I'm now in the little town of Trat, about 5 hours by bus southeast of Bangkok, and pretty close to Cambodia. Yesterday morning I had to decide whether to go into the concrete jungle of Bangkok (since I was in a hotel on the far eastern edge of it) or head this way for the islands (just some of the islands, most of the Thai islands, and the more popular ones, are due south of Bangkok a ways). Although Bangkok sounds extremely interesting, I decided to save it for later in my trip and go straight for a mellow island.
So I packed up, got some good directions for catching the appropriate bus here from someone at the guest house, and then arrived here about 5pm. So far I'm definitely impressed by Thailand, even though I really haven't seen much. The drive here was inland, cutting across diagonally from Bangkok, so I didn't have the ocean to look at, and it was fairly uneventful but pleasantly green scenery, going through smallish towns. But it just has a good feel to it, and the notable thing, after going to India, is that it's way cleaner, mellower, less crazy and less third world than India. I would say that it even seems about halfway between second world and first world, maybe close to the equivalent of Greece, from what I remember of it (although it may have changed a little in 17 years). There are lots of private cars, they mostly seem fairly new, there's almost no garbage on the streets, almost no beggars or homeless, people are dressed pretty similarly to people in the west, nice but pretty casual, you see few animals around other than stray dogs, I didn't even notice any cows until a few right before I got here.
So all considering I'm pretty amazed that it's as cheap as it it. When I got to the bus station here in Trat someone came up to me with a card to recommend a guest house. So I decided to check it out, and it's quite nice, although a much simpler room than my other one. It's very small, like barely larger than the double bed that's in it, with just a fan and small table, but a quiet neighborhood, clean (other than lots of geckos, but I don't mind them) and it's about $3.50/night. They have a nice restaurant that's reasonably priced and really quick internet for about a buck an hour. The town is really mellow, about 15,000 people and I was walking around last night and it feels really safe, there were young kids out and about after dark and families going to restaurants, etc., but the streets weren't packed at all like India.
I'm on a small side street that's a short walk from the center of town and the market. The only thing is that grapes are apparently quite expensive, unless someone was giving me the inflated price. I went through the market last night, and asked about some grapes at one of the stands. She put a fairly large amount on the scale, maybe three handfuls, and then asked for 150 baht. That's about 5 dollars. That probably doesn't sound like much, until you figure that my hotel room is $3.50. And my budget is 10 bucks a day. So I passed on the grapes and instead bought some bananes, which were about 40 cents for a rack of 16 of them. That isn't quite as good of a deal as it sounds though, because the bananas were literally only about two inches long, and I had 10 of them in a row. They're usually pretty small in India as well, but not that small. But the thing is they taste a lot better than larger bananas.
Well anyhow I should probably wrap things up here. It's now about 10am, I've had breakfast and am planning to just explore the town here a little today. It sounds like there really isn't all that much to do around here other than see some temples, maybe rent a bike and go out of town a little ways, or just hang out and read or whatever. The reason this is a popular tourist town with lots of guest houses is simply because it's the jumping off point for the nearby islands. It was overcast yesterday and so I was thinking I might hang out here (rather than go straight to the island of Ko Mak) for a few days since there's no reason to rush to the beach when it's cloudy (and accomodations are going to be more expensive there). But then today is nice and sunny so I might just stay here one more night and then go tomorrow, but I guess I'll just see.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Friday, October 26, 2007
in Bangkok
Greetings from Thailand! (or, in Thai, hello is "Saw wat dee", the only thing I can say so far)...
Not too much has happened between leaving Hawaii two days ago and getting here, other than sitting on a plane pretty much and eating a lot of airplane food. The one bit of excitement was when I got to Tokyo, and they wouldn't change US dollars into Thai baht. No problem, I could probably do it during my layover in Taipei, Taiwan which is closer to Thailand. Well, I could have except that the currency exchange desk closed at the weird time of 2:50 pm, and I got in there at around 5 in the evening. Considering that, I figured I wouldn't be able to change money in the Bangkok airport either, since I was flying in at 1am. I had 5 hours there in Taipei to think about it, and thought if I didn't come up with a solution then perhaps as a last resort I could find another traveler with baht who would exchange a small amount for me, since all I really needed was enough to get me from the airport to my hotel. So after thinking about it I realized the obvious solution was that there would probably be 24-hour atm machines in Bangkok where I could withdraw money (you can withdraw directly out of your checking account, but then it converts it into the local currency at a fair rate). So just to make sure, I went onto a traveler's website (at least there was free internet access in Taipei) and posted a question asking if anyone knew for sure that there would be atms there open at 2 am. I checked back an hour later and two people had responded, both saying that not only would there be plenty of atms available but that the exchange desks would also be open. And sure enough when I got there they were, so I exchanged the last of my dollars (on hand, I mean, I'll be using the atms from now on). Obviously the Thais are a little more of night owls than the Taiwanese.
So then I got a taxi to my hotel, which I'd reserved a while ago for two nights to have the chance to recover for a day, which I definitely needed. I was able to print out directions to the hotel in Thai off the hotel's website beforehand, which was a good thing because even with it he had a bit of a hard time finding it. It's roughly near the airport but a little out in the middle of nowhere, it was a pretty uninteresting drive through a sort of an industrial business zone to get here, going the opposite direction from Bangkok. But it was highly recommended online, and I'm guessing the out of the way location is why it's really cheap for being a nice place with really clean rooms and a pool. My room has a tiny balcony, private bathroom and TV, and it's 250 baht, which is about $7.50/night. And they had cheaper rooms for about $5 but none were available. If this same hotel were more centrally located I'm sure it would be more like $20-30 at least, since Bangkok is a little more expensive than other areas of Thailand. If you want to check out a couple of photos their website is: http://www.bangpli.com/sananwan.htm.
So today I'm not doing much of anything, especially since based on the drive last night it didn't look like there was anything worthwhile to check out within a short walk from here. It's overcast and warm but not hot (I think about 80 f) so I may not even make it into the pool today. But tomorrow I'll being moving on way or another, since there isn't too much point in staying here to see Bangkok because you'd use up a lot of time, and all the money you saved, just getting into the city. But I'm probably not even going to Bangkok from here anyway. The islands that I want to go to first are east of Bangkok, and I'm on the eastern edge of the city, so I don't have to deal with the city in the process of getting there from here. Reading through my guidebook Bangkok sounds really interesting and there's lots of great stuff to see, but I'm thinking I'll wait until a little later in my trip when I'm more in the mood to spend 3 or 4 days in the city. So probably what I'll end up doing is taking a 5-6 hour bus ride to the small town of Trat, which is close to Cambodia. It sounds worth spending a few days in, then from there it's a short bus ride to a pier, from which boats take about 2-3 hours to go to the island of Ko Mak, which is where I settled on first, an island of only about 12 square miles that sounds pretty mellow, with budget accomodations and good beaches, swimming and snorkelling. Then from there I'll probably go to the nearby larger island of Ko Kood, which has a lot of waterfalls and hiking and stuff in the interior, but it sounds like accomodations are a little spendier, partly just because it's not very developed and has catered more to package tourists. So I'll have to find out a little better what the budget options are there. Then from that area I'll probably either head to see the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or else go back to Bangkok, then go north from there and make way up to the northern border and then go check out Laos. It'll certainly depend a bit on what I hear about in the meantime and whoever I might meet up with along the way...
Not too much has happened between leaving Hawaii two days ago and getting here, other than sitting on a plane pretty much and eating a lot of airplane food. The one bit of excitement was when I got to Tokyo, and they wouldn't change US dollars into Thai baht. No problem, I could probably do it during my layover in Taipei, Taiwan which is closer to Thailand. Well, I could have except that the currency exchange desk closed at the weird time of 2:50 pm, and I got in there at around 5 in the evening. Considering that, I figured I wouldn't be able to change money in the Bangkok airport either, since I was flying in at 1am. I had 5 hours there in Taipei to think about it, and thought if I didn't come up with a solution then perhaps as a last resort I could find another traveler with baht who would exchange a small amount for me, since all I really needed was enough to get me from the airport to my hotel. So after thinking about it I realized the obvious solution was that there would probably be 24-hour atm machines in Bangkok where I could withdraw money (you can withdraw directly out of your checking account, but then it converts it into the local currency at a fair rate). So just to make sure, I went onto a traveler's website (at least there was free internet access in Taipei) and posted a question asking if anyone knew for sure that there would be atms there open at 2 am. I checked back an hour later and two people had responded, both saying that not only would there be plenty of atms available but that the exchange desks would also be open. And sure enough when I got there they were, so I exchanged the last of my dollars (on hand, I mean, I'll be using the atms from now on). Obviously the Thais are a little more of night owls than the Taiwanese.
So then I got a taxi to my hotel, which I'd reserved a while ago for two nights to have the chance to recover for a day, which I definitely needed. I was able to print out directions to the hotel in Thai off the hotel's website beforehand, which was a good thing because even with it he had a bit of a hard time finding it. It's roughly near the airport but a little out in the middle of nowhere, it was a pretty uninteresting drive through a sort of an industrial business zone to get here, going the opposite direction from Bangkok. But it was highly recommended online, and I'm guessing the out of the way location is why it's really cheap for being a nice place with really clean rooms and a pool. My room has a tiny balcony, private bathroom and TV, and it's 250 baht, which is about $7.50/night. And they had cheaper rooms for about $5 but none were available. If this same hotel were more centrally located I'm sure it would be more like $20-30 at least, since Bangkok is a little more expensive than other areas of Thailand. If you want to check out a couple of photos their website is: http://www.bangpli.com/sananwan.htm.
So today I'm not doing much of anything, especially since based on the drive last night it didn't look like there was anything worthwhile to check out within a short walk from here. It's overcast and warm but not hot (I think about 80 f) so I may not even make it into the pool today. But tomorrow I'll being moving on way or another, since there isn't too much point in staying here to see Bangkok because you'd use up a lot of time, and all the money you saved, just getting into the city. But I'm probably not even going to Bangkok from here anyway. The islands that I want to go to first are east of Bangkok, and I'm on the eastern edge of the city, so I don't have to deal with the city in the process of getting there from here. Reading through my guidebook Bangkok sounds really interesting and there's lots of great stuff to see, but I'm thinking I'll wait until a little later in my trip when I'm more in the mood to spend 3 or 4 days in the city. So probably what I'll end up doing is taking a 5-6 hour bus ride to the small town of Trat, which is close to Cambodia. It sounds worth spending a few days in, then from there it's a short bus ride to a pier, from which boats take about 2-3 hours to go to the island of Ko Mak, which is where I settled on first, an island of only about 12 square miles that sounds pretty mellow, with budget accomodations and good beaches, swimming and snorkelling. Then from there I'll probably go to the nearby larger island of Ko Kood, which has a lot of waterfalls and hiking and stuff in the interior, but it sounds like accomodations are a little spendier, partly just because it's not very developed and has catered more to package tourists. So I'll have to find out a little better what the budget options are there. Then from that area I'll probably either head to see the temples at Angkor Wat in Cambodia, or else go back to Bangkok, then go north from there and make way up to the northern border and then go check out Laos. It'll certainly depend a bit on what I hear about in the meantime and whoever I might meet up with along the way...
Monday, October 15, 2007
Na Pali coast
(First two photos are dayhiking on the Kalalau Trail with Denise and ? (damn forgot his name), friends from the hostel, the day before hiking out to the Kalalau Valley; third pic is the night before, having some grub and a beer at a nice restaurant in Kapaa)...
I had a great trip camping on the Na Pali coast, which is the section of coast on the western side of Kauai, Hawaii, where there is no road because the cliffs are too steep. I spent about 10 days camping altogether, which included two days of hiking in and two days hiking out. Although it's only an 11 mile hike, it's rated as one of the most difficult hikes in North America, because it goes up and down so many valleys along the way. It's not a walk on the beach by any means. So the first day I hiked in to the unofficial camp at the 8-mile marker, and discovered a guy there who had been camping at that same spot for 4 months. He had hiked the trail I guess around early summer, and decided that the trail needed some maintenance, and the park service was neglecting it (it's a state park), so he decided to just camp there and work on the trail. Every two weeks he hikes out for food and then hikes back in. I was glad he was there because I got there completely exhausted and he already had a fire going. Plus he was a nice guy and good company.
So the next day I hiked the last little bit and then spent the next 5 or 6 days or whatever camped right near the beach, and the waterfall, at the end of the trail, where the cliffs become too steep even for a hiking trail. It was a bit cloudy and rainy the first few days, which leaves you a little bored, since mostly what you want to do there is swim and hang out in the sun. But I was still able to catch a few rays between the clouds, as well as hike up into the valley, where another 2-mile trail extends away from the coast. There's a river running down the valley with great swimming holes, and it's just interesting terrain for hiking through, pretty much full-on rainforest, although there are no large mammals, other than goats, but plenty of birds and bugs. Fortunately though there are basically no mosquitoes out there for some strange reason.
I was able to spend a few extra days out there because I met a backpacker's club, 6 guys from a few places around the country, who had hiked in with way too much stuff for just a few days. They sent up their tents in the same area of the campground I was in, then invited me over to their fire for dinner for the 3 nights they were there, as well as gave me a bunch of lunch snacks. One of them had 3 headlamps, so when he found out that I just had a flashlight he gave me one of his, which was great because I've been meaning to get one for years. But the main thing was that I was able to stay an extra 3 days, because otherwise my food would have run out, and I wouldn't have felt quite ready to leave at that point.
I also met some of the semi-permanent residents who live back there, people who, like the guy at the 8-mile point just set up camps and then head back to town every few weeks to stock up on supplies. You're technically only allowed to stay there for 5 days, but the rangers only check permits a few times a year, when they helicopter in. And although there's a bit of controversy over whether people should be living out there, there doesn't seem to be much negative impact from it, certainly no more than all the people staying in resorts elswehere on the island. And I think any time someone wants to live in the woods it's pretty much a good thing. So I joined some of the valley-dwellers for a few sunsets and some music jam sessions on a bluff overlooking the ocean and the beach.
After a week out there, though, I was ready to get back to civilization and start gearing up for the next part of my trip. I am now staying with a friend near Kapaa, which is the same town where I was previously staying at the hostel. She owns a house here but is in the process of trying to sell it, and so I'm helping around the place in exchange for staying here. I'll probably stay here until next week, when I get on a plane, Oct. 24th, and go to Thailand. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Hawaii has been nice but this is my 4th time here, and besides I'm still in the U.S., so I'm ready for a little more excitement and some new places to check out. I'll be there for 7 weeks, then I'm off to India for 3 months, then back to Thailand for another month, then I'll be flying back to Kauai again next April.
going to Kalalau
(originally written October 1st, 2007)
I've had a little change of plans. I was going to stay with a friend in Kapaa (the same town where the hostel is) starting today and for the next week or so, and help her getting her house fixed up to sell, as she's moving to Europe. But it turns out she has a big project to do on the computer for the next several days, so it was better if I come at the end of the week, or else next week. So I shifted things around and instead I'm going camping at the Na Pali coast tomorrow. I'm in Lihue (the biggest town on the island) and just got my camping permits, then I'll probably get a ride out to the trailhead with some people at the hostel.
So I'll probably stay out there roughly a week, give or take a few days. It might just depend on how long the food lasts, or else whenever I get bored and want to come back to civilization. But I'll be at the Kalalau Valley, on the Na Pali coast here on Kauai. That's the section of the island where there's no road because the cliffs are too rugged. But even the trail ends after 11 miles and there's no trail after that because it's too steep even for a hiking trail. But at the end of the trail there is a nice beach with a campground, and then another trail going inland a couple of miles that's great for hiking and exploring, plus a small river for swimming in, so it's easy to find stuff to do out there. Also when I went to get the camping permit he said I was lucky because it's almost full, so it sounds like there'll be plenty of other campers out there.
Anyway the last couple of days has pretty much been the usual. I went snorkeling yesterday with some people at the hostel, at Poipu beach, which is in the same area where my mom and brother stayed back in 1989. It was okay snorkeling, saw some interesting fish but nothing like the Andaman islands, or Thailand by the sounds of it.
I've had a little change of plans. I was going to stay with a friend in Kapaa (the same town where the hostel is) starting today and for the next week or so, and help her getting her house fixed up to sell, as she's moving to Europe. But it turns out she has a big project to do on the computer for the next several days, so it was better if I come at the end of the week, or else next week. So I shifted things around and instead I'm going camping at the Na Pali coast tomorrow. I'm in Lihue (the biggest town on the island) and just got my camping permits, then I'll probably get a ride out to the trailhead with some people at the hostel.
So I'll probably stay out there roughly a week, give or take a few days. It might just depend on how long the food lasts, or else whenever I get bored and want to come back to civilization. But I'll be at the Kalalau Valley, on the Na Pali coast here on Kauai. That's the section of the island where there's no road because the cliffs are too rugged. But even the trail ends after 11 miles and there's no trail after that because it's too steep even for a hiking trail. But at the end of the trail there is a nice beach with a campground, and then another trail going inland a couple of miles that's great for hiking and exploring, plus a small river for swimming in, so it's easy to find stuff to do out there. Also when I went to get the camping permit he said I was lucky because it's almost full, so it sounds like there'll be plenty of other campers out there.
Anyway the last couple of days has pretty much been the usual. I went snorkeling yesterday with some people at the hostel, at Poipu beach, which is in the same area where my mom and brother stayed back in 1989. It was okay snorkeling, saw some interesting fish but nothing like the Andaman islands, or Thailand by the sounds of it.
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