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| The colourful buildings in Soi Thalang - the road where my backpackers is. |
Wednesday night, 23rd Feb I went out with Billy, a New Zealander gas engineer now divorced and travelling Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Indonesia. We started off with a tempid Singh beer and a rather eccentric trinket and antique-clad bar with an even more eccentric – or rather, touched, barman. I know by now that communicating with the beautiful Thai people is extremely frustrating, if not an absolute joy as they continue in a sing-song voice and smile and nod at your requests or questions. Even when they try their hand at English the tang of their pronunciation makes it sound as foreign and as Thai as it can get.
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| puu-ying Thai suaay ka - Thai woman are beautiful |
We forged on, leaving the barman grinning away and stepped into a bar with a band playing covers of English rock songs – the lead guitarist and singer looking deceptively akin to Rodriegus. Another Singh down and we came upon an expat bar, complete with the standard poms, aussies, kiwis, irish and swedes. We joined in the pub quiz that had only just begun and Billy and I gallantly wrote down the answers that we knew. It was great fun! THEN we went to a night club for Mekong cocktails and listened to a Thai band who had the locals in rapture. The beautiful Thai girls are reallt easy going and so friendly!
The next morning, Billy and I took a songateaw to the coast, me being very excited to wash the first Thai hangover away and enjoy my first dip in the sea.
We got off the songataew at Kata beach, after driving past small Thailand Chang (elephants), tied in chains and waiting to take a load of tourists on their back for a trek into the hillside. Now, I’m not saying I don’t want to go elephant trekking. I’d just prefer to do it in the mountains up north, away from roads and tourists and where the elephants live in sanctuaries and are well looked after. The beach was PACKED with farang (tourists), hundreds upon hundreds of parasols and loungers stacked up against each other that you can hardly walk between them. Jet skis and ski boats dominated the waters and the pretty sight of a nearby island appealed more to my sense of a tropical paradise. We however claimed a spot on the sand close to the water and reviewed our Thai phrases and words, and learning how to count to ten in Thai - ning, song, saam, see, haa, hok, djet, bpair, gaow, sip! After two hours on the beach, my stomach craved food and we did the most UN-tourist thing and spent Baht 40 (R10) each on Thai noodle soup, always with fresh spring onions, coriander, crispy sugarsnap peas and baby corn - yummy! We were the only farang eating from this cute little street stall, with a smiling Thai man every so eager to please. I just don't get why people travel all the way to Thailand to eat McDs, pizza, or spaghetti bolognaise. The seaside towns are inundated with boards and menus proclaiming 'Western breakfasts', 'Italian food', an 'Irish pub', 'hamburgers', 'steaks' and even 'bangers and mash'! It just really gets my goat - but hey...All in all, I found Kata Beach and Karon Beach incredibly over-populated, and their seaside restaurants, hotels and shops tacky, overpriced and just SO NOT what I would like to experience if I was a tourist wanting a tropical getaway. I can't imagine what a state Patong must be in? But it is part of Thailand, its the part that makes Thai people fat for indulging in Western food - its a fact!
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| Ferry approaching Ko Samui |
On Friday 25th, I arose early, packed my backpack, and made for my journey to the island of Ko Samui where I would be doing my 2 week teacher training course. I paid Baht 850 (R220) for a bus and ferry trip to the island instead of B2200 for a plane ticket. Instead of a one hour flight to Thailand's oldest island, it took me 12 hours to get there. I travelled by minibus for 3 hours to Surat Thani where I waited in a transfer hut from 11am to 2.30pm with about 12 other backpackers. We then took a 1.5 hour drive in an AIRCONDITIONED bus to DonPak harbour and joined about 50 more backpackers heading to the islands of Ko Samui and Ko Pha Nang. The wait was half hour until we boarded the ferry. At 5pm - I arrived on the island, took a songataew (something that is second nature to me and reminds me of the dollar-dollars in Zanzibar) to Lamai and have been here for a week tomorrow! At this very moment I find myself sitting outside my beach bungalow, two cats at my feet, under the palm trees, listening to the night sounds (I'll tell you about the insane geckos that wail next time) and the waves gently caressing the shoreline. It seems like I’ve been here for months.
I'll write you all about it in my next blog...
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| A view from my bungalow |
1 comment:
Nice one inx! Love it
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