Lookback: Thailand (2012): Part 2
In 2012 I backpacked through Asia and in this lookback series I'll take you through some of my experiences. Our journey in Thailand continues
Our backpacking trip through Thailand continues, don't forget to checkout last weeks journey if you haven't already
Lookback series
As most of us still have heavy restrictions when it comes to travel. I'll do a lookback series on Sundays, to different destinations. These can be all from countries to stores
As many of the photos are around 10 years old, they might not be as high resolution and level of quality we try to stay at today
Collision ahead
Yesterday we spend out on the ocean, and on islands. We got picked up at our place around 10 AM, and was taken down to the docs. Just before 11 AM a long tail boat came and picked us up, we then headed out on the great blue sea. After about 10 minutes just driving on the sea, I look forward and suddenly see a crossing boat getting in front of us, a few second later I hear the other people on the boat starting to scream
It’s to late to avoid the other boat, so I’m preparing for impact. BANG, and we fly on top of the other boat. You can hear people screaming on both boats. Some people are quick to react and run forward in our boat and start grabbing some of the children and dragging them into our boat so they don’t get squished underneath the boat we are one. We hit the other boat on the side, it almost went around at one point. We managed eventually to get of the other boat, and it was in good enough condition to get back to land on it’s own
Luckily no one was hurt, but that was a close call. The fault laid at our driver, he was sitting and driving in the back, so he couldn’t see in front of the boat. You can see the damage to the boat on the image to the right, you can see in front that there are some planks missing on the boat to the right. It’s a bit hard to see on this angle, but the hole goes almost down to the ocean.
After the accident we headed onwards toward our first island, where we were handed out snorkeling gear. So I got to try snorkeling for the first time on my trip and it was awesome. Fishes everywhere in every color you can imagine. An the water was really nice. After one hour on the island, we headed on and visited more islands, which some of them we could not go onto, but we could snorkel the coral revs outside them.
After some more snorkeling we headed on to and island where we got some food. Fried rice with shrimps. After a lovely lunch break, we headed back out on the ocean to do some more snorkeling. We had an lovely weather the entire day. I even got to swim through an mountain, there where a cave straight through the mountain. We jumped out of the boat, swam through the cave and got picked up on the other side. Inside the cave you could see baths flying in the ceiling, and you also had to be careful not to touch the walls since there could be razor sharp rocks there.
Then we arrived at our second to last island, where we were going to see the sun set and have our sea-food dinner. After the sun had set, and it was time for dinner (as you can see them preparing in the middle of the image to the left), a huge swarm of baths started flying out of a nearby mountain. After half an hour there where still flying out baths, and these were really big baths as well. After we were done eating we took the boat to the last island for the day, where we had a nigh snorkeling. I jumped out in the water which was pitch dark, when suddenly hundred, if not over thousand lights lid up around my body, and they followed my every movement. You have to experience it yourself to believe it.
After that we headed back to the shores, said our goodbyes and headed home. Afterward it was time for the market, a beer and some good food.
Krabi
When it was bead time on the train I was traveling on, I was given a sleeping bed over a monk. The monk came up to me and asked how much I weigh. Do you think he was a bit scared sleeping under ‘little’ me? The sleeping on the train went fine, but it got pretty cold at one point, I must have slept close to the air-con. Around 5 AM I got of the train and over to a bus who took me from the train station towards Krabi. A few bus changes, and hours later we arrived somewhere outside Krabi where they told us we would have to buy a new ticket to come into city of Krabi. Since it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere we bought new tickets for 50 bath, after 5 min ride the bus driver let us of in town. It was 10-15 min walking, if we would have knew that none of us who where on the bus would have bought a ticket into town. Down here they’ll scam you on every corner if they manage.
On the ‘scam’ bus ride into town I met a couple of dutch people and a guy from Holland. We walked into town where the dutch people took of, me and the guy from Holland went to get some and some site-seeing in Krabi. After walking around for sometime, we headed up to an tourist information to find out where he was going to stay since he had already booked a place to stay. We found out that the place was a bit outside Krabi. I decided to go with him and we traveled out there, which was easier said than done since no one knew where it was
After much back and fort we found the ‘beach house’ he had booked, it was a beach house alright, just not with the beach. The beach is a 10-20 min walk, and you can’t even see the beach from the beach house. But it was a nice building, it can’t be more that 1-2 years old.
After we had settled down a bit, we headed down to the beach, took of our shoes, and walked, and walked out into the ocean, ah it was lovely. We spent the day walking around the area and checking out what there is to do. Later on the night, after a small 2 hours nap we heard a strange sound. Some loud music outside, we got dressed and walked out to see where the music came from. We found out that nearby they had a local market place, with stands, a stage with live performance, a perish wheel, food, to name a few.
After getting some food, we sat down in front of the stage, order a 3L tap of beer, for 400 bath (just under EUR 10). Had a nice time, drank beer and listened to live music. Not that we could speak or anything, because the music was loud, proper loud. It was nice a and humid, and you could see the star sky (to some degree at least). When the beer was gone, the market place started to quiet down, so we decided that we took night. It’s always nice coming back to a nice cool room which have air-con, I always try to have the room temperature on about 25 degrees. That way the room feels cold and nice, but it’s not a to big gap when you go outside again.
Today we rented a couple of scooters, for only 200 bath for 24 hours (we will also need to fill the tanks) and traveling around to see the inland. We are right now sitting at an Internet Cafe in Krabi
After we rented the scooters we traveled to Krabi, got some food and ice-cream (of course). And then we headed out to see the inland region of Southern Thailand. We didn’t have any specific goals, just to travel around and see the area. Which is nice sometimes as well, since you get to see the country in a completely different way. I’m also glad I’ve spent my last years in Ireland, since they drive on the left side of the road here as well. I could see my friend from Holland having some problems at times staying on the right side of the road. Still it’s scary to drive in Thailand, not because of the other drivers, since the traffic down here in south isn’t that bad, but because the scenery is so nice so it’s hard to concentrate on the road the entire time. I found myself more than once staring at the scenery, when I should be keeping an eye on the road.
After driving around on a wimp for a while, we saw a sign showing a place with water. We followed the sign, which was easier said than done considering we met multiple times a road-cross with now sign pointing at the right direction. But we were lucky and managed to take the right turns and ended at last up at ‘Tha Pom Khlong Song Nam Nature Trail’ (That’s a mouth full).
It was a really nice area, you had a lot of vegetation, rivers (Oh, how we wanted to jump in. But they had a sign, no swimming of course). Most of the day just went to travel around and see the country side. After we returned we headed to the local market which is just next door to where we are living. The market is once a year, for ten days. We also arranged a day trip for the next day, and snorkeling tour and island jumping with a long tail boat
Mae Nam, Ko Samui
I’ve said goodbye to my friend from holland, and moved on to the east and out to one of the islands there, to be more exact Ko Samui. Right now I’m sitting at an Internet Cafe in Mae Nam, where I plan to stay for a couple of more days. Today have gone to travel, I left my old place around 11 AM and arrived here around 9 PM. It was a long bus trip from one side to the other, then a boat ride over to Ko Samui
After taking the boat over to Ang Thong, Ko Samui, I wandered around the streets for a while and eventually found a place to sit down and grab some food and plan ahead where I should travel further and sleep for the night. After finding out that Mae Nam sounded most interesting since that area is supposed to be more a Thai area than a tourist area, I jumped on an local transportation going there, of course there where a ton of taxi drivers offering to drive me there, only problem is that it’s four times as expensive as the local transportation
Yesterday is not much to talk about, it was a quiet relaxing day for the most of the day. Except in the evening when we went to Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). I’m not super interested in sports in general, but they had one unique visitor. An foreigner was fighting, which is a rare event. It was really interesting to see a foreigner vs a Thai. The foreigner won the match
Next week we'll continue our travels in Thailand and we'll be dangling in the three tops
Tags: #Lookback #Thailand #Backpacking2012
