Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 14 (Back to Bangkok - continued)

We went across Bangkok to see Golden Mount temple. Bangkok I think is one of the few capitals where “I live right in the city center” doesn’t sound as such a great thing – once the skyscrapers end, getting back to the parallel world of Bangkok slums can be pretty traumatic.

Golden Mount Temple is a mountain shaped structure with a spiral walkway that brings the visitors to its golden top, the temple itself. On the way up people ring a series of bells suspended on racks and finally strike forcefully a large metal gong with a thick wooden mallet.

Reaching the top one can’t but marvel at arresting 360-degree panorama of the whole old town, an incredible Thai soup of pointed pagoda roofs, shabby huts, trees and faraway skyscraper skyline. I’ll miss this place.

At night a tuk-tuk gave as a refreshing drive through Chinatown and main roads with myriads of shining lights to our favorite bar to crown the day with farewell cocktails and shisha.

It definitely won’t be an ‘adios’, but an ‘HASTA LUEGO’.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 14 (Back to Bangkok)

We are back to Bangkok’s chaos. Gosh, I missed it!

People praying at a shrine right among skyscrapers

  The plan for the first half of the   day was to take a closer look a Bangkok’s parallel world: its business and commercial center which has nothing to do with the old town, except for omnipresent street food vendors.

Sounds weird but the most exciting part the day turned out to be our ‘excursion’ to an Asian mall. Food courts we found in the malls were not less outrageously unfamiliar as the street food markets with an incredible amount of food with nondescript names and showcases with plastified dishes, even soups!
I ventured on some green tea cake with red bean filling: tasted good beyond any expectations!

toffee makers

Japanese sweets

Many deserts looked quite hideous, like, for example, ice-cones with colored syrops and corn (!). The ones what really caught my attention were matcha desserts, made of green tea powder. Matcha smoothies, matcha puddings and matcha frozen yogurts seemed very popular with stalls over the place offering this green-tea based sweet with jelly, black pearls or sweet red beans.
Asians and Europeans do indeed have very different ideas about what is tasty…

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 13 (New Year's Eve)

Dolce far niente

… On New Year’s eve we arrived at Bayoke Sky Hotel. Fireworks have always fascinated me, but it was something different seeing them light up below around Bangkok from floor 42.

Happy New Year!

Last day on the islands was spent in self-pampering, sun-bathing, palm-watching, indulging in (soft & strong) fruit shakes and dining right on the beach digging our feet into the sand.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 12 (across Koh Samui Island)

There are some moments in life, remembering which may not have any practical use whatsoever, but even so, for some mysterious reason they get hooked on your memory.
This morning on the way to the interior of the island, time froze for me for a moment, when I saw a big buffalo sleeping peacefully among the graceful palm trees in the morning mist. This is one of the moments when you think ‘I wish I could stop time (or the car) and paint it!’

Today my other dream was to come true: jungle safari in a jeep. With all the ups and downs and a mountain river extreme crossover on top of a jeep the trip was was a blast!

Big Buddha in Koh Samui

Magic Garden

a island of millions of coconut palm trees

Jungle Safari on top of a jeep. My other dream came true.

real Thai selva

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 11 (Ang Thong Marine National Park)

Koh Samui is famous not only for luxury resorts and restaurants with prices kindly adapted to the European pocket. It’s also known for its proximity to Ang Thong Marine National park. ‘Ang Thong’ means ‘Golden Bowl’ and it is basically an archipelago of 42 islands scattered across emerald waters. This was the place that in fact inspired Alex Garland, the author of ‘the Beach’, and was the original setting of the book. It’s actually true that the first ones to discover this hidden paradise were pirates, who inhabited the isles, while ravaging in the sea for years. Later it also belonged the military people who turned it into their closed base for quite some time, and only not long ago it was finally turned into a national park.

After an hour boat ride sunbathing on the top deck, it was so exciting to do kayaking around the isles and passing through stone aches and caves!

Hundreds of beaches here in the archipelago are deserted and their surroundings make a great place for snorkeling. Our first destination was Koh Mae Ko or Mother Island, one of the 2 biggest islands famous for the Thale Nai saltwater lake. This unusual lake encircled within green limestone cliffs owes its amazing color to the sea waters, nourishing it through underwater caves.

Thale Nai saltwater lake in the middle of Koh Mae Ko (Mother Island)

Another big island Wua Talap or 'Sleeping Cow' is popular for its caves and a high lookout point, from which you can get breathtaking 360-degree views of the whole park. We couldn’t imagine the climb to a 500m altitude would be such a challenge!

climbing up the steep 430m hill at  Koh Wua Talap (Sleeping Cow Island) in search of spectacular scenery      

first viewpoint

However, if you make it to the top, you get a reward: all the islands right at your feet! Here you feel almost dead but incredibly proud of yourself!

breathtaking view of all islands at your feet...  you feel almost dead after the tough climb but extremely proud of yourself!

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 10 (Crossing the peninsula)

Was longer than we suspected. We were promised to be in Koh Samui at 5.30 pm.
Waiting for a bus to take us to the Krabi bus station a tuk-tuk driver approached me to offer service and, seeing my ticket saying’ Krabi-Surat Thani – Koh Samui: bus + boat’, he grinned, ‘Good luck for you’ and walked away.
In a short while we were brought somewhere near krabi. One has to possess a certain amount of imagination to complete the picture of a lonely hut with 2 tables, several beach-style plastic chairs and a woman selling rice and sandwiches to realize that the shack was the bus station!
To our even greater surprise a modern double decker (with girly pink draped curtains!) appeared from the woods.

We arrived at Surat Thani at 3 pm unable to believe that the feared bus torture lasted so little even with pitiful Thai roads!
Ironically, we didn’t know the torture waited ahead in the boat.
Once we finally got in (after 2-hours wait!) we joked, ‘ Can you imagine to see in the news: A boat crashed and sunk without leaving the pier!’ It screeched so bad and bent inward banging against the pier, I could imagine it to be true!
Banging and screeching went on for more than 2 hours. At 8 pm we were finally in the hotel. Luckily, alive!

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 9 (Ao Nang and Railay Beach)

The Peninsula is even greener than the islands, meaning both land and water. The road cutting into mangrove swamps, followed by selva between the mountains leads to Ao Nang, a small coastal town in the Krabi province. We got there in a colorful wooden songthaew. Its driver was a typical Thai man - short, tanned, with just a couple of hairs sprouting from his upper lip and scarce long hairs right beneath the chin. He first called out desperately for people going to Ao Nang and then stuffed all the white sardines into the truck (the truck’s physical capacity didn’t matter much). An already usual procedure was to stop in the middle of the way and nowhere and trying to figure out where everyone was going. It turned out more than half of the present didn’t have an idea and were immediately kindly provided with suggestions. The fun part though started when English-speaking people pronounced in an oh-so-English way the absolutely not English-sounding place & hotel names and usually got 2 possible answers:’ Eh????’ or ‘ No no!’ The most reassuring was to see the driver recognize your place name and give you an outrageous kind of smiles, with the teeth in his mouth pointing in all directions.
Ao Nang, however, is not a sort of place where you can get lost easily, as it’s virtually (without understatement) two perpendicular roads, one of which runs along the beach. That’s pretty much a typical Thai place.
Coming to Ao Nang, I realized that apparently the only buildings with proper walls can be mostly seen in hotels and 7elevens, while here too, regular Thais apparently live in makeshift(-looking) hovels.
Something different about this town was a new kind of tuk-tuk, which, unlike those in Bangkok and in the North, are normal motorbikes with a sidecar to fit up to 4 people or, if needed easily convertible into a footstall!

The most beautiful beach isn’t exactly in Ao Nang, but on a small peninsula not far away, called Railay Beach. It’s just a 15-minute ride in a longtail boat to reach the western part, lined up with seemingly expensive resorts. From where you can take a kayak to the eastern part and relax on a lovely virgin beach and marvel extraordinary limestone cliffs.

Haeding to Railay Beach

West Railay

Tropical shower

East Railay

CRAB ART

Finally, Ao Nang is without doubt a great place to see the sunset or walk along the monkey path on the side of a mountain right on the beach.

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 8 (Koh Phi Phi Don)

We decided we earned ourselves a breather and a lazy lie-down on a beach before setting off for the other half of the trip.
Sadly, due to strong wind on the eastern side of the island, we had to abandon our plan to go to the Viking cave and the other side of Koh Phi Phi Lei. Bad luck. Although who knows…
There was a nice Zen Buddhist story about luck:
An old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically.
"Maybe," the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed.
"Maybe," replied the old man. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. "Maybe," answered the farmer. The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. "Maybe," said the farmer.

a shrine in the woods

rough way to Long Beach

People said, Long Beach was far enough not to be overcrowded with people or boats but close enough to reach it on foot in 40 minutes from another side of the island.

So, you never know what could have been better. Anyway, Long Beach seemed the best alternative. Take a natural path along the tree roots near the coastline and for a while you will feel like in an adventure movie.

We made a short stop on a smaller beach on the way and there I could finally tick off an important point off my ‘Thailand-must-do list’, that is to get a Thai massage.

I chose the one with aromatic oils in a hut up on a rock overlooking the beach and views of Koh Phi Phi Lei. Thai women, so petite and fragile, make it hard to believe they have such strong hands. Your mind slowly drifts away with the pleasant scents and with the sound of the waves, gentle clunking of the sea shells in the wind and a child doing his homework next to me, reading incomprehensible thai sentences corrected occasionally by his mother, my masseur. Your look gets hypnotized by the water shimmering in the lowering sun, and then – ‘crack!’ – under her firm grasp one of the backbone vertebras sets into place. 

After such a revitalizing experience we sat on the long beach restaurant among lush vegetation and looked at the white sand and the sea, feeling like in a movie, and sipping at so loved fresh fruit shakes.
‘What differs this beach from a Spanish one?’ – ‘Definitely the absence of roaming vendors shouting out ‘ Cervecita bier, limonada!’ and Chinese women echoing ‘ masaje, masaje’!

Sitting on the beach in my usual manner, I caught myself on a thought that I was trying to figure out which would be the best way to take a picture of what I’m seeing around. And it was one of the times I surrendered.

A photo will be always interpreted by the viewer. It will raise his or her own feelings (or their absence) about it. Their minds will fill in the missing details, complementing the picture at their heart’s content.

So I thought, what’s the use? No use trying to capture the sun nearing its dawn, the lonely longboat, the calmed sea, the breeze and the waves touching my skin. I’ll leave this precious moment just for me.

 I’ll leave this precious moment just for me...

Thailand: Good Luck for You. - Day 7 (Koh Phi Phi Lei & Co.)

Today we finally got to discover the long-longed-for postcard-style (wait, this is where those postcards come from!) places. We took a boat to go around little islands and Phi Phi beaches. The first two stops included an absolutely calm and tranquil paradise of Bamboo Island, and an inaccessible but beautifully shaped Mosquito island (I guess no need to explain how it got its name). I had enough luck to get stung by a jellyfish. But it wasn’t as bad. Phew…

Bamboo Island

We later made a stopover at the famous white-sand Monkey beach, surrounded by rocks ‘sawn’ by the waves at the bottom. Logically enough, it gets its name because of the presence of the monkeys, so loved by the tourists who, despite all friendly advice and numerous caution signs, still keep feeding the creatures and get regularly bitten. It turned out this place was just perfect for snorkeling: it was the first time I saw some many beautiful marine life up so close and sea urchins and corals right below my feet!

A couple more beaches and we finally reach the famous Maya bay at the Koh Phi Phi Leh island. Too famous now. As it happens with far too many beautiful things…

Floating in the water not far the beach watching the sun going down, the picture got complete when a boat passed by having ‘THE BEACH’ soundtrack heard all around. 

On return to Koh Phi Phi the best end of the day was to discover a nice ‘Hippies Bar’ with shisha, cocktails, mats instead of chairs together with a small stage for live music and an awesome fire show! What can be better than to lie down with a drink on a beach at night and watch the stars?