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!
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