03.21.06
Posted in Travels at 11:47 pm by Leopoldo
3/21/06 12:34 PM, Koh Samui
I am checked out of the Chewang Pearl Cabana and wasting time on the strip waiting for my flight out. Right now I am sitting at the Curry Pot Indian Restaurant where I have ordered a five-piece meal for 200 Baht. I am not sure how they will prepare everything since the island has lost power again, but they seem confident they can fulfill my order. I guess there are advantages to coal fired ovens and gas stoves. Still, don’t they need a blender for the Mango Lassi?
After a long day of diving and a beer I fell asleep early last night and rather than figure out the time and go out again when I woke up I just rolled over and kept sleeping. The sleep was interrupted at one time by eurotrash yelling at each other so they could carry a conversation across opposite ends of the hotel area and at another by high-pitched squealing. I think I found out what the cause of the squealing was this morning when a five-inch cockroach scurried out from under one of my bags.
From this point the adventure travels become a lot less adventure and a lot more travel. I booked a new flight directly out of Samui airport but found all the morning flights on the 22nd were full so I had to book to leave this evening. I will arrive in Bangkok around 8pm and intend on finding a hotel near the airport since I have to be back by 2pm tomorrow to fly to Hong Kong. Coincidentally I arrive in Hong Kong again at 8pm and have to again be at the airport by 2pm to fly out to Los Angeles. The hotel I booked in Hong Kong is about 5 miles from the airport and promises to be ‘Conveniently located in the heart of the shopping, dining and entertainment district’. I am hoping this is true as I would hate to just sit in my hotel for a day.
P.S. That is one damned tasty Mango Lassi.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
03.20.06
Posted in Travels at 7:29 pm by Leopoldo
3/20/06, Koh Tao
I got up early this morning for a diving trip. I thought I would have a bowl of fruit before my pickup but there was no-one at the desk or bar of the Pearl Cabana. It turned out to be just fine as it allowed me to sit and listen to the ocean in the quiet of the early morning. Eventually a local came walking through that turned out to be my driver.
The dive boat to Koh Tao had about a dozen divers from four different dive operators. I was the only person signed up from Captain Caveman Diving, which meant the dive instructor was my dive buddy and gave me his full time and attention. On the one hand it was good to be looked after, especially since it had been some time since my last dive, on the other hand he was a bit too careful and checked in on me as though I were a student… even though I equalized well, set my buoyancy with no problems and, well in general dove well and comfortably. True I have not dove much in the last few years but warn water diving is SO much easier and more comfortable than Pacific Northwest diving that it is a breeze. Just the fact that you are not fully encased in thick neoprene gives an unaccustomed degree of movement.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in Travels at 7:28 pm by Leopoldo
3/19/06 10:43 PM, Koh Samui
I took a shower then had a nice nap this evening in my air-conditioned bungalow. I watched a bit of The Simpsons in between shower and nap… ah it is good to be on vacation. Afterward I went to an internet café and then to ‘The Islander’ where I proved that Guinness does indeed taste different in different countries and had some dinner while watching the first half of Liverpool vs. Manchester United. I started walking the strip again but realized I have cuts on my feet, which I assume I got from stepping on rocks while swimming in the ocean this evening so I headed home after a while. I hope the cuts don’t bother me too much while diving in the morning.
The WTF moment for the evening was a cute little girl working the tourists. She could not have been more than six years old and was wondering the streets in a cute little dress and pigtails. She would pick some Farang woman, go up and just wrap herself around the woman’s legs, then peddle flower necklaces for 20 Baht. I think the technique was working because I saw her make a few sales.
Permalink
03.19.06
Posted in Travels at 9:40 pm by Leopoldo
3/19/06 4:24 PM, Koh Samui
I enjoyed sleeping in this morning. I then went out for a beach walk going inland to buy water and schedule a dive trip. The fellow at Captain Caveman Dive Center was very friendly and pointed me in the direction of local food stalls. For lunch I had Pad Thai, realizing it is the first time I have had the dish on this trip, along with a mango shake. Incidentally while they are referred to as milkshakes, they are almost always ice slushies. I think I have only a couple of times had a milkshake include any kind of milk, and one of those was with coconut milk. Incidentally the stalls with food for the locals are off the strip, which is also where the girlie bars are so I got solicited for ’special massage’.
After lunch I went out for another beach walk and took time to read my book while sipping on a soda. I then went back to the Cabana, showered and went out for a swim in the ocean. I did not stay out long because my back and chest have not seen much sun and are Oregonian Pale. Incidentally I think I need to get more of the waterproof sun block as the last bottle I bought was moisturizing, not waterproof and I am sweating buckets out here. The Chaweng beach is quite beautiful, but it there is the annoyance that you cannot get more than a few feet without being solicited for food, tattoos, or massage.
Permalink
03.18.06
Posted in Travels at 6:38 pm by Leopoldo
3/18/06, Koh Samui
The morning was spent going to the airport and waiting for my flight. At the airport I realized that the web site that told me to buy my tickets to Surat Thani airport was not entirely accurate. Suart Thani is the inland airport from which you can ferry to Samui, what I wanted was to go direcly to the island. The blunder saved me about 2,000 baht but cost me about five extra hours of travel time in the form of a bus from the airport to the ferry terminal and then a boat to the island.
On the island the transportation guide took me to a couple of places. I ended up at a joint called the Chaweng Pearl Cabana which is a bit run down but my cabana has a partial ocean view and there is a pretty decently restaurant and bar right on the beach. I am in North Chaweng, literally less than a five minute walk from central Chaweng and all the restaurants and stores. After checking in I went for a walk into town where I did a quick email check then sat down at the Qarterdeck restaurant for food, a beer and a whole lot of people watching. Power kept failing only to come back a few second later. It was actually pretty amusing to see all the lit up signs and neon come to life.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
03.17.06
Posted in Travels at 9:37 pm by Leopoldo
3/17/06, Later that night, Bangkok
Being my last day in this town I figured I would want to see parts of the town I had not seen before and decided to go on walkabout. I started the afternoon by walking East on Sukhumvit road figuring I might stop to eat at the Indian neighborhood near Soi 3. I quickly found that I was not that hungry and that the heat was too oppressive for long walks along a busy road, so after a few blocks I went up the Nana Sky Train station and took a train northwest to Victory Monument. The monument itself was rather unimpressive but the mass of school girls and boys walking along the pedestrian bridges was a sight. I proceeded west on Thanon Ratchawithi, a characterless road with lots of buses until I got to Dusit Zoo. I had been hoping to get a feel for the green area surrounding the Royal Palace or the zoo but found them both surrounded with high walls. Heading South I was attracted by the sound of a loudspeaker south of the King Chulalongkorn Monument but was dissuaded from going any further when lines of police in riot gear began pouring into the area. I assume there was an anti-government demonstration in process, I have been hearing about them on Western Speaking news but so far have not seen any. I was interested to take a picture of the police but not knowing how they would take it decided it was safer to head off. At this point something happened to me that I did not think possible: I was in need of and could not find either a 7-11 or a Tuk Tuk. Those of you who have visited Bangkok probably think I must be lying as you know it is nearly impossible to walk a quarter block in a tourist area without running into either, but if you get off the beaten path they suddenly become scarce.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
03.16.06
Posted in Travels at 10:08 pm by Leopoldo
3/17/06 12:38 PM, Bangkok
I am sitting at the dining room of the Atlanta Hotel eating Banana pancakes with lime and honey and drinking a delicious honey lime iced tea. To my left are two curious old British fellows sharing a bottle of red wine while to my right a US couple argues over whether to travel together or split up as they want to do different things in Bangkok. An old guitar record is playing soothing tunes while big old fans keep the warm air moving around. I am simply in love with this location, to get a feeling of why I recommend you check out their web page, specially the page with the pictures (which just crashed my browser inside the hotel, so caveat browser). There are lazy cats that live in the lobby, the staff is the friendliest I have met yet and the hotel is covered with signs and helpful guides written with a wry and straightforward sense of humor that I adore. I totally want to film a movie at this location.
Nick took off for Tokyo this morning. We did not get back until after 1AM and he had to leave for the airport at 3AM so he did not sleep but instead wrote emails and travel log. I yesterday booked a (rather expensive) flight to Ko Samui and need to find a place to stay while there. My morning has been spent catching up on the travel log (I got a number of emails asking if I was ok) and sorting through photos to attach. Next I will find accommodations at Ko Samui and then hopefully head out for one last day in Bangkok. My flight back to the island returns to Bangkok Airport two hours before I fly out to Hong Kong so today truly is my last day in the city. I also need to find a place to spend the night in Hong Kong (the flights from Bangkok to Hong Kong on the 23rd were all full, so I am flying there on the 22nd and spending one night in HK before heading back to the US).
Permalink
Posted in Travels at 10:02 pm by Leopoldo
3/16/06, Bangkok
Last night Nick washed dirty clothes in the hotel bathtub. We could have sent it out to be washed but prices around Pattaya are calibrated for European tourists traveling in packaged deals and sending out a few shirts and underwear could have ended up costing as much as the hotel for the night. This morning we found our clothes were not dry, I am sure in this heat they would have dried in an hour outside but in the air-conditioned hotel room they stayed nice and wet. We walked around a bit and finally found someone who was willing to dry our clothes and charge by the Kilogram rather than by the item. It was still a bit expensive but with only a few hours left until checkout we did not have many options.
Neither of us ate anything this morning as we were both still suffering from the previous night indulgence in spicy curries. The good news is that I finally managed to get my outgoing tickets changed. You would not believe how hard it is to make phone calls to 1-800 numbers from overseas and how difficult it was dealing with Alaska Airlines and Cathay Pacific (different time zones, disconnecting calls, operating procedures that assume a lot of things that are not true, etc…) but thanks to some helpful people at Alaska I am now staying in Thailand for the remainder of the trip. In many ways I am sad about this because I have for many years wanted to visit Japan, but having been recently unemployed it is simply not a good idea for me to be spending a week in what was until this year rated THE most expensive city in the world (it just got knocked down two number two by Amsterdam). The change of flights was confirmed just a couple of minutes before boarding a bus back to Bangkok, if I had known about it earlier (even an hour earlier) I would probably have headed south instead of north, but as it was I decided to stay on the bus and figure out my next destination. En route and on the bus I decided the island of Ko Samui is the place for me. According to the descriptions in the books it should offer the tropical beaches, relaxation and hopefully scuba diving I have been longing for without the disturbing and omnipresent sex tourism of Pattaya.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
Posted in Travels at 9:06 pm by Leopoldo
3/15/06, Pattaya
We did not get to bed until 2AM and decided to sleep in for a bit. I began the morning with an unsuccessful search for banana rotee near the hotel. We got some yummy corn cakes and then stopped at one of the eateries for locals to get curry and rice. I got a chicken pananeg curry that was tasty but a bit upsetting.
After a visit to an Internet Café I tried (again) to change by return ticket and managed to get close to a confirmed change. On the way back along the beach we got some coconut ice cream and with ice cram I mean a cup with sweet sticky rice, jellied palm nuts, coconut ice cream, candied milk ice cream, two types of nuts and condensed milk on top. Not bad for less than 10 baht. Sitting along the beach we were petitioned for all kinds of activities and I decided to pay the 400 baht for a parasail ride. A boat took me out to one of the many platforms where they strapped me in and took me for a quick run around the platforms then landed me back on the platform.
We sat under beach umbrellas for a while enjoying the view then stopped at a local smoothie shop for a banana smoothie (they were all out of mango) before heading back to the hotel. We then walked along Pattaya 2 and up Middle Road looking for a laundry that could wash our clothes and got a coconut and rice cake from a sweets vendor. After spending some time walking around a local supermarket we stopped at an off road restaurant and got fried pork with garlic and a sweet and sour pork salad. The latter had a spicy sauce that burned Nick’s mouth and upset my gut so much that I had to hop on a pickup truck taxi back to the Hotel to use the restroom. We have dubbed this effect the ‘Ring of Fire’. If you have experienced it, you know what I mean.
Permalink
Posted in Travels at 9:04 pm by Leopoldo
3/14/06, Pattaya
This morning we hailed down a Tuk-Tuk and asked the driver to take us to Lamdum, the restaurant where locals go for Khal Soi. When we got there we asked the driver to join us for lunch, but ever after we made it clear (or at least we think we got the message across) that we were willing to pay for it, he turned us down. We both wonder if he might have been uncomfortable because of a perceived class difference. The place was definitely for the locals. I ordered a pork Khal Soi and Nick ordered a Chicken one. The soup turned out to be the same for both with very tasty noodles. The chillies in vinegar sauce were a perfect compliment. I also had a couple of delicious Iced Teas.
Read the rest of this entry »
Permalink
« Previous entries · Next entries »