Thailand & Cambodia are awesome!

Kayaking on Day 19

On this day it was kind of crappy out again.. But with ten days left on the trip, I had to suck it up and make the best of it.

If you remember, I wanted to go kayaking in that ancient jungle.. but that was still rained out.. So the owner of the Green Leaf guest house hand picked a kayaking trip for me. Some place that was actually supposed to be cool when the water levels were high, because it allowed you to get to places you can't usually get to. I have no idea where it is to be honest, but it was about 45 minutes to an hour or so away fro Ao Nang beach... in some direction or other.

So off we went, and at 11am or so I was in the water in a plastic 2 person kayak. Fortunately there were an odd number of people present, and everyone else paired up naturally, so I didn't have to coordinate kayak movements with a stranger.. which would have probably been a horrible experience, judging by how many problems other people in our group were having coordinating rowing and turning and everything else.

The first couple minutes of the route took us from a dock, across a small bay, and back towards the coast.



Then we kind of turned inland into some sort of a small stream with tall cliffs on either side.

As you can maybe tell from the contents of the next picture, as a whole the people in my group did not really know what they were doing. The Indian couple on the right constantly bickered in English in a rather loud manner, for all to hear.. They were recently married I think, and they could not work as a team at all.. The girl did not know how to row and the guy did not know how to explain to her what she was doing wrong. He didn't really know how to row either, but he was a lot better at trying to do it properly than she was. At one point she basically said: "that's it", threw up her hands in the air, and stopped trying to help. I tried very hard to not to be behind these crazy people.

The canoe on my left was occupied by two quiet girls from Singapore who kept crashing into everything and were generally very confused about which paddle movements corresponded to turning which way. Their spatial awareness skills seemed at times nonexistent (just look at that paddle) .. So at times it seemed as if they were just trying random things until it was time to crash into the next tree or the next rock or canoe.. which drove our guide mad, who kept yelling at them not to wreck his kayaks.

There were other characters in our group, but these 4 people definitely stood out.



The scenery was beautiful.









We weren't really moving that fast, so there was a lot of time for breaks and pictures.. and even a crappy video.

Warning: Slightly colourful language


Link to video.

I wouldn't know how to paddle a kayak either. I used to know how to paddle a canoe, but it's been years.

Cutlass said:

I wouldn't know how to paddle a kayak either. I used to know how to paddle a canoe, but it's been years.

Click to expand...

I've only been in a kayak a couple times.. I could probably count all those times on one hand. Most of my experience comes from canoeing as well, and I haven't exactly done a lot of that either..

So this was a bit of a learning experience for me, especially the twisting and turning we had to do to get through parts of this route.. It was at times slightly complicated to figure out exactly what to do, but I think I caught on fairly fast! A lot faster than some of the other kayaks anyway, the Indian couple and the Singaporeans kept getting stuck everywhere. All you'd hear is the guide scream "Left.. left.. right!!! RIGHT! DON'T HIT THAT R-... *sigh*"

Ao Tha Lane Kayaking 2

I was going through the pictures one by one and this is the last one in the kayak set that popped up:



So there you go! We started at the dock at the bottom and went counterclockwise around the larger loop.. with possible alterations here and there, I'm not really sure. According to the guide we went through a part that's usually inaccessible, but I'm not sure if that was just talk or what. It was incredibly scenic so I just believed him.













For an inexperienced kayaker like myself, the first couple tight turns were a bit daunting.. but eventually a lot of things clicked and I found myself having a lot of fun navigating through a beautiful and very interesting landscape.



And then there it was...





It jumped onto somebody's canoe while we were taking pictures.. .. .. I quickly put my camera in its waterproof compartment and watched every single move that monkey made with the paddle firmly in my hands.. yellow alert.. shields up..

The rest of the way was for the most part uneventful and enjoyable, but during the last stretch back to the dock I was starting to tire out. My hands and shoulders were really feeling it!

Afterwards lunch was served for me and the Singaporean girls, from whom I learned a bunch of things about life in Singapore that I've already forgotten. They made for very pleasant company though. The reason we shared lunch was because this was a double bill! Kayaking was just the first part. The next part - you'll see!

My second ever elephant ride

I hadn't really planned on riding so many elephants in Thailand, but when other plans fell through I was faced with the option of booking either a half day kayaking trip.. or going with one of the bundles. And my day was wide open, so I went with a bundle.

And as with the kayak, there were an odd number of people around.. so the only other person up there with me was the guide.

What was also awesome was that I opted to sit on the elephant's neck.. which I have to admit was a bit intimidating at times.. but well worth it in terms of the view and experience.



I realize now that taking portrait videos is taboo... but at the time it seemed like the only way to capture what I wanted to capture.

editor's note: 44 seconds in I get hit by a branch


Link to video.

Then the guide got down and it was just me up there. That was even more intimidating.

By the way, I apologize in advance for you having to look at my ugly mug. The next couple pictures contain it several times. Just focus on the elephant, it is far more majestic looking than me.



I thought things got a bit hairy when the elephant started walking around. Who do you think is in charge in the following picture? Definitely not me.



Not that the elephant didn't know its place.. and whatever that place might have been, it definitely involved being subservient to the guy taking pictures of me... It also knew which general direction to march in, so as long as that was happening the guide didn't really seem to care. So I tried to follow his lead..



After a long day's work it's time to eat!



Mmmm so good

Nothing to really hold on to up there.

Just out of curiosity, why is it that the youtube vid shows only a narrow strip in the middle?

Cutlass said:

Nothing to really hold on to up there.

Just out of curiosity, why is it that the youtube vid shows only a narrow strip in the middle?

Click to expand...

I flipped my camera into portrait mode and took a video that way. Apparently that's a big no-no, and I've since learned my lesson, but at the time I wanted to capture more of the vertical and less of the horizontal.

And yeah, with nothing to hold on to, keeping your balance was vital!

Tonsai Beach

Day 20 wasn't looking great either, so I walked to Ao Nang beach and wrote a whole bunch of postcards. The only plans for the day were a late evening Thai kickboxing event involving several bouts... but that wasn't until much later.



So I jumped on a water taxi to Tonsai beach, which came recommended to me by several people.. Somebody I met earlier on the trip was also staying there, so there was the added bonus of potentially running into someone familiar.

I got out of the water taxi and looked around.







Tonsai beach is very popular with rock climbers.. maybe even more popular than Railay beach? I'm not really sure, but either way these 2 beaches are where you're going to go in southern Thailand if you're into this sort of stuff.





A very beautiful place..

Very pretty stuff.

Cutlass said:

Very pretty stuff.

Click to expand...

I think Tonsai beach was one of my favourites, too bad the weather couldn't have been better. Not that I'm complaining.. but I wonder what the pictures would've looked like in better conditions.

Tonsai Beach 2











When I was done enjoying what the beach hard to offer, I walked over to the water taxis.. The last boat back to Ao Nang beach was supposed to leave at 6pm, but there wasn't anybody else looking to leave, aside from 2 people who had reservations who weren't anywhere to be seen.. and so I had to wait until more people showed up.

In the meantime the water level had been dropping due to the tide, and was quite low.. and more clouds were incoming..



So I waited.. and nobody showed up. Instead of real Thai kickboxing maybe I'd have to settle for Thai sea boxing?



That guy with the red barrel is helping unload supplies. There are no roads connecting Tonsai Beach with the rest of Krabi province - the only way for supplies to get in is via boat.



Weather conditions were getting worse..



Two minutes after I took this picture I heard a whole bunch of commotion a bit further down the beach.. Some of the people who had been climbing that giant rock face were now base jumping from it and parachuting down towards the crowds below.. (and unfortunately I didn't react in time to get a good picture)

Eventually it started raining.. and once it cleared up a bit about 20 minutes later, I unsuccessfully haggled with the water taxi guy and ended up paying 6 times the usual fare to get back to Ao Nang beach... It was already dark by then and it was raining.. and I really didn't want to find a place to crash there and miss the kickboxing.. And $18 isn't really that bad for an emergency boat ride.. so...

So off we went.. Wait, no we didn't.. The engine wouldn't start for about 20 minutes. A lot of yelling in Thai by various people and a lot of prodding and other activities eventually lead to the engine turning on.. and us getting stuck in mud not one minute later.

A bunch of guys helped push us out, which is when the rain picked up steam again..

When I got out of that boat at Ao Nang beach I was just happy to be back! It was windy and it was raining and I had a 25 minute walk ahead of me, but that didn't bother me one bit. I wrapped my jacket around my backpack and tried to cover myself as best as I could and I casually walked back to the guest house, arriving almost completely soaked.

It was time for Thai kickboxing.

Those rock formations are fascinating.

Cutlass said:

Those rock formations are fascinating.

Click to expand...

I know, I couldn't stop staring at them! And I still don't really have any idea how any of that stuff actually formed..

I don't either. In the north it would be glaciers. That far south it would have to be waves. But just imagine the magnitude and frequency and, just plane millions of years, of waves it would take.

Muay Thai Kickboxing

I really wanted to experience a Thai kickboxing event at some point during my trip.. even though all I knew about it at the time was pretty much that it involved Thai people punching and kicking eachother. Turns out there is a lot more to it!

The Green Leaf guest house owner is a huge fan of the sport and an occasional participant.. which isn't too surprising, given that it is the national sport. He also apparently has been trying to stay away from Thai kickboxing arenas, due to all the gambling that goes on.. and his past gambling problems... But either way, after he found out that I was interested in seeing a bout, he hooked me up. After I returned all soaked from Tonsai beach, put on some dry clothes, and had something to eat, we got in his car and he dropped me off at the local Muay Thai arena.



But before I get into more pictures and videos, here's a bit of hand picked information on Muay Thai from wikipedia:

Muay Thai is referred to as the "Art of Eight Limbs" or the "Science of Eight Limbs", because it makes use of punches, kicks, elbows and knee strikes, thus using eight "points of contact", as opposed to "two points" (fists) in boxing and "four points" (hands and feet) used in other more regulated combat sports, such as kickboxing and savate. Muay Thai became widespread internationally in the twentieth century, when practitioners defeated notable practitioners of other martial arts. A professional league is governed by the World Muay Thai Council.

I had the option to pay $25 for a regular seat.. or $50 for a comfy couch seat closer to the stage.

This seemed pretty steep for Thailand, but I went with the couch.



Second row, perfect height.. whole couch to myself.. not bad!



The evening consisted of 9 bouts.. The first bout was between 10 year olds, and each one after that was between fighters of more and more impressive athleticism and skill. Bout #7 was the main event, and bouts 8 and 9 were between 7 year olds.

To see 10 year old kids enter the ring was at first cute.. but any semblance of cuteness quickly washed away, as it became clear that these kids meant business.




Link to video.



Every single white woman in the audience that I looked at appeared to be in shock. I was in a bit of a shock myself - I did not expect any of this. It can't be good for developing brains of young kids to have their heads kicked and punched on a regular basis...

Each fighter's corner was usually bustling with activity. I have no idea if all those people are a part of that particular fighter's crew, but they were heavily animated and continued screaming this and that in the general direction of the fight.



It wasn't easy taking pictures - a lot of them came out blurry.. The sports mode on my camera helped a bit, but it makes everything sort of dark, as you can see in that one photo above. It wasn't really a problem, I wanted to actually sit back and enjoy the fights..

I did take several videos, maybe not very well.. but it's all pretty fascinating if you ask me, so I'm going to post most of them.

There were several knockouts.



Another thing that's fascinating about Muay Thai is Wai khru ram muay, which is what every fighter engages in before the bout begins. Take it away wikipedia:

Wai Khru Ram Muay is a warm up activity in Thai culture that is performed by participants in Muay Thai competitions. Wai is an action of Thais to show respect to others by putting the hands together like in prayer. Khru means teacher. Ram means dance in the old Thai traditional style. Muay means boxing. Usually Thais prefer to call it Ram Muay or Wai Khru for short. Ram Muay is the way to show respect to the teachers and the trainers. Also, in the past Muay Thai was usually fought in front of the King, so Ram Muay was also to apologize to the King for the brutality in fighting.

The fighter then performs the Ram Muay, whose simple movements demonstrate a fighter's control and style. Each fighter performs the Ram Muay on each side of the ring to demonstrate his prowess to the audience. The Ram Muay is a personal ritual, ranging from the very complex to the very simple, and often contains clues about who trained the fighter and where the fighter is from.

I had no idea what the hell was going on when they were doing this, I had to look it up later.. I could tell that the fighters took this very seriously and went to great lengths to create their own unique "dance". Some of them were quite odd. Here's one, as well as a bit of the fight:


Link to video.

Not every fight was the same. The one above started very slowly... Some were very chess-like, some were brutal..

warpus said:

I know, I couldn't stop staring at them! And I still don't really have any idea how any of that stuff actually formed..

Click to expand...

One word: karst.

SS-18 ICBM said:

One word: karst.

Click to expand...

Very interesting, thanks for passing this on!

More Muay Thai Kickboxing

One of these guys was clearly better than the other:


Link to video.

At the end you can see the fighter exit the ring.. See that red sign? That's where I went if I wanted to use the rest/bathroom/toilet. That's also where all the fighters entered and exited the fights. It was an odd arrangement to say the least.

The next fight was a bit of a.. knee fight. I'm not sure what the technique is called, but after 1:45, the rest of the fight is pretty much knee to stomach or in some faces knee to face. The last blow leads to a knockout.


Link to video.

This fighter had a from my point of view rather unique Wai khru ram muay:


Link to video.

Here he is in action:


Link to video.

After the main bout was over, really young children again stepped into the ring..




Link to video.

In the very last fight one of the kids got injured and started crying. He was helped out of the ring.

A free shuttle service took all the tourists back to the various hostels, guest houses, and hotels in the area. Somewhere along the way I saw this:



I'm not sure what they were actually selling, but I doubt it was actually bees. My #1 guess is beef, but who knows.

Phi phi islands

I did not sleep very well, or much at all, that night. A bunch of jerks seemingly moved into the room opposite mine.. and got friendly with the girl who had just moved into the room to the left of mine. Various loud noises started at 2:30am and did not stop until after 6am, including people wandering up and down the hallway, beer bottles being dropped in the hallway, people banging on doors, people arguing, people yelling, people screaming, furniture being moved around A LOT, china breaking, things falling, things breaking, and things I can not even mention here..

I have earplugs and am used to putting up with partying travellers (since I'm sometimes one of them), but this was way over the top... And I don't like being confrontational, but when I started hearing someone yet again banging on the door right in front of mine and yelling, I got out of bed, stared down the guy who was doing it, and told him to get the hell out of there. Turns out the "problem" was that his friend locked him out and he didn't have anywhere to sleep. Long story short, I don't care, and proceed to tell him exactly what I think of the situation.. but not even raising my voice nor using extreme hand gestures really seemed to do anything. This guy was drunk and he was going to be loud no matter what.

No amount of diplomacy or violence could have changed the situation: I had to be ready at 7am for my Phi phi islands day trip. So I went back to bed and attempted to sleep, but it didn't really happen.

The Phi phi islands had been on my preferred destination list from the day I arrived at Ao Nang beach.. I really wanted to see the beautiful beaches the islands have on offer.. but each time I tried to go, the weather did not cooperate.. until the very last day.

At least 2 dozen people crammed onto a speed boat and off we went. I was exhausted due to the lack of sleep, and nearly dozed off a couple times, but I held on.. I was going to enjoy this day! Beside me sat a girl from Germany. I told her she should try speaking to me in German, while I answer in English, so that I can work on my German while she is able to express herself better in her native language. This went on for several minutes as I pretended that I understood everything she was saying... way too fast. What a horrible idea from a very half asleep person.

I can't remember what the first beach we stopped at was, but I was in heaven.



For once the weather was cooperating!



The water was warm and crystal clear. This was exactly what I came there to experience.



I walked around a bit and took some pictures..





then I found a spot near our boat, set 5 alarms, and lied down.

Suntanning on a tropical island on the Andaman sea... in perfect weather on a beautiful beach.. In the state of mind I was in, it almost seemed like a dream.

That is a pretty beach.