Koh Lanta

We spent a night in a real hotel, which was strangely discomforting, in Surat Thani before heading further west to Koh Lanta, which was personally recommended to me by Tenzin. I told him that I was looking for the more remote areas of southern Thailand (at the peak of the tourist season) and he told me that he stood alone on one beach for days on Koh Lanta with the exception of naked Thai children running around playing. The naked children stood as an indicator of the quality and tranquility of the beach, so I intended to search for the same thing (the beach, not the naked children).

The first place we found was straight out of the Lonely Planet guide. Using the guide is too easy and usually results in sub-standard results, in my opinion, but Nemo's consultation with Lonely Planet referred us to a beach at the southern end of the island called Kan Tiang. We ended up staying at the Kan Tiang resort, even though the bungalows had all been booked to capacity. All they had left were tents, which were 200baht a night and right on the beach. I was excited by the opportunity to try something different, be closer to the nature of the island, and save money all at the same time, but Nemo recoiled at the thought of sleeping in a tent. He flatly refused to submit himself to such outlandish conditions as a tent and looked at me and bitterly remarked "you can sleep in a tent if you want to" as if I suggested we play Russian roulette.  So this was our divide, me being happy to have found such a place, and Nemo refusing to consider sleeping in a tent. He searched several other nearby places for vacant accommodations but everything was either full or out of his price range, so he returned to the resort pouty and bitter, silently agreeing that the tent was in fact the only option.

The resort wasn't actually a resort in the normal definition, which I believe includes various amenities like pool, tennis courts, gymnasium, and so on, but only had bungalows and a bar & restaurant on the beach. The beach there was gorgeous, and the vibe of the place was pleasant, although too much like an actual resort. There were only foreigners there, mostly from Europe (especially a lot of Scandinavians), and the music included hit Thai bands as Pearl Jam, The Foo Fighters, Third Eye Blind, and The Goo Goo Dolls. I can't tell you how incredibly lame it is to hear 90's alternative rock music on a beach in Thailand. Thankfully, I made the perfect exit.

Koh Phagnan

We arrived in Koh Phagnan after taking a ferry for several hours straight from Koh Tao. The ferry was very large and carried several hundred people between the two islands, mostly young foreigners, but some Thai people as well. This was the first indication of what Koh Phagnan would be like. Although there are countless islands, big and small, dotting both east and west coast of southern Thailand, most of them are known for something. Koh Tao for diving and Koh Phagnan for the monthly full moon party. The port at Koh Phagnan looks like Khao San road. For anyone who hasn't been to the tourist backpacker wasteland of Thailand's capitol, let me paint a picture: you're surrounded by faces hid behind fake Gucci sunglasses, tribal tattoos, white guys with dreadlocks, and cheap guesthouses, banana pancakes, and Thai food for farang (tourists). It sucks immensely. Fortunately we didn't come for the pier, and this was just a prelude.

The goal was to get as far from where we were as possible. The most secluded area of the island. The place where no one goes. We made a compromise when a Thai songthaew (a taxi where passengers sit on two rows in the bed of a pickup truck) driver who had lived in America recommended that we stay near a small beach in the quiet northeast region of the island, directly on the opposite side of Hat Rin, the bustling tourist development on the southern coast which attracts the majority of Koh Phagnan's visitors. His recommendation turned out to be excellent, as we paid 200baht and stepped off the pickup truck after stretching out after the jostling 45 minute drive over dirt and mud roads which looked like they were from a war zone.

We quickly meet a Thai man named Romeo (he must be very romantic?) who leads us to his settlement, a collection of humble bungalows about 200 meters from the beach. Upon entering the grounds I noticed the comfortable atmosphere, drawn largely by a large grassy area between  the bungalows which had children's toys littered around it. No sir, this was no resort. And so we became friends with Nicola and Romeo and their child Adam who lived there, and the group of five Swedes who were all staying there for a month - part of their annual winter Koh Phagnan trip together. We spent several days enjoying the tranquil side of the island  before even going to see Hat Rin, the tourist area. It was terrible. We quickly left. A day later, we decided to leave the island and return to the mainland, cross that, and take another ferry to an island on the opposite coast of Thailand; the Andaman Coast.

Koh Tao

Supposedly this is the diving capitol of Asia (where the majority of divers in the continent get training), so that explains all of the dive shops.

Last night Nemo and I took the midnight boat along with Alaska and his German techno compatriots, sleeping in Thai cargo boat holds until being woken up before the sun rose and walking a plank off the ship. I slept next to boxes holding hundreds of cans of Coca-Cola and the Thai energy drink "M-150". Too bad I wasn't thirsty. I did sleep well though, clutching my shoulder bag with my laptop inside it as I drifted to sleep along with the waves rocking the boat back and forth.

The island is about 20 kilometers end to end, and we're staying in a bungalow at the far south. I was able to coach & coerce Nemo into renting a small motorcycle so we could easily traverse the island (which took longer than it should have because some Brit overhead me telling him not to worry and interjected that Nemo should listen to his inner fear and not rent a 100cc scooter). This is the same model bike that 12 year old Thai girls ride to middle school. So, everything worked out okay. :woop:
As the sun starts to fall from directly above I'll head out to the north edge of the island, seeking out some of the more secluded beaches which shouldn't be occupied by anyone but scuba divers drifting around diving boats.

Nemo has taken a liking to the soda milk drink that I always get when I'm here, but he calls it Cambodian breast milk.

I mailed a postcard today which I've been carrying with me for over a month, across several thousand miles. I miss her a lot and won't be able to see her at WMC this year, sadly.

Thailand

Here I am again, with a burned neck and arms. Yesterday was spent riding a motor bike from Prachaup Khilin Khan to the national park 60km's north of here. Once inside we spent a few hours exploring the grounds looking for wildlife (elephants & tigers) before watching one of the most beautiful sunsets I can remember seeing. The landscape looked much like what I imagine the plains of Africa looking like; although I've never seen those in anything but photographs.

In a few hours we're taking a train to Chumphon where one can catch a ferry to Koh Tao-

Mekong Cruise, Dancing Celebration

To celebrate my 25th life anniversary I'm waking up at 5:30am tomorrow and hitching a ride on an apple boat here in the Golden Triangle which will land in a few days in Yunnan province, southern China. I'm friends with the captain already and he said he'd teach me about driving the boat (kai chuan!) and nautical vocabulary in Chinese. Aside from the beautiful views and sunshine on the river, I'm looking forward to the peaceful drift of the boat in my hammock and hanging out with the crew of the ship, who are all Chinese. I can't think of many better ways to spend my birthday. I think this will be one that I'll actually remember in a few years.

Today there was a celebration in a soccer field, attended by several hundred local residents who sung and danced as the sun set. Walking by and trying to figure out what they were celebrating, I was motioned to join a group of teens and 20-somethings to drink along with them. Well of course - so, we drank Thai whiskey and communicated with smiles and hand signals before I was pulled away by old women who wanted me to join them in their dance. I did, head woozy from the few shots I'd taken in rapid succession, and sai'd (Thai bow) them before moving to another friendly group to talk to. A street filled with strangers doesn't seem to be nearly as much a social atmosphere anywhere in the west as it does in Thailand. I still haven't figured out what we were celebrating.

Dancing Dinner & The Hall of Opium

Blue mountains shrouded in cloudy haze set the backdrop for an international hotspot of opium cultivation and processing. Enough opium to get every man, woman, child, cat, and dog, high as kites. But to the local farmers, it's the cash crop that allows them to feed their families. Yes, this is the Golden Triangle.

While no longer quite the wild-west of the far-east that it once was, it's a magical place. The Mekong divides Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, which all meet here, in a tiny area. The cultural and linguistic mish mash that loosely defines the setting here is breathtaking. Many people living here are of Chinese descent (and naturally, look Chinese) and speak Lao, Thai, Chinese, and some English - not to mention local dialects.

Oh, yesterday I came across some "dancing prawn". Live, delicious prawn. About an inch long and as wide around as a shoelace, they hop around like grasshoppers. They were delivered to the table barely raised above the ground (Japanese style) which three new friends and I were seated around, legs tucked under, shoes neatly lined up next to us. They came in a plastic tupperware-like dish, and as soon as the top was opened, one hopped nearly a foot in the air to the tabletop, before quickly being caught by Chris, dipped in sauce, and tossed in his mouth. Also they have really long antenna that probe about wildly. You wouldn't think that something so bizarre and full of life would taste good, but they really are delicious. :3:

After dining on tiny sea creatures with a penchant for dance, we went to a bar where I noticed people seated outside on tables with huge beer contraptions in front of them. It was clearly some kind of beer receptacle, but it took closer inspection to see what it really was. While I couldn't find out the name, they were 3-foot high plastic keg-like devices. Like a giant beer tower; but along the inside of the tower is a block of ice, keeping the beer cold. At the bottom, a spout under a handle to release the beer into the cups. What an interesting novelty that was. Between the four of us we drank two, and afterwards stumbled down the street drunk to sing Thai karaoke. :sax:

I knew I drank too much last night when I woke up with a headache, but partying with the beer tower and the dancing prawn couldn't come close to inspiring any regret in me. After eating, the four of us met up again and went to the Hall of Opium. An interactive museum recently constructed by the Thai government, to educate Thai and foreigners alike on the facts and dangers of Opium use. We spent hours browsing the exhibits, which were fantastic. I asked once where we could buy opium, with the most straight face I could manage, but the people working there either didn't know I was joking or didn't find it as funny as I did.

The boat to China doesn't leave till Saturday, and it costs twice as much as I had expected it to. But that's not of major concern because several gigs on Christmas, Christmas Eve, and New Years Eve have just been confirmed in various cities in China. On one hand it's a shame that I have to work on New Years, but on the other, it'll finance my 3-week trip with Nemo in January. Afterall, DJ'ing really is generally a wonderful pleasure.

Christmas is in less than a month! :santabeard:

Read-a-Thon 2006

I suppose it's rapidly becoming annual tradition for me to spend a few weeks traveling, during which I read non-stop. I didn't intend to read so much, as I didn't bring any books aside from my journal and a Chinese book to study with, but I'm returning to China the day after tomorrow with a bag full of books. In the last week I've read The Beach, The Hot Zone, Day of the Triffids, Are You Experienced?, and I'm reading Investment Biker now. I think that's all of them.

While in Pai I bought an excellent hand-made hammock from a small shop at a busy intersection. I set up the hammock this morning in the room at my guesthouse after finding huge caribbeaners (those rock climbing hook-clasp-things) for sale at an Army surplus store. Reclining in it and reading for 30 minutes I found it immensely more comfortable than the bed, so I thought about sleeping in the hammock tonight to see how it works out. I took the pillow from the bed and relaxed, quickly drifting into sleep. Just as I was drifting into unconsciousness something snaps and the hammock comes crashing down to the floor. I had known that this was a possibility when setting it up, but the moment at which it decided to happen caught me off guard. I felt like before I even hit the ground I instinctively paniced and caught myself before hitting the ground, instantly wide awake. No longer sleepy, I packed up the hammock and went outside for a walk. Good times in the hammock.

The Golden Triangle

I'm headed to the farthest northwest reaches of Thailand, to the opium production den of Asia. The meeting point of Thailand, Burma, and Laos. Before going straight into Myanmar I'll try to catch a boat on the Mekong, either to China or to Laos. I don't know where I'm headed yet, but I'm more interested in hitching a ride on a commercial boat than on one made for passengers. I'm not really sure where I'll surface, but the allure and mystery of the area is what's drawing me towards it. Hopefully I won't wander into an opium production facility and get shot at, but even that would make a good story. See you on the other side of the Mekong.

Motionless Observer

Last night at dusk I walked several hundred meters by foot to find a street market which extended as far as I could see in every direction. I didn't know which way to go, so I chose to go left because that direction smelled the best - a vendor was selling what looked looked like waffles.

I followed this path, weaving around a dizzying array of people which seemed at the time to span the human spectrum. The tan 60 year old man with white hair, leather-like skin, and handlebar mustache walking by himself wearing sandals with arms adorned by navy tattoo's; the Scandanavian girls with white hair walking around dazed and excited with more than an eyefull; the 30 year old businessman holding his wifes hand, wearing a yellow Polo shirt and khaki shorts; the wrinkled old lady wearing loose fitting traditional Thai clothes selling fresh squeezed orange juice; the tuk-tuk driver with the most unsightly tattoo's you've ever seen, cigarette almost falling out of his mouth, eyes scanning for lost tourists; the lithe Thai students walking in a small group wearing  school uniforms - short black shirts and white button-up shirts. On the periphery of all of this are hundreds of vendors, most seated on blankets on the brick street, selling their wares - from incense, to sculpture, oil paintings, hand-woven cotton clothes, to street food.

As I weave between people in this busy scene just before nightfall, fewer and fewer foreigners come into my vision. Soon I'm in the local area, and moments after making this silent observation, I hear Thai spoken over a loudspeakers. I can't understand a word so I continue on my path until suddenly everything around me stops. Only a moment ago everything around me was in motion, like a Bangkok intersection. But now, motionless. I stopped to collect more information about what was happening and looked around, using only my eyes, as I too stood motionless. People everywhere, in every direction, frozen in mid-step. Music played over the loudspeakers as I looked half a mile down the road to see that everything had stopped. It wasn't as if everyone took a pause and just stood there, but more like a game where everyone had frozen in the exact position they were in when the music started. A Thai person next to me buying cigarettes still had an arm extended to hand a bill to a vendor while others were kneeling while looking at items laid on a blanket. I can't describe the feeling, but the "Red Dress" scene from The Matrix came to mind shortly after what felt like the effect of the surreal punch to my gut had started to fade. Later I found that the song being played was the Thai national anthem. I'd heard it before, but like this.

Chiang Mai

I've been in Thailand for a week now after flying direct from Chengdu to Bangkok on a flight that arrived at 3:30am at the new airport in the Thai capitol. Although I hadn't ever arrived in that airport before (it opened several months ago, and now all Bangkok flights are routed to the new location), after having arrived in Bangkok so many times before it felt much more routine and ordinary to arrive in Bangkok than I had remembered it.

On the Air China flight I was seated next to two Chinese women who were going to Thailand on vacation - one who had been before, and one who hadn't ever been outside of China. Neither of them spoke any english, so we chatted on the flight about where they from and where they're going in Thailand in between informal English lessons for the girl sitting nearest to me. When we arrived I took them through the airport to the passport check where Thai immigration issues 30-day visa stamps and the girl that I was sitting next to told me that she was scared as she was waiting in line to get her passport stamped. I didn't know why, but sure enough, when she made it to the front of the line, she was pulled aside and taken to a desk where she was interrogated and photographed by a Thai immigration officer. I didn't know what this was about, but one of the police officers there told me that it was because she was from Fujian province where apparently many Chinese come to Thailand from. Very odd - I helped her to translate for 20 minutes before setting off alone after I knew she wouldn't have to do anything else but wait.

And so, on the bus at 4am, headed for Banglamphu. Both Chinatown and Khao San road are in this western segment of Bangkok, both of which I thought should be easy places to find simple accomodations. I thought I was being clever at the time by going straight to Chinatown, trying to find some Chinese speakers, and ask for nearby accomodations, but I didn't see anything but Thai on the street. With few remaining options (short of spending $100 on a hotel room) I went to go to Khao San road, walking the dark streets and dodging transvestite hookers and late night street food salesman. The first few places tried to trick me into paying an outrageous amount of money for rooms barely bigger than a twin bed, so it took an hour to find something agreeable.

I slept very well, of course not jet lag because I only had to adjust 2 hours, and awoke and immediately set out for the German embassy. My German passport has been expired for 5 months and I haven't been in a city with a German embassy since I was in Washington DC. They were supposed to remain open until 5pm, but a Thai man behind bulletproof glass told me I had to come back the next day, after strangely greeting me with gutentag. Not wanting to spend another day in Bangkok, I went to Golden Mount to meet with a monk friend, Tony, before going straight to Hualamphong train station where I boarded a train to Chiang Mai, northwest Thailand. I was seated near a Chinese-speaking Thai man and two Germans from Berline - Olav and Andreas. We chatted for a few hours about Thailand, Germany, and China, before the seats on the train were unfolded into comfortable bunk beds and the lights were turned off. I slept very well, as I always do on trains in Thailand (the trains here are so smooth!) and woke up in Chiang Mai at 7am.

I knew that two friends from Chengdu, Jovian and Dave, were both here in Chiang Mai, and if not sleeping at this hour, then about to go to sleep any moment. So I went to eat breakfast with the two Germans, eating Thai food, where they began ordering beers. It seemed like an unnaturally early time to start drinking, but I suppose the combination of vacation and being German inspired the order. Before I knew it, we'd each had two large Beer Leo's and were afterwards wandering around looking for a Thai massage place. We found one before long and got Thai massages, which I was looking forward to. Not just because massages are great, but because I was especially interested in making a comparison between Thai and Chinese massage, which isn't something I've ever paid attention to. As it turns out Thai massage, aside from lying on a mat on the floor, involves the use of elbows, knees, and feet, as opposed to Chinese massage. It also heavily incorporates stretching into the hour-long session. After that hour, I felt to sleepy and relaxed to continue walking around. I called Jovian, boarded a tuk tuk after negotiating the fair with the driver, and headed for a guest house called The Whiskey.

When I arrived at the Whiskey I wanted to check it, drop of my bag, and connect with Jovian and Dave. I walked to the check in desk, if that's what it could even be called, where there was a short, dissheveled looking dark skinned Thai man grinning at me cross-eyed. He was clearly drunk. "Room?" he says, still smiling. I nodded yes and he led me up a flight of stairs to what looked like a utility closet. No doorknob, only two planks of wood held closed by a small padlock. The doors swing open to reveal a small room with two beds and nothing else. Great, I thought. I asked how much it cost a night, to which he replied 100 baht. Feeling happy about not having to spend much money on simple accomodations, I took out my wallet to hand him money but he told me not to worry about it. I dropped my backpack on one of the beds and stepped out of the room when he fumbled aimlessly with the padlock to close the door. I ended up having to help him get the lock shut he was so drunk. Moments later I met up with Jovian and Dave and have spent the last several days hanging out with them in Chiang Mai.

Soon I'll head further east to Laos, either by train to the Laos capitol of Vientiane, or by boat along the Mekong to Luang Prabang. I've been to both places already, but I need to pass through either of these areas to continue further east to Vietnam, which is what I'm really looking forward to.

I'm so happy to get out of Chengdu just as it starts to get cold there! I have plans for a winter migration to SE Asia after I return to Chengdu to tie up some loose ends. Just like 3 years ago, I'm looking forward to a warm winter - this time in SE Asia instead of Los Angeles.