I hate those automatic-flushing toilets. Stupid idea.
Writing by Sheridan on Friday, 29 of February , 2008 at 2:03 am
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Sheridan Brown
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After clawing our way to the airport in Phuket (ie – by air-conditioned, leather-seated, luxury sedan), we got on the Asia Air flight to Singapore. And the flight was quite good for a budget-style airline.
Singapore exhibits a stack of parallels to Melbourne. There’s no language barrier here.
So far we’ve been just wandering around. We’re staying in a hostel in Arab St, which is in the middle-eastern section of town. There is a massive mosque just outside, it’s pretty impressive. I wish I had have had the chance to go inside and take a look. But not this time.
Tonight we get on a plane bound for Darwin. Should be fun.
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The final Thailand destination, Phuket, is in many ways just like Samui: many umbrellas on the beach, lots of fake designer gear and many restaurants. But not where we’re staying. We have opted for Phuket town. The beach, which is where most people go when they come here, is 15km that way (I’m pointing in a westerly direction). Phuket town is descirbed by the literature as being full of Indo-Portugeuse architecture (or something similar, I can’t remember, we sold the books). But indeed it is full of older style buildings, one of which featured in the movie ‘The Killing Fields’. The downside to staying on the opposite side of the island to the tourist zone is that facilites lack slightly. Nonetheless we never missed a meal.
The local bus stop is right outside the door, and it costs only 20 baht to get to Patong beach. We went over there, it was ok. I have never seen so many umbrellas up at the one time, even when it’s raining. Even in London. In fact, I’d go as far to say that if I counted up all the umbrellas I have ever seen in my life, it would still fall short of the amount of them on tha beach. There was really nowhere to put the towel. Obviously, I wouldn’t have laid my towel down (that would just be so uncool or something).
We also popped over to Phi Phi island (which is actually 2 islands – Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh). These islands formed the scenery for the movie ‘The Beach’, which I’ve not seen, so it meant virtually nothing to me. But it is a stunning place. I would have liked to stay there, but accommodation is a bit hard to come by there, and also expensive. Maybe next time. Phi Phi also copped it a fair bit during the 2004 tsunami. A lot of th buildings are new, and many of the trees still bear the scars of that particular Christmas. But the tourism industry appears to be going as strong as ever there. We had a bit of a snorkel around there, and it was quite good. Saw a large fish with huge eyes. The sea was extremely calm, too.
We’re pruning back our luggage as the flight to Singapore only allows 15kg of checked baggage, so that’s filling in the time nicely. Makes buying souveniers a bit of a challenge, so I don’t want to hear anyone complaining when they receive their ultra-light gifts.
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Our final destination in the gulf of Thailand is the largest of the three islands in this area, Koh Samui. This place is a major tourist hot-spot. All the obvious signs are there – every second shop selling fake bags/jewellery/dvds/designer wear, etc. The shops in between are generally overpriced restaurants.
The ferry trip from Phangan was strange in that it only went for 20 minutes. They also include a taxi to your destination on Samui (so they should when they charge that much for a 20-minute ferry ride). And by taxi I actually mean mini-van that goes to your general area. Saved us probably 400 baht or so though.
We hadn’t bothered to book anything (bookings don’t mean a lot here unless it’s a 5-star resort, which for us, it’s not), so we sat and ate and phoned a few places. Then we went to one and took a room within our budget and practically on the beach. We have grown used to non-flushing toilets and cold showers, and erecting our mosquito net and sweeping our own floor. The prices we pay for accommodation don’t allow for luxuries. But since we spend most of our time on the beach or outside anyway, it hardly makes sense to waste money on lodgings we’re barely using. Most guesthouses/etc have their own restaurants, and they all pretty much serve the same things – a bit of Thai (kind of watered down so the westerners can handle it) and the usual western style foods. It can be just as expensive eating here as at home if you’re not careful. Seafood is the main event of the evening, with every place laying out their fish in a big tub out the front, all looking nice. Costs are much the same (per 100g) wherever you go: lobster: 200 baht (about AUD$8), prawns: 100-150 bath, red and white snapper: 30-40 baht. This is obviously a lot cheaper than whipping down to the fish market at home.
We haven’t hired a motorcycle here because the roads are quite busy and the island is much bigger than we are accustomed to riding around. And since we’re in the heart of it all, there’s really no need.
Next we head over the peninsula (if you can call it that) to Phuket, the other major tourist place. We’re staying off the beach in Phuket town. It’s about 15km to the famous Patong beach (which is where people go to when they go to Phuket, most likely). We’ve seen enough beach, and we can always get the public bus there to have a look anyway. It’ll probably be cheaper in town than on the beach too.
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Really, it is. The tokay gecko. It’s a bit of a violent creature, according to internet sources.
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Ko Tao has gone. We took back the heroic ATV (which, contrary to its name, does not do ALL terrains. We checked.) Clearly it wasn’t tested in Ko Tao. We had to get up early and Tim made a few runs to the pier with our bags, etc. Then we got on the ferry. From what I remember of the last time we took this particular high-speed catamaran, it was a gentle and smooth ride. In hindsight, that may well have been a dream. This ride was nothing of the kind I wish to experience again. I’m not usually prone to sea-sickness or even motion-sickness, but I cannot seem to resist a bit of sympathy sickness. It only takes one person around me to affect me, and then I feel like crap. Well I can guarantee half the boat were feeling a bit green, and the other half were liars. Not one person harboured a look of complete nonchalance about the situation. I didn’t at any time consider the boat was going to go over (although we did speak about where we thought the life jackets may be stored, and I toyed with the length of time it may have taken for me to get out my mask and snorkel, should I be required to swim ashore). The boat staff was handing out plastic bags and tissues, which was not all that reassuring. So I tried to will myself to keep calm and put some music into my ears with the help of Mr iPod. In a matter of minutes, Beyonce had it all under control. Is there anything she cannot sing or do? I shall have to write her management a letter. Still, I was a picture of serenity once we got back onto solid ground. Then we waited for our pick-up.
The place we’re staying on the island is in the north, where it’s fairly remote (by tourist standards, anyway). Not remote like Ko Tao, but still remote. The roads we have encountered here so far are generally paved (concrete), with usually enough room for 2 cars to pass. Having said that, you wouldn’t want to be cruising along high-speed, as you’re likely to hit a stray dog, or elephant or a group of 17 people packed onto the back of a Honda Wave. Or maybe a coconut might fall. After driving Tao for over a month, Tim is competent but still adequately careful (ie – we cannot afford to have any accidents). We’re holed up in a bungalow overlooking Had Khom, a lovely long stretch of beach with a coral reef running almost all the way through it. We did a bit of snorkelling yesterday and today, but visibility was a little hazy and we weren’t all that excited. It did cross our mind that we may have already seen much of the best in Tao, but I won’t believe it until I’ve done some more.
Tomorrow Tim plans to do a bit of trekking/strenuous walking, while I will do nothing of the sort. Maybe I will swim, maybe I will read a book. Or maybe I will sit on the edge of the bed and rock rhythmically, obsessing about the catamaran trip to Samui in a few days, and whether I can get my hands on any anxiolytics prior to then.
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We had today all mapped out – we’d return our rented motorbike (earlier than we were required to) and rent an ATV so we could go up all the hills the bike looked at and broke into tears before refusing to go up. There’s always a little pang of fear when you return a rented bike (especially an uninsured one) – will they try to charge us for damage, even if we did not cause any? We picked up the ATV and then rode one vehicle each back to drop off the other bike. We had it looking all shiny and clean, and they took the keys off us, gave me my passport back and we were on our way. Relief ensued. For me anyway – Tim had to learn to ride the ATV very quickly, which was not a problem. Having never been on one of these things before, it was quite a ride, I can tell you. Imagine sitting on the back of a lawn mower. A lawn mower on red cordial. And perhaps some kind of amphetamine. These things go like the clackers – up hills, down hills, across rocks. We did discover, however, theat they won’t go absolutely anywhere. But almost. We rode up to Mango Bay, the northern-most bay. which all the books recommend going to by boat. But we found our way there (it was a bit tricky, so I just shut my eyes and it got simpler somehow), and the snorkelling there was quite good. From then we went on to Tanote Bay again, but conditions weren’t really ripe for any action in the water. So we’ll return the beast tomorrow morning, haven ridden around as much as we needed to. Tim went up a big hill to a lookout (and even he said it was a bit hairy at times) buit I decided I’d had enough adventure (and by ‘adventure’”I mean anxiety) for the one day. And I didn’t even have to drive it…
Tomorrow at 9.30am we get on the ferry to Ko PhaNgan. As yet we have no accommodations there (not through lack of trying). I don’t think it’ll be an issue, it may just mean we don’t end up staying in the location we had hoped to. But we’ll see – I’m sure there’ll be 4 or 5 people on the boat trying to sell us into their bungalows.
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Still having no luck identifying the creature which emits the bizarre sound. It’s taunting us. I may have to write to Mr (or is it Sir now?) Attenborough.
We’ve been spending some time doing absolutely nothing, which is so boring that I have an intent desire to return to work so I can talk to people and feel under pressure to actually perform some kind of task.
A few days ago, we jumped on the ferry over to Ko Nanguan, a tiny island about 1km off the north-west coast of Tao. There’s only one resort (with it’s own dive school, of course) on the island – nothing else. Which is probably best, since there’s barley any room for anything else. There are actually 3 tiny, tiny islands, all joined by a sandbar which makes an appearance (makes a small beach, actually) at low tide. There’s also a fee of 100 baht to come onto the island. It’s advertised as offering some of the best diving and snorkelling in the area, but we have seen a few sites which easily rival it, such as Hin Wong and Tanote bays. But it was an experience nonetheless.
In a few days we’ll head off to Ko Phangan, an hour or so south, and do much the same thing there as we have here (only for a much shorter period).
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