The World According to Keri

Next stop: Siem Reap (Angkor Wat), Cambodia

Wow. That was an extra chunk of flight money well spent. I'm so glad I made a 3-day side trip to Angkor Wat. I have to say though, a lot of the time I was there I was thinking, “My mom would not be happy about this”.

Not that I did anything wrong. I just spent the majority of the trip on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet being driven around by a stranger, who at one point was pissed off and drove crazy fast around buses and stuff and then gave me problems when I tried to pay and I ended up being involved with the Cambodian police. Then found myself on the back of a local girl’s motorcycle driving up a dirt hill and along the edge of a sandy cliff in the dark in a place where bikes are not supposed to go. Nothing dangerous or anything.

Backing up a bit... I hired a motorbike taxi to take me to my guesthouse from the airport. I quickly learned that you either need a bicycle, a Tuk Tuk (motorcycle-drawn carriage thingy), or a motorcycle to get around the grounds of Ankgor Wat. I suppose it was once an entire city with a couple hundred temple complexes, so it’s bound to be kinda big. So I hired my driver for the next two days and bought myself a 3-day pass for the ancient city.

It’s really hard to describe what it was like. It was just an endless expanse of wonder. Here’s another link with heaps of info for your perusal: http://www.angkorwat.org/ I can’t even imagine what it was like to come across each of these temples and the reconstruction of it all is incredible. If you’re not sure exactly what I’m talking about, think “Tomb Raider”. I believe the second largest temple, Bayon, at Angkor Thom was used as part of the setting for the movie. I haven’t seen the movie though. I took a million photos. I think my driver was amazed at just how long I could spend at each temple. It was a bit of a whirlwind though. Apparently, you’re not meant to see so many temples in so little time. People often stay for a week to browse the grounds at their leisure. I only had two days. It was very hot and very tiring. The air was thick with heat, dust, and humidity and I felt unwell a lot of the time. But I trooped along and climbed steep rock staircase after steep rock staircase.

Bayon, Angkor Thom

There was a LOT of climbing... these are just 2 temples

At top of Angkor Wat

One of the best parts was watching the sunrise over the main Angkor Wat temple. It was one of the most incredible sites ever. It was like I was standing in front of a painting. I think I got the same shot about 30 times using different settings on my camera. Good times.

After the sunrise, I sat to have some breakfast outside the temple and as usual, I was swarmed with children trying to sell little handicrafts and such. The kids there were darn persistent! There is a lot of poverty in Cambodia and with virtually every step you take there is young woman yelling “Lady! Cold drink?”, “Lady! You buy?” or a few children grabbing at your leg and shoving little trinkets in your face saying, “Buy flute?”, “Give me dollar”, “Give me pen”, “Where are you from? The capital is ___”. Some of these kids were better salesmen than professionals I’ve seen, and incredibly knowledgeable about their world capitals. Anyhow, one girl at breakfast only briefly tried to sell me her paintings, then she just sat with me and chatted for a while. She was very sweet and her English was very good, so I showed her some of my photos and she was my model. When I was ready to go, I asked her to show me her paintings again. That was the most money I spent on a souvenir my entire trip. It’s a beautiful painting though of one of the Buddhist bas reliefs carved into many of the temples. She said her friend painted it and that she wants to paint like that too. Then she gave me a little bracelet as a friendship gift. So cute.

My sweet new friend

painting I bought looks like one of these

Some people had their own methods of avoiding the constant sales pitches. Outside of one of the temples, two guys when running by me with their hands at the side of their faces. I guess I looked at them kinda funny cause they yelled something back to me about how it’s the only way to get by. It seemed a little obnoxious, but understandable and kinda funny. It actually helped me quite a bit cause all the Cambodians were staring at them running and didn’t notice me walk by. So I asked the guys if they could run by me at every temple. I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the day/evening. They definitely made things a whole lot more interesting. One of them was French and the other was French Canadian. They had been riding their bikes across insanely large expanses of country for months. They basically rode all the way across Asia, through the mountains of Tibet and all. Crazy. Anyway, they were definitely well-versed travelers with pure love for their surroundings. One of them, Lionel, was carrying his guitar on the back of his bike the whole time and played some tunes for the locals now and again. It was through them that I met the local girl with the motorcycle. I actually forget her name but she was from South Africa and had been volunteering at a children’s hospital in Siem Reap for the past year. She hooked us up huge with a great spot to watch the sunset over Angkor Wat – free of tourists. This was the cliff-side ride I was describing earlier. What an awesome memory. It was the four of us and one of her other friends sitting along a stone wall above the ancient ruins watching an amazing bright pink sky and sun set over the horizon, made all the more memorable by the playing of soft tunes on a guitar. Perfection. I didn’t take any photos. I just relished in the moment.

You buy flute? You give me pen?

Little admirer of my Quebecois friend

PART 3: KOH TAO - UNTOUCHED ISLAND?

Next stop: Koh Tao, Southeast Thailand

Well, as you can see from the introductory photo, Koh Tao wasn’t too bad. Hehe

I flew from Siem Reap to Bangkok and spent the day inhaling the most polluted air I’ve ever had the pleasure of breathing. I had to kill a good part of a day on the streets of Bangkok before catching the overnight sleeper train down to Southern Thailand, and the areas of the city I was left to wander were not exactly on every tourist’s must-see list. Let’s say I was happy to get on the train.

The train ride was actually really pleasant. At around 9pm, Thai workers walk down the train cars and fold the passenger seats into lower and upper bunks. They throw sheets and pillows on the beds and draw curtains around each bunk – very efficient I must say. I slept really well despite waking up with some nasty bug bites. I’m still not sure what bit me… didn’t look like bedbug bites but who knows. The connecting ferry ride to the island of Koh Tao was just as pleasant. The sun had just risen and I sat out on the deck with my legs dangling over the side. It was a 3 or 4 hour ride and I spent most of it chatting with a nice young German guy, Mo, who was living in Australia and traveling solo for a couple of months. We ended up being a little duo for the next 6 days.

I have to say, my first impression of Koh Tao wasn’t the greatest. I’ve read that Koh Samui is the crazy busy island and Koh Phangan is next in line on the east side. Koh Tao is supposed to the ‘untouched gem’ of the east coast. Well, I didn’t see the other two islands, but when we docked at the main beach where I was staying it looked pretty darn touched. It wasn’t too bad, there weren’t any big resorts or anything - just a lot of dive boats everywhere and a ton of shops and bungalows parked along the beach. I headed straight for the dive shop that I had booked my scuba course through to get myself sorted out.

The shop set me up with accommodations. The first place I was shown was a little off the beach, pretty cute, but seemed like it would be fairly bug-infested. The dead cockroach in the bathroom seemed to verify this. So they showed me a second option that was more concrete/less wood and it was right on the beach, facing the water. Another (partially-dead) cockroach greeted us inside the front door, but the beachfront view sold me. I wasn’t too stoked to be staying right in the thick of things, but I would be spending most of my time at my course and this was extremely close to the classroom and the boat so I was content.

My Room/My View

My Nightime View

My original plan was to start my course the next day, but after the shop set me up with my bungalow they said I could start the classroom portion that afternoon which would mean out in the water the next day. So that’s what I did. The next few days consisted of mornings in the classroom, afternoons on the boat and in the water, and evenings hanging with Mo on different parts of the island.

The first day out in the water really impressed me. We were only in a shallow area at the north end of the island, but all around us was beautiful coral, anemones, clams, and all sorts of fish. It was called ‘Japanese Gardens’. This location was actually nicer than any other shallow water area I’ve seen, including the snorkeling I did on the Great Barrier Reef (although in Australia I did see a reef shark and turtle). It took a little while for me to adjust to breathing from a regulator each time I went under, but I got over it pretty quickly every time and had a great time exploring and practicing my buoyancy control. The trickiest part for me was removing my mask underwater and I cringed each time my instructor motioned for us to do it. Reason #1: I wear contacts and can’t open my eyes under water. Reason #2: Apparently I’m not too good at breathing in through my mouth and not my nose. I got better at it with practice though.

Other sites we explored around the island were called ‘White Rock’, ‘Twins’, and ‘Chumphon Pinnacle’. Each of these sites were pretty impressive. The deepest my certification allows me is 18m, but I think we may have gone to about 20m at Chumpon. They try to sell you the ‘Advanced Open Water’ course afterwards which lets you go down to 30m, but while diving at 20 I realized that it’s just darker down there and I’m perfectly happy in the bright light. In fact, I went snorkeling on my own on the east side of the island once I finished my course and I was just as in love with that as diving.

I guess I’ll go ahead and list the different fish and stuff I saw. Look them up if you want. Ok – Bannerfish, beautiful Blue Ringed Angel Fish, Batfish, Groupers, Triggerfish, Barracudas (a huge school of them), lotsa Needlefish, Clownfish (like Nemo), Trevally, Parrotfish, fluorescent anemones, reef clams, all sorts of corals, and a couple of small Reef Shark in the distance. I know there are more, but I either don’t know the names or can’t think of them at the moment. This website shows the different dive sites I went to and lists some of the marine life: http://www.samui.org/kohtao/diving.html#Dive%20Sites

What I did not see were rays, Whale Sharks, or Turtles. Funny that it’s so difficult to see turtles at an island that is named after them (Koh Tao = Turtle Island). But I can see why – there are about a million (maybe a few less) dive boats out in the water on any given day, destroying reef little by little and scaring away many native species. Koh Tao is definitely ‘touched’. But since I was just one of a million people contributing to it I can’t really complain.

Oh – and I wasn’t able to bring my waterproof camera on my training dives, and I forgot to bring it on my last dive, so no photos for you. I did take it snorkeling though and I hope I got some decent shots out of that.

I spend a couple of days on the island after my course ended. It was nice to actually have a chance to explore and take some photos while the sun was still in the sky. The rest of the island is actually really beautiful and there are many more isolated areas. So many beaches on the east side that I didn’t get a chance to see, but the one’s I did hike to were absolutely breathtaking. Like a little bit of paradise.

Jansom Bay - I snorkeled here

Unsuspecting subjects at Sairee Beach

Shark Bay - snorkeled here too (saw reefshark)

More unsuspecting subjects at Ao Leuk

Jansom Bay again... great snorkeling

Mo did things a little differently than I did and rented a motorbike straight away and found himself an awesome little bungalow on stilts, on some rocks, overlooking an isolated bay. It was basically a thatched-roof room with a big bed and mosquito net, and a patio. Extremely basic, but awesome. He quickly tied up a hammock out front and it was perfect. The first night there, we sat out by the water on the rocks and just chilled and swam a bit under the stars. It was all ours. Would have been very romantic had we been a couple, but it was so awesome just to have a buddy there. I actually stayed at his bungalow a couple of nights and he was a perfect gentleman – didn’t even bump into me in the night.

Our other favorite spot was a little place called “Happy Daze”. It’s a little bar on the side of a hill that takes some serious uphill hiking to get to. You can imagine what they sell there by its name. But that wasn’t what drew us there. It was the hammocks and laid back atmosphere and the view. Wow. I took many photos so I’ll just post them.

Mo jus' chillin'

Beautiful view

Me jus' chillin'

The only photo of me... and it's dark... and it's not my face... really, it's me.

On the night of Day 6 on the island, I boarded an overnight ferry for the mainland and started my journey to the west coast dreaming of the adventures that awaited.

PART 4: NOT EXACTLY WHAT I HAD PLANNED

Final stop: Ton Sai beach (Railay), Southwest Thailand

This was the plan for my 5 days in Railay:

1. One or two day kayaking trip through mangroves, caves, and towering rock cliffs
2. Dive trip to Koh Phi Phi islands
3. Elephant trek through jungle
4. Hang out on the beautiful beaches

I guess I you could say 1.5/4 isn’t so bad.

The beginning of my Railay adventure started on the bus ride overland to the west coast town of Krabi. At one of the many rest stops, where passengers are herded on and off like cattle for a bite to eat in support of the local restaurants, I first met my new Brit friends, Bo. Bo is a dive instructor who had been traveling solo, trying to make his way to a southwestern island called Koh Lanta in hopes of finding work there. In his attempts to get to there, he got ‘sidetracked’ up north to a farming village in Chiang Mai and then east to Koh Tao. This was his third attempt and he was yet again unsuccessful. I had described Railay to him and he was very intrigued so he asked if I wouldn’t mind if he accompanied me there. No problem (wish I had the time to be so open with my schedule). Then, at the rest stop in Krabi, we met another Brit named Di. Di was also traveling solo for a few months and on her way to another southwestern island called Koh Phi Phi. Her dilemma was that her connecting ferry wasn’t leaving for another 4 hours. So she changed her plans and then we were three. It worked out fabulously (as the Brits would say) since solo accommodation in Railay is not too cheap. We ended up getting a room with a double and single bed which worked out to be much more economical and a lifesaver as I will explain later.

My recruits

My first impression of Railay was that of awe. Our little longtail boat rounded a stretch of land and there before us were huge cliffs of limestone towering overhead. I couldn’t stop snapping photos as it looked so surreal. I’ll post them, but they don’t do it justice at all. We passed around the Railay peninsula and its beaches ‘Railay East’, ‘Phra Nang’, and ‘Railay West’ until we got to the favorite of the backpackers and rock climbers, ‘Ton Sai’. I liked Ton Sai right away. Only a few longtail boats and some quiet restaurants parked along the beach, with a small community of bungalows tucked further back. Many people there had been there for a while - mostly climbers as this must have been a rock climbers dream. Our first afternoon/night there was all about relaxing on the beach.

On the longtail boat from Krabi to Ton Sai

Getting closer ...

Wow

The next day, we decided to rent kayaks and explore the shoreline with it’s small caves and dramatic scenery. The kayaks were also an interesting way to get to the other beaches to investigate our dive trip options. I’m soooo happy we decided to do this as it was the one and only time I got off of the beach the whole trip. It was a really great day actually – we brought snorkeling gear with us and jumped out of our kayaks for a bit where I watched a few crabs feeding off of the coral, and some more cool fish. One fish actually spooked me a little as it was kinda big and seemed a little out of place and I didn’t know what it was. Another nice surprise that day took place on a little walk we took behind the main resort on Phra Nang beach. All of a sudden we were surrounded by monkeys breaking into the back of the restaurant of the beach’s 5-star resort. It was hilarious actually. A couple of them were fighting over a tomato while another had a full piece of bread and others were just jumping around all over the place. Last year Beth and I spent an entire day waiting to ‘hang out with’ all the supposed monkeys in Costa Rica’s Manuel Antonio Park and it never really happened, so this was a wonderfully unexpected encounter and I was very excited. I have no clue how many there were and I hadn’t brought my camera on the kayak, so I’m counting on Bo and Di to send me their photos.

This isn't us, but I assume it's what we looked like kayaking

Later that day, the three of us signed up for a full day dive trip to Koh Phi Phi. Koh Phi Phi is supposed to be one of the best dive spots in Thailand - Actually, the entire west coast of Thailand is much better diving than the east. I couldn’t wait. Well, that night we all had dinner at a very desolate restaurant and that was the end of my adventuring. A few hours after dinner I was lying in my bed feeling rather unwell. This turned into multiple hours of vomiting. Bo and Di seemed to be fine until a little later into the night when I heard Bo say, “I’m not well – I’m going to vomit”. I’m not sure if I said anything at that point but I clearly remember thinking, “Oh no. What if I have to vomit at the same time? Don’t take my bathroom!!”. Apparently he had similar thoughts every time thereafter when I got up to use the toilet. I don’t think I’ve ever puked so many consecutive times in my life. Di was fine. We’re guessing it was the chicken since her meal was chickenless. I suppose it would make sense that there would be some bad meat around since the electricity goes off during the day and any cooling device would be out of commission for multiple hours.

Needless to say, Bo and I didn’t make it to the dive boat with Di the next morning. We both spent the entire day in bed and in the bathroom. I seemed to have had it a little worse though, as I was a much more frequent visitor to the toilet and he was able to spend some time sitting upright and doing some work on his laptop. This is why the shared accommodation ended up being a lifesaver. I think I may have gone mad cooped up sick in a room alone for 30 hours. Bo and I got very close very fast and he was a great companion to have during this time. He’s quite a funny bloke (like the Brit reference?) and we actually had quite a lot of laughs at our own expense. A couple of times we actually made it down to the hotel’s shop for an attempt at a snack. The first time was the funniest – I was a zombie walking through the store. I thought I was gonna die right there and the cashier had a knowing smile on her face as I threw my money at her for the most expensive cardboard-like crackers I’ve ever put in my mouth. We decided to take a break on the front steps of the shop and sit with our snacks. Bo ended up spreading right out and lying on the concrete with the upper step as a very uncomfortable-looking pillow. What a duo.

Anyhow, Di got back that night and told us all about the amazing dive experience. She listed off all of the marine life she saw… including rays and turtles damn it! Sooooo jealous. I think this means I just have to make another trip to southwest Thailand. : P After a couple of hours, Bo and I gathered up the strength to go down and meet Di at the beach. I managed not to be sick again, but the rest of the trip was a bust as I had no energy from lack of food and general weakness. No elephant trek, no kayaking trip. Who goes to Thailand and doesn’t get on an elephant?? Ah well, I’m most bummed about the diving really. Funny though… I still have really fond memories of my Ton Sai days. Bo had a guitar with him too and played some of my faves. We brought it down to the beach at night and man does a guitar draw people to you. At one point Bo was getting a drink and left me to lie on the mat alone with the guitar. It totally looked like it was mine and a couple of guys asked me if I played. I decided I should take it up… guitars really up your attractiveness quotient!.

At low tide, Bo and I walked over to Railay West beach...

People do some interesting things at sunset

Is the sun still 'setting' when you're upside down?

Local fisherman

There was a strange obsession on Railay West to go running back and forth along the beach as the sun went down

Sunsets were gorgeous here

Back to Ton Sai for some drinks on the beach and ever-popular fire dancers

Anyhow, we met a lot of really interesting people from around the world and had many interesting conversations. If you’re going to be sick and incapacitated, no better place to be than on a beautiful beach with cool people and the most spectacular views all around you!


PART 5: MY LAST DAY IN THAILAND

Don’t worry – this one is short.

I basically just want to make note of a few things:

1. The 14hr overnight bus ride back to Bangkok which I highly suggest everyone avoids due to pure discomfort and lack of sleep.

2. The 2hrs spent in a Thai salon where I paid about $20 for a manicure, pedicure, shampoo & cut, and 45 minute heavenly facial. I figured a good cheap pampering was a good way to spend the last few hours of my trip and to kill time before my flight. Grrreat idea.

3. The gradual rise in blood pressure as I approached my flight gate and got closer to the swarms of Koreans awaiting their trip back home. The contrast between Thai and Korean life is quite amazing. Thais are so laid back and Koreans so crazy and always in a rush (the first words I learned in Korea were ‘hurry, hurry’ – ‘bali, bali’).

The flight back to Korea was comedic as I couldn’t keep my eyes open as best I tried. Sooo tired. When I got back to Chuncheon, I slept from about 4:30pm until the next morning at 8am. It took a couple of days of Koreans forcing food down my throat, but I’ve now got my appetite back and I expect to pack the pounds I lost back on very soon.

Congratulations! You finished this blog entry! Hope you enjoyed!

# posted by Keri May : 8:04 p.m.