Thai Times
The 10 days in Thailand have absolutely flown by and it’s been brilliant. It’s a pity that our visit was so short though, because it seems like just as we are getting used to the place it’s time to go. It takes a while to be able to suss out the people – on first impression it seems like everybody is trying to con you (many are to be fair, especially in Bangkok) but after a while you are able to be a bit less general and get an idea wether someone is just being helpful, or is being helpful with the hope that they are going to get something out of it. It’s the well dressed men on the streets who come to your rescue that you have to be weary of! The worst are those bloody tailors though! The more time we spent there though, the more we came to realise that not everybody was focusing on those dollar signs in their eyes. People returned dropped money, they informed me when a zip on my bag was open and at one drink stall when I said “100 bhat right?,” the guy said it was 70. The staff in restaurants and the guys at market stalls were all nice aswell. Except those damned tailors.
I love the cheapness of the place, how you can get nice food for so little. Yes, you may eat every meal and think that it’s going to make you ill but apparently this is rarely the case and I can’t say we had a bad meal…except one…which I will come back to.
Went to the Full Moon Party in Koh Phangan on Tuesday (28th August) – was just as legendary as I had been led to believe. A huge beach, with loads of clubs all with sound rigs on the sand, blasting out dance music into the early hours. Excellent. It was a really great night. I’d reccomend the drink buckets that they sell…cheap and you get LOADS! We got a speed boat over which was a very well organised affair and got us there in no time. Unlike the dodgy wobbly boat taxis that are very slow and overcrowded…with no life jackets. I know which one i’d rather be on put it that way! Was a bit odd on the way back though…had to wade out a bit to get on the boat. Everybody was trying to get on and the boat was moving back…so by the time I got on I had waded to waist height! I must admit I was a little weary of the full moon party before we went over, i’d been speaking to a group of people in a club a few days before and they told me some real horror stories about capsizing ferries and other things which are probably best left unsaid! I’d definitely reccomend that any full mooners get a proper speedboat and don’t get the last one there or the last one back! The one we were on (see pics) only took the right amount of people and everybody had a life jacket, and it was very fast.
We got the early afternoon ferry from Koh Samui to Surat Thani, we had about 6 hours to kill before the train, so got some food and took refuge in the handy internet cafe at the train station. Had a good wander around, there was a huge street market. We had these great pancake things, with a green peanut filling…highly reccomended! Some really nice people round there too, chatting about our trip etc. Then we had more pancakes…this time with banana and chocolate. Yum!
After that it’s just been a case of winding down in preparation for the journey back to Bangkok. We opted for the night train again, only this time we went for first class. Second class was far cleaner to be honest but at least we could lock the door this time and still had good banter and yet more Beer Chang. In the morning, a guy was coming round serving (well, selling) breakfast.
Remember the bad meal I mentioned earlier? Enter the “American Breakfast.” What was advertised was Ham, Sausage, Fried Eggs and bread. What we got was leather, the scrap end of a sausage, rubber eggs and cardboard. All cold, all wrapped in clingfilm. Ooh and I forgot about the coffee. Well…I duno what that was but it sure wasn’t like any coffee I’d had before. OK so it was budget travel….we couldn’t exactly expect the standard of the Orient Express but there is a line and they crossed it! At least we can laugh about it though…and even that didn’t make us ill.
From there it was on to the airport where, after a high speed, lane weaving, hair raising taxi ride, with no seatbelts, we have quite a long wait for our flight back to Japan. We could have wandered around Bangkok but decided against it! We will have to wait a while before checking in but i’m sure we can amuse ourselves somehow. Gives me time to catch up on my journal too I suppose.
Some of you may be thinking that going to Japan, then to Thailand, and then back to Japan is a rather bizarre route to take. However, there is method in my madness! The initial idea of the trip was to spend a month in Japan, but Andy said how a return flight to Thailand was around £250 – so naturally, I had to go – and so extending my trip. The first week in Japan really let me get used to the place, so I am ready for my solo treks when I return.
See you back in Japan!
