3 Weeks in Thailand

The brothers and myself just got back from 3 weeks in Thailand. This post took about a week to write, mostly because it was done in many sittings. The links are half my photos, half the internets, and a few of Jensen's, but I included them thinking it would help to visualize and feel the country. Anywho here's pretty much most of what went down--

We left without mom at 6pm Christmas Day. Since no flights were available straight to Bangkok from Bangalore, we first had an hour flight to Mumbai. From Mumbai, a four hour flight brought us to Bangkok around noon. With the help of a friendly dutchman, we made our way to Bangkok's south train station and found a bus leaving a couple hours later for Phuket. We got some cheap food and found the bus right in time. The 13 hour ride down to Southern Thailand at first was delightful. Sitting next to the window, I was able to see the countryside before the sun went down behind the line of palm trees on the horizon. The busses- all the busses- have some sort of sound system and TV, so that they can play Thai music videos like this- normally of boy bands. They're quite hilarious. We were dropped off in Phuket at 2:30am and had no way of contacting dad to pick us up. We used a hotel's internet to find an email with the name of the hotel, so we took a taxi over to Patong Beach and arrived around 4, finally able to sleep.

Patong Beach is a major tourist spot for any european coming to Thailand, many of which are big, meaty guys that all wear sleeveless shirts and European short-shorts. An unusual combination. haha. On our first full night in Patong we stayed out and experienced a beefer's paradise. Bangla Road is where most of the action is. Both sides of the street are just clubs, bars, and more clubs, with an occasional massage parlor. We "found" a box of beers on the beach and indulged. Unlike in India, in Thailand the ratio of guys to girls on the street is about 1:1, if not better (in India it's 1:10). However, be weary. One may say that because half of the Thai girls are wearing high heels that it is impossible for them all to be hookers, but really, this is not true- there's just that many. Prostitution is basically legal in Thailand because nobody seems to care. At night, the girls stand outside their massage parlors and yell massaaaaaaaage to any guy walking by (Thai people really emphasize the ahh and ehh sound in words). It's bothersome seeing old white men with young, made-up Thai girls clinging to them as they walk, but it becomes normal after seeing it so much. In addition to that, the Tuk Tuk drivers all try to sell you access to Ping-Pong shows and such. (((A Tuk Tuk is basically a Thai rickshaw. However, the style of Tuk Tuk seems to differ from town to town. An indian rickshaw is quite plain, just like a Bangkok Tuk Tuk, where as a Patong Beach Tuk Tuk is loud flashy, and basically a pimped out mini semi truck- complete with underglow, subs, and the like. The Ayutthaya Tuk Tuk resembles a boat spaceship. Riley, this thing would be the ultimate spaceship haha.))) Anywho, that night we got back to the hotel very late after losing each other and looking for each other for hours. It was very fun, but we were definitely ready for some remote tropical exposure after a long night full of honkeys.

We left for Raya Island the next day via a day tour boat. The dock you climb off the boat onto is made of hundreds of big plastic boxes locked together. So it floats, and curls with the waves like this. Many of the older tourists that visit Raya have trouble not falling. One wave flung an entire boat's luggage into the drink, along with several old honkeys. hahaah. Raya is covered with beautiful palm trees. The white sand is as fine as powder. The island is surrounded by coral reefs, now dead, but over time, the pieces that fall off break down to make such a perfect sand. We swam and kayaked out of the bays with snorkels several times. The fish were beautifully colorful. At one spot, little jellyfish were everywhere, and swimming with them meant tons of little stings. Jensen and I went on a hike around half of the island, over the rocks that jutted out into the water while Steve and pops went snorkeling in a reef. Thirsty from climbing for a couple hours, Jensen climbed a palm and cut down a few coconuts-- much better than water.
At night, as the tide was out, the waves crashed far enough out for us to body surf. On the last night on Raya, tidal waves flipped several dinghies over the dock. The motors and everything in them were trashed. The guys that were renting them ran out to the end of the sketchy dock to try and save them, as the boats literally flew over their heads. They could've easily been smashed, it was sketch.
We left Raya after 3 days on another tour boat back to Patong Beach in the late afternoon on New Years Eve. Steve shaved his magnificent goat before dinner, which really put a damper on things. We made our way to the beach, where the they'd set up a huge stage and the most beautiful sound system. The dance started in the evening and didn't stop all night. All the honkeys from Bangla Road migrated down to the beach for the night to enjoy some great house music and celebrate the new year in a drunk bash. It was great fun. The DJ, 'Wicked Cool DJ' played Riverside and Pon De Floor several times, but it just wasn't the same without my bestest boys. Tired of the loud music and separated from my brothers, I went on a lengthy beach walk, then walked all the way around the town, jumped on the back of a Tuk Tuk for a free ride as the passengers stared at me, and returned to the room for some sleep.
The next day was our last day before dad left for Bangalore. We all got phones with Thai SIM cards and 15,000฿ (฿=Baht, 30฿=$1), which was more than enough for the 10 days we had left to be on our own. We shopped around a little and got hammocks, a shirt and some food, before frisbeeing on the beach. A trip to Thailand wouldn't be complete without a massage, so we all got 1 hour foot massages. I'd spent two nights in Patong walking around barefoot, and man, did that hit the spot. We went to sleep early and said goodbye to Pa.
On the morning of January 2nd, we had 10 days until our plane left for India out of Bangkok at 8pm.

We very easily found a bus to take us from Patong to the bus station. Jensen talked to a guy on the bus who recommended several places on the way to Bangkok we could stop at that would be nice. We wanted to split up the journey back to Bangkok anyway, and Chumphon, which is halfway to Bangkok, become our destination for that night. All the busses straight to Chumphon were full, so we got one to Ranong, a town an hour southeast. We left for Ranong around 6pm and got there at 10ish, with no more busses to Chumphon that night, so we stayed in a cheap, very nice hotel in Ranong and left for Chumphon early the next morning. 15 minutes from Chumphon is a nice, not very busy beach that we intended to relax on for the day, but the clouds and rain convinced us to head on up for Bangkok. We found a bus for later that evening and spent the day shopping, eating and hanging around Chumphon. In Seattle, I'd been looking for sweet buns for about 2 years, and would check for them in restaurants every time I went to International District, but never found any. That search came to an end in Chumphon, in a little bakery where I found the most delicious sweet buns for 5฿. When we went back to the bus station around dinner time for our bus, the folks working at the station told us all the busses were full. I almost punched some Thai lady who kept telling me something different every time I asked her a question about the busses. Luckily, when the full bus came, we were able to get on it, just without a seat. So I laid down in the aisle in front of all the other people crammed into the back of the bus and tried to sleep for the 8 hour ride back to Bangkok. I slept on the floor in the aisle of the bus, with a sleeveless shirt and inflatable pillow. No blanket, no cover, on the dirty floor. When we got to Bangkok at 2am, we had no hotel, so we made our way to Khao San Road, (which is like a lesser version of Bangla Road), because we heard you can stay there for cheap. It turned out to be where all the white tourists in Bangkok come and stay, and every hotel was fully booked, and there were TONS of hotels. We found one after an hour and hit the sack. 

Nocturnal Steve was too tired to wake up in the morning, so Jensen and I went out and left him in the hotel. We got breakfast (we always ate on the street, at little street vendor food carts deals, which usually ranged from 25-40฿), and talked to some Tuk Tuk driver to take us around Bangkok. In Bangkok, the numerous tailors and Jewelry stores and travel agencies pay the drivers commission for bringing their passengers to the stores. Knowing this, we told the guy to take us all around Bangkok to his sponsors, so that he gets money from them, and we get a free tour of the city and a great comparison of suit prices. We got stuck in a huge traffic jam on the way back to the hotel (there are traffic jams every morning and evening), so we got out and walked back about 2 or 3 kilometers. We were considering taking a river taxi up to the Khao San area, but got to the wrong pier and were close enough to walk and not spend our money. The view from the river is quite spectacular, Jensen and I went into an abandoned house to look out during the sunset. Now around dinner time and awhile since our last meal, we stopped to get some sweet, salty soup from a cute old man. Chunks of sweet, gingery tofu-ish dumplings and long salty crouton-pretzel things made a funky combination. We met Steve back by the hotel after about an hour and half of walking. We got fit for suits and found an agency that offers busses to Kanchanaburi, a stop on the way to our next destination- Erawan National Park.

We woke up and got packed, on the street and ready to leave at 7am. Since we forgot to actually book the bus, it wasn't set to come to our location right on time. So we wasted about an hour finding another bus at another spot but fortunately did find one relatively easily. The vans that take you for 2 hour trips like this are the most uncomfortable by far. There's no room to put your bag, and we all had big bags, and the seats are small to begin with. So we were very crammed, but we were getting there. We got to the Kanchanaburi bus station and had 15 minutes before a local bus left for Erawan, another 2 hours away. They had bomb ice cream at the station. When Jensen got a cone for each hand, a lady started crying she laughed so hard. I wish I had a picture because in between breaths she honestly was yelling to the other people to look at him. I guess a long-haired, blonde american double fisting ice cream cones is one of the funnier things she'd seen in a while, but she got us laughing so hard we cried too. The lady selling buns right next to her mockingly offered up some sauce Jensen had previously asked for. By the time we finished the ice cream, half the station was watching, staring, or laughing at us. The bus to Erawan was super ghetto, and I loved it. I got a seat next to the window and looked out at the River Kwai and the thick vegetation along its banks, while bumping some great summer jams from myPod. Even though this bus was probably the most uncomfortable of all, I liked it the most. The bus dropped us off in the park right in front of the office where you rent camping gear, which is exactly where we needed to go. We got a large 2 person tent, 3 pads and a pillow, and set up camp right on the bank of the River Kwai (the same river as in the movie Bridge Over the River Kwai, which tells the story of a Japanese POW camp during WWII. It's a great movie, if you haven't seen it, I would suggest you watch.)

With our stuff locked in the tent, we started up the river, hoping that it would be as cool as everything made it look. And it was. The river has 7 tiers of step waterfalls, each one different from the others, and breath taking in their own way. We only made it up to the 4th tier on the first day because it was too cool and amazing to not take you time in each pool. We spent most our time on the first day on the 4th tier, which actually may be the most common of all of them.  The rocks form a natural slide into the water, which you then swim out of very quickly because the many many fish in the pool actually nibble and suck on your skin- mostly feet and back- and while it doesn't hurt at all, it's extremely hard to just sit there and let them do it. It's pretty cool that they do it though. 

Since Erawan is as amazing as it is, there are tons of people there. The tour busses all leave by 4pm though, so after then it's just the very few people who are staying overnight in the park, none of which stay by the river all day. So in the late afternoon and evening we had this natural wonder all to ourselves. We stayed on the river as long as we could before we got too hungry. In the dark, we headed back up the trail with headlamps and a flashlight to get some cool night pictures, but there wasn't enough moonlight to pick up with our cameras. I also got pretty freaked out when we saw a spider 4 or 5 inches wide. 
The next day we made it all the way to the top, several kilometers up, stopping at all 7 tiers. Here's what they look like- 1st tier, 2nd tier, 3rd tier, 4th tier, 5th tier, 6th tier and 7th tier. There were monkeys in all the trees. This place was unreal. The waterfalls and the crystal clear water filled with fish are like nothing else I've seen in the world. 
We stayed 2 nights in Erawan because we just couldn't leave. The sleeping part really sucked though. We got a 2 man tent instead of three to save money because it was big and figured it wouldn't matter, but with all our bags inside, 3 people was a slight cram. And without any fan or so, it was pretty much like baking in an oven. It was nice waking up with the sun to get going in such a beautiful place, though. 
Our bus back to Kanchanaburi was very fun. My iPod lived just long enough for the trip, so again I got to bump my lovely music, this time while hanging out the door holding onto the rail. In Kanchanaburi we hopped onto a travel bus back to Bangkok. 
We grubbed down as soon as we got there and got a ride to Khao San to find another place to stay. Even though it was only about 9 o'clock, it still took us forever to find a vacant hotel. Walked around Khao San that night for about an hour but got tired and headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
Tired of the Khao San tourist scene, we packed up the next morning and found a hotel further south, right by the Hua Lamphong train station. We just dropped our bags off there and continued on to Mo Chit Market, supposedly the biggest market in Asia. It's enormous. The main outside walkway has shops on either side, and the inside of the semi-circle is a labyrinth of little shops that all sell pretty much the same stuff. I bought something right away and couldn't find the shop later when I realized it was missing a piece. A couple of hours is about all we could take, and Steve and myself weren't feeling incredibly good, so we took the conveniently close subway back to the station that was conveniently close to our hotel, while Jensen stayed and walked through an enormous park. 
The hotel was a little haven. 5 little (and I mean little) maids with little pink dresses mopped and swept and cleaned and walked around being cute all day. The girl that kinda ran things couldn't have been any taller than 4'10", and she had the cutest little smile every time she saw you. It was fun just walking around the halls with these fairies around. Anywho, since most hotels are very small and tight, there's no lobby area. But this place had a nice flatscreen in the corner of a comfortable little room with bookshelves and bean bags all around, where they serve sweet tea with little pretzel-y snacks. When Steve and I got back to the hotel, we were looking forward to a relaxing night of tea, but instead found a big group of Nepalese guys sitting around loudly drinking beer. It was the opposite of what we had in mind, and turned out to be a pretty upsetting night.
The next morning, we caught a river taxi to Khao San to get fitted for suits. A Tuk Tuk took us to the subway station, from there we went on to Lumphini Park, where some Thai production was filming a movie. That night we went to some mega mall in search of lens caps we'd lost and some delicious burgers. We couldn't find lens caps for the right price, but the burgers were a different story. Thank you Mr. Burger.
Jensen and I woke up the next morning to go back to the park, where we heard a lot of people wake up for Tai Chi during the sunrise, which was slightly true. We walked super deep to some mall that we heard sell clothes wholesale, but by the time we got there we weren't in the mood for shopping. We hopped on the subway back to the hotel to meet with Steve and find a place to go that afternoon. 
Jensen found a cool town we could get to by train, so we left our big packs at the hotel, loaded a few things into our day packs, and caught a train for Ayutthaya. The train ride was the equivalent of 50 cents to go 2 hours north. A Tuk Tuk driver took us to a cheap hotel run by an extremely kind and welcoming woman who had us call her mom. ahaha. 
We rented bikes and went around the little town. It's known for the ruins that it surrounds, and buddhist temples. We stopped at a shipyard full of old, asian, wooden boats. At the temple, they throw bread and little bean puffs into the river once or twice a month to feed the catfish in the river, and we happened to stop there on the perfect day. As you can see, there were quite a few fish. We also stopped at this place that raises, breeds and houses 99 elephants. We pet and fed them with the babies, and got to see a mama tweak when her baby got away from her. It was one of the more cool parts of the trip. After dinner, we saw this hilarious looking guy, with an even funnier shirt, who kept insisting on showing us pictures of his girlfriend and what we thought about her. A lot of Thai guys are assholes, a lot are goof balls, and a lot are super (slightly comically) friendly. It totally depends on where you are, but I wouldn't say there is any one way to define a Thai man like you could an Indian. Jensen lost his phone sometime that day, and our train left right before he could get it back.
We got back to the same hotel in Bangkok that evening and watched a few movies- our last night in Thailand was pretty laid back. (The movie was a french film called Banlieue 13, pretty cool action and idea, worth watching). 
For our last day in Thailand, we took another river taxi to Khao San to pick up our sweet suits. The beige and gray are quite studly. We got another quick free tour of Bangkok before heading to the sky train to the airport.
Our flight left at 8pm to Mumbai. The movie playing on the train was absolutely hilarious. You have to watch it just out of respect for Bollywood. We had a 7 hour layover, all night in Mumbai. Steve and I looked back and this was the 8th time in 3 weeks that we didn't sleep all night because of traveling. Whew! 
I'd been wanting to play some poker or some kind of card games ever since we got to Bangkok, but couldn't ever get anybody to join me. In the Mumbai airport, surrounded by the delicious scent of Kentucky Fried Chicken, I finally convinced them to play a few games of Egyptian Rat Tits. In fact, we got so deep into a game that after being in the airport for 7 hours, we lost track of time. The game consumed our attention until five minutes before our flight left... which didn't leave us with quite enough time. Yes, we missed our plane after a 7 hour layover. hahahaha. Despite being insanely pissed, the lady got us on another flight 3 hours later and got 'home' just a little later than expected.
This week in Bangalore has gone by real fast. I played in a badminton tournament in which I got destroyed by two indian men that could snipe with the birdy. I got a guitar, an acoustic electric, and have been chillin pretty hard. News of snow at home makes me want to be there real bad, but I guess I get summer for 8 months, so I'm ok. 
Hope all is lovely and fresh for those in all lands. Hail Atlantis!
Yarr!