18/01/2014_Thailand

I have now met up with my traveling companion for the next four months. It is our fourth night in Thailand, and so far things have been relatively uneventful. Thailand is not as I remembered nor as I expected. This could be a result of where we are, but we have both found it a bit disconcerting how one) we have seen more western tourists than locals, and two) the locals that we have encountered seem anything but their “land of smiles” title claims them to be. I think I would be a bit embittered too, however, if I watched as an endless stream of tourists came into my home area and essentially trampled over my culture. I think this is especially prominent in southern Thailand where people primarily come to party…it has, sadly, reminded me a great deal of places like Cancun, Mexico where the bad in both cultures predominates.

It is absolutely beautiful here, though we have yet to make our way to the beaches. Our first night was spent in Krabi Town at the Nature View Hotel near to the river. Catching a bus from the airport was easy and cheap, though we were a bit confused where we were when we were told to get off the bus. It was hot and humid, but our hotel was within walking distance, so we sweated our way through the streets and made it to our destination without too much difficulty. Within half an hour of being there, however, we heard screams and a lot of commotion coming from outside of our room. Turns out, several monkeys had made their way into the hotel to raid the garbage (a rather easy task as it was open to the outdoors), and scratched one of the other guests. We think she must have screamed when she saw the monkey reaching for her coffee and scared it, which is what caused the scratch. Ironic how after nearly four months of fearing the monkey’s in Nepal, the first night in Thailand this happens. Still, it helped convince Ben that my fears are rational and now we both carry around bamboo sticks to help fight off any potential monkey bites.

 After settling into our itty-bitty room and showering, we headed out for a meal. We ended up at a rather fancy restaurant which wouldn’t have been our first pick, but upon stopping to look at the menu we were accosted by a herd of wait-staff and were guilted into stopping there. It was a nice meal – we both had pad thai (I had shrimp, Ben the squid), minus the waitress who stayed about 10 feet from our table at all times to make sure we didn’t need anything. Being the only customers in the restaurant, we felt rather uncomfortable by this, but it was easy to get lost in the scenery and flavors of Thailand. Afterwards, we grabbed some beers from a local shop and sat by the river laughing at the crab claws waving around from the dirt trying to catch their dinners. Ben and I then walked around the town, wandering through food stalls and bustling markets. It was great being able to go out at night for a change, something as a single female in a foreign country, I didn’t feel was safe to do while in Nepal. Later on, we stopped off at a bar, which, while touristy was a nice spot to stop and have a drink while we caught up with one another. We even befriended the owners son who let us play with his toy cars…at least until he was told to leave us alone. By the time we made it back to our hotel, the owners had left and closed the shutters behind them. We thought we would have to crawl underneath (Ben less sure he would be able to fit), but we decided to try one of our keys which we were relieved to discover, worked.

The next morning we woke up and made our travel arrangements to come to our current location in Khao Sok. This entailed a 350 bhat/ person minivan fee. We were dropped off at some bus station with maybe 50 or so other tourists in transit. Ben grabbed our “tickets” which turned out to be small little stickers with our destination written on them that you were supposed to put on your shirt to alert the various drivers of who was going where. Once it was our turn, we were piled into another minivan in which Ben and I got to sit up front with the driver. He didn’t speak much English, but was friendly, and we enjoyed his company. I made a comment about Ben’s tendency to take Lots of photo’s, so whenever we were coming up to a spot with nice views, the driver would alert us in time for Ben to prepare his camera, and slow down for him to take the shot. Four or five hours later, we arrived in Khao Sok where our driver picked us up at a drop-off point and took us back to the Evergreen House hotel in the jungle. To my surprise, the bug/ animal life has been rather minimal. There is a hoard of monkey’s that seem to pester the local fruit stands on a regular basis, but they don’t seem too bothered by people, and tonight we discovered giant gecko’s on the ceilings of the outdoor seating area which serves as the restaurant/ access point for the internet and tour arrangements.