Thailand
I'm back, baby! If you thought the last few postings were getting a bit anemic (and Tatyana back-filled half the last post), you were dead-on... India sucked the wind out of me, and then kicked the crap out of me... and then it stole from me... and I was a bit tuckered out over the last month. If you ever do go to India, go on a full tank. After four months of traveling, I think we were simply in no mood for it... But now I've got a song to sing, and you're going to get more than you'd like.
So, having made the best of our side-trip to India, we booked it to Bangkok for a much needed change. Loved it there. Much of our first impressions of Thailand were tempered by our experience in India, so the things we loved so much about it are very much simple contrasts to the subcontinent...
Bangkok is quiet. No doubt anyone who has been there will screw up their face and say 'whaaaa?', but let me explain. Bangkok is busy, yes, but loud it is not. Amidst all the traffic, very few horns. And green, Thailand is sooo green; lush and brilliant in every way. Driving through Thailand, it seemed at first, was no different than driving through any other place in the U.S. -very similar, culturally. Side note: we have yet to visit a country on this trip where driving is done on the "right" side of the road. Makes you wonder whether right is right...
Bangkok is a busy place; the tourist hub reminded me of so many spring breaks; loads of young westerners taking advantage of legal drinking, the party atmosphere, and of course the endless "special shows"; acts of a depravity that you can't even think up for a girls gone wild shoot...
The Thais dev0te, what seems to me, to be an inordinate amount of money on structures of religious significance. When we visited the world peace center in Lumbini, Nepal (you may recall), Thailand's Buddhist monastery was by far the most ornate, and most impressive. No different at home, where the monasteries, temples, palaces and other points of religious and cultural significance are not to be outdone. Really amazing to walk along and through these sites. Gold, gold, gold, and colored mirrors, sparkling in the sun, and more gold. Check out Tatyana's facebook pictures to get a sense of what I'm talking about. We visited solid gold statues of the Buddha, that stood over ten feet tall and weighed, literally, TONS... works of the finest art that sat encased in plaster for centuries, hidden from plain sight and Burmese raiders... and, somehow, someone forgot that they were hidden within these faux shells.... Amazing. The largest solid gold statue of the Buddha (which is pretty darn cool to see up close) wasn't discovered until made a boo-boo while moving it and the plaster chipped. Imagine that discovery. So, to spend no more time on this particular subject, the view is pretty nice down here in Thailand. Speaking of the view, "ladyboys" are no joke. The trannies are everywhere here, and it can be very hard to tell the difference. No doubt if I had visited this place ten years ago, as a single guy, I'd have some interesting stories to tell. This trip, of course, is nearly strictly PG. Nearly.
The food here is awesome. And cheap. I love pad thai, and have been very pleased to learn that it is not an American bastardization of a foreign food. But this stuff is the real deal, and you can get a loaded plate for less than a buck. I always wonder how the stuff I get at home would compare to the original.... you'll be interested to know that they are pretty spot on at your local thai joint. You'll be further interested to know that the BEST replica I have had yet still remains the late "Tasty Thai" that used to sit across from the Taco Bell on Coffee Road, around the corner from Zach's house in Modesto... always loved that pad thai.... 'nough of that. The other night we had the best BEST hang-town fry (oyster omelet) I have ever had -this stuff puts to SHAME the fry at the Heathman Hotel in Portland. Even Tatyana liked it, and she nearly barfed when she tried one at the Home Plate on Lombard one Sunday morning for brunch...
We ate frog on a stick one day, which did NOT taste like chicken, and the fish on a stick here is mostly good -sometimes the innards don't cook right and they can be really bitter when they're bad. The green curry in Thailand is now my favorite dish (even more than the aforementioned pad thai). On Koh Tao, we had killer white snapper and trevally.
After four days in Bangkok, we jumped a bus down to Chumphon, where we caught the ferry to Koh Tao, the epicenter of Thailand's dive culture, to take a three-day SCUBA course. It was a ton of fun; palm trees, bungalows, grilled fish, sand, you know the drill. The exciting thing for us, is that after a couple of months of hard travel, the next five months will be mainly focused on island chains, and we are going to get tan, and we're going to swim, and we're going to snorkel, and neener...neener...neener...
We passed SCUBA school with no major incidents (and a whole lot of mask snot), and are now officially on SCUBA Steve's scuba squad... which should come in handy over the next few months. After Koh Tao, we jumped the ferry back to the mainland and took a minibus to the west coast and Krabi, where we are today. Really nice here, and the monsoon isn't creating too many problems just yet.
By the way, have you ever had Thai iced tea??? It's the best! You remember when you were a kid, eating Honey Nut Cheerios (or maybe you still eat them -not casting any judgement, we're all friends here), and the cold honey-nut flavored milk at the end was almost just as good as the cereal itself? Yeah, well, thai iced tea tastes like chilled honey nut cheerio milk, and it is WONDERFUL! Can't get enough of it. We're putting this stuff away like water in India. Side note: I'm peeing again, which is a really good sign. I didn't pee for like two weeks straight in India; I was drinking five or six liters a day, and would sweat every last drop out within an hour. White people suck down a ton of water everywhere they go, I've noticed. I have even grown a little self-conscious about my ever-present water bottle on the road. The water bottle culture is singular to western society. EXCEPT in India, where you KNOW its hot when even the locals are sucking the stuff down almost as fast as you are... Except we pay up for what we hope is filtered water from the market, and the Indians drink it straight from the Ganges (see previous blog entry)... Anywaaaays, my urine is the satisfying shade of banana sherbet these days, and I thought you should know all about it... OK.
Tomorrow morning we are going to catch a songthaew to Ao Nang, where we will then catch a long-tail boat to what westerners call Railay. In the next posting we should have some pretty amazing pictures of the granite and limestone coastline of western Thailand. The beaches are going to be killer. Of particular note, we will be making our way to Ko Phi Phi ("pee-pee") in the next few days, home of Maya Bay, which was the beach filmed in the movie "The Beach" starring Leotardo... pretty cool, yeah? We'll take pictures so you can wish you were here, don't worry. :@
Ok, 'nough of all that. See Tatyana's pictures for the latest on Thailand:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025938&id=1009299883&l=c0e5dcd16f
A quick note: after four-plus months out, we are about a thousand bucks behind on the budget. $30 a day is reasonable, when you don't count travel costs, but we travel almost every day and it ain't cheap. And Africa killed us. That said, we blew $500 on scuba school, and we're only $1500 behind. We have $3500 left to last us five months... looks like we'll be dipping into the house fund a bit. But hey, you only get so many chances to see what Thai chicks can do with ping pong balls.... right Tatyana?
So, having made the best of our side-trip to India, we booked it to Bangkok for a much needed change. Loved it there. Much of our first impressions of Thailand were tempered by our experience in India, so the things we loved so much about it are very much simple contrasts to the subcontinent...
Bangkok is quiet. No doubt anyone who has been there will screw up their face and say 'whaaaa?', but let me explain. Bangkok is busy, yes, but loud it is not. Amidst all the traffic, very few horns. And green, Thailand is sooo green; lush and brilliant in every way. Driving through Thailand, it seemed at first, was no different than driving through any other place in the U.S. -very similar, culturally. Side note: we have yet to visit a country on this trip where driving is done on the "right" side of the road. Makes you wonder whether right is right...
Bangkok is a busy place; the tourist hub reminded me of so many spring breaks; loads of young westerners taking advantage of legal drinking, the party atmosphere, and of course the endless "special shows"; acts of a depravity that you can't even think up for a girls gone wild shoot...
The Thais dev0te, what seems to me, to be an inordinate amount of money on structures of religious significance. When we visited the world peace center in Lumbini, Nepal (you may recall), Thailand's Buddhist monastery was by far the most ornate, and most impressive. No different at home, where the monasteries, temples, palaces and other points of religious and cultural significance are not to be outdone. Really amazing to walk along and through these sites. Gold, gold, gold, and colored mirrors, sparkling in the sun, and more gold. Check out Tatyana's facebook pictures to get a sense of what I'm talking about. We visited solid gold statues of the Buddha, that stood over ten feet tall and weighed, literally, TONS... works of the finest art that sat encased in plaster for centuries, hidden from plain sight and Burmese raiders... and, somehow, someone forgot that they were hidden within these faux shells.... Amazing. The largest solid gold statue of the Buddha (which is pretty darn cool to see up close) wasn't discovered until made a boo-boo while moving it and the plaster chipped. Imagine that discovery. So, to spend no more time on this particular subject, the view is pretty nice down here in Thailand. Speaking of the view, "ladyboys" are no joke. The trannies are everywhere here, and it can be very hard to tell the difference. No doubt if I had visited this place ten years ago, as a single guy, I'd have some interesting stories to tell. This trip, of course, is nearly strictly PG. Nearly.
The food here is awesome. And cheap. I love pad thai, and have been very pleased to learn that it is not an American bastardization of a foreign food. But this stuff is the real deal, and you can get a loaded plate for less than a buck. I always wonder how the stuff I get at home would compare to the original.... you'll be interested to know that they are pretty spot on at your local thai joint. You'll be further interested to know that the BEST replica I have had yet still remains the late "Tasty Thai" that used to sit across from the Taco Bell on Coffee Road, around the corner from Zach's house in Modesto... always loved that pad thai.... 'nough of that. The other night we had the best BEST hang-town fry (oyster omelet) I have ever had -this stuff puts to SHAME the fry at the Heathman Hotel in Portland. Even Tatyana liked it, and she nearly barfed when she tried one at the Home Plate on Lombard one Sunday morning for brunch...
We ate frog on a stick one day, which did NOT taste like chicken, and the fish on a stick here is mostly good -sometimes the innards don't cook right and they can be really bitter when they're bad. The green curry in Thailand is now my favorite dish (even more than the aforementioned pad thai). On Koh Tao, we had killer white snapper and trevally.
After four days in Bangkok, we jumped a bus down to Chumphon, where we caught the ferry to Koh Tao, the epicenter of Thailand's dive culture, to take a three-day SCUBA course. It was a ton of fun; palm trees, bungalows, grilled fish, sand, you know the drill. The exciting thing for us, is that after a couple of months of hard travel, the next five months will be mainly focused on island chains, and we are going to get tan, and we're going to swim, and we're going to snorkel, and neener...neener...neener...
We passed SCUBA school with no major incidents (and a whole lot of mask snot), and are now officially on SCUBA Steve's scuba squad... which should come in handy over the next few months. After Koh Tao, we jumped the ferry back to the mainland and took a minibus to the west coast and Krabi, where we are today. Really nice here, and the monsoon isn't creating too many problems just yet.
By the way, have you ever had Thai iced tea??? It's the best! You remember when you were a kid, eating Honey Nut Cheerios (or maybe you still eat them -not casting any judgement, we're all friends here), and the cold honey-nut flavored milk at the end was almost just as good as the cereal itself? Yeah, well, thai iced tea tastes like chilled honey nut cheerio milk, and it is WONDERFUL! Can't get enough of it. We're putting this stuff away like water in India. Side note: I'm peeing again, which is a really good sign. I didn't pee for like two weeks straight in India; I was drinking five or six liters a day, and would sweat every last drop out within an hour. White people suck down a ton of water everywhere they go, I've noticed. I have even grown a little self-conscious about my ever-present water bottle on the road. The water bottle culture is singular to western society. EXCEPT in India, where you KNOW its hot when even the locals are sucking the stuff down almost as fast as you are... Except we pay up for what we hope is filtered water from the market, and the Indians drink it straight from the Ganges (see previous blog entry)... Anywaaaays, my urine is the satisfying shade of banana sherbet these days, and I thought you should know all about it... OK.
Tomorrow morning we are going to catch a songthaew to Ao Nang, where we will then catch a long-tail boat to what westerners call Railay. In the next posting we should have some pretty amazing pictures of the granite and limestone coastline of western Thailand. The beaches are going to be killer. Of particular note, we will be making our way to Ko Phi Phi ("pee-pee") in the next few days, home of Maya Bay, which was the beach filmed in the movie "The Beach" starring Leotardo... pretty cool, yeah? We'll take pictures so you can wish you were here, don't worry. :@
Ok, 'nough of all that. See Tatyana's pictures for the latest on Thailand:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2025938&id=1009299883&l=c0e5dcd16f
A quick note: after four-plus months out, we are about a thousand bucks behind on the budget. $30 a day is reasonable, when you don't count travel costs, but we travel almost every day and it ain't cheap. And Africa killed us. That said, we blew $500 on scuba school, and we're only $1500 behind. We have $3500 left to last us five months... looks like we'll be dipping into the house fund a bit. But hey, you only get so many chances to see what Thai chicks can do with ping pong balls.... right Tatyana?
our marriage almost got donated to a ladyboy in Pat Pong Pat Pong, just sayin'. lol.
ReplyDeleteI guess there's cool tree houses and good "stuff" in Raleigh.. says Davez. whateverrrrr.
Let me know your next few stops, I'll look up our hotels or neighborhoods. Be SURE you have Vang Viene, Laos on your list. Tubing, Friends, and some cheap R&R. Love it!
Tracie & David
Yeah, your last few posts were kinda bumming me out. I mean, they were great but none of the funny comments we've seen in earlier posts and this current one in particular.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe you've never had Thai iced tea!! That's just nuts. Really is one of the best things out there.