Saturday, February 21, 2009

Return, Catalina Valentine & Recuperation

I made it.
I think that was my best international flight ever, less than 50% full makes every difference. I wish when your buying a ticket you could search under "On average, how full is this flight?"
Via SFO I landed in San Diego with no problems. Dorothy, whom I missed like crazy, met me at baggage claim and took my bulging backpack and I home. It was a great evening, she had warned anybody who might want to stop by that we were otherwise occupied, which wasn't far from the truth. She had meatballs & ravioli waiting, a personal favorite, and it was perfect. I was home and once unpacked, full and comfortable, I passed out. Then I woke up at like 3am, obviously my hours are all fucked up at this point.
This has been going on for a week, settling into early wake ups and early bedtimes, no sleep lasting more than six hours and naps whenever, literally in the blink of an eye. I could be catching up, but I think it's anticipation for New Zealand, too many things I want to get done before I leave the country for another month.
A little over a day after returning Dorothy & I boarded a ferry in Long Beach bound for Avalon, on Catalina, one of the Channel Islands 22 miles off the California coast. Neither of us had ever been and since February 14th (that day) was Dotty's Birthday AND Valentine's Day, that's where we went. The ferry was an hour and smooth, when we landed our hotel shuttle picked us up, we checked in, chilled, and walked around acquainting ourselves with this quiet village by the sea. I describe it as quiet since the locals refer to this time of year as the "off-season," but it seemed like this Hallmark holiday brings a few people back for the long weekend. There's a history to Catalina, but I didn't really bother with that sort of thing this time. I was tired of taking pictures, tired of learning about new places. This weekend was all about my girl and making her see that even though I'm unemployed and take off for lenghty amounts of time, she's my one, my only, and she is appreciated.
After spending some more time in possibly the most thin-walled Victorian hotel I've been in, we wandered out for our Valentine's/her 29th Birthday dinner. She was of the same mentality as me, having come off a long work week, and had no desire to get "crazy," since we had done that the night before with some friends in OB. We found a nice place on the harbor and had a nice dinner with an entertaining server who gave us some ideas for the next day. It was supposed to rain but we knew if we were going to get any time alone in nature that would be our window of opportunity. After dinner and I think two bottles of wine we strolled the promenade entertained by the brisk ocean air, frigid waves crashing on the stone beach and the obscene amount of golf carts wandering the area late at night.
The next morning we woke up, had a nice breakfast and figured out how we were going to catch a ride up the hill (Catalina tops out at 2097 feet) - our plan was to get close to the center of the island and walk back down to Avalon. The Catalina Island Conservancy manages a shuttle to the "Airport in the Sky" which will let you off wherever along the way, we were dropped off about ten miles from Avalon expecting to hitch a ride for the latter part of our journey if the weather turned or it got dark. So we strolled, not up or through anything too crazy, just simple hiking. The weather held although at times it did threaten, but when your seeing Buffalo & the temperatures perfect if you stay moving, crazy clouds just add to the ambiance of being away from civilization. We passed by Mount Black Jack, the 2nd highest on the island, eventually avoiding the mile long trail up to Mount Orizaba (1st highest) and wandering into a small valley full of many varieties of trees which I'll never know if were native, or planted a hundred years ago. The few people I did ask said this island is full of mysteries like that, things that seem natural were imported, and vice verse. At some point, this being the USA/melting pot, do we just give up wondering because if it's here, and thriving, what difference does it make anyway? I digress, we continued in and explored a campground, discussed the possibility of coming back here someday soon to hike the Trans-Catalina Trail and actually found it crossing through where we were. Of course we followed it, I kinda had a map, (it was a handout from the Visitor's Center) my trusty boy scout compass and it seemed to be going in the right direction so along it we went, avoiding "bison paddies" whenever necessary. Along the way we noticed we had followers, two ravens that kept pace with us, even scouting ahead to see what might be over the next rise. They became our only associates in this crowded wilderness, which was abundant with rabbits, fox, squirrels & mice. There were also hawk, glossy brown & fat, I just smiled knowing any bird that ventures away from the LA metropolis is truly Living the Dream out here on this hunterless mecca. Everywhere we went seemed alive, the plants were blowing up due to the recent rain, and the hillsides were criss-crossed with trails from the various game on the run from their aerial predators. Our trail meandered around a hillside to a vista that showed we needed to start going down and then up towards the road, and eventually Avalon.
Once back on the road where the trail, due to the fire almost two years prior, parallels for the most part, we were rewarded with spectacular views in every direction. These Channel Islands are incredibly similar to the mainland with one distinct and brilliant difference, every backdrop is the Pacific Ocean. Our gift, like a cherry on top, was that to the Northeast. The recent storms had capped the San Gabriel's with a thick layer of white, and it glowed through the smog at least 60 miles to our vantage. Right on, it's one of the only reasons I wish I had a good camera, cause our Canon won't do it justice. We continued on occasionally getting passed by some locals in cars but mostly buses full of tourists fearful of the impending storm. We came to the "edge" so to speak, a decision needed to be made, will we just walk the road or find the path to the back of town? The weather had turned out fine by this point but the only marked trail I had found involved uphill, something neither of us were in the mood to tackle. I found a side trail, it looked old but seemed to go where we were. I was skeptical after 20 yards, I saw another trail with a newer look. Turned out to be a road for some newer drainage that had been installed since the fire, I was positive. We walked down a steep grade, some flat, and came to a precipice. Shit, it was where "they"' had decided to take all the top water quickly off the plateau so as not to erode the topsoil due to the recent fires killing all the ground cover... a football field long pipe descending down a very steep ridge.
I was game, my Donia was not. She's a very brave girl, and after a minor amount of coaxing, me taking the backpack, camera, etc, she started down with me promising that if anything starts to "slip" the pipe will be right there to grab onto. About 30 minutes later we were in the ravine on an old dirt road, amongst the fire damage, a scene that as San Diegans is not unfamiliar.
That was the exciting part of our hike, I know that mellow is the more romantic option, especially during the big "V" weekend, but I couldn't resist. Down the gully into the Avalon "ghetto" (the houses weren't quite ready for the Chamber of Commerce pamphlet) and eventually back to our hotel. They upgraded us to a suite for this evening and it was, we had a nice dinner that evening, grabbed a few beers at a local bar and called it a reasonably early night.

Awoken by the rain, torrential downpours at 6am, we decided at that point that getting on the first ferry off this island might be our only option since the weather report wasn't getting any better till later in the week. Awesome, so we caught a great breakfast where I had the Monte Cristo Sandwich, and I'm gonna write about it! Three slices of french toast, apple smoked ham & thick roasted turkey topped with Swiss. I dipped that bad boy in Dot's hollandaise sauce and loved it so much I couldn't eat the entire thing at once, I needed to savor it for a 2nd sitting. 
OK, back on track, switched our tickets and spent the next six hours wondering which ferry was gonna consider itself profitable enough to leave LB Harbor. I'm a cynic and a realist, the seas were big but those hydrofoils are great, my money's on the Catalina Express people waiting till they had a full return boat on the docks before they sent one of their captains through it. Who cares right, we're on island time now!
We got back to Downtown LB after a somewhat rocky ride, but nothing too jarring from my seat. On our way home I had another nap attack and Donia once again picked up the ball and got me to my Dad's where I was picking up my truck. That was Monday night, it's Saturday and I've had an incredibly relaxing week. I've gotten a bunch done, caught up with my family & friends, some correspondence & my pictures. Next week I'm doing more of the same, heading to Joshua Tree for the weekend to get in some quality climbing with Andy before I meet him in Kathmandu, and on Tuesday I'm off to the Southern Hemisphere for Sydney & New Zealand. Till then, Nazdrowie!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Khao Sok Nat'l Park, Ko Samui, & Pickin' Up My Pieces

I left off when leaving Phuket-town, feeling better from what I consider exhaustion mixed with a little sun-poisoning, it was time for another bus ride.  This morning it dawned on me that I only had four more full days left in Thailand and had not spent much time just chillin'... so in this next post it's all about takin' it easy.
(The picture to the left is of the bay between Phuket Island & Mainland Thailand, if you look closely you can see the towers at the inlet used for tsunami detection & warning, they were everywhere along that coast.)
As I mentioned before I had met a gentlemen named Chris who was from Leeds, England. He decided after spending some time reading my LP that he was going to go to Khao Sok as well, and since he seemed like a nice enough guy, and I'm down to save money, we decided to share a room therefore splitting the cost. A few hours up the coast, which for having been devastated by a Tsunami four years prior, looked spectacular. Once to Khao Lak, an area known to be the most epic diving in Thailand, the bus turned east and went another hour inland. We got dropped off at an intersection with a sign, it was the driveway for Khao Sok Nat'l Park.
Unlike anywhere else I had gotten off public transportation in Thailand there was NOT some form of taxi waiting to take us to their accommodations of choice. It was refreshing, we had backpacks so why the hell shouldn't we walk once and a while? (The guidebook said we'd only have to go three or four kilometers.) It was nice to get out of the city, nice to not have to deal with hawkers, & nice to walk in nature alone for the most part. The area is known for it's floating-river & tree-house dwellings, at a very fair price. We researched a few and found that since it was the high season, the price was not as fair as the place we did find, a fairly large bungalow with mosquito netting, hot water & a fan. $12 for the both of us, just outside of the village, I was good. (and the mosquito's were no worse than anywhere else I had been.) Once checked in we found some local grub and went for a hike. The rain forest here is apparently the oldest in the world, and I saw some interesting things characteristic to the Hawaiian, Peruvian or Costa Rican jungles, but with definite differences.  The trees seemed taller and the leaves on the ground seemed to get larger the higher up we went.  There was more of a variety of them as well; fruit trees, pines, rubbers, firs & deciduous, all next to each other and different types of each.  Currently it being the dry season none of the waterfalls were running very hard but there was an abundance of water, this was the major watershed for southern Thailand and other than the leaches I was warned not to ignore it looked as clear as any creek I've seen.  Local guides run night-tours deeper in where they see wild elephants fairly often, and sometimes larger pythons, tigers & bears. I didn't see any of that, I did see some exotic  birds, fire ants, a large variety of spiders & a ton of flora that wasn't familiar - I was OK with that - wasn't quite sure what I would have done had I seen a tiger, where do you go in a situation like that? I mean, they climb trees pretty well right, can run fast, so I guess I'm happy to just have been in the land of the tiger. I'm not quite sure what sort of organic material ended up getting stuck on this barbed wire but these ants seemed to be enjoying the heck out of it.
We stayed within the canopy till after sunset and I eventually wandered out to find some water & a shower. There was a place, an Italian restaurant, advertising pizza. For some reason after having a few bad ones this place intrigued me, and it did not disappoint. Best I've had by far, and the restaurant itself was very friendly, I decided to make that my hangout. That evening I took it easy, spent some time reading my book and I was in bed by midnight.
The next day was more of the same, took a walk into another part of the jungle, this time we went where the canopy was much more dense, and the vegetation below was used to getting a very low amount of sunlight. I was having a very nice time strolling along just studying the different changes this area goes through. The government had made attempts to make concrete paths through the jungle but they were mostly overgrown by this point. (How long ago I don't think we'll ever know.) Just like how the U.S. Nat'l Park system learned it's much easier to maintain natural trails rather than concrete or pavement.)  Good thing this bridge survived.  I saw quite a few frogs this time, they like the dank places, bright orange & bright green, but they never held still for a photo. I also saw a fairly large kimodo dragon on my way out, it was just chillin' on a log obviously enjoying himself on this partly cloudy day. His "laziness" inspired me to take a nap. Woke up and went back to that Italian joint for some pasta. Afterwards I spent some time on the Internet, read my book some more, wandered around in the cool night air and eventually landed in bed after a fairly pleasant yet uneventful day.
So two days in that jungle oasis to recharge my energy, and motivation to have a strong finish to my tour of Thailand. I woke up early and threw my thumb out to catch a ride back to the main road, a nice local girl offered to put me on the back of her scooter and I got there in minutes. Caught a mini-bus to a town called Surat Thani, the transportation hub for Thailand's eastern seaboard, and from there I caught another mini-bus to Don Sak. This is where the ferries launch to the various eastern islands, and I was thinking of going to Ko Tau, but feared traveling to this farthest island may take too much time when I didn't have much left. Ko Samui was on the way so I caught a ferry there and spent an hour reading my Lonely Planet to familiarize myself with this larger & more populated island hoping I could find the beaches and accommodation I was looking for there, rather than continue on another ferry to an island without an airport. Basically Ko Tau had come highly recommended, but it was far, I was short on time and tired of traveling overland. I knew flights were reasonable, and had the idea in the back of my mind for a few days now that rather than ride a bus or train back to Bangkok, I'd just catch a plane. So according to the LP Ko Samui would be fine, it had a variety of beaches, cheap bungalows and a great airport. When I arrived I found a computer & bought a plane ticket back to Bangkok for 6pm the following day.  This flight is turning an entire day of traveling into an hour, giving me a proper amount of time to see Ko Samui.
Now I caught a cab to Bo Phut Beach, where I found an $8 bungalow 30 feet from the shore with plenty of shade and trees for hammock dwelling... and that's what I did, till well after nightfall. Once motivated I had some "Spicy Noodle," my favorite Thai dish, and walked a mile or so up the beach to see the village and pick up some souvenirs. Another relaxing evening of reading and listening to the ocean led to a very peaceful sleep. The next morning, my last day in this paradise, I woke early & checked out, walked up to another beach and had some lunch. From there I took a taxi to Chaweng Beach, where the water & reefs make it Ko Samui's most popular, and when I got there it did not disappoint. This beach was the perfect spot to call my last, I stashed my bag, rented some snorkel gear and headed out to the reef to get away from the people. Yes the beach was packed and from what I was looking at I understood why, plus the snorkeling at the reef was intense, so much to explore I only touched the surface so to speak. When I finished I caught some final rays, had a snack and caught another scooter ride to the airport. This was the nicest airport I've ever been to, open air, not chaotic at all and they provide you with food, pineapple juice and free Internet. An hour there and it was off to Bangkok.
Back at Refill NOW! I had a drink and relaxed some more, tomorrow was an early travel day so I had no desire to leave that neighborhood all evening. Raoul, the manager, retrieved my stash of belongings I had left there, I packed my ever growing bag and had an early night. The following morning I said goodbye to the helpful staff of the best hostel in Thailand and caught my plane to Seoul. A hiccup in my plans, I got sidetracked during my layover in Hong Kong talking with an Australian picking up info on his homeland since I'll be going there in March, and missed my flight. I was upset at first but Cathay Pacific, the airline I was flying with, easily slipped me onto the next flight seven hours later with no additional charge, and I spent the evening in a bar actually speaking rather extensively with an Irishman about New Zealand, the other place I'm going in March, he was returning from an extended stay there and gave me all sorts of great info for my trip. 

Eventually I made it to Jono's place in Seoul, where I am now, and caught a few hours sleep before we headed out for my final night of this trip. I met up with that old college buddy Matt Leach and introduced those two, we had a great night of barhopping around Matt's neighborhood and eventually I had to say goodbye. Jono & I made it back to his crib for some food, and then we got into a drinking game, a very loud Billy Joel & Elton John DVD accompanied by my last bottle of soju in Korea.

That's it, my hangover is intense as I'm writing this & I'm packed for Cali. Once home I'm spending two nights in my house and it's off to Catalina Island for Dorothy's Birthday/Valentines Day, which I may end up writing about as well... who knows, for now, if you've been keeping up with this, thanks for reading it's been fun keeping this record, and stay tuned for more in the coming months.

Friday, February 6, 2009

TONSAI BEACH, Ko Phi Phi & Phuket

The Top Ten Things One Should Know About Thailand:
1) One U.S. Dollar = 33 Baht, So I usually spend between $6 - $14 per night for a bed.
2) Transportation is also very cheap, that supposed 15 hour train ride cost me $15, your average tuk-tuk ride (let's say 20 minutes) is about $2, short boat/ferry rides were 50 cents to a buck.
3) Meals are usually $2, $3 if I get an appetizer
4) Chang is the beer of choice, it's 5.8% and usually less than $2 for a tall bottle
5) Eastern style (squat/pit) toilets are the norm, and they usually don't have plumbing. Once done with your business there's a bucket full of water that you poor into therefore rinsing "it" through. I've started carrying my own toilet paper.
6) It's HOT, and A/C is only at the nice places. Sleeping can be tough but most places have a fan which makes it much easier. Chang has helped as well.
7) There's mosquito's, but I guess they're not as bad now as in the "wet" season.
8) Many people travel solo, and most people have a basic understanding of English. I've picked up the basic Thai pleasantries but for the most part broken English & gesturing get me through.
9) Your expected to remove your shoes/sandals before entering most places.
10) One should not eat Thai food for every meal, add some bread or pastries in. We've had a variety of different pizzas: #1 had ketchup for sauce, #2 used a flour tortilla for crust, last night #3 was awesome, I think this guy went to Cali and trained at CPK.


I last left off with our arrival on Tonsai Beach, where we joined up with a guy we had met at Refill Now in Bangkok. Ronald was leaving as I was checking in and our idle banter led to the fact that he was aiming for the same general area I was. (Krabi vicinity, Limestone cliffs, teal water and white sandy beaches) So I tossed him my email and he "guided" us to this wonderful, awesome and fantastic climber's beach paradise.

As you might have guessed by the amount of adjectives I used, this was my favorite place so far. He had found some of the best accommodations in that small area, the Krabi Mountain View Resort. Since I was traveling with Leon we shared a double and got a very nice room. I didn't realize it at the time but after using the bars & restaurants toilets, and also visiting with others I had met, we might as well have been at the Marriott. From there we just chilled on the beach for a bit, I did some bouldering and once the tide got low enough we were able to hike one beach over (Railey West) to withdraw some cash, since our beach was not wired to the mainland. Interesting side note that didn't bother me one bit, Tonsai Beach runs completely on generators, as do many of the islands, which means that at 5:30pm the entire "town" would light up, fans would start blowing, emails would start sending & camera batteries would start charging, etc, etc. Anyway, we got to see the neighboring beach where massages went for 300 baht, while our beach gave them for 200, it was reputed as the pricier area, the La Jolla of Railey if you will ;) - But the sunset was gorgeous and everyone seemed a bit cleaner, since we were staying where the climbers stay things are a bit more relaxed, for lack of a better word. Another interesting side note, we can only go between the two beaches by foot when the tide is low, and the tide completely changes every week. So on Sunday at noon it was low, and the following Sunday at noon it was high; the point is your travel can be hindered if the tide is too low and the long tail boats can not get to you, or get free from their beached status.

We walked back and watched some other climbers leading sport overhangs rated at least 5.12, that's my guess since they use the French grading system over here. Limestone is crazy abundant in Asia and Wee, the "Father of Climbing" in Thailand, and other rock jocks have bolted the shit out of it. Our vantage was what seemed like the norm for all of the local bars: A raised platform that you had to flip your sandals off if you wanted to get on; cushions focused on a lying or leaning position; a small table in the middle for whatever - at that point we were situated under a 1000 foot cliff. I saw some signs advertising Deep Water Soloing so I did a little research and signed up for a trip leaving at 11am the next morning, the water was so amazing I was just looking for different reasons to get in it. I got cleaned up, joined these friends for dinner, and then proceeded to the Swadee Bar, another spot Ronald had scoped out which provided entertainment by slack liners all night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacklining) while we chilled on yet another raised platform with comfy cushions.
The next morning I got up, had breakfast and met up with my group to go out to some islands. They had us help load the two long tails with some water, food & a kayak. After cruising about 20 minutes out we came to some sheer cliffs rising straight out of the sea, which was our destination. Deep Water Soloing for those of you who might not know... Soloing is defined as rock climbing without a rope. So if your doing it over deep water your supposedly safer, therefore deep water soloing has gained in popularity since more and more professional climbers are going this route to get their rush/impress their sponsors/have an excuse to go to the most beautiful places in the world. I was down without a doubt, I had brought my climbing shoes to Thailand expecting to just Boulder, (Bouldering: Climbing on rocks without a rope but never getting far enough off the ground that your fall would cause serious injury) but when I saw that this six hour excursion would only cost 700 baht (Yeah, that's right $21!!!) I was all over it. So the guides set up ladders to get to some of the easier climbs, ferried us over two by two on the kayak and gave us our chance. IT WAS AWESOME! Can't really describe the feeling, I wasn't scared but was shaking due to the fact that it was such a different way to climb, I was excited to do what I had only seen in magazines and movies. I got about 60 feet up and jumped on purpose the 1st time. After that I just stuck to the lower areas where the falls were cleaner and shorter. About 2 hours went by and they took us to a deserted beach for lunch, and some bouldering. I also did some snorkeling since the fish were quite brilliant once we started cleaning our dishes in the little lagoon we had landed in. Fucking heaven, it was amazing, maybe the most beautiful beach I'd seen to date. Two hours there and we were off to a different spot for another DWS session. This one was way harder, only about half of us actually went up the ladder, which was the most difficult part. This time I got about 75 feet up and jumped again, I was definitely freaked by the height and can see why they leave this to the professionals. I was done, my arms were pumped out since I was out of shape to begin with, and my adrenaline which had gotten me that far, was depleted. I spent the rest of the time utilizing my ten years of production experience to take pictures of everyone else. Back in the long tail we made our way home, where Eder had just arrived and happened to be walking by our arriving boat. (I had him snap a pic of our group, and then welcomed him to Tonsai... Eder had chosen a different path, Thai Airways to Krabi, so rather than the 24 hour mission from hell that Leon & I went through, he traveled for about three total from Bangkok that morning. Bastard.)

That evening while we were settling into our nightly ritual of happy hour under the cliffs, I cut it short for my first Thai massage, which was very good. This older women worked the hell out of my muscles which hadn't really seen any serious action till that afternoon in a while, and it was necessary. The best $6 I'd ever spent. I joined up with the other three at the Swadee Bar for more Chang, slack line appreciation and relaxation...it had been a good day.

The next day we decided to rent kayaks, rowed all around the peninsula & climbed a little since now it felt that the guide would be a waste of money. When you go with a group they end up making all of the routes slippery, but in reality both have their advantages since the guides have researched the hell out of that area and know what they're doing. Still good times, just different, we finished our kayak session with a visit to Railey for some lunch and back to our beach we went. Happy hour under the cliffs, and eventually met back at the Swadee bar for the nightly ritual.

This evening we actually moved on to another bar closer to our "resort" - we had seen different locals "playing with fire," (I.E. Spinning flaming balls on the ends of chains, or spinning and throwing a stick with both ends lit on fire) but Steven & Eleanor, two people I had met while climbing claimed that this guy was different, and they were correct! He was awesome, I only regret getting there too late because apparently he actually spins fire while roaming around on a slack line.

(By the way, on my best try I've only made it about six steps before falling off.) That evening was probably my latest night, mainly because that bar had a bunch of hammocks we could lie around in and I think I actually dozed off for a bit.


The next morning I was supposed to meet with Steven & Eleanor for some sport climbing, but instead I ended up getting my head shaved and learning how to climb a palm tree. I figure I've done plenty of "normal" climbing, why not attempt something different, attempt being the key word. I got up a bit but mainly learned the technique involved with this ancient native necessity. That took up most of the morning and since it was my last full day on Tonsai I decided to just kick it on the beach for the entire afternoon. It was also our last night with Eder, we were moving on to Ko Phi Phi and he had to get near some wireless Internet for business purposes, a direction the rest of us had no concern with whatsoever. So that day we sat in the ocean enjoying Changs, and then happy hour under the cliffs with Changs, and eventually the Swadee Bar with, you guessed it, CHANGS! I'm pretty over this beer by this point but since we were saying goodbye to a good guy I figured what the hell. That night ended at an OK time so when I got back to the room I packed for our 9am departure the next day. On to Ko Phi Phi!

Pronounced koe-p-p, this place was wiped out by the tsunami in December of 2004, and rebuilt over the past four years. We boarded a long tail from Tonsai which ferried us to the Au Nang Princess 3, a larger ferry which was raging! People all over the decks already drinking at 9:30am, crazies, I found a comfy spot below deck for some iPod & napping. An hour and a half later we arrived to the location of the movie "The Beach" - and I will admit, it was probably the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen, but as Lonely Planet puts it, everyone knows it. The place was just plain obnoxious, from the merchants trying to get our money up front for as many nights as they can squeeze out of us for a room, the long tail boat captains barking "taxi" to any other part of the island they'd like to drop us off on, to the SMELL. Yeah, the smell was horrible, a combination of feces mixed with rotting fish, and it would waft wherever we would land on that part of the island. I knew there was other, more expensive beaches we could have gone to but the attitude I received from the locals turned me off so much that I only signed up for one night and planned on going somewhere, anywhere, as soon as I possibly could.

I made the best of that afternoon, thinking maybe it just came across badly at first. We found some accommodations that were decent, I rented some snorkel gear and made my way to the beach. Seems many women like to sunbathe European style here, which surprised me because of the amount of teenagers running around. I met Ronald & Leon in the water and proceeded out about a half mile where I had seen a reef. The snorkeling was brilliant, the water was almost too warm and never got too deep. I counted three different types of coral and probably 20 species of fish, actually saw a tiger striped angel fish that was as big as my head! It was nice, and I ended up quite tired from the swim and the amount of sun, so I decided on another Thai massage. This one was better than the first, the girl found all of my cuts & bruises from my previous days of climbing and rather than get grossed out made a sad face and applied some sort of herbal remedy to each and every one. My dad calls them raspberries, when you get a bruise that turns purple similar to a racquetball hitting you in the ass or thigh, and they normally last weeks on me. The color was gone in a day after her treatment, and the pain faded after two, I was amazed. After an hour I got myself a fresh smoothie and retired to some shade for some chill time before Ronald & I hiked to the summit of the island to watch the sunset, which was beautiful.

Now things turn a little ugly, as they should since the past three weeks have been nearly perfect, Murphy (Murphy's Law) & I are tight and this is how he did it: Dinner I felt my throat starting to get sore, I know that feeling, either strep throat, the flu or bronchitis - shit. I pounded orange juice by the half gallon, probably the most expensive drink one can buy out here. Also, after seven days of Thai food my stomach was finally pissed, so I had some soup and satay for dinner, & I decided not to drink for a while. When roaming around that night I realized that I'd spent too much time walking in wet trunks, therefore chaffing my inner thighs... awesome. In conclusion I was also getting an ear infection, a normal occurrence when I spend an extended amount of time in the ocean. I barely slept that night and the next day I felt like I'd been hit by a train. I had extreme sunburn on my upper back and arms; my throat was closed; I was so fucking sore from that massage, my chaffing & ear hadn't improved AND because I had barely slept I could barely move. I blamed it all on Phi Phi, threw myself into our resorts pool to get some energy back and figured out how I was going to leave. I was originally aiming for Ko Tau, a trip that entailed 45 minutes in a boat, three hours on a bus across the Thai Peninsula, and an overnight ferry seven hours to that little island. That seemed like too much, so I consulted my Lonely Planet (LP) for something different since islands were now pissing me off. I found a National Park called Khao Sok, a wildlife refuge and supposedly the oldest rain forest in the world. It seemed perfect, so rather than head east to Krabi I went north to Phuket. An hour by ferry put me in Phuket's harbor and another 20 minutes by mini-bus took me to the bus station.


Phuket is an entire province and is the largest island in Thailand containing many good points, mostly on the west coast where the gorgeous beaches are. Phuket-town is not one of them, unless your looking for fat men bidding on ugly hookers. The bus station was a mess and I quickly realized I'd missed all the buses to Khao Sok that day, I'd need to wait for tomorrow. Fine, I felt horrible and knew my LP would guide me towards a reasonable place to stay, I found the Phuket Resotel, $27 for a suite with hot water and A/C, I needed rest and relaxation with no interruptions. Ahhhhhhhhh Yeahhhh, after a few hours I woke up and got some fries, more OJ and went back to sleep. The next morning I felt way better, not 100% but good enough to eat some breakfast and catch a bus to the National Park. I checked out and got onto my bus, when I found my seat some dude behind me asked me where I'm going... He had gotten the same feeling from Phi Phi and decided it was time to make his way to the Full Moon Party on Ko Pha-Ngan, where everyone will be the night of the 9th. His name was Chris Nason & since he had some time to kill decided to join me for some R & R in the jungle.

That's where I am now, and it's perfect, I'll get into this place and my final days before returning home in my next post. Cheers for now.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Bangkok, Khao Sun Road & an Overnight Train to the Railey Penninsula

I had set off on my tour of Thailand solo, but luck threw me into the bottom bunk at the Refill Now! Hostel. Leon Smith was already in the top bunk, he was also almost over Bangkok and looking to see the better parts of Thailand. I had promised a friend I would tour a little Bangkok since, as he put it, "It makes you appreciate everywhere else so much more!" - OK, I'll take that. Leon obliged to spend a few hours snapping some shots around this exciting & very interesting to navigate city.
So he "guided" me to the canal system within the city that was once known as the "Venice of the East" - a stretch, I know, especially since I witnessed raw sewage dumping into the canal where we were jumping onto our water taxi. But anyway, it was a crowded boat and they charge like 25 cents to ride, at certain times two boats pass each other in a narrow part of the canal and everyone knows to huddle behind the plastic tarp wall that I had allowed to drop down in front of me... yep, you guessed it, splashed down the front, thanks again Buddha for not getting it into my mouth. (I had been warned to keep it closed in this situation) Lesson learned we made it to our spot and jumped out to see a temple -- SO, none of this is really interesting me anymore, I'm not into religion enough to delve inside of these places, and honestly the architecture loses it allure after about the hundredth one. I continued on, this was my first "tuk-tuk" ride, it's a motorbike/scooter which has a two, or four, or sometimes six person carriage on the back. These guys are nuts, weaving into oncoming traffic whenever it might save them a second. I was loving it, the methods of navigating this city are WAY more fun than the standard sights. Next I attempted to see the Grand Palace only to find out I wasn't dressed appropriately, (It's too hot for pants!) so we wandered through another temple. The pics will be cool but it seems that only the outdated/aging relics are on display, the real shits kept away from the tourist train and their flashing machines. Onward still, a walk to the Chao Phraya River which we took a ferry across for another quarter and yet another temple. Cheers to Leon for seeing it all through with me, I'm tired just writing about it. We didn't spend long there so back across the river we came, ended up sitting on some upside down plastic trashcans while a local man fanned the sweat off our faces. Oh wait, I forgot to mention we had just ordered "street" Pad Thai - and the local man, who was the vendor, noticed we were sweating profusely so he shared some of his air. The Pad Thai was awesome, two bucks, fresh & fast, but maybe not the best choice on a hot sticky day in Southeast Asia. Whatever, another tuk-tuk ride to the train station to finalize our plans south.
Leon didn't really have a plan, just go places he hears are cool and enjoy them. I had heard of an area where the rock climbing was second to none, and the beach was mighty fine as well, so he agreed to take the 15 hour overnight train with me. We bought our tickets, went down to the "Metro" (their version of a Subway) - this was cheap, easy and clean. Once we arrived at our stop we ascended to the "Sky Train" (an elevated train) - also cheap, easy & clean...plus a great view of the city. I felt like I'd seen my sights and now it was time to relax by the pool, have some dinner and head out for my only real night on the town.
But wait! There's one more mode of transportation I haven't mentioned, this one was Leon's favorite by far and according to him I was to "have a go," so we did. After the Skytrain there's about a 30 minute more walk to our Hostel, we were a bit out of the way for good reason, so we needed another ride. At the bottom of the stairs from the train were a row of dudes wearing red vests on scooters, like a taxi stop. We jump on the back of this thing (helmet-less mind you) and they ride us back to our place, it was nuts but I wasn't too freaked out, actually pulled my camera out and snapped a shot of Leon, best fifty cents I've ever spent on travel. These little bikes (125cc) can't go very fast with guys our size on them but it's of course the oncoming traffic I worry about, and I was wearing flip-flops. OK maybe it was a little disconcerting but it was another thrill to add to the pile so I went with it and it worked out just fine.
That night we headed out on Khao Sun Road, the infamous backpackers area where the nightly booze fest takes place, or as my friends & I from Cali like to refer to it, amateur hour. Eter Callejas, another friend from the hostel, joined us this evening, the three of us took our hostels personal tuk-tuk to the Skytrain, well almost the Skytrain. Actually we got out early since there was an elephant walking down the street and all of us wanted to have a look. We were quite buzzed but it was good times for sure, dudes let us feed it and pet it or whatever, it was a fun five minutes but the novelty wore off as we were declining taking a ride.
Once on Khao Sun it was your typical night market, with a few twists. The first was the amount of people, they were everywhere and it was like spring break, one place actually brings a 4 foot tall glass "keg" to tap right at your table. Not my style (anymore ;) but it was amusing. I just found out last night that it's currently the southern hemisphere's summer break, that coupled with Dec thru March being the "high season" most likely created this craziness. The second twist was the insect cart that came by us, I had never seen anything like it & because of my interest in trying most everything once I asked which was the best... the roasted insect merchant quickly pointed out the crickets & grasshoppers. (I guess the maggots & roaches aren't American favorites) Eter was totally down with this idea, I imagine our enthusiasm & the encouragement of a dready who had been snacking on them recently pushed Leon & I into picking out a grasshopper. He sprayed it with soy sauce, salted it, we "cheers-ed" our four inch snack and crunched it down. .. ... .... ..... It was OK!Kinda like a potato chip, the taste was fine it was the barbed legs which feel stuck in your throat until your next drink that makes it freaky. Actually took a couple beers before that feeling went away. The rest of the night was pretty normal, hit a bar with A/C, a not so common luxury which I imagine cost us a few more cents for beers in the long run. I eventually found my way back to the hostel for a good nights sleep. The next day was pretty much just recovering by the pool & packing for our trip south.
It's time for some more traveling, this time we were taking an overnight train. Our taxi was late picking us up at the hostel and it was rush hour so we were a bit stressed when we arrived at the train station with about five minutes to spare. We stocked on snacks/water and found our seats. Basically since we booked late all that was available was a 2nd Class A/C car with reclining seats, not too bad for 15 bucks, our train departed. Five minutes in our train stopped and lot's of people filed into our car from the front of the train. Hmmmm, what is going on? Not many English speakers in a 2nd Class train car leaving Bangkok... hmmmm. What's that smell? Finally somebody thought of the word Fire -- I guess the car in front of us had caught, still not clear exactly how but basically once everyone had moved all their crap from that car to our car we started backing up, back to the train station. Yippee. Of course I'm antsy anyway so I got out and watched the process of disconnecting the car from ours, waited an hour for another engine to hook-up and pull that half of the train somewhere, where they dropped off the bad car, reattached a new, hopefully safer sleeper car, and hooked the entire train back together. Another two hours go by before we leave, now I'm actually OK with this since a Thai train rushing down the one train line had no appeal to me whatsoever. We were off schedule and they needed to squeeze us in wherever there was room, I just kept thinking of the Metrolink engineer who crashed a train because he was text messaging and missed the red light. There were so many stops on our express train but once it got rolling I roamed around and saw some interesting sights. We were apparently in the "family" car, as I moved forward people were getting more and more energetic, to the point where I was blocked from going by a band jamming & singing! People were trying to set me up with drinks but since I had exhausted myself on purpose so I could sleep on this crazy train, I politely declined and wandered back to my seat for some quiet time, 13 more hours to go at this point. When I woke up it was morning and since we could actually see outside I enjoyed the rest of the ride through rural Thailand. Our train was to Trang, we took a bus from Trang to Krabi, a tuk-tuk to Au Nang and finally a longtail boat from Au Nang to Tonsai Beach, where a guy named Ronald Post was waiting to meet us.
I'll get into the best part of my trip to Thailand (so far) in my next post, this one ended up being too long.