We are now on an island that I do not wish to name for fear that too many travellers will come here. It's really nice, really Communist, and really Thai. We scoot around on a little 110cc motorscooter and enjoy all the Thais saying "hello" as the traveller here is still a novelty. Longer weblog to follow when technology allows.
Note to viewers: please read the last log entry (Ko Tarutao) before this one, as this is a continuation and may not make sense... not that the last one did.
In our last adventure, Kacey and I were quickly learning what to do and what not to do in Thailand thanks to our ever gracious Thai hosts. A review of our lessons include 1) Don't trust anyone, 2) Get there first, and 3) Beware the scam. So, I will continue.
Waking at 7:00 in the morning on Tarutao to get our showers wasn't that hard. We were informed the night before that the water is only on from 6-8am, but besides that, we never really got to sleep in the first place on account of our 3cm thick matresses. When the shower did happen, though, it was more a curse than a pleasure. You see, our shower didn't work. Or, it did if you happened to be a gnat as I am sure the trickle we felt would have felt like Niagra Falls to it. Instead we were given the pleasure of using a nifty little hand-spray situated beside the toilet (looks much like one of those dishwasher things) for our showers. This was not the intended purpose of such an item, but dire times call for drastic measures, I guess.
Breakfast, like the dinner before, was bad. After it, we packed our bags, bought a ticket for a ferry and waited. The ticket to Ko Lipe cost 250 baht, ,but we had to pay an extra 30 baht to take a truck about 15km to the other side of the island to catch the ferry. While waiting for the truck to take to the dock to catch the ferry to get off the island, we met Terrence. Terrence was, as his name suggests, older than us - as nobody nowadays would name their child Terrence (an apology to all current and future Terrences out there). He was 55 years old and a professional diver who had just spent 2 years on another island. He hated Ko Tarutao more than us if that was indeed possible. Nevertheless, in all his wisdom, he was the first on the truck when it finally pulled up. Quickly, Kacey and I followed. The truck trip took about 15 minutes and the side of the island where the dock was looked spectacular and we wondered why accomodation wasn't built here. Onto the ferry, which only took 1 hour to travel the 60 km crossing, we continued to chat with Terrence. With Ko Lipe fast approaching we feared the worst.
Ko Lipe came into sight and the ferry stopped in a beautiful bay, with turquoise water and coral reefs. Wow! In the distance we heard longtail boats approaching, and Kacey, with a small grin just shook her head. "We're catching on to you" she must have thought. Onto the taxi-boats. Over the coral. Approaching the white sand. When will he stop the boat? Over more coral. A voice: "30 baht to get to shore". Oh, no. Still, the motor hummed and we passed more coral, over more water and closer to shore. Hmmmm. The boat touched the beach and the bow pushed a good 5 feet onto solid land. Hmmmm. A few passengers were reaching for their wallets. Hmmmm. Kacey and I, watching Terrence, reached for our bags. Jumping off the boat and quick-casually walking up the beach was exhilirating. "Learn much you have", said Yoda in my mind, referring to the Thai lessons. I grinned. Kacey smirked. My grin turned to smirk as I didn't want to call too much attention to myself.
We found ourselves a nice beach hut and settled in. This island looked great, awesome beach, no waves, lots of coral. We spent the remaining part of the day relaxing, did some snorkelling (from which we had to return due to too many jellyfish), saw tons of fish... clown fish, deep blue starfish, parrot fish, hundreds of tiny yellow, green and red fish and on and on. But as we got deeper, the jelly fish became more, and we headed back. Dinner was great, as it included Coca-Cola in glass bottles, the Dom Perignom (sp?) of Colas in my opinion. Yeah, life was finally good again.
The next day I went exploring the island with Terrence, he looking for a dive shop and me ever searching for Coke, while Kacey looked for shells on the beach. We passed the Jumping Monkey Bar, a sort of lean-to, grass hut constucted, bar on the beach, which to my amazement actually had a monkey who jumped around, not just a clever name. Onwards, we found that nearly 1/4 of the island, which was perhaps 3km in length, had a village of sea gypsies. It was a community of squatters who had built huts, small shops and a school on a island supposedly protected within a National Park. But, they sold toilet paper cheap, so I was glad they were there. Terrence found his dive shop, eventually chatted with the owner and ended up with a job for a week or two. I found my tan. Kacey found some shells. Good day, indeed.
Day 3 on Ko Lipe was much like Day 2. Kacey vistited the gypsies, I drank a Coke. We sat in the sun and tried to snorkel again, but this time we were getting stung by tiny jellyfish only knee and waist deep, so we sat on the beach a bit longer. We met up with Terrence, who with his wetsuit went snorkelling and saw a jellyfish that was at least 1.5m in diameter... biggest one he had ever seen. We got a ferry ticket back to Pak Bara after much bargaining and confusion (I still feel we were ripped off a bit). Back at the hut we started to repack our bags when Kacey found out that a mouse had been through her bag. Up until then we had stored our bags on the floor, with the zippers undone. In the middle of the night a mouse decided Kacey bag was agood place to hide. It ate holes in two pairs of her underwear and left Kacey some "presents" that caused us to empty and clean out her bag. This really wasn't a Thai lesson, so it won't be listed as one, more of a common sense one. Perhaps it was a good thing we had left our bags undone as the mouse may have decided it best to chew a hole in the bag to get in instead. Oh, well. From now on the bags stayed on the bed, zipped up, under the mosquito netting.
On Day 4 we prepared to leave. We knew full-well that we wouldn't be able to escape the 30-baht longboat trip, so we factored that in our travel budget anyway. But, our 30-baht longtail boat trip ended up being well worth it, as the boat took a 15 minute trip around the island (between Ko Lipe and another one)to where our ferry waited. It took about 3.5 hours to reach Pak Bara as this ferry was nowhere near as quick as the other one and it was pretty windy so waves crashed all around the boat for the majority of the trip. At one point we needed to pick up another passenger from another boat. Pulling up alongside the Thaitanic (real name), a "Fishmeal Factory Ship", we collected our passenger who had climbed down the ship's rusted ladder. I am quite certain that this ship never was, nor ever will be, billed as unsinkable. We continued on. Getting to shore we were quickly hassled by the local "touts" for trips to Krabi that were, a 350-baht, a "good deal, good deal for a friend". Instead we found our own route: 20 baht for a tuk-tuk (truck with bench seating) to town to catch a 40 baht local bus to Trang (1 hour), where we found another tuk-tuk that was tiny and backfiring, Kacey called it a put-put, for 15 baht to the bus station, where we jumped on an air-conditioned "VIP" bus for 90 baht (2 hours) to Krabi. Total trip 4.5 hours, total coast 165 baht each. Compared to the 350 baht each we were offered I think we did well.
Krabi was more of a stop to get back to some technology and write up some long-winded weblogs. In about an hour we are off to Ko Yao. Another National Park with, hopefully, not as many hitches. We're become well learned in the art of Thai.
Talk to you soon,
Graham
Back to the computer age.
A whole lot can happen in just a matter of days. We now find ourselves in the tourist-driven marketplace of Krabi. What a single Leonardo DiCaprio film can do to one town's marketability is amazing (see: "The Beach", c. 1997). Albeit the scenery around here is breathtaking, not much can be said about the "purity", for lack of a better word, of the surroundings. Every other shop is trying to sell trips to "James Bond Island", Ko Phi Phi, some trip to somewhere, some deal, some motorbike rental and on and on. So Kacey and I hunted down the only place that didn't seem to be advertised... and we're heading there tomorrow. Off to Ko Yao, into the great (relatively) unknown!
That covers the present, now onto the past. Our trip from Penang to Hat Yai - one of the near border towns in Thailand was uneventful, except for our bus driver taking our passports (and a single ringit) and getting us through customs without ever seeing a border officer. We needed some Thai currency in Hat Yai, so we headed to the nearest bank and walked calmly to the well-dressed clerk in charge of currency exchange. I handed him $160 US and he promptly counted and exchanged for me $140 US dollars worth of baht. Thai Lesson #1: don't trust anyone.
From Hat Yai to Pak Bara in a minibus, seating 15 we were numbers 14 and 15 respectively and, as such, were shown the good graces of the back seat. Of course, the a/c was situated towards the front so were sweated profusely for an hour and a half. Thai Lesson #2: get there first.
Upon arrival in Pak Bara we get informed that the boat is leaving for Ko Tarutao right then so we are hussled to the ticket counter, semi-conned into buying a return ticket. Meanwhile, Kacey watches over my bag as one of the customers quickly runs his hand around it from behind the seat back of his bench (locks secured, no problem... guy can't look Kacey in the face afterwards). Refer to Lessons #1 and #2. We're getting good at this.
Boat to Ko Tarutao goes by without a hitch. But (all stories need "but's"), from the ferry now parked in a harbour off the island we are piled into a longtail boat, sort of a people mover. Fine, it seems, off to the island. Longtail boat moves away from the boat. Longtail boat stops, engine is turned off 50 meters from shore. Driver asks for 20 baht each to get to the island. Lesson #3: beware the scams.
We get to Ko Tarutao, a National Park, and are informed of a 200 baht enrty fe for non-Thais. Alright, no worries, we knew of that, at least, before getting there. After that we wait in a line to get accomodation. It turns out all of the Kacey-and-Graham-budget-places are full. The only accomodation is a bungalow, renting for 1000 baht a night. Please, refer to all three lessons. Lucky enough, the bungalow has two rooms and we find a Swedish couple to share. The damage is only 500 and not 1000 baht. The people at the counter expect us to be relieved. We're not. So, off to the bungalow. We settle in, it smells funny, the matresses are about 3 cm thick, the shower doesn't work. This bungalow was billed as "luxury", too. These lessons are quickly being reinforced. Had a quick swim, water was as warm as a bath and the sand was as soft as fresh snow... the day wasn't all bad. Then, time for dinner: 1) One restaurant, 2)tickets needed to be purchased, 3) long time to get food. 1+2+3, together with everything else = us asking when the first boat off is.
Can't get worse than this, can it? Since this weblog has gotten too long I'll post this one as "Ko Tarutao". Stay tuned for "Ko Lipe and Beyond" when Kacey and Graham set out against the evils of the world and try to overcome their feelings of "Why did we want to come to Thailand?!?", "I need coffee" and "Where's the Coca-Cola?". Along the way they meet up with Terrence, the 55-year old, British pro-diver, The Jumping Monkey Bar and a village of Sea Gypsies... Friends or Foes?
Kacey and I are in Penang today after the bus ride of hell. I didn't mind the 1.5 hour 60km descent from the Cameron Highlands apart from the driver and his tag-along passenger smoking every five minutes. Nor did I mind the two chickens and some other bird we hit, nor the fact that I thought the bus was going to break in two around every corner. Aside from that, the entire trip took 6 hours and some of the highlights included a stop in Tapah at a grimy bus stop where I saw a mouse the size of a rat being chased by a rat the size of a cat. Yes, good times indeed.
We found a place in Penang called the SD Motel in the heart of Chinatown (narrow streets, loads of vendors, lots of stuff going on). The motel is more of a hostel, and is very tidy with spacious rooms and cheap. We could have splurged and spent another $1.50 Cdn to get a/c but decided against it in favor of sweating. Actually, the fan's o.k. as it lets air cool you the entire night as opposed to just being cold with the a/c.
Tomorrow it's off to Thailand. We take an 8:30 minibus (said to have 10 seats and a/c, but we'll see) to Hat Yai. From there we'll take a taxi to Satun, before hopping on a truck with bench seating in the back to Pak Bara where we will hopefully board a boat for Ko Turatao. Hopefully. That's alot of things to go our way... the boat leaves at 3pm, if we miss it we'll stay a night in Satun. If we make it, I don't know if we'll get internet for a few days, so will write when I can.
Still in the Cameron Highlands... leaving tomorrow for Penang. Had a great time yesterday as we went on a jungle walk. It was relatively cool, so my sweating was kept to a minimum. Plus, we finally saw a snake in the wild! About 2-3 feet long, lime green with a triangle-like head. We found out today it's called a whip snake, but I'm going to call it a python to spice up the story a bit.
Last night we had a "steamboat" dinner at a Chinese restaurant and had far, far too much to eat. The steamboat is a boiling fondu-type soup (with a spicy half and a chicken soup half), we were given a load of veggies and a bunch of different kinds of meat. Off the top of my head: beef, chicken, fish, oysters, cuttle fish (squid) and jelly-fish (which Kacey didn't try, but I thought tasted like thin, waterlogged rubber). The veggies included bok choi, celery, spinach looking stuff and so on. Also included we two types of noodles, tofu, fish dumplings and a pair of eggs. Too much food, but very, very good.
Went on a country side tour today to the local strawberry farm, bee farm, a tea plantation and factory, a butterfly farm and a buddhist temple. All could take a paragraph to describe so I'll just say they were all great and you can imagine the details for yourselves.
Tonight we had another great Indian meal served on a banana leaf. Lime chutney with honey and pepper chicken, rice, spicy peppers, green beans and a tasty curry, worked out to about $3.00 Cdn. There's something about the food here and it might have something to do with the population. 60% Indian, 30% Chinese and only 10% Malay... interesting mixture.
On to Penang!
After enduring the noise, pollution and craziness of Kuala Lumpur, Graham and I are very relieved to find ourselves amongst the quiet refuge of the mountains, trees and tea plantations of the Cameron Highlands. Our hostel is located in the little village of Tanah Rata, a small - one strip - village with 53 shops and food vendors. However beautiful, though, the trip up here was horrendous - okay maybe just for me - but I will definately risk taking gravol again as the last two hours of our four hour bus ride from KL consisted of sharp twists and sharp turns, the whole time! Uggh. Oh well, all part of the adventure, I guess.
Once my stomach settled Graham and I headed into town, and enjoyed an incredible meal at an Indian style vendor/restaurant. Tandoori chicken with Naan and sauce, and some onion and cucumber. The chicken, a large thigh, and Naan - a flatbread - are roasted in a huge clay pot right in front of you and served with a lime/mint sauce and a curry/corn/potatoe sauce. It was sooo good! All for just "Rm 7" or , about $3 canadian. Don't worry moms, we won't run out of money. We'll talk more about Tanah Rata later.
Oh, and when I find a phone I will call home.
Kacey
Well, made it here last night and ended up in town around midnight... had to check into a hotel (98 RM = 40 CDN) last night, but we are now in a hostel on the outskirts of chinatown (40RM = 17 CDN)... it is already cheaper than Australia but we figure that KL (what the loclas call this place) is the most expensive place to stay in the area. Hopefully, the accomodation up North dips down to about 30 RM per night/per room or cheaper. Thailand will end up being 6-8 CDN for a room according top travellers we met in Australia, so it just keeps getting better.
The unfortunate thing here is is that the cars and motorcycles tend to put out a lot of exhaust. Kacey felt a bit of pain in her lungs, but nothing to get worried about. Today was approx 35C and the humidity was pretty high. The temperature and humidity along with the pollution make it a bit uncomfotable here. I guess we will take our lumps as they come.
Tomorrow is some sort of holiday here so we plan on staying and checking out the activities. We plan to head to the Cameron highlands (SE of Ipoh) the next day for some mountain sight seeing at 1500m above the sea. http://www.pahang.gov.my/tourism/cameron/main.htm
Updates to follow.
Go Canucks!
3 dives today... simply amazing. 1.5 hour trip out to the reef in a fast catamaran, 5 hours on the reef and a return trip (with lunch included). I would recommend this to anyone, I had such a blast today. I scuba-ed, Kacey snorkelled and I couldn't imagine a better place to dive.
The reef was simply amazing. I rented an underwater camera and took nearly 60 pictures and I can't wait to develop them. The water was 29C, very little current and the clarity was so good I could almost see Vancouver. I will try to get these pictures developed and "digitized" to post somewhere on this site, somehow.
I saw a few white-tipped reef sharks, a massive manta ray, plenty of fish (big, small and inbetween) and huge amounts of coral and other various marine life.
We leave for Brisbane tomorrow, then Sydney and back into Kuala Lumpur the next day and I wish I had a few more days here... I will definately come back to Cairns.
Just getting ready to leave Magnetic Island (pop. 2800) for Cairns. I hate busses now and am going to be on one for 5.5 hours. I guess as long as the a/c works I'll be fine. Not much here, but it was fun nonetheless. Wasn't able to go fishing because the charter was all booked up, so maybe in Thailand. Tomorrow we go for a day trip out of Cairns to the outer Great Barrier Reef... I'll scuba, Kacey will snorkel... updates to follow.
Cyclone Beni disappeared before landfall so all we have left is a few clouds. The water here is likely 28C. Went for a swim yesterday and thought it would be refreshingl cool. No. It was like walking into a bathtub. But, I can think of worse places to be.
Later,
Graham.
Just got back from our 3day/2night sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands, just off the coast of Airlie Beach. What a fun trip! Firstly, we boarded "The Reality" to the jeers and insults of a pseudo-pirate named Johnny (he was the captain). We (42 of us) sailed north and went snorkelling off of an island... visibility was good and we saw a few fish. We picked up anchor and continued along the coast to "Club Crocodile," a 4.5 star resort with in-pool bar, tennis courts, a night club, heli-pad and so on. This is where we stayed for two nights between cruises rather than cramped on board the boat.
The next day we intended to make it to Whitehaven Beach on the Eastern part of the island chain, but never did. An approaching Cyclone changed those plans. We sailed (actually, motored) through rough seas with big swells and almost half the boat became sick (but not Kacey or myself). Later, we docked at a 5-star resort for a few hours on Hamilton Island. Again, good times. Once we left the seas calmed down and we made it back to Club Croc without many problems.
Today I woke up at 7am to do some Scuba diving in the bay of the club with a few others from the boat, but the encroaching cyclone made the water pretty murky. Too bad... I did manage to see a big turtle and throw a sea cucumber at one of the people diving. Kacey stayed ashore, then went inner-tube riding behind one of the club's boats for 15 or so minutes. Trip back to Airle went fine - Johnny the renegade skipper and the crew entertained us the whole time. We found out upon docking that all the trips out scheduled for the next few days have been cancelled and the boats that left today for 3 days/2 nights were on the way back. A cyclone is scheduled to hit us later tonight or tomorrow morning... by then we should be on the Greyhound bound for Magnetic Island (near Townsville) for two-night. We going to try to go for a fishing day-trip depending on the weather and so on.
Arr mateys,
Waiting on a cyclone,
Graham.