Recording the adventures of Robert and Jenn since 2010.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Amazing and Magical Rollerskate
After eight years of driving a car, you figure you know all it's secrets. I was wrong! Ben bought a new/used Rav recently and taught my car a new trick. The back seats fold completely up! This would have been so handy over the years. I'm imagining storing a wonderfully knotheaded pup in the back instead of on my nice upholstery, but alas. Thanks, Benn!
(What are your backseats concealing?)
(What are your backseats concealing?)
Monday, February 14, 2011
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
I Made It To Ko Tao
My travel days seem to start very early. I guess I do book the earliest times possible since it makes getting to my destination a much more enjoyable task, but the early mornings are rough. I took a cold shower at 5:30am, which was absolutely frigid, given the low temperature of the morning. Then I was picked up from my GH at 6am. Of course the minibus that picked me up didn't take me straight to the pier, instead to a songthaew that was waiting at the train station. They wanted to pick up more passengers that were arriving on the night train from Bangkok. Most travelers don't stay in Champhon, opting instead to take a night train from BKK and get shuttled immediately to the pier to go to Ko Tao. The songthaew was a big one: the size of Dave's truck instead of mine, but still just as packed as at Loy Kathrong. It's a 12km ride to the pier and about 9km along our way we had a tire blow out. This is the first time I've ever been in a vehicle that blew out a tire, but it actually wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it would be. This did happen right when the boat was scheduled to leave, so I was a little worried about missing the boat, but as is apt to happen in Thailand, a phone call was made and the boat just waited for us. Once on the boat, it was packed to the gills and I was amazed as to how many people arrive by overnight train and don't stay in town.
The boat ride wasn't bad, just pretty long. It was the first time I've seen touts actually on the boat though. I first sat on the inside, but it was too hot and stuffy since there wasn't any A/C, so I opted to go outside. There were a lot of people outside, but everyone was sitting up front in the sun so the side walkway was clear for me to sit. I ended up sleeping for at least an hour of the boat ride which made it go by faster. (How long was the ride total? –Jenn)
Once on the island, you are bombarded by touts wanting to sell taxi rides and guesthouses, but they were not as bad as places in Cambodia where people seem a little more desperate for you business. I decided that I needed to get something to eat before I went to the east coast side of the island which is isolated from the town. It was 10:30am and I hadn't eaten yet today. I walked around town a little trying to get a bearing on what was in close proximity to where I was and found a little Mexican place that had cheap prices on banana shakes and green curry. (A Mexican place? …serving green curry?! –Jenn) That's a breakfast of champions. After a slow breakfast, it didn't take long to find a taxi. I took about three steps out of the restaurant and I had my ride. Travelfish said it would be a 400thb ride to the side of the island where I wanted to go and I got it at the rock bottom price of 300thb. (Excellent work – You win! –Jenn) In Thailand that is a large difference, but on this island all the prices are inflated. 5 baht water for 10 baht is the standard here. So off we went.
In reading about the roads here they say they are very dangerous during the wet season which I can see be true. For the most part they are paved, but they are just wide enough for one truck to pass and very steep. There is a section that has at least a 70 deg incline to it. If you came to another truck there would be some backing up. It was an interesting ride. The only good thing was that there aren't any cliffs that you drive along. Almost there, I told him which guesthouse I was staying at and of course there was a price renegotiation at which point I should have gotten out and given him half the agreed upon rate and walked the rest of the way. Instead, stood there giving him nothing until he decided to take me. I hate when they do that and probably will not react well if it happens for a third time.
Once at the guesthouse it is very peasant and relaxing though on a very steep hill. I got my 350thb bungalow that has a view of the bay below and sunrise in the mornings. It is very nice. I spent the rest of the day fooling around on the just good enough Internet to get emails and sometimes websites and drank a couple Changs. It was a relaxing evening.
(editing by Jenn)
Train To Champhon
I woke up this morning thinking my alarm didn't go off at 6:00am and that I was going to miss my train, but to my surprise it was only after 5am. I got up since I wasn't going back to sleep and that cold shower always takes a while to start anyway. These cold showers are going to kill me. It's a good thing that I'll be back where every shower is hot soon. By the time I got showered and packed up, the GH was just opening which was nice since they make you give them a 500 baht deposit and I wanted it back! I was now homeless yet again and needed to find some breakfast, but since Thailand backpacker ghettos don't really get going until 7am I was stuck. It was only 6:15am and nothing was open. No breakfast, just off to find a tuk-tuk to the train station. That was pretty easy at the main street and within minutes I was on my way. The train station has plenty of eats and I found a little place selling baked "pies" which were really just croissants and turnovers with Thai-like stuff in them. I had a chicken curry pie (really not bad) and a spinach pie (not worth eating, but I needed to eat something else).
It was easy to find the platform my train was leaving from as it's setup very logically and there aren't all that many ways you can really setup a train station, but my train wasn't there. I really didn't start to worry until my watch said it was after 8:04, the time when my train was supposed to leave. Maybe one of the many announcements that were only in Thai said there was a change in platform for my train. Thankfully that was not the case. I didn't realize what had happened until later, but my watch was 15min fast. I know that my cheap Vietnamese watch runs fast about 1min a day, so I was resetting it off the pad only to discover that it is running 10min fast as well! Anyway it wasn't long and my train was there and everyone loaded up quickly as there were only two cars and off we went.
Once on the train, traveling is straight forward (pun intended) because you just need to figure out where to get off. I knew I had plenty of time though, so I just looked for my seat. It was actually very similar to an older airplane in the style and arrangement of seats, except that there were only four seats across each row, two on each side of the aisle. They even had a drink service offering coffee, tea, juice, cokes and water and a small muffin. At lunch time, more drinks but with rice and chicken curry, which was actually very tasty. The ride itself was not that interesting, but comfortable as my chair reclined to a 45 deg angle. I had to be woken for lunch.
Once in Champhon I was one of two westerners that got off the train and it felt like I was once again in Kampot, ok maybe not as bad, but still pretty deserted. It was a short walk to the 4 GH that I checked out, all of which were about the same price, but turned out to be vastly different in quality of rooms. The place I choose had such a large main hall on the first floor that a 18 wheeler could have easily driven inside. My room was simple, but had a private bathroom and wifi in the room. I should have tried to make some phone calls, but by the time anyone was awake, I was going to sleep (9pm my time 8am Sunday morning y'alls time). It also had a tv with two English channels: one played law and order-type shows, the other was hunting shows. I left shortly after checking in at around 4pm as I was hungry, the only food I had eaten were in Thai portions and they usually eat 7 times a day.
My book showed a night market and TF (TravelFish) also talked about the night market in Champhon, noting that the only thing that was positive about the city was the food. There is a lot of Chinese influence here, more than in most of Thailand and the many small Thai-Chinese restaurants are supposed to be wonderful. I had my sights set on some good old street food from the night market as I hadn't had a real Thai night market in a long time. I went to find a bookstore to kill an hour before things get started in the night market (about 5pm) as the only book I have, while technically written in English, is almost incomprehensible for its use of the Scottish vernacular. There are lots of wis, ootay, oaf, wi, ma, and ah words, which can be a little hard to get the flow of. What does ootay mean anyway?? I'm not sure its even accurate to say that Scotsmen speak English anyway. The bookstore of course only had Thai and Chinese books since no tourists spend any time there, but by the time I had browsed the book covers, it had served it's purpose and it was time for some night market.
So when I get there, the first thing I notice is that it's setup for you to stop your motorbike at whichever stall you want and of course that means only Thais really shop there. That can be good and bad. You better know your Thai numbers to easily know how much things cost, but the food is probably authentically prepared and priced. My first stop was at the sausage place, which is really more like boudin than what we think of as "sausage." I think that's street food for beginners as it's super easy, cheap and tasty. This place served raw cabbage and chili peppers, but I declined the cabbage as I watched her wash it with water and not dry it (of course). Since I'm still taking pills for food poisoning and the most common source of infection is from water, it was an easy choice. Perhaps I should have partaken since I'm impervious right now, but I didn't want to push my luck. I haven't seen chili peppers being served with the sausages here before, which was a nice addition.
The next stop was at the fried chicken place. You should always aim to get to a night market full of street food early in the evening, right after they have set up and started cooking. After the food has been cooked, they set it out for you to buy. If you're late, it's cold. At the fried chicken place, I got two drumsticks and sticky rice (I love sticky rice. I don't want to see any more white rice unless it's sticky rice – ever.) They also put some small fried bits on top of the sticky rice. The fried bits are like the small amounts of batter that fall off the chicken when it's being fried, but are scooped out before they are burned. A very tasty little extra. The chicken was wrapped in paper, but it was so hot I thought it was going to melt the plastic bag it was also in. I'm pretty sure this was true free range chicken due to how it was cut. There was extra bone on both ends of the drumstick like it was easier for them to cut the bone than the joint and all I ever see are chickens running around. I ate my feast of chicken and rice sitting on the steps to a closed store. I needed a little desert now and tried these cookie things that look like tacos (I'll post a pic after I take one back in Champhon). We have seen them all over the place, but we never tried them. It's a one inch diameter round wanton cookie that's folded like a hard taco shell and then has a white moose-like stuff with what I think is orange zest on top. Not too sweet and I ate mine right as he pulled them off the grill. A successful night market snack.
The plan was to go out again and try out one of the tasty restaurants for a real meal, but I didn't manage to make it out again, so it turned into my dinner. Back at the hotel I worked on figuring out where I wanted to go in Koh Tao using the internet since my guide book is 6 years old. Of course the tv was turned on and I went to sleep shortly after that.
(editing by -- Jenn)
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