Chiang Mai, Bangkok part two, and Koh Lanta

A few days of sickness followed by a few days with no free time to update means I haven't blogged in a while.

Last time I updated, I had just arrived in Chiang Mai and was having a bout of what I thought was a 24 hour bug, but turned out to be a four day bug. That kept me from experiencing Chiang Mai to the extent I would have liked to. Didn't get to visit an elephant sanctuary or go mountain biking as I had hoped, but I was able to do some sight seeing around the city on my last day. And luckily the people at my hostel were really cool with accomodating me in my misery. Hopefully it's the first and last time I'll have to deal with that kind of sickness on this trip, but it still bums me out that I basically got to see nothing of Northern Thailand. That, and the fact that, while I was in Laos, the Mekong River's water level was too low to take the slow boat into Thailand (one of the top plans I had for this trip) were both major disappointments, but good enough to give me an excuse to come back here someday.

After Chiang Mai, I headed back to Bangkok to meet Jim, who was already on a Thailand-bound plane for a whirlwind weeklong visit. Returning to where I started was pretty monumental for me--I've made the loop through all of mainland SE Asia! It's something that seemed pretty daunting just a few months ago, but looking back I can't believe how simple it's been.

This time, I picked a guesthouse on Khao San Road, Bangkok's infamous backpacker ghetto that never sleeps. I arrived at 6 a.m. and the last guitar circles were still going strong while prostitutes stood around hoping to turn one last trick for the night and street sweepers hurried to clean up the mess before the madness started all over again (if it ever really ends). I spent the day catching up on sleep and wandering the Khao San neighborhood of Banglamphu to kill time before Jim's arrival.

Jim arrived on my doorstep at 1 a.m., just in time to watch the Spartans advance to the Final Four. Normally I would think it's really lame to spend your first night abroad in an Irish bar, but watching that nailbiter was absoluately necessary. By 3 a.m., we were the only two customers there and the all-Thai waitstaff thought we were both insane as we yelled at the TV or cheered and high-fived. They get fired up about soccer here, but basketball is all but nonexistent.

Too wired for sleep after the win, we headed a few blocks away, where the Red Shirt protest was still going strong at 4 o'clock. The Red Shirts are a group of protesters who descended upon Bangkok several weeks ago, demanding the dissolution of parlaiment, unseating of the prime minister and a new round of elections. They're mostly poor citizens from Thailand's northern regions who supported the previous prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra was ousted from office during a 2006 coup, before a back door deal led to Abhisit Vejjajiva's instatement. I don't know enough about the issues surrounding the protest (which is preceeded by several similar events in recent years) to say who I think is right or wrong, but it's obvious that there's a huge class divide in Thailand. The country seems shiny and clean and miles ahead of its neighboring nations on the surface, but after seeing the tension between the rich and poor and the resulting political rift it causes, I don't have any trouble believing the rumblings about a possible civil war breaking out once the hospitalized king dies.

Despite the overall tension, the protesters were surprisingly upbeat. It was late at night, so there's the possibility that the ones left awake were drunk, but the scene looked more like a music festival than a protest--people dancing in the streets, waving flags, driving by on trucks with speakers blasting music. And they were all excited to see a couple of falang taking part in the activities. That wasn't the case when Jim and I got to the south, which I quickly found out when I wore a Red tank top around town one day, leading to scowls, laughter (most of them realized I was just an uninformed tourist) and many discussions about why sympathizers with both sides believe what hey believe. And I'm still not sure what it's all about.

Jim's first full day in Bangkok, we pounded the pavement, tuk-tuked and rode the river all over the place, taking in the Royal Palace, Wat Po and Golden Mount and seeing a bit of the city before meeting up back on Khao San with Kristen and Matt, a couple of friends who are studying in Bangkok. It was strange to see three familiar faces in one day after going more than two months without seeing one. We hopped between the restaurants and bars catching up and introducing Jimbo to Thai's food and drink, then ended the night with an argument with some Canadians who were talking trash about Michigan--although I can't remember what, exactly, their argument was.

The next day, we took the train to Ayuttayah, a small city a couple of hours northwest of Bangkok that also is Thailand's former capital and home to some of the country's best ruins. Rented some bikes and spent the afternoon climbing around a few of the temples before making it back to Bangkok to catch an overnight bus down south for the long-awaited islands.

Every time I take a long, terrible bus ride I swear if there's another option next time, I'm taking it. Then I never do, hoping this time will be better. And it never is. Our 12-hour "VIP" bus to Krabi to catch a one hour ferry to Ko Lanta turned into a 24-hour journey via bus, minivan and tuk-tuk (but no boat), combined with hours of sitting in bus stops or being herded from one place to another to catch yet another bus. This kind of thing has been the norm in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos and normally I would be annoyed, but not surprised. But Thailand is a much more developed country with much better roads and a heavy tourist presence, so I expected more. Plus, since Jim only had a week, it really frustrated me that we wasted a whole day of his time sitting on buses. He took it well, but I was royally pissed.

All of that was washed away, though, the minute we stepped onto the beach in Koh Lanta and realized why people stomach the 24-hour journey. It rained briefly but heavily that afternoon so we didn't see much of the island. We managed to take a swim and catch the sunset after it cleared up, before snagging some dinner and heading down to one of the beach side bars to watch a fire dance performance, which was pretty cool. Even more entertaining were the German kids who gave it a go with the unlit batons and ropes after a brief intro from the Thai dancers.

Next day, we took a speedboat trip around four neighboring uninhabited islands. Jim will tell you this was his highlight. First stop: Koh Cherk, where we did some snorkeling in a really nice reef with all sorts of small tropical fish, as well as a few larger ones. The water here is so crystal clear that you barely even need the snorkel gear. You can just look down into the water and see all the way to the bottom of the reef.

Next stop: Koh Mook, where a hidden cave leads from the ocean into a cliff-ringed blue lagoon in the center of the island. Getting in was easy, if a bit creepy swimming in a small cavern with no light, but the return trip was a bit of a disaster. The first challenge was a group of more than 100 orange life vest-wearing Asian tourists who showed up out of nowhere and stopped for five minutes to snap a couple of photos, then decided to overtake our group as we were attempting to pass one-by-one through the small hole back into the cave to leave the lagoon. All of them lined up in a huge chain, chanting in unison as they forged their way into the cave, with or without leaving some drowned members of our small tourist group in their wake (we had no life vests and some didn't have flippers, either). Jim and I were among about six or so from our group who didn't make it through the hole and by the time the Asian group was through, the tide had risen so high it blocked the entrance. We waited for about a half hour before one of our guides came back and helped us dive underwater to clear the entrance and get back to the boat.

After some lunch and beach time on another island, we stopped one more time for snorkeling at Koh Ngai. There were a few jellyfish in the water, but several of us were brave or stupid enough to get in anyway. Then, all of the sudden, there were jellyfish everywhere. I saw a few within arms reach and began swimming back toward the boat to avoid them, then looked up to see that the coast guard was already there, pulling the other members of our tour group from the water. So twice in one day, we had to be rescued. Jim got a few stings but nothing too bad, and we ended up with a good story to tell.

That night we looked for the "huge Thirsty Thursday party" a flyer advertised for one of the beach bars, but the only people mulling about seemed to be honeymooners and families, so we went back to our guesthouse's bar to join all two patrons with a couple of beers and some chitchat. Somehow, though, that morphed into a pretty solid group of Koh Lanta locals and travelers from all over and the night ended up being a blast.

The next day we chilled out and met back up with a few acquaintances from the night before, then braved yet another long journey back to Bangkok for one more day before Jim shipped out. We visited the weekend market in the morning and whiled away most of the afternoon people watching on Khao San before randomly running in to one of my travel companions from Vietnam. That led to a night of genuine Khao San-style mayhem, including a visit to a Thai nightclub and partaking in a sampler platter of Bangkok's fried bugs. Jim ate one of each. I could only muster the courage of a cricket and a tiny frog. Both just tasted crunchy and soy-flavored.

Jim left at two for his flight back and I headed to bed for all of two hours before waking up to watch MSU take on Butler. We all know how the game went, and by 10 a.m. I was back in bed until the evening, when I ran into another fellow traveler from Vang Vieng and we joined a Canadian they'd met earlier that day, and he brought along a German girl he met, who knew some Brits who brought along some other travelers from their guesthouse, and before you knew it, the ten of us were sharing buckets and I was killing my last few baht just in time to take the airport bus the next morning for my flight to Georgetown, Malaysia and the last leg (!) of my trip.

Buddhist adages like this one were posted all over the garden of a Wat in Chiang Mai.

Novice monks chatting it up at a Wat outside Chiang Mai's old city. The place must be some sort of training grounds, because several young boys were there with their families, getting their head shaved for the first time.

Chiang Mai's moat and old city wall, used centuries ago to guard the city against invaders.

A decked out Red Shirt protester near Democracy Monument in Bangkok.

Jim gets pumped for MSU basketball!

This Thai flower hawker is none too happy with Matt's suggestion that she give him two flowers for the price of one. But in the end, I think we got them for free.

Wandering around Ayuttayah.



Part of the Grand Palace in Bangkok.

Jim's verdict on durian, the King of Fruits: What's all the fuss about? Tastes and smells like hell.

Can't beat a good sunset. This one from Koh Lanta just after an afternoon rainstorm.

Fire dancer on the beach in Ko Lanta.

Tropical fish swimming around my leg in the Andaman Sea.

Matt noshes on a fried bug. With his tubing tank top, cloth bracelets, tattoo and dreads, he has morphed into the stereotypical backpacker since I last saw him.