Thailand take 2….

So it has been some time since I left Thailand but I haven’t yet finished talking about it.  I think it is probably better that I tell you about Thailand instead of my companions in India (where I am now)…who are sick about me ranting and raving about the Thai experience.

So far I have talked about Thai food, culture, and climate.  In combination those items are definitely enough to bring me back to Thailand in a few years now.  However, adventure travel is more than enough even if the food was bad, climate cold, and people mean.

ADVENTURE:

Thailand is a place for the active.  There is everything from rock climbing to cave diving to do in that country.  While I was there I partook in a number of activities and am eager to go back for more.

My first real adventure was a 3 day 2 night jungle safari in northern Thailand.  The safari started early morning around 9 AM when a closed top pickup truck pulled up at my hostel door.  I stepped in to be greeted by 2 Americans, 2 Swedes, and a British guy.  I was amazed to see the two Americans as I have barely seen any while traveling until that point and since then as well.  One of the American’s was a college girl from Alabama studying in Australia and just happened to be in Thailand for a few weeks.  She would turn out to play the role of a literary foil for me on this trip ( a foil is a character in a book who’s qualities are in clear contrast to the main character….it is from their dis-similar handling of similar situations that you learn about the main character).   That being said I didn’t like a single thing about this girl and learned about the qualities I don’t like in people.  The other American was a 41 year old traveling by himself in Thailand.  He mostly kept to himself but seemed like a nice guy very jaded with life.    The swedes were two women police officers who were eager to talk and asked most of the questions during the trip.  The British fellow just finished his high-school (not sure what they call that in England) and was travelling in Thailand with some friends.

After about 20 minutes of driving and talking we pulled up at another hotel and two more people hopped into the truck…making a total of 8 for the jungle safari.  These new companions included another British guy who was into journalism and politics and was working at a newspaper in Lahore, Pakistan.  The girl was his girlfriend and also working at the newspaper in Lahore.  These people were great…they would be the people I got along with the most during the trip and made the best conversation.

The 8 people and our guides made our way up into the mountains for about two hours, got lunch, and then started the trek.  At first the walk was pretty easy.  We walked along a small dirt road past a hill tribe village where we saw little kids playing a combination of soccer and volley ball.  Me and the two British people joined the game and learned that it was harder than both volleyball and soccer and were all quite terrible at it.  Soon after the village we hopped off the road onto a very narrow dirt path and started a 4 hour walk through moderate terrain to our village for the night.  Along the walk I saw a lot of insects….. a lot.  Including one very large and very angry Tarantula.  Our guide spotted it and wanted to show us it’s ferocity and poked at it with a long stick.  As the stick came close to the fangs and upper legs of the hairy hand sized monster it instantly attacked and bit the stick.  After about 2 tries it litter ally snapped a small piece off the stick and then ran to its hole.  Everyone could handle the spider in the wild accept that American girl…who would be scared of spiders for the rest of the trip.

We then came along some amazing plants that when you blow through their stem bubbles are made (see flickr photos).  It was truly amazing.  Also we saw plants that when touched by anything instantly shrink all their leaves to nothing.  It is not often we think of plants having nervous systems but this plant clearly had some sensors and proteins that act via action potentials to protect its delicate leaves.  Further along we came to a narrow rift with dirt walls.  Looking at the walls it looked as if they were crawling…and in fact they were.  There will litter ally thousands of small jumping spiders lining the walls waiting for things to walk to the rift so they could jump on.  We went through the rift carfully and when we got to the other side checked for spiders…..there were many who hopped onto our bags and what not.  On the other side of the rift we had a break…for about 10 minutes as the was too scared to walk through…..as you can tell i am not very forgiving of unbased fear.

After that there was little trouble and we got to the hill village rather quickly.  As the guides cooked food me and the two Britishers walked up to locals playing that combination of soccer/volleyball game again and joined in.  We did much better this time but the locals still had good laughs at our lack of skill.  All in all the first day was good and the night went be with little trouble.  The next day we packed up and walked about 3 or four miles to an elphant riding camp.  This was definitely a very interesting experience for me.  I have never before ridden any animal… horse/camel… so riding on the world’s largest land mammal was a new view for me.  I was amazed at how sure footed the beast was even on steep narrow dirt paths that were barely wide enough for 3 humans walking side by side.  We were on the elephant for about an hour and everyone really enjoyed the experience.

Next started the strenuous climb of our trip.  For about 3 miles were were going up extremely steep hills and most of us had expended our drinking water during the first part of the days trek.  The climb was too much for the American girl who was on the very heavy side of things.  She tried to throw in the towel about 1 mile in asking if she could go back down and leave from there.  However, we only had one guide so that wasn’t going to happen and he said that she couldn’t leave until the next village at the earliest.  So the other American and myself took turns carrying her pack for the rest of the climb.  In the end she made it but not until she had almost killed the rest of the group with her whining.   At the village we ate and then continued on to a nice waterfall/swimming area for the rest of the night.  That night the stars were bright and air was cool…a picture perfect evening.

The next day was much the same as the day before but there was a ride down an authentic bamboo raft which was fun for everyone.  After getting back to the hostel i showered cleaned up and got ready for my early morning flight to south Thailand.

In the south I went to a world famous rock climbing destination of blue water and limestone cliffs called Railay  (see the sunset photos in flickr).  The place was amazing and I stayed in a small bungalow about 50 meters from the beach for about 12 dollars a night.  It was definitely paradise!  While in Railay I partook in Kayaking on the first day.  I kayaked around until I found a beach that was cut off by limestone cliffs and no humans were on it.  I landed my craft on the beach and for a few hours it was only me, and a few sand crabs to keep me company as I reflected on life in pure solitude.

The next day I decided to do a day rock climbing trip for beginners.  It turned out that I was the only beginner in the class so the rocks picked for climbing were on the more difficult side of things. I found out that I am pretty bad at rock climbing.  I went up slower than anyone else in the group and on one rock I couldn’t even get to the top (I had a fall about 5 meters from the top).  The problem was not strength but it was my inability to see where to place my hands and feet.  When on the ground it was obvious where to place things but when I got up on the rock the whole thing looked the same.  It was fun however and my arms and shoulders were really tired after the experience.

The final day in Railay was spent basically trying to stay alive during a hike.  I had heard rumors of a hidden lagoon which was isolated by limestone cliffs and only accessible by a strenuous…near insane…unassisted rock climb.  Assuming that I could handle it I tried to go there.  They climb started off pretty hard by basically scrambling up rocks and roots on a slick mud laden path for about 30 minutes and about 200 feet vertical.  When you get to the top it is a short walk until you see where the lagoon is….getting there is a whole different story.  I had to climb down into the lagoon…and I don’t know if it was a sense of adventure or a brief period of insanity that pushed me to do it.  The climb down consisted of four different 20 foot vertical drops that I had to rock climb down with absolutely not safety.   My heart was definitely pumping but the view from the bottom was amazing!  I was in a lagoon about the size of a football field with no other human beings in sight.  I took a swim in the warm water and was ecstatic I made it down to see it.  I would say the view might be one of the prettiest things I have seen on my trip and I suggest anyone who goes to Railay to do it.  The climb out of the lagoon was much easier in comparison.

Switching from rocks to water in the lagoon started to get me thinking about snorkeling and scuba diving.  So I headed to Koh Tao…Thailand’s premier snorkel and scuba island.  The water hear was clear and clean upto about 30 feet and the variety of fish and corral in the water was amazing.  I did both snorkeling and scuba diving while on the trip but actually preferred the snorkeling.  Since I was a non certified Scuba diver I first had a morning of training and a few very shallow dives in the evening.  I was able to see more wildlife snorkeling on the shallow reefs and wish I had done that two days instead of one.  While snorkeling/diving me and my companions would take food into the water with us and open our hands and get swarmed with fish…the feeling on the skin was as if you had millions of small wet spaghetti strands hitting you.  Doing this about 3 or 4 times would attract the big fishes that ate the small fishes which would eventually attract the sharks…. and they did come.  I saw about 4 or 5 sharks during the trip and all of them were too close to comfort.  The most terrifying one was not the closest one but the most ominous.    One of the girls during the scuba trip had gotten to low and cut her foot on the razor sharp corrals below.  There was a small plume of blood and she was clearly worried….she quickly (faster than i have ever seen someone swim before) made a straight line for the boat.  About 30 seconds after I could no longer see her (meaning she was probably 50/60 feet away at this time) I saw a shark swim by and in her direction.  I am not sure if she was out of the water by the time the shark got the scent but there was no biting incidences.

I am running out of time here in the hotel in Banglore India…but i think this sums up the experience in Thailand.  I left out some of the amazing people I met but I hope anyone reading this also gets to go to the country and experience the variety and depth of the culture and life of Thailand.

I will write again soon from India.