The adventures started with a last minute decision to go to Cha-am. Tara and Be and I were planning a trip to Bangkok to do some necessary sight see-ing (Wat Phra Kaew), but it turned into a weekend trip to the beach. Cha-am is close to the more well-known beach, Hua Hin, and was the kind of beach I’ve been looking for. Ko Tao, Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Samui are beautiful, but going to those places, I didn’t feel like I was in Thailand. At Cha-am, I KNEW I was in Thailand. The water may not be crystal clear turquoise, and the beach may not be glistening white. Instead, you get miles of picnic tables covered with umbrellas, packed with Thai families or groups of college kids, all tables covered in food. It was a total party- Thai style. For 100 bhat, rent out a picnic table for the day, and you will have people coming to your table all day with fresh crab, som tam made on the spot, gaiyang, quail eggs, beer, soda, anything you could possibly need for a perfect day on the beach. There are people actually swimming in the murky water, kids playing on banana boats, everyone having a good time. Unlike the beautiful touristy beaches where everyone is sun tanning, not swimming in the perfect water and there is no good food to be found. I also like how on Thai beaches, everyone wears their tee-shirts and shorts in the water, including myself because I was too embarrassed to show off my two-piece.
Tara and Be and their farang tour guide (me) only got to hang out on the beach, Thai style, for one day. We got there at night and walked along the water while rebellious teenagers shot fireworks off from the beach. We spent the next morning exploring Cha-am and a mangrove forest, then the afternoon was spent on the beach, complete with a picnic table and umbrella, food galore.
On our stop in Bangkok on the way home, I took Tara and Be to my favorite rooftop bar near Chula University, where we slowly sipped the one and only cocktail we could afford, and watched the hazy Bangkok sky cover the stars we were able to see in Cha-am.
The next adventure started the day after Tara and Be and I got back from Cha-am. The director wanted to give a thank you to the foreign teachers, so P’Sonya and a selection of other teachers took Steven, Tara, Be and I to Kao Koh, a mountain in Petchabun. It was just a day trip…a really early 5AM day trip. But Petchabun province is a beautifully preserved province. The air in Petchabun is even crisper than Sukthothai’s rural atmosphere. This was the first time I really spent a lot of time with Ahjan Anick, who teaches “social” or social studies. He’s the goofiest guy ever, and makes his way into any trip in any department. He barely speaks English, but loves to try to talk to me anyway. He likes to call me an alien, and asks for a menu for aliens when we go out to eat. Such a goofball.
Our first stop was at this amazing temple constructed completely of mosaic tiles and odds and ends, situated at the top of a mountain.
We spent maybe two hours just exploring the outside, and never even entered the temple because the outside was too much to take in. Absolutely breathtaking.
Thennnn the rest of the day was way less exciting. We slowly made our way up Kao Koh. And by slowly, I don’t mean we made frequent stops. I mean the mountain was so steep that the van was crawling at a snails pace. At one point, we had to get out and walk up part of the mountain, because the van couldn’t carry us anymore. At the top of the mountain was a surprisingly lame palace that resembled a deserted tourist center, and an equally disappointing Vietnam War memorial that was poorly designed, and poorly kempt. Not even any striking views from the top. The trip was short-lived, and once we had made it to the top of Kao Koh, we slowly meandered home, stopping at a temple in Pitsanulok on the way.
(Steven, P'Sonya and myself at a rest stop coming back from Kao Koh)
There was one full day of rest until the next scheduled adventure. The foreign language department wanted to go on a trip to Bangkok. I didn’t really want to go because I am sick of Bangkok, but I needed to meet Noah and it was a free ride to Bangkok, so I went along for the ride. I am actually really happy I went because we went to many temples and museums I had never known about. Of course going on a trip with the foreign language teachers means more taking pictures than actually sight seeing. Though now that I finally have a camera, I am more than happy to join in the picture brigade. We stopped at the Golden Mount for a stunning 360 degree view of Bangkok’s old city, then across the street to Wat Ratchanatdaram, the metal palace of heaven, or something. The first of it’s kind in Thailand, the five story palace winds up towards heaven, housing a copper casted Buddha at the top.
The highlight of the trip for me was Suan Pakkad- literally translated to Cabbage Garden. The tour guide really liked having a farang on the tour (only one farang, because Steven doesn’t count as farang) and joked about this being where the Cabbage Patch kids came from. This old cabbage patch-turned palace houses an amazing collection of artifacts, fossils and crafts from every corner of Thailand, as well as from many countries around the world. This prince that collected all of these things was great- imagine going to every museum in Thailand, taking the coolest thing you can find and putting it together into a humble museum in the middle of Bangkok. I think if this prince were still alive, I would strive to be his best friend, or at least have tea with him in his cool pull out table that is tucked into the floor of the worship room.
After that short tour with the teachers, and meeting with Noah, I was on my way to meet Tara and Be in MALASYIA! Even though I went to buy the train ticket two days in advance (usually more than enough time!) the tickets for a sleeper train to Butterworth, Malaysia were sold out. Shoot. It’s a bit of a long story how I got stuck in this situation, but I ended up on a 3rd class coach train to Hat Yai in southern tourism ridden Thailand. I was dreading dreading dreading the train ride I had been so looking forward to… I’ve been dying to take a sleeper train to Malaysia!! I walked onto the already delayed train, and walked further and further back to 3rd class coach….I wish I could say it wasn’t as bad as you would expect, but it was. I sat in a stiff upright chair, a sweet Thai girl across from me with her pet hamster, then a group of rowdy teenagers across the aisle. These boys seemed to know everyone on the train- they had their friends coming to sit on my armrest the whole ride. I offered one of them to sit next to me so he didn’t block the aisle, and he offered me a sip of his cola. No thank you. This was after they were just passing around what I am hoping was just tobacco. I kept my eyes to the window for the rest of the trip.
Luckily, even though it seems like this was a terrible trip, it actually ended up being a really good thing. I had been talking to a Malaysian guy while we were waiting for the train. He is a well traveled, obviously well off guy that speaks flawless English. He tried to help me switch to a better car, but judging by the look of the ticket collector on the train, there was no hope for me. But my new friend, Zanif, at least rescued me for a few hours. We went to the dining car together and had a couple beers while the sun was setting over the rice paddies. The dining car is the coolest thing I’ve ever discovered- windows open all the way, people coming in and out, all sharing tables with strangers. Zanif and I were talking about places we have traveled to recently, when another Malaysian asked to join us. Kris is younger than Zanif, maybe in his late 20s or early 30s, and also speaks flawless English, his style more punk rocker, than Zanif’s pristine big words English. Kris’s first question, before he asked my name, was “Republican or Democrat?” We spent hours talking about American and Malaysian politics, a perfect briefing into a quick tour of their country.
When I returned to my seat, I fell right asleep. For having an uncomfortable upright chair, I slept much better than I do on the overnight bus to Bangkok from Sukhothai. I think it was the rocking of the train and the open window with the fresh air off the coast rushing through the window. There was a slim quiet guy sitting in the seat next to me when I got back. He sat upright the entire time, never moving an inch until he got off the bus at 2 in the morning. His seat was quickly taken by a nomad on the train. I had seen this guy and his friend roaming around the train all evening, looking for free seats. He promptly fell asleep, instantly letting his head fall onto my shoulder. I elbowed him the first few times, and he rocked back upright, eyes still closed, then slouched back onto me, each time allowing a tad more weight onto me. Defeated, I inched as close as I could to the window and turned my back to him for him to sleep on.
Zanif saved me again in the morning. I joined him for a cup of coffee, soon followed by Kris, eyes red and glazed from too much fun the night before. Zanif laughed at how easily I slept- he had a bottom bunk on the sleeper car and couldn’t sleep a wink, while I slept an only slightly interrupted night through. We continued our political discussions from the night before and planned out our different routes to Malaysia. We got to Hat Yai, only three hours delayed, and Kris led us to get bus tickets out of the sad little town. Hat Yai actually just had a bombing two days before we were there- a car bomb that killed 5 and sent I think hundreds to the hospital. The town was quiet- though very clean and not very Thai. I felt like I had entered another country already, but I wasn't yet sure if it was Malaysia or not. With only 15 minutes to get on a bus, I was out of the town quickly, with only enough time to catch a news report about the bomb from a couple days ago.
I thought the bus ride would be low key compared to the eventful night before, but apparently Malaysians like me and I made another new friend. A Malaysian man and his wife showed me what became my favorite Malaysian food: nasi lemak, rice cooked with coconut milk, topped with a spicy sauce, hardboiled egg and salted fish. Amazing, and only cost one ringgit; roughly 30 cents. Every rest stop along the 9 hour journey, this couple was at my side, showing me new food, telling my what to do in Malaysia, and insisting I come with them to Terrengu sometime to go scuba diving. After arriving in Kuala Lumpur, I got the usual bombardment of taxi drivers I get anywhere I go in Asia. This time, I told them the hotel I needed to get to, and the taxi just shook his head, and said sorry I can’t take you there. Annoyed, waiting for some kind of catch, I shrugged him off and went to get my bags and find my new friend, thinking to myself “whatever, I’ll just get there myself”. The taxi driver followed me and kept saying “can't drive there”. I stopped to listen to him, and he just pointed down the road and said “two streets. I can’t drive there, because there is a market. You walk, two streets”. Haha woops. So my new friend escorted me to the street, and easy 5 minute walk to the hotel.
Tara and Be were already waiting at the hotel, having already spent the day in Kuala Lumpur. Our one full day in Kuala Lumpur was indeed a successful one. We went on an adventure to Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine engulphed inside a limestone cave outside the city. You have to climb 272 steps to get to it, a journey well worth it, even in the pouring rain.
The inside of the cave is huge, at least three stories tall, and we were there at the perfect time- when the thunder was close enough that it echoed through the cavern into the opening on the other side.
Eerie, but so cool.
The venture to Batu Caves was followed by a walk through downtown Kuala Lumpur to see the Petronas Towers, the largest twin skyscrapers in the world. I like this tidbit about Malaysia, I learned it from Zanif: Apparently, the Deputy Prime Minister, Yassin, is a clever fellow and came up with the idea to build the Petronas Towers. At the time of their construction, it was the tallest structure ever built. But Yassin knew by the time they would be finished, someone else would be building the new tallest skyscraper, which Taiwan indeed did, followed by Dubai. So he said to build twin skyscrapers- because no one will want to build two buildings that tall. So though Taiwan and Dubai have surpassed Kuala Lumpur’s superlative of tallest skyscraper, the Petronas Towers still hold the title of tallest twin skyscrapers in the world, and fuel I suppose a decent share of tourism from it. Honestly, standing below the Petronas Towers…they’re not THAT breathtaking. After climbing 272 steps into a natural cave to worship Shiva for free, paying 50 rinngits to go inside the Petronas Towers was really unappealing. Taking pictures from outside was enough for me, especially because my new camera is so much fun.
This is the Petronas Towers in “fish eye effect”.
And the Petronas towers at night.
That evening, I thought it would be a good idea to go to “Bing Walkway” which is reported to have great sidewalk cafes and live jazz music. I guess I was missing Philly, and not thinking about what sidewalk cafes and jazz music would mean for Kuala Lumpur. It was an incredibly Hi So tacky scene- crawling with rich foreigners and expensive western food. So we hopped a couple side streets down and found an awesome street that our tour book missed out on, filled with endless Malaysian food, with oodles of menus to chose from. We ate like royalty under the street lights- complete with sting ray for 7 ringits…roughly 2 dollars.
Our fun in Kuala Lumpur was short lived, as we were hopping on a train back north the next day.
But honestly, I am not that sad we couldn’t spend more time there. I liked Kuala Lumpur- but it’s definitely having some identity issues. Sandwiched between Bangkok and Singapore, I think KL can’t make up its mind. Its transit strives to mimic Singapore's, but it’s as terribly executed as Bangkok’s. Actually that’s not true- Bangkok may not have much public transit, but it works really well, I guess because its so new. KL’s transit is OLD, and desperately needs renovation. While there is some beautiful old architecture in KL, and a wonderful blend of colonial European with modern Islamic architecture, it seems like the whole city is under construction still. The trains, the train station, everything.
It has this feel of being a city still under construction, still being built, yet has incredible history that I am worried won’t be preserved. It’s a little sad really.
At least there is still a train that goes to Butterworth, and we were off first thing in the morning. The train ride was spectacular, but ended in a not so spectacular place. Butterworth is strange! It is a huge transportation junction between Thailand and Singapore, yet you disembark from the train into an industrial wasteland. I don’t know if Butterworth has an actual city, but if it does, it is not within sight from the train station. We took a gloomy walk to the bus station to hop on a bus north to the border. Of the few hours I spent in Butterworth, I could not tell you a darn thing about it other than its creepy.
We spent that night close to the border in a town called Kuala Perlis. The town itself is sad. I thought, being a major seaport to Malaysia’s finest archipelago, the town would at least be a little booming. But we stayed in the only hotel we could find, which had four windowless-make-you-claustrophobic rooms. Good thing Tara and Be and I really like each other, though it was still an incredibly uncomfortable night. We took a walk around the dead town (trying to wear ourselves out so we could quickly fall asleep), and I do have to give some credit to the town. At least more than I give to Butterworth. We walked to the waterfront to find a beautiful (and incredibly expensive) hotel that faced the Andaman Sea. We trespassed onto their private pier that went right into the sea, and watched as lateral bolts of lighting lit up the sky over the sea. We also found the border of Thailand. We decided not to trespass on that one. Instead we snuck onto the grounds of a mosque that we mistook for another hotel in the pouring rain.
The next morning, we were in Langkawi, a 99 island archipelago on the northernmost tip of Malaysia’s border. They call it a “geopark” because it is filled with the most amazing geology that I didn’t have enough time to even start exploring. We gave ourselves only one day to enjoy the island, and paid the same amount of money for a bungalow on the beach as we did in that stupid hotel the night before. We were running out of money at this point, so we had to limit our adventures on the island. Really unfortunate timing. As we were about to head to a waterfall, we discovered parasailing that we had accidentally bargained down to 20 USD. It’s been Tara’s dream to go parasailing, so we took the opportunity, and one by one spent twenty minutes suspended in the air, magnificently viewing the mountains, eagles, and shimmering turquoise water around the 99 islands. Well worth it. I will definitely come back to Langkawi one day.
Despite our lack of money, we had to take advantage of Langkawi being duty free, and got a bottle of Jack Daniels that would have cost twice as much anywhere else (Thailand's love of whiskey in infectious). We found a Thai woman selling beer (Langkawi is almost dry because of the Muslim population, but it is balanced by the liquor depot and occasional Thai selling beer) that would take our baht. Like rebellious teenagers, we snuck our goods onto the beach for sunset.
We took a dive right as the sun was setting, but our party was shortlived when Be got stung by a nasty jellyfish. A really nasty one! He quickly jumped out of the water, and he immediately had tentacle shaped slashes all over his arm. I’ve never seen a jellyfish sting that bad, it was kinda scary. I’m still coming back to Langkawi one day though.
After our one day of jellyfish infested paradise, we were heading back up the coast of Thailand to the country’s most popular tourist destination: Phuket. And man, there is nothing worse than Phuket on a tight budget, but we made do quite elegantly. We stayed at a boring hotel in Phuket town, instead of a bungalow on the beach. This was not because the bungalow was too expensive (it was actually also the same price as that stupid hotel in Kuala Perlis), but it was getting to the beach bungalow that was the problem. It cost the same to get there by taxi as it was to stay there for a night, so we made do in town. I was happy with this decision, because then I got to check out Phuket town’s totally rad Sino-Portuguese architecture. Who goes to Phuket to check out the architecture? I may be the only one.
After I had my fill of looking at poorly restored historic houses (poor Tara and Be), we rented a super cute jeep (named Suthep!!! I didn’t name it that either, but it was a sure sign that we had to rent it) and headed to the beach!
We hugged the southern coast of Phuket, checking out the local beaches with the best food. We spent our beach time on Kata, which my tour book told me would have stunning limestone cliffsides. I didn’t see any of that, but I did get to swim in the famous turquoise blue Phuket waters, and lay in the pristine white sand. The pristine white sand had spattterings of trash all over it, and was covered in umbrellas and chairs filled with tourists. But it was still lovely. I didn’t get to see any fish though. Sad.
In the afternoon, we headed to Phuket’s newest attraction-in-progress, the Big Buddha. This Buddha is massive, and gorgeous, sitting on top of Phuket’s highest mountain. You can see it from almost any beach in Southern Phuket. Dare I say, it is as stunning as “Christ the Redeemer” in Brazil. Well I’ve never been to Brazil, so I can’t say that for sure, but I bet the Big Buddha comes close. It has only been under construction for the past 10 years, and has quite a few years to go, but it is truly amazing. And somewhere on the Big Buddha, there will be a tile saying our names on it!
For the last evening of our trip, Tara and I had promised ourselves we would go out for a Hi So dinner in Phuket. And we totally rocked it. We dressed the best we have since we’ve been in Thailand, headed up the coast to Hat Surin, and scoped out the most picture perfect restaurant we could find on the beach. We found a perfectly lit restaurant, just far enough away from the water to give us that perfect ocean breeze. We sipped our mojitos and had my favorite deep fried fish on the bone with garlic, with green curry and mixed vegetables. A true delight.
On the way back to Phuket town, we got caught in a wicked storm (what’s with the south and these storms? Why don’t they come up to Sawankhalok?!) We pulled over to watch it come in from the ocean. Sitting in the back of the jeep, I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, waiting for T-Rex to appear behind the next bolt of lightning over the ocean.
The end of our adventure ended up being longer than our stay on Phuket. We took a bus to Surrathani, where we had to wait for 12 hours for the next train to Bangkok! Genius trip planner (that’s me) didn’t think about it being a Sunday night of a three day weekend, that just so also happened to be a full moon weekend (which means full moon party at Koh Phan Ngan, just off the coast of Suratthani), an upcoming major holiday this week, and the King’s cousin’s funeral in Bangkok on Monday. Basically what all that means is I picked the worst possible time to catch a train to Bangkok. So we tried to kill 12 hours in Surrathani, another depressing transfer/port town. We took several buses and taxis to try to find anything to do, but just wasted money on looking for nothing, except a decent seafood lunch on a river. So we spent the rest of our wait time at a coffee shop watching horror movies, then sitting on a mat in front of the train station finishing our bottle of Jack Daniels. Sad.
But it was all totally worth it because I FINALLY got to go on my sleeper train! And it was so totally cool.
By the time our hour-delayed train got in, I fell right asleep on my top bunk and slept soundly through the swaying night.
(Gao and Chompu making breakfast)
(Be, Chompu, Tip and Tara by the "waterfall" in Pitlok)
(My lovely girls, Fai and Bow)
(My M5/01 boys)
(Loading up on water from the river)
