Oh, Thailand! Just thinking back to these crazy but fun times make me smile as I am once again back in Southeast Asia. This time I am at the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on a very inconvenient stopover from Bali to Japan. That is what happens when you fly Air Asia (but I do have to say that they are pretty good value minus the ridiculous flight plans and waits at random airports). I had been hoping to catch up a lot on my blog while I was in Bali, but somehow I ended up being very busy as happens when traveling in SEA. Only a few more weeks of traveling left before I come back home in the beginning of June, and I am going to try and update more frequently before then.
Where did I leave off? I was on my own, on an overnight bus from Cambodia to Thailand with some Brazilian guys I had just met. With little sleep, we had to wait at the border for awhile for everyone to get their visas. I had a scare moment when I thought that I lost my ticket and was asked to show it, but I found it in one of my secret hiding places! Then, we transferred from our large, comfortable coach bus to a much smaller, cramped minivan that would take us the rest of the way into Bangkok. Once again, I was given the best seat so that I could stretch out my bum leg, even though the Brazilian guys were much taller than me.
When we arrived in Bangkok, we were literally dropped off in the middle of a roundabout near Khoa San Rd, which is a popular backpacker area. The Brazilian guys had been to Bangkok earlier in their travels, so they made a recommendation on a hostel for me and then were headed straight down to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party. Many people had gotten scared and booked ahead, because they had heard that there was not going to be enough accommodation for all of the people planning to show up for New Years Eve. The bad thing with booking ahead was that the hotels all required you to stay at least a 5-night minimum, and they charged a higher rate. Since neither of us had been to Thailand before, we did not know where we would want to stay once we reached the island, so Nashy and I decided to gamble and just turn up hoping that there would be something left.
Immediately upon stepping out of the minivan in Bangkok, I knew that I wanted to leave ASAP. I had had enough with big Asian cities with their crazy traffic, no driving laws, and insane tourist traps. I was ready to head to the beach, and I even thought myself about getting an earlier bus down to the islands. When I went to go check-in to the hostel the Brazilians had recommended, the lady at reception informed me that they were full for the night. I think the look on my face and the dejected shrug of my shoulders must have made her reconsider (or she saw my ridiculous bright blue brace) because she told me that I could leave my backpack there and come back later in the afternoon. They might have a cancellation, and then I could take that person’s spot. I hoped for the best and went to go investigate Bangkok even though I didn’t really want to. Nashy had messaged me the place where he was staying, so I decided to see if I could find it and meet up with him. I found him, and he wanted to move to the other hostel if he was able to get a bed because he did not like the one he was at. We were both lucky and got beds even though they were supposedly full! And I was glad it had been recommended to me too, there was air-conditioning, hot showers and really comfortable beds! All of those things are hard to come by in SEA and begin to become luxuries sadly.
Nashy shared my opinion of Bangkok, so we decided to try and leave the next day and started to get prices for buses/boats down to Koh Phangan. We were planning to go to Burma (we had already booked our flights and would meet some of Nashy’s friends from university in Thailand and then go there), so we also had to go to the Burmese Embassy in order to apply for our visas. Unfortunately, by the time found a taxi to take us to the embassy, we had missed the visa application hours by literally 2 minutes, and the officials would not even hear about taking our applications. They told us to come back the next day, so it looked like we would be stuck in Bangkok for one more night, and the island paradise I had in my mind seemed to be getting further and further away.
We made the most of our forced time in Bangkok, eating delicious Thai food for ridiculously cheap prices. My favorite things so far were the fresh fruit smoothies for less than a dollar that I enjoyed at each meal as well as the fresh fruit vendors that caught my eye for breakfast. There was also good, cheap shopping, and so many things that caught my eye. It did not seem like I could take enough pictures to capture everything that is Bangkok. I had never seen such things; it was definitely an over-stimulation of the senses!
While we had time, we went to a few of the temples in Bangkok city including going to see the Golden Buddha in Chinatown and the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. I was a little annoyed with Nashy though this day, because we had been to so many places and gone to so many temples that he should have been prepared. He had forgotten that he would need to cover his shoulders out of respect to enter the temple, and he was only wearing a singlet. He went in search of a t-shirt to buy, but it took him over an hour before he returned. He was just unlucky and had gone the wrong way in search of a clothing store, because when we left the temple, we found one pretty much straightaway!
We continued to get around by our favorite mode of transportation, the tuk tuk, but we were wary of the drivers in Bangkok because we had heard they are likely to try and scam tourists. One of their favorite things to do is to charge you a really cheap fare, and then insist that in order to get it, you must go to a gem store and go shop around. They are paid on commission by these types of stores to bring them customers, and it is really annoying! Some backpackers actually don’t mind the unnecessary stop though if it means a cheaper fare, because you are not actually required to buy anything. However for me, it always seemed that I wanted to get somewhere quickly, so sometimes I opted for the hot pink taxis over the tuk tuk. This was not always a safe option either though, because even though it is against the law for the drivers not to use the meter, we found some drivers who wanted still tried to rip us off... That’s Thailand for you!
There are literally hundreds of tour companies on Khoa San Road, so we decided to go to as many as we could to make sure that we were getting a good price for our trip down south to Koh Phangan. The only problem was that the first few we asked told us that all of the transportation was fully sold out until after New Years, and we started to get a little nervous! I definitely did not want to be in Bangkok for NYE, so we were determined to find a way down to the islands. We found that there were actually some seats available on bus, train, speedboat, or plane, but the cheapest route (even though it would have been cheaper if it was not December 30th!) was a combination bus/boat ticket. We would take the bus overnight and arrive around 11AM on the 30th. Satisfied that we were getting the best price we could, we purchased our tickets and then continued to make the most of our time in Bangkok.
One night in Bangkok, I tried pad thai cooked at a food stall for about $1 and chased it down with a ice cold Chang beer while watching an NFL football game out of the back of a pickup truck. We decided to get a few drinks at one of the many bars with live music on Khoa San or Rambuttri Road. While we were sitting there, we thought that one of the guys at the next table over looked familiar, and we thought it could be crazy Richy that we had met in Hanoi! However, he looked much too sober and drug-free to be the Richy we knew, so we decided to go over and talk to him. It ended up it was Richy, but I think he was drug-free because it took him a few minutes to even remember ever meeting Nashy and me. It turns out that he was also going down to Koh Pgangan at the same time as us, so we said we would see him on the bus. I loved that even though we were in the crazy city that is Bangkok, we still ran into someone that we had met along our travels!
I do not know what came over me, but I let Nashy hold the tickets for the bus/boat to Koh Phangan, but this would be the last time! We had made it as far as the ferry terminal when we were told that we would need to show our boat tickets to re-confirm our seat on the boat. Nashy was still half-asleep, but he had no idea where the tickets were and did not think he had ever been given any. We were forced to buy new tickets which was so frustrating! And we had to wait for hours until someone randomly let us know our boat was leaving (keep in mind this is between the hours of ~4-7AM). The system of travel in Thailand is to put different color stickers on people’s clothing based on the destination where they are going. Unfortunately, a lot of times people lose their stickers and then have to beg to still be let on! We tried to watch for people that had our same color sticker, and we planned to board the boat when they did, but it was chaos as usual! I should mention though that Richy was on our bus and boat, and we planned to share a taxi with him upon arrival in Koh Phangan. He had been to the island (and the full moon party before) so we were counting upon his advice.
After a stop in Koh Samui, we were finally at Koh Phangan but both Nashy and I were getting really nervous about our chances to get accommodation since there were so many backpackers! We made a plan that he would grab our big backpacks, and I would go in search of a taxi to take us to the famous Haad Rin Beach where the Full Moon Party would be held the next night. I found a taxi for 100 Baht each, and found Nashy through the crowd and waved him over. We had no idea where Richy was though, and we felt bad as the taxi pulled away, but we figured we would run into him again randomly. On the taxi ride to the beach, we discovered there was a French girl (with amazing English!) who also did not have accommodation booked, and since she was traveling alone, we offered for her to come with us. There was another girl in the taxi who worked for one of the local dive shops, and she said she would try and help us find a place.
We were dropped off at her dive shop, and it only took a minute for us to find an available place to stay just feet from the beach! Needless to say, the place was a dump and all of the other people staying there were guys (and still sleeping even though it was nearing 1PM!), but we figured at least we could use it as a back-up plan in case we could not find anything better. It turned out that this place actually only had beds for all 3 of us on the night of December 30th, but we considered just storing our bags there on NYE and partying all night... We thought we could walk around a little bit more though and see if we found anything better before we fully committed though.
Without our big backpacks, it was a lot easier to walk around and even though we were turned away from most places because they were full, we were not going to give up hope easily. It is a good thing that the girl from the dive shop was with us, because she ended up finding us some amazing bungalows that overlooked Haad Rin Beach and were actually really nice accommodation. The only downside is that they were having a New Years Eve Party at the hotel that we were required to pay for that would include a buffet dinner, drinks and a show. We figured it might be fun to do that before we went down to the beach, so we went back to get our bags and had our own little private bungalow, amazing! And the best part was that we were not restricted to any minimums for staying there, so we could leave whenever we wanted to.
All three of us (Nashy, the French girl Aude, and I) really wanted to get scuba diving certified, and we thought that we would look into it while in Thailand since it is one of the cheapest places in the world. We started our search at the dive shop that helped us find our accommodation, but we also wanted to make sure we were going with a good place so we checked some other options as well. When we were satisfied that they were the best, we booked in with Crystal Dive Shop and would be leaving the afternoon of January 1 to go to neighboring island, Koh Tao, where we would learn and dive over the next four days. Aude had had some medical problems in the past, so she was not sure if was going to be okay to dive, and she had to get a letter from her doctor in Japan.
The night before New Years, we decided to go down to the beach to get a preview of the craziness that would be the famous Full Moon Party. In my opinion, this night was actually better than the real thing, because there were all of the iconic full moon party things (fire jump roping, fluorescent body paint, ridiculously cheap alcohol served in buckets with straws, and tons of Australian douche bags) but the beach was not entirely full and there was still room to move around and dance. Nashy, Aude and I were in awe of the spectacle that was going on at the beach. There were bars for as far as we could see, and they were each playing different music to draw in a different type of crowd. We watched countless backpackers try their hand at jumproping a piece of rope that is doused in oil and then lit on fire, and many of them walked away with burn marks on their legs! At one point, Aude and I had lost Nashy and she wanted to go into a foam party that had just started on the beach. I am not really sure how, but I also lost her and was a little concerned if I would find either of them again when I bumped into Nashy. We did not end up finding Aude again that night, but Nashy and I had a good time and decided not to party all night but to save some energy for the next day.
Aude came back the next morning and was not even upset that she had spent most of the night by herself. She had run into some friends that she had met traveling elsewhere and had ended up spending the night with them. We went on a mission that day to find something to wear for the night, and Aude and I ended up buying casual dresses that we would wear over our bathing suits. This was definitely going to be a lot more laid-back for New Years than I had spent the last few years or at least I thought...
The party at our hotel was nice, and we ate lots of food and watched a fire dance, traditional dancers, and Muay Thai fighting while meeting some other backpackers. We met a German girl and guy that we walked down to the beach with around 10PM. As soon as we left our hotel, a tropical storm came out of nowhere and it poured rain down on us when there was nowhere to run and hide for cover! We were completely drenched by the time we found a place to duck into, but it strangely did not rain for the rest of the night. As soon as we got down to the beach, the German girl Kim and I decided to get fluorescent body painted and got flowers on our arms. It only really glowed when you were in the black light, but we thought it looked cool.
For the first few hours of the night, we managed to stick together with everyone or find people when they were lost. I was having a great time drinking buckets, dancing, and chatting with random people. At one point, I met a guy who was from Melbourne, and I was putting his phone number in Nashy’s phone when I was bumped from behind pretty hard. I was holding my Hobo clutch under my arm (with my camera inside) and it fell to the ground. In all of the confusion that ensued, it was gone before I knew it - it all happened so fast! Kim said she saw a short Thai ladyboy bump into me and then another one grabbed my wallet and ran away. I was devastated! Not because my money or debit card were in there, but my memory card in my camera contained all of our pictures from our motorbike trip in Sapa, Cambodia, and Thailand up until now! That explains why the last few blog entries have been short on photos! I was really upset, and tried to shake it off and enjoy the rest of the party, but I had the crazy idea in my mind that I would somehow be able to find my wallet somewhere on the beach. The Australian guy and his friend were so nice and helped me look (and even offered me money! to tide me over), but we never found it.
When I realized that hundreds of other people were also having their stuff stolen, I realized that I should have been more careful. While looking on the beach for my wallet, there were tons of other discarded wallets that had all of their valuables removed and were just thrown down. I had explained to the Australian guy that my wallet was red, and at one point, he came running up to me with a red wallet in his hands, excited that he had found mine. Sadly, it was not, but I ended up keeping it. I felt bad, but I needed a place to keep my money, didn’t I?!
To make me feel better, everyone kept buying me drinks all night, so it was not a complete disaster of a night. I called and cancelled my debit card at some stage, luckily before Nashy realized that he had also been pick pocketed and his cell phone and money had also been taken! We also lost Aude again and the German guy, but he told us he would message us on his iPhone to meet up later. When we found him again the next morning, it turns out his iPhone had also been stolen!
I had heard horror stories about things like this happening at the Full Moon Party, so I should not have been surprised. Even though our hotel was pretty far from the beach, we had padlocked our bungalow so that our backpacks would not get stolen. And since I am usually the most responsible person, I had the key to both the padlock and the actual hotel room in my wallet which was taken! I had lost Nashy and Kim at some point in the night, so the Australian guys learned of my dilemma and offered to walk me to my hotel and help me break into my room. I forgot to mention that although really nice, the entrance to our hotel was still under construction, and the easiest way to actually get to our room was on a dark, shady looking path. Well I had just met these guys that night, and they thought I was going to steal their kidneys as I led them along in the dark to my “hotel.” When they realized I was legit, they switched into McGyver mode and together, we tried to find a way into our bungalow.
They found a piece of wood on the ground, and after a few smashes, the padlock flew off. This probably does not say much about how strong the padlock was, but that is beside the point. Then we realized that the window was actually unlocked, and we could stick the piece of wood inside and jiggle the doorknob. We were actually able to open the room in about 15 minutes, which means that even though we had gone out feeling secure about how we had locked it, someone could have been able to get in pretty easily. All of our other stuff was safe though, and I tried to forget about my lost pictures and get some sleep.
In the morning, I decided to take one last walk on the beach in search of my wallet, but I did not have any luck finding anything. Sadly, there were still people partying on the beach (definitely on drugs!) even though it was 12PM, and the entire beach was covered in trash. We would be leaving on the afternoon boat at 2PM, and the guy at the dive shop (who happened to be a British Ambassador) told us we should get police reports at Koh Tao instead of Koh Phangan because the line would be ridiculously long. I was curious how many people had died the night before and had their belongings stolen, because he told us that the hospital and the police station were both jam packed!
Aude ended up staying on Koh Phangan and planned to meet Nashy and I in Koh Tao in a few days since she had never heard from her doctor. We dreaded getting on the completely packed boat to Koh Tao, because even though it was only a few hours trip, the water looked rough and everyone was hungover. It was not a pretty sight!
When we arrived at Koh Tao, we checked into our dive center, and the guy at reception immediately told Nashy and I that we looked like crap haha. We both wanted to just go to sleep and recover, but we knew that we had to go to the police station and report our stolen belongings if there was any hope of us getting any money from the travel insurance companies.
I went in to talk first, and I communicated everything that had been stolen to the police officer while he translated it into Thai for his report. I didn’t even realize that I had been sitting next to a holding cell the entire time, until a French guy and girl came in looking for their friend. The holding cell was tiny (not even waste level) and inside were the French guy (their friend) and a Thai guy. Apparently, their friend had thought it was a good idea to try and steal a bottle of alcohol from one of the bars the night before but had been caught and spent the rest of the night in prison! I was able to get my police report with no problems and so was Nashy, but as we watched, the bar manager came in and brought the police officer a nice bottle of whiskey right in front of us. We could not believe he then continued to bribe the French guy and girl for money in order to release their friend. When he left, he was threatening to not let him out for less than 300,000 Baht which is like $10,000USD! Nashy and I left when we were finished with our business, and we never learned the fate of the French people...
It is nearly time for me to board my flight to Japan, so I want to post this Thailand entry to start and then I will continue with the rest the next time I find internet. More to come soon, promise!
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