Sunday, July 12, 2009

Phang Nga Bay (Phuket, Thailand)












The morning came too soon.  Bleary eyed loons we were, starved, grumping like mad, and on our way to Phang Nga national park.  Food is all around us though.  Thailand is the bread basket of Asia.  Their relaxed lifestyle, relative to our western ways, stems from an accessibility to resources that in the west we have been removed from through processes.  Where we come from, to eat, we must prepare, plant and harvest.  Here, they grab some fruit off of a tree or a fish out of the ocean.  Culture is inexplicably linked to the ways things have been done by our ancestry.  Here, the relaxed pace of life comes from the abundance of resources enjoyed by the Thai people, past and present.  


Kristin and I met our guides at the Phuket Royal Yacht Club.  We really hit the jackpot with the tour company that we chose, Simba Sea Tours.  They are a family run outfit, and today we would meet the father-son combo of Geoff and Seb - British Australians that live in Thailand.  It essentially felt like going out on a boat with good friends.  Our tour would bring us throughout Phang Nga Bay which is a protected Thai national park.  The dramatic rock features of the park are a result of the Indian and Eurasian plates smashing into each other.  Our first stop, a cave within a steep limestone rock, was dark and foreboding.  Most of our travel group walked through barefoot, but Kristin insisted on wearing her shoes.  It was probably not a bad move, as a few cave dwelling creatures were definitely spotted, creeping about on numerous appendages.  When we arrived back at the boat, our hosts had provided a full spread of fresh fruit and we enjoyed it on our way to James Bond island.  James Bond island is famous for being in the "Man with the Golden Gun" movie as a bad guy's hideout.  The beauty of the island was great, though the Bondian significance was lost on Kristin and I.  


Our next stop, an Indonesian fishing village called Panyee Village, is located on stilts in an area that has been fished nomadically for the last 3000 years.  Nearby, one can even find prehistoric carvings on the walls of cliffs, childlike scrawls of dolphins and other fish, dating back thousands of years.  The story goes that 5 nomadic Indonesian families originally settled this village many many years ago.  They stuck a flag in the shallow waters to denote it as their land, and that is where the name Panyee Village comes from.  It means flag in Indonesian.  It has dramatic uninhabitable rocks exploding out of the ocean directly behind it, but, for all intents and purposes, this village is in the middle of the ocean.  The village is 100% Muslim and completely free of dogs.  There is no police force or judicial system to speak of, as Panyee is instead run by elders.  It is also a co-operative, and the families all share in all tourist and fishing revenue together.   Since Phang Nga park is considered a national park, no one is allowed to fish, exploit or do any business within park limits, except the people of Panyee.  This is because their society predates the formation of the national park system by a very long time and they depend on the waters of Phang Nga for sustenance.  


We attached the boat to the village docks, walked passed some sharks circling in sea nets right off the bridge way, and entered the open air dining room.  We had a feast laid out before us, a Thai family style meal that we enjoyed with the Warner's, an extremely kind and interesting Australian family.  It was really great for us to eat with a nice family because we missed our families so much.  After doing the customary Thai utensil cleaning with a small pink napkin, which is a sort of measure of etiquette over here, we were flying through plates of Thai food, peppered squid dishes, enormous fried spicy drumsticks, chicken stir fry, and other delicious fare.  Lunch was amazing. 


Following our feast, we set out to navigate the village.  A curious place, Kristin and I really enjoyed exploring its nooks and crannies.  We walked about in a crumbled school, peaked into villager's homes, and tried not to make eye contact with the Gibbons monkeys being carried about everywhere.  Many villagers had diapered Gibbons draped across their midsection's.  Gibbons are cute furry headed creatures with long arms and a fondness for *mid-eighties Whitney Houston.  They are also known to bite strangers and tend to carry the rabies virus.  We refrained from engaging them or taking pictures, as supposedly, a tourist was attacked by a gang of bamboo toting Gibbons monkeys a few years back for taking a picture of one.  The hypothesized reason for the assault?  Gibbons feel as though they are not very photogenic, suffering from the deep psychological damage that being characterized as a lesser ape carries.  Yeah, I made all that stuff up, starting with the star.  Somehow, we just forgot to  take a picture of one, and I felt that I needed to treat you to a fictional account in its absence.


Birds are really quite popular in this part of the world.  I asked Geoff, our guide, why we kept seeing birds outside of people's homes.  He told us that Thais frequently engage in bird competitions and theorized that plumage was probably a big part of the scoring process.  He even gave us an example of a Thai handyman that came to fix some stuff at his house.  The man brought a cage with his bird companion in it, a mohawked guy that had significant plumage.  It is interesting how different cultures can be.


I spoke at length with Seb, our younger guide.  He was probably around my age, and was a cool informative guy.  We talked about a number of topics through out the day, politics, religion, entertainment, and living in Thailand.  Apparently, as a westerner, it is very difficult to do business in Thailand.  A foreigner must not own more than 49% of their own company, and it takes a strong stomach, smart lawyers, and probably a bit of courage to do business over here.  Many western men will marry Thai women to legally maneuver around this foreign ownership paradigm.  


We took the boat out to an island called Ko Naka, and on the way, the trip was a bit dicey.  A storm was beginning to roll in, and as a result, the water was becoming choppy.  We were told that a while back on the same route, a passenger in the front of the boat threw up, and it flew back onto the captain.  Bummer.  Geoff and Seb now make sure that individuals prone to seasickness sit towards the rear of the vessel.  Once on the beach, we ate a variety of fruits.  Geoff came over and noticed that we had only partook in the watermelon and pineapple, and urged us to be adventurous.  We tried mangosteen (the queen of fruits), lonkongs, and ramburtans.  All were delicious.  We followed the fruit with some homemade flapjacks.  Unfortunately, all was not good in paradise.  Our underwater camera that we borrowed from Kristin's dad just quit working, so we were not able to take too many pictures on this island.  It is a huge bummer because we brought that camera for our dives and had yet to even go on one.  Kristin thinks her family has a curse with electronic items.  After nearly being overrun by giant hermit crabs, we returned to dry land and eventually our hotel.


We arrived at our hotel to meet up with Dave.  The three of us went to a nice dinner on the beach. We ate beef and drank fruit shakes, followed by a long walk home on the beach.








Leaving Phuket for Phang Nga Bay National Park, for the day 




Pretty other worldly




Limestone Outcropping




A very, very small beach




that led to a cave with this creepy monster in it 




A Hong




Outside the cave




Kristin shaking off the morning




Enjoying the boat




Phang Nga Bay




A junk in the bay




James Bond Island - called so for the Golden Gun movie, that
came out 35 years ago




Bay opposite James Bond Island





Another shot of the bay




A dock




Ancient carvings of sea gypsies 




An Indonesian fishing village - Panyee Village




The docks of the village



Our lunch - diversification at its finest



Kristin's lunch, but not really



The village, they seemed to eke out a decent living



A Panyee street scene



Would be kind of weird living on water



Kristin looking at a shark



We took a sea canoe through some hongs (cave rooms with
 no ceiling) and mangroves.


A caveish opening
\
Going through the caveish opening 



Muddy Mudskipper



Mangroves



A Tree Crab



On our way to the beach



Kristin on the beach - Ko Naka



Pretty secluded



A hermit crab skittering across the sand 



He was a pretty big guy



Yeah



Giggles

Friday, July 10, 2009

Connect Four with Ladies of the Night (Phuket, Thailand)


Moments after sunrise, we were back in Mr. Nehm's fold, racing to the Siem Reap airport.  For a moment, we felt we noticed an error in Nehm's execution.  We should have stopped ourselves before correcting our godlike Tuk Tuk driver, because Nehm knows not mistakes.  He started to pull into the Angkor temple complex, much as we had done for two days prior.  We moved to correct him, "No, Nehm, we need to go to the airport."  He knew this of course.  He smiled.  Nehm was utilizing a scenic shortcut, just another superb showing by a man of few words and grand gestures, the greatest Tuk Tuk driver to ever walk on red soil.

Kristin was wearing an all Cambodian outfit on our trip back to Thailand.  Her shirt and pants were both purchased at the Angkor Night Market for a total of $5, and we probably were even ripped off.  All in all though, for a cheap country, Cambodia is a pretty expensive place to visit.  The flight to Siem Reap is about $300 and, at about 35 minutes long, is almost $10 per minute.  One also has to pay $25 to get in and $25 to get out of Siem Reap airport. It may be cheaper to enter elsewhere in Cambodia.

We had another terrific meal on our super smooth, 35 minute Bangkok Airways flight.  After landing though, the sweat began to pour.  We had one hour. Our landing was at the international terminal, and we would need to pass through immigrations, customs, and race to the domestic terminal to board our flight from Bangkok to Phuket.  Things got hot between Kristin and I.  Words were exchanged, mainly, "Hurry up you slug," and "God your an idiot (that was after I accidentally almost went in the crew entrance to domestics)," but our differences were erased when we arrived at the terminal, with time to buy 3 cold waters.

Too call the passengers of Bangkok Airways PG924 a bunch of stinkers would be to engage in extreme niceties, at least  relative to the truth.  These people smelled, and it was not of elderflower and jasmine.  The stench of body odor tickled the poor smell receptors of our nostrils into a frenzy, and we fought hard to hold onto sanity.  We faded noticeably several times, always wading back to reality through the thick stench of an onion like cloud to fight again.  We made it to Phuket but not without a concessions.  These concessions being those of comfort and tolerance, maybe a dash of understanding of other people and their reason for bringing their air about so carelessly.

The hour long taxi ride from the airport exceeded our expectations of time by about 45 minutes.  Phuket is bigger than it looks in google maps, much bigger.  What appears as just a sliver of land in the Andaman sea, is in fact a long island teeming with mountains, sand, trees, and the occasional elephant.  We saw an especially hairy little guy that appeared to be hitching even.  Upon our arrival to the Hilton Phuket, we were united with my old friend Dave.  Dave is currently living in Malaysia, and decided to meet up with us for some diving in the Phi Phi island area.  After Dave and I went through the motions that old friends must do of readapting and calibrating contexts to the old friendship levels among changed people, we all hit the beach.  We rented boogie boards, and for Kristin, this was bittersweet.  She shagged a few waves with really a garbage board.  Literally, it looked like a piece of old cushioning from a long narrow couch, left to bake and harden in the sun.  It gave her an awful rash.  Dave had a pretty quality board and took to the waves like a seasoned pro, even riding one completely to dispersion, only to pick up another that delivered him to the sands of Karon Beach.  My stabs at boogie boarding were amateurish and pathetic, and since I was using the good board, I unfortunately had no one to blame except myself.  Whats worse, for some odd reason, my butt itched for the remains of the day.

We had a cab drop us at Patong Beach for dinner.  We ate at an excellent restaurant, but paid a princely sum to do so.  In our defense, the menu had no prices.  We should have known better though, as we selected live beasts of crustaceans from the salt water tanks.  Mine snarled and growled, bucking the air like a king of the rodeo, begging to return to the shallows of his own private Bangladesh.  It would not be so, for Kristin and I would dine on lobster tonight.  Thankfully, we had the foresight to share a lobster, and this cut down on costs considerably.  Dave ordered tiger prawns, each the size of a Maine lobster.  Our food shined, the service was considerably uneven, and at one point, Dave and I both would have probably exchanged our souls for another sip of our finished watermelon fruit shakes.  The lobster was damn good, but I would return for the fruit shake.

Since we were in the infamous Phuket, we had to at least check out the girly bars of Bangla Road.  This is where western men, incompetent of dating successfully, come to find their future wives and girlfriends.  Or something like that.  I know that our readership includes a few younger ears, so I will not delve into intricate details of these sort of social arrangements.  I will tell you how the experience went for us.  We had a few creep outs, a few drinks, and eventually we ended up at a bar playing Connect Four (seriously) for an hour with the ladies of Bangla Road.  They were worthy adversaries at this simple game, and I cannot think of a more surreal way to end a long day of traveling.


Me and Nehm, who I am pretty sure used to be the Stig on Top Gear,
we miss you man



Bangkok Airways Meal



Landing in Phuket



Karon Beach, which is just south of the more famous Patong, but
more relaxing and wide



Beat the crowds



Dave and Kristin



The waves were nice



Dave and I, we sent a stunt body in for me on this one, did not
want to intimidate the readership with rock hard abs



Checking the air for conditions



Not exactly storm of the century material, but nice ride



Sizing up the surf



A wave that knocked me good



A couple of goons



Dave - Nice backdrop



Home base



Sunset



One more to drive the point home



Slide at our pool



Utilizing the facilities



Lobsters



Seafood



Our lobster hanging off the plate



Tiger Prawns



Bangla Road



Walking through bars, absorbing the shock



Lights



Red light



"Bonkers" bar



Bangla Road Shrine



Connect Four with the ladies