Wow, that's a really long post. Yet, I forgot to add photo album links.
Ko Phi Phi and Railay Beach
Ko Phi Phi and Railay Beach: Part 2
Friday, February 13, 2009
Overdue.
Hello again! I'm so sorry that I haven't updated in a long while. I could tell you that I've been busy (which I have), or that I haven't had access to a computer 100% of the time (which is also true), but mostly, I'm just lazy.
I have lots to fill you in on. So here goes nothing...
Last time I left off, I posted some pictures from my visit to Ayuthaya. Basically, Ayuthaya is an ancient capital of Thailand, located a little ways outside Bangkok. Some number of years ago, it was sacked by the Burmese, who (as you saw) destroyed much of the city and took the heads off all the Buddhas. It was really cool getting to walk around there - we even saw elephants at one point! The day trip was free, courtesy of the BBA office at Thammasat. Unfortunately, we had to leave at 7am in the morning. The tour guide was a regular Chatty Cathy... at one point, on the bus ride there, he stopped talking long enough to notice that most of us were falling asleep, and he even said he would stop so we could sleep for a little while... but then he just kept on talking. He told us the entire, actual Thai name of Bangkok, and it took him at least 15 seconds to say it all. What a mouthful. He was also very proud to point out that Ayuthaya was a filming location for the movie "Mortal Kombat" - yes, that's right. Same as the video game. Anyway, after a day at Ayuthaya, we were treated to a cruise down the Chao Praya River back to Bangkok. They had a lunch buffet on the cruise, complete with coffee and cake for dessert; all very delicious!
Later that night, after getting back to the apartment complex, there was a gathering in the penthouse in honor of Australia Day. As far as I know, only 3 of the exchange students are Australian, but we all got together anyway for an "authentic" Australia Day cook-out. Basically, we all wore tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops, fried some sausages on the stove, and listened to Australian music. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun, considering a good 20 or 30 of us were there.
A couple weeks ago, some of us tried to go see a muay-thai fight (Thai boxing); "some of us" being Tommaso, Ben, Ivana, Anne, Martin, Michael, Sohum, Kartik, Chris, Andy, and myself. Once we got to the stadium, we found out that we were going to be charged 1000 baht (about $30) to get in, whereas the Thai locals were getting in for 220 baht. We tried bargaining the price down, we tried showing our Thammasat IDs, we tried everything we could think of. Finally, an English-speaking ticket agent came up to us and said that we could get in for free, provided we bring a letter from Thammasat - apparently, our IDs weren't good enough. So we didn't go. Instead, we went to Khao San road, had some great dinner at this Japanese restaurant, and did a little shopping. On our way there, we even saw the King of Thailand! Kind of, anyway. Our tuk-tuk got stopped because all the streets were being shut down so the king could drive through. We got out and walked down the street to watch him pass by. A police escort passed us first, followed by a line of 30 red Mercedes, and another police escort. It was wild! Most of the Mercedes' were empty, but a couple of them had someone in the back seat, one of which we assumed was the king.
Also, our tuk-tuk driver that night was hilarious! Not only did he race other tuk-tuks, but he popped 2 wheelies while we were in it. So much fun.
At the end of that week, a big group of us went out to RCA, which is a popular clubbing district in Bangkok. While we were there, I met a few kids who are also on exchange, but go to Chulalongkorn, Thammasat's big rival here in Bangkok. Funnily enough, the big soccer game between the two schools was the next day, so we of course heckled each other about who would win and who would lose.
Speaking of the soccer game, it was a huge deal. The stadium is pretty big, and it's located right in the middle of the city, next to a popular shopping center. The festivities started around noon; yes, "festivities". This included pep rallies and free stuff being handed out, random performances by groups from each school on temporary stages, booths set up all over the place to sell food and apparel and more. Unfortunately, something I ate didn't agree with me (oh no!), and I ended up back at the apartment, trying to cool off and settle my stomach. But Thammasat won! 2-0. Bragging rights are ours!
Last weekend, a group of us went to Ko Phi Phi and Railay Beach. It was so beautiful (once again), and of course, so much fun. Nine people left on Wednesday night, and six of us (Danielle, Alex, Erika, Sophia, and Vivian) took the overnight train on Thursday into Surat Thani; from there, we took a bus to Krabi, and from there we met up with Ben and Josh and took a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. All in all, about 17 hours of travel time. But it was so worth it. We met up with the other nine in Ko Phi Phi and shared one giant bungalow - which was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. I didn't get pictures of it before the 17 of us dominated it with all our stuff, but I know others did; I'll try to get a link up. The bungalow had 3 rooms and bathrooms, 5 beds, a hammock, and a nice little deck with some benches and a table; plenty of room for all 17 of us.
Pretty much everything on the island has been rebuilt since the tsunami in 2004, considering pretty much everything was wiped out by that. But tourist accomodations were completely up and running. We stayed on Long Beach, which was a fairly quiet part of the island... probably because it was quite a hike from the main pier. There were a couple beach restaurants right on our beach, of course, but most everything else was by the pier. We still had to hike to breakfast in the mornings, but it was worth it. The food was sooooo good - especially anything involving bananas! The tuna and club sandwiches were also delicious, though. I know, I know; western food? In Thailand? But seriously, touristy areas like Ko Phi Phi are the best places to get decent western foods. Everywhere else just kinda sucks.
Anyway, Ko Phi Phi was so much fun. We took a boat tour around the island - and the first beach we stopped at, we met misfortune. Firstly, the boat pulled up kinda close to the beach, and we all jumped out, expecting to splash into the water and feel the sand between our toes. However, there were more rocks, coral, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins underwater than there was sand. Luckily, no one stepped on a sea urchin. But splashing through the water was no walk in the park when there were rocks or coral digging into your feet every step of the way, or sea cucumbers squishing between your toes in a rather unpleasant way. By the time we got to the beach, nobody wanted to leave for a while (because nobody wanted to do that again). But then, some Thais approached us and demanded that we pay a 200 baht fee for visiting the beach, because it's a national park. Well, none of us wanted to pay, so we trekked back through the treacherous waters to the boat, planning to continue the boat tour and go somewhere else. Unfortunately, the tide had gone out some, and the boat was stuck. There were 14 of us, so we figured we'd try to push the boat out; but we failed. Some of the group went back to the beach and just avoided paying the fee by walking around to the deserted part of the beach. The rest of us chilled out on the boat and waited for some kind of miracle. A couple of hours later, once everyone was back on the boat, we got out again and, with the help of the driver, managed to push the boat back into open water. We continued on our tour, stopping at this gorgeous bay for some snorkeling and getting to glimpse the actual beach from the movie "The Beach" from a distance. Snorkeling was so much fun! The water was incredibly clear, and the fish would come swim right next to me, as if they hadn't a care in the world!
That night, we got together and hiked down to the pier to check out a fire show. We ended up at this beachside bar that starts out the night with a fire show (people twirling sticks and ropes on fire) and ended with fire games (fire limbo, fire jump roping, jumping through a ring of fire...), complete with audience participation! So of course, we participated. I've got some pictures of the jump roping and limbo (neither of which I participated in, haha), and a TON of photos of us jumping through the hoop of fire! As for the fire show, let me just say that the first performer was - and I kid you not - a 5-year-old girl. Maybe younger. She was so calm that she almost looked bored while she was up there. Needless to say, I was very impressed.
Anyway, that was the end of the day at Ko Phi Phi. The next morning, a few of us headed to Railay Beach for some maxing and relaxing. We took a long boat to Railay (which is on the mainland) from Ko Phi Phi, and our driver was, probably quite literally, insane. He spoke very little English, which was fine, until he tried to have a conversation with us. Then it was just hilarious. His name was Tiger (or so he says). He tried to point out dolphins to us, until we realized he wasn't serious. The way he was driving, we were completely soaked to the bone by the time we got to Railay. He had to stop driving and let his partner (another Thai guy on the boat) take over while he relieved himself over the side of the boat. And, here's the kicker - he pulled out a long, hollowed out piece of bamboo or something, and definitely started smoking from it. And I'm not talking about tobacco. Luckily, the other guy was driving at the point, but it was still the craziest thing to see your boat driver just pull that out. Crazy.
Railay was really nice, though. Much smaller than Ko Phi Phi, and there seemed to be more tourists there, but it still had sun and sea and sand. We rented kayaks and paddled around for a little while, getting a closer look at some of the giant rock formations that are sitting out in the sea. Also got to see some humungous jellyfish - each of these guys were at least the size of a basketball. We took the train back to Bangkok later that day - in fact, the train was a good 1 1/2 hours late, so we got to talking with this guy from Canada who spends 6 months in Thailand every year for rockclimbing and 6 months in Canada as a carpenter.
This weekend was my first time on a train, by the way. It wasn't so bad. At one point, I smiled at one of the guys who works on the train (what do you call them? Porters? Officers? He wasn't the conducter...), and he walked over, took off his hat and put it on me, and then walked away. Erika and Vivian just started laughing, and of course, we busted out the cameras and started taking pictures. He came back later and I gave the hat back. He said something in Thai, which of course none of us understood, so I just kinda shrugged in confusion. It was all rather entertaining. The overnight aspect of the train ride wasn't bad either. We booked sleeper cabins, so we each got a small little bed for the night. Overall, a rather enjoyable experience this past weekend, if I do say so myself.
Anyway, that's about all I've got for you now. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
I have lots to fill you in on. So here goes nothing...
Last time I left off, I posted some pictures from my visit to Ayuthaya. Basically, Ayuthaya is an ancient capital of Thailand, located a little ways outside Bangkok. Some number of years ago, it was sacked by the Burmese, who (as you saw) destroyed much of the city and took the heads off all the Buddhas. It was really cool getting to walk around there - we even saw elephants at one point! The day trip was free, courtesy of the BBA office at Thammasat. Unfortunately, we had to leave at 7am in the morning. The tour guide was a regular Chatty Cathy... at one point, on the bus ride there, he stopped talking long enough to notice that most of us were falling asleep, and he even said he would stop so we could sleep for a little while... but then he just kept on talking. He told us the entire, actual Thai name of Bangkok, and it took him at least 15 seconds to say it all. What a mouthful. He was also very proud to point out that Ayuthaya was a filming location for the movie "Mortal Kombat" - yes, that's right. Same as the video game. Anyway, after a day at Ayuthaya, we were treated to a cruise down the Chao Praya River back to Bangkok. They had a lunch buffet on the cruise, complete with coffee and cake for dessert; all very delicious!
Later that night, after getting back to the apartment complex, there was a gathering in the penthouse in honor of Australia Day. As far as I know, only 3 of the exchange students are Australian, but we all got together anyway for an "authentic" Australia Day cook-out. Basically, we all wore tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops, fried some sausages on the stove, and listened to Australian music. Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun, considering a good 20 or 30 of us were there.
A couple weeks ago, some of us tried to go see a muay-thai fight (Thai boxing); "some of us" being Tommaso, Ben, Ivana, Anne, Martin, Michael, Sohum, Kartik, Chris, Andy, and myself. Once we got to the stadium, we found out that we were going to be charged 1000 baht (about $30) to get in, whereas the Thai locals were getting in for 220 baht. We tried bargaining the price down, we tried showing our Thammasat IDs, we tried everything we could think of. Finally, an English-speaking ticket agent came up to us and said that we could get in for free, provided we bring a letter from Thammasat - apparently, our IDs weren't good enough. So we didn't go. Instead, we went to Khao San road, had some great dinner at this Japanese restaurant, and did a little shopping. On our way there, we even saw the King of Thailand! Kind of, anyway. Our tuk-tuk got stopped because all the streets were being shut down so the king could drive through. We got out and walked down the street to watch him pass by. A police escort passed us first, followed by a line of 30 red Mercedes, and another police escort. It was wild! Most of the Mercedes' were empty, but a couple of them had someone in the back seat, one of which we assumed was the king.
Also, our tuk-tuk driver that night was hilarious! Not only did he race other tuk-tuks, but he popped 2 wheelies while we were in it. So much fun.
At the end of that week, a big group of us went out to RCA, which is a popular clubbing district in Bangkok. While we were there, I met a few kids who are also on exchange, but go to Chulalongkorn, Thammasat's big rival here in Bangkok. Funnily enough, the big soccer game between the two schools was the next day, so we of course heckled each other about who would win and who would lose.
Speaking of the soccer game, it was a huge deal. The stadium is pretty big, and it's located right in the middle of the city, next to a popular shopping center. The festivities started around noon; yes, "festivities". This included pep rallies and free stuff being handed out, random performances by groups from each school on temporary stages, booths set up all over the place to sell food and apparel and more. Unfortunately, something I ate didn't agree with me (oh no!), and I ended up back at the apartment, trying to cool off and settle my stomach. But Thammasat won! 2-0. Bragging rights are ours!
Last weekend, a group of us went to Ko Phi Phi and Railay Beach. It was so beautiful (once again), and of course, so much fun. Nine people left on Wednesday night, and six of us (Danielle, Alex, Erika, Sophia, and Vivian) took the overnight train on Thursday into Surat Thani; from there, we took a bus to Krabi, and from there we met up with Ben and Josh and took a ferry to Ko Phi Phi. All in all, about 17 hours of travel time. But it was so worth it. We met up with the other nine in Ko Phi Phi and shared one giant bungalow - which was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL. I didn't get pictures of it before the 17 of us dominated it with all our stuff, but I know others did; I'll try to get a link up. The bungalow had 3 rooms and bathrooms, 5 beds, a hammock, and a nice little deck with some benches and a table; plenty of room for all 17 of us.
Pretty much everything on the island has been rebuilt since the tsunami in 2004, considering pretty much everything was wiped out by that. But tourist accomodations were completely up and running. We stayed on Long Beach, which was a fairly quiet part of the island... probably because it was quite a hike from the main pier. There were a couple beach restaurants right on our beach, of course, but most everything else was by the pier. We still had to hike to breakfast in the mornings, but it was worth it. The food was sooooo good - especially anything involving bananas! The tuna and club sandwiches were also delicious, though. I know, I know; western food? In Thailand? But seriously, touristy areas like Ko Phi Phi are the best places to get decent western foods. Everywhere else just kinda sucks.
Anyway, Ko Phi Phi was so much fun. We took a boat tour around the island - and the first beach we stopped at, we met misfortune. Firstly, the boat pulled up kinda close to the beach, and we all jumped out, expecting to splash into the water and feel the sand between our toes. However, there were more rocks, coral, sea cucumbers, and sea urchins underwater than there was sand. Luckily, no one stepped on a sea urchin. But splashing through the water was no walk in the park when there were rocks or coral digging into your feet every step of the way, or sea cucumbers squishing between your toes in a rather unpleasant way. By the time we got to the beach, nobody wanted to leave for a while (because nobody wanted to do that again). But then, some Thais approached us and demanded that we pay a 200 baht fee for visiting the beach, because it's a national park. Well, none of us wanted to pay, so we trekked back through the treacherous waters to the boat, planning to continue the boat tour and go somewhere else. Unfortunately, the tide had gone out some, and the boat was stuck. There were 14 of us, so we figured we'd try to push the boat out; but we failed. Some of the group went back to the beach and just avoided paying the fee by walking around to the deserted part of the beach. The rest of us chilled out on the boat and waited for some kind of miracle. A couple of hours later, once everyone was back on the boat, we got out again and, with the help of the driver, managed to push the boat back into open water. We continued on our tour, stopping at this gorgeous bay for some snorkeling and getting to glimpse the actual beach from the movie "The Beach" from a distance. Snorkeling was so much fun! The water was incredibly clear, and the fish would come swim right next to me, as if they hadn't a care in the world!
That night, we got together and hiked down to the pier to check out a fire show. We ended up at this beachside bar that starts out the night with a fire show (people twirling sticks and ropes on fire) and ended with fire games (fire limbo, fire jump roping, jumping through a ring of fire...), complete with audience participation! So of course, we participated. I've got some pictures of the jump roping and limbo (neither of which I participated in, haha), and a TON of photos of us jumping through the hoop of fire! As for the fire show, let me just say that the first performer was - and I kid you not - a 5-year-old girl. Maybe younger. She was so calm that she almost looked bored while she was up there. Needless to say, I was very impressed.
Anyway, that was the end of the day at Ko Phi Phi. The next morning, a few of us headed to Railay Beach for some maxing and relaxing. We took a long boat to Railay (which is on the mainland) from Ko Phi Phi, and our driver was, probably quite literally, insane. He spoke very little English, which was fine, until he tried to have a conversation with us. Then it was just hilarious. His name was Tiger (or so he says). He tried to point out dolphins to us, until we realized he wasn't serious. The way he was driving, we were completely soaked to the bone by the time we got to Railay. He had to stop driving and let his partner (another Thai guy on the boat) take over while he relieved himself over the side of the boat. And, here's the kicker - he pulled out a long, hollowed out piece of bamboo or something, and definitely started smoking from it. And I'm not talking about tobacco. Luckily, the other guy was driving at the point, but it was still the craziest thing to see your boat driver just pull that out. Crazy.
Railay was really nice, though. Much smaller than Ko Phi Phi, and there seemed to be more tourists there, but it still had sun and sea and sand. We rented kayaks and paddled around for a little while, getting a closer look at some of the giant rock formations that are sitting out in the sea. Also got to see some humungous jellyfish - each of these guys were at least the size of a basketball. We took the train back to Bangkok later that day - in fact, the train was a good 1 1/2 hours late, so we got to talking with this guy from Canada who spends 6 months in Thailand every year for rockclimbing and 6 months in Canada as a carpenter.
This weekend was my first time on a train, by the way. It wasn't so bad. At one point, I smiled at one of the guys who works on the train (what do you call them? Porters? Officers? He wasn't the conducter...), and he walked over, took off his hat and put it on me, and then walked away. Erika and Vivian just started laughing, and of course, we busted out the cameras and started taking pictures. He came back later and I gave the hat back. He said something in Thai, which of course none of us understood, so I just kinda shrugged in confusion. It was all rather entertaining. The overnight aspect of the train ride wasn't bad either. We booked sleeper cabins, so we each got a small little bed for the night. Overall, a rather enjoyable experience this past weekend, if I do say so myself.
Anyway, that's about all I've got for you now. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
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