Thailand Annotated Stops 6 & 7: Railay and Koh NGai...

We took a boat to get to Railay, because that's the only way to get there. The first thing I notice about the place was that it was gorgeous:
These are views from the front of the resort where we stayed.
The second thing I notice about Railay is that it's full of tourists. We seriously went from seeing almost no westerners to seeing almost only westerners. Not only that, but it was a different type of tourist. People who are seeing sights, struggling to get around in a city or town, trying to communicate and find food and interested in having a somewhat genuine Thai experience, area different (and more interesting breed) than people who flock to resorts and go nowhere else. Not that I am trying to be critical (though I feel a little critical of them), because it's vacation and one should spend that time however they decide.
But, it's fair to say it's a difference. Especially when you go to one of the more famous resorts there. It's easy to see why, the place is gorgeous, but the people, well. They kind of sucked. Not that we got to know anyone very well, but you get where I'm coming from right? (A place of snobish delight, most likely).
We stayed in a duplex bungelow which meant we shared a wall with another couple. The first night we were there, they had Celine Dion's (I don't care if I spelled it right, fuck her) 'I'm Your Lady' turned up really loud and on repeat. Now take a minute and picture the people you think are doing this (don't picture what it is you think they're doing though, that's not good for anyone). You got an image?
I picture an overweight middle-aged man. Probably bald and a little shy. Doesn't know exactly how to woo his wife on what's supposed to be a romantic getaway, so he brought along this CD and hey, give the man props, he's trying. His wife is just so pleased to get the attention (they both work a lot trying to make ends meet and they haven't had a vacation in so long) that she doesn't mind the mindnumbing effects of a repetative song being put on repeat for 4 hours. Ugh.
It was with this picture in mind that I put up with it. Dinah went over to the cottage and saw the windows were dark. She thought maybe they were gone.
Anyhoo. Next day I'm getting out of the sun, because I'm an extremely pale person and I don't want to wither in the sun, and who's just ahead of me? A dude (no more than 25) with a tatoo that, while it appears to be in English, I can't figure out what it means. Oh, did I mention the tatoo is across the back of his shoulders? It was. This dude was screaming for a skateboard, some weed and a Sublime Album. But, he heads into the bungalow next to us. And I'm dumbfounded. Just dumbfounded. I mean, I saw this guy and his wife on the beach. They were moving around. They seemed to be enjoying life. They didn't seem functionally slow or anything. Was he? And I decide the middle-aged guy must've checked out early this morning and these two came or shifted rooms or something. Of course when the Celine came one again that night, I knew. Lame comes in all packages. It was a life-lesson moment. The more you know.

Here I am trying to not be interesting so Dinah won't take pictures of me. Not a great strategy as it turns out.

And here's Dinah after the sun set.

Speaking of sunsets. Here's how it looked...

Now. I enjoyed my time at Railay. It was relaxing, but in a way it felt like college. There were so many people everywhere and a lot of parties and bars and drinking. (I mean it's not like real college. It's like I remember college, always neglecting to remember I did a shit-ton of work there too.)

One of the bars (who had a really schizophrenic soundtrack going on) had mats on the beach with small lanternas so that you can sit outside on the beach and watch the sunset and the stars and enjoy a drink. It was here that I rediscovered my love of Gin and Tonic. If for no other reason, the trip to Thailand was a success because of this.

Here's a picture of me from the second day with my long lost friend G&T and Dinah's Mai Thai (which tasts every much the same in and out of Thailand, despite what I thought.

Can you see my face? So red. So happy. So not yet drunk.

(Note to my college friends, this picture was staged that way on purpose.)

After a couple days here, we moved on to another resort that was on an island a ways away. We had to take a boat out from where we were and get driven from one port to another (a couple hours) and then get another boat onto an island. This resort was the exact opposite of the one we just left. The first was built up and touristy. This place (Coco Cottage) was small and comfortable.
I'm pretty sure this is a picture of new people being boated onto the beach...

This was our view from the front porch. We stayed in a little hut that had a porch and a couple deck chairs. The beach was just over a small stream, but it was up away from the water. You had to take steps down to get into the water. And the sand under the water was very rocky and Dinah and I both got some cuts before we started wearing our sandles in there. For a lot of people that would've been a turn-off, but for me, it was fine. I'd gotten a lot of sun at the last place and I had to stay out of the sun for a while. So most of the time there I sat under the grass thatched umbrellas and read. It is the most boring time to describe, but it really was perfect. And it did wonders for me.

Those toes in the foreground are Dinah's. She's lying in the chair on the deck.









This hut is the massage hut, that I avoided like the plague after my last Thai massage adventure. The women here looked smaller and nicer, but my ego wasn't going to survive another beating at the hands of someone one half my weight.

Wondering how I glam it up on the beach? Well nothing is more in right now in my world than a Captain America T-shirt and a Cardinals hat.

Those are the huts we stayed in. I don't mean huts in a bad, dirty or low-rent sort of way. These were awesome and I loved staying here as much as anywhere. I mean, here's the view through our windows:

And just outside...





Unfortunately, there was trouble on this island. The last day we were there, swimming in the ocean, Dinah felt a sting on her shoulder. We weren't far out, but immediately my mind is thinking shark (cause I'm a cool-headed customer, not to mention very knowledgable of marine life) and panicing a bit. Dinah turns and sees a jellyfish. The only picture that came to my mind was that one of a 6 foot jelly fish and we're quickly hightailing it out of the water. Of course, it turns out to be a bunch of little buggers (maybe 2 inches in diameter). We went to the front desk and they gave us some vineager to put on it, which jogged my memory. Instead of panicing, and looking for help, the best thing I could've been doing was peeing on my wife. Let's just all be glad that bridge was not crossed and that we didn't have to have the discussion.

Anyhoo. We took a picture of the bite:
It looked really painful, but it went away really quickly leaving her with only this picture as a rememberance of her meeting the marine life of the Indian Ocean. It did call our time to a close. We had dinner that night, got banana fritters brought to our room and were gone almost before I realized what was going on.

The next day we flew into Bangkok, went to a hotel room and knocked around there until it was time for our mega-flight back to Chicago (via Seoul). It was a quicker flight this time, but more painful because I knew it was coming.

When we got into Chicago it was cold. We'd just missed the worst part of the winter (knock on wood), but it was still only 10 degrees or so. We got in around 9 am and tried to stay up until 9 pm. I think I made it until 8, but it was touch and go. I was trying to watch football, but I can't remember a thing about what happened.

So. That was Thailand. Or a good portion of it. I hope you enjoyed the pictures...

Thailand Annotated: Stop 5, Karabi

We flew into Karabi and had a cab waiting. We got there early afternoon, got a little lunch and figured out what we wanted to do. There was one last Watt we wanted to visit. Problem was, it's out of town a ways. What were two young rebels to do?



That's right, we got our bikes and race out there like two bats out of a cold, unloving hell. Shit yeah.


Motorbikes (they don't call them scooters, which I appreciated so much when I found myself on one) are one of the biggest ways to get around in Thailand.


The thing about driving in Thailand is that there are rules and they're very much the same as American (except they drive on the left side of the road and they have a U-turn lane in most big roads so you go past where you want to go then u-turn and take a left. They do shit like this in Michigan too.), but the difference is these rules are in no way enforced. The only real rule is you have to watch out for everyone else. And because everyone's nice, or at least confrontation averse, it generally works out well. This, as well as the relative sleepiness of the roads around Karabi town, made us think we could ride the bikes without problem.
So, we set out on our bikes, and I gotta say, these things were super-fun. They gave us a 10 second overview of how to start the bike and you know, start it and stop it, but pretty much we were tossed into the deep end. And Dinah had a rough idea how to get out there. It was farther away than I expected, but we got there without incident.


And the Watt (Watt of the Tiger Budha) was one of my favorites. Possibly not because of the actual Watt itself, but also because the grounds are awesome.


The next couple of pictures are ones Dinah took on our way to the temple. In the first one, if you look at the top of the cliff on the right side you can see a small shiney dot (can you see it?), that's the Chedi. That's also about 1500 stairs (or so) up the side of the mountain there. Long story short, I came thousands of miles to this spot, but 1500 stairs is a deal breaker. Sorry.


BUT. It's not like that's the main part of the Watt or that everything else we saw wasn't cool, because, as I said, this was probably my favorite Watt (though Emerald Budha is right there).


So, we get there and we park our hogs (yeah, I called my scooter a hog, I'm badass that way), and set out looking for the Watt. First, though, we were confronted by monkeys. These were the frist monkeys we'd seen in Thailand, though we'd heard they were around and very good at stealing your food. So, we snapped a picture and moved on. But, we almost missed it because they build a front on it that made it look like a school. See, front the guidebooks we knew this Watt was carved out of a cave, so that's what we expected. After figuring it out and making our way inside we weren't dissappointed.

So, a temple in a cave is just a great idea. They carved it. Anyhoo, so we enter the cave and are immediately waved over to a fold up table a little ways from the entrance. Behind the table is someone who I assumed was a teenage boy monk(Dinah was sure it was a nun of some sort, and there never was a good way to figure this one out). So the monk (or nun) offers Dinah and I a little rope braclet and asked for a donation. The little braclets are for luck, I guess and they're sort of nice.
But then we headed into the cave. Which is sort of misleading. There is a cave and it's cool, but the first area is more of a lobby filled with a lot of Budhas. We came in during a service of some sort, so I asked permission to make sure I could go up the stairs into the cave. There wasn't a lot to the cave, but it was cool climbing up some stone stairs and seeing another Budha. The one they had up there seemed to be a copy of the Emerald Budha.
On the stairs on the way to the cave area were three cat-statues, which I guess is where the Watt gets its name. I mean, I don't want to quibble, but something about "Tiger Budha" gave me a picture that was a little different. I guess I was expecting a Budha on a Tiger or in some sort of Tiger-like position, or something. But, you know statues...okay.
I wasn't dissappointed overall, though largely because the grounds were awesome. While we didn't do the steps to the Chedi (there's a picture of the steps though, so you can sympathize or, because this is the internet, criticize), there was still a lot to see.
Like a 1000 year old tree. The signs of which tree was the 1000 year old tree were in Thai, so we have pictures of Dinah with a lot of old looking trees. I've only included one here, but I think it was the one we were kind of sure was the right one.
And there was another cave that had other altars and such in them. The pictures from this cave didn't turn out as well as we would've liked, because it was dark in the cave, but it was cool.
Pictures:

Inside the cave of outside the Watt:

Here you can see Monks only washrooms and washrooms for "Normal People". Just thought it was kind of a cool look at something.

Dinah with the 1000 year old tree.

Dinah took these pictures on the way back to city. Soon after these were taken, we decided to buzz around on our motor bikes for the rest of the afternoon. It was fun. But as we were about to learn, it was a responsibility, not right. (heh. My dad would be proud.)

So, we're turning a corner, Dinah in front and me following up. We're cruising into the park along the river way and Dinah loses control and does a herky-jerky, foot on the ground, but accelerating thing and nearly crashes into a curb.

She got it all under control really quickly, but it was frightening. We ate some icecream and recovered.



And here I am at the night market. This is where we ate that night. We started just by walking around the (small) town and ran into a market we didn't know about and then moved onto this one. We sat down and ate and had the Thai beer face off. Chang v. Sing Ha. Sing Ha wins hands down. I knew going in that Chang was the underdog and I wanted to give it a fair shot. But yeah.

Of course Sing Ha is still not the best beer we had on the trip. That distinction would belong to Beer Lao. Too bad it doesn't get distributed here yet. Soon, hopefully.

After the beers and the meats and I believe some Banana-crepe, we headed back to our place (which was nothing spectacular, but serviceable) and went to bed. The next day was the last of our planned activities--we were going to take cooking classes.
The lady, "Ya", was awesome. She came to pick us up and we rode in the back of her truck on the way there. It was kind of a long ride.
But we got there and learned how to make us some curries and other dishes. We've already tested out these recipes and it's been pretty good.

Anyway. There's only one post left. And it'll probably be the most boring. There's not a lot of stories to tell about the time we spent bumming on the beach. We did a lot of reading and relaxed. But there are some good pictures and I'll throw them up with some stories, such as they are.

Thailand...Stop 4....Chiang Mai Part III: ZIPLINES!

It has come to my attention that I've numbered the Chiang Mai stop number 3, which you may have noticed was also the number of the Sukhothai stop. Meaning, I can't count. Chiang Mai was stop number 4. I'm not gonna correct it elsewhere, but realize that I know I cannot count.


Also, this expedition happened the day before the elephant excursion. I wanted to do it after because I thought there'd be so many more pictures and videos and it was gonna take me a little more time to get them together and figure out what I wanted to say. And I think this is how Quentin Tarantino would put it together if this were his blog.
Anyhoo. Today was the day we signed up to take ziplines through the canopy of the jungle. Which, if you know me, you probably think is an odd choice, being that I'm afraid of heights and all. But, I told myself that a lot of Thailand is jungle and I want to experience it...and there's no way in hell I'm walking through it. What with Thailand having snakes and me being more afraid of those things than heights, the idea of me zipping above those little buggers sounded just fine to me.


We got up at 6.00am, which felt early to me by this time in the trip, and were outside waiting for the minivan, and they came pretty promptly. We were the first pick-up. It was mostly a quiet ride out to the mountains outside of Chiang Mai. Then we reached the mountains and the curvy roads. By then the sun was up and everyone had shaken off their sleep and were getting excited to do some ziplines.


The people in our van were all really nice. It was Dinah and I, a lady whose husband worked for the State Department (and who lived and loved Bangkok, though she admitted that having the help of her nanny and never having to go anywhere they didn't speak English, and living in a huge apartment where mostly officials from the Indian government worked was pretty nice. Grrr.), a quiet couple who didn't speak enough for us to know if they were Japanese or Chinese, another quiet couple from Ireland, and a very gregarious couple from Manchester.
We ended up splitting up leaving our group to be Dinah and I, the English and the Irish. And it was a fun group. The group is English man (Damien), Me, Dinah, Irish woman, Irish Man (John), English woman (H, I believe), and our two guides. This was taken afterwards when we'd started cracking beers and were pretty comfortable with everyone.

But back to the beginning of the story (see, the Tarantino theme continues), so, you can see from the beginning pictures that they got us in harnesses for safety and it made us take goofy pictures. I think that's natural, but I don't know. What you may be wondering is why are they holding that stick? Well, I'm glad I asked myself for you. The stick is made of bamboo and it was our brake. I knew bamboo was a strong substance (it's wood right, for some reason it doesn't seem right to call it wood), but this was a bit bothersome. And I should mention, the helmets may look cool (uhh) and sturdy (ehhh), but they aren't even as strong as a good batting helmet, so, yeah. My goal quickly became not to fall and not to collide with any trees.
Of course then I got up there. It was a perfect day. It was cooler in the mountains so we were chilly in the beginning, but as we got into it, the chill drifted away. The sun was shining and coming through the trees, it was gorgeous. After the first zip, there was no hesitation anymore and it was just great fun. And it was really easy. Just sit and go. No pushing, minimal or no braking. Just Zip. That morning went by really quickly.
In addition to the ziplines, there were rope bridges (which were kind of fun in an odd way) and repels (where they actually just lowered you straight down, so it wasn't at all dangerous, but still pretty fun cause they'd let you drop for a good while).

And for a couple of the ziplines, you got to partner up. The trip had been going so well that Dinah and I decided to partner with each other. The sign of a good honeymoon, I guess.
After the ziplines (and there are videos at the bottom of the page!), but before lunch (which I was really wanting) we walked up a steep incline and looked at a waterfall. It was beautiful, sure, but it was fucking steep. And the steps, well, they weren't uniform. And while I loved getting to the top, I was so tired and unhappy from the walk, I didn't probably stay long enough to really enjoy it. I'm not usually one to wish nature had escalators, but this is one of the rare occasions where that sentiment seems perfectly natural.

In the truck ride to and from the beginning of the path to the waterfall, we got into a great conversation with our European passenger-friends about America. Remember this was before the Obama inauguration, and everyone was really excited for America. It was odd. I'd heard and believed all the comments about how America had lost it's standing in the eyes of Europe (and you can give a shit about that or not, I guess. But I think it's, you know, kind of important.), but it didn't really strike me that people in Europe were really paying attention. They knew a lot about what was going on (more than I think I did at that point) and they were excited about the new start.

And they weren't the only ones. It seemed everywhere we went, whether we said we were from America or Chicago, people would say "Barack" or "Obama" with a great big smile. It wasn't shocking or anything, but it was cool.
The Videos:
First, let me say this was when we figured out our camera could take videos. Which completely explains the first video. I didn't know this was going to be memorialized in any way. But here you go:
See. I'm kind of an idiot.
The next two:



I like my "documentary" video. Except that you can see my hand for the last half or so. And you may notice that I was not wearing my regular wedding ring. I was so worried about losing it in the ocean (my inlaws can't keep rings on their fingers in bodies of water, it's worrisome) that I didn't take it. Instead Dinah and I both got $15.00 stainless steel bands at Southridge Mall in Des Moines over Christmas.
Anyway, our next stop was Karabe town, which was our first chance to head south to the more touristy locales...and also where Dinah almost killed herself for the first time on the trip.