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Welcome to Thailand. To select one of the several locations that we visited, just click the cities below, or you may read the entire page to read my entire acounts of Thailand. KOH SAMUI - January 28 - February 3, 2000 January 31, 2000 We are staying at the Ritz. Not really, but it sure does feel like it. Rich and I have been very economical on our room accommodations for quite a while now. In fact, when we first arrived in Koh Samui, we checked into a $4 usd per night bungalow. It really was not bad, except for the bathroom. Now, I really should not complain, because at least we had a private bathroom. However, this bathroom was very primitive. The toilet did not flush. Instead, you are supposed to take the scooper from the bucket of water next to the toilet and scoop the water into the toilet...kind of like a manual flush. Trust me when I say that this was not very effective. Our sink did not have a pipe for the water to go. Therefore, the water just pored onto the ground onto your feet, if you did not move them. Well, we stayed there for three nights and survived just fine. Now, we are at the Golden Sands Resort. It is very nice here. It cost $29 usd per night. However, breakfast is included and bottled water is free. Furthermore, we have factored in the money that we saved on our $4 room. Bo and Heidi arrived into Thailand today. They are good friends of ours from Atlanta. We met them skiing a year ago. We hit it off immediately, and continued our friendship when we came back to Atlanta. They are very nice and fun people. We will be traveling with them for 25 days through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. MUAY THAI. (Thai Boxing). "Almost anything goes in this martial sport....if you don't mind violence in the ring, then a Thai boxing match is worth attending purely for the spectacle" quotes Lonely Planet. They are oh so correct. Tonight we attended a Muay Thai. In fact, it was advertised around Koh Samui as the "fight of the century". I think that they have the "fight of the century" every two weeks or so, but we bought it, along with a lot of other tourists on the island. The boxing arena was actually a barn located on the beach of Chaweng. There was a large boxing ring with ropes and a canvas floor. The crowd was made up of mostly tourists. However, there was also a small crowd of Thais who came for the betting, as well as trainers and promoters. Trust me, it was a very cultural experience! There were seven matches, each consisting of five rounds lasting three minutes. Most of the matches did not make it to all three rounds. This is no wonder, as the rules of Thai Boxing are very lax compared to those in American boxing. All surfaces of the body are fair game, and all parts of the body (except the head) may be used to clobber the opponent. The boxers wear boxing gloves, and their feet are bare. It was difficult to watch as the boxers kicked each other in the back. chest and sometimes head. They would also elbow each other, hit each other in the face, chest and arm, all the while attempting to knock the opponent to the ground. Many of the matches were very exciting, lasting 5 rounds. However, some of them ended in two or three rounds after some poor guy was knocked to the ground and barely able to stand up and leave the ring. The most appalling match was the final one, where a very short Thai man was matched up against a very tall Japanese man. Despite the little guy's high energy and spirit, he was fighting a losing battle against the tall man who just had to give him a kick in the head from time to time. The match ended with the small guy turning around and the tall guy kicking him in the neck, knocking the small guy on the ground. I will never forget the look on his face. You could tell he was in extreme pain. His eyes were so wide, I could not tell if he had lived through this blow. The tall guy proceeded to celebrate his victory by raising his arms to the crowd. Many spectators, including myself booooood. Muay Thai was a very interesting experience. I got emotionally involved in the matches much more so than I would have imagined.
CHIANG MAI: CAPITAL OF NORTHERN THAILAND. NIGHT BAZAARS, WATS AND KHANTOKES . Saturday, February 5, 2000 Thirty hours on a bus!! That is basically what it took to get here to Chiang Mai from Koh Samui. It was well worth the trip. Although I absolutely loved the beaches of Thailand, I love getting to the North and experiencing a little more culture and tradition. Today was a very cultural day. We are very fortunate to be here in Chiang Mai during their Annual Flower Festival. In fact, today is the Flower Festival, Election Day and the first day of the Chinese New Year. The Flower Festival features a large parade with beautiful floats made of beautiful flowers of all shapes, colors and sizes. On top of the beautiful floats are the beautiful women of Chiang Mai, which by the way prides itself as having the most beautiful women in Thailand. Along with these colorful floats, are marching bands, traditional tribe dances and musicians, school children in costumes and large crowds of people enjoying the fresh morning air and a spectacular parade. It was a wonderful to begin our first full day in Chiang Mai. We were also able to view the floats in the central park after the parade. A beauty pageant was also held to determine the most beautiful young Thai women in the parade. Once we felt that we had experienced the festival to it's fullest, Bo, Heidi, Rich and I went exploring around the city. We visited several wats or Buddhist complexes made up of several temples and structures. Many of these wats serve as schools for the monks. Actually, many young Thai men take their vow pf poverty and become monks for several days, months or longer. This is done for spiritual reasons and often to bring honor to their families. Tonight, we enjoyed a wonderful Thai dinner as we sat crossed legged around our two foot high dinner table while watching Khantoke, a traditional Thai dance show. We were lucky to get a front row table for a wonderful spectrum of graceful dancing and a knife routine. At the end, they went into the audience and picked out some lucky people to dance with them on the stage. Bo and I were lucky to have been chosen to dance with the Thai dancers. I really enjoyed it. Tomorrow morning, Rich and I will leave for a three day trek to do some hill tribe trekking. Hopefully we will have a lot to report when we return. Bo and Heidi are going to do a one day trek and then enjoy two relaxing days at a resort along the river with a wonderful view of rice fields. We will then meet up again in Bangkok.
FROM THE HILLS OF NORTHERN THAILAND TO THE SWINGING CITY OF BANGKOK. Friday, February 11, 2000 I last reported to you from Chiang Mai, as we prepared for our hill tribe trek. The trek was a huge success. The trek began with a three hour ride in the back of a pick-up truck with the rest of our group. This truck was made into a carrier vehicle by adding some wood benches and adding a tarp over a metal frame. It worked very well, except for the bumps, of which we encountered many. Along the way, we stopped for lunch at a Lisu village, where we observed the villagers dance around in a circle as they celebrated the lunar new year. We then began our trek on land through bamboo, banana and papaya trees, tall green grasses and a stop at a beautiful waterfall. Although the water was bitter cold, several of us took a dip. We trekked through the jungles at a very fast pace. With the lush green grasses, the bamboo and the hills, I felt as if we were trekking through the jungles of Vietnam. Although, I had yet to visit Vietnam, it looked like the scenery from Rambo. We made it to the village where we would set up camp just before dark. We enjoyed a restful evening by the fire, looking up at the star filled sky. The stars were absolutely brilliant. The air was very cold. When it came time to hit the hay, we all piled into a wood shack with blankets. I was very happy that we had brought our own sleeping bags, as I am not sure when those blankets were washed last. It did become so cold, however, that we needed to cover our bags with the blankets. I woke up early the next morning so that I could observe village life in the early hours of the morning. I watched the people as they went about their chores and played with the children a little, but did not have a lot of contact with them. They just went about their business as if we were not there. At first, I was disappointed by this lack of contact. The more I thought about it, however, I was glad that the constant tourist contact did not change their daily lives. We left our camp at around 9:30 am and hiked several hours in the hot sun, passing poppy fields and stopping at a bamboo hut for lunch. The hiking by foot ended near a river where we began our trek on top of large elephants. Rich and I shared an elephant. We were pleased to see that we had a guide on top of our elephant with us, as our friends, Bridgett and Natan, were left to ride on their own. Our guide was able to control our stubborn elephant who constantly wanted to stray off the path. We were enjoying our elephant ride through the northern jungles of Thailand, when before we knew it, our guide was climbing down the elephant and asking Rich to take the reigns, only there were not any reigns. Instead, Rich had to climb onto the elephants head and hold on. All I could do was laugh hysterically as Rich nervously climbed onto the elephants head and led us along the path. He actually did a wonderful job. We ended our elephant ride at a small camp located on the river. We all jumped into the river and rinsed off the dirt and grime that we had accumulated over the last two days. After a great dinner of curry chicken prepared by our guide, Sith, we gathered again around a campfire. We were joined later in the evening by some of the tribesmen that manage the camp. One of them played the guitar, and they sang a few songs for us in a language that we did not understand, which made it all the more enjoyable. Our final day of the trek was by bamboo raft. It was very relaxing to coast through the shallow and calm river as we passed elephants carrying wood, water buffalos, and villages along the way. We had a great time with our group and our guides, Sith and Toon. For photos of our group, the elephants and the beautiful scenery and people of the hills, see: HillTribe Photos. After an exciting day of rafting and another bumpy truck ride back to Chiang Mai, Rich and I decided to just get it over with and take the night bus to Bangkok. The ride ended up being very smooth, and we slept most of the way.
Friday, February 11, 2000 We were happy to get to Bangkok and return to the comforts of civilization and join Bo and Heidi once again. Bangkok is just like I imagined it to be, but a lot less crazy. Yes, there is the red light district of Pat Pong, and the back-packer capital of Southeast Asia, Khao San Road, as well as crowded streets and canals, all of which we did frequent. Still, the city was very manageable and colorful. We also visited the floating market, just two hours outside of Bangkok, and enjoyed a boat ride along the brown waters, passing happy people living in poverty and boats filled with fruit, coconut pancakes, and grills. I would love to return to the vibrant city of Bangkok and experience more! From Bangkok, we will be traveling over land to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Click here to read my Cambodia Travelogue but return later for more on Bangkok (or just read it now, as long as you are here).
BACK IN BANGKOK, LIFE IS GOOD AT THE PENINSULA HOTEL! March 3, 2000 We are back in Bangkok! It is very nice to return to Thailand and enjoy our first luxury hotel of the trip. We are staying at the Peninsula hotel where we have a fabulous room with a television, CD player, phone, fax machine, remote control curtains to enjoy the view of the river below, a large bathroom with a shower and a bathtub which comes complete with its very own television. So if you were feeling sorry for us or impressed with us for the spartan accommodations that we have endured over the past five months, you can put away those feelings and, instead, scold us for our reckless conduct and lack of discipline. The great thing about our luxury hotel is that we are getting it at Holiday Inn rates. We are paying $85 usd plus tax for one of the best hotel rooms in which we have ever had the pleasure to stay, and also a large buffet breakfast fit for a king, and finally, airport pick-up in a new Mercedes with plush leather seat driven by a chauffer dressed in a crisp white suit, gloves and cap. When we arrived in our room, Rich and I almost began to weep. We did not want to leave our wonderful hotel, and we barely did for the next three days. We spent much of our time uploading our web site and dealing with some small recurring problems we have been having with our web site. We also finally obtained plane tickets for Delhi, India to depart on March 3rd, after being told for the past week that we would not be able to fly into any city in India until March 5th or later. We were also fortunate enough to have the friendly Dell Computer service man come to our hotel to fix a problem that we have been having with our computer, which is that it has been refusing to boot up lately. We purchased a 3 year international service warrantee with our computer which was definitely paying off. THANK YOU DELL! The computer seems to be functioning well now. Finally, we relaxed by the pool and I got my hair cut in the hotel's salon. We did manage to leave the Peninsula grounds a few times. We went out for dinner one night and revisited the Pat Pong area to do a little shopping in the market. We also visited the beautiful grounds of the Grand Palace where the King and Queen of Thailand reside. Finally, I had the pleasure to meet Kristina Johnson and her mother and join them for lunch at a wonderful, authentic Thai restaurant across the river. Kristina Johnson is a fellow Round the World traveler. She and her husband left their jobs about a year and one half ago and traveled the world for 9 months all the while maintaining a web site. In fact, their web site was the first one that we read while planning our journey. Their web site has been an inspiration to us as we planned our trip and as we are now living it. I had a great time talking to Kristina and her mother about our world travels and our lives at home. You can visit Kristina and Dave's web site at www.wired2theworld.com. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have. You may be thinking that we have lost our spirit of adventure, but just the opposite is true. This nice, relaxing break has rejuvenated us and allowed us to prepare for our adventures ahead through India and in the Himalayan mountain range. In fact, read on as we travel through the colorful and exciting sub-continent of India.
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