Sitting on the porch of my Koh Mook Rubber Tree Hotel bungalow on the waning moments of the trip as the cicadas buzz away- in a couple hours I’ll start a 48 hour journey to the other side of the world for a work meeting. 4 days have passed – two in the Bungalow at Koh Mook and 2 in a tent at Koh Rok. Sleep has been fitful as it’s just too hot – even when the power’s on the fan here provides little relief, though naps on the beach and lazy days also have something to do with it.
Update: now waiting to get on the sleeper train back to Bangkok. The islands were extremely sparse – Koh Mook has just a few resorts and restaurants, and a small beach.
It was a two hour longtail boat ride to Koh Rok, the engine grating on my ears. The sand at Koh Rok was like flour – when it’s wet it stratified on the water and you’d call it muck if it wasn’t so pretty. There’s no resort or massages, only tents. More tourists come from 10-2 each day but then leave; there are about 20 of us with a whole island to ourselves. I’ve never had this much beach to myself. I go exploring and find a dead lobster being picked over by crabs and a wrecked longtail boat. This must be what it feels like to be on Survivor.
The bathroom had plumbing for the showers and toilets were bucket flush – both in the same room (why not connect the toilet too?). Huge crocodile sized lizards hung out nearby in the evenings, and the leaves rustled with hermit crabs on the prowl. I slept in a beach hammock one night, my first night in a hammock- the lights of the calamari boats in the distance, male campers walking by every few hours to take a leak in the sea (presumably to avoid the inland lizards or spiders or cockroaches or rats). It was cooler in than the hot tent, but sleep was still fitful. I awoke startled a couple times as unknown creatures tickled my toes, but the breeze and my DEET were strong enough to keep the mosquitoes away.
We could swim 30 feet off the beach to the most amazing snorkeling; my back got the best tan. My favorites were the clownfish pairs darting in and our of their anemones and the giant clams with their florescent mantles embedded deep in the rock. I still had mask fitting problems with the new equipment, and the reefs were so shallow I ended up scraping the tops of my feet up while treading water a few times. We went deep sea fishing one afternoon with the staff – I caught a small tuna and some other fish which the staff cooked for us that night. The fish with red curry (which I had to request special since they don’t serve the tourists spicy food by default) was the best dish of the trip.
Now, the sleeper train has started it’s roll out of the tiny station in Traang (“Traang Station”). The rickety fans are blowing the air conditioning around. It’s 2:30am in the US, I should try to grab some slep if I know what’s good for me.
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We’ve spent the last couple days at Ao Nang, a touristy beach town near Krabi.
(New pics start here)
We arrived in the late afternoon. It was even hotter than Bangkok. Checked in, had a drink at the beachside bar at sunset , shopped around the fake goods street and had Tex-Mex for dinner. The rest of our group of 5 has been in Thailand for weeks and is sick of the food. They also don’t eat seafood I’d be sick of 2 weeks of Pad Thai too. Yesterday was much more pleasant weather wise, swe took a speedboat trip island hopping with stops at 4 small island beaches and a snorkeling spot. All the beaches had much finer sand than Ao Nang, and the snorkeling was pretty good – not much reef but many fish. My mask and snorkel were a bit uncomfortable but I made due.
The guide suggested a dinner spot and all six of us loaded up in a tuk tuk to get there. It was a seafood places so people were scared to each conch (delicious, just don’t eat the bony foot) and terrified of a whole grilled fish. Since Cyn and I are now Asia veterans, we filleted it with aplbomb and dug right in. This isn’t much of a partying group, so we retreated to our rooms at 7:30 or so . . . they have wireless internet so we watched the Winter Olympics on Slingbox. Cynthia and I did stop at the dive shop to invest in some better snorkeling gear (mask and tube <$30 for the set) . . . I’m excited to try out the new mask that actually fits and a snorkel with a splash resistant top and a valve for clearing water.
Right now, we’re riding in the van to heading on a two hour ride to Trang Province where we’ll say goodbye to air conditioning for a few days and meet our beach bungalow. Thailand really reminds me of Costa Rica or the Dominican Republic – same constructions techniques and similar farming and vegetation, just different writing on the signs and everybody drives on the left side of the road. It still “feels”" the same.
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I think Taipei has muted Bangkok for us a bit, because when you come down to it, it’s to us just another city in Asia, just not quite as dense, a bit dirtier, with murals of the king everywhere and Buddhist temples in a different style. We set off at about 8:30 on our walking tour and it was already hot and humid (90 degrees and 80% humidity). We figured out how to catch the water taxi – they only stop at each pier for about 15 seconds in a flurry of exhaust as the deckhands jump off and tie the boat. Our first stop was the Golden Palace – Cynthia was unhappy it cost more than $10 each to get in. We went first to the temple area (Wot Phra Kaew) which was quite gilded, saw the emerald Buddha (actually jade), we then walked around the place grounds and stopped in a small air conditioned museum to see the kings crown and coin collection.
We left the palace and went to Wat Suthat, were we started to realize we’ve really gotten the feel for Buddist temples. Next up was Sir Gurusingh Sabha in the little India. We had to take our shoes off and wear head coverings, but there wasn’t really much to see there except a bunch of guys in Turbans and a climb to the sixth story where you had a pretty good view of the city.
Since we know we’ll be having Thai food all week, we intentionally stopped at an Indain restraunt, Royal India, for lunch. The food was good but the air conditioning was even better. Next, we walked through densely packed open air markets in Little India Chinatown, which was similar to the Taipei night markets but with more stores selling fabrics and beads. Cynthia found an embroidered table cloth that she liked, so we picked it up as a souvenier (rare for us).
The rest of the day called for more Wots, but the heat was really starting to wear on us (and thus we were wearing on each other), so we headed back to the hotel. We’d been drinking a lot of water all day but I was quite dizzy after we got back to the room, I’m not sure if it was dehydration, overhydration, the heat, the food or some combination of all of it. I ended up laying low for about 3 hours, Cynthia hung out by the pool, and by the time we met our small tour group at 6 for an orientation I was feeling much better. Dinner was Chinese style duck noodle soup, and we walked back through Chinatown, all lit up with lanterns for the New Year holiday. After the group finished beers from 7-eleven, we called it a night.
Today we’re off on a domestic flight to Krabi and thus the beach odyssey we’re here for.
I’m sitting in the China Airlines Lounge at TPE, which we somehow got invited to by showing a Delta Skymiles Card when getting our KLM tickets to Bangkok. They have a noodle bar, dim sum, free magazines and internet access and booze. Relaxation has begun. I don’t know how connected I’ll be, as we’re traveling to remote and rustic islands, but I’ll journal and post pics when I can.
We took a train trip to Hualien and Taroko Gorge this weekend with friends from work and I posted pics here. It was scenic and a lot of fun . . . until we got back Sunday night I realized my apartment key had fallen out of my pocket in the cab or train or something and that we were locked out. We managed not to sleep in the street but didn’t get back into the apartment until Monday morning. It sucked.
More trips are coming, stay tuned.
There’s a minor China/US dustup going on this week over arms shipments to Taiwan. My standing plan for armageddon scenarios was to head to the deep underground recesses of the Songshan Airport MRT station – the entrance to which is not 200 meters from our apartment. However, my Marine friend pointed out that a significant fraction of the 200 or so Chinese ballistic missiles pointed at this island are probably aimed at Songshan, since it’s a facility shared between domestic airlines and the Taiwanese military. So, seeking protection under a missile range is not as safe as it would first seem. I don’t have any faith in the accuracy of the Chinese missile guidance systems either, especially with our apartment so close – so I’ll head towards some cultural landmark likely to be spared instead. Family: try not to freak out.
This week was the 43rd anniversary of the Catholic parish here, that like everything else is just a short walk from us in the neighborhood – and they had special festivals to celebrate. They sent the Pope’s ambassador (the Vatican has the only embassy in Taiwan) to say mass. Then we were all invited to kiss the relic of the parish patron, St. John Bosco, given that is was his feast day (an intentional coincidence). I’m new to kissing relics – they don’t usually make an appearance in the US, at least in the places I frequent. Afterward. there was a delicious 10 course luncheon at a nearby wedding hall that cost $11 for tickets. Wine (from Ontario!) flowed freely and there was entertainment MC’d by the church ladies. Members of the parish young and old sang, danced and played instruments. Also, there was a sanctioned competitive drinking game between tables, and a game in which people had to trade all their clothes with someone else on stage, “excepting the underwear” behind a blanket the church ladies held up. I know. Cynthia is always amazed at how Catholics party, her other primary non-mass experience being “Oktoberfest” at St. John the Baptist in Folsom. Also on her mind – “How come everything is St. John with you people?”
I caught a stomach bug this week and had a leave a group dinner I’d set up for my team at Taipei 101 before we even ordered any food. I was sick the whole night, and stayed home the next day to recover. I suspected food poisoning, but had only eaten yogurt, some homemade ramen, and chips and salsa that day – no obvious suspects. Two nights later, Cynthia’s showing the same symptoms , which I will spare you the details of; I guess we won’t be bike riding with friends from work today – it’s soup, Sprite, and crackers for a while.
I’m going to try to post more pictures of food – I got feedback when I was back in the US for Christmas that people really enjoyed seeing those pictures in particular. We’ve been sticking to a working set of some old haunts recently, but we’ll branch out to explore some new joints again once normal digestion returns which should yield some new shots.
I emptied a huge backlog on the camera here, including Shanghai and hiking pics
We ate at an awesome place near our house this weekend: “Stone BBQ”. There’s a big hole in the table that they fill with coals, then cover with a marble slab. Then, you char all you can eat meat, seafood and vegetables, and eat it. They also have all you can drink beer. All of this costs less than $20 a person.
All the restaurants and shops play Christmas music in the background, which seems completely out of place but has me “in the spirit”. I can’t wait to get back to the US next week, unwind and see the fam.
Details on our backpacking epic are coming (from Cynthia), but I have something to amazing to share:
Bacon cheeseburger for Cynthia, “Spicy Mexican” burger for me and wings to share. I had yet to have anything better than a McDonald’s burger here (Outback: not good), but the bun, cheese, dill pickles and medium-rare non-frozen ground beef all added up to something more than “pretty good for Taiwan”. Instead it was just fantastic without any location modifier . Everything tasted as good as it looked.
The best part is this is all from literally a hole in the wall joint less than 2 blocks from our apartment. We stumbled upon it walking back from the bike shop a couple days ago, but we didn’t have time to try it out until today. They call it “Bravo Burger”. We’ll be back there often.
Usually a long weekend in the great outdoors, roughing it under the big blue yonder can return the previously forgotten joy of small comforts…like pillows or hot water… but that’s another post. Lately I’ve turned into, well…my own preschool teacher, I guess. Who dances a jig when I dial the phone and order 4 bottles of water to be delivered on Monday? Yay! You did it! Who sings a victory song when the water actually comes on Monday? High five, Super job! Who claps their hands in delight when I know it’s the water guy because he said it? Awesome! You’re doing great! I get so excited when I ask the shopkeeper what particular variety of fruit this is, and I can understand their answer! Or when I finally understand the telephone number that the radio DJ repeats 10 times per hour! Yes, I’m a full grown adult with the proficiency of a 4 year old. Only their language skills are better. 再見, 我們愛你們! See! I’m doing a happy dance right now!
