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Trips

Thailand 2006

Keith, Monica, and I headed off from Juneau on 15 th of December for Bangkok. We dropped off Beavis in Seattle for her vacation with my parents. The flight went from Seattle to Tokyo then Tokyo to Bangkok. It was around 20 hrs all together but not too bad. The airport in Bangkok was only three months old so it was really nice. We taxied into Bangkok (900 baht, got ripped off) at about 1 am and got checked into the New Siam II (840 baht/night). We stayed there for 3 nights; it was clean and safe, though we probably could have stayed somewhere else for half the price.

Our first day in Bangkok we ended up hiring a tuk tuk to take us around to all the attractions (30 baht). We went to many different Budhas and some how Keith got roped into going to Top Ten and picking out a suit. The tuk tuk were white knuckle riding sometimes but were a good cheap way to get around. The next day we went on a tour of the old city (1500 baht/pp). It was nice but I would only give it a marginal rating because we were starting to get templed out. That night we went down to Siam Square and Patong Road (red light district). It was fun to walk around and see all the prostitution operations. It was a seedy area but I never felt unsafe like I have in Amsterdam. There were lots of solicitors trying to get you into there Ping-Pong shows. I wanted to have a quick look but Monica nixed the operation. Overall Bangkok was great and was certainly worth visiting for 2-4 days.

The morning of the 20 th we were headed off to Krabi on Air Asia. We made it no problem and got a taxi to the boat pier to get a ferry to Koh Lanta. When we got there something did not look right and we got bombarded by solicitors wanting to go on their ferry. I thought it was a public ferry but we dickered down to an acceptable price (250 baht/pp) and crossed our fingers. Turned out the taxi driver dumped we off at a private pier (got a kick back probably) and we got shuttled over to the public pier. We only paid about 75 baht extra but we were upset that we got fully lied too. That was the only real scam we got caught in the whole trip. We made it to Lanta and found a little set of bungalows (350 baht) that met our needs called Sea Culture. We stayed there for 2 nights. The first day we rented some scooters (300 baht/day) and they really opened things up as Lanta was pretty spread out. We moved over to some bungalows called Where Else (700 baht). They were a little nicer and the area was a little more upbeat. Activities consisted of a little swimming and snorkeling (poor snorkeling) and exploring the island on the scooters. We saw a working monkey dropping coconuts for his boss. We also went to a Thai boxing match. There were 10 bouts and it was very entertaining (600 baht/pp). All food was excellent no matter where we went. We went on a little cave excursion (200 baht/pp). They provided us with lights and the caves were good. We even saw some bats. Next we took a boat out to Koh Rok for our camping excursion (2900 baht/pp everything included). The snorkeling was excellent. The coral was not that colorful but there was good fish such as nemo fish. Things were pretty disorganized out there but we got things situated. I ended up stepping on a hermit crab and putting a hole in my foot. This seriously hobbled me for the day. Did a bit of fishing and caught a jack. Some fishermen came in a bbq up some shrimp crab and squid. The little island also had a population of monitor lizards up to 6ft long. We left Lanta the next morning for Bangkok and ultimately Chiang Mai. No problems getting to Bangkok, we stayed in the Siam Square area for the night at Whites Guesthouse (600 baht/ triple). It was much closer to the airport.

We headed up from Bangkok on the 27 th to Chiang Mai. Got a taxi to an area that had lots of guesthouses. We were able to find one no problem and stayed at the Pathara Guesthouse (400/550 baht, fan/aircon) for all four nights. Just roamed around the 27 th and decided what we would do for our visit. I set up fishing and Moe set up cooking school for the next day. Everything in Chiang Mai was much cheaper than anywhere else.

I got picked up about 7:30 for fishing. I was expecting to go to a lake with multiple species but found out in the truck I was just going for catfish. I was a little disappointed but was still excited. The fishing was fantastic and I was able to land 9 catfish with the biggest one at 21 kg (46 lbs). I fished all day and my arms were starting to cramp at the end because the fish were such good fighters. Chopped up ham sandwiches were the bait of choice under a bobber. We use 10 ft heavy weight spinning poles with 30 lb spectra type line. Anything less would not have brought in the big ones.

We decided against a trek for a few reasons and just did day activities for the rest of the trip. The flower festival was a highlight. There were over 100 exhibits covering a huge area. My favorite was bug world but they had tons of cool stuff to check out. This took us all day and we were tired by the time we were done. The next day we checked out some big open markets. There were all sorts of weird stuff like live eels and other fish. Fried bugs, dried squid, you name it and you probably could have found it. That day we went and checked out the major temple overlooking the city. It was really impressive but we were getting pretty tired of temples by that time so we didn’t fully appreciate it. The evenings usually consisted of a wonderful Thai massage across the street and dinner somewhere nearby. We would usually go down and shop at the night market a mile or so away from our rooms. The evenings were when we would see Keith for a few hours since he was on a totally opposite schedule. He would sleep all day long and stay up all night at some if the local bars.

Back to Bangkok. We stayed at New Siam II again but I think we were ready just to get it over with. We went to bed at 10:30 and got our wake up call at 3:10 am ouch! What a long flight back to Juneau but we made it without even knowing that Bangkok had several bombings new years eve.

No need to judge my grammar etc, I know it is bad and don’t care for these kind of essays