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To The Arsehole Who Stole My Shoes:

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

Heartfelt Sign At A Koh Tao Roadside Bar

It is extremely rude to leave someone to walk through raw sewage and step around broken glass. Thankfully the streets were swept and I didn’t stub my toes and drew blood or —believe me—I would have cut off yours.

I had my backpack stolen in the past, my sleeping bag, my cash and about everything else. But to steal someone’s flip-flops is beneath even the most common thief.

Of course mistakes happen, especially during the craziness of the New Year celebrations. They did—which is why I stowed my shoes underneath the damn shelf this time. You had to dig for them.

May you feet rot away.

Posted in SE Asia, Travel | Comments Off on To The Arsehole Who Stole My Shoes:

Diving in Koh Tao

Saturday, January 2nd, 2010

getting ready to dive!

Now there is a surprise!

I had expected the Koh Samui party crowd, the German package travellers and the Americans doggedly working their way through the various PADI courses once they find that it takes more than an open water certificate to go on a wreck dive (or indeed any dive deeper than 18m).

What I hadn’t expected was all that and a dive scene which would give the likes of Clare and Ken plenty to do. The man who greeted us has trained with the Royal Marines and his buddies aren’t bad either.

Needless to say, John has bagged himself a BSAC instructor (at a neighbouring centre) and is currently involved in a one-to-one, brushing up his theory. Who knows, he may even get a few boxes ticked for his dive-leader training.

Not bad, for a man with over 70 unlogged dives…

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Heavenly Coral Spawning

Friday, January 1st, 2010

New Year Lanterns

For the first time in thirty years, the full moon shone on New Year’s Eve. I bet Koh Samui went crazy. We didn’t go there, because there was plenty of excitement to be had right here on Koh Tao, the Turtle Island, where John is at long last getting his diving record set straight (but that is another story).

The soft white sand lay semi-fluorescent in the moonlight. A lantern rose into the sky, as smooth and serene as a passing whaleshark. It was soon followed by another. All along the beach, people were releasing lanterns. It looked like heavenly coral spawning.

We had left the loud music behind. Rap and house and—so help us—cheesy Eighties disco. Will we never live down that decade? But out here it was relatively quiet. We sat and sipped our drinks and didn’t notice when the last of the farang left the bar because we weren’t sitting on the terrace. A few tables had been set up on the beach and now the bar owner’s family were adding more. They all sat down to dinner, the children wide-eyed with wonder as fireworks exploded against the backdrop of the twinkling lanterns.

“We should get out,” I said just as a little boy stared at us, holding his glass of coke in both hands. John grinned and lifted his mango shake and soon we were engaged in a game of cheers, putting the drinks on our heads before sipping. The boy needed a re-fill of coke and his older relatives cheered and wished us a happy new year.

It was just after ten o’clock. Apparently no-one had the patience to wait until midnight as another set of fireworks exploded. When midnight was finally announced (two minutes early), I thought that things couldn’t get any more frantic, but they did. Thai and farang gathered together to light the largest lantern yet—it needed a dozen people to hold it. It floated into the sky: one last gamete, carrying with it the promises of a new decade.

The Biggest One Yet!

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Aggro Veg

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

The vegetation around here is the most aggressive I have yet experienced. I’m being dive-bombed by giant leaves and hard fruit. OK, the latter may be aided by birds or squirrels, but it’s only a question of time until a coconut falls on my head…

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“Tuk-Tuk only 30 baht!”

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

In Bangkok, a lot of people want to talk to you. They may be genuinely interested in where you come from, whether you support Manchester United (or Everton) and what you think about Thailand. They may want to practice their English or are simply proud of their country and want to point out the sights on your map.

Infamous Bangkok Tuktuk

However chances are that the person you are talking to is not a nurse or teacher as they claim, but a scammer.

You can pretty much tell from the moment they start drawing circles on your map, but if they continue to outline the route and make claims such as “Grand Palace close until afternoon” or “white temple open today only. One day, one year. Close at eleven, so hurry!”—all meant to throw you off your track—you’re about to fall for the infamous tuk-tuk scam.

Let’s be clear here: a tuk-tuk ride never costs less than around 50 baht and one tuk-tuk driver who was not actually interested in scamming me (he was waiting outside an upmarket hotel) said that metered taxis are cheaper. There is no government-subsidised scheme for tuk-tuk drivers to show tourists around on the cheap, and government-licenced drivers are in on the scam.

I knew all that, but what I didn’t know is that the operation has expanded considerably and that the tactics have changed. Back on my first visit, it was just the tuk-tuk drivers yelling their ridiculously cheap fares at me. Now it’s the guy who talked to us on the street corner, his friend the English teacher, the nurse from Chiang Mai who invited us inside a temple and talked about her weekend visit to Bangkok, and the tuk-tuk drivers. It’s put me off talking to people.

That’s a real shame because we have met a number of genuinely nice people who really were on a weekend visit to Bangkok or worked at the National Museum and wanted to recommend Thailand’s cultural treasures to us.

Here is what I don’t get. If the person drawing the itinerary onto a fresh copy of my tourist map had said: “hire tuk-tuk half day. Only 300 baht”, I would probably have taken them up on it because 300 baht is just enough for me to think that the offer is genuine. Not only would they get the money, they’d still have an opportunity to scam us at the end!

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We have arrived…

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

…as you can tell from the picture. No sooner did we get here that the heavens opened.
Streetsellers Seeking Shelter
When I’m travelling with John, I don’t write as much (particularly when I’m in a non-smoking internet café with a dodgy keyboard) so expect updates to be a little sparse. If I get less lazy, I’ll compose proper updates on my Asus.

On Monday we’re off to Kho Tao for beaches, bars and bubbles!

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Almost Time!

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Traffic Chaos

But if this weather continues, we may yet be stranded here 🙁

In the meantime, this is an excellent resource if you have questions about Thailand. I’ve remembered correctly: Thai sockets will take both US and standard European (mainland) plugs. Yeah!

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Preparations

Friday, December 18th, 2009

I’m looking forward to this trip because I missed Thailand the first time around.

Not ‘missed’ as in passing it by on a tour of SE Asia, but missed as in driving straight through it, with an unscheduled monsoon chasing me from one place to the next until I arrived in Malaysia (and the sun came out).

Now the skies look clear. And for the past week or so, John has immersed himself in preparations for diving instead of his work. He can hardly wait either 😉

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Catching up: Dolphins of Sarawak

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Kuching

My recent surprise contact from somebody who knows of our 1985 exploits involving Ganges dolphins (Platanista gangetica) has resulted in me searching for more info on same (the area we visited is now a dolphin sanctuary), and some of my other haunts as well.

And behold, there is a blog dedicated to the dolphins of Sarawak. Apparently, Irawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) are still relatively common in the area, although by-catches and pollution pose problems. There was a fledgling dolphin watch enterprise in operation while I was there (I never noticed it) and—even better—a local kajak enthusiast who might even have set me up for a field survey! If only I had known *sigh*. But there is now a research initiative and a conservation movement in place and proper guidelines will hopefully ensure responsible dolphin watching which will bring income to local operators.

Read through Pesut’s blog and—if you can—book a trip with FH-2-GO, the kayak operator. I’ll envy you!

[EDIT: with regard to my previous post, this is what I consider fair and responsible eco-tourism. I doubt that any of the local operators would ask for “thousands of pounds”. I also have a feeling that a discount is on the cards if you want to go out every day for a week in order to make notes ;)]

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Worldnomads Honour Claim

Wednesday, July 5th, 2006

The review committee at Worldnomads has found in my favour (I think I have blogged this before) and have now settled my claim. The settlement is fair and it means that I can replace my backpack and sturdy boots which I will need for that Greenland trip (I haven’t given up! I’m trying to wangle one of the cheaper ‘rød pris’ tickets).

I’m over the moon! Sure, my financial situation isn’t as dire as after that SE Asia trip, but replacing the equipment would have thrown a spanner into my planning even before the high travel costs did. Greenland ain’t flip-flop country!

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