week 35

THAILAND CONTINUED...

26th-
- I really wanted to make the most of my time in Thailand and see some cool sites. So we booked a day trip to Kanchonburi. This is about 2hr30 from Bangkok and is known for the river that runs through it, the River Kwai.
- Now I am usually sceptical of organised day trips as I always think people are out to con, but it turned out to be amazing and very worthwhile.
- We got a minibus ride with some Japanese tourists to the city from Bangkok. Our first stop was the WWII museum. It was very interesting to get some background historical info but the museum itself was a bit odd! Funny looking statues of the famous players in WWII (I don’t know where they got their idea for Churchill!), descriptions written in normal painted handwriting along with spelling mistakes and some pretty weird artefacts. But like I say, it was good to get a bit of context.
- Then we went over the River Kwai bridge and had a walk along it. It was nothing to look at- quite small, iron and normal architecture. But the importance of this bridge lies in its history. The bridge was built by POWs in 1942-43, however the Japanese kept these prisoners in such appalling conditions that whilst building this bridge and the large stretch of railway either side (called the Death Railway) 16, 000 people died. The bridge has also been bombed many times during different wars, which makes the 16,000 deaths even more pointless and upsetting.
- Our next stop on this day trip was to a railway station in the middle of dusty paths and arid fields. We were going to take a train along a small section of the Death Railway. I was feeling a bit odd doing this. There were hundreds of tourists alongside us on the train all enjoying the ride and the views, but I couldn’t help thinking about all those innocent lives, cruelly demolished and how we were riding this train like a ride at Alton Towers. It didn’t seem right and I was uncomfortable. - After an unexpected longer ride due to a break down (!) we met our mini bus driver again who took us to a boat restaurant on the river. It was a buffet thai lunch (rice and different veg and meat curries), and was delicious and a cool setting too.
- Next we were off to ride a bamboo raft. The bamboo looked pretty unstable, but hey ho I can swim! We didn’t actually do the hard work, but the view was amazing and so serene and beautifully quiet. - Then we got close to nature once again by clambering on elephants and having a plod around a field! This ride was better than the one I had in India. The elephants looked better (not amazingly so) kept which meant that I could enjoy the views and the ‘elephanty experience’! - Our last stop off was to a waterfall. It was my first encounter with a waterfall and although it wasn’t massive it was still cool to see. It was very busy with Thai people swimming, having picnics and chilling out. The water was amazingly cold and so clear to. It was mesmerizing watching the droplets of water bounce off of one another and rush down the rocks to the pool beneath. The stalactites and stalagmites were pretty funky too in the enclosed areas beneath the water.
27th
- from 8am I was up and ready for a morning of Thai cooking. I ummmed and arrred about whether to spend the money doing this course and then realised that when else will I get the chance to do this, in Thailand, with a Thai chef, with the real Thai ingredients… answer… NEVER
- so I met at Mai Kadiee’s amazing restaurant where Jill and I had eaten, and I had seen the ad for the cooking course. The restaurant’s namesake then turned up looking immaculate, very well groomed and on a roaring motorbike!! She was great! She really has made an amazing career and life for herself. She now travels around the world teaching chefs to cook thai food. Her English is wonderful and she is very charismatic.
- First myself and the three other students (2 french speaking Canadians and an American) went to the local supermarket to be shown the key Thai ingredients. This was really interesting and very worthwhile.
- Then we went to her 2nd restaurant in Bangkok which had a big area behind for us to cook in. there were 2 hobs between us, and all the colourful ingredients were lined up and incredibly aesthetically pleasing!! - We were then given recipies and told to start! I worked with the American and it was a lot of fun. We had a Thai women guiding us and insuring we didn’t botch anything up too badly and then we got to try the food after.
- We made 10 different dishes!! Im not sure if I have ever eaten so much food, and such delicious food. It was like a party in my mouth and no one but me was invited! It was heavenly. Tom Yam, pad thai, spring rolls, curry, pumpkin houmous, papaya salad, sticky rice with cocomut and mango…. Need I go on?!? It was divine.
- That afternoon I met Jill again who told tales of her ‘eventful’ morning alone in Koh San road…. And then we walked over to the Golden Mount. This is a big gold statue which sits on top of a shrine and over looks a large portion of Bangkok. It was nice to sit on the roof of the shrine and just look and take in where we were, what we were doing, and all the information that had bombarded our senses in the last 4 days. - That evening we took an over night train down to Chumphon. Bangkok train station was modern and well organised! It made some Japanese stations look medieval which was really suprising!

28th
- I was lucky enough to get a good 6hrs sleep on the train before we arrived at the very unsociable hour of 4am.
- We then had a lot of waiting around to do before we were taken by bus along with many other tourists, to the ferry port. We then clambered aboard our ‘vessel’ and took our seats for a 3hr journey to Koh Tao.
- I decided to sit on the deck to get a good view during the journey. This turned out to be a wise move because the scenery was breathtaking. At times there was simply nothing around us but bright blue clear, deep and sparkling ocean. There were occasionally a few tiny islands that appeared, but these were mostly uninhabited forest covered mounds. I felt so free and untroubled! I dint feel as though i had any connection to the hassles and routine of daily life anymore. Everything just vanished.
Koh Tao was a pretty small island and was basically just a bigger mound inhabited than those we had already passed, but this one is inhabited by hundreds of hippies and young travellers. When we arrived at the island we hopped on to the back of a 4x4 to take us to find some accomodation. We ended up staying in the same resort as the couple we were sharing the 4x4 with. They were a british couple called Hannah and Pete, and were uber nice and friendly! so nice to talk to some new english speaking people!
The rest of that day was spent sitting, lying, reading and watching on the beach. The sun was boiling so we had to retreat to a bar every so often for smoothies and juices. It really was beautiful and the island was full of stunning bronzed men and women all under the age of 30. I have honestly never seen so many attractive people in my life! That evening we went to a beach restaraunt called Banns for dinner. I had an amazing cashew, chicken and veg curry. Whilst finishing our food, we also had the pleasure of watching the stars blinking, the dark sea rippling and a crazy thai guy juggle and dance with fire!

29th-

- Jill and i got up early to catch the more bearable morning sun. We took a 4x4 to a beach called Shark Bay (because there are sharks in the sea over that side of the island). It was deserted, and idylic. the sand was perfect, the water was cool and the black, white and grey fish swimming around me in the water were fab!

- at lunchtime we returned back to our resort and i met up with Pete and Hannah to go diving! Again i ummmed and aarred about spending the money, but I WAS IN THALAND! I had to go diving! So we hopped onto a boat with about twenty others who were snorkelling or diving and headed off to a diving site. Our instructor was an Australian surfer dude called Wayne. He was really cool and funny and turned out to be very supportive.

- we went through some safety and procedural issues on the boat and then changed into wet suits and all the diving equipment. We then got in the water and Wayne had to test us on the life skills. I knew i would bugger it up. I get a little flustered in water and this time was no exception when i had to fill up my mask with water and empty it under water. I took heaps of attempts and poor Hannah and Pete must have thought i was a right old donkey. Anyway i got their eventually and so we were able to get going....

- we started our descent down and it was unbelieveable!!! There were so many fish and sea creatures hovering and swimming around the coral. It was out of this world to be swimming with so many spectacular fish and see so many things completely alien to me. I looked up and there was 15m of water above me, and fish swimming over me, it was so bizarre! I loved the huge Angel fish we saw. They really were huge! And the sea cucumbers were weird but funky as were the bright splashes of colour over the rocks which i think were urchins of some sort.

- The 40min dive was awesome, and i felt quite relaxed after only a few minutes of thinking oh my god what if something goes wrong...and it did. But not to me! Unexpectedly, Pete's breathing tube simply burst whilst we were swimming. I was so paniced! But he was as calm as a sea cucumber and Wayne swam in to save the day! But may i reiterate....IT DIDNT HAPPEN TO ME!!

- Once we finished our dive we got back on the boat. As i was doing so i heard my name called out. Huh? I thought. I turned around to see an old uni friend on a boat opposite us!! How coincidental!

- The boat then lifted its anchor and we were off to another dive site to do a second dive. This was probably better than the first because a) nothing went wrong, b) we were a little deeper, c) there were bigger and more colourful fish d) we were swimming under and through tunnels of coral! AMAZING

- After the dive we headed back to shore, still revelling in the experience! Later that evening jill and i went to dinner with my uni friend and a few of her friends. We went to a cheap Thai restaraunt which was delicious (i had a mmmmmmasaman curry). After which we headed to Lotus bar to have a few drinks with everyone, plus Hannah and Pete. A nice relaxed evening...

30th- This morning I went for a walk with Pete and Hannah. We climbed a big hill to get a view of the sand beach that connects the three small islands off of the shore of Koh Tao. It was a super view, but i have never been so hot in all my life, and i have been in some hot places! After this we had breakfast and lazed about. In the afternoon, Hannah, Jill and I took a water taxi to Mango Bay on the north coast of the island. It was the tiniest of beaches but it had fantastic snorkelling. The fish followed us continuously and some kept sucking at our skin! Was quite funny.

- that evening we had cocktails at sunset with Pete and Hannah and then we went out to dinner altogether which was once again yummy. I had fried fish with a sweet chiili sauce and we shared the yummiest prawn crackers ever! It was sad saying goodbye to pete and hannah that evening, they were off to a different island. They were great people to meet!31st- Basically sat around all day on the beach- because i could! Unfortunately however i had either a cold emerging or an allergy and so i was sneezing and blowing my nose in 36 degree heat. Nice. That evening 'Spanner', Jill and i had dinner together along the beach which was mellow but nice. I had veggie rice. We watched the lanterns be set free in the sky which was quite magical and symbolic.

1st- Time to leave :(

- we had to check out of the resort in the morning which was not without hassle. they tried to charge us more than we had agreed, and we werent prepared to do that, so there was a very heated 'discussion' and we had threats of the police coming bla bla bla. but in the end we handed the money that we had agreed on originally, and walked away...Im still alive so im guessing its fine! But that wasnt a great start to our last full day in Thailand. The rest of the day was spent snoozing on the beach, drinking and eating.

- that aftrenoon we caught a ferry back to Chumphon, where we then had to wait for 4hrs until our overnight bus to Bangkok. I was mightly worried about the journey on the bus, but i acyually slept ok and the journey was shorter than the train. The bus was air conditioned and had reclining seats, so pretty luxourious really!