Bangkok to Hanoi, Vietnam

In Bangkok, many of the cabs have these funny stickers on the windows ('farang' means 'foreigner'):




We stayed on Khao Sarn Rd, which is not only the backpackers hub of Bangkok, but also a big party at night and a bustling marketplace during the day and into the night.




Concepts of hygiene vary from place to place, and in SE Asia it is more common than not to see an animal of some sort in a restaurant, either pets or strays. This cat came in and decided to chill beside Jos on a bench as we ate supper.




We also organised our entry visas for Vietnam, so Jos and Ron needed photos taken (I already had some).




We got to the Bangkok airport in the morning and as we went through the final security check, noticed this bin for disposing of items that are banned onboard. It was mainly filled with dozens of pairs of scissors, as well as finger nail cutters, a hunting knife, and at least two guns! The guns are circled in this pic:




We arrived in Hanoi safe and sound just after noon and after finding a place to stay, headed out to eat. Ron and I saw pigeon on the menu and couldn't resist.




It was delicious!






We also made a visit to the ATM, and I took out 1,000,000 dong. I was a millionaire! Of course, 1 million Vietnam dong is only about $75 Canadian...




Our room was quite nice, but the hotel was less than great in terms of service and honesty... more on that another time perhaps. Let's just say we're all writing letters to the tourism authority, and the Lonely Planet publishers about this particular place. I'll leave it at that.




We went walking around the area in the old quarter of Hanoi, and stumbled onto this free open air concert. It was a sort of talent show almost, a variety show. Pretty cool stuff.




Crossing the street in Hanoi is pretty crazy. At first, it's downright scary. The traffic never stops moving, so anyone walking or driving just has to go at a medium pace, rarely stopping and never speeding or making any sudden moves, and everyone just steers around each other. Very organised chaos.

In order to get across the really crazy intersections, we used locals as guides. That is, we'd see a local crossing and stick beside them like glue and avoid getting hit. On one particular crossing I used these four tiny pyjama-clad children to get across the street!




Now we're fine at crossing ourselves, but I still wouldn't be comfortable riding a bike or driving a motorcycle around Hanoi.

To see what the traffic was like, the only real way is to watch a video. Ron took this short vid of one of the less crazy intersections. To view it, please RIGHT CLICK on the link below, and save the file to your computer by choosing the "Save Target As" option in IE, or the "Save Link As" option in Firefox. You need QuickTime media player to open it (most people already have this program but you can download it free online... just google "quicktime").

RIGHT CLICK HERE

Koh Phangan to Bangkok

[This entry was supposed to be up a LONG time ago, but I'll explain the delay later]

So we decided to leave Koh Phangan on the 26th to head to Bangkok. We caught a ferry just after noon, but we arrived at the last minute so the seats inside were almost all full. I decided to head up to the upper outside deck and chill there. I fell asleep after a bit but woke up some minutes later when it began to rain. Everyone else ran down to the inside, but I moved my stuff to a dry area and stayed up on the top deck just outside the wheelroom (not sure if that's correct terminology, but the room where the captain chills with the steering wheel).








There were three people in the captain's room: the captain and two other guys. One was reading the newspaper, the other was watching Thai women's volleyball on a TV set, and the captain was steering with both engines on full throttle, drinking a Singha beer.




We got to the mainland, and after a 1.5 hour bus ride arrived at the Suratthani train station. We bought tickets to Bangkok on an overnight train in the aircon sleeper carriage (we wanted no aircon, to save money and not be so cold, but they had no cheap seats left). I love sleeper cars in trains, but for some reason I didn't sleep much at all on this trip, so I was a bit grumpy in the morning.




Ron was in a more philosophical mood in the morning, as he pondered the meaning of life and the diverse and changing environments in which we constantly find ourselves on our travels.




Outside of central Bangkok the whole place is covered in slums, even all around the King's palace, within about 50 metres of the moat. It always makes us a bit sad, and as in past visits we discussed the differences between poverty in Vancouver and elsewhere.






Well, we caught a cab to Khao Sarn Rd (pronounced Cow-san road) which is basically the backpackers hub of Bangkok. After some walking around, we found ourselves a cheap enough place to stay and then...

I found $5.

And that's how I met Brad Pitt.

...To be continued next time (this time, it will really be in 2 or 3 days' time, seriously).

Koh Phangan monsoon

We moved from Hat Yao to Mac's Bay near Ban Tai, still on Koh Phangan. We were hoping for better weather after several days of cloud. Turns out it only got worse, as we ran into a monsoon and nonstop rain for the three days we spent there. One night I heard a huge crash on a rooftop next door and woke up, looked outside, and figured it must have been a coconut falling. Turns out it was a tree, and another one fell right between our bungalow and the one next door later that morning, while I was there. You can see the fallen tree in this pic, circled:




It rained nonstop for days, and many roads were closed. Some towns on the island were only accessible by boat taxi! Ron and I decided to venture to the little row of shops about a kilometre from our bungalow in the rain to find out about ferry info for leaving the island. Basically we got really wet.






After drying off and changing into dry clothes, we sat around inside for hours on end, just talking and reading and wasting time. One of our favourite activities was playing with the bread I bought on our ferry info mission.






We also went to a party, which was not too great but not bad either, and when I went to use the loo I found this guy on the wall! In the dark he just looked like a black spider, but I took a photo cuz of his crazy creepy legs. When I looked on my computer, I realised the flash lit up this guy's head and it looks like a human skull! Crrrrrazy!




Well we finally organised ourselves to leave Koh Phangan. We got a taxi to the ferry terminal, but when we got there found out we had 2 hours to waste, so we caught another taxi to some nearby waterfalls and spent over an hour walking there in the hilly jungle. It was really nice, though very warm.




I saw this local just chilling in the middle of the waterfall in the preceding pic, when I reached the top.




We hiked up to a viewpoint on top of some rocks which was nifty. This pic shows my farmer's tan starting to develop on my arm. It would be way more intense, but we've encountered very little sun and very much rain and cloud so far on this trip.




We ran into some time management problems in terms of returning to the info center to catch our taxi back to the ferry terminal on time, but caught the ferry anyways, and headed to the mainland. And for that, you'll have to check back here in two days' time...

Koh Phangan

We got out of bed at 9am and had breakfast, then arranged for a ferry to Koh Phangan with the lady in charge of the bungalows. At that point we discovered there is a one hour time difference between Singapore and Thailand, and we had been up since 8am! And we thought 9 was early.

By noon we were at the pier, waiting for our ferry.






Finally, we boarded the catamaran ferry. The pier was a bit dodgy, as it only had a railing on one side and it didn't look so stable. Not to mention the uneven boards and a number of tripping obstacles...




Once on board, we left our bags downstairs and went to sit on the outside deck up top where there was a bit of sun and fresh air.






The ride was crazy. I don't think I've been on a such a rocky boat ride my entire life, other than a few times in the rowboat at Bowen, but it's different being tossed around in a rowboat. We all had to hold on to stuff to avoid falling over (and we were sitting down). On the other side of the outside deck, just 2 metres from us, loads of water was coming up over the deck and drenching everyone, so it was soon empty.

After some time, we noticed a guy in a boat waving at us. I thought he was just a local waving hello, as he would know the ferry would be packed with tourists.




Turns out he wasn't waving, he was making an "engine cut" motion, like when you pull on the cord of a gas mower and it won't start. The ferry captain slowed the boat and steered toward the little boat.




As we got closer, I could hear the guy say in English, "the engine is cut" and so the ferry got closer and threw him a lifesaver on a rope.




They slowly pulled him in to the side of the boat and helped him up a ladder onto the lower deck.






Turns out he had been out there with no engine power for 20 hours! I only saw him on board once after that, drinking something and smoking a cigarette the crew had given him.

Well, after our little rescue mission, the crew tied his boat to the back of the ferry with the rope, and towed it in for him. We got to Koh Phangan 40 minutes later.




We caught a cab (the bed of a pickup) to a set of bungalows on the other side of the island that had been recommended to us. It was a nice ride, with fresh air, and the road was surprisingly good for most of the way.




We stayed two nights at the Bay View Bungalows in Hat Yao on the northwest side of the island.




Nice places, though a bit pricey at $12 per bungalow. That worked out to $7.50 each night for each of us, and my budget is $20 including accomodation and transportation. I'm looking forward to Cambodia and Vietnam where we're more likely to get $3-4 a night places as we did last year in Northern Thailand and Laos.






Tuesday night we went down to the beachside bar run by our bungalow owners. During the day the whole area is under half a foot of water, but by nighttime the waves are safely below the small retaining wall.

We met some cool people there, and spent a lot of time chilling with two very friendly Americans we met. Andy and Sheila, who JUST GOT MARRIED and are on their honeymoon, from Santa Monica. Not only were they cool, but I think Andy looks like Spencer Keys (UBC president) and acts like him a bit too.




I tried and tried to take a photo of one of the many bats that were flying around the bar, but they were too darn fast. However, Sheila borrowed my camera and got several great shots. This one is the best - it was really close up.




Hat Yao is a nice relaxing bay, but we decided to head to the south part of the island for the next couple of nights before we head to the mainland.

Singapore to Thailand

I flew to Singapore from Auckland on the 18th aboard a Boeing 747. Big plane.




A few days later Jos, Ron, and Ian arrived with looooads of luggage at the airport. I met them there as a surprise along with three of my Singaporean friends, NC, Azri, and George. Between the seven of us, we were able to take all the luggage fairly easily back to our hostel on the MRT (high-tech subway) which was cheaper and more cultural than a cab ride.




Our hostel was in Little India, which is a super nice place in my opinion. Good samosas there too.




The hostel we stayed at is called the InnCrowd Backpackers 2 and it's a pretty cool place. It even has a little bar, where we relaxed with some Tiger beer.




On the 21st, we caught the MRT to the airport.




We checked our luggage in at Bangkok Airways, and I couldn't find my Canadian passport.




I decided I would just travel on my British passport instead, as I couldn't for the life of me think of where my Canadian passport was. Singapore Customs officials were not so happy about that, as I had entered the country on my Canadian passport.

Well, I had to go with this lady to a different desk and then yet another desk and the head dude there wasn't too happy to see me. I explained to him that my Canadian passport was in my checked baggage.

He put my name into the system to find the record of my entry into Singapore three days earlier, and told me my name was not listed. He insisted that I did not enter the country under that name, but I showed him my flight itinerary printout and gave him the info from my Canadian passport. I even know the date it was issued and when it expires, the number, the name, and all the other info on it, all off by heart. The system still didn't find anything, but he finally just decided to stamp my UK passport and let me leave.

While I was waiting at his desk I noticed a group of six middle aged Asian men standing nearby, all in handcuffs. Each one had a label that said 2100h and some numbers. Turns out they were being deported, not sure what for. They didn't look too happy, and a couple of them were definitely more than a little worried.

So I walked super fast to the departure gate. Lucky for me, almost the entire length of my walk was aided by moving sidewalks. I love those things.




Our flight was an hour and a half and we landed in Koh Samui around 9pm. We got some lady to drive us to a set of beachside bungalows we had read about, and on the way I talked to a German lady and her French boyfriend who decided to stay at the same bungalows rather than the one they were planning to go to. Nice places, a bit expensive at $4 a person per night, but we did have our own toilet and shower. We brushed our teeth and went to bed.