The Other Orient

Lying flat on my stomach, I feel an immense amount of weight on both my hamstrings and crank my neck back to spot a small woman standing straight up in Wai position before grabbing my ankles and pulling the two of them over her shoulders towards my head. I willingly subject myself to being pulled and prodded, yanked and snapped for nearly an hour, and announce to my inflicter that I'll happily be back.
Shortly after signing up for Korea, I caught the Travel Channel taking a leisure tour through Thailand and decided it would be on my list of places to travel once it was only a hop skip and a jump away. I picked 8 days out of my summer vacation and along with a coworker, picked 3 places we could make the most of our time.

Day 1

Up at 6:30 to finish shoving things into my backpack and call Mom to let her know I was leaving. Rushing to meet Amy at the bus, who also put some things off until the morning of, thus, forcing the two of us to run to catch the bus as we spotted it pulling up. Forgot a pair of shorts, a razor, and my ipod.....the latter making an 8 hour flight even longer. From Seoul to Kuala Lampur sitting behind a super cute U.S. family with 3 girls who were moving for Dad's job. The airport is completely surrounded by palm trees, miles and miles as far as I can see. After a short layover, we board for Bangkok and I sit next to another fellow American who has called the city for over 20 years and graciously gives us a few pointers: only eat the street food if you've watched it be cooked and never get in a sit still taxi. Successfully check into our hotel in downtown Bangkok before searching for a boxing match that doesn't take place.

Day 2

Up at 5 am for a 6 am pickup - a tour guide from the Jungle Rafts whips us through Friday morning traffic. I can feel my stomach shifting from side to side as he disregards cars merging, stop lights, and motorbikes, all braking and accelerating as they please. We're taken to a tour bus loaded with other passengers, all destined to the river Kwai. More traffic to cram into and get your heartbeat going....Buddist monks roam barefoot, children walk to school in uniform, old women sell fruit on the roadside, business men bike in between taxis. Bangkok has a similar pace as Seoul, but a different feel - more rundown and less industrialized. After a ride on a longtail boat down the river, we arrive at the bridge over the River Kwai and take a walk back and forth. Then head to the war cemetery. By lunch time, we're checked into our lodging for the next 2 and a half days - The Floating Jungle Rafts. A string of bamboo rafts tied together and anchored in the middle of the river, each equipped with two huts, a hammock, and picnic table and no electricity. Over our beds hang mosquito nets and our toilet flushes by pouring water from the river into it. Everyone meets for lunch at the large center raft where an unlimited amount of delicious food is brought to us. After eating we head over to the Hellfire Pass and walk a portion through the jungle where scattered railroad ties still lie. The pass was part of attempt to build a railway between Burma and Thailand, enforced upon POWs by the Japanese during WWII. Work by torchlight at night gave the pass its name.
Until dinner, we swim in the river and indulge in a massage back at the floatel. Once the sun goes down, the entire place is lit with gasoline lanterns, the drum sounds and everyone meets at the dining raft for a night of food and drink. The night is capped off with a native dance performance by the Mon Tribal people which = awesome.

Day 3

Wake up to elephants bathing down by the river. Breakfast is coffee, ham, eggs, and fruit. Then we take off into the rain forest to the Mon Tribal Village. The Mon are a group of people locked in a stretch of Thai jungle, mixed blood of Thai and Burmese, the first not granting them citizenship and the latter not allowing them to cross the border. They live in bamboo and banana leaf huts, have elephants roaming around and piles of coconuts in their yards; a open air school sits in the middle as well as a temple; kids run around barefoot and clothes dry out the windows; men strip the hides of ox and women sew bright fabrics.....its a scene straight out of National Geographic. The owner of the floatel - a Frenchman named Gus - has graciously allowed them to help out with all his tourists and backpackers who frequent the lodging. So they clean up the rooms and cook and serve food and drive the boats up and down the river and give massages and learn English, Dutch, German, and whatever language passes through. It's truly fantastic.
Along with one other couple and a couple flashlights, we are then taken inside a lava cave in a mountain in the jungle. Bats sleep overhead and incredible rock formations jump out of walls, sending shafts of light and casting cool shadows all around us. Its so humid I can feel the sweat rolling down my back and legs, but its still worth the trip.
Back at the floatel for lunch, and the afternoon is spent at the tiger sanctuary. A group of Thai monks have erected a site to raise and protect the countries' tigers, and you are allowed to mingle with them a bit. So we get to pet them (huge beasts with course fur) and have our pictures taken, watch the cubs run and chase each other and just marvel at these awesome creatures. We make the trek with a very friendly Australian couple who chatt the whole way there and back. Dinner, of course, is a highlight once again. After a very limited diet for the past 10 months, it'sa huge blessing to be able to treat our taste buds to something different. And the ambiance of the place made it even better. Amy and I chatted away the evening with a lady from Holland and her two university children, then return to the hammocks.

Day 4

Following breakfast Amy and I head back into the jungle to hitch a ride on an elephant. After assisting us up into the "saddle" a tiny Mon dude situates himself nearly on the head of the elephant (a 37 year old strapping fellow) and takes off into the damp, mud caked bamboo forest. The palm trees sprinkle water onto us and mosquitoes swarm at our ankles as our transport leaves behind massive, knee deep footprints. The elephant picks up speed and our driver bounces up and down with his bare feet tucked behind the elephant's ears and yelling out in Thai, shifting Amy and I from side to side. Our elephant is so riled up towards the end that he takes off while I have one leg still in the saddle and one stretched out to the hut on stilts. Rather than fall with a thud to the mud below, I hit the deck laughing hysterically as our elephant takes off to join the others at the pile of bananas. Sadly, when our ride ends its time to say goodbye to the Jungle River Rafts. We load our things into the longtail boat, stop for lunch and head to Death Railway. Its a clunker of a contraption, a true piece of history sporting its wooden seats and panting across the countryside. Along with the group of travelers from the floatel, we wined across the river and beside farms. The next few hours are given merely to travel - a bus back to Bangkok, waiting around for our overnight bus, an overnight bus to Trat on the coast, getting to the ferry and then across the water to the island of Koh Chang.

Day 5

We're safely at our resort but have over 4 hours before we can check in. Leaving our bags with the reception, we hit up a convenient store for food and reading material and head to the beach where we lay out without sunscreen. Mistake. Followed by another mistake of not having water proof sunscreen with more than a 30 SPF before heading back down for the afternoon at the beach. But the view is wonderful and so is the sound of the waves which bring handfuls of shells up on White Sand Beach. We swim and build a sand castle and clean up so we can find a place to settle for dinner. Right on the sand, down a long stretch of the coast are little restaurants and bars and grills with lawn chairs and lanterns set up, and good music and cheap drinks.

Day 6

We get picked up outside our hotel for a day of snorkeling. For less than 20 bucks, we are provided with gear and are taken to the pier to board a boat which escorts a group to 4 different islands. As soon as I jump in and put my head under the water I can spot the multitudes of colorful fish and coral beneath me. Hours pass as we circle the islands and snap pictures with our underwater cameras. One of the guides takes my camera, tells me he will "find Nemo" and then plunges down to where he is no longer visible and returns with a huge smile on his face. One of the islands holds only a single resort, and the sand is almost as white as snow and the water is a florescent blue. After showers, a little shopping, and another massage, the evening is given to the beach once again. I feast on shark and a fresh coconut shake while watching fire jugglers.

Day 7

We check out of our hotel, leave our luggage at the desk and rent motorbikes. Yes! for about 6 bucks we each have our own for 24 hours so decide to do some cruising up and down the coast. There is virtually no traffic - only the occasional truck taxi and fellow motorbikers. The sun is out and we roll up and down the hills and past the palm trees and cut around corners. We even spot wild monkeys swinging in the treetops. The opportunity to buy more cheap souvenirs appears and we stop at the pier to browse. Everything here is cheaper, and I find myself buying a couple of things here for 1/4 or 1/5 the amount I would pay in the States. E.G. Burkenstock sandals and Ray Ban sunglasses. If they're knockoffs, they pass for the real deal.....
After 3 or 4 hours, Amy decides she's had enough. No more bikes for her, and it being only 3pm without any other plans for the day, I am pretty disappointed. Not gonna lie, I am having a ball tooling around on those things and the breeze feels great on my burnt skin. But I'm getting even more burnt, so it may hbe for the best to call it quites. Though since Amy pretty much puts a halt on our plans for rest of the day (no beach, no bikes) and I am uncomfortably red, the next few hours aren't that enjoyable. We have to find another place to stay that night, so our $20 a person (though how can you really complain about $20 a person for a beach front resort with a big clean room, cable TV, and breakfast buffet?) goes to about $13 a person. There is some silence over dinner but we ended up letting these 2 Thai women braid my hair and then top it off with ice cream (not the hair, the night).

Day 8

Sleep in, move slow, watch TV, and get our crap together to check out. Spend the next 5 hours or so on the beach, eating lunch and drinking fruit shakes in between playing in the water. Do plenty of reading and relaxing and watching kids have a ball. Finally say our goodbyes and discover the difficulty of getting off the island - no one wants to take you back to the pier. This takes a good hour. Eventually retrace all of the same steps for getting there except fihd a mini bus with only 3 other people on it who gets us back to Bangkok in less than 4 hours, so no overnight bus and getting in at 4am. We actually get to check into a hotel and get a bit of sleep.

Day 9

Last day. We want to see some of Bangkok but didn't really know the best way to do that before having to be at the airport by dinner. The hotel clerk throws out a few unappealing suggestions which have us going to attempt to navigate the adventure on our own. Until a little old taxi driver is parked in the lot of the hotel and sees us with our backpacks. "Where you want to go?" We don't really know, but tell him when want to something of the city since we're leaving shortly. "Floating Market. I'll take you and your bags, there and then to the airport." How much? This guy will drive us an hour and a half, wait around for another hour and a half, and then drive another 2 hours equaling over half of his day, for about $45. Done deal. "You talk to me directly, they don't know what they talkin' about," he says pointing at the hotel. So we're off to the Floating Market - a jungle of canals right outside Bangkok and an endless sensory treat. Long wooden boats stacked with handmade dolls, masks, hats, drums, bags, paintings and carvings line the canals. Little old women with fruit and drinks and corn on the cob and homemade banana chips or coconut pancakes drift by. If you point to something you notice, a hook will take hold of the boat you're riding and pull you closer.
They like to quote ridiculous prices to a tourist, and my father's businessman influence comes in handy. I'm quite proud of 350, 450, even 600 Baht getting dropped to 100 Baht. Amy even recruits me to get her a few gifts for people. Further into the canal system are peoples' homes and a school where kids wave to us as we pass. When we return to the taxi our driver has a fresh coconut with the top cut off and a straw for each of us. That's what we sip on headed to the airport.

Having vacation was nice in itself; the fact that it was spent in lying around in paradise and rubbing tiger's bellies was magnificent.