Thailand Revisited

Sunset on the Beach Outside Kamphoan

... turns out the bus I grabbed south from Bangkok did go through Kamphoan - the small village for which I was headed - the only problem is that they didn't drop me off there. Despite being assured the driver and his assistant would alert me when we arrived around 6 am, we cruised right through as I sat half asleep propped up in my reclining chair. I eventually got worried that we'd passed it and asked the driver (asking is really an overstatement - I really just mispronounced "Kamphoan" repeatedly and stared at him). He indicated in fluent pantomime that we'd passed it and the next thing I knew I'd been kicked to the curb at the next decent sized town and the bus was off into the darkness. This was clearly not the position I wanted to be in after 23 hrs of travel and little sleep. I found the local market gearing up for the day as people brought out their fruits, veggies and freshly slaughtered livestalk and sat down and watched the sun rise over the trees as I snacked on a quick breakfast of coffee, fried dough and rice porridge with pork which, I would have finished absent my decision that pig liver, though perfectly acceptable in many instances, should never be eaten for breakfast. After 3 hours of failing to get in touch with Katie (due to a lost cell phone charger) and frustratingly asking 5 people and getting 5 different answers on how to get to Kam Phoan, I was on a bus headed back north.

Katie picked me up on here flashy pink bike (complete with Hello Kitty horn). I jumped on the seat perilously located over the back wheel with my pack and we swerved and inched forward toward her place, the locals laughing and shaking their heads as we passed (silly farang!). Before long I was napping away in a real bed and got a couple hours of blissful sleep. The next few days were great. It was such a treat to be immersed in a small village, getting to know some of the locals and customs, and eating at the local joints. We swam in a remote jungle waterfall, stayed in a bamboo hut in a small tourist beach town to the south, visited the barren and beautiful local beach and practiced my pantomiming with the local population (this made me further appreciate the little Chinese I knew for that part of my adventure). We mostly traveled by bike, doubling up to the continued amusement of the towns folk. Everywhere we went, we were followed by echoes of "Sawat Dii Kha" and "hello".

Long Live the King!

Katie is in the area researching the effect of aquaculture on the local watershed. The area lies on the west coast of Thailand and was heavily decimated by the Tsunami a couple years back. We heard stories of villages which disappeared and loved ones that were lost. It was all very sad, but encouraging to see the area was seemingly bouncing back from the disaster. We also heard of "disaster tourists" roaming the area after the event and many western volunteers wanting to help but not knowing what to do. Regardless, many positive things did come to light and one was seed money given to villagers to develop shrimp farms and muscle rafts to stimulate the local economy. Katie's job is to make sure this is done in a sustainable manner. Go Katie. (to check up on Katie, check out her blog at http://www.katiewolffinthailand.blogspot.com/)

The Thais in the town were wonderful and gave me a much better sense for the local culture than my couple days in Bangkok. Everyone was so honest and friendly. The Thai people are very very laid back. In most cases this is wonderful, but can be frustrating when, say, you're trying to catch a bus at 6 am and everyone sort of waves towards the road since they know one will come eventually. These situations can lead to the Thai's thinking that us "farang" (a term for foreigners based on a mispronunciation from French) too easily lose our cool (apart from having "evil smelling" being among our negative attributes). The Thai food is also phenomenal from the Pad Thai to the curry and various fruit and dried fish salads. I even was able to rustle up some of the delicious sticky rice I enjoyed so much in Laos. Good times, great oldies.

Harvesting Rubber


Local Birdy Going on a Walk


Enjoying the (Nearly) Private Beach in Kamphoan

I was sad to leave, but eventually had to catch another night bus north to Bangkok (groan). I got in around 5 am and reluctantly headed back to Kho San road where various folks were continuing their evenings at some of the 24 hr. cafes. By 6 I was napping in a guest house with an available bed. After I awoke, I grabbed some breakfast, visited the Royal Palace and dropped in on the Emerald Buddha, showered back at the guest house and headed to the airport. I caught my plane that evening and the next thing I knew I was upside down in the southern hemisphere - crazy world.

The Grand Palace in Bangkok


Bangkok Tuk Tuks

The trip down to southern Thailand involved a lot of lengthy travel, but was totally worth the effort and a nice way to wrap up my adventures in Asia with an old friend.