Thailand has always had the reputation of being a tourist haven - and maintains that with its vast domain of cities, islands and beachtowns. Perhaps no other country in Southeast Asia boasts as diverse a bounty as Thailand - and my friends and I were willing to indulge.
My time in Thailand was long and adventurous and although I wasn't in the major city/hub of Bangkok for more than 45 minutes, Thailand was a place I found a depth of experience through.
We hopped a short flight from Penang to Phuket - a large and popular tourism island off the western coast of the country. The flight was only an hour or so and I sat next to a very interesting and tan south African man who had spent his last 6 months on his 43-foot boat just sailing. He was an older gentlemen and had a great wisdom about enjoying life. Unfortunately, he was docked on the other side of the island.
Well, his side must be beautiful since Phuket is so boasted about and considering how scummy I found our arrangements. Our town - despite having a good hostel - was filled with skeezy bars, skeezy massage parlors and skeezy vendors selling their skeezy supplies. If you haven't caught the drift yet - I didn't love Phuket.
The skeez is shown below ( a cute puppy carried around in a basket of cigarettes)
But it had a nice beach and we some beers out there and thank god only spent the night.
The next day we shipped out to Koh Phi Phi, a more secluded and smaller island. There we stayed at Viking Resort - a string of bungalow type housing right off the beach that forced one to do a bit of a treacherous climb to reach each housing unit. No matter - well worth it. Phi Phi was one of the my favorite places I have ever been - if only for the seclusion, the beauty, the cheap price of anything in town, and the stellar day-long boat trip we took to several other islands and beaches near it.
This included a few of the filming location of the 90s movie The Beach (starring Leonardo DiCaprio) and that place - Can Bay and Maya Beach on Phi Phi were stunningly beautiful. Ripped right out of a photography reel of place's of absolute perfection.
We did a bit of snorkeling too and my friend and I explored the cavernous underside of a large rock (barnacle-heavy, yikes!) and we just spent the day under the sun in perfect comfort. Outstanding.
We spent a few days on Phi Phi - celebrated our friend Chris' birthday and just relaxed and enjoyed the calm and the weather. And after those days, my friend Mo and I left the island and our friends to get back to Phuket to fly to Koh Samui (the other side of Thailand, now) to take another boat to Koh Phangnan and spent some time on this new island.
We met up with some Korean friends (Zoe and Joanna) and their vacationing friends from Madison - and it was this group I'd spend the rest of my vacation with.
They were thoughtful enough to arrange for their car to be waiting at the airport for us and to get a boat to get us to Phangnan and before I knew it we were there - another tropical paradise in the middle of the ocean sprawl.
And so we spent 3 days/2 nights on Phangnon, at another beachside resort (i think we each paid 6 dollars a night for our room). We spent the better part of our time just lounging around the beach here - eating some good grub made by the locals at the hotel and laying on hammocks. More relaxation - more bliss.
And on the second night we occasioned over to the famous Half Moon Party - a gathering of a few thousand island goers and live music and many, many bars and good feelings all around. We danced and enjoyed the night away and made it back safe (although a bird was almost sacrificed in the process.....)
We left Phangnon the third day having barely emptied our pockets - said goodbye to our quasi-spiritual/life guide Alec and made way toward the mainland. This would be the end of my streak of islands and beaches (don't worry - I'll be back there soon enough).
Our next stop was Siem Reap in Cambodia - but it was certainly anything but simple to get there.
Broken down: we took a ferry from Koh Phangnon to the mainland. From there we took a bus to the train station. We took an overnight train into Bangkok (my 45 minutes there), hired a private van to take us to the border, got dropped off at the border and went through customs and walked the mile or so onto the Cambodian side, bargained with taxi drivers but ultimately found some government workers who took us on a city-type bus to their offices and from there we hired a different private van to take us into Siem Reap. It was at least a day of travel but that's what happens when you spend time on a more secluded island and want to get back into civilization.
For us, though, that civilization revolved around the remnants of one of the largest fallen civilization centers - Angkor Village - harking back as far as the 11th century.
And you'll get the Cambodian rundown soon enough!
And I'll through some pictures up but they won't do perfect justice - nothing would, Thailand's islands were beyond belief - sort of an existing dream place where I woke up everyday to sunshine and the ocean calmly crashing in and receding. There must have been a dozen moments a day where I wondered if I would ever leave these paradises - if it was even worth it, if it was even real, if I really had been given such a great gift as to see it and be there. But, alas, vacations are meant to draw the awe out of places you may have left idle for a while.
And one more note: Mubarak steps down - we'll see if Egypt can stay strong and withstand some chaos - but certainly it is a victory for the rights of free people everywhere. It shows a seemingly sometimes indifferent world that collective action and principles can drive vehicles toward better natures.
-e.g.
one last thing - my friend Quinn, a much more skilled photographer than I, has put up his first sets of pictures on his Picasa - so here's a link to see them.......
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