Links to other Thailand pages  Ko Phi Phi  Krabi

It all began on Monday 21st February, 2000. I left home at 11 am, half-heartedly wrapped up against the cold on a bracing winter day, with the temperature just below zero. I was flying Thai airways, and as I expected I had a pleasant though uneventful flight. I didn't sleep much, though.

I arrived in Bangkok at 6am, and got the airport bus to Khao San Road, awake enough to get off at the right spot. I wanted to try one of the guest houses away from the main drag behind the wat, but the one I wanted didn't have check in until 11am, so I gave up and went to the Khao San Palace, just like last time. They would let me check in in about an hour, so I went for breakfast first, then crashed out for a few hours in the hotel. I was full of apprehension, this was a big deal for me - traveling by myself for three months. What if I didn't meet anyone? What if I couldn't handle it? Eventually I got up and went for a walk to the river and got on the ferry going south. The river is about the only place I know in Bangkok which is relatively cool, though in February it's not to hot anyway, although still a good 25 degrees warmer than Zurich. I got off when everyone else did, which turned out to be the new sky train terminal. So I wandered round for a few minutes, got on the next boat and promptly fell asleep. I got off at Nonthaburi and had a very late lunch. Then it was back to Khao San, grateful to remember which stop to get off at. I had a beer in front of the South Park Movie, felt myself falling asleep, so had an early night.

I'd already decided to leave Bangkok as soon as possible. I decided that Hua Hin was an obvious stop on the way south, largely because it was reachable by bus.

The fishing fleet at Hua Hin

The Southern bus terminal is in the north of Bangkok, obviously. I shunned the proferred tuk tuks and took a taxi. I like Thai busses, for short to medium routes. Hua Hin took a couple of hours, which was just fine, though I slept most of it. Once I arrived I hired a moped taxi, and with my rucksack hanging precariously behind me was quickly spirited to one of the guest houses mentioned in the Lonely Planet. I hadn't got used to Asian driving techniques, so I took lots of deep breaths and hoped for the best. The guest house had a room which was clean but basic, so I dumped my gear, changed into clothes more suited to the beach and headed off for lunch.

I realised that Hua Hin wasn't my ideal place once I spotted the restaurant offering authentic German cooking. Before this I'd lost count of the specialist tailors offering bargains in a variety of European languages. No wonder I was the only farang on the bus - everyone else had more sense. Hua Hin was formerly a resort used by Bangkok residents for weekends, but has been taken over by high rise hotels and marketed to relatively well off Europeans. I guess it's the short transfer time from the airport that sells it - there's nothing much else of interest here.

There are a fair number of bars in Hua Hin, but mostly girly bars - square bars where the staff is exclusively female and any passing European is regaled with cries of "Helllooow, welcaaaaaaam!" I never really worked out how to spot which of the staff were hookers and which were pretty girls whose job was to encourage male punters to spend money on alcohol. Actually, I usually did manage to spot the difference whenever the girl asked if I wanted to sleep with her (usually more subtly than that, but not always). The bar I went to in Hua Hin had girls in the "buy more beer" category, which was fine with me.

That night I got serially bitten on both arms. They didn't look like mosquito bites, being in nice neat rows, but they were also a bit far apart to be bed bugs. Fortunately I'd already decided to leave that morning anyway. I booked an overnight train ticket to Surat Thani and whiled away the day on the beach. The train was as good as I'd expected - the sleepers were already out and in no time at all I was dreaming sweetly.

Looking down at Patong beach

At Surat Thani there were all kinds of busses waiting, mostly heading for Ko Samui and other places to the east, but also one going to Phuket. A few hours later we were dropped off at some anonymous part of Phuket town, the only distinguishing feature of which was the number of touts. I ignored them all, eventually worked out where I was and headed for the tourist office. They directed me to the street from which the busses for the beaches left, and with minimum effort I was soon on my way to Ao Karon beach. This is the middle of the three beaches. Going purely on the Lonely Planet description (often a mistake, but not I think in this case), I decided that Ao Patong would be too busy, but Karon should be OK.

My co-resident

Ao Karon is not so much different from Hua Hin: lots of suit shops (Johnny Armani anyone?), lots of European food, not a lot of Thais. However, the beach is much nicer, the accommodation is nicer and I found a good bar to hang out in. Once I was dropped off by the bus I wandered along the sea front looking for somewhere to stay. The first place I tried seemed far too expensive, by Thai standards at least. I went to the place next door, not really paying attention to what it looked like. Once I got to the desk, however, I noticed that the desk staff were in uniform and attentive and I realised that I'd strayed into a proper tourist hotel, with prices to match. I beat a hasty retreat and soon found a very nice bungalow, complete with western toilet, and optional frog (right).

I had a wander round town and found where most of the restaurants and bars were. I spotted one which was advertising live football, so I thought this would be a good place to meet people. I was right, sort of. I sat outside at a table and ordered a beer. While I was drinking it a pretty Thai girl joined me and started talking - very simple stuff because her English wasn't that good. But then she asked me what I was doing later, and the penny dropped. I mumbled something about having a drink and going home, finished my beer, made my excuses and left. I walked into a covered area where there were lots of square bars, all of them mostly empty. One of them had a few people around it though, so I sat there. I discovered that as well as the very pretty bar staff, of the "drink more beer" variety (I think), the owner was English (and on the customer side of the bar, natch), and very friendly with it.

The next morning I went diving. I wasn't sure I'd like it, so I booked a trial dive, which involved a short instruction in the office about basic safety procedures, driving to Kata beach putting on my gear there and wading into the water with my instructor. Once the initial panic had subsided I enjoyed it. We saw some incredible fish on the coral (no I don't know what they were). My instructor was Canadian, and really did say 'Aboot', like they did in the South Park movie. Well pleased with myself I spent the afternoon slobbing on the beach.

My guide

One of the downsides to Phuket (and other touristy parts of Thailand), is that all the food is blanded down. I went through the entire town before settling on a restaurant that had at least a few Thais in it. Needless to say it was the least impressive to look at, but the food more than made up for it. Afterwards I went back to the bar I'd been in the previous evening, and was apparently pissed as a fart by the time I wobbled home. I, of course, don't remember.

I'd had enough of the beach for the time being, so I hired a brommer and went off in search of waterfalls, braving the Thai traffic, which wasn't so bad as long as I stayed outside the lines which marked the road. I found where the waterfalls were supposed to be, got adopted by a small boy (left) and trekked for a short while. Unfortunately it was dry season so there wasn't much to see, though my "guide" was happy to show me and to claim his tip. At the base of where the waterfall would have been, there was a 'gibbon retraining project' where they retrained gibbons who had been in captivity to enable them to live in the wild.

Links to other Thailand pages  Ko Phi Phi  Krabi

© Copyright Chris Rouch. 1999-2008. Comments, complaints, abuse and beers to
chris_at_rouchrumble_dot_org

Last modified on 22nd December 2007 3:31 PM EST

 Back to photos