Back on the mainland: Feeling a bit Krabii today?

"I just ate the cheapest watermelon icecream ever--just 8 baht".

About an hour or so we arrived at our next destination--Krabii. Krabbii is actually more like a "waiting room" for those going to the beaches of Ralai and Ao Nang, which are both on the Adaman Sea, Thailand's west coast. This morning we caught a taxi ride to the pier to catch a ferry back to the main land, caught the ferry, got on a bus and then got on another bus. By the time we arrived in Krabii it was already dark and the only way to get to the beaches is by taking a songthaow toi the pier and then catching a longtail boat to the beach. Apparently it's quite dodgy getting to beach at night because not only do the longtail boats charge more at night, we'd also be on the water in the dark with our hikking backpacks on. The thought of being on a semi rickety boat at night is a creepy one. So...we're spending the night in the town of Krabbii and heading out to Hat Rai Ley beach tomorrow morning.

It's not bad, the food is cheap, less English is spoken and it's so much more Thai than the islands.Yesterday we went on a boat tour through Munchies Boat Tours, which entails taking a longtail boat around the island of Ko Pangan and visiting a few hard-to-reach beaches, snorkelling, hikking up to a waterfall and free weed, as well as Coke n' whiskey. The water is so clear and blue, I felt like drinking it. However, when water splashed all over my face and into my mouth, I was quickly thrust back into reality--you can't drink saltwater and live for very long afterwards. Overall it was a good trip although there were a few momments when I thought the boat was going to capsize because the waves were quite choppy on the way back--I thought we might crash into the rocks or even worse, that the boat would split in two and we'd be stuck at sea without life jackets. The tour included lunch, weed, beverages and beaches, but no life jackets.

Well, sometimes we have to make sacrafices right?

Notes from Thailand: Ko Pangan

It's been 3 or 4 days since we left Cambodia behind and returned to Thailand bright and shiny with amazing experiences and a strong desire to have out at the beach all day long.

We blew to Bangkok from Phnom Pehn on Sunday, spent the whole day wondering around that god forsaken city with out heavy backpacks and finally caught our sleeper train to Surat Thani, the gateway city to the islands of Ko Samui, Ko Phagnan and Ko Tao. From Surat Thani we took a ferry to Ko Pagnan and we've been beach bumming since then. Ko Pagnan is home to the world famous Full Moon Parties, amazingly blue waters and whisky and vodka buckets. Yes, they really are beach pails filled with ice, red bull, soda and alcohol. So yum.

Oh, and the film "The Beach" was filmed in the neighbourhood, that's how hot the beaches are here.

Our days go something like this: wake up, put on bathing suits, slather on SPF 30+ sunblock to keep our skins young and safe, have breakfast, lay on the beach till lunch time, eat lunch, return to beach until the sun begins to set, shower, have dinner and share 3-4 vodka buckets on the beach while watching fire dancers. We usually dance the night away in the sand, under the stars (when its not too cloudy)and pretending like we're the best dancers on the beach. It's quite fun and to think we still have 6 more days of such sun and sand debauchery--or however you spell that.

Beach holidays are so fun, and to think in one week's time summe will be officially over and the new school year will have begun.

Le sigh.

Not so lost in cambodia

Life continues to bring surprises here. I've gotten over my strange stomach illness thank goodness and have visited more places in Cambodia. I'm in the capital at the moment for the night and then we're jetting off tomorrow morning. Earlier this week we went to siem reap, which is a city in the north that is home to the ruins of Angkor Wat. The ruins were utterly amazing. Its like visiting the pyramids in Mexico but better because you can climb the temples as well as go inside them and explore. It was a lot of working climbing these ruins as it was about a billion degrees out and it was very very humid. The ferry ride to Siem Reap was also "adventurous"--they told us at the guesthouse (hostel) we were staying at that the ferry ride would be about 3 hours, however when we boarded the ferry not only did they overbook it so many people had to ride on the roof, the ferry ride was 6 hours in the blazing sun! We applied sunscreen but we were quite dehydrated and hungry and a bit toasty after getting off the ferry. When we got off the ferry we had to take an additional little boat to the "port", which was a nother half hour through a FLOATING VILLAGE! The half hour boat ride made the 6 hour ferry ride worth it. The river was filled with rubbish but people lived on it in floating houses that they moved around by attatching a smaller motorboat to the front. We passed many floating houses, smaller boats selling food, even floating basketball courts and schools. when we arrived to the "port" it was exactly what I pictured a small village in the middle of africa to look like. Lots of shanty houses on stilts, naked or barely clothed children, rubbish all over the ground and lots of interesting smells, and of course no paved roads. we had to take a 20 minute 3 wheeled motorised "taxi" called a tuk tuk to the town of Siem Reap and that was quite dusty and bumpy. I took video of the whole thing.

we stayed there for 2 days and then headed back to the captial to catch a bus to the south where the beach town of sihanoukville is. the bus ride to the capital was the worse bus ride I've ever ever been on. the air conditioner broke about 30 minutes into the 6+ hour bus ride and the temperature must have been near 90 F outside. It was horrible because the bus didn't have any windows and the bus was infested with mosquitos. I thought I was going to pass out from heat exhaustion! when we arrived in the captial again, we had just missed the bus to the beach town as well as it being full. so we were approached by this character who told us we could take a shared van down to the beach town. we had done some thorough research on this, you can share a mini van down the Sihanoukville for about $6. so we accepted the offer and went around back of the bus station and boarded this mini van with some other cambodian people who stared at us the whole time. the van smelled like the inside of a smelly sock. the drive to the beach takes about 3.5 hours, however this shared van ride was another thing. the driver said that he had to pick up more people in order to be able to pay for gas all the way down to the beach we waited around for about an hour at this other part of the city for more people, it smelled like the inside of a rubbish bin there. very unpleasant. It became even more unpleasant when the van we were ridding was finally filled to over its maximum capacity--both inside with people, in the trunk area with backpacks, sacks of stuff, boxes, a giant motor that seemed like it belonged to a tractor or something and also on top of the van with wheelbarrows. It looked like one of those vans you see on tv in some poor foriegn countr with sack and sacks of stuff strapped to the top. In addition to the van being at its capacity it stopped all along the way to the beach to pick up and drop off people. Its kind of like a rural taxi of sorts. when it became dark and we finally arrived at the beach town 6 hours later and the driver proceeded to drive to some dodgy dark place at the port we became a bit concerned. the driver just ended up having to deliver the heaps of wheelbarrows attached to the roof. when he was delivering the stuff the workers at the port kept peering into the car as if we were animals in a cage. we were very releived when he dropped us off at our guesthouse and he went on his way.

that brings us to today, we stayed at the beach for 2 nights and 1 day and that was great. the first guesthouse we stayed at was only $4 but the bathroom looked as if it hadn't been cleaned in ages. It came complete with a mass of spider webbs over the light fixture. we're used to staying in not so nice accomodation without AC or hot water because we're on a tight budget and its part of the experience, but this place was too much. we payed an extra few dollars at booked into this hotel just down the street for $10 and ac and hot water. the bus ride to the capital was free of snafoos and had nice AC the whole time. the ride back to the captial is meant to take only 3.5 hours but again, nothing ever takes as long as they say and nothing ever seems the way it does--it took 5 hours.

tomorrow we head back to thailand to see the beaches of the south for 9 days. we are currently staying at a guesthouse for $4 a night--its missing the sink, I'm not sure whether it was stolen or they never put it in. Haha. But its all part of the adventure...I just had a wonderful dinner for $1 that came with a free mango shake. Yum.

NOTE: ignore the spelling mistakes, cambodian keyboard is psycho

Look at me, I'm in Cambodia

First thing, I'd like to say that Cambodia is like no other country I've visited. It's not even that similar to Thailand. It's the poorest country I've ever visited, but it has been amazing so far. We arrived in the capital of Phnom Penh on Sunday, did all that depressing stuff like visit the Killing Fields and the Genocide museum and then took a very, very long ferry ride to Siem Reap, where one of the world's wonders and world heritage sites exists--Angkor Wat. Apparently Tomb Raidor was filmed there. We've been in Siemp Reap for 2 days and are heading down to the south to the town of Sihanoukville to catch some much needed skin toasted sun rays and relax.

I've have so much to write about, but I'll have to write in more detail at a later point.
We went to Angkor Wat today and it was amazing. Ever been to see the pyramids in Mexico? Well, it's like that but cooler because you can actually go inside, versus just climbing to the top. It was really hot but I was wearing my new Peace Corps Addidas hiking shoes that I got in Thailand for $25. And no, they're not knock-offs.

On another note, yesterday was Valentines day and we spent the evening in town having dinner drinks (many potent and cheap $2.50 cocktails). Also, my sandal broke in Phnom Pehn on the way to dinner. We had to purchase superglue to fix it. It broke again last night. I think they are dead. Goodbye sandals.

Stay tuned.

Chef Me: I Can Cook Too

I finally took that Thai cooking class I've been saying I was going to take months ago...it was pretty fun. The menu included all of this good stuff:

From left to right: Stir-fried cashews and tofu, a rather bland-tasting Tom Yum Soup, Vegetarian Sweet Green Curry, "Fish" Souflé, Thai "Fish" Cakes. Centre: steamed white rice

Pad Thai

Spring Rolls

I learnt how to cook all of this stuff and then got to eat it afterwards. ( See photo below)

On Living in Chiang Mai

These are a few observations I've made about a charming city-town named Chiang Mai:

1. When you go to the movies here, they have at least 20 minutes of previews. After the previews they play this song and show pictures of the king on the screen, everyone must stand during this audiovisual experience. Or else, you risk getting kicked out of the theatre or punched in the face for disrespecting the king.

2. Shoes must come off before entering a house and some shops. We've adpoted this no shoe policy and intend to make it a way of life. The feet are considered the filthiest part of the body, so you shouldn't put your feet on coffee tables nor point at anyone with your foot. That includes showing the soles of you feet to people--it's considered extrememly disrespectful.

3. Dinning is an interesting experience: when you sit down and are given menus, you're given about zero seconds to review the menu, whether it's 1 page or 10 pages. Most of the time the server stands at your table until you're ready to order, which causes me to choose something quickly. When it's time to get the check, the servers are either nowhere to be found or they blatantly ignore your attention-getting glances in their direction.

3a. Tables are set with 1 fork and 1 spoon. I still have yet to master the eating technique which entails using both at once.

4. Unless you live in a western-style house, your residence WILL NOT come with a kitchen. No kitchen means eating out for all of your meals.

5. Doing pretty much anything here is a team effort. I went to Central (a department store) and purchased a shirt. I took it to the register and one woman picked it up and handed it another lady who folded it, who handed it to another woman who put it in a bag for me, who called another woman that appeared with a card that had the barcode on it. I gave my money to the woman who folded the shirt and she handed it to another one. On another occasion, I was eating dinner in a rooftop restaurant and ordered a Pepsi. The servers brough everything to the table in pairs--one to hold the tray and another to place the things on the table. When my Pepsi came, one woman put down the coaster and another put the soda bottle on the coaster. It's all about team effort.

6. Street signs and traffice lights are mere suggestions. A red light never really means stop and when people are crossing the crosswalk cars don't really have to slow down.

7. Some prescription medicines such as birth control pills and allergy medicines, which require a visit to the doctor and a written prescription in other countries, are sold on shelves in the medicine section of the drug store--and you can purchase as many as you want. I purchased a 5 month supply of a particular product for $16, whereas at the school pharmacy my 6 month prescription costs $95. All I have to say is that I'm going back for more!

1001 Southeastern Summer Nights

Our time in Chiang Mai has come to an end, we depart for the unknown again this Saturday.

February 10: depart Chiang Mai at 9:50pm and take sleeper (overnight) train to Bangkok
February 11: arrive at 12:30pm, spend the night in stinky, busy Bangkok at Big John's Guesthouse
February 12: Flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia departs Bangkok International Airport at 8:30am. Take minibus to Siem Reap, which is apparently one of the world's greatest wonders, and spend 2 days exploring whatever Siem Reap is known for and lodging at Earthwalkers
February 14: Head back to Phom Pehn--Cambodia's capital, as well as home to the infamous Killing Fields. We're being adventurous and not booking acccomodation beforehand.
February 15: Taking a minibus to Ho Chi Min City in Vietnam and spending two nights at Yellow House Hotel.
February 17: Return to Phnom Penh and spend 2 days there doing stuff.
February 19: Return to Bangkok in the morning (again) and catch a sleeper train to Surat Thani in southern Thailand.
February 20: Catch the first morning ferry to Ko Samui and depending on how cool the island is, spend 2 or 3 days there and then head over to it's sister island Ko Pangan--the island known for it's crazy Full Moon Parties. Think balmy, late cocktail-infused nights prancing on breathtaking beaches in your swimsuit--just like Ibiza.
February 26: Catch a ferry back to the mainland and head to the nearby beaches of Krabi, Ao Nang or Rai Lay, and spend 3 days spending lazy days in a bungalow by the beach laying in a hammock and sleeping under mosquito nets.
March 1: Take a bus to the island of Phuket, and fly back to Bangkok. We'll spend the night at Quality Suites Airport Bangkok.
March 2: At 8:00am we take a Thai Airways flight back to Melbourne--home sweet home.