Day 4

This was the most amazing day, by far. I'm so happy I booked the tour to Railey Island! I woke up early to be picked up at my hotel at 7:45 and brought to the boat landing. Transport here is amazing (I'll do a posting about this later). I boarded a boat and set out, talking with an older couple from South Africa that I sat with on New Year's Eve at the beer garden downtown. We had a nice chat and then I changed boats to go snorkling at Chicken Island.

(Do you see why it is called Chicken Island?) Snorkling was fun and I got to see many different kinds of fish. There was some coral that I saw at the bottom, but most of it was dead. It turns out that so many long boats go there and throw out their anchors, they have destroyed it all. It was very sad to hear about. The police have been called about it, but nothing has been done.

Afterwards, we went to Poda Island to walk around and swim. Here is where I met Det, a tour guide on the trip and my new friend. Det took me around to see the monkeys on the island. He would not get near because he said that these were "bad monkeys"- while tourists go swimming, the monkeys run to their abandoned bags and steal them and run up the trees with them! The tour guides watch out for this and throw things at the monkeys to get them to drop the bags. So the monkeys have learned that people with dark skin are mean and if Det went too close, the monkeys would run away.

Next, we went to Railey, famous for it's climbing. We had a wonderful lunch and then took long boats to explore a cave of the princess Pranang. It is said that her spirit resides there and local fisherman go to the cave to pray for good hauls. If it happens, they go back to the cave to give her presents for her charity. (They say she is lonely too. The presents help her with that...)

We then boarded the boat to go back to shore where I spent the time talking to an American/Asian couple from California. On returning, I took a much deserved shower and got ready to go out with Det, who showed me a much more authentic version of town than I could have seen on my own. He took me around on his motorbike- the most common form of transport in Thailand, but they all drive like crazy people with no helmets and no jackets! First we went out to dinner at a local place and I had an awesome chicken basil curry and seafood soup. (This a picture of Det with his motorbike.)

After dinner, he took me to the New Years Market, which was still in full swing. There were lots of clothes on sale (think graphic tees for $1.50), food, games, and rides. It was insane! I saw fried insects and I couldn't resist. Below are pictures of them and me eating the one that's front and center. I wasn't able to get them all fried and flavored because they were putting ground peanuts in it. But the lady working there allowed me to try one plain fried. It really had almost no taste at all. Kind of like an extra crispy french fry...

After that, we went up Rang Hill again to see the city at night. It was better than before. Then, we headed back in town to one of Det's local haunts- a bar where live Thai music was being played. It was just awesome. We sat, drank, and enjoyed the music. Overall, it was a wonderful day. I think it will be my best one in Thailand.

Day 3

Today was another restful day. I spent most of the time walking around Phuket. At first, I found the town a bit disguisting. Paint is peeling off of the buildings and there is just a large amount of general grime. But as I walked around, it started to become a bit more natural and I could see past all of that.

I walked up Rang Hill so I could see over Phuket Town. It was a very beautiful walk. It was nice and calming. The view from the top was great as well.

I napped in the afternoon as preparation for tomorrow's big trip to Railey beach where I will be snorkling, swimming, and exploring caves. It's part of a tour so I hope that it's okay. Although, from what I've heard from other travellers, tours here in Thailand are pretty good.

Clint had warned me that I when I came here, Thai men would just crazy over me. Not that they would do anything, but they would mainly stare, whistle, and honk. Which they have done, in copious amounts here in Phuket. There was one guy on a motorcycle who almost ran into the center median, he had his head turned around so far to stare!

Day 2

The overnight bus ride to Phuket was not what I had expected. The woman at the hotel showed me a picture of a nice, double decker bus, promised air conditioning, VIP, and whatnot. It was true- for the first part of the ride. The toilet was horrible and had no toilet paper (really not that strange here in Thailand) but there wasn't a spray either. (I'll take a picture of a regular toliet here sometime and show you- they have two foot spots on either side of toilet, you squat, and then there's a bucket next to it that has a bowl and water. I'm getting good at using them, since the stops on the bus ride were at places that had these and the public toilets are like this as well.)

When the bus pulled up, I thought of the Knight Rider in Harry Potter. The bus was glowing in purple strip lights, inside and out. I was told two stops and I'd be in Phuket by 10:30am. Well, we had one stop for dinner and then we stopped again at a place where I thought there would be breakfast. They told us to take all our bags; we were switching buses. I got out, we had coffee only, and waited. Next thing I know, a small mini-van shows up, a guy gets out, and yells "Phuket!" Those of us going to Phuket jam ourselves together with a little air conditioning and cramped legs. It wasn't so bad, but we only went 10 minutes down the street where he told us to get out again. There were many people on the side of the street, all looking lost and little taken advantage of. Guys were trying to sell bus rides to Patong for 300 baht per person. The first minibus that showed up and said, "Phuket!" I jumped on. I sat in the back with absolutely no leg room for another 4 or 5 hours. There were nice people on the bus from Canada, Australia, Sweden, and Denmark. We talked a lot about what we could do once we got to Phuket and commented on what we thought of Bangkok. (There weren't many nice comments.)

One conversation intrigued me in particular. We talked about all of the dogs in Bangkok. On every street, there seems to be feral dogs just lying in the sun. You walk by and they don't even pick their heads up to look at you. They are totally calm. One of the men on my bus said that he tried feeding some of them crisps and sweets, and the dogs totally turned up their noses to it. He was told, "These are Thai dogs; they only eat chicken and seafood," by a local. Think of our most pampered dogs- they will eat anything! But these dogs that have to scrounge for a living eat only the best!

Anyway, after that bus ride, I got to my hotel and slept away the afternoon. I got a call that my bag was at my hotel, blessing of all blessings. It was good to have my things back again. So, I got dressed and went downtown. It turned out that I was one of only about 10 foreigners in town. I'm assuming all the other tourists got hotels on the beach and spent the time there instead. But the celebration in Phuket was broadcast on TV across Thailand. I saw some pop music singers, a fashion show, and some more traditional entertainment. I made a friend with an older German man, Hans, who spoke little English. We had a couple of beers and watched the fireworks. Despite all of my sleeping earlier, after the fireworks I went straight to bed and had a good sleep through the night.

Day 1

8am:My flights yesterday were fine. The only slight delay was my last flight and I was in the Tokyo airport, which had many stores to look at. The flights were okay, though very long. I can't believe how our kids can sit through all of that! I knew in Dallas though: my bag would be lost. And of course, I was right. So right now, I have almost nothing and was planning to go to Phuket tonight, although I have no swimsuit for once I get there. Hopefully my bag will arrive there not too late tomorrow so that I have time to swim and I have something to wear other than this one outfit!

5:30pm: I spent the whole day walking around, getting lost and then getting found again. I went to the Royal Palace and walked around. The buildings were covered in mirrors and glass and seemed to sparkle in the sun. I went in to the Wat there and saw the Emerald Budda. Overall, the place dazzled me. 

So far, I don't why I'm so out of it. I think it has to do with the lack of caffeine, a lack of food (still afraid of trying real food but I ate quite a bit of fruit), being generally tired, or jetlag. It's probably a combination of all of the above. I hope that tonight's bus ride to Phuket helps me get back on track with getting some sleep. Hopefully it lives up to my expectations- but it is an all night bus ride. I leave at 6pm and get there at 10:30am. Hopefully my bag makes it there! I packed my contacts and swimsuit in there. I'm dying for the beach right now!

Update: How could I forget! I got on the bus and reviewed my day and realized that I left out that I had also found myself at the Flower Market. I walked in, expecting to see flowers. Instead, it was a large market of fresh produce. It was amazing to see these large bags of all kinds of greenery and large round things. Garlic was already broken into individual cloves that could be bought by the handful. The hot peppers came in every color. 

Preparing to Leave

It's so exciting! I have so much to do before leaving and I don't know where to start!

Here's my basic plan:

Fly into Bangkok very late at night and make my way to my hotel. In the morning, I'll try to get an overnight bus or train to Phuket, so I'll arrive there early on the 31st. I'll have a great night there and then I'll look at getting over to Krabi and Railey for two days where I can do some sea kayaking and rock climbing. From there, I'll head back to Bangkok. I'll have two nights there before my conference begins.

After my conference, I'll have one day to wander around Bangkok before catching a flight back home. With the time changes, it's strange. I'm going to leave Bankok at 11:55pm and land in Boston at 8:20pm. Crazy!