Thailand!!

Around Christmas my girlfriend Tara and I went to Thailand for a nice vacation. The plan was to meet up with a couple of other volunteers who left a few days before us, and then just sort of follow them around with whatever plans they had. We had reserved rooms in all the same hostels, and the whole trip was a great time!!







Just landed at the Bangkok International!







After landing in Bangkok we took a series of trains and subways to reach the long distance train station. Our flight had been delayed by a bit and getting to the station took longer than expected so we barely made the last overnight train, and all of the sleeper cars were full, so we ended up in third class which is not super awesome.



Tara getting stoked to pass the night on this bench...



Third class was a pretty uncomfortable affair. I slept off and on for the thirteen hour ride which was much colder than I expected. I spent a good chunk of the night very cold, but luckily at some point a nice drunk man came by and draped a towel over me. I think he worked for the train line, and regularly came by with his bottle of cheap rum to tuck me in as the towel would occasionally slip off.

After the long night we stopped in Surathani which was the hub for the south part of the country. After breakfast we got on a nice bus which took us on a five hour trip to Phuket. I was amazed at how smooth and fast the roads were!!! I don't think there was single pothole on the way down to Phuket.

We made our way to the hostel we had reserved, and then headed to the beach. This was Tara's first time seeing the ocean, and think it was a pretty cool experience for her. That evening we met up with the other volunteers and they introduced us the amazing street food available in Thailand. Pad Thai, roasted pork, beef, chicken, duck, and piles of seafood. Not to mention crepes, waffles, and smoothies.

First time in the ocean!

"Wow, this water is really salty!"

A post-swim smoothie.

We spent several days enjoying the sights in Phuket. The volunteers we went with are more of the party animal type than I am. This generally meant that Tara and I could spend the morning exploring and then would meet the others in the afternoon after they woke up and we would all go somewhere else together. At night Tara and I would go experience the night life for a bit, but I lose interest in clubs fairly quickly so would generally head back to the room sooner than the others.

The nightlife in Thailand is pretty wild. I never brought my camera on these outings, so I don't have pictures. Let's just say that Thailand is a sex tourism destination. All of the main tourist areas had a spot that was made up entirely of clubs, bars, and vans that had been coverted into bars that sold alcohol by the bucket (literally). Prostitutes were everywhere: On the streets, in the bars, and most of the bartenders were also prostitutes. My friends were asked by bartenders on a number of occasions, "How much you take me home?" Lady-boys and drag queens were also everywhere and essentially impossible to tell from the women. I suppose if one was to solicit a prostitute, one would have to just ask if they were actually a woman or lady-boy or whatever was desired. I imagine that could be quite a surprise once you get back to the hotel room!

One day we made our way to Koh Phi Phi which is an island about an hour and half's boat ride from Phuket. I read about the climbing there, and was hoping to visit several times, but I didn't realize what an endeavor getting there actually is. I had imagined you could just hire a long boat, and 15 minutes later you would be there. I guess doing some research beforehand can be useful. The one visit we did make there was spectacular, and I did get to do a couple hours of climbing.



Marvin being a whiner after spending the night awake until 5 AM and then getting up at 7 for a boat ride to Koh Phi Phi.



Nate, being Nate.



The smoothies in Thailand were yummy.



Nearing Koh Phi Phi.



Some of the undercut cliffs that make Deep Water Freesoloing popular in Thailand.



Looking across to Koh Phi Leh, Koh Phi Phi undeveloped sister island.



Looking down at the back to back bays that make up Koh Phi Phi.

Tara led the first climb very well.



Resting towards the top of a climb that kicked my ass despite a relatively easy rating.



Belaying



After a few hours of climbing Tara and I headed to the beach to meet the others. It is a pretty beautiful bay.



More of Koh Phi Phi from the boat.



Enjoying the scenery.



Koh Phi Leh.



Back at the beach on Phuket. Lots of people, but also jey skis!!! I had never driven one, and had a damn good time.



Napping



Tara learned to swim for this trip. The classes she took paying off.

Another morning Tara and I went up to Sirinat National Park at the northern end of Phuket. This was incredibly refreshing for me as it was pretty far from the main tourist areas and therefore there was basically nobody on the beach. There were some nice rocks to swim out to, which we did, but had to get going too soon because we had planned to meet up with the others in the afternoon and go to a different beach.


"I swam to here!!"

On Christmas eve we met up with another Volunteer and his parents. They treated us to an amazing Christmas eve dinner buffet. It had everything imaginable, and at $140 a head it was damn good. I mainly stuffed myself with sushi, oysters, beef roast, and of course desserts, but I also had salad, chicken, turkey, duck, pork, cheeses, breads, bass, smoked salmon, a variety of roasted and sauteed vegetables, and plenty of wine. His parents also came prepared with gifts for all of us which was incredibly thoughtful. They gave me some ghiradelli chocolates.

The next morning (Christmas Day) we were off to our next destination, Koh Phagnan (Koh means island). This took most of the day, and after a long bus ride and a ferry crossing we ended up at the next hostel we had reserved. The manager was really drunk and a huge asshole, so we decided to lose our deposit and go find somewhere else to stay. We got lucky, as just a couple minute's walk down the road we came to a place called Sarana Bungaloes. They not only had enough beds for us which was hard to find during peak season on Christmas, but also were extremely friendly. We had a tasty Christmas dinner there basically right on the beach. The reason we came to this island was for the Full Moon Party. We had heard tales of this thing and wanted to experience it for ourselves.

Every full moon (as well as Christmas and New Years) one area of this island has a huge party on one of its beaches. Typical attendance is 40,000 people. I was expecting mass chaos, and I think the books and such built it up so much that it just wasn't as crazy as I expected. It was wild, but not overwhelming. Most of the booze stalls gave free body paint if you bought something. There were several bars along the beach with huge sound systems pointing out towards the ocean. Each bar had a slightly different variety of techno dance music blasting so you could wander along the beach until you found a type of music that suited your moods and then dance. Most the attendees were foreigners, and everybody was very drunk and many people were on drugs. There were people who played with fire batons and such which was pretty impressive to watch. They also had jump ropes made of fire which was also fairly entertaining. I stayed for several hours and then headed back.

Tara and I went off in the morning to explore the other side of the island which is more remote and less touristy. This was probably my favorite island except there was no rock climbing to be had.


There were quite a few "waterfalls" to check out on the more remote side of Koh Phagnon. They weren't incredibly spectacular, but still very beautiful.



A pleasant creek.



One of the more remote beach areas. Getting here involved rallying a rented scooter up down some pretty steep and rough dirt roads. A good time!



Being eaten by a wave.



A remote resort.



Another waterfall.



We took the scenic hiking route to this waterfall...up the creek! Bear Grylls would have been proud.



Another cool thing on Koh Phagnan was an island that you could walk to. Much like Koh Phi Phi there are two bays that are back to back, but on this island there is no beach in between. The waves come from opposite directions and break when they hit each other. This also seems to have made a permanent sand bar that allows one to walk from one island to the other through waste deep water.



Taking a quick side hike to see another waterfall.



"Where's the waterfall?" Apparently, this one really only gets going in rainy season.



There was another picture here where Tara caught me laughing. The picture looks almost normal, so I've posted the other one.

After a nice time on Koh Phagnan we decided to do a little island hopping and went over to Koh Tao for a few days. This trip was rough... We took a high speed catamaran to get there, and on this day the sea was choppy to say the least. As soon as we got out of the bay on to the open sea the crew ran out and handed everybody a barf bag. It was pretty fun at first. The boat was rallying, and was the front would really catch air on the ten foot waves and then would drop into the next trough. It was sort of like a roller coaster...for a bit. Then the constant motion got to me. I must have eaten a lot that morning because I literally filled one bag up with vomit, and part of another one. My friends say the crew member who had the unpleasant task of collecting barf bags from the passengers looked downright impressed by the amount of vomit I produced.

After what seemed like a long time, we made it Koh Tao and some of the others set off to find a place to stay while I sat and recovered from the trip over.


Sunset on Koh Tao.

Koh Tao had a pretty good rock climbing scene. Tara and I went out each day and did some rock climbing. We also rented a motorbike to explore the island on. Koh Tao also had some pretty good hidden gems, but we just didn't have much time to explore.





Struggling up a chimney.

Success! Tara's first free hanging rapel.

I thought this climb was awfully tough, but Tara seems to be enjoying herself.

The reaching the top of a short slab climb.



Tara with a long boat behind her.

Next we were off to Koh Samui for a night. The ferry ride to this island was much less eventful. I took motion sickness meds and just slept the whole ride over. This island wasn't very neat. It was very touristy with very few redeeming qualities. All of the attractions were things like a jungle jeep safari. Of course, we only had a night that was spent in the main party area so I really didn't get the full experience. These areas are interesting to visit at night, but staying there is silly. The island probably also had a less developed part but we ended up in the part that was packed with the type of people who really have no business being alive.

We attended a beach party which was set up to be really classy, but was packed with people who must have answered the casting call for Jersey Shore. The place had a DJ, and a guy who played the saxaphone along to whatever the DJ was playing as well as a drummer who played along as well. The music was really good and unique. The attendees had a lot of hair gel, spray tans, and clearly used steroids... my kinda folks!

The hotel we stayed in only had enough rooms for us in two different units. The unit Tara and I stayed in was decent, but the unit across the street where my friends stayed was prostitute housing. These were the rooms typically used by hookers to take their clients back to. When Nate got back to his room several hookers ran into his room and he had to actually force them out before he could sleep.

The next day it was off to Bangkok for New Years Eve. We took a ferry, then a bus, and finally the overnight train back to Bangkok. This time we got into second class which actually had sleeper cars available. This was a much nicer way to travel.



Having some pineapple on the train.



A sleeper unit.

Bangkok was fun. We had been put in touch with an Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from the Phillipines and his boyfriend. They made us a nice dinner and then took us to a New Years Eve party at a gay club which was fun though not what I expected. They had music blaring, but it was so packed that moving was essentially impossible. No one was dancing. There were just people trying to have conversations over the music. It seemed a little out of place.

I was also able to meet up my good friend Quinn who had just moved to Bangkok from the US. I hadn't seen him in about five years and we had a good time catching up. We all went to a movie in the IMAX. I really enjoy watching movies in theatres so that was pretty neat. Bangkok has some pretty wealthy areas. The mall we went to for the movie was enormous and had BMW, Ducatti, and Lamborghini dealership inside...

Tara and I decided to check out an area an called Pattaya which is a beach area about two hours outside of Bangkok. We went down there for a few days and saw what could be seen there. It is the Russian area in Thailand. All the signs and menus are in Russian, and there were a lot of Russian prostitutes. We had heard this area was very trashy, and while not being anything special it wasn't overtly trashy where we were staying.



The beach at Pattaya.

On the day we were to fly out our flight was cancelled and rescheduled for a couple days later. So we had a few more days to spend in Bangkok. We went to the largest open air market in the world which covers something like 37 acres. It has literally anything in the world anybody could desire. From clothes, to pets, to plants, to strange animist trinkets, to food and everything and anything in between. I bought some ice cream.

Then it was time to come back to Nepal which was shockingly cold in comparison to the tropical heat in Thailand. If go again I would spend more time in one spot instead of moving every few days. It was nice to see a lot of the area on a surface level. Next time I would pick one area preferably with some rock climbing, less developed areas, and in proximity to the National Marine Park which I did not get to check out, but looks really, really cool.