The Bhat Game
| this is called The Bhat Game. what can you get for how many Bhats? Before we begin I should like to tell you the exchange rate: US$1= 43 Bhat. 1 NIS (shekel)= 10 Bhat. |
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Monday, February 25, 2002
the Bhat Game
the Bhat Game
The Bhat Game
this is called The Bhat Game. what can you get for how many Bhats? Before we begin I should like to tell you the exchange rate: US$1= 43 Bhat. 1 NIS (shekel)= 10 Bhat. |
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the last day
our last day!!!!!!! we decided to do a normal person thing and go see a movie. we bussed it back to Siam Square and had lunch at Pizza Hut. then we saw Shallow Hall, the fat Gwyneth Paltrow movie. DO NOT SEE IT. very bad movie. HOWEVER. the movie experience was exceptional. the movie cost 100 Bhat, which is 10shekels, about $2. the theatre was spacious, clean, with a big screen and big, comfortable, reclining seats. the kicker was that in between the previews and the movie they played the thailand national anthem and we stood up and watched this video montage of the king's life. in this country they are OBSESSED with their king. in every city along the main street there are giant picture frame-things with photographs of the royal family. thai money is plastered with pictures of the king. rachelle became slightly distressed when she realized that on the twenty Bhat bill, next to thedrawing of the king's face, there is a watermark of the king's face which can be seen if the bill is held up to the light. so paying homage to him at the movies was not shocking. a pleasant surprise.
waiting for the bus to take us back to Kho Sahn we met some Canadian boys who had met our friend Avi in the north. for such a large country, thailand is pretty small. honestly, on this day we bumped into at least 5 other people we had seen on other parts of our trip. it was really weird. the bus was slow in coming and so we took our final tuk-tuk back. weep, weep. the sadness did not last long. our driver tried to overcharge us, and instead of calling the tourist police we simply paid him what we had agreed on and then walked away. then we did the last of our shopping, ate our last pad thai, sipped our last fruit shakes, and bid thailand adieu.
waiting for the bus to take us back to Kho Sahn we met some Canadian boys who had met our friend Avi in the north. for such a large country, thailand is pretty small. honestly, on this day we bumped into at least 5 other people we had seen on other parts of our trip. it was really weird. the bus was slow in coming and so we took our final tuk-tuk back. weep, weep. the sadness did not last long. our driver tried to overcharge us, and instead of calling the tourist police we simply paid him what we had agreed on and then walked away. then we did the last of our shopping, ate our last pad thai, sipped our last fruit shakes, and bid thailand adieu.
Thursday, February 21, 2002
day twenty seven
ahhhhhh....back in bangkok. arrived in the wee hours of the morning, before anyone in their right minds had checked out of their guesthouse, and so we spent a few hours dozing in the restaurant area of Green Guesthouse waiting for an opening. we got a double room at around 9am. dumped our stuff in, showered, ate breakfast. the plan was to go to Siam Square, a giant market/mall area. I was feeling too tired to go, so the girls went without me. i slept for another hour, then walked up and down Kho Sahn Road by myself, making my last purchases. ahhh, how nice to be by myself, to walk at my own pace and dilly-dally (theres a word you haven't heard for 50 years) and dawdle and stare at other tourists and take ten minutes to decide which flavor fruit shake you want. it was wonderful. i did some email and met the girls back at our place in the afternoon. Miriam had bought a blender!!!!! it was something that, honestly, we had been talking about THE ENTIRE TRIP. stuff is so cheap here it makes sense to buy electronics and home supplies. and you know how necessary a blender is. it truly was the highlight of the day and that moment could not be topped. at night we did some more Kho Sahn shopping. then we had to drop Rachelle off at the airport!! boo hoo, she was not on our flight home. we had a nice dinner of KFC at the airport. once rachelle was through passport control, miriam, linda, and i returned home and slept in our double room. (it was kind of sneaky of us because we told them we were only 2 people. but who cares.)
Krabi, AKA The Most Beautiful Place in the World
day 23: slept in and awoke in the warm sunny beachy air. no roosters!!! actually i woke up pretty early as i had gone to bed at 9pm the night before. read some harry potter before the others got up at 9. ate breakfast. lay on the beach. swam in the water. finished harry potter 1. ate lunch. lay on the hammock. played cards. took a nap. took a shower. laid out some more. in the afternoon the tide went out so far that we could walk for at least 100 meters out and look at the tidepools- saw starfish, little crabs, shells galore, flipping starfish, rocks, cool sand patterns, mating starfish.
now that i think about it, i don't think this was a separate day. hmmm. i have got my days switched up. i think we did all this day 22 afternoon, when we first arrived.
day 23 for reals: took an early ferry to Ko Phi Phi island (pronounce Ko Pee Pee). this is the island portrayed in the book and film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. SO PRETTY. rented a longboat and a driver, rented snorkle masks and fins, spent the day flitting about the different parts of the islands. saw many brightly colored fish. the water is so warm!!!!!! after a while the snorkle mask started getting on my nerves (you know how it stretches out your lips that way) and i was not getting the breathing down right and slightly hyperventilating. miriam felt the same way i think. i snorkled a bit while holding my breath. but the white sand beaches were too inviting and so we kicked our way to shore and just sort of lay on the soft sand for a while, much in the manner of beached whales.
now that i think about it, we might have spent that extra day just sitting around before taking the boat to the islands. this might be day 24. the girls aren't around to ask. hmmm.
how beautiful was this island, you ask. very. my goodness, it was simply picturesque. white sand beaches. by white, i mean white. crayola white. blue blue water. clean, warm water. palm trees coming out of the sand. leaning out over the water. lush green mountains inland. the sun in the blue sky. (are you jealous yet?) we lay on the shore where the small waves met the sand and ate cheese sandwiches and took pictures and dug holes and built sand-drip castles. eventually we had to boat back to the port and boat back to Krabi and taxi back to our guesthouse, where we sat on the beach some more and ate dinner. started harry potter 2: chamber of secrets. played cards with the 'Raelis. i met some very nice strange fellows who claimed that there was a woman in australia who has not eaten or drinken (is that a word? probably not.) for 13 years. apparently she lives off light energy, like plants. i was too mellow and pleasantly tired to tell them i thought it was bullshit.
day 25: woke up late again. by late i mean i woke up at 8. lay around, went to eat breakfast, lay about on the beach. we took a boat to a beach called Riley Beach. (probably not spelled like that. probably spelled Rhi lae or something. it is Thai, after all.) This beach is supposedly the prettiest beach in the country. well. thats quite something to live up to, but it actually was the prettiest beach in the country, as well as we could judge. looked sort of like the beach from Ko Phi Phi only nicer. a few shady spots. layed out there. at one point a little Thai girl walked up to us and sat down on my sarong. she just sat there. then she opened my backpack and took out a peice of gum and put it in her mouth. then she got up and walked away. me and miriam got sick of the sun and so we walked to the opposite side of the beach where there were bunches of rock climbers clambering up the steep limestone to get to this hidden lagoon. very cool. we watched them struggle for a while and then returned to the sun-bathing side. i finished harry potter 2. in the evening we ate in Ao Nang town, at a very overpriced restaurant which provided us with a fantastic view of the highway. the pink and purple sunset was also visible. at night we played more cards. i went to bed at 9. magnificent!!!
day 26: woke up late again. i think i should say, slept in, because i awoke naturally at 8am. lay on the beach. ate breakfast, packed, showered. we took a taxi to the bus station in Krabi proper and then spent all afternoon and evening on a horrible bus to Surat Thani, the other side of the coast, where we ate dinner and got back on the bus for our overnight to Bangkok (our favorite city). terrible bus ride. never do an overnight bus. not at all comfortable and rather smelly.
unfortunately, i cannot remember any Krabi quotes and i never wrote any down.
now that i think about it, i don't think this was a separate day. hmmm. i have got my days switched up. i think we did all this day 22 afternoon, when we first arrived.
day 23 for reals: took an early ferry to Ko Phi Phi island (pronounce Ko Pee Pee). this is the island portrayed in the book and film The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio. SO PRETTY. rented a longboat and a driver, rented snorkle masks and fins, spent the day flitting about the different parts of the islands. saw many brightly colored fish. the water is so warm!!!!!! after a while the snorkle mask started getting on my nerves (you know how it stretches out your lips that way) and i was not getting the breathing down right and slightly hyperventilating. miriam felt the same way i think. i snorkled a bit while holding my breath. but the white sand beaches were too inviting and so we kicked our way to shore and just sort of lay on the soft sand for a while, much in the manner of beached whales.
now that i think about it, we might have spent that extra day just sitting around before taking the boat to the islands. this might be day 24. the girls aren't around to ask. hmmm.
how beautiful was this island, you ask. very. my goodness, it was simply picturesque. white sand beaches. by white, i mean white. crayola white. blue blue water. clean, warm water. palm trees coming out of the sand. leaning out over the water. lush green mountains inland. the sun in the blue sky. (are you jealous yet?) we lay on the shore where the small waves met the sand and ate cheese sandwiches and took pictures and dug holes and built sand-drip castles. eventually we had to boat back to the port and boat back to Krabi and taxi back to our guesthouse, where we sat on the beach some more and ate dinner. started harry potter 2: chamber of secrets. played cards with the 'Raelis. i met some very nice strange fellows who claimed that there was a woman in australia who has not eaten or drinken (is that a word? probably not.) for 13 years. apparently she lives off light energy, like plants. i was too mellow and pleasantly tired to tell them i thought it was bullshit.
day 25: woke up late again. by late i mean i woke up at 8. lay around, went to eat breakfast, lay about on the beach. we took a boat to a beach called Riley Beach. (probably not spelled like that. probably spelled Rhi lae or something. it is Thai, after all.) This beach is supposedly the prettiest beach in the country. well. thats quite something to live up to, but it actually was the prettiest beach in the country, as well as we could judge. looked sort of like the beach from Ko Phi Phi only nicer. a few shady spots. layed out there. at one point a little Thai girl walked up to us and sat down on my sarong. she just sat there. then she opened my backpack and took out a peice of gum and put it in her mouth. then she got up and walked away. me and miriam got sick of the sun and so we walked to the opposite side of the beach where there were bunches of rock climbers clambering up the steep limestone to get to this hidden lagoon. very cool. we watched them struggle for a while and then returned to the sun-bathing side. i finished harry potter 2. in the evening we ate in Ao Nang town, at a very overpriced restaurant which provided us with a fantastic view of the highway. the pink and purple sunset was also visible. at night we played more cards. i went to bed at 9. magnificent!!!
day 26: woke up late again. i think i should say, slept in, because i awoke naturally at 8am. lay on the beach. ate breakfast, packed, showered. we took a taxi to the bus station in Krabi proper and then spent all afternoon and evening on a horrible bus to Surat Thani, the other side of the coast, where we ate dinner and got back on the bus for our overnight to Bangkok (our favorite city). terrible bus ride. never do an overnight bus. not at all comfortable and rather smelly.
unfortunately, i cannot remember any Krabi quotes and i never wrote any down.
day twenty two
i woke up sick. joy of all joys. spent the next two hours (5am-7am) in the seedy hotel with my head down the toilet. didn't actually get sick but was very dehydrated/low blood sugar/light headed. am convinced i am hypo-glycemic at this point. felt better after some sugar cubes and a bottle of 7-up. we caught the 8am bus to the other side of the mainland- Krabi province, got settled in a guesthouse at Ao Nang beach. B E A U T I F U L. long sandy beach, blue shallow warm water, no waves, palm trees.... the works. we ate lunch, lay out, ate dinner, lay out, went to sleep. met some 'Raeli boys. the west coast of thailand beats the east coast any day. just like the usa.
kho pha-ngan
day 16: the end of our fast. got off the train, took a bus to the pier, took a boat to the island. we got to ko pha-ngan (pronounced KO panGONE) took a taxi as far as we could. took a speedboat to this little deserted strip of beach called Hat Yuan and got beach bungalows and a hammok. ate and ate and ate. rather boring day.
day 17: lay on the beach all day long. i read "Chocolat" which is really good. we boobed it. (tanned topless). it was awesome. took a walk to the next beach when boredom set in. the beach was beautiful, coconut palms all around, warm water, nice sand. the owners of our guesthouse sat and smoked up ALL DAY LONG. we watched them make a carrot bong. at night it rained. another sloooooooooooow day.
day 18: boredom officially set in. took a one and a half hour hike to the other, more civilized side of the island so that we could email. spent all day on this side emailing, shopping, and watching incredibly tan good looking people walk around. about half of them were israeli. took a boat back to our side. i had finished my book so i bought some more: harry potter and a book by bill bryson (his travels in america, if you are familiar)
day 19: lay out again. boobed it again. took an afternoon boat to the other beach. shopped and emailed some more. ME AND RACHELLE GOT HAIRCUTS!!!!!!! IN THAILAND!!!!!!!! then was the full moon party on the beach, an all night rave where every gueshouse and bar on the entire beach front pumps out music and people come from nearby islands and everybody drinks and dances and stays out till sunrise. they do this every full moon. we danced and people watched and were exausted by 1am (our bedtime has been about 10/11 everynight). but we were stuck there so we stayed awake anyways. it was like a giant carnival on the beach. sort of like sun god. sort of like that worm festival at school. funny story: at about 3am me and rachelle are sitting half asleep at a closed restaurant. a young beachy guy walks over and says, "I'd like to inquire about the toilets." we pointed him in the direction of the closest squats. About a minute later he comes back and says, "I'd like to inquire about some toilet paper." unfortunately, we did not have any TP on us. I told him to use a leaf. He says, "Great idea!!" and as he walks away towards the toilets we see him stopping at every bush and tree and taking some leaves off.
day 20: purgatory. perhaps the worst day of my entire life. as soon as we were able we took a boat back to our side of the beach. our plan for the day was to get off our side of the island, and catch a ferry off the big island and hopefully make it to krabi on the west coast. we had to wake up the speedboat driver TWICE and in the end had to take a longboat to a beach three beaches away from our guesthouse and then hike over to our beach. the boat was very very aweful. took 40 minutes because of the windy weather. we got soaked. then we had to get our stuff and walk to a neighboring beach to catch the next longboat out. WE WAITED FOR 4 HOURS and our boat didn't come. IT SUCKED. i got serious island fever. we had absolutely nothing to do. i read harry potter. i needed to leave. the only funny part about this day was when a monkey came out of nowhere and sat on miriam's head. then it shat on her shoulder. then it ran away. finally a boat came but the weather was so rough it was being tossed about near the rocky shore, decided not to take the boat back, slept on our island AGAIN.
day 21: getting off of the freaking island FINALLY. weather in the morning was too rough for boats, we we hiked WITH ALL OF OUR GEAR to the other side. let me expand on this. the regular hike with just day packs took us one and a half hours and left us drenched in sweat and sunscreen and bug repellent. so you can imagine our excitement to do this again with all of our stuff on our backs. actually, i was pretty jazzed about the whole thing. i was the only one who WANTED to do the hike and in fact had recommended it the day before but got voted out. we started the trek at 9:30 in the morning, went very very slowly. sweat a lot. got out of breath a lot. but we made it!!! it only took us 3 hours. once on the other side we emailed and ate lunch and then caught a 5pm ferry to the mainland. thank god we made it to firm ground. i vowed never again to step on another island. (broke that promise just two days later.) at night we slept at the most sleazy hotel you will ever not lay your eyes on. the lobby was really just a hallway, the floor was done in wallpaper wood print, the walls didn't reach the ceilings and so you could hear everything in every room. but we had beds and showers and toilets, which is what counted.
island quotes:
"We have our own appetizers." (rachelle, pointing out that in fact we did bring snack food to every restaurant we ate at)
"some crazy shit just happened in my book!!" (Linda, who was reading Harry Potter)
"miriam, you have a piece of seaweed on your chin." (rachelle to miriam on the long-tail boat)
"so that's the second time I've been shat on by an animal." (miriam, who took it all in good stride)
"now i know why Cast Away was so boring." (adina while bored to tears on island)
"Lets boob it!!!"
"I'll have the chicken sandwich, please." (rachelle, who ate a chicken sandwich for 5 meals in a row.)
"Thai Pee-poe" (miriam, imitating the Thai. for some reason, this never stopped being funny.)
"The best thing about Perm in that his name is Permpoon." (adina, about our cooking teacher in chang-mai. like miriam's imitation, this has not ceased to amuse us either.)
at the full moon party, rachelle and i wrote "pachotch" down our arms with black light paint. this bred a whole host of pachotch quotes:
day 17: lay on the beach all day long. i read "Chocolat" which is really good. we boobed it. (tanned topless). it was awesome. took a walk to the next beach when boredom set in. the beach was beautiful, coconut palms all around, warm water, nice sand. the owners of our guesthouse sat and smoked up ALL DAY LONG. we watched them make a carrot bong. at night it rained. another sloooooooooooow day.
day 18: boredom officially set in. took a one and a half hour hike to the other, more civilized side of the island so that we could email. spent all day on this side emailing, shopping, and watching incredibly tan good looking people walk around. about half of them were israeli. took a boat back to our side. i had finished my book so i bought some more: harry potter and a book by bill bryson (his travels in america, if you are familiar)
day 19: lay out again. boobed it again. took an afternoon boat to the other beach. shopped and emailed some more. ME AND RACHELLE GOT HAIRCUTS!!!!!!! IN THAILAND!!!!!!!! then was the full moon party on the beach, an all night rave where every gueshouse and bar on the entire beach front pumps out music and people come from nearby islands and everybody drinks and dances and stays out till sunrise. they do this every full moon. we danced and people watched and were exausted by 1am (our bedtime has been about 10/11 everynight). but we were stuck there so we stayed awake anyways. it was like a giant carnival on the beach. sort of like sun god. sort of like that worm festival at school. funny story: at about 3am me and rachelle are sitting half asleep at a closed restaurant. a young beachy guy walks over and says, "I'd like to inquire about the toilets." we pointed him in the direction of the closest squats. About a minute later he comes back and says, "I'd like to inquire about some toilet paper." unfortunately, we did not have any TP on us. I told him to use a leaf. He says, "Great idea!!" and as he walks away towards the toilets we see him stopping at every bush and tree and taking some leaves off.
day 20: purgatory. perhaps the worst day of my entire life. as soon as we were able we took a boat back to our side of the beach. our plan for the day was to get off our side of the island, and catch a ferry off the big island and hopefully make it to krabi on the west coast. we had to wake up the speedboat driver TWICE and in the end had to take a longboat to a beach three beaches away from our guesthouse and then hike over to our beach. the boat was very very aweful. took 40 minutes because of the windy weather. we got soaked. then we had to get our stuff and walk to a neighboring beach to catch the next longboat out. WE WAITED FOR 4 HOURS and our boat didn't come. IT SUCKED. i got serious island fever. we had absolutely nothing to do. i read harry potter. i needed to leave. the only funny part about this day was when a monkey came out of nowhere and sat on miriam's head. then it shat on her shoulder. then it ran away. finally a boat came but the weather was so rough it was being tossed about near the rocky shore, decided not to take the boat back, slept on our island AGAIN.
day 21: getting off of the freaking island FINALLY. weather in the morning was too rough for boats, we we hiked WITH ALL OF OUR GEAR to the other side. let me expand on this. the regular hike with just day packs took us one and a half hours and left us drenched in sweat and sunscreen and bug repellent. so you can imagine our excitement to do this again with all of our stuff on our backs. actually, i was pretty jazzed about the whole thing. i was the only one who WANTED to do the hike and in fact had recommended it the day before but got voted out. we started the trek at 9:30 in the morning, went very very slowly. sweat a lot. got out of breath a lot. but we made it!!! it only took us 3 hours. once on the other side we emailed and ate lunch and then caught a 5pm ferry to the mainland. thank god we made it to firm ground. i vowed never again to step on another island. (broke that promise just two days later.) at night we slept at the most sleazy hotel you will ever not lay your eyes on. the lobby was really just a hallway, the floor was done in wallpaper wood print, the walls didn't reach the ceilings and so you could hear everything in every room. but we had beds and showers and toilets, which is what counted.
island quotes:
"We have our own appetizers." (rachelle, pointing out that in fact we did bring snack food to every restaurant we ate at)
"some crazy shit just happened in my book!!" (Linda, who was reading Harry Potter)
"miriam, you have a piece of seaweed on your chin." (rachelle to miriam on the long-tail boat)
"so that's the second time I've been shat on by an animal." (miriam, who took it all in good stride)
"now i know why Cast Away was so boring." (adina while bored to tears on island)
"Lets boob it!!!"
"I'll have the chicken sandwich, please." (rachelle, who ate a chicken sandwich for 5 meals in a row.)
"Thai Pee-poe" (miriam, imitating the Thai. for some reason, this never stopped being funny.)
"The best thing about Perm in that his name is Permpoon." (adina, about our cooking teacher in chang-mai. like miriam's imitation, this has not ceased to amuse us either.)
at the full moon party, rachelle and i wrote "pachotch" down our arms with black light paint. this bred a whole host of pachotch quotes:
- your pachotch is dripping
- your pachotch is still wet
- our pachotches are sticking together
- your pachotch is brighter than mine
- can you see my pachotch?
- my pachotch is bigger than yours
- that guy just touched my pachotch!
Friday, February 15, 2002
day fifteen
boring boring day. slept in (finally!!!) which actually means slept until 9am, were awakened by several roosters staying at our guesthouse. at one point in the early morning, linda actually got up and went outside to chase the roosters away. miriam and rachelle were in a different bungalo close to the bathroom and were awakened by some thai women loudly cleaning the bathroom. miriam got up and walked out onto her porch to yell "shhhhh!! sleeping!!!" and then went back to sleep. the women did not react.
ate breakfast slowly, sat around, did nothing, did email. sloooooooooow day.
the reason that today was so damn slow was because the only thing we had to do was get a two hour bus ride back to bangkok to catch our night train down south. finally in the afternoon we got to the bus station. only when it was too late did we realize that we didn't have food for the bus ride. since it was only two hours, we knew that we could do it. but it really was a serious issue for several minutes. i think if you saw how much we eat every day you would understand.
get to bangkok, take a public bus to the train station. ride next to a 7 bus parade of fatigue-clad thai teenagers who stare and smile and wave at us THE ENTIRE TIME. get to train station, have one hour to pick up dinner and snacks and breakfast for the twelve hour train ride. this is what we bought: 2 liters of water for each person. one box of sugar/salt crackers. one box of cookies. three coconut filled pastry buns. four orders of pad thai.
the worst shock of our trip came when we discovered, ten minutes into the train, that the pad thai had shrimp on it. horror of horrors. none of us eat shrimp. i bought rice on the train and we managed to make it to surat thani in the morning. funnier still, is that we still had a three hour boat ride to the island, a taxi ride, and another 20 minute boat to our guesthouse. it was over 24 hours since we had eaten a full meal.
quote of the day: "I think i can make it. I mean, i know i can make it." (adina, about having a two hour bus to bangkok without food.)
ate breakfast slowly, sat around, did nothing, did email. sloooooooooow day.
the reason that today was so damn slow was because the only thing we had to do was get a two hour bus ride back to bangkok to catch our night train down south. finally in the afternoon we got to the bus station. only when it was too late did we realize that we didn't have food for the bus ride. since it was only two hours, we knew that we could do it. but it really was a serious issue for several minutes. i think if you saw how much we eat every day you would understand.
get to bangkok, take a public bus to the train station. ride next to a 7 bus parade of fatigue-clad thai teenagers who stare and smile and wave at us THE ENTIRE TIME. get to train station, have one hour to pick up dinner and snacks and breakfast for the twelve hour train ride. this is what we bought: 2 liters of water for each person. one box of sugar/salt crackers. one box of cookies. three coconut filled pastry buns. four orders of pad thai.
the worst shock of our trip came when we discovered, ten minutes into the train, that the pad thai had shrimp on it. horror of horrors. none of us eat shrimp. i bought rice on the train and we managed to make it to surat thani in the morning. funnier still, is that we still had a three hour boat ride to the island, a taxi ride, and another 20 minute boat to our guesthouse. it was over 24 hours since we had eaten a full meal.
quote of the day: "I think i can make it. I mean, i know i can make it." (adina, about having a two hour bus to bangkok without food.)
erawin falls
woke up at 6:15am. got breakfast and lunch of 6 cheese sandwhiches, 2 orders of toast. take a taxi thing ("sawwww....thing") to bus station. take a bus to erawin national park. dropped off at front of park with no map. see seven waterfalls on 2k hike. see 10 Israeli people. see an older white man bathing with two much younger asian women. park rangers don't allow food beyond the second waterfall, which posed a problem for us as we need to eat every hour. hid the bag of peanuts in linda's bathing suit. saw all waterfalls. returned and picked up our food, ate lunch, swam in waterfall pools. saw a group of little kids from the bangkok international school. back to guesthouse at 4pm. lovely outdoorsey day planned entirely by us.
do some laundry in afternoon. disgusting to discover how much dirt accumulates in shorts worn every day for a week. dinner at own guesthouse.
quotes of the day: "what if I'm hypo-glycemic?" (adina, to the park ranger who wouldn't let us bring food past the first 500 meters on our 2k waterfall hike. #1: thai man probably had absolutely no idea what that meant. #2: I am not a hypo-glycemic. i just eat like one.
"oh, she knows where her pachotch is. I know, I saw." (rachelle)
"it's pretty self-explanatory, if you know what a pachotch is" (rachelle who gets all the pachotch quotes)
"...well, now that about a gallon of water just came out of my butt..." (anonymous case of travelers' diarrhea.)
do some laundry in afternoon. disgusting to discover how much dirt accumulates in shorts worn every day for a week. dinner at own guesthouse.
quotes of the day: "what if I'm hypo-glycemic?" (adina, to the park ranger who wouldn't let us bring food past the first 500 meters on our 2k waterfall hike. #1: thai man probably had absolutely no idea what that meant. #2: I am not a hypo-glycemic. i just eat like one.
"oh, she knows where her pachotch is. I know, I saw." (rachelle)
"it's pretty self-explanatory, if you know what a pachotch is" (rachelle who gets all the pachotch quotes)
"...well, now that about a gallon of water just came out of my butt..." (anonymous case of travelers' diarrhea.)
kanchanburi
this town is so cute!! sort of like banglampoo area (backpackers village in bangkok) on a river bank, only smaller. lots of guesthouses and river rafts and small restaurants and bars and internet all on a small road next to the river. FINALLY got out of city life. Kanchan was exactly like i thought all of thailand would be. everyone agreed.
miriam slept in that morning, and linda, rachelle and i rented bikes. we biked up to the famed bridge over the river kwai. very unremarkable bridge physically, but the history behind it is cool. the scenery was amazing. reminded me of vietnam which is kinda funny since i have never been there. couldn't find the memorial that was built for the POWs and workers who died building the death railway. visited this WEIRD WWII and Jeath war museum. weird b/c in the museum there were war exhibits as well as buffalo skulls, proverb rock garden, coins, ceiling murals, evolution of man exhibits, pictures of the past 20 Miss Thailand women, naked paper mache men, precious gems display, construction, and someone's bedroom.
afternoon miriam joined us in a super long 6 hour bike ride down the river side. it was beautiful scenery and nice to get away from even the small city we were in. we rode through corn fields, past an elementary school, past little huts, next to food stands, stopped at a wooden gazebo-type thing on the water, ended up at a cave wat which was not so spectacular. actually, the wat WAS our final destination, but the bike ride itself was the cool part. had some bad pad thai for lunch on the way back (isn't that cool that we can tell when the thai food is bad?). at night we planned our next day big feild trip, which included buying 8 liters of water, 2 boxes of crackers, 3 packets of wafers, a box of cookies, and a bag of coconut coated peanuts. (this did not include the lunch we were going to purchase tomorrow.)
"whats in this?" (adina, inquiring about cheese sandwiches at every single guesthouse we go to.)
miriam slept in that morning, and linda, rachelle and i rented bikes. we biked up to the famed bridge over the river kwai. very unremarkable bridge physically, but the history behind it is cool. the scenery was amazing. reminded me of vietnam which is kinda funny since i have never been there. couldn't find the memorial that was built for the POWs and workers who died building the death railway. visited this WEIRD WWII and Jeath war museum. weird b/c in the museum there were war exhibits as well as buffalo skulls, proverb rock garden, coins, ceiling murals, evolution of man exhibits, pictures of the past 20 Miss Thailand women, naked paper mache men, precious gems display, construction, and someone's bedroom.
afternoon miriam joined us in a super long 6 hour bike ride down the river side. it was beautiful scenery and nice to get away from even the small city we were in. we rode through corn fields, past an elementary school, past little huts, next to food stands, stopped at a wooden gazebo-type thing on the water, ended up at a cave wat which was not so spectacular. actually, the wat WAS our final destination, but the bike ride itself was the cool part. had some bad pad thai for lunch on the way back (isn't that cool that we can tell when the thai food is bad?). at night we planned our next day big feild trip, which included buying 8 liters of water, 2 boxes of crackers, 3 packets of wafers, a box of cookies, and a bag of coconut coated peanuts. (this did not include the lunch we were going to purchase tomorrow.)
"whats in this?" (adina, inquiring about cheese sandwiches at every single guesthouse we go to.)
Friday, February 8, 2002
ayuthaya ruins
another great day. woke up super early to avoid the wretched heat and humidity. we were all super impressed that we were eating breakfast by 7am. rented bikes for the day-- so cheap!! (the low prices cease to amaze us.) then we biked over to the ruins and spent a couple of hours there. it was so peaceful-- not a white person in sight (barely any Thai people either, for that matter.) just us on our bikes on the tree lined streets, with grassy parks displaying the red brick remains of a once powerful empire. the walls and towers and statues and spires were amazing. though most were badly crumbled, they were still intact enough to induce wonder. so cool. we also saw packs of elephants march past the ruins.
such efficient tourists are we; we were done with the ruins by 11am and ate lunch in a little noodle shop with some locals. delicious. back at the guesthouse, bikes returned, and all packed up by noon. one more ice cream trip and we were on a train to bangkok. good bye ayuthaya.
ugh. reminded how much we hate bangkok jut by pulling into the train station. smelly, smoggy, loud, trafficy and unpleasant. managed somewhat miraculously to get a public bus to the southern bus station, then took another bus to kanchanburi. although the whole trip from ayuthaya to kanchanburi took 7 hours, it was much easier than we expected. in Kanchanburi, we found cute little bamboo bungalows with thatched roofs. very summer camp.
quote of the day: "what else was i going to do with it? obviously i stuck it in my mouth." (rachelle)
such efficient tourists are we; we were done with the ruins by 11am and ate lunch in a little noodle shop with some locals. delicious. back at the guesthouse, bikes returned, and all packed up by noon. one more ice cream trip and we were on a train to bangkok. good bye ayuthaya.
ugh. reminded how much we hate bangkok jut by pulling into the train station. smelly, smoggy, loud, trafficy and unpleasant. managed somewhat miraculously to get a public bus to the southern bus station, then took another bus to kanchanburi. although the whole trip from ayuthaya to kanchanburi took 7 hours, it was much easier than we expected. in Kanchanburi, we found cute little bamboo bungalows with thatched roofs. very summer camp.
quote of the day: "what else was i going to do with it? obviously i stuck it in my mouth." (rachelle)
ayuthaya
this day started off really crappy but turned out nice. stepped off the train into BOILING HUMID weather. felt like tel-aviv. it felt like walking into warm, wet, bedsheet. we found a guesthouse and immediately took cold showers and then lay around like lumps for about an hour. decided we shouldn't waste the ENTIRE day in our guest house so we went and ate fruit smoothies. they were not enough to cool our burning bodies so we went to KFC and got ice cream. (it was air conditioned, which was how we rationalized spending an hour inside playing cards.) decided to figure out why we came to this god-forsaken town in the first place, so left air con and went to go see the ruins.
these are amazing ruins which i don't feel like detailing right now, but they were just really really cool and brick and cement and huge and intricate and towers and walls. tomorrow we are going to explore more of the ruins on bicycles.
dinner was interesting. we wanted to go this floating restaurant that we found in lonely planet. problem was it was across the river. went on wild goose chase which had us crossing crazy bridge and then realizing couldn't cross bridge because bridge ended miles from the bank of the river, uncrossed bridge, got a tuk-tuk and found that the place was way too expensive and way too empty, so walked all the way home and ate at our own guesthouse. the entire trip took an hour. then we went and got more ice cream.
these are amazing ruins which i don't feel like detailing right now, but they were just really really cool and brick and cement and huge and intricate and towers and walls. tomorrow we are going to explore more of the ruins on bicycles.
dinner was interesting. we wanted to go this floating restaurant that we found in lonely planet. problem was it was across the river. went on wild goose chase which had us crossing crazy bridge and then realizing couldn't cross bridge because bridge ended miles from the bank of the river, uncrossed bridge, got a tuk-tuk and found that the place was way too expensive and way too empty, so walked all the way home and ate at our own guesthouse. the entire trip took an hour. then we went and got more ice cream.
Saturday, February 2, 2002
day ten
"That Day" made us rethink our plans to go on another trek, so we did the whole day by ourselves with our trusty lonely planet guidebook in hand. we first visited Doi Suthep, a giant temple atop a giant hill that had a giant set of stairs (300 of them) in front. it sort of looked like one of those big staircase temple from Nepal, which was the big thrill. otherwise, it wasnt that interesting. i mean, a temple is a temple. a wat is a wat is a wat.
then off to the umbrella village!!!! lucky us, today was one of two days A YEAR that this village holds an umbrella festival, with all the shops selling umbrellas and umbrella floats and umbrella making shops and other cool stuff. the highlight was when we got to call the tourist police because our driver lied to us and wanted us to pay a lot more than we agreed to. (remember that thais lie?) so the police showed up in their nice car with a siren but unfortunately the policeman sucked because he made us pay way more than we should have. but it was fun calling the police.
then we shopped and rachelle and linda got thai massages. night train down to ayuthaya. wait-- how is this night train different from all other night trains? on this night train we SAT. for TWELVE HOURS. (guess who didn't book their tickets early enough...)
then off to the umbrella village!!!! lucky us, today was one of two days A YEAR that this village holds an umbrella festival, with all the shops selling umbrellas and umbrella floats and umbrella making shops and other cool stuff. the highlight was when we got to call the tourist police because our driver lied to us and wanted us to pay a lot more than we agreed to. (remember that thais lie?) so the police showed up in their nice car with a siren but unfortunately the policeman sucked because he made us pay way more than we should have. but it was fun calling the police.
then we shopped and rachelle and linda got thai massages. night train down to ayuthaya. wait-- how is this night train different from all other night trains? on this night train we SAT. for TWELVE HOURS. (guess who didn't book their tickets early enough...)
long neck day from hell
we had great expectations for this day. (foreshadowing here.) you know those tribal women who live deep in the mountains and have these tall golden rings around their neck that you learn about in third grade from national geographic? the ones that put so many rings around their neck that they get really long necks? we went to go see them.
so the first spark of doubt should have lit up when we saw the 900 Bhat price tag for the day trip. NOTHING costs that much in this country. but we rationalized, saying that it was only $20. then we should have realized something was amiss when the big green volkswagon van with (!) curtains (!) came to pick us up. the "love shack," as we later called it, was a relic straight out of the 70s. it really should have stayed in that decade.
basically we drove all day long.
well, we got out of the van a couple times, i guess. once to see a really really cool cave that had giant buddhas and huge cauliflower like stalagmites and stalactites. it was really really awe-some. huge cavernous cave. (i know those are the same words) we also saw a random temple, a random village, and stopped at a random restaurant.
seeing the women was really weird b/c it was almost as if they were putting themselves on a museum display. they pretty much were, actually. but they were very happy about it, and were selling things, but it still gave us voyeristic creeps.
then we piled in the van and drove home. for 4 hours.
quotes of the day: "so, not the most exciting of our days." (miriam, stating the incredibly obvious)
"my spine hurts . . . but at least i have a short neck." (adina, after sitting in the van for a total of eight hours.
"something just dawned on me . . . well actually i thought of it 5 hours ago..." (linda, and we didn't know what was preventing her from telling us during those 5 hours we were cramped together in the van with nothing to do)
we call this day "That Day" because it was just so aweful we can't bear to relive the details.
so the first spark of doubt should have lit up when we saw the 900 Bhat price tag for the day trip. NOTHING costs that much in this country. but we rationalized, saying that it was only $20. then we should have realized something was amiss when the big green volkswagon van with (!) curtains (!) came to pick us up. the "love shack," as we later called it, was a relic straight out of the 70s. it really should have stayed in that decade.
basically we drove all day long.
well, we got out of the van a couple times, i guess. once to see a really really cool cave that had giant buddhas and huge cauliflower like stalagmites and stalactites. it was really really awe-some. huge cavernous cave. (i know those are the same words) we also saw a random temple, a random village, and stopped at a random restaurant.
seeing the women was really weird b/c it was almost as if they were putting themselves on a museum display. they pretty much were, actually. but they were very happy about it, and were selling things, but it still gave us voyeristic creeps.
then we piled in the van and drove home. for 4 hours.
quotes of the day: "so, not the most exciting of our days." (miriam, stating the incredibly obvious)
"my spine hurts . . . but at least i have a short neck." (adina, after sitting in the van for a total of eight hours.
"something just dawned on me . . . well actually i thought of it 5 hours ago..." (linda, and we didn't know what was preventing her from telling us during those 5 hours we were cramped together in the van with nothing to do)
we call this day "That Day" because it was just so aweful we can't bear to relive the details.
day eight
today was a fantastic day. we signed up for a thai cooking course!!! they took us on a tour of the market, showing us all the thai fruits and vegies and dried goods and sauces. then we cooked!!! i learned how to make soup!! i never knew how to make soup before!!! it is so easy!!! other highlights included banana spring rolls, spicy glass noodle salad, and this red curry/pumpkin/tofu thing. it was so nice to just relax and be in one building for a day, not to have to hike or take a tuk-tuk or go anywhere. and the food was divine. we got cookbooks so we can cook for everyone now.
then to the train station to book tickets down south. we found a fantastic little guest house in the heart of the old city of chang mai for our last two nights there. this place was so cute, very much like the cool hostels in europe where people actually hang out in them. they had board games, tv and movies, cool music, a pool table, good food, very nice owners. so what did we do? we left the hostel and went shopping at the night bazaar. i got a sarong.
then to the train station to book tickets down south. we found a fantastic little guest house in the heart of the old city of chang mai for our last two nights there. this place was so cute, very much like the cool hostels in europe where people actually hang out in them. they had board games, tv and movies, cool music, a pool table, good food, very nice owners. so what did we do? we left the hostel and went shopping at the night bazaar. i got a sarong.
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