Bangkok and Koh Tao

After our peaceful and lengthy stay in Chiang Mai, our arrival in Bangkok was quite a shock to the senses.  Bangkok is a huge and busy city and it’s definitely not a place to go if you are looking for relaxation.  The streets are crowed with cars, bikes, and people, and there is always a lot of noise, “interesting” smells, lights everywhere, and the weather is hot and humid.

We had come to Bangkok to meet up with Chris and Anthony and to start our journey into the south of Thailand together with them.  We met them near the Kao San Road area of Bangkok, which is the central backpacker hub of Asia.  There were thousands of backpackers in this area, and hundreds of guesthouses, restaurants, travel agencies, and locals trying to capitalize on it all by selling anything and everything.  Chris and Anthony were waiting in the lobby for us, and we found them right away.  It was really good to see them, as it has been quite a while now since either of us had seen anyone we knew.

We spent a few days in Bangkok after that.  We did a lot of walking around, visiting temples, markets, restaurants, and bars.  It was fun to introduce Chris and Anthony to our favorite Thai food too.  Our first night there we wanted something truly Thai, so we high-tailed it out of the backpacker area and went exploring.  Eventually we stumbled into some back-alley joint that was full of locals and absolutely no tourists – perfect.  Just a couple plastic chairs and tables huddled around a makeshift kitchen with a lot of pots of who-knows-what bubbling and boiling.  Of course Joh and I have learned long ago that these places tend to have a lot better food than the typical clean and calm tourist restaurant, but you could see it in the eyes of Chris and Anthony that they were a little apprehensive.  The food of course ended up great.  Anthony (who was full of bravado about the fact that he could eat spicy food) and I got a bowl of Tom Yum soup which was probably the hottest thing I’ve tasted yet in Asia. With tears running down our faces we enjoyed it immensely and Anthony was instantly hooked.  Chris on the other hand, was a little different.  You could see him looking at the menu with a look of fright.  His idea of adventurous eating is maybe trying a different BBQ sauce on his chicken.  He ordered a stir fry dish of some meat and veg and noodles or rice or something like that, and I think in the end he managed to get most of it down without too much trouble – and he said that he enjoyed it too, so I think we managed to convert them over from the bland traveler food over to the joys of eating good Thai food.

After  two or three days in the Kao San Road area, we were pretty sick of all the craziness, and all the noise and buzz of activity wasn’t too great for Chris who was having a hard time sleeping due to jet-lag. We moved to another end of town and stayed in a really cool hostel that was in a much more relaxing area.  It was better there, but still it was Bangkok, so it never gets too relaxing or quiet.  After two days there Chris was still unable to sleep, and after a week of maybe five hours of total sleep he was really feeling the effects and getting pretty sick.  We decided to go to the hospital there to get some doctor’s advice and hopefully some really strong sleeping pills.  The hospital was actually really neat to see.  The place was like a five star resort. Massive buildings, beautifully decorated, extremely competent doctors, and absolutely no issues with the language barrier. The doctor got Chris sorted out, and we immediately made plans to leave the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and to head south to the beaches of southern Thailand.

The next evening we jumped on an overnight bus and drove around 8 hours, and then hopped on a ferry for another few hours, and finally arrived the next day in Koh Tao.  By this time our group had added another person.  On the bus south we met a guy from Germany named Cornelius who was travelling alone.  Cornelius and Anthony hit it off right away and we all had a lot of fun with him so he ended up staying with us during our stay in Koh Tao and he is still with us a week later.
Koh Tao is an island off the east coast of the long skinny bottom tail of Thailand.  The island is famous for scuba diving and snorkeling.  We booked into a little bungalow near the beach and spent the next three days there.  The first day was a good recovery day.  Nobody had really slept well on the bus, so we got a good nap in and then had a pretty relaxing evening, although Anthony (who never seems to need much sleep and seems to be able to make a party out of every situation) and Cornelius made other plans and ended up finding out what the Koh Tao nightlife was all about.  At breakfast the next morning they came out with all kinds of crazy stories about fire shows and all sorts of parties going on all over the beach strip. It all sounded pretty good to us so we made plans to check it out that night.

That day we rented some motorbikes and toured the island.  We drove all around for hours, stopping here and there to check out a viewpoints, restaurants, and beaches.  It was a really good way to explore the island. After a long day biking around we sat around that evening and had a big game of poker.  We were without poker chips, so we hunted around for something that would work and ended up buying a Jenga set and used the blocks as chips.  The winner got a free meal and drink so it was pretty high stakes ;).  (Anthony ended up kicking our collective butts) After the game we went over to the beach to check out the scene there.   It was pretty crazy.  There were guys with flaming balls on ropes spinning them around and they also had a giant flaming skipping rope where all the tourists that had had a few too many drinks decided it would be fun to risk it all and jump around in it for a while.  We all had a good time watching all the craziness and Anthony (of course) braved the skipping rope and even tried to do a flip over the rope.  He ended up unscathed – other than a tumble or two into the ocean.

The following day was our snorkeling day.  We loaded into a boat and they drove us around to various spots around the island so we could get out and see the underwater sights.  There were a lot of fish and various rocks and coral to check out.  We all enjoyed it a lot and had a great time.

At this point Chris was still not sleeping well, so the lack of sleep was really getting to him.  He was really unable to enjoy himself so he decided that enough was enough.  He called the airline and managed to get his flight home rescheduled for the following day.  It was all pretty rough on him and it’s too bad that he wasn’t able to continue his trip.   We all left Koh Tao with Chris the next day, and we moved on to the neighboring island of Koh Phangan and said goodbye to Chris at the pier and he headed off back to the airport to catch his flight home.

So now we’re on the island of Koh Phangan with Anthony and Cornelius, at a small beach resort called Bottle Beach.  This is a beach I visited 5 years ago on my last trip to Thailand.  It is pretty much the most perfect place in the world.  It is a small beach on the north end of the island that is only accessible by boat, so there are no roads, cars, bikes, or really any noise at all.  There’s not much to do here other than relax and enjoy your surroundings. We go swimming all the time, have a few drinks at the bar, play cards, beach volleyball, and soccer. The resort is really well run by a bunch of Thai guys who love to hang out with you and join you in your soccer games or card games.  Our bungalow is right on the beach (the exact same one I stayed in 5 years ago) and as I type this I’m relaxing on our patio with the ocean breeze in my face, and listening to the smooth sound of the waves coming in. The weather is perfect, the beach is perfect, the food and drinks are perfect, the company is perfect…  Life doesn’t get much better than this.


* Sorry, but the internet is too slow here to upload photos.  We'll try get them up soon...