get a sense of the Thai people.
It was a very long trek from Cape Town to Dubai, Dubai to Bangkok, Bangkok to Phuket and I was so tired! Having left EVERYTHING to the last minute, I phoned the hostel in Phuket old town to get a bed for myself from Bangkok. One I had collected my luggage which had made it safely to Phuket from Cape Town without me having to mother it along the way, I got a taxi for 500Baht (divide by 4.2 for Rands) to the Old heritage and art -filled town which is located about 30km south of the airport in the district of Thalang. Needless to say the communication with the taxi driver was an absolute ball - the Thai pronunciation of English is totally alien. It took me ages to get
them to understand that I needed to get to 'Old Town Guesthouse' - finally they caught on with THEIR pronunciation as 'ow tow gey how' - hahaha.
When I arrived though, the guesthouse was closed! It was approaching midnight! So the taximan asked the bar across the road if they knew of any place. The thai owner offered me a room above the drinking hole at B350 for the night in a windowless space with a small fan, that towered precariously above the colourful street. Needless to say I needed the help of the tiny thai people to get my luggage up to my room. Negotiating up and down to the basement where the toilet was, was WORSE than my experiences of stairs in Amsterdam.
After being offered a glass of Mekong whiskey, I sat with the proprietor and his inebriated patrons who offered me fresh green mango and called me 'In' - they could not get 'Ingrid' and could not pronounce the 'x' in Inx - so we settled on 'In' - pronounced 'eeeeen'. Again, hahaha.
After a shower and blowing the black bangkok mess out of my nose, I put my airplane eyepatches on and slept through until 12 noon on Tuesday - (sorry I missed your call mom, but it was 1.30am in the morning and I was out for the count!). I walked the small village and had pork Kaw Krow for lunch at B40 - so yummy - pork, chilli and basil with black bean sauce and steamed rice. In that same road where I had eaten amid the tiny thais, I found the 37 Guesthouse, dotted with European- and dreadlocked-boys filled backpackers - and got a ground floor room WITH WINDOWS and an on-suite bathroom, wifi access and breakfast daily for less than what I paid the first night! At B300 a night, I've decided to stay until Friday, where I arise early to get the bus and ferry across to the island of Koh Samui where I complete my TEOFL course.
Today, I walked Phuket Old Town flat! The Thai people are just so lovely! I wanted to sample some funny looking street wear and offered to pay them but they refused and gave me a packet of deep fried donut-kind of things for my stroll. I remembered to slip my shoes off when entering every shop, and spent my afternoon drinking very sweet iced coffee at the Bo[hemian]ook Cafe. The beer here is also sweet, Leo and Sing Beer, and the Mekong whiskey tastes like chocolat!
Yes, and obviously I pick up - or maybe he picked me up? - the first single oldish looking bloke (he's 52 but sporty fit - oh god - like Richard) sitting at a dinner table next to me last night. Billy from New Zealand has also arrived to try his hand at teaching English - and inbetween he's sailing boats from Bali to ...? I can't remember. He gave me some wonderful Asia tripping advice, knocked the Boks sideways while punting the All Blacks, and has just come back from a run to take me for dinner and some live music in the quieter part of town near the beach.
A good many people have professed that I had tremendous courage trekking to Thailand on my own. It is funny when I remember how relaxed I was before my departure. The thought of the calming philosophies of Buddhism, the warming sensations of the chilli, ginger and soothing coconut milk, the nurturing of the sea and the notoriety of the smiling Thai people endeared me to the country without much further contemplation.
It is so bloody humid here!
Until Koh Samui!
