Goodbye Thailand, Hello Lao

Ben and Andy: Random Reunion

We had to get up at like 5am for our flight from Bangkok to Udon Thani. We decided to fly there because 1. It cost only a little more than the sleeping train or bus would be 2. It was within an hour drive of the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai and Vientiane and 3. It saved us about 2 days of travel time by flying.
We said goodbye to Rob at the airport, his flight to Kuala Lumpur was just before ours, it was weird losing one of group members.
The flight was short but bumpy and we were all amazed we made that landing, haha. There was a Thai kid sitting next to Andy and I who had a big fancy Nikon camera. He took about a dozen shots of the wing of the plane. Then when we were about to land he pulled out a few sheets of paper stapled together; they contained his flight itinerary, and then photos of the next places he had to go! I only knew this because I’d seen the pictures online when I was figuring out how to get to the border from the airport. I guess you had to be there??
Next we hopped on a minibus and were taken to the border, went through the Thai checkpoint, took another bus across the bridge that goes over the Mekong, and then waited for our Visas on arrival. I had to pay the most- $42USD! Come on Canada, improve your Lao relations already! Lao is making a killing on Canadian travelers paying that extra $7USD, the English and Italians only had to pay $35! No fair! We can speak French for fuck’s sake!
Yeah, so we got another minibus into town and asked to be dropped off near the centre of town. Our plan was to get some food and see about bus times to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands since the Air Asia website fucked up our booking: two of group ended up not being on the same flight as us and weren’t going to arrive in Udon Thani until nearly 6pm, meaning they wouldn’t even make it into Lao until like 8pm. We didn’t really know what we should do- should we spend a night in Vientiane or just meet them at our next destination? After only a couple minutes after being dropped off in town the answer to our problems was instantly solved… we ran into Ben! Like literally, ran into him. We’d just come around a corner and BAM! There he was. It was unreal. I’d been facebooking with him earlier in the week to see if our paths would cross but it looked like they wouldn’t, but then in a last minute decision we and his g/f decided they’d spend a few more nights in the Lao capital and try to meet up with us. Of course he wrote this on my facebook wall after I’d left my last internet connection so I wasn’t going to get that message until much later, so it was really by chance that we ran into him.
As soon as we saw him we knew we’d be staying the night so we dumped our stuff in a hotel room and went out to get on the Beer Lao. That’s how the rest of the day and night went. The other two in our group arrived with their only problem being a dumb Lao taxi driver.

Pattaya

Holding a snake in a bar in Pattaya

When we finally arrived in Pattaya and found our hotel I knew I liked it already. I felt like Waikiki, and a little bit of Florida, and Bali all rolled into one. Really busy all the time, good and bad smells coming from every direction, people trying to sell you everything. Craaaazy! Plus we had a corner hotel room with giant windows taking up two walls so it felt like being on a boat or in the penthouse.
We went for some food at Andy’s favorite place to eat in Pattaya: The Pig and Whistle. It was like entering a different world when you stepped in- it was totally a traditional English Pub inside, except for the Thai staff, and had traditional English food on the menu as well.
That night we grabbed a few slices of pizza for dinner and then started drinking.
We went to a couple bars that night, the first being Boomerang Bar where Andy knows the owner. We played some pool and watched the people go by and sales people come in. There were a few guys going around with a Polaroid camera and either wigs and funny sunglasses or various types of animals (pythons, iguanas, slow loris!) offering to take your picture for 150B ($5). We would take pictures with out own cameras and sometimes give the person like 50B if we felt like it.

Boomerang Bar

Walking Street

Jennie Star Bar... a ladyboy bar

Later we caught a Pattaya style tuk-tuk (a pick-up truck with benches and a roof in the back) to Walking Street- the craziest part of Pattaya. Of course Andy took us into a ladyboy bar first haha. We danced in there for a bit and then went into Marine Disco, which was pretty cool, with lights under the dance floor and shit like that. By this point we’d all split up so Andy and I both squeezed onto a scooter taxi that took us back to our hotel. Andy then had two kabobs and we went to sleep.
The next morning it was down to the Pig and Whistle for breakfast, well lunch, and since everyone was pretty hungover we all had a quiet day. I walked along the beach for a bit taking in the sights. That night we went to a bar with live music where you could request the songs they played. Andy and Danny even got up and played an Oasis song the band didn't know. We also went back to Boomerang and that’s when I fell in love with the slow loris.

Dan and Andy taking the stage...

Me and a SLOW LORIS!

The next morning Andy and the boys tried to wake up to watch the Cotto-Paquaiai fight at 8am but weren’t able to get up. Luckily, it didn’t start til 11 so they didn’t miss it. We watched it in the Pig and Whistle and had some food.
Then it was zoo time. The Million Years Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm to be exact. It was both cool and sad at the same time. Cool because you could pay a bit extra and get your picture with baby tigers, big tigers, bears, crocodiles, and elephants. And feed the big scary crocs. Sad because some of the animals were confined to quite small cages. There was a Crocodile Show as well where this crazy thai guy plays with some crocs, sticks his head in their mouths, puts his hand down one of their stomachs and brings back up some stomach bile, then eats it, and other shit like that.

Baby crocs

Feeding some crocs

BABY TIGER!

The Crocodile Show Arena

Posing with a croc

After the zoo we went to the International Snake Show. The show consisted of a few guys playing with snakes. First this one guy brought out a pair of cobras and teased them for a bit. Then this made one of them bite into cling wrap over a glass to prove it was still venomous. The next guy brought out a python or something non-poisonous and taunted it a for while. Then the other guy came back with a viper. And finally they brought a big Burmese Python out of a burlap sack and made it angry, then got people from the audience (there were 10 of us only haha) to come get pictures with it around their necks- I did it!

Cobras

Schmoochie Schmoo

Autisic monkey

After the show we wandered around the ‘grounds.’ They were scruffy as shit. There were some dirty aquariums containing more snakes, a few caged squirrels, an autistic monkey, a chained up elephant, a few cocks who’d obviously recently fought, goats, pigs, and turkeys. It was dirty and weird. The people who ran it lived amongst it. There was laundry hung up and kids toys scattered about.
Back to the hotel where Rob finally showed up. He hadn’t been feeling well and went to a health clinic. They took some blood and told him he had Dengue Fever. He’d had enough and I helped him book a flight home to England that night. Our spirits were a little subdued at this point so we just went out for some food and then called it a night.
The next morning we slept in til just about check out time and then got a minibus back to Bangkok… no Khao San Road this time though- just an airport hotel since we had an early morning flight the next morning. Getting there was easier said than done. Our driver spoke little English and took us to the airport first. We told him, no, we want this hotel- the one on the sheet of paper we’d given him, address and all- and boy did that confuse him. We spent probably another 45 minutes driving around looking for this place (I’d found it online at some last minute hotel website). We finally pulled down a dirt alley and low and behold there was our new looking hotel at the end of it. Sure we had to pass by a swamp within a derelict building and we may have been the only people staying there, but shit, we’d found it! Haha
We ate at the restaurant and then went on an unsuccessful hunt for a 7-11 but found a minimart instead for beers. Then we played poker, 20baht buy-in, and I somehow won! Ha!

Bangkok

Some Thai culture earlier that day in Bangkok

So later that night in Bangkok… we went to a bar to have a few Chang and play some pool in preparation for the Muay Thai Fight. When it was finally fight time we made our way down to Khao San Road to find some tuk-tuks and stopped at one of the food stalls for a scorpion for Rob. He enjoyed it; said it tasted like pork crackling. The stall also had cockroaches, giant grasshoppers, crickets, grubs, and a few other insects. These things are all over Thailand.

Fried locusts

After that brief snack we found tuk-tuks and they took us to the Boxing Stadium- one of the biggest in Thailand where a lot of big fights happen- our fight was pretty sweet as well. There were actually 10 fights that night with the fighters getting older and sometimes heavier as they went on. The title fight was number 7.

Ring side seats at Muay Thai

We were there for a few hours and quickly figured out that beers were cheaper outside, so we were in and out quite a bit. Since we were ringside VIPs we got to go get photos with the winner (of the title fight, for the belt) afterwards. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?) there were no knock outs that night.

The new Champion

The next morning we got up and Andy went to have his jacket fitting. As we waited inside the tailor shop for the fitting they offered us a drink, we got cokes in the glass bottles. Since the fitting only took about 5 minutes when we got up to leave we were going to take the cokes with us. The suit guy told us no way, those bottles are worth more than the coke inside them; you can’t take the bottles out of this shop. Weird. Back on Khao San Road we arranged with a taxi guy to get 2 taxis to take us to Pattaya (about 150km Southeast of Bangkok). Then we checked out and were on our way. There were 4 people and all our bags smooched into each taxi… it was an uncomfortable 90min drive to say the least.

Tattoo Army

The Phuket Inkings...

Rob

Tommaso

Gianluca

Phuket to Bangkok

Well folks, Phuket was over much too fast. We had six nights there and spent most of the time lazing about our hotel… in hindsight I think we should have started somewhere more low key and ended in party town Patong Beach. Not all was lost though, three of the boys got half sleeve tattoos (pics will be added when I have a faster connection) and the weather was agreeable. We hired beach chairs on our last day for a few hours and soaked in some serious Thai sun rays. Plus I learned how to drive the moped we'd rented for the week and even how to drive it with Andy on the back!!
On our last day we went to a travel agency to book a bus from Phuket to Surat Thani where we would catch a night train to Bangkok. The travel agents told us we could get a minibus (think large van) to take us to Surat Thani that wouldn’t leave until noon (instead of 7:15am) and would cost the same price. We had to round up the troops to get the money sorted out and when we came back about 5 minutes later the time had changed from noon to 12:30 and the arrival time from 4 to 6pm! Whatever, we’ll just book it.
So the next morning we checked out and waited for the minibus to pick us up at our hotel. Little did we know that this drive would not be just from point A to point B. First, the minibus was about 20 minutes late. Then we watched as the driver stuffed all our luggage into the first row of seats because the truck space was pretty much nonexistent. When we finally got going we quickly realized we weren’t headed in the right direction… that was because we had three more passengers to fit in our already full to the brim minibus. First we picked up a guy in a cowboy hat in Karon Beach. The driver played around with the bags again. Next we picked up two more girls in Kata Beach. A few people thought it was unbelievable that everyone and their bags was going to fit, but somehow we and it all did.
So we finally got going in the right direction. This lasted about 10 minutes because as we drove over a manhole, or some sort of grate in the road, a loud POP occurred and the hub cap went rolling off into traffic. Our driver stopped and retrieved the hub cap and then pulled into the next gas station. We’d obviously blown a tire, probably because the bus was beyond capacity. We all got out the van disappeared. I think we hung around the Esso for about 30 minutes before the bus came back and we all piled back on.
The rest of the ride was smooth sailing minus the driver stopping to go to a bank and Andy drinking too many Changs and begging Dan to ask the driver to stop so he could pee (he almost did this twice, haha). We finally arrived at the Surat Thani railway station at around 6pm and amazingly there were 2nd class air conditioned sleeping berths available on the train that came in less than 20 minutes. We scrambled to buy tickets, beer, and some food before the train arrived and before I had time to find a toilet the train arrived.
We found our seats and ate our train station chicken curry (not bad, very hot!). Then we broke into the Changs and played a 20THB game of poker. It was certainly a nice way to travel. Train staff came around at about 9pm and changed our seats into beds and we all called it a night before 11pm.
We were awoken the next morning at around 4:45am by a thai woman’s high pitched call of “Coffee? Tea?” but in thai. By 5:30am we were all kicked out of our bunks so the staff could turn them back into seats and have the sheets ready for the cleaners in Bangkok.
We arrived in Bangkok on time pretty much, just after 6am. We unloaded and got taxis to the notorious Khoa Sarn Road. We hung out in Subway until about 715, and then went in search of a hotel with 4 rooms available. We found one on the third try and went straight back to sleep for a few hours.
At around 9:45 we were back on the streets and were immediately approached, accosted? by tuk-tuk drivers with an offer to show us the sights in the city for only 10 THB each. Since this was what we were looking for we took up their offer and hopped in three tuk-tuks. The tuk-tuks took us to a big golden Buddha and a temple that was closed, the Tourist Authority of Thailand (where we got our Muay Thai Boxing tickets!) and also three suit shops. Somehow the tuk-tuk drivers get free fuel by bringing people to these tailors. At the first two we just walked in said we didn’t want anything and walked out, but at the last one they got Andy. He ended up buying a cashmere peacoat for 3000THB. He got it at that price because he was the first customer of the day and it was lucky for the shop to get the first customer and it didn’t matter if there was no profit on their first sale… or something like that. He goes back for his fitting tomorrow morning and will be able to pick it up before we go to Laos next week.
We had some lunch on Khoa San Road, took a short nap, and then hit the streets for some shopping.

Patong, Phuket

Hanging out at Rabbit Mansion

After our first night in Rabbit Mansion we decided we'd stay for the whole 6 nights we are on Phuket (despite it being focused at French tourists) .We've been renting out mopeds since then and the drive is quite short and fun, of course. The past three days have pretty much been the same- just walking around Patong buying stuff (so far I've only bought a pair of Gucci sunglasses... oh and a new camera!). The weather has been pretty agreeable- partly cloudy and the ocassional freak down pour.

We had a big night out on Friday- drinking Chang beer (6.5%) and Mekong whiskey and coke before taking a tuktuk to Bangal Road. Andy thought it would be funny to start off at one of the all lady boy bars without telling anyone it was an all lady boy bar. It was indeed funny, although the boys figured it out pretty quick, well except Dan. hahaha.

We went to another few bars and ended up at Tiger Discotheque (nowhere as good as the clubs in Bali). Andy wanted to see a local band perform there and was crushed to learn that the amazing lead guitarist had left.

The next day was trouble on the bikes day. There is a busy intersection on the beach where the police like to pull people over. First Gianluca got pulled over for not wearing a helmet- he bribed the cop with 500THB instead of having to go to the police station and pay 1000THB. Next Andy (with me on the back) got pulled over and fined for not having his drivers license on him (it's actually in England, oops). A 30 min trip to the police station and a 300THB fine later and we were on our way. While I was waiting with the bike some strange older Swiss man came up to me asking about renting bikes- like I'm some sort of expert? haha

Today was more of the same. Rob went for his big half sleeve tattoo, which is supposed to take 12 hours total. We went up to visit him throughout the day a few times and it looks great. I don't think it will take that long to finish.

Tonight theres a big football game on live from Europe: Man United v Chelsea. We'll be going to some bar to watch it.

I've been loving the Thai food here and had possibly the best curry of my life the other night (Thai yellow curry).

The KL

About 9 hours of flying later we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Customs and all that was a breeze and we quickly found a cheap shuttle into the city. Then we hopped onto a komuter train to our 5 star hotel- The Legend Hotel…. It wasn’t as 5 star as we had expected but was still pretty nice, plus it had a great view of the PETRONAS Twin Towers. I suppose when you have the special internet price you’re going to be put in most basic room (we didn’t even get the plush bathrobes, boo). All tired from traveling we grabbed some average food and called it a night.
The next morning was more of the same, hanging around in the rooms, then checking out and going out in the city. We headed straight to PETRONAS Towers only to find out that the daily 1640 free tickets were all gone, so we’d have to come back another day.
Next we had some bad lunch at a rip-off restaurant. The fact that no one was in there before we came in should’ve been a sign. Oops.
After lunch we went back to the hotel, grabbed our shit, went back to the airport and checked in and waited around for our next flight- to Phuket, Thailand!
It was only a short flight, but it scared the shit out of me- we took off into a lightning storm. Andy wasn’t much help as he tried to make me more scared by faking worried looks etc. But we made it in one piece and again customs and shit was easy as.
We didn’t really know where our hotel was but quickly discovered it was pretty far from all the action in Patong Beach so we told reception we only wanted to stay 1 night instead of 6. He was pretty pissed and refused to give us the price we’d been quoted via email. Oh well. We dumped our stuff and took a 5 minute tuk-tuk ride into the beating heart of Patong to find a better place to stay. We ended up having a few Changs at Bar One first and played the nail game before going to a hotel Andy had stayed before. The woman at reception gave us a good price for 5 nights so we’ll probably move there. It doesn’t have a pool but it’s a 5 minute WALK to the beach rather than a 5 minute drive.