On her own two bare feet

Well i heard there is a typhoon in the phillipines coming our way. Where i
was, cliffside in a bay in ko pha ngan only accessible by long boat (read:
wood, leaky, low to the sea, overcrowded) was getting mighty windy and the
seas very choppy, so i decided it was time to get back to the mainland.

The long boat ride was utterly terrifying, only one guy was willing to take his boat out. Once we were in the boat all the other drivers chanted in unison “he crazy , he crazy” cause the waves were “very, very big”. Out there it was like being thrown through a series of whirlpools with waves hurling towards us from all angles. The driver had to read the ocean very carefully to know whether to kill the engine and ride the waves or accelerate to the max to outrun them. Eventually, after half an hour of me gripping the sides and reciting mantras to every god and goddess, we made it to shore.
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Just had a crazy 28-hr trip from Pai. i took the last seat of a 9am minibus to Chiang Mai. On the bus i met a thai business man who told me about a cheap flight to bangkok he was catching that afternoon. He then got on his mobile phone and organised me a ticket – i was to pay on arrival at the airport. When we arrived at the airport, the ticket was apparently already “paid in cash” – and who am i to argue – so i got on a free flight to bangkok. At the other end this man had his driver take me directly to the train station, he gave me his business card, and that was that. Amazing!

At the train station i walked straight on a sleeper train to Surat Thani, then a bus to the pier, then a 3hr nauseating boat ride to the island of Ko Pha Ngan and finally – finally – i had arrived at 1pm the day after my departure from Pai.
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Perhaps a good rule of thumb is to never email while angry, lonely or drunk; well apart from the latter i am sticking to that.

LESSON ONE: Meeting people is easy in Pai (known here as Utopai, get it?) Every night i fall into having dinner with different people, from all walks of life, ages, ethnicities – its an amazing opportunity. i have learnt that sitting at the bar is a good opportunity to talk to other folks travelling alone, and also to drink way too many gins as the conversation rolls on.

LESSON TWO: Nobody looks cool in thongs – Thailand is the great equaliser – each to their own.

LESSON THREE: Locals hold the key to the spirit of a place. Tomorrow i am going on a motorbike ride with some locals to Mae Hon Song (exploring caves) then to some hot springs for the afternoon, will be lush.

LESSON FOUR: When in Thailand eat Thai, everything else is mimicry and hideous shite to be honest. i should also really just give up on the coffee front. in Bangkok i was, on the sly, dunking my imported coffee bags into a mug of instant because it was too hard to ask for just hot water.

LESSON FiVE: These is no such thing as boredom. Even without any distraction (telephone, tv, music, conversation) i can ‘do nothing’ and not be bored. in fact i love my little hammock ritual of the afternoon, just lulling above the river and letting the world go by.

Enough lessons for today.

After finding a brilliant organic vego cafe/restaurant/bookshop in chiang mai, which then became my local hang out, i met up with some folks who have spent that last few months in a tiny town called Pai and said i must check it out.

So here i am the following day, after a harrowing minibus journey, filled to the gills with backpackers, with a failing aircon as the ascent up the windy mountain began, nauseous to the teeth through a four hour journey that was marketed to be 2.5hrs!

But i have touched the goddess, and her name is Pai. i have a simple bamboo
hut complete with deck and hammock, and an entire wall that opens out directly onto Pai river ($5). The pace here is very chilled, i haven’t seen a car, just plenty of foot traffic and bikes. i realise now that chiang mai is a transit zone, a hideous mecca of beer and prostitutes, but a gateway to the hippie heaven of the northern villages. i want to stay here at least a week and do some courses – thai massage, cooking, weaving – all look good.

i don’t think i’ll get to Nan, i just can’t stomach another bus ride, but might snatch a few days in Ko Chang (an island just off the coast near Bangkok) before i fly to London.

After only two intoxicating days in bangkok staying in chinatown, i am already in northern thailand.

i started reading way too much lonely planet and got anxious that i didn’t have enough time to go where i wanted to in the 3 weeks i have before heading to london. so last night after having a luscious thai massage and having my hair braided on khao-san rd, i navigated my way to catch an overnight train to Chiang Mai. i got a sleeper and then as the sun rose i got to take in the magic views of forest, misty mountains, fields, villages rolling past.

When i arrived i had a heavy negotiation with a tuktuk driver intent on taking me to his commissioned guest houses and telling me the ones i wanted were no longer in operation, after literally hundreds of “no”, “not interested”, “just pull over”, “stop”, he realised i was not bluffing. so i found myself a quiet, family run, guest house encircling a garden, with my own room/bath for 120 baht a night ($4). i am on my way to the night bazaar markets and maybe to find some other travellers to talk to – now 72 hours into the journey, the silence is kind of deafening.

i will stay here a few nights before taking a bus to Nan.

Well first 24 hours in Thailand behind me, and already i’ve learnt a few
things. . .

1. walking through Bangkok iS NOT easier than using public transport – it has taken me all day to get orientated, get lost, find my bearings, and
eventually find khao san rd – and lots of time waiting at street corners
summoning the guts to cut through six lanes of non-stop traffic – there appears to be no traffic lights here, and pedestrian crossings are simply meaningless.

2. the heat is thick, intense and claustrophobic – when i arrived at 2300 it was 30 degrees outside. i had a challenging cab ride with a old thai guy bitter about “you a strong woman” – i got the whole inquisition in broken thai about why i’m alone, no children, not married etc. that was okay, but him pulling off the highway to yell at me about directions “Soi! Soi!” to the hotel etc. was scary – i realised then the enormity of what it means to be here, and be alone – i had very few options if things got nasty. i now know the soi number locates the side street (thanks lonely planet) but luckily i arrived at my little hotel, with my own little room – its grungy but fantastic because it is my recluse from the intensity of the streets.

3. being here alone is an awesome experience, it is like a walking silent
meditation, i barely spoke to anyone today but took in a thousand different
sights, smells, and sounds of the street; visited wat pho and national museum; cruised down the chao praya river (i love the canal system)

4. 3 weeks will definitely not be long enough. i am here in bangkok for another two nights before slowly making my way by train up to chiang mai. then i’ll head for a quiet island somewhere. that’s the plan anyway.