Random Pictures

Ice cream and fried banana at Beach Tango, the restaurant/bar that we ate in almost everyday in Koh Chang.

I think this is in Songkhlaburi.

My favorite bar in Bangkok (the backpacker area if Khao San Road).

Leaving Koh Chang

Eight days on Koh Chang (Elephant Island) are finished. Today was just a day of travel back to Bangkok. Here is the ferry to/from the island.

I grabbed some pictures off of Dad's camera. Elephants, river rafting, and the Erawen waterfall from the tour in Kanchanaburi:

A couple days later near Songkhlaburi



And driving back from Songkhlaburi we stopped at the Hellfire memorial to Australians who built this part of the railway for the Japanese.

A Second Day Diving

Another day diving, this time around some rocks less than an hour from Bang Bao, Koh Chang. I didin't take any pictures this day, but here are pictures of some of the wildlife that I saw.

This is a bamboo shark. I didn't get a great look at him since he was hiding under a large rock. I saw a part of his head. The diving guide swam around to the rear of the rock and pulled on his tail. But we couldn't coax him to come out.

I saw an creature that looks like this one. I think it was the white-eyed moray. I only saw his head like in this picture. 

The puffer fish is really goofy looking. Big eyes. I saw one of these.

I also saw two spotted boxfish which I mistook for pufferfish at fish simply because they too look strange. They are shaped like a rectangle.

Not to be outdone in the category of weirdness, I saw a number of these beaked butterfly fish too.

And, also many of these moon wrasses.

In addition, I saw a number of batfish and Kuhl's stingrays (as pictured in my post a few days ago). I also saw some barracuda a little in the distance. They just presented long, slender silhouettes to me.

Each dive was for about an hour. It was one of the best days in Thailand and probably my best dive day ever. I didn't want it to end.

Koh Chang's East Side

Today I rented a scooter and explored the eastern side of the island. Here is the scooter at a pier somewhere down the coast.

I stopped in at a fishing village where all the buildings were on stilts as seems common here. The village is visible in the background here:

This side of the island does not have a lot of development. In fact I practically had the whole road to myself. The most interesting thing about the east side were the mangrove trees. They grow in the salt water but when the tide goes out (which it was) a large part of the root structure is visible. Some branches grow out from the trunk and then turn downwards to become roots too. Little brown crabs scurry around in the mud around the roots of the trees.

The east coast does not have a lot of sandy beaches. It is mainly forests of mangroves and many other trees. There were a lot of banana plants, and very tall coconut palms. I also saw some durian trees. I got hungry driving through these forests.

There were a few nice beach areas however.

I also saw one temple:

A Lazy Day

Tuesday was the laziest day yet. I even fell asleep in the sand.

Pictures From the Diving Day

Pictures from Monday

Our boat:

Cars and boats all have flowers for good luck:

Other boats out there:

Back to Bang Bao:

Diving at Koh Rang

After a day yesterday of lounging around at the beach, it was time to go underwater. Warm water diving is sure a lot easier than the cold water diving that I'm used to: no boots, gloves, and hood. No thick suit. And only a few pounds of weight.

The boat left Bang Bao here on Koh Chang and went to Koh Rang about 90 minutes away. The trip was choppy but the scenery was great past all kinds of small islands. We did two dives, and it was like swimming around in a tropical aquarium: lots of sea urchins, hard coral, and fish by the thousands. The boat crew and dive masters were all really friendly and helpful. They served us a pretty decent lunch of rice, noodles and various chicken and veg dishes. What a great day.

Here is a very small sampling of the types of fish that I saw (banner fish, bat fish, and kuhl stingray):

Koh Chang Beach Yet Again

Had a short walk to the northern end of the beach where there are some bungalows perched over the beach.

Then did nothing much except sit on the beach and read and sip soda water and beer. And, of course, I went for a little swim.

Pictures of Elephants

These are pictures of elephants that I took yesterday while walking back from the waterfalls. I'm not sure if I should feel sorry for them chained up, or happy that they have a pretty decent life (I assume).

And just a picture of part of the island from the road.

Koh Chang's Bang Bao

Today was a pretty lazy day. Got up at nine which is the latest I've pulled myself out of bed all trip. Dad and I took a taxi to Bang Bao which is a little village at the southern end of the island. It was a good few hours. Bang Bao has an interesting market, and we ate fresh barracuda in one of the restaurants. The whole complex sits on stilts which juts right out into the ocean (or over the mud since the tide was out). Later we went to the beach and just had an hour doing nothing except sipping soda water. The Bing Bao bay is quite attractive: sandy but with rocky parts. I bet there is good snorkling there.

In the evening we found a little restaurant on the beach that has a wonderful chef. I only picked it because I saw falafels on the menu, and I though, yeah, something different. They were good, but dad's steak was great. I then ordered fried banana with ice cream, and it was very professionally presented. This place was funny too. Dad and I were the only customer. I counted seven staff. For most of the time five of them were playing dominoes, one of them was playing with his ipod, and the other was sitting in a hammock. And I couldn't catch anyone's attention for service! I love the Thai work ethic. We watched over at the next bar, three of the staff playing soccer on the beach. One guy appeared to have a customer's bill in his hand.

But the Thai's are nice. We had trouble finding a taxi to get from the Bang Bao beach back to the market area (maybe two km). A guy offered us a lift on his scooter, so the three of us squeezed on and off we went. (By the way I have now witnessed five on a scooter simultaneously; I'm looking for a new record of six).

I booked into some scuba diving on Monday. I'm looking forward to it. But I have no idea what I'll do tomorrow: perhaps nothing.

View from the restaurant in Bang Bao:

View from the beach in Bang Bao (note the beach umbrella, as I was too lazy to get out of my deck chair):

Can you spot the man fishing with a net?

Koh Chang and the Klong Plu Waterfall

I took a taxi (pickup trucks with benches in the back) to the national park here, and walked the 700m to the Klong Plu waterfall. Then after a little swim, I walked part of the way back, and suddenly it was dinner time. I'm not sure where the day went. I must have spent more time than I thought watching the Russian girls in their bikinis.

Today I saw lots of cool critters. This is becoming my new hobby. I saw a frog in a tree right outside our room. He was jumping from branch to branch. It rained hard for about half an hour, and that caused a huge centipede to scurry out of the rain gutters. He must have been eight inches long with a red body and yellow legs. Walking to the waterfalls several newts darted across my path. Later I saw a few great spiders sitting in webs about a metre across. Black and yellow bodies with legs about four inches long. Some of the ants here are interesting too: big black things with what look like spikes on their backs.

On my way back from the falls, walking along the trail, I saw a small piece of wood move. I got down on my knees and watched some small creature sticking out of a shell which looked just like wood. He would look all around with his head as if to see that the coast is clear and then pull himself forward about a millimetre. Then repeat. I turned him upside down and he wriggled himself right. Suddenly I realized that someone was watching me as my head was about half a foot from the soil. And I told the guy, look this wood moves. Well, of course, he stopped moving then, and this fellow probably thought I was nuts.

Today was the first day that I ate seafood. I'm getting tired of pork and chicken so I had a spicy salad with shrimp. It was very tasty, especially when washed down with coconut juice. That was dinner--taken on the beach with my feet in the sand. At lunch I had one of the best meals so far in Thailand. It was nothing special, just chicken and cashews and veg with a pineapple shake at one more little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. But was it good.

Below are some picks of the falls:

To the Beaches of Koh Chang

We were up early on Wednesday and took an airplane to Trat (or Trad). Really it was a mistake spending a day and night in this town since there was nothing to see really, and the area was very quiet with few foreign tourists. (This is Thailand's low season.) But the best thing about the town was their airport. The town has a little airstrip cut out of the jungle with verdant hills around it which were shrouded in morning mist when we arrived. When you get out of the plane, a little bus takes you to the "terminal" which is nothing more than a small building with a bamboo roof and no walls. Then a fellow just drives a truck up with your luggage.

The next day we took the ferry to Koh Chang (Koh means island) and booked into the "15 Palms" hotel. The bar opens onto the beach, and I had the laziest day since coming to Thailand. I sat in a deck chair under a tree with sand under my toes and had a couple of beers and read a book (the first time I've read since the flight from Vancouver). I also had a couple dips in the ocean, and couldn't believe how warm the water is. Also, I'll never forget the feeling of first walking out onto the beach and looking all around me. The ocean is sparkling blue, the sand almost snow white, and the jungle reaches up to the sky on the backs of mountains just behind us. This is exactly what I imagined island paradise to look like. Unfortunately in between the mountain and the beach is a road littered with tacky souvenir stores, discount tailors (all run by Indians as they seem to be in Thailand), 7-11s and cheap massage spas. Nevermind.

The sun set some time before seven, a giant red ball right in front of us. Very nice. I've not decided what to do tomorrow. Maybe explore the island a little.

Pics of Sanghklaburi and Area

View from room in Sanghklaburi

Erewan waterfall not far from Kanchanaburi

The car near Three Pagodas Pass

Mon woman (across the foot bridge in Sanghklaburi) barking out instructions 

Sangkhlaburi

Monday, May 16
We were up early, and ate breakfast before collecting the car. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be driving in Thailand. The road to Sangkhlaburi was mostly highway quality, and well sign-posted in English. First we stopped at the Hin Dat Hot Springs. They were not as exotic as I thought they would be, but I took a little dip anyway and was glad for it. A little while later a group of Russians arrived. Someone told me earlier that the only people who go there are Thais and Russians. And one Canadian now.

Our initial reaction to Sangkhlaburi was one of disappointment. It is a very ruddy-looking quiet town. But I came to appreciate it. There are a number of aid agencies here helping out refugees from Burma. We went to one bakery that was part of the aid effort, and their pineapple pie was very good. Our room was very nice and had an extraordinary view over the lake with some hills in behind and a huge golden pagoda protruding out of the jungle. There was also a small village just on the lake and many fires coming from it as people were (I think) burning weeds and cuttings.

I ate a Burmese curry at our guesthouse which reminded me of an Indian curry a little, and was the only curry I've had in Thailand that contained potato. We also visited a temple where some people were being blessed by a monk and stapling money into a sort of money tree.

We were both asleep by about seven this night.

Tuesday
Got up early to a nice view out the window. The hills were still covered in mist just behind the lake. I went outside and the insects were deafening. I wonder if these noise-makers are cicadas? I had read about them before. I had a few minutes with my eyes closed and tried to recognize all the early morning sounds: several birds, crickets or grasshoppers perhaps, maybe frogs, in the distance a motor boat. We went for a walk across a long foot bridge said to be Thailand's longest foot bridge and at the other side is a Mon village. I suppose the Mon are a minority who occupy this area where Thailand and Burma meet. There was some kind of ritual going on where dozens of people took offerings to the monks. We saw this later on too in a temple across from where we had breakfast.

The Mon women had a funny practice of covering their faces with a white or yellow powder; I'm not sure why. We sat down and ordered some food from a young girl: a couple of small pancakes, two deep fried donuts, and three desserts. The first two looked like something the Chinese have except she poured a cream over it. The desserts seemed to be made from coconut and red bean.

Later I took a cafe latte from the Haiku Guesthouse which appears to be run by Japanese. And then we made our way back to Kancahanaburi. First we made a detour to the Three Pagodas Pass, the Thai-Burmese border. There was nothing to see there; however, the drive was nice. Later we stopped at the Hellfire Pass memorial to Australian POWs who worked on the Death Railway as forced by the Japanese which was interesting.

The drive back to Kanchanaburi was very pretty. I must have missed most of it while driving the other direction the day before since I was a new driver in Thailand. But this day I saw much of the tall limestone crags covered in jungle vegetation. At one point on the drive, a truck full of cattle in the back almost had one escape. He was at the front and jumped up so his front feet were right on the roof of the cabin. I thought, here we go, a cow is going to come hurtling onto the road in front of me. But no, he didn't get loose.

The day ended with Aly, the car rental owner, taking us to the bus station and running around all over the place asking people about bus schedules and prices for us. She was super nice. I did have some trepidation getting in the car with her; however, because just a few moments before when I was showing her my map, she had to pull out a magnifying glass in order to see it. Nonetheless, she was a pretty good driver and very helpful in getting us onto a bus to Bangkok. At the hotel, I booked our air tickets for Trat the next morning.

Scooting Around Kanchanaburi

I rented a scooter in Kanchanaburi, and drove in the wrong direction while looking for two temples. I ended up at a very nondescript temple that had very loud music pulsing from it. I have no idea what was going on but there was a large procession of people following a band with drums and brass instruments. I couldn't help thinking that this was the Thai version of a mariachi. Everyone stopped at the steps of the temple, and the music continued thumping for some minutes. All of the women and a few of the men were dancing just outside the temple. Suddenly a shower of little colorful paper stars came hurtling from the temple steps and each person frantically scurried around trying to catch them or pick them up from the ground. Once all the stars were collected, the music stopped, and the crowd dispersed. That was it. The entire purpose of the festivity appeared to be the collection of small paper stars.

I did find my two temples: Wat Tham Seau and Wat Tham Khao Noi. They were impressive, especially when viewed from a distance. Also the view from these temples looking out over verdant fields was memorable. I saw some interesting critters too: a large millipede with orange legs, something that looked like a spider but only had six legs (perhaps an ant?) but with a bright red body that did not resemble that of an ant, a slow moving snail, and a darting yellow lizard. There is so much wildlife here.

I crossed over a dam where some men were fishing with half a dozen rods each, and then stopped at a lone street vender who was running a little BBQ grill. I ate one of each item: chicken leg, wing, some pork. It was all very good. That was the first time that I ate outside of a restaurant. I was always afraid of the food, afraid of getting sick. Silly me.

I went to another war cemetery just outside of town, the resting place of Brits and Dutch mainly, and then to the Thai-Burma Railway Museum. The museum was very interesting, as it chronicled the building of the "Death Railway" where the Japanese worked to death something like 100,000 men (Asians, Brits, Dutch and Australians, especially).

Back in town I found dad at the same restaurant, the Jolly Frog, where we have been a few times now. A couple of the staff members here are memorable. One is a lady boy. He/she is a tall, strong, grand specimen of confusion. Another is a blond girl from England who didn't have the smarts not to run out of money and now needs to work there. Basically she's clueless and the Thai girls don't talk to her.

Kanchanaburi is an interesting place. There are quite a number of old white guys looking for young Thai girls here. Most seem to be from England too. I heard the story of one fellow who ended up spending a good sum on a girl, and when his finances ran out, and she didn't want to see him anymore, he had nothing left to do except slit his wrists. And I understand he couldn't even do that right either. What a clown.

This seems like a good place to insert a picture of a toilet: