Thailand

I've been back from Thailand for almost three weeks now, but I haven't written anything about it because I've been waiting for my photos. While on the trip, I broke my camera (which I'll explain later), so I haven't been able to retrieve them. A friend lent me her memory card reader so I could upload the pictures, but either the card reader is broken, or my memory card got broken as well. Anyway, I was in Thailand for two weeks, so I figure I'd better write something on here about it.

We left Incheon International Airport on the morning of August 1st, stopped over in Hong Kong for a few hours, and finally arrived in Bangkok just after midnight. Immediately, we met several other more experienced travelers who gave us advice on how to get around Thailand without getting ripped off too badly. Not getting ripped off at all is practically impossible, so your only hope is to be on guard at all times. The locals, just as many other places around the world experiencing a glut of white tourists (so I've heard), have learned to shake your hand while they piss in your pocket. Hardly anyone leaves Thailand unscammed, it seems. At the airport, we met up with a French-Canadian/Cambodian girl who showed us the ropes the first night and took us to some decent places to stay. I spent the first night in a closet-sized room on a bed about as stiff as the wooden floors and only managed to sleep for an hour or two. No matter. I was in fucking Thailand, so my excitement cancelled out most of my sleepiness.

We hung out around Bangkok for a few days, not doing anything particularly special. We ate a lot of street food and drank Chang and Singha beer all day to beat the heat.

One of the best parts of the trip was meeting all of the other travelers from around the world. I met people from Holland, Spain, Yukoslavia, Australia, England, Ireland, Mexico, Canada, etc. Actually, I only met a handful of Americans the whole time I was there, but I met a lot of Koreans. One afternoon, my friends and I sat along the side of Khao San Road (the destination for backpackers in Bangkok), drinking and talking to my aforementioned Yukoslavian friend and a Thai woman. The Yukoslavian guy was drunk and hilarious, and he kept harrassing people on the street and making them stop to talk to us. I met a couple of Korean girls that I'm supposed to meet up with sometime soon. That was actually one of the best times I had in Thailand.

After Bangkok, we went to Kho Pha Ngan, which is an island to the south. Thailand is deceptively large, and it took us about eighteen hours to get there. We stupidly didn't buy sunscreen in Bangkok because we thought it would be better to wait until we got the to island. Well, we had to ride a ferry from the mainland, and I thought it would only take thirty minutes or so, but it took about two and a half hours. We were on the deck of the boat with our legs dangling over the edge the whole way, and by the time we got to our destination, I noticed that we had turned a little red. Little did I know that that sunburn would turn out to be the most excruciating of my life. Since my bare legs were hanging out in direct sunlight, they got the worst of it. If you've never had a sunburn on your shins and ankles, consider yourself lucky. Every time you take a step, your skin stretches, resulting in agonizing pain. My friend, Alejandro, got it even worse and spent most of the rest of the trip laid up in various hotel rooms.

Koh Pha Ngan was a drunken muscle boy's paradise. Unfortunately, that ain't me. The island, like the rest of Thailand, was quite beautiful, but the tourists and locals, alike, really began to annoy the shit out of me. The reason we went to Koh Pha Ngan was for the world-renowned "Full Moon Party," which happens every month during the, you guessed it, full moon. It's basically an overblown frat party, so I didn't stay out very late.

The island was surprisingly big, and the best way to get around to see the sights is to rent a scooter. I had never driven a scooter before, so I was a little apprehensive, but I figured since I ride a bike, it couldn't be that different. Well, it actually wasn't. It took a little time, but I soon got the hang of it. After we'd driven around for thirty minutes or so, we saw a sign for a waterfall, so we turned down the path. The road led us into the jungle in the island's interior, and eventually the paved roads turned to dirt. Finally, my inexperience bit me in the ass as I approached a pot hole in the road, and since the whole accellerating and braking system was still quite new and not intuative for me yet, I just held on as tight as I could. Unfortunately, holding on as tight as I could meant squeezing the gas, so I hit the pot hole, popped a wheelie, and obviously did not land it. Thankfully, I wasn't going very fast. I was trying to be cautious because the road was so dangerous, but it didn't do me any good. I got up, rode on for a bit until I came to a little shop where I stopped and asked for assistance. The people were really nice and treated my wounds. The accident could have been a lot worse. I read that several tourists have died in recent years from scooter accidents. Basically, I only had a few scrapes on my arms and legs, so the lady at the store poured some alcohol on them and wrapped them up. An old woman sitting by a basket of durian kept laughing at me, but I don't think it was out of malice. I didn't think my injuries were that bad. I had sloughed off some of the sunburned skin on my ankle, which was painful and disgusting, but I didn't think much of it. The bike had a few minor scratches on it, but it was still in good condition. The waterfall was unspectacular, and after my spill, I wasn't too keen on riding around, so we went back to our bungalo on the beach (which was awesome, by the way, except for when they stole $100 from my friend).

The next day, we had to return the bikes. I was a little worried about the scratches, so I cleaned off all the dirt and tried to make it look as good as I could. No use. When I took the bike back, the lender inspected the bike and then turned to me with a big grin, "You had accident?" "Yeah," I said, thinking, "well, at least he's not upset." I guess I should have realized that his grin meant that not only was he not upset, he was quite happy. He took out a piece of paper and began to calculate just how much they could make off of me. On the paper was a diagram of the bike, and each piece of the bike had a price attached to it. He circled the corresponding price for each part of the bike with even a miniscule scratch. I knew I was fucked. He typed out the total on a calculator and showed me. Close to 10,000 baht, which is $300. I tried to reason with him that they were only tiny scratches and it couldn't possibly cost that much, but when I rented the bike, I had to let him hold onto my passport as collateral, so my hands were tied. One thing I had learned was that most prices in Thailand are negotiable, so I tried to talk him down. Finally, I got down to about $200, which was still an unreasonable amount, but I had no choice.

I almost forgot, back to why I have no pictures. My camera was in my pocket when I crashed, and it broke. It's not completely smashed, but the front is scraped, and every time I turn it on, I get a "lens error" message. There's another $150 or $200.

Finally, we got off of that garbage dump of an island (which is run by the Thai mafia and severely fucked up in innumerable ways) and returned to Bangkok. We hung around for a day, drinking and chatting with strangers. We found that the best way to prepare for a 12+ hour bus ride was to get smashed before we got on so we could sleep the whole way there. This plan actually worked out pretty well.

We took a bus up north to Chiang Mai, which is another tourist hell hole. By this point, my ankle was hurting pretty badly, and because all of the sunburned skin around the wound was peeling, the bleeding, pussing area grew larger and nastier. I wanted nothing more than to go home and lie in bed for a couple weeks, but I was in Thailand, damn it, and even though I was severely disappointed with the country, I was determined to make the most of my time there. So, in Chiang Mai, we signed up for a jungle trek. Initially, we signed up for a two day trek to a little town called Pai, which I had heard many good things about. However, I had also heard many good things about other aspects of Thailand that were not so great. Anyway, Alejandro was still in a lot of pain from his sunburn, which was now beginning to blister, and he decided he couldn't make it, so we changed our plans and signed up for a one day trek, hoping another day would be enough for him to be capable of walking. We were staying in a guest house/travel agency called "Nice Place," and it actually was the nicest place we stayed in Thailand. The staff was really friendly, the prices were reasonable, and they even gave us a refund when we changed our plans.

Alejandro was still unable to go on the trek by the next day, so we had to leave him behind. The trek was pretty fun, despite the pain shooting up my leg with every step. We rode elephants, which was a little fun but mostly sad because the elephants were chained up and wearing uncomfortable looking harnesses. Also, the handlers used sharp, hooked spikes to dig into their foreheads when the elephants began to act up (i.e. doing what was in their nature). The tour guide told us about all the laws in place to make sure that the elephants are kept in good conditions, and that they used to be horribly abused when the Thais used them to transport lumber. I don't doubt that things are better now, but I'd rather see an elephant living naturally in the wild than ride one, knowing the conditions it's forced to endure every day.

After the elephants, we went to a really beautiful waterfall. I wanted to swim badly, but I didn't want to get my bandages wet, so I sat on a rock and watched. Lastly, we rode a bamboo raft down a river, which was a lot of fun. I tried wrapping my bandages in cling wrap so that it wouldn't get wet, but it didn't work. Oh well.

One night, we saw a Muay Thai (Thai kickboxing) fight in Chiang Mai, which was pretty cool but too long. The best fight was an American guy against a Thai guy. It was the American's first fight, and he started out really strong. I felt certain he would win, but after a couple rounds his feet really began to drag. He had worn himself out too quickly while the Thai fought conservatively. By the third round, the American was dead on his feet as the Thai danced circles around him. Eventually, the referee called an end to the match because he decided that the American, though still on his feet, was unable to go on. There was also a fight between two girls that was pretty ferocious, and there was a goofy blindfolded threeway fight where I think the fighters were more interested in hitting the referee than each other.

After Chaing Mai, we went back to Bangkok (another 12+ hour bus ride) where we waited around for a day before our flight back to Korea.

Strangely, my time in Thailand had me feeling really homesick, which I hadn't felt in my entire time in Korea. I still haven't quite recovered from it. It also had me reflecting on Korea, and although I wished I could go home to America, I felt like going back to Korea wasn't a bad alternative. The people and culture definitely have their faults, but I mostly feel like I'm welcome there as a human being and not just as a source of income. I'm not propositioned by prostitutes or harrassed on the street to buy shit everywhere I go. I don't fear having my things stolen or worry about getting ripped off on every deal.

Honestly, Thailand was a little shitty, but I'm glad I went. I learned a lot about traveling, and I learned about what I want from a trip and how to get it next time. I've decided not to take any more big trips while I'm in Korea so I can save enough money to go on an extended trip at the end of my second year.

It's been hard coming back to work after over a month off of teaching, and I feel like I still haven't quite gotten back into "the swing of things." I'm considering making some major changes next year, but I won't reveal them here until I know anything for sure. Thanks for reading if you actually made it this far. So long.