Follow the Yellow Brick Road...: June 2008

Continuing on with my week-long trip to Thailand, this post will be about our time on the island of Phuket (pronounced poo-ket). So after leaving Bangkok and the Prince Palace at around 5:30 am, we got into Phuket at about 7. There were three of us on that flight, so we had to wait about half an hour for the next flight, and the rest of our friends to arrive. Dan and i had signed up for the free ride to our hotel, and we were met with a man holding a sign for us, which was pretty baller. The island turned out to be really big, it took about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to our hotel, the Sunset Beach Resort. Located just to the north of Patong Beach and the town of Patong, we were literally right across the street from a beach on a large bay. Our place was really amazing, it was centered around an awesome little pool. There were palm trees all around it, an upper level pool that had a waterfall, and two pool-side bars. Placed in such a beautiful resort, with really hot weather and an inviting pool, we decided to lounge all day and enjoy our surroundings. After such an early morning the pool felt so good and everyone took advantage of the pool side bar service, drinking a few Changs each. I was starving so I had some delicious Thai chicken noodle egg dish delivered and ate it in the pool, which was amazing. Later that afternoon I watched some TV, which was exciting in and of itself. They had about 20 channels so i watched rugby and Euro soccer, as well as a bunch of American movies; there wasnt anything like that in Bangkok and even in Australia we only have 3 channels so it was a treat to veg out while watching the tube. I eventually ended up falling asleep and got a good little nap. That evening Greg and I decided to go down to Patong and scope out the scene for later, instead of being cooped up in the hotel even longer. We caught a ride into the city and it was CRAZY. There was a few main strips, and they were all like Khao San road on crack. The venders heckled even more and the promoter girls were even more in your face... we walked all around, we would go down a main road with tons of shops and big touristy bars but then there would be little dark alleys branching off that would be completely lined with tiny little open bars. It was clear that most tourists stayed away from these places, since the Thai girls promoting these bars went crazy over us, grabbing our arms and stuff. Ha one even grabbed my nipple, which was interesting. Having our full, we rode back to the hotel and had dinner with everyone. I got some ginger beef with oyster sauce, it tasted exactly like that ginger beef dish that dad makes sometimes.. we ended up eating at the hotel A LOT, since the food was good and cheap, they had lots of nice table areas, and we could put all the food on a tab to be paid later (handy for me as i never had any cash). We hung out in our rooms for awhile before going back downtown, this time with the whole group and looking to hit the bars. Who knows why we picked the one place we did out of the hundreds of bars, but it had 20 stripper poles, all with fully clothed girls dancing on them. Some of our girls jumped up on stage to try their hand and then murph and steve decided to put on a show as well which was hilarious. For those of us not stage/pole dancing inclined, there were some jenga sets laying around so we played jenga. It was pretty weird to be playing jenga in a thai bar with neon lights and pole dancing going on. we stayed out late and went to a few other places before eventually calling it a night.

The next day, wednesday, we had a elephant rides lined up through the hotel concierge but it was not until 4pm so we had another day of poolside relaxing. I ordered my first room service in my lifetime (hamburger and fries... also the first western style food i had ordered in thailand up to that point), and watched some more TV. However I was getting antsy and wanted to see more of the sights instead of laying around all day so i got i took the free hotel ride into the city and checked out the city beach. I had to go by myself but i like adventuring so it was ok.. the beach was more of the same, with vendors walking up and down the lines of chairs trying to sell stuff and so many jet-ski rental operators heckling. It was difficult to find a place to just sit by myself but i did. It was extremely hot tho so i didnt stay for long, and walked down the beach back to our hotel, which took about 40 minutes. There were a bunch of tiny crabs that were burying themselves into the sand so that entertained me on my walk. So finally it was time for our elephant ride, and we were driven out into the jungle to the company.. but on the drive out we got to see a wild elephant off in the distance and water buffalo roaming about which was sweet. we got to pet and pose with a baby elephant, who was also able to do a few tricks like doing a handstand and playing a harmonica through its trunk before we got to ride the big ones. We rode two people per elephant, sitting on a bench strapped to their backs. every elephant also had a driver, who just sat on its head. It was an hour ride through the jungle and was so cool, we crossed rivers, rode through rubber tapped-trees and actually got to drive the beasts ourselves; the drivers jumped off and we took turns sitting on its head. By the time we got back it was getting on in the evening so we ate at the hotel again before going out back downtown, where again we sang on a stage.. I dont know what it was but the Thai bands LOVED for us americans to sing and dance on stage with them.

Thursday, my last full day in Thailand, was my favorite by far. We got up early and were driven to a marina where we were to go on a cruise of the islands surrounding Phuket. I almost missed the tour again but i was able to barely get up in time. luckily on board they had snacks and drinks for us. we got on a big speed boat (probably 25-30) people in all and sped off. The scenery we saw that day was absolutely amazing, even though it was anywhere from an hour to 30 minutes between stops, it didnt matter because we marvelled at beautiful scenery the whole time. There are thousands of islands in the area, ranging from tiny tree-covered rocks to ones large enough for habitation in the area, and the water was such an awesome green-turquoise color and the clouds were so huge and magnificent. Most of the islands seemed to just straight up out of the water with sheer rock cliffs and no beach. Our first stop was Maya Bay, where the film The Beach with Leo Dicaprio was filmed. our boat squeezed through a narrow passage and we were in this awesome lagoon where we got to go swimming and walked back through the forest a bit. Then they took us around to the other side of the island where we snorkeled for a bit. At this stop and all the others there were schools and school of these green fish with blue strips that we could feed bits of bananas to, they would swarm around you and even eat it from your hand. Then we went to Monkey Island, and although the tide was up completely covering the beach, they were able to take the boat in right under a tree where a lot of monkeys were and we tossed them nuts. After all this it was lunchtime and they took us to an island (Ko Phi Phi, pronounced ko pee-pee) where probably the only thing on it was this really fancy resort, where we got to eat a delicious thai buffet lunch. So yummy and so scenic. Our last stop was at Ko Khai (ko means island), where we were given a few hours of leisure time to relax and explore before heading back in to Phuket. We got back around dinner time and that night i went to bed early as our flight back left early in the morning.

After a short flight from Phuket to singapore, a long layover in Singapore, and then another flight south, we were finally back in Perth. Our time in Thailand was great, we go to see incredible sights and do crazy things that we couldn't do at any other place in the world; it was definitely the trip of our lifetimes. However, at the same time it was such a nice feeling to be back in Australia, and back amongst a culture that we knew and understood. Back home in Fremantle we breathed in the fresh clean air and relished being able to walk down the streets back to our dorms unaccosted. The next few days we all suffered from varying levels of sickness as our systems detoxed from Thailand, and a sense of melancholy set in as we buckled down for exams and realized we had a scant two weeks left together in this wonderful land down under.

click the pics

View down from my balcony at Sunset Beach Resort

kate and i on our elephant

bros at Maya Bay

Walking back to Maya Bay

snorkeling

yes, the water was actually that color

Ko Phi Phi, where we ate lunch

niceee

some of us at Khai island

It has been a long time since i last blogged, but this post and the next will surely make up for the wait. The reason i haven't written in so long is because the month of may was extremely busy school-wise. Here in australia they pile on all the essays and assignments in the last month of school, meaning i had anywhere from 1 to 3 papers due every friday in may. obviously we all did not have time for any trips and just hung around the freo/perth area the entire time. going to another footy game (dockers-bulldogs) and also a rugby match (the local western force vs some NZ team). however the first week of june finally rolled around, meaning the end of classes and a whole week off before exams so we all took off for a week long vaca in thailand. there were about 20 people total in our group, about half from port lodge and half from P&O, the other dorm. our port lodge group was comprised of notre dame, iona, and sacred heart students and the P&O group are all from st johns/st ben's in minnesota. but we have all been hanging out all semester so there weren't any divisions.
we flew from perth at nighton friday may 30th, at 9:30 i think, with a long stopover in singapore until around 5 or 6am. but before we left perth i realized i didnt have my wallet with me. luckily i phoned our shuttle service and they had it; apparently it had fallen out of my lap while i was collecting everyone's money. they dropped it off back at the dorm but it was too late for me so i had to borrow money from everyone all week.
singapore was pretty uneventful. we ate, realized we were minorities, and were surprised that english is the country's first language. we had to go through customs tho, even though we weren't leaving the airport, which was a bummer. our next short flight got us into bangkok around 7am. the bangkok airport was absolutely massive, the biggest many of us had ever seen. makes sense tho, as the city has about 9 million people in it. after collecting out bags and going through immigration we got our introduction to thai heckling, as we entered a lobby and about 5 cab companies accosted us. we got two big vans and were soon on our way. driving on the highway was crazy, there were big billboards saying "long live the king" and the city seemed to never end. boline and i listened to thai radio on my zune. it was my first experience being in a country that didnt speak english.
we arrived at the Prince Palace Hotel around 9:30am and checked in. the place was absolutely massive, with four big towers and what seemed like miles of richly furnished lobby space in between them. i forget the exact number but there is between 650 and 700 rooms in all. murph and i were in a double and thus in a separate tower from the rest of the group who were in suites so we dropped our bags off and explored the hotel. it had 2 pools, several restaurants, a spa, gym, you name it they had it. seriously the hugest hotel ever. and the cool part was that there were such awesome views from every location. every room, every elevator lobby, and especially the pool areas looked straight out at the city, since it surrounded us.
once everyone was settled in we went out to find brunch. we ended up in a mall type thing next door to the prince palace going up to the food court, but a few of us were eager to go experience the real bangkok so eddie, trish, and myself split off from the group and set off exploring. we got our first tuk tuk ride (three wheeled motorcycle taxi) and did our first bargaining, paying a mere 20 baht for the ride, which is about 60 cents (30 bahts in 1 US$). we went to the Golden Mount (labeled elsewhere as the golden mountain, mount was probably an english typo, there was incorrect english everywhere even in official pamphlets and signs), also known as Wat Saket. Wat is the thai word for temple, and this one was a big pure gold temple on top of a big hill. after a long climb we got to the top and were offered breath taking views of the city. you could walk 360 degrees around the top of the mount and it really made us realize just how massive bangkok is. there were big buildings as far as the eye could see in every direction. it was a great view. it was also cool to see people worshipping in it, there were numerous shrines or something where people would kneel and pray. oh yeah, and it bears mentioning that all of these wats were buddhist. next we walked to the next closest wat on the map. we walked over one of bangkok's numerous sewage filled, disgusting smelling canals before arriving at (wat?) Loha Prasat. it had both the typical golden oriental looking decorated temple and also a big black and white one. we took a spiral staircase in the center of the building all the way to the top for more great views. this one was cool because all 5 or 6 floors had walls that were arranged in a sort of a thatch-work or crosshatch pattern so that at each intersection you could see the outside in 4 directions and a the end of each 4 directions was one of the many buddhas that lined the outside of the complex. its difficult to explain...
on the way to our next stop we walked past a leafy alley where there were a few food carts set up. It looked good and fresh and not iffy like a lot of the other food stands so i insisted we get it. the lady didnt speak any english so we pointed at what we wanted and were served some absolutely amazing stuff. it was chicken stir fried with diced chilis and some leafy thing maybe basil? along side a fried egg and on top of steamed rice. it was so good and really spicy. i was glad bottled water was only 10 baht (30 cents). probably the best food i had on my entire trip.
we then walked further and passed by the big democracy monument, four prongs sticking up into the air in the middle of a traffic circle. interesting to note since i believe the king seized power within the last few years for a certain amount of time before handing power back over. currently they have a constitutional monarchy, and everyone loves the king. i guess he has given a lot of money to the burma disaster but we also wondered if everyone was just saying that they love him because i think it is illegal to speak ill of him.
next we walked to Wat Suthat and the giant swing which was used for ceremonies in past times. there was some sort of organized prayer going on, with a bunch of people inside and prayers being broadcast on speakers outside. Buddhism is very strange, from watching people at all of the temples i still can't figure it out. it involves burning incense, laying flowers at shrines, putting money in donation boxes, kneeling on prayer rugs in front of statues, shaking the incense sticks inside of their case, pouring water on one's head and possibly in tubs of lotus pads. also there were crazy amounts of buddha statues of all sizes at every temple. it was strange also that they let us walk around and do whatever as they worshiped.
our next stop (wow we did so much in this one day) was Khao Son road, where a lot of westerners and other tourists congregate due to the shopping, eating, and nightlife. here we got our introduction to the thai vendor, every stall you walk past has someone come up to you and try to shake your hand and talk to you and basically suck you into looking at their shop. same goes with tuk-tuks, if they see a white person walking down the street no matter where you are about 3 will run over to you and see if you need a ride. also, many try to trick you by saying the place you want to go is closed and that they know of a place that is open or a place that is better. or while you are on your way they try and take you to a suit shop or something. this is because they have connections to certain shops where they can get commissions. but anyways back to khao son road, there was all the knock-off and illegal merchandise that you could imagine, from brand name clothes, bags, and shoes to dvds and music. all for dirt cheap if you bargain right. i didnt buy anything though, and on a whole did not get much throughout the week as it was just too much of a hassle to keep asking people for money.
that night (keep in mind, still the first day, saturday), after some serious nappage a few of us went to a muay thai boxing arena. originally all 9 or so of the guys were going to go but it ended up just being murph and steve and i. for 2,000 baht (60 bucks) we got transportation there and back and 9 fights. we got a bite for dinner in a little hole in the wall restaurant by the arena. it was the kind of dirty little place that absolutely no one would eat at in the US or australia, but hey when in thailand. the boxing was awesome, for those who don't know muay thai boxing is thailand's national sport and an absolute brutal mix of kick boxing. we had ringside seats and there were 55 baht (approx $1.20) beers, which was dirt cheap compared to what we are used to in australia. the fighters were kind of young, clearly not professional but still the fighters got older as the fights advance and thus more disciplined. we made friends with our beer server, named Kunk, and she actually gave us a free ride home when the night was over. the three of us went to one of the pool decks and enjoyed the views of part of bangkok's skyline lit up at night.
FINALLY we got a good nights sleep, although on sunday we did have to wake up early. we got an amazing continental buffet breakfast and then 14 of us piled into the vans and were driven out into the country to the famous floating markets. after an hour drive we arrived and were given two 7 person boats with drivers. it was really cool we drove through palm forests and past people's shacks on the canal until we go the market which we stalls that we could barter and buy from right from our boat without getting up. all i bought was a little thing called a thai pancake which was like melted marshmallows with citrusy pepper inside a taco shell. only 5 baht (15 cents?). we got to a larger central part and it appeared that people had arrived on land at restaurants where the cooks had paddled up from their houses and were making food on the water. after the long drive back during which most of us fell asleep, i and some other relaxed at the pool.
for dinner dan, steph, jess v and myself were hooked up by our hotel concierge with a ride to a nice clean restaurant where we enjoyed good thai food and some thai dancing. after wards we came back and hung out with everyone in the big group before grabbing tuk-tuks up to Khao Son road to see what the night life was like. we went to a place called Lava bar, where lots of crazy things happened, included one guy (jeff), being handed a thai baby by its parents to hold outside the bar at 3am as we were leaving.
on our last day, monday, we were supposed to go on a huge scenic tour set up by the concierge of the grand palace and some other places but 7 of us slept in too late and missed both breakfast and the tour time. but we decided to make the most of our day and go to the grand palace on our own. one stayed behind so the 6 of us went next door to the mall food court for brunch. it was my first time there and it was actually pretty good and of course, really cheap. and i got those candy chocolate and strawberry sticks that we used to buy at the hong's food store, which was fun. we took a couple tuk tuks to the grand palace, first stopping off at a suit store since our driver gave us a free ride if we looked inside for 10 minutes (he got free gas out of it). we decided to get a guided tour of the grand palace complex and i'm very glad we did since it was such a massive place with more temples and royal buildings that we really had time to see. i really cannot describe everything we saw, everyone there had their breath taken away and we all agreed that words and pictures just could not do it justice... luckily i took some video... there were a bunch of temples, some holding sacred buddhist scriptures, some holding relics, some holding ashes of former kings, one holding a dolid block of jade carved into a buddha, also there was the coronation building, the royal reception hall, the royal guest house, and others. oh and we also got to see the royal collection of weapons. it was a bunch of old weapons, no firearms, but it was still cool. i mean, what guy doesnt like weapons? of course i thought of rj this entire time, i feel like the royal collection of weapons is something you would excitedly blog about too.
after about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, our tour was over. the st johns guys headed back to prince palace and myself and eddie, trish, and jesse o decided to go on a boat tour of bangkok's main river. it was kind of uneventful, esp since i had already been on a boat in the floating markets but this was still cool because the river was so big and there were big ships around us and big buildings. it took us to bangkok's most famous temple, Wat Arun (temple of the dawn... feel free to wikipedia any of these names), and also to the reclining buddah, which was a golden statue of budda lying on his side. the thing was about 30 yards long, just unnecessarily big but cool just for its novelty.
after the hour boat tour it was late afternoon and the 4 of us again went to khao son road. they got massages but i was out of cash for the moment so i wondered around my myself, getting pad thai from a street vendor for 20 baht (60 cents!) sat on the curb and people watched. i realize i keep mentioning prices but i still cant get over how cheap everything was. i got a tuk tuk home by myself and pooled it for awhile with the people back from the tour i missed in the morning. i dont remember what everyone else was doing that night for dinner but whatever it was steph, jess v and i wanted to walk around a little more so we tuk-ed it back to khao son road. we ran into some other from our group who were eating at an italian place but i thought that was a cop out so steph and i went across the street to and indian restaurant (a lot of indians have immigrated to thailand, along with chinese). it was soo good, i have been wanting to get indian food for awhile and this was the real deal. i got some sort of dish with mutton it was very good and spicy, i also took a tiny bite of this mini pepper on steph's salad and a few minutes later my mouth was on fire. i had to order some naan (indian bread) to save my life. after that we shopped for a little while and i finally bought something, a Polo brand polo shirt for only 6 dollars after some haggling. steph got all 4 seasons of entourage and 3 movies, 16 disks in all, for the equivalent of just over 3 dollars each. on the way back we stopped at mcdonalds and i got a cup of iced milo which was absolutely fantastic. Milo is a hot chocolate type drink made in australia and it was amazing served cold on ince, which you dont ever find in australia. that monday night i packed. 11 of us were going on to phuket for the rest of the week and the rest of them were staying in bangkok. it was at this point that i realized my 30gb zune was missing and the front desk wasnt too helpful in assisting me ing finding it. it was most likely stolen out of my room, since i didnt use it elsewhere. i guess there actually was a reason for having a safe in every room afterall.
anyways i had a late night looking for it and then we had to get up at i think 4:30 am to check out. check out was also an adventure as the front desk tried to scam a bunch of us, saying we took things out of the mini bar that we didnt, and broke things that were never used such as a coffee maker. it took over 45 minutes and we were still arguing with them but we had to catch our flight so we just said screw it and left. i guess we were not safe from the bangkok spirit of haggling even inside our supposed 4 star hotel. we were pretty steamed about that but in all the trip was really eye-opening and probably the craziest i will ever go on. to be in an asian country, where there is little english spoken and i was in a vast minority of people was so different and great.
well this post covers only friday night thru the wee hours of tuesday morning, and i still have to cover tuesday thru friday in the resort island of Phuket. For the sake of your eyes, my fingers, and also my grades since i have a final tmr, the phuket blog will be worked on at a later date in time. enjoy the pictures... remember click to expand: