I know it's been a while since I have posted a blog but I have a really good excuse... I've been traveling for the past 4 weeks. So here is a little about my trip to Thailand..
In January my uncle Shahin and I were in Thailand and I must say that the journey was a delightful one spent climbing mountains, hiking through rain forests, snorkeling in crystal blue waters and eating local Thai cuisine.
Each of us carrying one small back-pack we started our tour of Thailand in Bangkok. We arrived and it was a total culture shock for me (there were tourist EVERY WHERE!) coming from China I felt like I was back in North America and it was overwhelming at first. We went to an area called Silom and every local Thai person was hustling trying to sell us anything and everything. The sidewalks were filled with tables and stands selling clothing, dvds, watches, shoes etc.
The next night we took a local long tail boat down the river and went and saw the Grand Palace, Golden Mount, Royal grounds, and a couple of Wat's. When we were heading to the Grand Palace there was a man standing in front of the security booth with a badge and a name tag dressed in a uniform who approached us and took us aside from the gate. He told us the Grand Palace is closed and opens at 12pm. He stated that at the moment it was only open for Buddhists. He befriended us and told us and showed us on our map where we should go in Bangkok (places to visit) in the mean time until it reopens. He then told us that we should tak a Tuk-tuk andhe will drive us to these places, we decided since these places were really close that we would walk (luckily!).. So we continued to walk and passed by another gate to the Grand Palace and noticed that foreigners were walking in and so we followed and found out that IT WAS OPEN! The man even though he looked official was a scammer! There were many of these people in Bangkok trying to steal money from tourists, and lie to them about everything and anything. We got tired of this really fast and by the evening we both decided we had enough of Bangkok and so we took an overnight bus to a place called Krabi.The Bus Journey!
Just like China, Thailand has overnight buses which for the life of me I cannot figure out how the system works all booked on paper through phone calls. We got on the bus knowing of stories that there is a lot of theft that occurs on these over night buses and so we kept all our valuables hidden on our bodies. We sat in the front seat on the top level of the double decker bus and took off our shoes for the 16 hr journey to Krabi Town. On the way to Krabi, the bus drivers assistant sitting on the bottom floor of the bus had a metal rod with a hook at the end of it and tried to steal Shahin's shoes! luckily he tied them to the metal pole in front of him. There was a 65 year old man from Holland who we had befriended and he saw this occurring while we were asleep and he pulled up on the pole and confronted the bus driver assistant. We were lucky! There were many travelers who had their money stolen from their bags.
Krabi Town!
We found a really nice Hostel that was better then most hotels I've stayed in. There was a lot of thought put into the design of the entire building both interior and exterior from the names of each room, the the custom stone work on the walls, to the plants and pictures that were hung. I would rank this place a perfect 10!
We spent a total of 5 days in and around Krabi Town. We rented a "motorbike" as the Thai call it ( a scooter in NA) and rode across the city and around the smaller villages in the countryside. We ended up in an area where the Tiger Cave was. This is where a giant Buddha resides on top of a mountain. We made the trek up the 1300 steps of various heights and widths to the top of the mountain... bare footed! It was a gorgeous view at the top of the mountain of the surrounding city.
We also had the opportunity to visit a National Park that was 22KM outside of the city. Over here were were able to hike through a rain forest where there was 3 consecutive water falls flowing into each other. We climbed the mountain to the top most waterfall where we enjoyed a refreshing swim. The jungle had many beautiful butterfly's with the most brightest colours of greens, blues, yellows, and oranges. It truly was a great end to a day.
Ao Nang Beach
We spent a few days around An Nong beach, the first day we were there we had the pleasant surprise of seeing a heard of money's at the end of the beach near the forest. They all came out of the forest on to the beach where they started mingling with the tourists. We were also fortunate to enjoy 2 Thai massages outside under a gazebo overlooking the bright blue ocean.
Riley? Relighy? Reely? Beach
For the life of me I do not understand how no one knows how to spell the name of the beach. It is spelled so many different ways that I do not know the correct spelling of it. This beach was gorgeous! Straight out of the promotional magazines for Thailand it was the typical white sandy beach seen in pictures. We spent two days here snorkeling, hiking and rock climbing ( according to my definition of rock climbing... Shahin might disagree). We scattered through this mountain and in the center of mountain was a Lagoon. The challenged really wasn't going up but more on the way back down as at times we were unable to see where we could support our feet.
After two hours with some minor cuts and scraps, and shirts filled with dirt and sweat we were back to the bottom of the mountain.
Chicken Island, Poda Island, Phranang Beach, and 1 other island (I forget the name)
We took a tour to visit 4 islands and to go snorkeling. The crystal blue waters and white sandy beach on each of these islands were spectacular. One of the islands we were able to go into the water and we were surrounded by hundreds of fishes which once in a while nibbled on our fingers, arms and yes even my back. It really was a cool experience.
Bridge Over River Kwai
We ended of our trip by visiting a city 3 hours north of Bangkok called Kanchanabri where in WW2 the bridge was built by the Japanese prisoners. Some of the soldiers who gave their lives for our countries were as young as 20 years old. The scriptures that was engraved on their burial stones really touched both of our hearts. They left behind mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives, sons, daughters, nieces, and nephews.
Overall we had an amazing time on our trip. We backpacked through Thailand, met wonderful people from across the world and created memories that will last a life time.
