Thursday, September 06, 2007
So that's the end of that
I'm back in NZ, I'm not sure what everyone else thought of the blog, I had the best intentions to keep it updated but the countries I was travelling to didn't always allow this and the speed at which I went through central america meant it was nearly impossible to email home let alone organise thoughts enough for a blog entry. I like the idea that I can go back and read over it again like a flash journal with pictures but I know it's proabably more interesting for me than those left at home. The biggest problem I found with doing large chunks of it weeks or months after the fact meant I've left out the most entertaining bits when I thought at the time "i must tell so and so about that!" but it never made it to paper and I can't remember what it was or what city I was in! Anyway, better get onto planning the next trip!
This little piggy . . .
English Breakfast
9th Feb
100baht (NZ$4) for 2 eggs, toast, bacon and chips.
I sat on the beach a lot and got a bit pink. Then I cooked my own red curry chicken for lunch with help from the girls in the kitchen (I still have to pay for it) really simple to make and tastes great. Swimming this afternoon and pork noodles for dinner. Watched a movie The Cave, wasn’t too bad.
10th Feb
My last full day on Koh Payam
So of course I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, packed my bags and did some washing. I walked all the way to the end of the beach (Big Tree Bungalows down that end) then back to Baan Suan for a bacon baguette – I swear the food just gets better and better. I had an afternoon swim and more seabass (steamed with spicy, garlic and lime) for dinner and a movie with Jet Li and some X gamers? I had a couple of beers with Rasana and a chat about how her mother bought the land the bungalows are on for 7baht/rai of land (not sure how much land that is?) she started out growing crops then when the tourists started coming Rasana built the bungalows.
11th Feb
Travel day today:
Breakfast (fruit yoghurt and muesli)
Swim
Pack
Bacon baguette lunch
Motorbike taxi (ordered yesterday) to boat
2hours 20 min boat ride (hard wooden seats – wear a hat)
taxi to Ruangrat Road to pass the time at the market where I bought a Thai DVD I had watched some of on the island. Spent some time on the internet and managed to get 1 whole photo onto digitalmax!
Caught the 8pm overnight bus to Bangkok.
The 12, 13 and the morning of the 14th I spent shopping in Bangkok and I visited the Grand Palace and Wat Arun (a must see).
Shopped at MBK (Like an indoor, and therefore air conditioned, market 7 floors high)
Chit Lom and Siam Square (large multi-storied mall with lots of flash shops, and some really really flash shops – I just window shopped here! Bought almost everything at MBK).Then Caught 5:25pm flight to Sydney stayed the night then on to Wellington
arriving home on the
16th February 2007
Kathryn picked me up from the airport, so great to see her, then we drove to the Naki stopping for Subway on the way!
It's a strange feeling, very exciting to be home again to see everyone and see what's changed but it's also almost as if you haven't been away because not much has visibly changed and you almost wish it had because you have changed so much from being away and yet you have to keep reminding yourself that you did in fact travel around the world and have been gone for nearly 10 months because it's alomst too hard to believe. I know that makes almost no sense whatsoever but I'm going to leave it here as a reminder to myself in years to come of that churning feeling in my chest I don't like very much but couldn't live without.
9th Feb
100baht (NZ$4) for 2 eggs, toast, bacon and chips.
I sat on the beach a lot and got a bit pink. Then I cooked my own red curry chicken for lunch with help from the girls in the kitchen (I still have to pay for it) really simple to make and tastes great. Swimming this afternoon and pork noodles for dinner. Watched a movie The Cave, wasn’t too bad.
10th Feb
My last full day on Koh Payam
So of course I had scrambled eggs for breakfast, packed my bags and did some washing. I walked all the way to the end of the beach (Big Tree Bungalows down that end) then back to Baan Suan for a bacon baguette – I swear the food just gets better and better. I had an afternoon swim and more seabass (steamed with spicy, garlic and lime) for dinner and a movie with Jet Li and some X gamers? I had a couple of beers with Rasana and a chat about how her mother bought the land the bungalows are on for 7baht/rai of land (not sure how much land that is?) she started out growing crops then when the tourists started coming Rasana built the bungalows.
11th Feb
Travel day today:
Breakfast (fruit yoghurt and muesli)
Swim
Pack
Bacon baguette lunch
Motorbike taxi (ordered yesterday) to boat
2hours 20 min boat ride (hard wooden seats – wear a hat)
taxi to Ruangrat Road to pass the time at the market where I bought a Thai DVD I had watched some of on the island. Spent some time on the internet and managed to get 1 whole photo onto digitalmax!
Caught the 8pm overnight bus to Bangkok.
The 12, 13 and the morning of the 14th I spent shopping in Bangkok and I visited the Grand Palace and Wat Arun (a must see).
Shopped at MBK (Like an indoor, and therefore air conditioned, market 7 floors high)
Chit Lom and Siam Square (large multi-storied mall with lots of flash shops, and some really really flash shops – I just window shopped here! Bought almost everything at MBK).Then Caught 5:25pm flight to Sydney stayed the night then on to Wellington
arriving home on the
16th February 2007
Kathryn picked me up from the airport, so great to see her, then we drove to the Naki stopping for Subway on the way!
It's a strange feeling, very exciting to be home again to see everyone and see what's changed but it's also almost as if you haven't been away because not much has visibly changed and you almost wish it had because you have changed so much from being away and yet you have to keep reminding yourself that you did in fact travel around the world and have been gone for nearly 10 months because it's alomst too hard to believe. I know that makes almost no sense whatsoever but I'm going to leave it here as a reminder to myself in years to come of that churning feeling in my chest I don't like very much but couldn't live without.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Sea Kayaking
After my fruit and yoghurt breakfast I went down the beach to hire a sea kayak (2.5hours 200baht) It was a great day for it, a light breeze and the sun shining. I headed out to a small rock sticking out of the ocean on the edge of the bay and circled it to get a look at the birds and crabs then headed towards the other side of the bay (the end I was staying) and around the point where I stopped at a tiny beach. It was rocky but the water very clear and lots of crabs everywhere.
By this time I was getting quite hot and knew I had a long way to go to get home so I headed back, the wind had picked up quite a bit and my nice breeze turned into a head-on wind as I aimed for the beach. It took a while to get back but felt good to be out on the water and using my muscles!! I drank more than 3 litres of water before lunch too!! Lunch as it happens was absolutely brilliant, red curry chicken on rice at Baan Suan. Then dinner that night was fried seabass with a crunchy garlic pepper topping. I will be sad to leave this place!
By this time I was getting quite hot and knew I had a long way to go to get home so I headed back, the wind had picked up quite a bit and my nice breeze turned into a head-on wind as I aimed for the beach. It took a while to get back but felt good to be out on the water and using my muscles!! I drank more than 3 litres of water before lunch too!! Lunch as it happens was absolutely brilliant, red curry chicken on rice at Baan Suan. Then dinner that night was fried seabass with a crunchy garlic pepper topping. I will be sad to leave this place!
This is the view from my part of the beach into the bay, you can see the rock
I kayaked around in the distance (not the far distance!)
The most important things I learnt in Thailand.
Never, ever put your hand (or your foot) into a dark place before (you are sure) nobody else is already happily ensconced there.
This goes for your clothes, hanging on the line or lying on the floor. Your bed – shake blankets and pillows before every use.
Check windows before opening in case large green cicada-like insects with obscenely long legs are out there, waiting.
Shine a torch on the ceiling to be sure no large wasps are laying eggs. (Although the geckos eating them are less of a worry.)
Look into the toilet, and the bathroom in general to ensure frogs have not taken up residence. Have a really, really good look inside the toilet water, the small pail with a handle in a large container of water for pouring in the toilet may just have a resident spider that refuses to be re-homed that insists on running up your arm when you want to flush the toilet.
And when you take a seat for dinner, check above your head – those ants crawling on the beam may not be much of a threat but once the lights go on and large beetles are smacking excitedly into the light these ants may become dislodged (and angry) and end up in your plate :-)
This goes for your clothes, hanging on the line or lying on the floor. Your bed – shake blankets and pillows before every use.
Check windows before opening in case large green cicada-like insects with obscenely long legs are out there, waiting.
Shine a torch on the ceiling to be sure no large wasps are laying eggs. (Although the geckos eating them are less of a worry.)
Look into the toilet, and the bathroom in general to ensure frogs have not taken up residence. Have a really, really good look inside the toilet water, the small pail with a handle in a large container of water for pouring in the toilet may just have a resident spider that refuses to be re-homed that insists on running up your arm when you want to flush the toilet.
And when you take a seat for dinner, check above your head – those ants crawling on the beam may not be much of a threat but once the lights go on and large beetles are smacking excitedly into the light these ants may become dislodged (and angry) and end up in your plate :-)
Monday, September 03, 2007
Relaxing on the beach
6th Feb
The only problem with staying here is there’s no kitchen for me to use so I have to order all my food, but there are a number of restaurants along the beach for me to choose from.
I had fruit, yoghurt and muesli for breakfast sunbathed for a while and went for a swim in the warm calm waters just steps from my bungalow. Then I walked along the beach, checked my email, watched a movie, had a few drinks of Thai rum and went to a party with free bbq down the beach (how many drunk people can you fit on a scooter driving along the beach??).
I love Thai scrambled eggs with toast, everything else I eat is very Thai but I like to have scrambled eggs for breakfast!!
Today I walked to town. The 'road' the scooters drive on is more like a footpath through the cashew trees from one side of the island to the other and north from the dock to beaches on the east coast of the island. So I stopped at "middle village" a restaurant partway over to the town where I had lunch (more Phad Thai) I had a look around the town, (little shops for food, some clothes and a bakery) booked a ticket out of there and a bus ticket to Bangkok on the 11th. I caught a taxi back to Smile Hut and walked along the beach to my place before taking a well deserved nana nap!
The only problem with staying here is there’s no kitchen for me to use so I have to order all my food, but there are a number of restaurants along the beach for me to choose from.
I had fruit, yoghurt and muesli for breakfast sunbathed for a while and went for a swim in the warm calm waters just steps from my bungalow. Then I walked along the beach, checked my email, watched a movie, had a few drinks of Thai rum and went to a party with free bbq down the beach (how many drunk people can you fit on a scooter driving along the beach??).
I love Thai scrambled eggs with toast, everything else I eat is very Thai but I like to have scrambled eggs for breakfast!!
Today I walked to town. The 'road' the scooters drive on is more like a footpath through the cashew trees from one side of the island to the other and north from the dock to beaches on the east coast of the island. So I stopped at "middle village" a restaurant partway over to the town where I had lunch (more Phad Thai) I had a look around the town, (little shops for food, some clothes and a bakery) booked a ticket out of there and a bus ticket to Bangkok on the 11th. I caught a taxi back to Smile Hut and walked along the beach to my place before taking a well deserved nana nap!
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