ko chang trip report

Well, its far past time that I completed a few blogs, computer or no computer. I'll start with recounting our trip to Ko Chang (Ko, meaning Island, and Chang, meaning Elephant). Here is a map I made showing, in general, where Ko Chang is in relation to Bangkok. You can see it is in the most northeastern coastal part of Thailand, in the province of Trat. We decided Friday night that we were going to Ko Chang... that night. So, at around 9p we grabbed a taxi over to the bus terminal where we got tickets to the port where a ferry goes to Ko Chang. Our bus, a government-run bus, was very nice, and I would highly recommend the government buses over private buses (in my experience, the government bus was better). We went overnight to Trat. However, our bus dropped us off in Trat at 3a, and Trat is not the port that you go to Ko Chang from. In Trat, there were open-air truck taxis that we had to pay 50 baht (each) to, to go to what we thought was the port of Laem Ngop to get the ferry to Ko Chang. The trip was a somewhat sketchy ride in the back of a covered truck; and after I saw a sign (miraculously in Roman lettering) that said Laem Ngop "this-way," and we went... "not-that-way," I got very... very nervous. I opened my mouth to inform everyone that we weren't going where we thought we were going but Vanessa caught my eyes and shook her head, not wanting me to make the other girls freak out. So, I played out worst-case scenarios in my head for what seemed like an eternity, as I thought we were getting farther and farther from where we needed to go. Because it was 3:30a, and entirely dark outside, it made all hope of navigation obsolete, as if I could pretend to follow where we were on the curving roads to begin with. I started frantically looking at every passing road sign, 95% of which were in the Thai alphabet, and after about 40 minutes I started seeing pictures of boats, indicating a pier. I began to relax a little, and to my everlasting amazement, we actually got where we wanted to go. I still don't know why we didn't go the way of the sign, but I am thankful we arrived safely. I attribute our not being killed and robbed to the Austrian David being with us (I swear he is eight feet tall).

We arrived and had a horrifically low-safety-standard ride yet again; in true Thai fashion Brian and I held on to the back of another open-air truck-taxi as it careened down very steep roads, only to sputter as it struggled to climb the next hill. I swore we would have to push, but or trusty truck managed to hobble up every hill thrown at it. We stopped at Hat Kai Bae (Hat=beach), where we got 4 bungalows for the 8 of us on the adventure. We paid 300 baht a night for each bungalow. They didn't have AC, but they did have hot/cold water shower and fan and mosquito nets. Well, except Davids (more on that later).

Oh, I forgot to mention that for the Ko Chang trip, I was accompanied by: Vanessa, Brian, Jessica, Catherine, Tyler, David, and Sophia. We were later joined by Bruce, Phil, and Steve. We went there August 18th through August 20th. All of us are American, except Catherine who is from Canada, and David who hails from Austria. Here are three of the bungalows with (left to right): Vanessa (in the back), David, Brian, and Steve.

Here are the boys, with their trusty and loyal stray dog, standing statuesque.

I actually must say something about the dogs on this island. One interesting side-note of our trip was the unusual breed of dog found on the island. Thailand is full of stray dogs, most are a mutt thoroughly mixed over many generations and made up of every breed imaginable. Near our bungalows, there was an interesting product of this genetic fun. The dogs legs were short and bodies were long (much like a Deutsche-hound), but looked more like Corgy's. Most unusually, they had a mohawk-like ridge on their back, a sort of giant cow-lick slash guinea-pig like hair-do. I tried to come up with a sporty name for them and dubbed them "Razor Ridgebacks." They were very nice and enjoyed our company. You can see one such dog here loyally guarding our bungalow. They didn't get along very well with dog who "belonged" to the owners of the bungalow, whose name was (as explained by the bungalow owner):

Name Toopee.

(Toopee-not a Razor Ridgeback)

Well, plenty of other things happened on this trip. For instance, we came across this fun photo-op. insert-your-head cutout. But wait... it just... doesn't make any SENSE!?!? Here's Tyler in a birds neck:

Even just relaxing outside our bungalows was a very nice change from the overwhelming pollution and foul smells of Bangkok. Not to mention the view wasn't bad:

One morning we pretty much just lounged and drank the delicious energy drink m-150:

Then we admired the view some more. Wait a minute... :

David spotted an "Austrian" restaurant on the way in so we had to eat some wienerschnitzel! We were reminded that the majority of Thai's are fantastic hosts and hostesses!

Well, the real highlight of the trip was the waterfall. Yeah, thats right, we were on an island with waterfalls. There were elephants too, but we forewent the elephant trekking for another trip. We had a beautiful hike on our way, full of little views.

Then we got our first glimpse of the magnificant waterfall:

Now you... really can't get the scale from that. So here...

You may have even missed it in that one. Here it is again. Look close... yeah, thats a man, not a child.

You will also notice that there aren't any fences or anything. That isn't Thailand's style. If you want to be dumb and scamper over slick rocks to pointy rocks below, that's your choice here. I think that is one thing I like about this place. They assume people have a certain ammount of personal responsibility. We tried swimming to the mouth of the waterfall, but the current is insane and you can't possibly get up to where the water is pouring in. Fun!! We swam here for hours. If you want good photos, check Tyler's gallery at bottom.

Another nice thing that happened was one night we went swimming at night and bore witness to a great natural phenomenon. We were able to see glowing ocean flagellates that emit green sparks when disturbed by movement (IE: Our swimming). It was a very neat experience. I only wish we could have been even farther away from lights to witness the spectacle even better!

Oh, and there was a fire dancer. Neat.

Lastly, Tyler has been taking some great photos (okay, some of them have been slightly played with, but that doesn't stop them from being great), and I wanted to share them with you. Thanks Tyler!

The first is of the dogs riding the ferry with us.

Here's our sketchy bus/taxi to the pier. (Note: David is, by Tyler's reckoning, 12 or 13 feet tall.)

This is how we rode around the island (note low safety standards).

Is someone in trouble?

Great picture of one of the beautiful views on our hike. David in view.

Another great view on the hike:

I think this is possibly the best photo I have seen on this trip so far. Just breathtaking.

This water is 20 or 30 feet deep I think. Needless to say, David just rolled up his pant-legs and strolled through.

I think even an Olympian would have trouble reaching the mouth of the falls.

This is how we spent our mornings (its a tough life). Oh, Toopee is there too.

Relaxing on the beach.

Well, thats all I have for this one. Will post more later! It was a great trip!

careful...

translations is lose control

Brian, David, and I were in PATA (department store) the other day and Brian and I noticed some slightly sub-par translations.

At first I saw only one:

Then I looked around a little and realized...:

It just gets funnier every time I see it.

royal grounds

Well, time to make up for lost time!

First off, quite a while ago we went on a tour of the Grand Palace here in Bangkok and saw some of the most famous parts of the city. We got to see the most sacred wat (temple) in Thailand, Wat Phra Kaew. I should mention that there are no strict and perfect roman translations for anything in Thailand, so if you are ever trying to search for a topic, try multiple spellings (Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Prakaaw, Wat Prakaew, Wat Phrakaew, etc...). Anyway, this particular wat houses the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred image of Buddha in Thailand. It was great to see all the historic buildings, and the architecture was incredible. Everything was immaculately detailed and most things were very shiny, too. Here are some pictures and a video of the Phra Sri Ratana chedi. And yes, I do mention in the video that the covering you see on the stupa is actual gold. It is not leaf, it is many small squares of 24k gold from Italy.

Here are some more pictures of various buildings located on the grounds:












And here are some snapshots of the very interesting murals around. I believe that the majority of the murals depict parts of the Ramakien, the national Thai epic story (but don't quote me on that). The murals are done in a pretty interesting style. Look closely to see very interesting scenes (a giant eating a bunch of people, etc...). Notice almost everyone isn't human. I heard our tour-guide say something about in old times, the monks would have to be asked "Are you human?" before entering a temple, due to some idea about these demons.

Lastly, here's a picture of one of the more modern parts of the grounds, with some trees that look like they are straight out of Dr. Seuss (they are actually hundreds of years old). Right off of the picture to my left was a gate that, at one time, only one man was ever allowed to walk through--the king. Now the Royal Palace has been moved to a different location (though the throne room remains on these royal grounds).Well, that is all I have for this trip! Will post more later!

setbacks

Well, you may have noticed I have not written much in my blog over last week. There's a very good reason for this. My computer broke, which is proving to be quite inconveniencing. Okay, by quite inconveniencing, I mean a colossal pain in the ass. Its bad enough that I depend on it for a lot of my everyday activities, but when its my only effective communication to everyone back home, and the very tool that facilitates this blog, it is just depressing to have it be entirely broken. Apparently the chipset is broken on it (read: I'm screwed). Anyway, I am using Vanessa's computer as of right now, so I'm going to continue to try to blog and keep all my stuff on her computer for a while. (Thank you Vanessa!). Oh, and I miss my music. A lot.

interacting with the local wildlife

This post should be entitled "I'm sorry mom." First off, there's a lot of new and exciting wildlife in Thailand. Geckos infest the city, trying to sell you cheap car insurance and eating bugs. My first couple videos are of one such resident of our apartment complex... (who I happened to chase into someone's room).

In the last video... you'll see us being more like the gecko. And no I'm not talking about selling cheap car insurance. Yes... that's Vanessa eating a GIANT grasshopper. And yes, we ALL ate one. In fact, I ate two. Brian ate three. I had three maggots also. Now, to explain how we got into this situation. Basically, we were chillin' on Khao San Road and saw a bug vendor. Now... this bug vendor was sporting some pretty gargantuan insects. Namely, some 3 and a half inch long grasshoppers. I hate grasshoppers; I figured this was my chance to get back at them. They were lightly fried (but you could still clearly make out their eyeballs and mouth parts and all). I saw a little Thai lady with some American friends buy a bag; not as a cheap party trick, just to eat them. I figured I could too. So, Vanessa bought a bag (yeah, we paid money for these things). I grabbed one, and about a moment before you put it into your mouth, you have some pretty serious thoughts of regret. I bit the head off and chewed; not that bad. Tastes like a potato chip mixed with a piece of beef jerky. The seasoning was quite good. The grubs or maggots or whatever were better (though I might not eat either for a snack).

The funniest part of the night was yet to come... Brian and I had just started eating ours and one of our peers who decided not to eat a grasshopper, but who had had a little too much to drink, threw up on the street. Brian looked at me in amazement, still contemplating the grasshopper torso and legs in his mouth and said:

"Man... that makes ME want to throw up!"

Sorry to subject you to this video everyone! I guess I'm really trying to submerge myself in this culture!

eatings

Well, I've gotten to get to know quite a few international students now and tonight when we went on a little walk to find some food. Our new friend Brian is quite the veteran in Thailand, having been here all summer before we got him. He's extremely nice and is very conscientious of Thai people and is quite good with understanding them, speaking a little, and getting himself on their good side in general. Here he is enjoying some of our cuisine for the night.

People say that Thai food can be very spicy... They are right. To give you some idea of just how spicy it can potentially be, I'll recount to you a little story. On our way to our meal by the river, we (as always) were continuously walking past innumerable vendors, and stepping over stray dogs that (we assume) were sleeping. While walking by one cart, probably five or six feet to our right, Brian, Matt, and I suddenly started coughing, after merely breathing in some of the spices caught in a slight breeze. This may not sound that impressive, but it sure made an impression on me. I couldn't even breathe! We were all fine after coughing a little and catching our breath, and by the time the girls walking behind us had came upon the spot, the wafting of the spices had died down enough to prevent them from having the same reaction. If this weren't enough, later this night I got a bit of pepper on my arm, and even after its removal, my arm felt like it was burned for an hour!

At any rate, our food that night was very good and I was surrounded by great company. The meal worked as a cook your own style of Thai barbecue. Brian jokingly said that they did this so you can't sue if you get salmonellae. He may be closer than the truth than we may care to realize...

i boat to school

Some posts have been uploaded out of order, so be sure to check a few posts down for housing videos and other things. (I will finish posting the apartment videos and the ones for this post a bit later, as soon as they finish uploading).

Addition:

Well, here's how I commute to school on boat. It fun.

trivial to difficult

When you’re in a foreign country… the most trivial of things can become an ordeal. Riding the bus can be excruciating, going to the bathroom is just downright embarrassing when you don’t know you have to pay to use the bathroom, or that you can’t flush your toilet paper, or whatever. Luckily for us, Liam is on our side. Here he is showing us how to eat some native fruits.

not quite home

Well, I am settled in at Ruen Indra Court, our apartment complex. Even if it isn't quite home I at least have my clothes out of a suitcase now, which is nice. I made some videos showing the place a bit.





My address is:

Ryan Alley
Room 312, Ruen Indra Court
10 Aroon-amarin Rd, Bangkok-Noi
Bangkok, 10700
Thailand

scams and cheap food

Well, I just snuck out of my hotel room to the courtyard to blog a little since I couldn’t sleep anymore; Vanessa noticed and poked her head out and asked what time it was. I told her 5 A.M. and she happily said “We slept in!” I suppose we made a little progress in our jet-lag! This time of day is beautiful and very peaceful outside, and is conducive to blogging (I guess).

We accomplished quite a bit yesterday, and I’m inching my way toward being comfortable in this city. Vanessa and I visited Thammasat University in the morning by taking a bus. The bus rides are always very exciting what with motorcycles and scooters zipping between you and the bus next you. They are only 8 baht (approx. 25 cents) and are surprisingly cool with just open windows. It was nice to just sit back and relax and see the city. We didn’t know where to get off, so I asked the bus driver “Thammasat?” and he motioned that it was coming up. At one stop a man motioned to us that it was our stop and I asked the bus driver again and he nodded. Well, here’s a lesson for everyone out there! We knew it was a bad idea to follow the guy who motioned but we thought that since the bus driver said it was Thammasat we’d follow him a second since the University is supposed to be close to the bus. Well, he led us the wrong way and after about 5 minutes we just started to distance ourselves from him and luckily saw another farang (foreigner) and asked her. He had been leading us south instead of north. Just goes to show you how easy it is to get scammed in this city, even when you make what you may think to be reasonable assumptions.

Its hard to give an entire days summary because so much happens here!!! We finally got to Thammasat; one of the roads it is on is covered with people selling amulets of Buddha and it is very nice. No tourists in that area of town (well, not many). The university is nice, but was mostly closed down for the weekend and holiday (the Queen’s Birthday, which acts as a sort of Mother’s Day). Oh, and in that spirit, here’s a picture of me with “Miss Charlie” (of Charlie House). She’s so nice!

Later I went and looked at an apartment and decided to take it. It is a very modest room with a sink and two beds side by side. Matt will be my roommate. For those of you interested in housing in Bangkok, we got a single room, one desk, a table, two beds (no linens), a closet, no TV, “aircon,” a sink, and a flush toilet and shower supposedly with hot/cold water, for 8000 baht. Wireless internet will be a bit more (probably 400 baht-ish), and that is without water or electricity. However, it is right across the river from our school, so we can just take a boat in the morning, and the nice thing is it is very safe (24 hour guards, barb wire and wall, gate, etc… I wouldn’t exactly say it is nice, but it is livable. I’ll be paying around 5000 baht or less for my half after all is said and done though, which is about $125.

It downpoured for about 15 minutes, twice today. We were extremely lucky to have been indoors both times! Hard to believe considering we were outside nearly 90% of the day! The sun has graciously stayed overcast, which has been nice for me. Another tip for those in Bangkok? Buy an umbrella! I need one.

We visited the touristy Khao San road. There is a lot of stuff there! We had some really, really great pad thai from a booth on the road, with the help from a very charming guy from the Netherlands. For those of you who are wondering prices of things, it was 30 baht (less than a dollar). I also had some street-side “orange” juice which are made from what look like miniature oranges (golf-ball sized). It is delicious!!! They have to juice a lot for a little bottle, I’d imagine!

Well, I’m sure more happened but that’s all I can relate off the top of my head. Nothing exactly “exciting” yet but it sure is for me. I’ve been trying my Thai skills all I can, just saying “khap kuhn krup” (thank you) or other little things. It is surprising how much every little bit helps, like knowing “kai” (chicken) and “muu” (pork). Hopefully I’ll be semi-proficient later on. I would recommend to everyone to learn a little if you are here, it is a fun language and locals will respond positively to your attempts to speak it (sometimes, if only with amusement, but others with elation).

What adventures are in store today!?!