is poisonous. It wasn’t very big or anything, just especially territorial I guess. We stopped again at another spot where there was more coral. There were so many different types of fish there: all different shapes, sizes, and colours! I also saw a bunch of clams, urchins and anemones. At one point, I got really excited because I saw one of the types of fish that was featured in “Finding Nemo”. I’m not 8 years old, I swear...

 Our next stop was Maya Bay – It was spectacular. The bay is surrounded by cliffs, which form cave like structures at the bottom. The beach itself was beautiful white sand, and the water was the famous light turquoise colour. We wandered around the beach, looking for seashells and crabs. After about an hour, we hopped back into our boat and headed back to the main island. At this point, it was actually quite chilly, so I was happy to go back. 

 In the evening, we had dinner at the Thai restaurant again and met up with the group of people from my orientation (who also decided to eat at a fancy restaurant)(I don’t know how they can afford to do so!).  From there, we went to Patty’s Pub, where we were greeted by free shots from the owner. The owner, Patty from Ireland, also sat down with us and discussed what it was like to run a business on Koh Phi Phi – it sounded like no fun. He rattled off some pretty steep figures for rent and whatnot, and also mentioned something about the Koh Phi Phi mafia. He was closing up shop and recommended we go to another bar, “Banana Bar”. On Koh Phi Phi, you can also buy “Do-It-Yourself” buckets of alcohol that include a can of pop, an energy drink, and a mickey of the alcohol of your choice. A few times, we stopped to by those with various friends. 

Banana Bar was alright, but I wasn’t really feeling the bar vibe. I also didn’t want to stay out too late (ha) because of the late night the day before, and NYE coming up.  After a while, Karima and I left to wander, but we got a call from one of Karima’s friends mentioning something about night swimming. We thought that might be fun, so we went to the northern beach again. On the way, we stopped to talk to various people, including people from Sweden, Russia, and Australia. Once we arrived, we decided there were too many people walking around who might potentially steal our stuff. That, and there were several guys peeing in the water. So we decided to just chill on the beach, which was what I was most interested in anyway. Another Australian guy also came by and decided to join us. It was quite nice, but I was super tired. We ended up leaving the beach around 4am. The plan was to catch the 9am ferry the next day to Phuket. Wooooo...

The Hangover 3, Day 1

Koh Phi Phi

And so begins the tale of some of the 3 most ridiculous days of my life. This post will cover day 1, so stay tuned for days 2 and 3!

On the morning of December 29, I was to meet Karima in Krabi – where we would then take the ferry to Koh Phi Phi. A few days beforehand, I had asked the guest house owner if I could arrange a minivan ticket from Khao Sok to Krabi, and she said no problem and to remind her the day before. So on the evening of the 29^th, I went to remind her and she said that she was going to make the booking and things wouldn’t be a problem. I proceeded to blindly enjoy my evening with dinner with the 2 Americans, and then learning to play 3 Card Rummy with the Austrians. However, just as I was going to bed, one of the guest house employees came up to me and said they were unable to get me a minivan ticket, as they were sold out. I was not pleased... But at this point, there was nothing I could do. There was another way to get to Krabi – I could catch a big bus to a town called Takua Pa, and from there, a bus to Krabi. So I figured it wouldn’t be so bad. HA!

I got up early on December 29, and got a ride to the bus stop from the hotel staff (who were very helpful and friendly while I was there, except for the minivan issue). The bus was supposed to come around 9 am – I arrived around 8:30am. I had to wait a bit over an hour for a bus to arrive. By this time, there were about 15-20 people waiting for a bus in that direction, and the bus that eventually came was destined for Phuket (a popular route). But I was determined to get on: I hurried to the front of the group and handed my bag to the attendant quickly. This is definitely one advantage to travelling alone! The bus was jam packed – I ended up standing in the stairwell. Fortunately, Takua Pa was only about 40 minutes away.

Once I arrived in Takua Pa, I asked a bus station worker for a bus to Krabi, and they put me on a bus. However, once we had driven for about 10 minutes, I found out that this bus DIDN’T go to Krabi after all. It did stop at a town basically on the way to Krabi, and I could catch another bus from there. At least it wasn’t going somewhere out of the way, which would make my travels even LONGER. Yet still, aat this point I just felt like sobbing quietly to myself. SIDENOTE: The last ferry to Koh Phi Phi leaves Krabi at 3pm, so it was a bit of a race against the clock. I really did NOT want to end up stranded in Krabi. This bus was also a bus that didn’t have air-conditioning, so all the windows were open. That didn’t stop the driver from going at least 100km/h. I was happy were going fast, but it felt like I was riding on an open air rocket ship – when I got off, my face was quite raw from the wind. We arrived in the other town just as a bus going to Krabi pulled in, so I immediately hopped on that. It was also very crowded, but a young Thai woman offered to share her seat with me. The entire time, I was checking my location on my iPhone GPS and thinking “Ok, so if it took 15 minutes to get that far, it’s about another 3 times that distance to Krabi, so I should be there in 45 minutes” and so on.

Around 1:50pm, I finally arrived in Krabi. As usual, I was swarmed by taxi drivers asking ”where you go?”. At first, I just replied “to the bathroom”, as I really had to pee, was very frazzled, and was not feeling very nice. After a few minutes, I hopped on a motorcycle taxi, and was on my way to the port. It was actually quite a nice ride – there wasn’t much traffic, and Krabi is quite scenic. It was refreshing after all those buses. I arrived at the port around 2:10pm and bought my ticket. Hooray! The ferry took about 2 hours, and I met Karima at the pier around 5pm. I slept most of the way on the ferry, as I was exhausted. Once I arrived, I dumped my stuff in our room, put on my bathing suit and headed to the beach. I also really wanted a beer. On the beach, we met up with Karima’s orientation friends and a group of Finns and Norwegians who looked more like Australian surfers – tan and with bleach blond, long hair. After a bit of wandering, we met up with a group of 3 Australians Karima’s friends had been hanging out with. They wanted to go to a fancy restaurant for dinner, so Karima and I went to our hotel to prepare our drinks for the evening, and then had dinner at a more standard Thai restaurant. After my fiasco of a day, I was definitely ready to get my drink on.

We met up with the orientation-Aers/Australians at a nice restaurant by the water. The thing about Koh Phi Phi is things can be quite expensive: food, drinks, accommodation. You can find things on the cheap, but you need to look a bit harder than most other Thai places. After dinner, we decided to head to the beach – it was the full moon the previous day, and we were lured to a beach club with the promise of body paint and fire shows. While we were walking around, a local basically shoved a monkey (a gibbon, I think) in my arms, and asked if I wanted to pay to take a picture with it. I declined, but it was still fun holding the monkey – it was very soft and fuzzy. And also wearing a shirt and diaper... teehe. 

We arrived on the northern beach, and were able to immediately find body paint. The guy working there painted quite an elaborate scene featuring butterflies on my arm – I wish I had gotten a picture of it! On the beach, we ran into a big group of people from my orientation. One girl had her own supply of body paint, so I had another piece done on my face. At this point, the fire show started. This fire show was much more...ahem...audience participatory than the one I was at on Koh Samet. It included skipping with a flaming rope, jumping through a fire hoop, and limbo-ing with a fire bar. Probably not the best combination with copious drinking, now that I think about it. I did all three, and spent a lot of time doing the skipping. It was exhilarating, that’s for sure. But a lot of fun too!

After a bit, the party started picking up on the beach - it spilled out from the club onto the sand. It was quite amazing, especially considering how it was late December. We were dancing like crazy in the sand and water. At various times, we went to get apply more body paint. One of the Australian guys was with us for a while, but he vanished after a bit. It was like a huge group party – even one was just dancing with everyone else, it that makes any sense. I had A LOT of fun!

PS Apparently body paint is stronger than laundry detergent, as it is still all over the tank-top I was wearing. Memories, I guess!

I spent Christmas in a tropical rainforest. You?

Khao Sok

My new year’s vacation started on December 25, which gave me a few more days off than most. Karima wasn’t  off until December 28, so I had a few days before I would meet her. Seeing as all my other friends were also still working, I decided it was time to go on another solo adventure! Hooray! I decided that I would go to Khao Sok National Park: it was near where I would meet Karima, and it was a place I very much wanted to go. It is described as a jungle that is much the same now as it was 160 million years ago. The park is also full of spectacular limestone cliffs and mountains. The one deterrent I had was that Khao Sok is famous for the existence of land leeches. Leeches are my phobia, but I wasn’t going to let that get in my way...much. 

I left the evening of December 24 – I caught a bus from the Sai Tai Mai bus station headed to Surat Thani, a city in southern Thailand. From there I had to catch another more local bus to Khao Sok. I arrived at the bus station with plenty of time, and had my Christmas Eve dinner. At 8pm, I caught my bus. Even though it was a 2^nd class bus, it was with a private company, so it was even more comfortable than the bus we took to Chiang Mai. I was in the very front row of the top section, so I had even more leg room (not that I need it with my short legs!). The seats also had a foot-rest like a reclining easy chair. On the way, we were given water, pastries, coffee, and a moist towel-ette. I was able to sleep most of the ride.

We arrived in Surat Thani around 4:30am – even at that time of night, I was still swarmed by taxi drivers when I disembarked. The bus I needed didn’t arrive until 7am, so I sat in the station, listened to music, and tried not to fall back asleep. The bus did arrive a bit after 7am: I was herded on board by various employees of the bus station. I didn’t want to sleep as I didn’t really know how far it was, but whenever I try not to sleep on buses, I fall asleep immediately. But I woke up before I needed to get off, and the attendant called me when we arrived at Khao Sok.

The Khao Sok headquarters and visitors centre is located about 2km off the highway. Along this smaller road are several guest houses, restaurants, and tour companies. Even though it was largely directed at Western tourists, it was pretty quiet and not too theme park-y. I think there was one bar on the road. I had made a reservation at Smiley Bungalows, and they gave me a room right away, even though I arrived around 9:30am. I was staying in a wooden bungalow, elevated about 10 feet above ground. It was quite basic, and the door didn’t close all that well, but it was still quite comfortable. And the scenery was amazing: we were surrounded by trees and nature, and massive cliffs. 

Seeing as it was so early, I decided to go on a walk in the park. I was able to get the teacher’s price at the park entrance, and headed to the main trail that passes by several small waterfalls and other sites. The trail was quite wide and followed the Sok River. The “waterfalls” weren’t that impressive, as it’s the dry season at the moment, but the walk was still lovely. I eventually stopped at a wider and deeper part of the river. It was here that I saw the first leech. It was just on my shoe, but I still panicked. I basically stomped on my foot really hard to try to get it off. But those things are persistent... I eventually got it off, and decided it was time to turn around (I had come as far as I wanted anyway). Oh yeah, and this was all happening on Christmas Day. It didn’t feel like Christmas at all, and I thought it was cool to spend it in the jungle. 

In the evening, I had dinner in a local restaurant. I also learned that Pad Thai in this area of Thailand consists of noodles and ketchup. Not the most delicious... I was supposed to skype with my parents at 9pm, so I passed the time sitting in the guest houses common area/restaurant, chatting with an Italian and two Belgians. For skype, I went to a nearby internet cafe. It was nice to see my family on Christmas, and I only felt a little homesick. It didn’t feel like Christmas anyway so I didn’t feel like I was missing too much. 

The next day, December 26, I went on another walk in the park. There is a less used trail that leads to a larger waterfall, Sib-et-Chan. The walk was very neat, as it was much wilder than the other trail. However, this meant a lot more leeches. I was constantly swatting them off my boots and socks (none of them got a proper hold). If I stood still, I could see them inching their way towards me. I tried to tell myself not to worry about them, they wouldn’t hurt me, I had my lighter to burn them off if they attached themselves, but I was still walking in the state of mild panic attack. (Note: you can buy leech proof socks, but I couldn’t find them anywhere in the town. Boo) After a while, I decided the waterfall wasn’t worth it and turned back. I later found out it has basically dried up at this point, so I wasn’t missing much. I still enjoyed the walk through the jungle: at one point, I heard monkeys calling to each other (but couldn’t see any). On the way back, I stopped by the river and took a rest on a leech free rock and watched the birds and butterflies the size of birds fly by. It was lovely.

 Probably the world's most questionable bridge

 On the 27^th, I decided to go on a 2-day tour offered by Smiley to their lake house on the Chiaw Lan Lake. This is a massive lake that, like the Khao Laem reservoir in Sangkhlaburi, was created by a dam built (this one in 1982. I checked out of my room for the night, and had breakfast. Mmm... Banana Pancakes. Then we all piled into the minivans and departed for the lake. In our group, there were 2 Austrian families (travelling together), 3 French...people?, a Russian couple, and 2 americans, one of whom was also a teacher. It took about an hour and half to get there. On the way, I was sitting in front with the driver (one of the owners) and his son, who was about 5 or 6. It was the first time I’ve worn a seatbelt in months. On the way, we stopped for beer in a town: the Austrian families bought a flat of cans of Chang between them – we were quite amused. At one point, the driver was fiddling with something, so his son took the wheel (we were going straight). It was only slightly terrifying.

We eventually arrived at the Chiaw Lan Lake – the pier was crawling with other tourists going to various lake houses. We all piled into a long-tail boat, and were on our way to the lake house. It took about an hour, navigating through the limestone cliffs and coves. After about an hour, we arrived at the Smiley lake house – a house literally floating in a secluded cove on the lake, with a few bungalows for guests to stay in. It is impossible for me to describe how beautiful it was... We had free time in the afternoon, so we went swimming and hung around the dock. The Americans, Hannah and Abigail, and I took out one of the kayaks and paddled around some of the nearby islands. At one point, we were trying to switch places and I fully fell out of the kayak. Goooood times. It almost felt like I was staying on a lake back home – but then I remembered it was December.

In the evening, we had dinner at the house. All the food we had there was delicious, and the tour included 2 breakfasts, 2 lunches and a dinner. The staff called Hannah and I “kun kru” the whole time, which means “teacher”. Before dinner, at dusk, we went on a “safari” on our longtail boat. We rode to some of the more wild parts of the lake. We saw several horn bills: a handful of the smaller variety and one of the BIG ones. I was very happy to see them! We also saw a few monkeys – macaques. After dinner, we all hung out and had our beer. It was very chill and relaxing – all the people on the tour were fun to hang out with as well. It always makes these types of tours better when you have a good group of people. 

The next day, I woke up before everyone else – around 6:15am. So I went out and sat on the dock – it was a very misty morning. After the hustle and bustle of my neighbourhood, it was lovely to have a nice morning in the middle of nowhere. Our Thai tour guide was up and about, so we chatted a bit about teh area. He said that 4 villages were flooded when the dam was built. I guess these types of projects have their advantages and disadvantages... At 7am, we left for the morning safari. We saw several different types of monkeys – macaques, gibbons (body shaped more like an orangutan), and lankas. The Lankas were leaping from tree to tree – it was quite amazing.

The activity of the 28^th was to go on a jungle trek to the Tham Nam Thalu cave. We took the boat to where the trail began, which wasn’t too far away. We walked through the jungle for a few kilometres. They warned us before hand we would be walking in water, so we all walked through the streams in our shoes. It was a bit liberating not to worry about getting your feet wet! And I only saw 1 leech! Hooray! We eventually arrived at the cave, which hard quite a large and dramatic opening. The walk through the cave was fantastic, you just had to not worry about what would happen if you fell or if the cave suddenly collapsed. But who worries about these things anyway... :P In the cave were fantastic rock formations, and stalactites/stalagmites. If you are one of those people who can’t remember which is which, one of the French guys taught me this cool trick (if you speak French): stalacTites are on top because the water falls from them – in French, “tomber” – and stalagMites are on the bottom because they rise, or in French “monter”. It’s genius!

 In the cave, we also saw hundreds of bats, hunkered down for their day time sleep. It was really cool. Most of the time, we were walking along the river that has carved out the cave over these past millions of years. At some points, the water was quite deep: at one point, it was even above my head! The trickiest part was at one point, there was a narrow waterfall. So, first, we had to shimmy through the rocks with your feet on one side, and your hands/backs on the other side. Then, we had to awkwardly hop and step down to the bottom of the fall. It was quite the adventure! I was certainly happy I brought me headlamp!

In the afternoon, we had some spare time before heading back. We swam and dived off the dock – I was even brave enough to try doing a few flips! Around 3:30pm, we all piled back into the boat, and headed back to the guesthouse. I had dinner with Hannah and Abigail at one of the local restaurants. We ordered green curry, som tum and a local dish, some leaf with coconut milk. Very tasty! Then, we played cards with a couple of the Austrians – I think the game was 3 card rummy, which I had never played before. But I eventually figured it out! The next morning, I was to leave for Krabi/Ko Phi Phi to meet Karima.

So far, Khao Sok has been one of my favourite places I’ve been. The scenery was gorgeous, the wildlife was amazing, and the people were friendly. It was a lovely stay, and I’m very happy I did the lake tour, even more it was a bit expensive. But it was totally worth it. I’m starting to realise that with national parks, it is best to do guided adventures. First of all because they know the best places to take you, and are able to point things out. Second, because most parks make it difficult to see the sites properly without a guide. In conclusion, I’d rather spend a bit more money and get the most of my stay in the park. It was an amazing 4 days!

"Sandy" Claus is coming to town!

Christmas in Thailand

Christmas is very popular in Thailand, from a completely commercial point of view. There are Santas, reindeer, Christmas trees, and whatnot all over. In our school, there was quite a large display set up and you could see similar such displays in the larger departments stores and malls. I think there is about a 1% Christian minority in Thailand, and the official religion of the country is Buddhist. Therefore, the holiday is not “officially” celebrated, and the religious element is almost completely omitted. In our teacher orientation, we were told Christmas carols and activities were great, but to steer away from anything that was religion centered. 

 For much of the previous week, I was doing Christmas crafts and activities with my students. One day, I made paper snowflakes with my 4s and I made origami Santas with the 3s. We also did Christmas drawings, and sang carols including Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. It was a lot of fun, especially making the snowflakes. The kids had never made them before, and got really excited when I demonstrated how to make one in front of the class. Soon, kids were getting out more paper to keep making the snowflakes. Even the boys were very into it. Many of them also found that they made fun masks as well!

 Leesor, Aum and Aum

 The girls in 4.2 like to swarm my desk

 Game and Earth

 Napat, Earth and Boss

 Mix and Rin

 Boss and Napat

Christmas Eve was my last day of class before our holiday, and the other foreign primary teachers had already left for their trips. So the brunt of bearing Christmas spirit fell on me. In the morning, I showed up early, as was asked, to find a santa (or Mrs Claus, if you will) costume laid out over my desk. My first thought was, “I really hope the skirt fits” (based on my difficulty to buy shorts here). But it did...barely. With the jacket on, you couldn’t see that the skirt didn’t zip up all the way. 

First, we went down for the special Christmas Eve assembly – my students seemed to enjoy my outfit. One of the older classes put on a Christmas dance and skit... It was in English but I had no idea what was going on. Then I had to wish the students a “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. I was pretty happy not to have to sing, dance or do anything else too embarrassing. As I already had basically no idea what was going on. After that, we went over to the Anuban building, where they were having their assembly. The students did their dance, and then we handed out candy to the students. They are so funny. I was basically just throwing candy around randomly. Was good times.

 I'm not awkward at all...

 Handing out candy at Anuban

 The English department (minus a few foreign teachers)

 the English teacher's CD cover

I wore the outfit for the rest of the day: it was pretty fun. Also, apparently Mrs Claus is known as “Sandy Claus” in Thailand. In my classes, I did review to help them prepare for their exams over the next two days. I hope they did well. As for myself, I headed to the bus station after class to catch my bus down south. My Christmas eve dinner consisted of pork wonton soup. Yum yum! In general, I didn’t really feel like it was Christmas. I guess mainly because it is so hot, and because I wasn’t with my family. This was the first time I wasn’t with my family for Christmas Eve, and Christmas. But I didn’t find it too bad. I am still enjoying the warm weather and the sights in Thailand.