Thailand & Cambodia are awesome!

[warpus]

Haad Rin's Sunrise beach

Haad Rin is a peninsular beach area and town on the southern tip of Ko Pha Ngan, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Its two main beaches are Sunset Beach (Haad Rin Nai) to the south and the larger Sunrise Beach (Haad Rin Nok) to the north.

I went to Ko Pha Ngan island in the first place because it is well known for its party culture as well as its beautiful beaches. It seemed like the perfect place to spend my last couple days in the country.

My initial plan was to end up at a full moon party - which is a monthly electronic music festival that apparently draws crowds up to 40,000 people... It is held at sunrise beach in Haad Rin, which as you will see is not that giant... and is known for being a bit crazy... but unfortunately I landed in the country a day before the full moon party was due to take place - and my flight home didn't allow me to attend the next one either.

The full moon party - as a concept, has taken off a bit in Thailand, and you can attend various full moon parties around the country. But Haad Rin will always be the original.



I had to settle for the half moon party, which in december, 2013 fell on the 9th. And it was the 9th! I had transportation to the half moon party booked - it was due to pick me up at my guest house at 10pm. I didn't really know where it would take me, or what to expect at the half moon party - aside from large crowds of intoxicated white people... but either way, that was still 12 hours away. I had a full day, so I got the guest house owner to drop me off at Haad Rin, and I found my way to Sunrise beach.



The weather was perfect, the sand and the water were too, and there were beach babes everywhere. The one downside was the occasional garbage you'd see on the ground, remnants from the last party.. Most of it was at the one end of the beach, closer to the water taxis, but I didn't get any pictures of the nasty part of the beach..



I claimed a spot for myself and started reading a book. I had just finished a Iain M. Banks novel the other day, although I can't remember which one. This was the new book I was starting to read:



At one point three beautiful girls and a menacing looking dude sat down right beside me.



Beautiful girls in bikinis tend to distract me from reading. And when the topless girl turned to me and asked me if I could take a picture of the group, I enthusiastically accepted the request. Topless girls never turn to me and try to talk to me. It just doesn't happen. So this sort of caught me off guard, especially since she was so nonchalant about her bosoms. Didn't she know that by turning in my direction and talking to me it meant I got to see her bits? Apparently this was not a problem. It was not a problem for me either. I walked up to her, and as gracefully and respectfully as I could, I accepted her camera into my hand.

I was caught a bit off my guard, but I do know how to take pictures, so I took a couple steps back and started trying to frame the group into a nice shot, with a respectable backdrop, good composition, and so on..

But then.. "No.. from the back"

"Oh"

A topless picture from behind does indeed make a lot more sense. Sometimes I am just too oblivious.. But nobody seemed to mind, and neither did I.

This was exactly the sort of laid back, beautiful, and "interesting" place I wanted to find myself in near the end of my trip.



The water was great. I went for a couple swims and spent the rest of the time tanning and reading.

 

[warpus]

Haad Rin's Sunset beach

After spending a decent amount of time lazying around on Sunrise beach, I thought I might as well walk across the peninsula and make my way to the Sunset beach.

This map should help you make sense of that:



Haad Rin is in the bottom right corner of the map. The guest house where I was staying was probably halfway between Haad Rin and Baan Khai.

The problem was that at first I couldn't find an entrance to Sunset beach.. And.. well.. there wasn't one. There's basically a whole bunch of hotels, guest houses, private property, etc. on that side of the peninsula - and a very narrow beach.

But whatever, I was there, I went exploring. I eventually found an "entrance".





Some of these resorts were nice. Probably fairly expensive.





This was the end of the road.



I headed back inland, found the main pier, and flagged down a taxi.

 

[Cutlass]

Nice beaches. They don't have topless beaches around here.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

They do here, but you won't find women there.

 

[warpus]

Technically every single beach in Ontario is a topless beach, but the culture hasn't caught up to the law yet.. and I'm not really sure if it will ever.

To me it's not really a big deal, when I lived in Ostfriesland in Germany, there were always topless women on the beaches there.

Thailand is a conservative country, so I don't think you will see much of this sort of thing.. but in this particular case I was at the site of the Full Moon party, so I guess it's a bit more lax. It's essentially a party island - there are "____ party" signs everywhere. More on this later..

 

[Cutlass]

There's a movement in the US, particularly in New York, to make toplessness socially, and legally, acceptable. But I doubt more than a trivial number of women are actually interested in it.

 

[warpus]

Sunset pictures

Back at the guest house I had a couple hours to kill. It's right on the beach so it was a good place to continue lazying around, getting some dinner, reading more of my book... I think there might have even been a nap involved..

The sunset was also particularly pretty, so I grabbed my camera and took some pictures.











The half moon party was next.

 

[warpus]

Half moon party

At 10pm a van showed up and took me and two German gentlemen to the half moon party.

I didn't bring my camera, because I didn't want it to get damaged or stolen, so I can't show you any of my own pictures or videos.. but I've found some online that should help me explain what sort of experience it was.

The half moon party is basically a jungle rave with several hard house and hard techno DJs, bars set up around the perimeter selling various intoxicants, and about three or four thousand people dancing their butts off.

At least that's the sort of music they were playing at that particular half moon party.. which suited me just fine - it's my favourite type of music to dance to! There was some trance too, and at one point a weird older DJ dressed up funny who played an electric guitar solo to a bunch of trance. That was pretty cool actually - I wonder who that was.

This is the main part of the dancefloor:



When I got there it wasn't very busy yet. A Thai DJ was spinning really good hard house and guys with fireballs were putting on a show on the dancefloor, but only a couple people were dancing. In a couple hours the dancefloor would be packed with a massive crowd that reminded me of the rave scene from matrix reloaded..

This video shows you what I mean by "guys with fireballs". It shows a whole bunch of other stuff too, but you don't have to wait long to see what the fireball dudes were all about.


Link to video.

This is another video I found that takes you through a part of the "main entrance", then through the part where you can buy warm food, then the bodypaint stand, and then the main part of the dancefloor.


Link to video.

I got into the music and basically danced the whole night through.. taking breaks every once in a while and making new friends: A group from new zealand, a dj from Ireland, some Finnish girls, those Scandinavian guys from the boat.. They were like "Hey, you're the guy from the boat!".. and I didn't know what the hell they were talking about at the time, but I went with it and soon enough we were all good friends. Turns out the music wasn't hard enough for them yet, but at that point it was 3-4am and the hardness of the music was perfect. By 5-6am it was starting to be "trying too hard to be hard" techno for my tastes, so I spent long periods of time talking to the Irish DJ and to her two friends from England who showed up later.

The event was a crazy fun time! My legs got a decent workout and I think I lost a bunch of weight.

At 7am it was time to go home. Tuk tuk type vans were dropping people off to various hotels, guest houses, and resorts around the island. I had to wait 15 minutes for my turn, but eventually I ended up on the back of a tuk tuk with two hilarious guys from the Faroe islands, a whole bunch of Germans, and a guy from I don't know where, who spent most of the ride trying to rip his shorts in two.

So yeah, then I got back to my room and went to sleep.

 

[warpus]

Hangover/recovery day

Having a room right on the beach was perfect for the purposes of a hangover/recovery day. I slept from 8am until 2-3pm or something similar and for the rest of the day I lounged around at the guest house. Their restaurant is close to the water, and they also have a seating area and a gazebo with hammocks set up a bit closer to the water. So that was kind of perfect. For the most part there was nobody else around, so it was very quiet. I could laze around, order food, order drinks, read my book, go online, take naps..





Not much happened this day, but it was very relaxing!

 

[warpus]

More Ko Pha Ngan pictures

On my last day on Ko Pha Ngan island I returned to my favourite beach - sunrise beach.

Then suddenly.. dogs



I stopped taking notes in my journal past hangover/recovery day, but I do remember the highlights of the day. After an hour and a half on sunrise beach I jumped into a water taxi and made my way to (I think) Hat Thian beach.



There were less people there - and the clouds were clearing up too!



The wooden structure on the rocks in the back is the start of a path that takes you to another beach - on the other side of that peninsula. And that's where I was next headed. (I wanted to find a beach with even less people on it)



Looking back towards the beach:

 

[Cutlass]

Nice.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

Dogs? Not that I'm complaining, but why?

 

[warpus]

Dogs? Not that I'm complaining, but why?

I was just sitting there, and next thing I know there's a group of dogs running around the beach. They came out of nowhere, ran around a bit, and then disappeared.

 

[warpus]

From beach to beach

The more maps I look at, the less sense everything makes - so I'm going with "From beach to beach". I also had this whole post all written up and ready to go, aside from the last sentence.. and.. somehow it's all gone. Unexpected progression of keystrokes - and *poof* .. gone.

But the pictures are ready to go anyway, so here's a closer look at that gazebo:



And just around the corner.. a restaurant!



A restaurant with a view..



One final look back..



Continuing on.. I slipped on a wet floor just outside the restaurant, my left foot slipping out from under me. I landed on my side slightly awkwardly, leading to a sharp piercing pain in my left leg. I got up gracefully and assessed the situation - no damage to the camera.. and a long scrape on my left leg that wasn't very deep.. but stung and was bleeding.

I had a makeshift first aid kit with me, but nothing substantial. None of the bandaids really fit. I cleaned the wound with an alcohol pad and did the best I could..

I couldn't let this get me down! I needed to get to that beach so that I could lie down and just lie there for a while and not do much of anything. I hobbled through a little village on my way there.





I don't remember the climb down being very fun, but once on the beach I ended up on a beach chair that I had no business being in. Nobody seemed to care though, and I've learned that if you manage to act like you own the place, then you can just basically do whatever you want, because people will usually assume you're supposed to be doing whatever it is that you shouldn't be doing, but are.

And that was basically it - mission accomplished! I found a relatively empty beach, I had successfully claimed and climbed upon a working beach chair, and I was getting a tan. Along the way I even had 2 lunches! All mission parameters were in the green, except for the injured leg.

An hour later I took a water taxi back to Haad Rin's sunrise beach, got a Thai oil massage there, and took a cab back to my room feeling oily and relaxed. It was almost time to fly home, but I was pretending that it wasn't.

 

[warpus]

Ko Tao

Let it be noted that on my last or second last day on Ko Pha Ngan island I had to attend to my rabies shot schedule, seek out a medical clinic equipped to handle such requests, and get my butt down there. Everything went down better than expected and doesn't need to be mentioned.. aside from the truck I saw on the way there which was proudly advertising a "POO PARTY". An unfortunate typo, perhaps...

Either way, Ko Tao island is about an hour and a half away via ferry.. Also tagged on the map is Krabi, which was my base of operations earlier.



Ko Tao is famous for being a scuba diving hotspot.. but not much else. You might wonder why I'd go there with only 2 days or so left in the country.. Well, it's right along the way I'd have to go to get to Bangkok anyway.. and a change in scenery can be nice.

It turned into one of my best decisions ever. On the ferry to Ko Tao island I overheard a guy behind me describe a perfectly delicious fried chicken sandwich that was made by a woman in a stall by the side of the road, somewhere in town. He put so much effort in describing how good this sandwich was that I was convinced: I turned around and asked him where exactly to go to get it, what the name of the restaurant was, and so on.. Turns out there is no restaurant - it's just a lady who sits there by the side of the road and makes amazing fried chicken sandwiches. Also turns out that it's on the way to my hostel.

I easily found the lady making fried chicken sandwiches. She was sitting in what I remember being a little hut or cart, various ingredients distributed in strategic locations. A fried chicken sandwich helper sat beside her and breaded, then deep fried perfectly cut strips of chicken breast.

However, I would not eat any fried chicken that day. I would be back, though.. I continued on towards my hostel, checked in, and spent the rest of the day lounging around.

The next day was also quite lazy, but I did manage to take a couple pictures.









An hour and a half before my ferry off the island was due to depart, I went to get my chicken sandwich. I got in line and waited. Turns out that the guy in front of me was getting 7 sandwiches, and the girl in front of him was getting 3. Somebody else was getting 4 or 5.

It wasn't hard to see why. Four large chicken strips made their way on every rye bread style bun, with cheese, lettuce, and other optional ingredients. This lady must be some sort of a fried chicken sandwich legend. I waited for my sandwich for over a half an hour - and when I finally got it, it lived up to all the hype - it was probably the best fried chicken sandwich I have ever eaten.

So if you're ever in Ko Tao, look for the lady making fried chicken sandwiches.

 

[Cutlass]

How did the rabies thing turn out?

 

[warpus]

How did the rabies thing turn out?

The day after my flight back home was when the 4th out of 5 rabies shot was scheduled. It all turned out well for me, but I basically arrived at work on my first day back, talked to a couple people, then left to the doctor's, where 3 nurses took an hour deciphering the Thai documentation I had brought with me.. which was basically a summary of all the medically relevant information. Turns out that everything done to me was up to code, all the right drugs were used, proper procedures were followed, etc. Their conclusion was that I got good medical care, and that actually I would only need 1 more shot, and not 2. I then got that shot and went back to work, where monkey rumours were beginning to spread and I had to answer questions about rabies and other things.

I booked a full physical while I was at my doctor's, and that actually came back claiming that I'm in super amazing health and that I have no rabies and no other diseases of any other kind, that my cholesterol levels, blood pressure, etc. and all my vitals are in perfect condition too. I was not expecting good news like that at all, which has lead some to speculate that the monkey bite gave me powers of some sort.. but if you ask me I still don't trust monkeys.

 

[Cutlass]

Maybe it was a radioactive monkey and you'll develop superhero monkeyman powers.

 

[warpus]

A night out in Bangkok, the flight home, and the longest Sunday of my life

I ate the fried chicken sandwich, checked out of my room, got on a boat, then a bus, and at 1:30am I was standing in front of a hostel, in the centre of Bangkok, on Khao San Road. (The same place I stayed at last time I was in town)

It was Saturday, December the 14th.

I had 30 hours left in the country and I really needed some sleep - the journey back to Bangkok had tired me out.. but I was also starving. Fortunately you can always find good street food somewhere in Bangkok at 2am, if you just look around.. You might have to walk through a bit of an urban party-like jungle to get there, depending on where you're staying.. which in my case involved a prostitute who walked up to me, grabbed hold of my arm, and said: "Mister, buy me a drink!" .. She wouldn't let go! At this point I had been in Thailand for a month, so this was not weird to me at all. I knew exactly what to do. I pushed the prostitute away and continued my search for food - which by the way lead me to a Pad Thai street food cart and a large take-out bag full of good food!

I took the food back to my room, devoured it, and went to bed. Unfortunately due to a bad case of insomnia I only got 3-4 hours of sleep. And so when it was time to check out of my hostel with 20 hours left in the country, I was feeling very tired. And by the way, I was waiting for a suit delivery, if you remember my encounter with an Indian tailor on day 1. Alterations of the suit were needed twice, and a delivery guy was supposed to drop off my suit in front of the guest house at around noon.

I got my suit and made my way to a more convenient location in Bangkok - to Sukhumvit, which is where I had spent my first night in the country. I had permission to store my bags at the hotel, so I could enjoy a bit of the nightlife and then pick up them up later.

And let me tell you, wandering through that part of town in the evening can be a very interesting experience.


Link to video.

I was looking for a place that might be showing the Chelsea game, so I walked into a sports bar called "Striker's". Even a soccer ball on the logo!.. Perfect (I thought).. The game wasn't on for a couple hours, but there are usually games on beforehand, I was hungry, beer is good, and so on.. Well, turns out I walked into a sports bar that was also a go-go bar. I won't really get into what exactly that is, but basically there are varying types of businesses that fall under this label, and most of them have one thing in common - there are girls there who offer to exchange companionship for money.

Whatever companionship means is usually up for you and the girl to decide.. and of course me being me, I did not realize that this was that sort of place until later. There were people there sitting around the bar drinking beers, and the atmosphere was very comfortable and so I did the same. A "waitress" sat down beside me and we exchanged a few words. She was fun to talk to! When she asked me if I want to buy her a lady drink it caught me a bit off guard... Having done my research, I knew what sort of implications lie behind the question.. So I asked her what exactly would be involved in me "buying her a lady drink". She seemed very approachable, and I was actually sort of curious about the whole set up (in a sports bar) and had already had a couple beers at that point, it was my last day in Thailand, so why not ask the prostitute about prostitution. I figured I would put her on the spot, and if we still got along after that, I'll buy her a lady drink so we can chat some more.

So I bought her a lady drink, and she told me a bit about how things work, often in not-so-direct ways.. but I can't really repeat any details of the operation here. She was actually quite charming, we ended up talking about a whole bunch of things.. I had a good time, I've got to say - the amount of money I spent on the marked up beer and the lady drink (which I don't think she even finished) were well worth the companionship provided. However, I liked her only as a friend, and did it not come to further negotiations involving other forms of companionship. This was all a part of the job either way - so it wasn't insulting to her. She just moved on to look after something else and I went off looking for food. I do not even think she was lying when she smiled and said she had a good time. I had a good time too. A very interesting experience from an academic standpoint and a human one.

I ended up watching the Chelsea game at a German restaurant, which had the game up on a giant TV. There was a Bayern game happening in the restaurant as well, and there were a lot of Germans there watching it intently - so I didn't get any sound.. But I did get a giant meal that cost me $50-$70 total. There are a lot of hotels in the area and a lot of expats and westeners travelling around this part of town.. And so a lot of restaurants with much higher prices than in other parts of the city or country. It was pretty much gourmet German food or at least seemed to be - quite authentic looking too, so I was pretty happy either way. So the way it turned out my first meal in the country was in a fancy German restaurant, and so was my last meal in the country. And every single other meal in between was local stuff, aside from 1 McDonald's breakfast.

What I will never forget is that the waitress messed up and brought me the sprite I ordered along with the beer that I ordered - all mixed in 1 glass. As opposed to 2 separate glasses, the normal way to drink these beverages. I didn't understand what was happening at first, but soon enough it was clear to me what had happened.. just not clear at all as to why.

I made a point of walking through the world's largest sex complex, so that it would contrast well with my earlier visit in Cambodia to the world's largest religious complex, and then at 1 or 2am took a cab to the airport. I was there way too early, but I was too tired to do anything else. There was barely anybody there, I couldn't go through security yet or even get my ticket, so I lied down on a bench, tried to make myself comfortable, and set my alarm for a more reasonable time.

It was now 2:30am on Sunday, December the 15th.

Somewhere at the airport in Bangkok I saw this interesting display:



I just noticed this, but one of these statues is staring at me.





On the 7am flight I managed to get 3 hours of sleep total. The flight lasted 5 and a half hours, and landed in Tokyo at 3pm local time. I bummed around the airport, ate some more Japanese food, and then right before my flight to Chicago took some pictures of the sunset. It seemed wayyyy too early for a sunset, but there it was:



The 12 hour long flight to Chicago was not very kind to me. Beside me sat a seemingly spoiled child and the child's mother. I watched a whole bunch of movies.. I don't remember what.. For the first half of the flight the stupid kid wouldn't let me sleep... After that I was able to doze off here and there, but it wasn't very satisfactory. I was feeling physically uncomfortable in my seat.

We landed in Chicago at 3pm on Sunday, December 15th.

A three hour layover in Chicago and then I was almost home.. but I was a mess. For the most part I was just tired, but I was also just really travelled out. I was feeling like a zombie. Every single ounce of energy in my mind and body was directed at the sole task of making sure that I get home with all my things. (at the time known as "all the things")

It was 6pm and the flight was delayed.. I sat there by the gate and eventually dozed off. When I woke up, all the people that I remembered being there waiting for the plane with me were no longer there. I panicked, but soon enough realized that the gate had simply been changed and that the plane had not actually left without me..

We landed very late in Toronto. Maybe somewhere around 10:30pm or 11? And it was still somehow Sunday, December 15th. In my mind I knew why, but it seemed like such a long time since it started being Sunday December 15th for me, that it just seemed like a big joke. What wasn't a joke was that I almost missed the shuttle bus I had booked from Toronto airport to take me to my hometown, 2 hours away... I would have had to wait 5 or 6 hours for the next one, so I it was amazing that I managed to catch it just in time...

Once in town I caught a cab and got home at 1am or 2am on finally Monday, December the 16th

My roommate's dog ran down the stairs in an excited fashion, started to greet me, and then peed all over the floor.

I had the Monday off work, in anticipation of a well needed day of rest, but I couldn't sleep until after 4am that night. I was just so wired.

On Tuesday I went in to see my doctor and had the monkey business sorted out. Everything worked out in the end. I am not going to die and the full physical even suggests that I am somehow in very good shape.

The owner of the Green Leaf in Krabi province is now my friend on facebook.

The End.

 

[Cutlass]

Thanks for sharing all of this, Warpus. Nice story, great pictures. It's nice to have a bit of vicarious vacation for those of us who can't get to these places.