It's been a while since the last weblog, so here's what has been going on:
Yesterday we went to the Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race in the world. What an experience! It's pretty hard to describe, but think of a rodeo, add glamour and a lot of money, subtract cowboy boots and switch hats from men to women. That about does it. Everyone is dressed up, men mostly in suits and women in dresses, many of them in hats and some of the women in hats that are too hard to explain. Think of Mr. Dressup's Tinkle Trunk, subtract the puppets, add a few hundred dollars of "flash". Yeah, that's the ticket. Anyways, I got some good pictures of horses running by the fence, a few of the people and some of the grounds. The entire event last night had a total of $16 million US as prize money for the horses, with the final race having a $6 million US price tag. Easily the richest horse race ever run. The horse that did win had about a 2 or 3 length lead with 400m to go (where I was standing), and ended up winning by about 5 lengths or so. Amazing time.
Prior to yesterday's excitement, we went camping on the weekend (which for the Arabs is Thursday and Friday) to the mountains in Oman. The weekend before we had been rained on and sandstormed out, we were hoping for better but it didn't get off to a good start. On the trip out sand was blowing fiercely across the highway like snow in a blizzard on the prairies. It rained intermittently and we had thoughts of turning around. We entered the mountains in rain and were surprised by the amount of Arabs in cars heading out on the gravel road. We followed and were surprised by what we saw: a waterfall! I guess only a few times a year it rains heavily enough in the mountains to produce waterfalls, but this wasn't just any waterfall, it was huge (more in height than in width). The locals in their white robes were climbing it and others had gathered around to watch it. Quite the spectacle. And we continued on. Further down the road, after the rain had stopped, we saw places where similar waterfalls had been earlier in the day, but by now they had dried up... we must have been lucky to see the one we did. Through the mountains we continued, up and up.
On our way up the mountain, near the summit, we met Sayeed, the Afghani goat herder. Actually, more or less I met him, Richard already knew him and gave him some food. Kacey and Nadine stayed in the cars as to not upset the delicate Muslim balance of hiding women from other men. It worked, although I was wearing shorts and Sayeed looked at my knees rather oddly. Down the mountain we went and eventually set up camp. It stopped raining, we had a good dinner and Richard's friend from work, met us out there for the evening. It was gusty throughout the evening, but the skies were clear and the temperature stayed at about 20 C.
In the morning we headed out and went through a canyon with huge vertical rock walls. Another equation to describe the area: Take one part Rocky Mountains with one part Grand Canyon and mix well, take away all vegetation and subtract any water (flowing or still), add in sporadic thin trees and a few rain water puddles, subtract all wildlife and replace with goats. That's about it. But, it's not as dull as you may imagine, the mountains were huge and the valleys were amazing... it was more a moonscape or a scene from Mars than anything from back home.
We continued on, drove for a while and got, eventually, to the Indian Ocean where we settled into a resort-like motel for the day and snorkelled for a good part of the day. Lots of people and, surprisingly, lots of fish, some of which we didn't see in any other place thus far. Kacey saw a reef shark speed by while I was looking down. It was only about a meter long, but when they go by so close and so fast they look bigger. I assume she heard the "Jaws" theme the rest of the day. We had lunch, went home, arrived at about 6 or 7pm and we were sleeping by 9:30pm.
Yesterday Kacey and I had the fortunate opportunity to enjoy the best waterslides the human mind has ever conjured. Beneath the shadow of the wonderful hotel Burj al Arab, Wild Wadi Waterpark spread its 12 acres across the desert. The thing with the waterpark is, you don't really need to walk much. Most waterparks have stairs leading up to their slides, but not in Dubai.
I saw a TV program before we left about the waterpark's "upward jet" slides where you sit in a tube and get lifted onto the slide. I figured this was just a single ride, fortunately I was wrong. Even better, the jets move you uphill faster than you can go downhill. I wasn't at first expecting such acceleration and nearly flipped off the tube. Every waterslide uses a series of these lifts up to pool areas where lifeguards guide your tube to the slide you wish to take. Usually, there is a choice of routes, between 2 and 4 different slides, you can take. Sometimes you go down the slide on your tube, other times the water jets can take you further - on to more choices. One slide inparticular could possibly be the best slide ever: you enter the slide on your tube and enter complete darkness (so dark that closing your eyes can't make it any darker), it twists and turns, begins to twist one way and switches directions, drops unexpectedly and echoes the terrifying screams of Kacey speeding off into the unknown quite loudly. Unlike most "dark" slides where you can make out the turns in advance through imperfections in the slide, this slide was completely built into a building to keep the light out.
When you get to the bottom of the slides they all merge into a river of sorts that circles the park very leisurely until you get to another set of upwards jets, or a ladder if you wish to exit. Our first ride lasted about 40 minutes before we had to touch firm ground. When we did, we could head to any number of food stands and use our magnetic wristbands to pay for things. We could get back onto the slides. Or, we could head to a ride that made a huge oval where one end would produce a big wave every minutes or so to push you around, under falling water and through the Arabian Nights-themed park. That loop would take about 3 or 4 minutes and is as relaxing as anything I know. Or, as we did a few times, we could actually use our legs to climb a huge tower to the "Jumeriah Sceirah", a free-fall slide where the attendants say you can reach speeds upwards of 80 km/h. I felt I only made it up to 74 km/h, so I think I'll have to go back to try again. There was also a huge wavepool in the middle of the park and lounge chairs scattered throughout the park. We stayed for about 5 hours and likely only walked for about about 30 minutes. Next week we plan to go again.
Hello from the Mid-East. This city is really nice... clean and calm. There doesn't appear to be any ill-will towards any foreigners here as the majority of the population are foreigners. Also, this place has lots and lots of money, everything seems to be in its right place. On our flight in the plane had two cameras in its nose that faced forward and straight down. It gave a really interesting view of takeoff and landing, as well as showing the perfectly aligned roads, buildings and bridges illuminated by Dubai's city lights. It was quite impressive.
We had to wait for about an hour an a half to clear passport inspections which isn't the funnest at 1 am, and made even less fun by those in line in front of us who "forgot" their passports.
We slept in, then packed up for camping in the desert. On the way to the desert we passed a semi-oasis filled with flamingoes and camel racing grounds. It took about an hour and a half to reach the campsite... we passed a few camels, some ferral donkeys and lots of sand dunes. Once we settles into our spot the wind didn't... it blew fairly strongly but still allowed us to easily set up tents and get a fire started. As the sun went down, a herd of about a dozen camels chose to visit a dune right beside us but it was a little too late and dark for pictures. The evening went well, the wind calmed down and there were a few thunderstorms in the distance. Shortly after we finished eating it rained for about 5 minutes, then became dry soon thereafter. A small journey onto the dunes at night revealed many beatles and a scorpion which Kacey wouldn't lift up even though I politely asked her to numerous times. She said, "that isn't safe... animals don't like me... remember the elephant". I was puzzled. All I remember is the Alamo.
Later into the evening the weather seemed to get worse, sort of like the wolf trying to huff-and-puff the pigs' house down. In waves wind would kick up sand and rain would fall for short periods of time. It awoke us about two times before it seemed to settle for good. At about 3:30 am, all of a sudden the rain began to fall and wind kicked up ferociously. Our tent was lifted on its edge and the stakes that held it up were bent in the middle. We felt it best to pack up and head home. About 5:30 am, we made it home before the morning prayer and slept till nearly noon. A successful trip, indeed.
We've since slept in again and are enjoying having a home after 3 months of bed-bugs, noodles, rice and rough toilet paper.
Tomorrow we hope the weather is nice enough to visit the Wild Wadi Waterpark. Nadine and Richard are trying to convince us it never rains in Dubai, but I guess the Vancouverites have brought the curse, 2 out of 3 days have rained. Nadine has lived here 3 years and only remembers 1 day of rain. I think Vancouver is more homesick in our absence than we are.
Our last day in Thailand is also the hottest. At 11:30 am it was 40C, it's likely 42C or hotter now and the humidity is high. A lot of the Thais say that April is almost entirely this hot from Bangkok to the North (Chiang Mai). If I had to do that trek in this heat, I'd have likely passed out and rolled down a cliff. Rather than that, though, we intend to head to Dubai today, more or less into the fire - there's heat everywhere we go.
On the bright side, Dubai is hidden beneath the behemoth that is Saudi Arabia and further away from Iraq then, say, Israel who was a target of Iraq 12 years ago. To cool things off, we plan on visiting the best waterpark ever, where we don't even need stairs - a simple tube will do, along with jet streams pushing you uphill and an 80km/h speed slide. Also, we plan on going camping and capturing a camel... but, short of that we could also find a place that rents out camel rides. Should be fun, whatever we do. Maybe we'll run into one of those infamous sandstorms and I can croon to Kacey a 1950's tune by Harry Belofante: "Sand gets in your Eyes".
Goodbye scams, hello sands.
Just wanted to point out that the elephant was actually really gentle. Like many animals, he just didn't like someone watching him while he ate. And, I actually didn't think I was that close, but I suppose I lack some expertise in elephant trunk length.
Back from another good adventure - this time in the northern jungles of Thailand, bordering Myanmar (Burma). From Chaing Mai we drove about 1 hour north-east to a town named Pai, from there another 10 minute drive got us to a base-area of sorts where we jumped onto the back of an elephant. We fed "Dumbo" lots of bananas as he led us along a river, mainly on its banks, but a few times through it. I guess the elephant found it funny to spray my feet with mud everytime we crossed the river and I didn't give him a banana. That, or he was hot and needed to cool himself off.
Then, from the hour-long elephant adventure we drove another ten minutes to a waterfall for lunch before our hour-long hike straight up a mountain side in 30+ C heat. That was fun, too, but near the top I wondered how much extra it would have been to rent a car. We stopped about 3/4 up the mountain for a rest and some watermelon that our guide, Mr. Ton and our porter, Buffalo Man, brought along. Another hour or so, still mainly up, we crossed small outpost-like farming huts and dry rice fields awaiting the rains. Eventual we ended up in a Karen village for the night where we dined on curry, potatoes, vegetables and rice. The Karen people are a hill-tribe who inhabit this region and seem not to care for political borders, they follow the rains for rice and maintain pigs, chicken and buffalo for food. This village had about 150 people in about 20 families, the oldest of which had just died at (they say) the tender age of 120.
The second day involved more walking, but the temperature was a little more manageable. We walked for 4 hours stopping for rest about every hour. We came to another Karen village, this one with only 50 residents and a small school needing donations as Unicef can only send so much. We continued on again, mainly up, until we came to a clearing for lunch. This was another farming outpost that had about 6 people tending the crops and preparing lunch for us. We walked some more. And continued to walk. Stopped. Walked. Came to our jungle camp for the night right before a thunderstorm started to soak everything. 2 minutes from the jungle camp was a spectacular waterfall that Kacey and I, along with two other Vancouverites used for a shower while lightning cracked above us and marble-sized raindrops fell everywhere. Mr. Ton and Buffalo Man entertained us in the evening around a camp fire.
I don't want to say that the last day was the best, but we only walked downhill, only walked for two hours and finished the day heading down the river on bamboo rafts. The scenery was great, although a little brown due to it being the dry season and all. The weather was again cooler for our walk, but heated up in time for the rafting. We had a great raft guide who only hit maybe three solid rock walls... others on the trip had their rafts break apart. We stopped the raft where the elephants dropped us off the first day. Kacey went to try and give an elephant some water while it was eating, which ended up not being a good idea. The closer she got the more the elephant turned its head towards her, until finally, taking one too many steps towards it, the elephant swung its trunk in her direction and pushed her over. It wasn't really an aggressive swing, just slow and strong enough to tell Kacey and I we were a little too close. And all's well that ends well.
Tonight we catch a bus into Bangkok - the train was full except for non-sleeper seats - so we decided for the bus.
All for now.
We're up north now. Took another night train to get here, but decided to take an a/c one rather than just the fan and it worked out well. The open windowed train from Surat Thani lost it's novelty after 5 minutes, and while the a/c train was a little more expensive (equivalent of less than $2 CDN) it was well worth it. The trip took 14 hours and was a little too long for our liking.
Chiang Mai is located about 950 km north of Bangkok and we have booked a trek for tomorrow morning that goes for 3 days and 2 nights. Hopefully all goes well there. Included in the trip are two guides who cook all our meals, one speaks English, the other same native tongue of a few of the hill tribes we will encounter. We also get to go elephant riding for a few hours as well as bamboo rafting. It should be fun.
We'll be away from the computers for a while, so updates will follow our return from the Northern jungles of Thailand.
Too-ta-loo,
Graham.
P.S. The tickets for Dubai have been picked up.
After surviving a 12-hour train trip through the night to get here yesterday. we've finally caught up on the sleep. I've found out that it's pretty tough to sleep on a train when your bed is only 5 feet long and about 2 feet wide. But, we arrived here in one piece and got a taxi to our hotel without the need to argue too much. One guy offered us a ride for 150 baht, which we quickly declined, in favour of a metered taxi for 45 baht. Us 1, Bangkok 0.
From our hotel we decided to take a tuk-tuk (three-wheled taxi) around town and we figured the best way to do that for cheap, was to find one who would take us as if to scam us. So one guy offered to take us around to to find "deals" at some of his favourite shops. Around we went. We first stopped at a gem shop, where surprisingly, they had a promotion on. Imagine how lucky we felt! Nice things if you like costume jewellry. Then it was onto the silk shop, which actually had nice stuff and at relatively good prices. I assume this was due to their current promotion as well. Next to the Lucky Buddhist temple, which was in fact, a temple and a shrine with real worshippers. Except one. He happened to know about an exclusive place to buy cheap gems and jewellry. They were in the middle of a sale (call it a promotion, if you will) for people who weren't dealers. No tax. No export duty. Only 7 days a year are like this. Lucky Buddha, indeed! So lucky were we to chance upon this worshipper who seemed to know far more about gems then about Buddha. Even luckier were we when we got back to the tuk-tuk to find our driver knew of this place as well, how to get there, and who to ask for at the door. Again, mostly costume jewellry, but some really nice blue sapphires, which looked far better under lights and glass, surrounded by felt, so we left them there. Our tour ended with the tuk-tuk driver giving us first-hand experience of what it's like to sit in a Bangkok traffic jam for 15 minutes whilst sucking back diesel fumes. Good times, indeed. I guess you really get what you pay for as the trip ended up costing nothing... but a headache. Us 1, Bangkok 1.
Onto the mall. And what a mall! 7 floors, maybe 8. Hundreds of stores, likely approaching a thousand. This place gives West Edmonton Mall a run for its money. A floor for shoes, a floor for bags, one for food and miscellany, another for technology and gadgets, one for t-shirts, jeans and designer bags, another for household, Ikea-like things, cell phone accesories and more gadgets, the top floor had a movie theatre, bowling alley, computer game places, glass enclosed kareoke booths, restaurants and on and on.
Across the way there's another movie theatre with a regualr part, then a special part with Super VIP treatment. Lounges attached to the main theatre with big leather reclining lazyboys seated two together, heat-in-the-seat and massage controls, unlimited popcorn and drinks, complimentary socks, a blanket... haven't gone to see a movie there yet but, fully intend to.
We ended up in the mall yeaterday due to the heat and the previous night no-sleep-on-train experience. Today we were hoping to walk around, but it's been raining pretty steadily. Tomorrow night we take a train to Chiang-Mai, so we have another day and a half here.
The adventure continues,
Graham
Looks like our journey will continue today. After 5 great days on the beaches of this island, we're off to the overcrowded streets of Bangkok. Perhaps I'll purchase some shirts there, maybe some shoes, who knows? The weather there for the last few days has been in the mid-30s - pretty much like here, except no beaches to de-sweat on. The snorkelling around our place was good, not nearly as good as Ko Lipe, but no jellyfish to speak of here. I had far too much of a good time relaxing to go scuba diving, but I'm not too concerned about it, the deeper water seemed a little murky anyways.
The people here are friendly for the most part, but a lot of them are still trying to take advantage of the the travellers. Really, I can't blame them as the money we pay for things here seems so little, but for them it's quite a lot. We try to keep our business with the people who aren't, or at least to seem to be, trying to take advantage. Hopefully, it helps a little bit - positive reinforcement - for other people who come here and also with some of the not-so-honest Thais.
Took a bunch more pictures here, including a great "Coke Bottle in the Sunset" for Mike, that should win me Best Picture of the Year by the voters of www.michaelwood.com . Today we're jumping on a boat to Surat Thani at noon (30 minutes from now), arriving around 5:00pm, catching a night train (2nd class sleepers with fan) to Bangkok to arrive at 6:05am tomorrow. Hopefully, a) the train isn't too hot, b) we get some sleep, and c) the boat/small bus trip gets us to Surat Thanitrain station on time.
All for now, we will report back from Bangkok.
Graham.
P.S. (For Duane) We got a hold of Ron Livingston yesterday and will meet him during the daytime tomorrow.
Well, I'm feeling better today. Was a little angry yesterday, but am feeling far better today. We've moved to a new place on the island and now are really enjoying it. Our hut is great, right on the white, soft sandy beach, between a couple of palm trees, next to beautiful water, with a hammock and a Western toilet. Paradise, again. It really is incomparable to last nights place except for the fact they are both huts. I should apologize for yesterday's rambling angry weblog.
Regarding KYN:
KYN was absoultely fantastic and we were quite lucky to both get to the island and to meet Denny (the owner of the Nam Tok Bungalows). We got picked up to go to KYN outside of one of the travel agents' offices. The owner of the ferry happened to be in town, so we were able to ride with him in his brand new truck with a/c rather than having to take a bus. The trip from Krabi to his ferry took about 25 minutes and the ferry ride was fun as well as we were the only tourists aboard. The scenery was fantastic and I took far too many pictures of the limestone cliffs... I hope they turn out well.
Once in KYN, we were greeted by Denny who took us to see his place. The huts turned out to be only 2 months old, had huge bathrooms and lots of room in the living area. There were only 3 huts (one of them a duplex of sorts), occupied by Stefan, a French cartoonist/animator/painter, Marek, a Polish-Canadian professional photographer, as well as Denny and his good friend Yeah who happened to be the chief of the island. Denny allowed us to have a motorbike for the day for free and we spent a little while travelling a loop around the island which took approx. 30-40 minutes.
On Day 2 at KYN, Yeah took Kacey and I for a tour of the island by motorbike. He introduced us to rubber plantations where we saw the collection and manufacturing of rubber (smelled like Hallowe'en masks or surgical gloves). He also showed us cashew nut trees, mangoes, bananas, coconuts, papaya and on and on. He took us to a fishing village built on stilts over the mud flats and a place where the island's curry was made for export. Later on, he took us to a breathtaking place where monks from Bangkok come once or twice a year to meditate... a large porch high up on a hill, looking towards the limestone islands and cliffs between the 20km passage to the mainland. We also we shown a beach where nobody went, but was absolutely beautiful, just below the monks' meditation compound. We stayed at the beach the rest of the day.
Day 3 at KYN was spent mostly on KYY, the larger sister island to the south. KYY had a population of about 8000 while KYN's was just above 3000. Our day began early as Denny, Yeah, Kacey, myself, Marek, Stefan and, Marieka an older lady from Holland who is, or was, a professor of Islamic Studies, all took our motorbikes across the straight to KYY. We spent nearly 6 or 7 hours touring the island and only had to pay for our food, gas, and boat to cross where a similar tour from Krabi would have cost at least 1200 baht each, not including food or gas and only would have lasted 3 or 4 hours according to a brochure we later flipped through. Having Yeah with us helped a lot as he knew many people and many beaches and villages to visit. This trip was like our tour of KYN, only longer and hotter.
Day 4 at KYN was spent lounging around Denny's "Take it Easy" Bar, which didn't have alcohol but had a lot of good conversation.
Day 5 began early as we headed out on a longtail boat with Denny to take a tour north of the island around bays and to beaches that the tours from Krabi or from Phuket don't get to see. The northern 1/3 of KYN is a National Park full of monkeys, cobras (neither of which we saw) and hornbill birds (funny looking birds with huge, multi-leveled bills - we saw two or so). We saw a 1000+ year old tree in "Big Tree Bay" as well as beautiful lagoons and beaches. In the evening Denny threw a party for Stefan, Kacey and I as we were leaving the next day. Before the party, Stefan, Yeah Marieka and I went to an inland fish farm to catch our dinner. We used fishing line wrapped around a bottle with massive minnows on huge hooks for bait. Stefan cast the line in first and within literally 5 seconds caught a 2kg Grouper. In 15 minutes, we had caught 5 or 6 fish, kept 3, and headed back to start a BBQ.
Day 6 was a sad day. We packed up, had breakfast and took a 1pm ferry to Phuket. Luckily for us, Stefan and Yeah were heading to Bangkok so we were able to catch a ride with some of Yeah's friends into Phuket Town, from the harbour, saving us time and money. Each day at KYN could have taken an entire weblog and I have included most of the highlights without going into detail. The people we met at Nam Tok were great. Stefan, the animator, made paintings. Marek told us of all the places he had been (basically everywhere from Lake Baikal during perestroika in the 80s, to being robbed of all his belongings including Canadian landed immigrant papers in South America, to places in India that seemed to be 500 years behind Western civilization and on and on). Denny and Yeah impressed us with their sincerity and hospitality. So many stories, too little time. Kacey and I both wanted to spend more time here, but we torn between staying and seeing the rest of the country. Our night in Phuket was bad and last night here, on Ko Pha-ngan, was worse after a 4-hour bus and 3-hour boat ride, as evidenced by yesterday's weblog. Today is far better and we are both in better moods enjoying this island far more.
All's fine,
Graham
Today is a sad day in the life of this weblog. We have left what is referred to by a travel brochure as "the Unknown Island". It wasn't listed in our Lonely Planet and it was really only by luck that we got there. But, a sad time it is to leave... especially after where we find ourselves tonight. Recommeded by many, Ko Pha-ngan is a paradise with it's rows and rows of coconut trees, plenty of places to stay for relatively cheap and on and on, yet it is a mere shadow of the island that i wish not to name. I will, however, give you it's initials and refer to it hereafter as KYN.
What a marvellous place.
It's hard to find the words to describe KYN. The owner of the Naam Tok Bungalows (read: huts), Denny, is a great person and someone I wish everyone to meet. Upon our arrival he greeted us more genuinely than anyone has on our trip so far. He said the things that everyone says, but did so in a way where Kacey and I knew he was somehow different. Really, it's hard to explain, but sometimes, I guess, people can give you that feeling that they are genuine and have nothing to hide. Denny was that person and what a relief. I don't know if it's only because we recently got to Ko Pha-ngan (an island on the East coast of the Thai peninsula) and suddenly are thrust back into the tourist "Forang" mold that this liking for people like Denny and his island comes through, but it's definately a strong feeling. Perhaps it's my inability to put into words the way we felt on KYN, but once in Ko Pha-ngan it becomes visceral, sort of a before-and-after feeling. Anyways, I am rambling.
"Forang" is the Thai word for foreigner. I don't like the word at all as it reminds me of some bottom dwelling catfish, with the mouth and the whiskers and all those negative things. I believe there actually is a fish, beginning with "Ph" that sounds like forang and looks like what I described. The forangs in Thailand are the tourists who come here to sit on beaches and contribute to the economy in various ways. However, forang is, in my mind, a derogitory word, which doesn't make sense. Many of the towns here rely on tourists, yet treat them as forangs. A double-edged sword, in a way - forangs keeps towns, villages and beach communities in Thailand afloat yet they are still treated with disdane and hassled up and down streets for money and so on. I'm rambling again.
Anyway, in Ko Pha-ngan I'm a Forang and I feel like it, in KYN I was not. I thank Denny and all the residents of KYN for their hospitality. Sadly, we are not there anymore, and even sadder still, I will continue this weblog tomorrow with the heading "KYN to Ko Pha-ngan".
Good night, good morning and good afternoon,
Graham.
Yay!! Congratulations Tom (Graham's uncle, for those of you who may be wondering) and Kathy. We are very excited for you.
Graham and Kacey