Travels around Thailand

23/09/2010 by Russell.

Khaosan Palace hotel and surroundings

Have been here a few days and Bangkok is full of westerners, Americans, Brits, French and Isrealites

whats good? The Khao San Road is itself a mishmash of market stalls and bars, restaurants and hawkers. A bargain for evryone. However, if you want to go to a market then at the weekend, go to Chatuchak Market, about 5km away, or a £2 taxi ride away. 5,000 stalls, selling everything. EVERYTHING! I have seen fried locusts and silk worms to eat, goldfish by the dozen, puppies, chameleons squirrels and Macaws for sale. Cock fighting in a rink, very boring, not the bloodlust I expected.

Clothes - Levis, leather biker jackets, cowboy clothes, bedding and even modern art, truly its all here. A good 3 hours and more if you wish to shop shop shop. An event in itself. Truly recommended.

Those selling puppies didn’t want any photographs to be taken- not all grim conditions, they were using hair dryers to cool them down in the heat, and kept the cages/pens clean.

Food to go everywhere, and and ATMs around the place in case you run short.

What do you do after that? A Thai Massage of course!

Back to town to a massage parlour – yup all proper, not sordid, its even visited by locals. I had 3 hours of oils, face massage, back, legs, and stuff. My masseuse (Kwan) was a 44 yr old, not the dolly bird I had in mind (ahem!) but boy oh boy it was only 14 quid. Never having experienced a massage before, it was in no way sexual as I had imagined, just very relaxing.

Diving off the Island of Koh Tau

Remember those days when the sun never seemed to stop shining during your summer school holidays and you never wanted to go back to school? Koh Tau is extremely like that, the sea is 30degrees, the water laps at your feet whilst you can surf the Internet, and when the sun shines everything takes on the hue of paradise. People arrive here and never return home. The island is one of those places which you visit which will live long in the memory.

Here, its not the gifts of nature which abound but the tranquilty of the ocean lapping at your feet as you surf the internet on the beach. Is it possible? It certainly is when you visit Sunshine Dive Resort. All very laid back and welcoming.

Natalie my dive instructor (Australian) has been here 10 years, Greg (Scouser) been here 5 years, the list is endless of people who arrive here and stay. The island is small and hosts 40 dive companies. What is also attractive is that you get free accommodation whilst completing a 4 day open water dive course. It seems all too easy when in the swimming pool, and despite my intial problem of going down on my first dive when I accidently took a gulp of sea water by accident, was in a bit of a flap, Natalie came to my rescue, and I remembered the regulator would let me push out the water through exhaling. From then on the rest was easy.

This PADI course is available for around £190 and enables me to be fully qualified for 18m diving, and once your confidence rises underwater, then you forget about the depth, the mental issue of not being able to breathe, it is truly like riding a bike, once you know how, the easier it becomes.

What can you see? In the warm waters around Koh Tau, there are spectacular sights, firstly there is the coral reef itself, very Jacques Cousteau, shapes and colours abound, and on top of all this there is the wildlife.

Can you imagine seeing a razor bill turlte feeding under water? I no longer have to imagine, I have seen it, can you imagine seeing ‘Nemo’ the clown fish? I have several darting around their favoured piece of coral. Can you imagine seeing angel fish, just as in the film ‘Finding nemo’ only bigger and in greater colours? I have, can you imagine seeing a green spotted ray? Can you imagine seeing parrot fish, oh so many to mention, but the most spectacular thing is that you realise, everyone can do it

Monkey Business on Koh Phi Phi Don

Zikes! Feeding monkeys on a beach? Grapes were the dish of the day for these little fellows. This was only a 5 minute boat ride along the coast of Phi Phi Don. They are all wise enough to wait for you and for the next boat and the next, although they must get fed every day by tourists, none of them were overweight. Imagine that in the UK? Someone trots along with food for you everyday, you would soon become lazy and bloated, or are we there already there with our microwave and take away meals and 24/7 supermarkets?

I digress.

Phi Phi Don and its sister island Phi Phi Lay, where they filmed the Beach movie are OK. Maybe I was spoilt by Koh Tao, but the sea was no way as clean as before and there appeared to be more tourists, more tattoo artists per head of population I have ever experienced before. As expected the women offer massages whilst men do the tattooing. Why they can’t put the two services together I don’t know, if they did there would be space for McDonalds and Pizza Hut. Surely these are things we westerners expect in every corner of the globe, so come on Maccy D’s pull yer finger out. Shame too that Starbucks isn’t here, had to make do with coffee made by some local cafe, just not the same when you can’t buy the big brands on yer global tour. All those guarantees of quality and flavour. Still somehow such a small place still had an Indian and a Mexican restaurant and even an irish Bar. I hate Irish Bars, why are they such a feature when you tour the world. You can find these really authentic bars in Ireland, so why not bugger off to Ireland for the experience? I mean we travel to new places around the globe to experience something new and different. In france the cafe experience, In Germany, beer festivals, In Italy local trattorias so why do I have to get served by a local Thai lass who is so far removed from ireland? (I didn’t really visit the Irish Bar on principle)

Any way enough of the rant - Phi Phi and this area (West side) was affected by the famous tsunami, and signs and even a practice drills take place on the island. Signs direct you to high ground. The weather is pleasantly hot and the sea is just the tonic, but there is so much rubbish in the waves, that it is a shame. Human waste gets everywhere. I even paid a local 40p tax upon entry to the island to safeguard the island, not much evidence of though.

The island(s) are small and can be easily navigated by boat in a day, went off on a trip to the famous Maya beach, where Leonardo Di Caprio strutted his stuff, and was over run by fellow day visitors, not what I wanted. The main island is dedicated to late night beach party’s, bars and music adorn the beach – yes the beach, not dry land, and the drinking playground is set up at dusk everyday. If you want to be part of the scene, have a bucket from around £3.60, which is invariably a can of Sprite, a third of a bottle of vodka and off you go and get p*ssed.

Off back to the mainland and Bangkok and Chiang Mai..

Posted in diving, thailand, bangkok | Print | 1 Comment »