Beaches and Bungalows ~ Day 10
Sunday, April 23rd, 2006The internet cafes here are very slow… which makes doing everything take a looooong time. However, Jonathan WAS exaggerating — that day I posted the pictures it was less than 3 hours, but it took a long time to upload them and figure everything out. Actually, I wouldn’t call it an internet cafe — it’s a room with computers that is also usually a travel agency and laundry service.)
Ok, so back to the trip. We have done so much since I last wrote, so I’ll just give you a run-down of what we’ve been doing!
Back in Bangkok we checked off a bunch of the tourist sites… very tiring. Next to the Grand Palace, the other best site was the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson came to Bangkok after the Vietnam war and revitalized the silk industry worldwide. He went to NY, where it was becoming out of style, and convinced the fashion houses to begin using it again. He did so much for Thailand, and moved 7 teak houses from around the country to Bangkok. He raised them on stilts (because of flooding!) and connected them. The house is very unique. The most interesting part is that he disappeared in Malaysia in 1967 when he was 61 years old. No one knew what happened to him and he was never heard from again.
We also got massages — the first day we got one like in the U.S - one hour was $15. We were scared of the Thai massages… (get your mind out of the gutter)… in this style of massage, you keep all of your clothes on and they use pressure points and we saw pictures of people getting stretched out and it looked more like going to the chiropractor, with getting popped (I dont’ know if you’d approve, Brad!)
So, the next day we decided to be adventurous and get Thai massages. Jonathan got one with herbs for 1.5 hours for $7.50 (herbs like eucalyptus, not ganja!), and I got one without herbs for 1 hour, plus a 45 min foot massage ($15).
We went to a night market in Bangkok. They have catalogs full of expensive watches, and have copies of most anything. I asked about a “Rolex” and the guy told me it was about $95. I really wasn’t interested anyway, but when I began to walk away, the price went down to $50. When I was a few feet away, I heard the vendor say, ok final offer… $1500 Baht! ($37.50) Hmmm…
We took a night train, bus, and ferry down to the islands — total travel time 19.5 hours! The night train was 2 hours late (I think it broke down at 5:30 a.m.) and it was cold at night. We might fly back to Bangkok.
We met a cool brother/sister French couple, Adrian and Helen, on the ferry to Ko Samui. We were all not sure where to stay and were tired of all the scams. Jonathan found a really cool place for us to stay. Most places are bungalows. This was one of the only inexpensive places left on the beach, and they are tearing it down to build a 5-star place. The bungalow was only $17.50 night, with a/c.
The beach was beautiful and the grounds of our place were nice. I’ll post some pics later. The restaurant there was unbelievably cheap… Most meals are between $1-2. Even at nice restaurants we only spend about $5/person on dinner. We might have to move here instead of San Diego!
When I was on a pay phone with my grandmother one night, a roach flew on me! I dropped the phone and started dancing around screaming. Jonathan said it was the funniest thing he’d ever seen… I’m glad I can amuse him!!
Jonathan went to a cooking class which he really enjoyed and I enjoyed the food! He made a ginger pork dish, a jungle curry, and fried fish. We had a great time on Ko Samui although it rained most every day and it was full of tourist traps.
Also, the taxi’s were ridiculously expensive by comparison. The Frenchies and most other people rented motorbikes (so dangerous!)… less than $5/day! Taxi’s were about $7.50 for 5 miles.
On Friday we took a ferry to the next island, Ko Pha Ngan. This island is smaller and less developed — mostly dirt roads here except by the really busy areas.
Our accommodations here are basically a construction site! And, only $12.50/night but NO A/C… that’s right! And it’s hotter here than a hot July day in New Orleans. But, again it’s on the beach and there are some things around to do.
Shalom! Lots of Israeli’s are here, but we have only talked to a few. Some of them own businesses here and we went to one restaurant. I told the person there that I lived on a Kibbutz but I don’t think she believed me and when I told her how long ago it was, she laughed and said something about not being born yet. Oh well, we won’t be hanging out there!
Yesterday we took a boat trip around the perimeter of the island and stopped for lunch and snorkelling. The boat is called a longtail boat — like a really long rowboat, with a tractor engine. The black smoke coming out of the engine is probably doubling the greenhouse effect and making it even hotter here! Anyway that was a nice trip but I skinned my knee (shocker!) and got a sunburn on my back, in spite of the fact that I applied and reapplied SPF 50!
So, today we’re taking it easy and I might go diving tomorrow.
(By the way, Jonathan isn’t seeing lots of sights now without me as he would like you to believe… he is lounging around reading a book… I am not missing anything!)
