The last time I wrote a detailed dispatch from here in Southeast Asia we were in Kota Bharu, Malaysia. We've been in Thailand for so long now that Malaysia feels like ages ago – in fact, it’s only been three weeks. On the morning of July 19, we shared a taxi with some Danes from our hotel to the rather vacant border crossing into Thailand. Customs was uneventful. I seem to have gotten used to the bold type face at all the border crossings: "DEATH FOR DRUGS". Of course, these things make you a bit neurotic that someone will slip dope in your bag just before you cross. This has been of particular concern for Jill who was convinced by Andrew Lynch on our stopover in Victoria, BC that her small innocent look would make her a perfect target for ponying drugs.The most notable contrast I found between Thailand and Malaysia is the presence of dogs. On our entire trip northward through Malaysia we only saw one dog. However, the Thai border town of Sungai Kolok seemed overrun. This, I discovered, is because of the Islamic belief that dogs are a filthy animal and simply shouldn’t be around. Since Malaysia is predominantly Muslim and Thailand predominantly Buddhist you end up with some interesting contrasts.
From Sungai Kolok we caught a 9 hour train to Surat Thani where the ferries leave to the famous Thai islands of Koh Samui, Koh Phan Ngan, and Koh Tao in the Gulf of Thailand. By the way the spelling of these islands and
other Thai words can vary quite a bit (e.g., “Koh Phan Ngan” is often written “Ko Phangan,” etc.). I suspect that this has resulted from the Romanization of Thai script hasn’t happened from one source – something like the Romanization of Chinese characters. Nevertheless, this is just conjecture. I digress, yet again… So, as soon as the train left the station in Sungai Kolok a very strange Thai began harassing a fifty-something German couple who were sitting forward and to the left of us. The guy would periodically inhale from a white plastic tube held to his nose and he looked like he was strung out on something. He eventually produced a long slender metal prong of some kind and unleashed a diatribe in Thai while waving it around. The train personal seemed to have better things to do so I got up and invited them to join us at the other end of the car where we had four seats facing each other. They were thankful.The rest of the trip went fine and we had surprisingly amazing food on the train! While I long for a roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes, gravy, carrots, broccoli, with a little red wine, Thai food is the best I've had anywhere. Period. The food here makes the Thai restaurants back home look like a joke. You can get the same dish here, but better and for about CDN$ 1.50. Also, I should clear up the utensil etiquette for Thai food. Thais do not eat with chopsticks unless they're eating Chinese food, or unless you’re in a really touristy place where tourists demand an “Asian experience!” Thai’s eat with a fork and spoon. The spoon is held in the right hand and the fork in your left. The fork is used as a tool only and should not go in your mouth. The phenomenon of some Thai restaurants back in Canada providing chopsticks for your meal is just a response to people’s misinformation about how Asian’s eat.
We arrived in Surat Thani in the evening and booked our tickets to Koh Samui (the biggest and most touristy of the three neighbouring islands) and sat down with the Germans for a snack. The night ferry was supposed to leave at 11 pm so we had a bit of time to kill. We were all discussing the
ticket purchasing situation and we all had observed some sketchy-looking tattooed guys scrutinizing our every move – particularly our wallets, etc. We also noticed some totally drunk locals drinking in the cabin where we'd all be sleeping for the night. Based on this, the four of us changed our plans and destinations in a blink of an eye and set sail for Koh Pha Ngan (Koh means island). As you enter the sleeping area (the only area) of the ferry on the night ferry you have to bend down so you don’t hit your head on the exposed beam ceiling. Two strips of thin mattresses line the port and starboard sides of the compartment from bow to stern. There are little numbers stencilled every twenty inches or so indicating where to rest your head. Amazingly, I got a little sleep…the train ride was exhausting. I had a fat Thai man occupying strip of sponge beside me. He slept like a baby but instead of curling up with his wife, who was lying to his right, he planted his snoring nose firmly in my ear. Naturally, this woke me up and I had to fix the situation. I started pushing him with my elbow lightly, but his enormous gut seemed to consume my arm. Not even a flinch from him. Thus, I pushed harder and harder and finally he woke and rolled over. Not long after, he fell asleep and chose me over his wife again!We hired a songthaew (a pick-up-truck-taxi thingie) with Albrecht und Enricht, the Germans, and went to Ta
Pan beach in the north-east corner of Koh-Phan-Ngan. We stayed at "Thong-Ta-Pan Resort". I won't go into detail about our time on Koh-Pha-Ngan because it will make you all sick. Essentially, we had a spectacular new clean bungalow, fresh clean air, perfect temperature water, white sandy beaches stretching 200 metres into the water, and basically no people. We spent our time sucking on fresh coconut shakes, eating amazing Thai food, and learning simple Thai phrases. The whole thing cost us about CDN$30 a day for both of us!After Koh Pha Ngan we jumped over to Koh Tao where we stayed for four nights. Koh Tao is overrun with dogs and they travel in packs. They don’t seem to be dangerous but they fight like mad at night. They howl and squeal the sounds of death…makes for terrible sleeping. Most of these wild dogs are injured in some permanent way and look very mangy. But the days were still nice. We had a really wild boat ride from Koh-Tao to the mainland town Chumpon (four metre waves in a not so big speed boat). It wouldn't have been so bad, but a man without the use of his legs found it more comfortable to sit on the floor not a seat. His bum moved around with the thud of each wave until perching nicely on my foot, then with each following wave his weight landed on my foot! I couldn't think of a nice way to say anything so I kept quiet.
We took a mini bus from Chumpon to Bangkok the same day (Thurs. July 26) and the driver by-passed our stop Phetburi and, against our will, we arrived in Bangkok. We settled in for one night in a hotel on Khao San Rd. (where I'm writing now) which is the nucleus of backpacker life in Bangkok. The whole street is full of Westerners and Thais having a big party all day all night. There is also a lot of budget accommodation, and street vendors selling anything you can imagine. All things considered Bangkok is a very, very busy city with traffic that makes New York City look like a Sunday afternoon in Trenton, Ontario.
We’ve checked out lots of cool temples, we've had a night of Thai Boxing, and even seen transvestite go-go dancers in Pat-Pong, Bangkok’s infamous red light district. I guess the real
attraction here is shopping. It is a shoppers dream here – cheap, mostly decent quality stuff. The counterfeit merchandise (Prada, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Timberland) is of great quality, for most things you really can't tell the difference. I got a Timberland t-shirt that is made of thick cotton, with the authentic label and cardboard tag as well! The markets are full of tons of stuff you wish you could easily ship home. But unfortunately as a farang (Thai for foreigner) you could never hope to buy something for the price a local could. It's always the farang price. It makes things even more difficult because nothing is labelled with a price. Thais are ruthless bargainers, the basic rule is...well, I haven't figured out a basic rule yet. You can be happy you bargained someone down from 500 baht to 250 baht, then walk around the corner and see the same thing you just bought for sale for 60 baht! To convert the Thai baht to the Canadian just remove one decimal place and divide by 4: e.g., 1000 baht equals roughly CDN$ 25. Right now were paying 1 baht per minute for internet which is the cheapest we've found. On Koh Pha Ngan it was 5 baht per minute -- 10 to 15 times more expensive than in Malaysia!In Bangkok we stayed with Mom and Graeme's friends Sean and Primsiri and they were extremely hospitable.
Primsiri works for Bangkok Airlines. While we were there they told us that we really should be going to Angkor in Cambodia, and that it's not to be missed! A side trip to Cambodia wasn't really in our budget, but we decided to use a wicked cash gift given to us from Don and Judy Gallinger at the start of our trip to finance a package to the ancient Khmer city. Thus, we really have to thank Don and Judy for the trip, especially since this was hands down the highlight of our trip so far! We booked a package through Primsiri's airline and she was able to get us a bit of a deal. We got 3days and 2 nights in a luxury hotel, a private guide, private van with driver, all meals and airfare! Just pay the money and relax...a perfect change of pace from roughing it on the backpacker circuit. I'm sure
many of you don't know what Angkor is as I wasn't before reading a little. Basically, it is one of the most important archaeological finds ever. It is an array of ancient structures scattered across several square kilometres, the most impressive of which is Angkor Wat (wat means 'temple') which is one of the ancient wonders of the world (along with the pyramids, Great Wall of China, etc.). I can't put into words the awesome sight that these monuments are. They were all constructed as the capital of the ancient Khmer Kingdom which was comprised of modern day Cambodia, and much of Thailand, Vietnam, Laos. Most of the structures were built between the 9th and 14th centuries. The civilization was abandoned in the 16th century and was 
unknown to Western society until the 1860's when it was discovered by a French explorer who stumbled across the jungle-consumed city while collecting butterflies. The French have a colonial past in Cambodia as the country used to be a part of French Indochina along with Vietnam and Laos; even today our passports were stamped in both Khmer and French. Interestingly, we ran into more French tourists there than anywhere else we've been -- almost like they're checking up on the colonies after all these years!We arrived back here in Bangkok on August 7th and are staying in a sleazy guesthouse on Khao San Road – the backpacker nucleus of Thailand. Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay with Sean
and Primsiri because Primsiri's father is staying in their guest room. Nevertheless, we’re now more centrally located. Jill has been very sick for the last few days from something she ate in Cambodia. She saw a doctor who diagnosed her with dysentery. He gave her some pills and we’ve just been lying low and taking it easy; she’s already feeling much better. We're running late on our schedule and it looks like we'll be seeing Spen and Lisa in New Zealand a few weeks later than we expected. We're just going to take it easy in Bangkok and get things like this dispatch done. We’re also preparing for our next destination, which will probably be Chang Mai up in northern Thailand. We also plan on going to Chang Rai, and Kanchanaburi where the story of Bridge on the River Kwai took place. That's where we'll be for the next few weeks.A.
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