This article is another transcript, this time a 2-parter, direct from my diary covering our experiences in Thailand, as I don't think we were near a computer for any length of time during our stay there. I can't admit to having explored the country in any detail as we headed straight for a beach and back again, but we did have an excellent time and I saw just enough to know that I will be back for longer one day. Being a daily diary there is much tedium in here ('Friday: saw a nice fish'; 'Saturday: saw a nice fish', etc.) but there are also tales of sharks and monkeys, of adventure triumphing over common sense; of dramatic rescues at sea and of cabbages and condoms. Mostly 'nice fish' though, it is true.
Friday 26-Jan-07
Against all odds we finally managed to haul ourselves onto a songthaew and out of Laos. Having contacted seemingly every freight operator in our quest to cross the Indian Ocean we realise just how little cargo goes from South East Asia to India over water now, and for those that do make the run the story is always the same: 125 Euros a day per person plus 300 Euros insurance. The game has been sewn up and as this 5 day journey would cost us close to a grand each it has become a rich man's sport rather than the cheap way to hitch long-distance that it used to be. At least that decided our route finally: along the northern silk roads from China through Central Asia to Turkey. Conveniently we had the foresight to get a double-entry Chinese visa just in case of this, good for re-entry and time before 20-Feb-07, and so we set off knowing that we are drastically short on time and money now in... completely the opposite direction. To hell with it: turquoise waters lapping softly against white sand were calling to us; they say time and tide wait for no man and this particular tide had a lovely, gentle 'sploosh' to it.
We entered Thailand at a labyrinthine cross-border market (Chong Mek), easy and colourful, and stepped straight onto the first of several - so it seemed to us after tumbledown Laos - very swish buses eventually took us overnight to the capital, Bangkok.
Saturday 27-Jan-07
Bangkok was the system-shock we were expecting: huge sprawling brash impersonal noisy and smelly, and an age away from Laos. I hope this is not a vision of the future and that Laos resists 'progress', at least for a little longer; long enough to teach those of us who would listen that we always have a choice, that this contagious Americanised globalised capitalist based hell can be rejected. Needless to say we resolved to leave immediately in search of our turquoise dream and hot-footed it over to the train station, onto a 3rd class carriage bound for Chumphon: gateway to the South. It was really good to be back on a train, the first this year, and watch Thailand roll past sparser and less wild than Laos but beautiful nonetheless, enough to spark my desire for exploration which this time, the first so far, needs to be denied licence if we are to get back to China in time. After a pleasant 9 hours we were greeted at the other end by our guest house owners who saw us safely to our room, to our first bed in a couple of days. Oh the bliss!
Sunday 28-Jan-07
From Chumphon a bus took us to Ranong, our first taste of the fabled Andaman coast and on to the ferry for our island, Koh Phayam. This and nearby Koh Chang are on their own as the most northerly of the Andaman Coast islands and are tucked in just below the Burmese border. They are very little frequented, have no real development to speak of beyond a handful of beach huts and are described as 'laid-back' and 'idyllic'. Certainly sounds like the place for us, and the journey there was very interesting as we passed the southern tip of Burma and its outlying islands, complete with casinos and resorts where the Thais go to gamble (illegal in Thailand) and westerners go to renew their Thai visas. A world away from the principles espoused by the current highly corrupt 'socialist' junta who, like almost everywhere we have been in Asia, appear to be free-falling down the communist tube in their own unique totalitarian way.
On arrival we were greeted by a couple of motorbike taxis (much to Ellen's consternation) who took us to our hut on the longest beach (4 kilometres long!), over at the other side of the island. 4 Kilometres of golden sand and virtually no people. The place we were staying was comfortable, the hosts friendly; the sea was actually warm, a first for me, and the island had a great natural beauty to it. But something was not right for us: we couldn't put our finger on it, so put it down to tiredness and resolved to sleep on it.
Monday 29-Jan-07
Damn dreams and fantasies! This truly wonderful island has it all nearly: as well as the empty 4km beach of clean golden sand, the warm water, the lush interior, we saw hornbills and all sorts of other wildlife; there was even a really good vegetarian restaurant nearby. I walked over to the only village and found it to be delightful: bubbling with life in that way only small island communities do, and no sight of corporates (yet). So what was our problem? Just that the water wasn't turquoise, and it crashed rather than lapped! A little research revealed an even less-visited island a little way down the coast, a protected national park where there was nothing but a handful of tents, where the water had tuquoisity in abundance and lapped authentically, and where the snorkeling was terrific on account of the surrounding coral reefs and crystal clarity of the sea. Would we find paradise there?
I confess I didn't know what to do: for all of this trip we had no pre-conceptions and just arrived places, allowing them to impress their qualities onto us. This approach felt right and good, as though we were not so much seeking out some imagined experience but rather openly engaging, learning and being changed by the people an places we encountered. Now we were contemplating doing exactly the opposite: adopting some kind of colonial attitude by leaving this idyll to hunt after somewhere that we could more easily fit into our fantasy. My mind made a strong case for staying but the dream was strong and long-held: we would go hunting turquoise.
Tuesday 30-Jan-07
An early boat and bus from Ranong to Kuraburi brought us to an enthusiastic young chap called Tom, who incidentally could help us with everything we needed! Surprisingly it turned out that he really could and with absolutely no effort on our part we found ourselves with a cheap room for the night, a boat ticket to our island for the morning, a rented tent for the duration and some snorkels and flippers thrown in for god measure. He even picked us up in the morning, drove us to the boat and saw s and our gear safely on board. Tom is a real gem: a wide boy that actually delivers, all with a smile and a good price.
Wednesday 31-Jan-07
And so it is that we step into our dream. Tropical paradise, if it has a name, is called Koh Surin and despite its reputation as just about the finest snorkeling in all of Thailand it doesn't attract many people: no bars, shops or clubs, an entry fee (as it is a national park), camping only apart from 6 vastly over-priced bungalows, and just one cafeteria at each of the 2 camp sites. We chose the quieter of the 2 and pitched our tent on the edge of a pure white beach of the finest sand imaginable with clear, fading to turquoise, shallow water stretching out to the reefs. Surrounding us is bird-song of astonishing variety and unfamiliarity and the island we are on, uninhabited, is cloaked in primary forest (primary forest!) that is home to innumerable species including pig-tailed macaques that frequently come near the camp to scavenge. So it turns out that against all of my gut instincts we were so right to chase our dreams. We have found them to sch an extent that neither of us can barely believe we are here at all.
