Travelling Each Other Mad

Tonsai

Rupert writes
On the mainland of the Krabi district – although separated from the world by towering limestone cliffs dripping with climbing opportunities that are no virgin to the sweaty fingers of climbers that come from around the globe to hang off in agonising determination – is Tonsai, a secluded climbers paradise. Here we met up with Olly, my friend and climbing partner from home.

After one day at Tonsai beach we left for Koh Phi Phi and more climbing that was less severe – because I was way out of practice, albeit not as much as I though I would be – and not so manically busy. Plus the size of the spiders – I’m not kidding, they were huge, and everywhere – and quantity was far to overwhelming for a wimp like me.

Koh Phi Phi

Nearly wiped off the face of the planet by the Tsunami, Koh Phi Phi is a healing paradise beauty that wears too much make-up. Many speculated that the disaster striking here would turn the island around, giving back it’s natural beauty, but thanks to government greed the big businesses are edging their way on more and more – with small businesses left struggling – and this small island is being consumed by the package tourist industry, leaving little left for the budget traveller to enjoy or admire. That said, the island still holds a certain attraction, and the tourist-overkill didn’t stop us spending two weeks solid on the island.

We managed to get in a full days climbing before Olly was confined to his bed with a bad dose of sea-food poisoning, although I did manage to get him back to health just in time to buy us a big meal with daddy’s pocket money before he left. Good lad.

Diving

We really only came to Koh Phi Phi for one thing; diving. Whilst I climbed Laura hunted for the best diving company on the island, and found a down-to-earth man from our neck of the woods; Cole, from Bath. After a three day course we were certified divers, but that just wasn’t enough for me. I was hooked the moment we dropped into the water the first time, the feeling was awesome for me, so I immediately booked myself onto the advanced course for the following two days that included another five dives. Laura was a little more nervous than me so held back on the advanced course, but we did another dive together a couple of days after my second course.

How this photo came out so well when the rest didn’t I have no idea. But it’s a beauty; of a Moray.

The Wreck Dive

Part of the advanced course involved a wreck dive down to thirty metres, which certified us all to that depth for future dives, providing none of us went do-lally with nitrogen narcosis. We didn’t.

The friendly camera man and the toilets. There’s no relation to the two photos, I assure you.

As we reached 29.5 metres and there, lying on the bottom, was this lepard shark. Awesome.

Koh Lanta

Laura writes
When we arrived in Koh Lanta we were picked up from the ferry port and taken to the Green Garden Resort. It wasn’t until we checked-in that it became clear just what relaxation we had let ourselves in for. Here beaches were plentiful, countryside was everywhere and the lack of shops and buildings meant we were surrounded by peace and quiet on every turn.

And relax

We hired various mopeds (including the one which broke down), ate far too many ice-creams, watched picturesque sun-sets, played with their pet monkey (who seemed to like grooming Rupert) and was entertained by the pet otter often passing our beach-hut.

The moped that didn’t break down, and the coolest Bungalow – with it’s own watch tower, equipped with hammock – ever

Bangkok

But of course, relaxation had to end somewhere, and before we knew it we were back in the manic-city of smog; Bangkok. We didn’t really do much with our time there, accept buy and sell a few books, catch up on Internet updates, eat, sleep and drink; but it was enough to put us in the right location of Thailand ready to head to the place I’d oh so been waiting for for the entire trip; Kanchanaburi!

Kanchanaburi

When we arrived we hopped into a cycle-rickshaw and headed to the Jolly Frog Guest House. The rooms were only 200 baht a night, beer’s cheap and their apple pie was amazing!

Jenga with your meal, sir?

Two days into the trip we hired a Toyota, and after travelling 45k down the wrong road, heading back the other way then missing various turnings, and stopping for directions more than once we finally made it to Tiger Temple. I had been waiting to visit ever since we started our trip and after travelling around for 5-months now was that time…!

Our car and delirious driver

The first tiger cub (whose condition was very poor) arrived to the monastery in February 1999. When she was only a few months old her mother was killed by poachers near the Thai-Burma border and the little cub was sold to a new owner whom ordered her stuffed. The man who was hired to do the job did not finish this and although he injected her in the neck with the preservative formalin the cub survived. When she arrived at the monastery she was frail and terrified of a slightest sound. She still has stitches in the cuts on her head and her vision was impaired along with many other injuries. Under loving care of the monks the cub recovered, but in July 1999 she fell seriously ill with heart palpitations and died.
After the first cub died two healthy male cubs were brought to the monastery after another poaching incident, and soon after that more followed!

The Abbot, Phra Acharn Chan, kindly welcomed the animals. And so the monks ended up looking after the orphaned cubs. None of them had any training in how to handle tigers. They had to learn on the job, but the monastery did its duty and became a sanctuary that upholds compassion and kindness to all living creatures.

I was a little dubious when signing the declaration form. It stated visitors should exercise care and caution around the animals, along with tigers are wild animals and visitors enter at their own risk. They won’t hold the temple responsible should any injury occur. That morning I had eaten bacon for breakfast and was worried the smell might still be on my hands, but despite my nerves there was no way either of us were backing out.

We were going to visit the biggest puddie cats of our lives! ….

We enjoyed it so much we went back for a second day!

The following day with another seven hours remaining on the hire of the Toyota we decided to spent the time tracking down one of Thailand’s natural hot springs. It was an early start at 7am with an incredibly long two hour drive ahead of us, but we finally made it after endless searching and nearly turning around several times. But perseverance got us a nice hot bath.

Floating Market, just outside Bangkok

Deciding not to spend our entire duration on Khao San Road whilst we wait to depart for Australia, today we took a trip to the Floating Market. It was an agonising 7.00am pick-up, which didn’t bode well with us lazy risers, but we did manage not to miss our bus so we must have been doing something right.

We decided to have one of our take-away breakfasts from the 7eleven, six small boxes of cereal and a bottle of milk between us. Sometimes we managed to part with a cheeky plastic cup and spoon to eat out of, however this time we weren’t so lucky. So we headed back to the guest-house to beg for eating utensils!

Despite being incredibly swamped by tourists I thought the floating market was awesome. We ate Thai pancakes, fresh mango’s, fruits I couldn’t even begin to pronounce let alone spell and watched as the beautifully loaded boats of flowers, noodle soups, vegetables and gifts waded fast in the congestion of river boat mayhem.

We then took a rather random speed boat down another connecting river, speeding off into the middle of nowhere, turning around after five minutes, and then coming back again. hhmm. However, I did see the biggest wild lizzard of my life. I’ve no idea what it was doing or where it was heading, but it certainly blew me over by the sheer mass of the thing. I seriously question the exisitance of draggons after that!

Included in our tour was advertised a trip to the coconut factory to see how sugar is extracted from the cocnut plant. It wasn’t quite as expected. I think factory doesn’t quite cover it – More like small shed.

What Are We Doing Now?
Rupert writes
It’s all getting very close. We leave for Oz on 7th February; Tomorrow! We’ve little plan, but heaps of enthusiasm and confidence in hope and eventuality. The general idea is to pick up a camper van, and hit the road; starting in Melbourne and going around the East Coast then the West Coast. Then we sell the camper van in Perth three months later and head off to Bali. Walk in the park.

Tags: Bangkok, Cambodia, Diving, East Coast, Kanchanaburi, Koh Chang, Thailand, Thailand, Travel, Vietnam

This entry was posted on Monday, February 6th, 2006 at 5:09 pm and is filed under Thailand, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.