Cheesy things I did in Thailand...

I can't think of a more apt title than this. Jackie and I had just under 14 full days, and we decided to squeeze in every possible activity, from kayaking to trekking to "volunteering" for the tsunami reconstruction effort. I put that in quotes because I don't think we were any help whatsoever. Anyway, here's a sample of what we experienced in Thailand, the land of smiles.

My first picture in Thailand

This sign at the Bangkok airport made me recall all the hours I spent watching news coverage about the tsunami just after Christmas. I can't imagine what the survivors and their families went through.

A festival in Chiang Mai

After Bangkok, which neither Jackie nor I liked (too flashy and trashy), our first stop was Chiang Mai, the largest city in the north of Thailand. People come there for treks and courses in cooking, meditation, massage, etc. It's a cute city, except for all the bars that obviously cater to Western men (if the scores of scantily clad Thai women who inhabit them are anything to go by. Jackie and I felt certain if we entered these establishments we'd be in trouble). Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that part of town. But here are far more wholesome pics from a festival at one of the city's many wats, or Buddhist temples.


People place flowers in baskets.


A woman prays at the festival.


A Thai dancer at the same festival.

Our cooking class with the Master

Our cooking class teacher, who called himself "The Master."


Making stir-fry veggies in our Thai cooking class. I volunteered to do something the Master called "adventure style"...


Adventure cooking! What the camera failed to capture, however, is the part where I turned my head and shrieked furiously for a minute.

Rough trekking in the hills around Chiang Mai

The first day we walked for three hours up muddy terrain. Our biggest fear: leeches. One actually managed to bite our guide, but he found it before it did too much damage. Jackie found a leech on her shoe and handled it quite calmly. I saw a leech between my shoe and sock and was calm as well. Then I thought I saw it squiggle into my sock and, to put it lightly, all hell broke loose. It did not, by the way, actually get into my sock.


We also had to crossing a rickety bridge to get to the village we were to spend the night at. 


Jackie treks with PIZZAZZ!!!!! (But those of you who know her know she's not capable of trekking any other way)


Yes, this spider really IS as big as it looks.


Ek, our guide, who had been a Buddhist monk for two years and a novice for three. Buddhist men in Thailand are expected to be monks for at least part of their lives, during which they can't drink, shouldn't smoke, and are to have no physical contact with women. At the Chiang Mai airport, there's a section reserved for monks and novices alone.


Matt, one of our fellow trekkers, demonstrates how the English dance. And yes, they all dance EXACTLY like this.

An elephant ride...perhaps the biggest cliche of them all

Boys at the camp get the elephants ready for our ride.


The elephants get a washing.


An elephant ride is sooooooooo cheesy, in a Thai kinda way, but at least I get to sit on his neck. We're sitting with Matt, from England. Detail you obviously wanted to know: our elephant liked to fart. According to the people behind us, you could see the bubbles coming out of the river.


The neck ended up being the best seat in the house. Sometimes it would wrap its ears around my feet and I felt all safe and cozy. Well, as safe and cozy as it's possible to feel sitting on an elephant's neck.


The path we took went through rivers and was surrounded by jungle.

Ao Nang

After Chiang Mai we flew to Krabi in the south of Thailand and stayed at Ao Nang, a nearby tourist resort. In the low season (when we went) it's probably the most deadly dull place in Thailand, but there's so much to do around there we used it as a base for four days. Also, it gave me this nice sunset.


Phra Nang beach, near Ao Nang, near the place where we rock climbed.

Adventures in rock climbing

Krabi is known as a world-class place for climbers, so of course Jackie - who regularly climbs back in Nashville - had to be there. We did a half-day course, but I don't know if it was necessarily better than any other place. The wall we were using had about 25 other climbers there, and at least four others climbing at the same time. I think it would've been better to find a place not so known for its climbing.

All the same, I expect people to say we look good in these pics.


Cheeky monkey.


Jackie boulders and pretends to look tough, but you can see she's only about five feet off the ground.


Now she gets serious.


Looking good.





Seriously high now.


A pic or two of myself. Not an attractive pose, but hey, I look tough, right? Look at the lean muscles in my calves!!!


Bit higher.

Kayaking in the Ao Thalene mangroves

This was probably the toughest thing we did all trip. Jackie and I may make beautiful music together (literally. Our parents used to make us do duets on the piano and violin), but we can't kayak together worth a dime. We were tired and miserable and the English couple on our tour had to constantly wait for us.

Luckily, after lunch, our guide offered to share a tri-yak with us and, pride be damned, we took him up on it. Even better, he mentioned that only one of us could paddle at a time. The English couple said we had to see the look of open-mouthed joy we gave each other.


The English couple.


Pretty mangroves.


The monkey and me (left). Tee hee.








A cave we kayaked in.

Day tour to Phi Phi and around

On our last day in Ao Nang we took a day tour to Ko Phi Phi, a nearby island that had been devestated by the tsunami. We were expecting to leave for another island on Thailand's eastern side, but were so charmed by Ko Phi Phi we ended up spending the rest of our trip there (more on that later).

But here are some shots of more isolated beaches on Phi Phi. In Ao Nang Jackie had been disappointed that none of the beaches actually looked like they do in the tourist guides. The owner of our bungalow said that was because of the recent rains. Luckily, in Phi Phi the water is beautifully clear and warm, and Jackie was pleased to see at least one part of Thailand looked like she expected it to.


One view of Long Beach.


Another angle.


Some of the denizens of - wait for it - Monkey Beach.


One mother monkey actually came on the boat with her baby to get more food.


A close-up of the baby (still sucking its mother's teat!), looking alternately cute and pretty damn freaky.

The beauty of Ko Phi Phi

I don't know if my camera can do it justice, but Ko Phi Phi really is beautiful. Here's a sampling:


Phi Phi from the "second" and less-known viewpoint (everyone knows about and goes to the first viewpoint, but we met someone who knew about this other spot). Off in the distance is Phi Phi Leh, the bottom half of the two-island Phi Phi island chain.


A Phi Phi sunset.


And yet another.

The recovery of Ko Phi Phi

Ko Phi Phi is a small island midway between Phuket and Krabi. The tsunami ruined it. So far they've found 750 bodies and believe another 1,500 to 2,000 people are missing, although the authorities don't know for sure because there had been so much illegal construction on the island.

The recovery - spurred by backpackers who can squeeze in a few days, weeks or months out of their trip - has helped Phi Phi get back on its feet again, but its future is uncertain since the Thai government hasn't decided what to do yet. I'm divided in how I feel about the recovery effort.

I think the main volunteer group, Help International Phi Phi (HI Phi Phi), has done a good job cleaning up Phi Phi and getting people there. It's a grassroots effort, and because of HI Phi Phi, there are now more than 130 shops and the island is definitely ready for tourists again (although it isn't perfect. I got excited when I saw a sign for gelato - then I realized the store below had been wiped out).

But I didn't always like HI Phi Phi. We went on a tsunami tour that lasted an hour longer than expected because they ran through every single project they were working on. Sometimes it seemed to be more about HI Phi Phi than Ko Phi Phi. We later met another volunteer who had skipped the tour; when we told her it was okay, she said, "Really? They were pushing it hard. I got the feeling I had to go on the tour if I wanted to help out."

And I don't know what Phi Phi was like before, but it's turned into Party Central now (which, I admit, was part of the reason I came there, but I didn't come with any illusions of saving the world either). Ninety percent of the island is Muslim, so the volunteers take Fridays off out of respect for Islam, yet we all still get wasted and walk around in skimpy clothes.

Jackie and I volunteered with The Adventure Club, a dive outfit that worked primarily on beach cleanup and removing debris from the ocean. The day before we came, snorkelers pulled out a mini-grand piano. There are still bits of glass and sheet metal from the bungalows that once stood nearby, and Jackie even dug rice cooker out of the ocean.


This is a room from the employee complex of a large hotel that had once stood nearby. They still haven't cleaned it up.


Only the squat toilets withstood the tsunami.


There are supposed to be bungalows behind this sign.


A sign at one of HI Phi Phi's offices.


The HI Phi Phi volunteer board.


Volunteers with The Adventure Club do beach cleanup.





Two trash heaps the volunteers compiled. As of June 2005, they've carted more than 2,000 tons of trash and rubble off the island.


Chen, the guide for our tsunami tour, who was on Phi Phi the day pf the tsunami. He survived and, like everyone else on the island, made his way to higher ground.