Thailand Abridged

I haven't updated the blog in awhile, obviously.  This is purely an indication of my how interesting, diverse, and engaging Thailand is, not an indication of blogging laziness.  It's a is fascinating place. I am leaving tomorrow for Laos so here is Thailand: The abridged version.  I am sad to leave.



Stranger in a Strange Land, Satun January 14, 2012


After many great nights with many great people in Langkawi, Malaysia I decide to shift gears and find some solitude.  Ko Tarutoa is the island I choose for this. It's an island which is largely untouched by the modern world (read: no tourists).  I will camp out, literally, on the beach for 3 or 4 days.  I must first go to the mainland and stay for a night in a town called Satun.

• I arrive in Thailand via ferry boat from Malaysia. I'm the only white person out of the 70 or 80 people on the boat, only white person in my hotel, only white person at the night market, only white person in the entire town I think.  No one speaks English, bus routes are not labeled, this place was challenging.  

• I fall into my first Thailand scam quite nicely.  I pass through immigration with the mass of other Thais and walk through the ferry station, a man calls me over and asks if I need a boat ride to some nearby island (which I'm not going to), I explain I'm going to Ko Tarutoa, and we talk for a couple minutes.  Something seems odd about it though, like it's some kind of rip-off or something so I tell him I'm not interested and move on. You begin to get a sense of these things after awhile.  At this point, I look up to see the shared taxis driving into town are leaving: I just miss them. Damn. Luckily the guy I was talking to has a friend with a cab to help me out.  He's the only cab left at the station so I need to take it into town, for an exorbitant rate.  Scam explained: Guy selling boat tickets holds up as many foreigners as possible long enough for the shared taxis (cheap) to leave, then his friend comes to the rescue and drives everyone into town, for a rate 3 or 4 times the shared taxi rate.  Now I know.

• At night while searching for a reliable internet connection, I hear a strange sound out the open window:  A dog scowling in terror or pain as if someone cut it's leg off...then silence.  This probably happened 4 times.  I've heard about the eating dogs in Thailand, and I can't verify what was happening but wow.  Welcome to Thailand.

• I eat at the night market and have to use the universal pointing and sign language method of communicating.  The various things I got were really good.  I'm no sure what some of it is.

• The next morning while searching for a bus in obvious ignorance of where or how to catch it, a nice older gentleman helps me out.  He spoke some English, I told him where I needed to go, we waited for a couple minutes, he ushered me into a songthaew which pulled up, talked to the driver in Thai, I jumped in, and I was off...to somewhere.   I begin to wonder if I would have helped someone out in the same position.  I hope so.  It's an odd feeling being forced to trust complete strangers, but sometimes you don't have a choice.  I ride in the back of this  songthaew while people are constantly jumping on and off for over an hour not really sure if I was even going in the right direction.  My faith in humanity is restored (and my sanity) as the driver pulls up to the jetty.  I pay him the equivalent of 2 US dollars. 

  

A Tent on the Beach, Monkeys, and Things that Go Bump in the Night, Ko Tarutao
January 15,16,17 2012

• I arrive on Ko Tarutao via speed boat, rent a tent at the park office, and head out to find a nice spot on the beach.  There are no hotels, no stores, and very few people on the island.  I quickly realize that there are a lot of animals on the island though.  I pass a group of  Macaques eating some kind of fruits from a tree.  I set up camp and relax.  End of story.

• I walk up to the little general store to buy a lighter so I can make a camp fire at night.  On the way, I see the group of Macaques have found a bottle of red soda in front of the general store.  They've dumped it on the ground and are lapping it up with haste.  All of their faces were stained red, I laugh, and walk closer.  This was a mistake.  The big one sees me and stares me down, then starts walking over to me slowly, rearing his teeth and scowling.  I decide to get the lighter at a later time.   

• The sunsets on the island is crazy.  The pictures don't do it justice.  I meet a couple Australians one night and enjoy it together and again, relax. 

Sunset from tent

My swing

My friend

Me

The most noteworthy thing that happens on this island occurs when I decide to go out and explore the rest of the jungle island by foot.  I spend an entire day walking the main route through the island which goes from one end to the other through the jungle.

• This journey starts with another encounter with a Macaque.  As I begin to walk, I see a lone monkey sitting in the middle of the path.  As I approach it doesn't move; it just stands there, so I decide to just walk around it.  My alert level is on high from the other encounter I had with them.  These monkeys can be mean!  I get close and it jumps up and starts running at me, with teeth showing.  A moment of pure adrenaline sets in and I jump back and scurry back up the path.  WTF!  This monkey is not that big but I don't want to get bitten, get rabies, have to kill a monkey with my bare hands, or a combination of the three.  None of these options are good for me.  As I decide what to do, I notice that a ranger on a motorbike is approaching from behind me.  He, or course, sees all of this and is probably laughing.  The motorbike scares the monkey off the path and the Thai ranger stops and makes sure it runs off.  Onward, with a large "walking" stick I go.

• I see  a different variety of monkey called a langur.  There is a whole family of them in the trees so I stop and watch for about a half and hour.  There's a mom with a baby, and 7 or 8 others eating in the trees.  They see me but don't pay too much attention since they are high in the trees.  It is funny watching the baby langur.  Every once in awhile it tries to get away from the mother and she continually has to pull it back.  The interaction looked and felt oddly human.

• I pass by another section of beach where a couple more people are camping.  I talk to a guy and tell him I plan to go to one of the waterfalls off the main path.  He tells me that it's getting too late in the day to make it out there.  I ignore his advice and continue on thinking how nice it will be to go swimming in a fresh, cool waterfall after hiking all day.  After all I've hiked in New Zealand in the dark with no problems.
• I get to the turn off for the waterfall and it's starting to get dark so I stop to make a decision.  I'm going to be walking back in the dark either way, it's just a matter of how long.  The waterfall is another 2k into the jungle off the main path.  It's too far away to spend any time there in daylight since it gets dark earlier in a dense jungle, so I head back.  It will take a couple hours to get back to my tent.
• Within an hour, it's almost dark and the night animals, bugs, and sounds are in full force.  I'm not terribly worried at this point because I know there is nothing on the island that could seriously give me trouble.  There's no tigers, bears, or poisonous snakes for example.  Right after this reassuring thought runs through my head the nightmare starts.  I realize my headlamp is not as powerful as I would like. I can only really see in a narrow beam in front of me; nothing in the periphery.  I start to hear noises in the trees around me but i can't tell what's there. I catch a glimpse a a huge snake next to the trail slithering into the jungle.  I pass by a group of the Macaques in the trees and cannot see them but they all start screaming and shrieking loudly.  I cannot get the thought out of my head of seeing a dozen monkeys run out of the darkness and start attacking me.  I'm in straight up panic mode now.  I walk faster and hold my walking stick like a broadsword.  I see a giant pig dart across the path in front of me and crash through the jungle.  When I say 'see' I mean I see a flash of something go by and I have to think about what it is.  I walk faster.  I see something flying around through my light.  I cannot tell if its a bat or a small owl...it might as well been a monster at that point.  Now I have things darting across my light...in the air.  I'm being assaulted on all fronts.  I start running.  This flying monster continues to hunt insects or whatever through light on my head. After an hour of this I finally see the lights of the ranger station.  It's good to be alive.  I laugh and decide never to hike in the jungle at night ever again.

Millions of little shells on the beach

The nice langur

The evil macaque

Thai Massage, Trang January 18, 2012

• I've hear about these Thai massages so I go searching for one.  1 hour is anywhere between 5 to 8 dollars and it's well worth it.  This is the only thing I do in Trang other than eat and sleep.  Thai massages are great.  Go get a massage.    

Markets and Clear Green Water, Krabi

January 19-January 22 2012

• Krabi is a fun little town; another jumping point to the southern islands in Thailand.  
• At my guest-house, I help a French woman figure out her email for about an hour.  She had to catch a flight the next day and had managed to lock herself out of her account. She was panicking, so I offer my assistance. After letting her describe what she had done in broken English, letting her show me what was happening, an me telling her to do this and that to no avail; I tell her to "let me give it a try" (with a tone of "get the hell out of the way, idiot!").  It turns out she changed her password, and was simply typing it in wrong...again, and again, and again.  I reset it to something easier, write it down for her.  Problem solved.  She buys me dinner at the night market.
• I meet a guy from Sweden, we share our time (and drinks) for a couple hours.  He tells me that 10 years ago Thailand was so cheap that you literally couldn't spend your money and how Thailand looks completely different now.  I find his stories interesting.  At the end of the night, he starts talking to me in Swedish which is met with blank stares.  We laugh.
• I meet a German guy at the night market who tells me about India.  I begin to get both excited and anxious about going.  He tells me I'll like it and hate it, want to go home and immediately after I'm gone will want to come back.  It's shocking and exciting.  Everything is in your face; good and bad.  
• I take a trip out to the islands.  I meet an old Japanese guy who I become friends with on the boat.  The water is emerald green and crystal clear.  It almost looks as if the boats are floating in mid air.  I've never seen water like this before; it's amazing.  We go snorkeling, swimming on a couple beaches, and ride around in our speed boat to a couple caves.   I see people rock climbing on the cliff faces at Railley Beach, see kite-boarders doing tricks off a beach, and see para-sailors riding between limestone outcrops in the water.  There are hundreds of these little 'islands' everywhere.      

Scuba Time, Ko Tao
January 22-January 28 2012

• Ko Tao is a cool little island where I decide to get scuba-certified.  It takes 4 days to complete.  There's a bit of studying and homework involved, but mostly it's just practicing on the reefs which surround the island. My scuba instructor is a Canadian guy named Adrian who looks like Kurt Cobain and has the typical personality of a scuba guy; sort of a toned down, intelligent version of the stereotypical surfer dude.  I was the only one in my class which I think is unfortunate at first because I wanted  to meet some new people, but it turns out to be perfect.  See next bullet.
• The second day I'm on the island, I'm walking down the main route down the beach and I glance up and see a face which I recognize.  I immediately know who it is, but cannot believe it at first.  It's Antje from New Zealand!  We (her husband included) hung out at various places in New Zealand before departing to go our separate ways.  The crazy thing is they were a couple of the coolest people I met in New Zealand.  Now I'm not sure how to calculate the odds of this occurrence, but it must be astronomical.  What are the odds that I someone in New Zealand over a month ago, then meet up again randomly in a country which is at least a 15 hour plane ride away on one small island of many in Thailand.  It's mind boggling really.  We hang out every night until we leave.  
• Chinese New Year falls on my 30th birthday and I spend it out of a reef scuba diving.  Chinese New Year is a big deal in Asia and for the Ko Tao travelers just another reason to buy a big Chang beer and celebrate being alive.  Many people light off lanterns at night on the beach.  They look like orange stars in the night sky.
• Scuba diving down to 19 meters for the first time is a cool experience.  It feels like some kind of dream world; bright corrals everywhere, thousands of colorful fish, you can feel every breath in and out, and the blue water ascends high above you.  Scuba diving is one of my favorites now.
• Since I have to wake up early and scuba dive everyday and in general we are all over the stage where we need to party every night, we find a place to eat dinner and talk.  Many nights we go to a bar which plays new movies and curl up and relax to a movie with a beer.  On the way back to my bungalow at the end of the night I get a banana rotee (thin pancake type thing) from this crazy guy who makes them in front of you in his street corner stand.  These things are delicious. 
• One night we decide to celebrate my graduating scuba school, Antje's birthday, Conner's lead on some work, and Inga's (their friend from Germany) first time being to Asia.  We all had to pick something to celebrate!  We grab dinner and start our pilgrimage from beach bar to beach bar.  We watch fire-dancers on the sand, listen to modern pop music, laugh, and have a great time.  At one point Conner finds a lantern and we light it off on the beach near the end of the night.  It is supposed to symbolize your worries and problems floating away.  We watch it float higher and higher until it's a star in the sky.  

My home on Ko Tao

My hammock

Sunset

Lantern

Our lantern

Muay Thai, Khaosan Road, and Ladies of the Night, Bangkok
February 29-February 31 2012

• Arriving in Bangkok for the first time is a like being swept up in a tornado.  It's fast, big, noisy, loud and crazy.  It's pure sensory overload.  Khaosan road is where I first arrive.  There are tuk tuks everywhere zooming around, hawkers trying to sell you anything from custom tailored suits to little helicopters which light up from rides to ping pong shows to bugs.  There are people everywhere and music blasts from the bars which line the street.  I grab dinner with Conner, Antje, and Igna before finding a ride to the airport to pick up the brother.       
• On arrival, we buy a big beer, eat some bugs, and wander down Khaosan to observe the madness before retiring to our guest-house.    

Big, delicious bugs

• The next day we head out o n foot to check out the big Buddhist temples in the city.       

• We go to a Muay Thai fight at one of this big stadiums in Bangkok.  There are 10 different fights with varying degrees of bloodiness.  We see a fighter get his leg broken with a swift kick.  He gets carted off in a stretcher.  We see a fighter catch a punch to the face, blood everywhere.  In fact, he is so bloody they have to stop the fight.  We then take motorbike taxis to Cowboy Road to have a beer and check out the 'night life' (read: gogo bars and prostitution)  We skipped the ping-pong show because well, it's sad and pathetic.  No one is a better person for seeing this.

Motorbike taxi through the streets of Bangkok

Elephants, Opium, and Motorbikes, Chiang Mai & Pai
February 1-February 7 2012

• The train ride to Chiang Mai was challenging.  It was 14 hours long and unimaginably cold.  The AC must have been on "Freeze the Farangs to death."  In the end I'm wearing 3 layers of clothes and a blanket over my head.  All adventures have trials.
• In Chiang Mai, we go on a whitewater rafting-elephant riding-bamboo rafting-orchid farm touring-waterfall excursion; an everything-in-one trip.  We meet some Canadians who we hang out with on the trip.  We see a home/store with a small t.v. enclosed in steel bars and a group of people watching intently.  Everyone finds this comical; the enclosure probably costs more than the t.v  The Chinese guy on our trip laughs so loudly that the people watching the t.v. take notice.  He then pulls out his giant camera to takes pictures. Riding the elephants was the highlight.  They are enormously powerful animals.      
• We go to a tea house and relax for an afternoon drinking green and pu erh teas, eating healthy food, and lounging on the pillows in the tea garden.  This might be my ideal heaven.  
• We watch a flower parade.
• We go to the night market in Chiang Mai one night and get some shopping in.  We find these sweet waffles that are delicious after a couple Changs.  

• We get into Pai after dark after a long winding minibus ride through the mountains.  Our first order of business is finding a place to sleep.  Preparation, as it turns out, doesn't always lead you to the best end; sometimes winging it in the present moment leads to superior results.  We get turned down from the first four places we check in town, and after walking down a quite mountain road find a place with two guys huddled around a small fire.  We ask if they have any rooms left and they do indeed have one left. Score! We talk with them for about 45 minutes.  They offer us shots of Jamison whiskey which some Spanish couple had given them; we oblige.  They offer us some smoked sausage with lemongrass; we oblige.  We learn that one of them is from Burma, his dad built the bungalows.  We have pleasant conversation until we get the key for our room.  Nicest people in the world.
• We decide to grab dinner at a Mexican place.  We walk up as a big group walks up and immediately walk away.  We are the only ones there, which usually isn't a good sign.  I can't even remember why we chose this place, but it turns out to be some of the best Mexican food I've ever had and the Thai woman who ran the place was the nicest woman I've met in Thailand.  She basically tells us her life story and we talk for over a half an hour until a Russian girl joins us at the table.  We learn that she has been doing a yoga retreat for the past week.  

• We rent motorbikes (mine pink and Matt's red) and go on an adventure exploring outside of town.  We go to waterfalls, an old bridge, a temple, some canyons, and other small towns.  On the way we pass opium fields with locals trying to push their crop.  We respectfully decline while zooming by on the bikes.  Matt's new Nexus becomes a victim of the motorbike trip.  It turns out the smartphones and gravel roads don't mix very well and Matt joins the broken smartphone screen club.  We pass by elephants, countryside farms, and stray dogs.  We see a wild chicken get hit by a car, and we get lost for a about 30 minutes before finding another way home.     
• We meet some dutch guys in a bar and end up hanging out all night.  We talk about politics, where we've been, where we're going, life in America, life in Holland, healthcare among other things.  We're the last ones in the bar.  At some point the bar operator shuts down the bar, tells us to blow out the candle on our table when we're done, and just leaves.  He gets on his motorbike and drives off!  We stay for another 45 minutes or so to finish our beers.  We light off a lantern off and watch it disappear in the atmosphere to end the night.  The town is unbelievably nice, slow, and carefree.  It's almost as if everyone is smoking the hill tribe opium.  This is Pai. 

Rooftop of hostel

Tea

Guesthouse in Pai

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A Look Inward, Wat Rampoeng Buddhist Monastery 
February 8- February 18 2012

• After the brother goes back home, I decide my last dance in Thailand will be with a meditation/Buddhist 'retreat'.  I get a recommendation and take a tuk tuk out to the temple to meet with one of the monks to see what I need to do.  I tell him I would like to start tomorrow,and he tells me that I must start immediately.  Not really having anything important to do, I agree and shoot back to the guesthouse to grab my bag.  The daily routine is as follows:

04:00 am: Bell rings to wake everyone up to start meditation
06:30 am: Bell rings for breakfast
07:30 am: Clean up and sweep grounds
10:30 am: Bell rings for lunch
05:00 pm: Meet with teacher
10:00 pm: Bedtime

• Everything outside of these times you are meditating; walking and sitting.  There is strictly no talking except during reporting with the teacher.  You cannot leave the monastery grounds.  You cannot sit next to women.  No computer or cell phones, no reading, no eating food after lunch.  I do this for 10 days straight.  Everything is free too: food, accommodation, education.  
• I quickly realize that meditating for only 15 minutes straight is maddeningly difficult at first.  In normal life, you are always stimulated by something: work, t.v., internet, friends, telephone, etc. For me, I have been constantly seeing new things, going new places, meeting new people, planning, scheming, thinking.  When you shut all this down and just sit there your brain doesn't know what to do. It panics and trys to get you to do something...anything. If you don't believe me try it.  Try sitting down in a quiet room for 15 minutes straight and do nothing, when you are awake and alert. It's hard.
• As the days go on I can do more and more hours and longer and longer sessions.  The first day I could do about 6 hours with 15 minute intervals of sitting and walking meditation.  By the end I could easily do 9 hours with 1 hour intervals of sitting and walking meditation.  
• An odd thing happens after awhile.  You start to have this heightened awareness of your senses.  This includes sensing your own thoughts and feelings.  You begin to become aware of all the inner chatter that occurs.  It's almost as if you develop this other awareness which can directly watch you and everything that is happening in your head.  This allows you to get to know your own mind; the tricks it plays, it's default ways of thinking, how it reacts to things like being tired, bored, excited, etc. because you are only focused on what is happening right now in the present moment.  Nothing else.
• I learned that meditation is not just sitting around relaxing with your eyes closed.  It's about really focusing on what is happening in the present moment.  It takes a great deal of concentration and effort to do this.  I almost went crazy a couple times, but in the end I learned a great deal.

Teacher

Other Impressions

• Thailand has great food a combination of sweet, spicy, and sour.  Hawker stalls are the way to experience the variety of food.  Some nights I buy 5 different things while walking around with a fruit shake in hand.
• Thailand is in many ways has more personal freedom than elsewhere I've been.  In Ko Tarutoa they will rent you canoes to paddle down the river.  If you want to wear a life jacket you can, if you don't want to no problem.  In Ko Tao you can rent motorbikes. If you want to wear a helmet you can, if you don't want to no problem.  I saw so many people with bandages, limping down the road...victims of motorbike accidents.  I saw a girl get hit by a motorbike.  There's nobody watching out for you in Asia.  This is not good for stupid people.
• The variety and height of 'things' stacked on motorbikes is as comical as it is amazing.  We saw a stack of boxes stacked 12 feet high on a motorbike.  
• Everything happens on the street; markets (malls), restaurants (food stalls), people making goods, and everything you can imagine.
• English is misused everywhere.   One of my favorites is "Please, do not do laundry in the toilet"(probably meant sink here) and "Fragrant barbecue chicken drumstick of garlic" on a restaurant menu.