Thailand Part 1: Beach Hopping

Nicky and I planned on meeting in Thailand, as it was on my list and close enough for her to get from Australia for ten days. She needed a nice relaxing beach vacation as a break from life working in the ER and spending her free time studying. It had been a while since we’d seen each other at my sister’s wedding in August. We met in Bangkok and traveled south to the beaches together. The pictures are here.

From my initial taxi ride from the airport in Bangkok I saw the impact of the floods. Roads were impassable, sandbags were stacked along streets and hundreds of cars lined the raised roads surrounding the airport where parking wasn’t allowed. The taxi meter kept rising quickly. It had far surpassed what was supposed to be a reasonable fair. I asked the driver about it, and he said his electronics had been shorted and were malfunctioning after a drive through the water.

I stayed in an adorable and affordable hostel called Baan Dinso. It was a nice little oasis in the chaos and heat of the crazy city. I ventured out to check out the local Kathong festival. The festival’s custom is for Thais to send candles on flower floats into the water, along with their wishes. I quickly became sandwiched in foot traffic going nowhere fast heading towards the festival. I backed out and headed for Plan B, Ko Sahn road for dinner. It lives up to its fame as a backpackers haven with shopping, clubs, drinking and many grungy backpackers.

The next day I visited Wat Pho, known for the temple of the giant reclining buddha.

In the grounds of the temple I also got my first thai massage there from a student of the local school. Yes! I like Thai massages. I walked around the city and saw more of the flood’s impact along the river side. For the most part, people were going about their daily life though.

I walked over sandbags to get into the Bangkok National Museum which has really impressive collections. One exhibit that stood out were lithographs of the story of Siddartha on the walls surrounding a buddha statue in a shrine. I didn’t have time to check out the whole place as I had a deadline.

I got a shuttle to the airport after the museum to meet Nicky. I even welcomed her with a homemade welcome sign. It was so good to see her! The next morning we flew to Krabi, south west of Bangkok, along the shore. From there we hopped in a minibus and drove to Klong Nin beach in Ko Lanta. We arrived at White Rock Resort, which Nicky’s friend had recommended. It had an amazing garden and really nice rooms. We explored the beach and the local village, where we booked an island tour for the next day. The beach was very beautiful. We ended the afternoon with his and her massages on the beach for sunset. Very nice.

The boat tour was amazing. The two highlights were lunch at the white powdery beach at Koh Kraden and swimming into emerald cave to find a hidden beach. Our guides had flashlights as the cave got really dark. The drama was intensified by little headroom between the top of the water and the cave ceiling, waves in the water and a terrified crying baby. He surely was in the process of developing a new phobia.Once we got to the end of the cave we were greeted by turquoise waters surrounded by rock walls on all sides, and sunlight shining through the open roof of the cave. There are a few places I have visited whose beauty make me giddy. This one of them.

The next day we took it easy lounging by the pool at the resort, swimming in the ocean and walking around. We had cocktails sitting on a bamboo lounge setup for two on the beach at sunset. The setting was ideal. There were just enough people but not too many, good music, but not too loud and of course the perfect company.

Ko Phi Phi was our next destination, and it was a really beautiful culture shock. We had been warned about the crowded sidewalks and noise. The warnings were right. We booked a resort on the quieter end of the strip i.e. we could notice the base thump of the bar nearby, but not be disturbed by it. The real draw was the neighboring islands, so we booked another boat tour. After dinner we found out our resort offered free boat tours, so we returned our purchased tickets and the next day set sail with two German couples from the resort.

They were not too friendly…the happy pair and the unhappy pair were happy speaking German, and didn’t respond well to our attempts at befriending them. So Nicky and I had our own fun. We visited Maya Beach, featured in the movie The Beach and Monkey Beach, where monkeys live. Maya Beach was absolutely stunning. It’s a big tourist attraction so its a crowded, but the crowds can’t take away the paradise vibe from this cove.

The price, the sites, the swimming, and the boat were so good we decided to do it again the next day. The second time we had many more people and more fun on the boat.

Our last stop, after a ferry ride, a packed truck transfer and speed boat ride was an AMAZING resort. Nicky booked this place as a birthday present for me, to shower us with a private beach luxury for two days. We caught the sunset from our deck overlooking the ocean and it was magnificent.

The next day we walked to neighboring Ao Nang beach to check out the town. Our beach was not connected to the neighboring beach, so we had take the monkey trail, up the hill a bit, and we saw so many freakin monkeys…they even grabbed for Nicky’s bag at one point. They’re used to humans. We were advised to lock our doors as they know how to open them to find food; mischievous silly little monkeys.

Later, we were headed to the beach to go for a swim together and then IT happened. I jumped off a ledge on to the beach carefree, but a hidden rock met the bottom outside of my left foot. Owwww! Immediately my walking was compromised. I was able to swim with the pain, but walking on the main land was really painful. Nicky went into doctor mode, and I went into wussy mode. We both agreed x-rays would be best to rule out a fracture. The hotel was great in helping out. We hopped on to the speedboat and then were driven to a clinic in town. It’s Thai tradition to take your shoes off in the house and in some workplaces, so our doctor was barefoot. Interesting. After drying via a fan, the x-rays turned out normal.

It was fun to watch Nicky and the clinic doctor talk doctor talk, compare techniques and recent war stories. I walked out on one foot with an ankle brace and crutch. We got back to the resort with plenty of time to spare for the Thai buffet that night. Phew.

Nicky had to go back the following day. We were sad to say goodbye. We had so much fun together. Now it was time to lay low and recuperate. I had planned two weeks of learning Thai kickboxing but that was now out of the question…so I decided to make peace instead of war…more on that in part 2.