It's the last leg of our 13 month long adventure: Thailand. We were after a cheap and relaxing country to chill out in before the horror to come (home), and this is where we decided based on flight and accommodation prices. We flew Air Asia to Bangkok (yes that's the airline that plummeted into ocean several weeks later) for 8 nights - 3 in Bangkok to enjoy the lights and consumerism, and 5 on the tropical island of Koh Chang to relax with cocktails and massages.
We spent two nights in Bangkok when we arrived as we got in quite late, so we had one full day to check out the city. We basically spent the day shopping (we slept in quite late as we went out for cocktails and food at about 12.30pm the night before. We learnt all about the bastard taxi drivers who will rip you off and lock the car doors until you pay up, we learnt about the Tuk Tuk drivers who will say any price to get you in, we learnt that we appear to look like the type of people who desperately want to see a ping pong show, and we learnt how very cheap everything is. It just felt wrong to barter with people when they are only charging a few dollars for their wares. Thailand was pretty perfect for us considering we ran out of money weeks ago.
Everyone views you as white meat with wads of cash. You can see the dollar signs in their eyes when they spy you. We didn't go to a ping pong show as I'd heard lots about how you are harassed for cash every min or two that you are sitting there, and then they try and charge you for leaving. Most of the women are prostitutes and are only doing it as they can't get other work. As a Thai lady, if you don't shoot objects from your lady pocket you'd want to be an amazing cook or willing to massage fat sweaty tourists for a couple dollars a day. I didn't particularly want to support that, so we gave it a miss and got trashed instead. I really wanted to do the fish pedicure (you sit with your feet in a tank of flesh eating yet adorable fishies) but Isaac balked at it.
The food was awesome however, beautiful beautiful curries. Mmm. Not so nice on the way back up however..
We managed to figure out, very painfully, how to get to Koh Chang. We sat on a bus for about 4 hours, and then got on a ferry for about half n hour, then sat in a converted ute tray out to our jungle bungalows. The bus was pretty comfy though, and the ferry was ok if you didn't want to go to the bathroom, and the taxies at the other end were fun. Your luggage went ontop and you sat on a bench seat in the back. We made friends with a couple of French girls who couldn't stay at the place they'd booked because they failed to tell them that the internet wasn't working (which is a very big deal when you're in a foreign country). So they came with us to our place, Little Eden, and the owner put them up for the night.
Our resort was awesome. It wasn't on the beach (but I hate sand anyway so it was a bonus for me) but it was up the hill a little from the beach so it was in a bit of a jungle setting. It was kinda almost too humid to sleep..but we couldn't afford the bungalow with air con. So we sweated it out under the mozzie net. Like home, there were a lot of mozzies and bugs and stuff. So we weren't freaked out, but you had to make sure that the mozzie net was kept closed to ensure a nibble-free night. It was run but an English dude and his Thai wife. This dude can speak fluent Thai, German and French, and was quirky as fuck. It was awesome!! The food was delicious, and the cocktails were even better.
In fact they were so good that on our first night I got to experience my Chicken & Cashew Nuts twice. And I clogged the sink.
We met some very, very large geckos, had many, many cocktails, were massaged, and visited the sparkling beach once. Being the crap tourists we are, we didn't do any adventure activities. That wasn't what we were there for. We were there to just be. To drink, breath, relax, and reflect on the past 13 months of our lives abroad. And also think about the fact that we were about to arrive back home, and our adventure of a lifetime was over. This is where the cocktails tended to happen.
Fun fact - toilet paper doesn't get flushed in Thailand. Instead most dunnies have a 'butt gun' which is a hose with a gun-nozzle (like the type you use on your garden) strapped to the side of the toilet. You are mean to shoot yourself in the junk with cold water, then use the toilet paper and put it in a waste paper basket beside the loo. Toilet paper clogs Thai toilets, this we found out. On an unrelated topic, Isaac is very sorry, dear people of the guest house we stayed at for one night before leaving Thailand. So sorry.. But even in public toilets that don't have a butt-gun, people still put the toilet paper into a bin. So you sit there and look at a bin of poo-ey paper while you do your business *shudder*. Oh and another thing - most of the time the toilet paper isn't even in the toilet - it's outside near the sinks! I sorely missed Aussie dunnies.
Hong Kong dunnies are quite nice, they often have a foam soap dispenser so you can clean the seat before you sit on it. Real noice.
So anyway, a 13 month long story short, we had a very relaxing time on Koh Chang eating, drinking, and being massaged by Thai women. Thailand is cheap, but full of predators in the form of scheming locals. Bangkok was a lot like Schoolies for adults. Koh Chang was a very different atmosphere, the locals less predatory and more nice. So on the whole it was a fun experience. Would we go back? Mmm, probably not. Maybe to visit the other islands if we were looking for a beach holiday, but we'd pick an island that we could fly into (of which I think there is only one).
We travelled back to Bangkok the next day and stayed one night at a guest house near the airport. Our hosts were so awesome, they cooked us breakfast at 3:30am before we left to get our 6am flight to Hong Kong.
We were looking forward to going home a while ago..however now that it is imminent, we are kinda sorta dreading it. We are looking forward to having an income again however. And underpants without holes, a hair brush with a handle, a sharp razor, moisturiser, new deodorant... you know, luxuries like these are rather nice after being a hobo for so long.
You can't holiday forever right? Yes, yes you can. We met loads of people doing just that.
So get out there people. Cast off your inhibitions and all thoughts of 'oh I couldn't possibly leave, I have responsibilities and obligations here'. Unless those obligations are children, you can leave everything else. Mortgages can be gotten rid of. Jobs can be left. Belongings can be given away. Everything else can be abandoned, binned, or sold. There is truly very little that keeps you where you are, other than yourself.
There is a whole world out there. I see how small my universe has been up until now, and we barely scratched the surface.
As we reintegrate into society we will be updating our wee blog. Our hope is to get a little bit of freelance design work happening on the side of our usual boring lives to keep the creative bug alive.
