While it's not like we spend days at a time hugging the a/c and watching BBC, we do have a strong need at times for seclusion, quiet and privacy. Even though we are comfortable in most of the places we visit, there is still a lot to put up with, even in great places. You just need to escape it all for a few hours a day.
(Koh Samui)
We've now crossed into southern Thailand, from Malaysia. This is, by my reckoning, close to the furthest we will get from home. Even though it felt like we began to travel 'toward home' once we left Australia and passed the six month mark, we in fact kept going further away until recently. We have also crossed definitively into the Norhtern Hemisphere after more than seven months in the South -- though we will head back into the Southern Hemisphere in June.
We are now more than eight months into the trip, and less than four months from our return. It seems strange that for such a wide ranging trip we keep going to new places. With the exception of a brief layover in Panama, we did not visit any place that we have been to before until just a few days ago, when we landed in Kuala Lumpur and headed north on the E1 through Butterworth and Hat Yai, Thailand.
The past five days leading up to that were a blur of travel. It took two full days to get out of the highlands of north Luzon to the airport at Clark, a few hours north of Manila. We then spent the better part of the day flying (thanks, Air Asia) from Clark to Kuala Lumpur and getting downtown (another flat tire on the bus). Then it was a full day getting to Hat Yai and another eight hours taking a bus and ferry to Koh Samui.
(Koh Tao)
Koh Samui! Long derided by hardcore backpackers for its luxury and ease, Samui is a sort of island paradise where you barely lift a finger and someone rushes to bring you a beer and get started on a one-hour foot massage.
Samui is just what we needed after travel through Brunei, Philippines and, especially, Malaysia. The restaurants have menus, the hotel rooms are clean, women don't raise hackles by wearing shorts, and the food is very very good.
We got a beach front bungalow for about $15 and spent our days in the water and in the shade. At night the beach restaurants set up tables with candles in the sand and grilled seafood. We walked past them into the frenetic center of town to eat at the night markets.
(Surat Thani, Thailand)
From Samui we headed north on a boat past cloud capped Koh Phanang to Koh Tao. We walked off the boat into a narrow warren of sandy streets. We checked in at hotels down the strip and came to the last one. It was obviously too nice for us but the manager made a deal so we got a very nice bungalow for $17 a night. We can wade out from the restaurant and white sandy beach into the warm Gulf of Thailand waters. We took a day long boat tour of the island yesterday, stopping along the way to snorkle in the clear warm waters. Lots of fish and even a few friendly sharks.
It's amazing how some countries will go out of their way to discourage tourism. Paraguay, a country with absolutely nothing going for it, requires tourists to get a visa before they enter. Brazil requires one of the world's most expensive visas and a private interview and actually wanted to see a bank statement to prove our financial solvency. Kenya runs a country so dangerous it's a significant achievement to get from the airport to your hotel without being robbed. Bangladesh -- another country with zero reason to visit -- allows squatters to live in their border posts.
(Koh Samui)
For decades, Thailand has been a haven for tourists and travelers. It's cheap, it's a great value, it's safe, and there's a lot to do. It's so nice, in fact, many travelers who come here never seem to leave.
Thailand used to grant, for free, a one-month stay upon arrival at any border post or airport. But a month was not enough time to stay in paradise, so the ever-clever Thais came up with a way around it. It's called the visa run. For a few dollars, travelers with about-to-expire visas board a bus, are handed a beer, and make a beeline for the nearest border. They walk through immigration and get their exit stamp then walk around the building and get an entrance stamp -- they don't even necessarily enter the adjoining country. Then you're good to go for another month.
Only someone in Bangkok saw this as a problem that needed a solution. The solution? People entering by land are given a 14-day stay. Did immigration officials strike some deal with travel agents? Who would dream up such an absurd plan?
Thailand might be popular with travelers, but the tide can turn. Just a few months ago, anti-government demonstrators forced the closure of both of Bangkok's airports for two weeks, stranding hundreds of thousands of fliers. Airlines responded by busing passengers to the nearest available airports -- in some cases in adjacent countries -- and flying out of there. Bad news for Thailand: not only did they lose out on millions of dollars of airport taxes and fees, but 30 percent of the flights that temporarily moved out of Bangkok during the demonstrations have yet to return. An article in yesterday's Bangkok Post estimated it could take 10 years to rebuild the lost traffic. If you're a government official in Thailand counting on tourist revenue, now is the time to start worrying.
So, unless we move to extend our visa (and that's good only for a week) we'll be out of Thailand within 10 days or so. We were planning to use Bangkok as a cheap hub for short trips -- to places like Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Taiwan. We'll still do that, but the trips may be broken up due to visa constraints. In the meantime, our visa run will likely be to Laos, where I'd like to return to to see more of Vientiane and visit the Plain of Jars.
We are also watching events in Madagascar, where we will be in mid-June. Long an island of unrest and controversy, the country has been in a low level civil war since December, when the 35-year-old deposed mayor of the capital -- a former DJ -- declared himself to be president. A pretty tight fracas erupted in January and shows no sign of calming down. Last week the president handed over power to the military, which subsequently allied itself with the mayor. Meanwhile, cities have divided into pro and anti-government factions and blocked roads leading to rival cities. The State Department issued a travel warning last week. It's a mess.
Our flight there is nonrefundable. We would enter Madagascar from Mauritius and fly out to Dubai via Mauritius. Our options are to just forget the Air Madagascar return flight and stay three weeks on Mauritius as opposed to one -- possibly sailing to Reunion Island -- or trying to move up the Emirates flight from Mauritius to Dubai -- with a connection on to Tunis -- and doing a short round-trip flight out of Dubai, like to Jordan or Cairo. Better than a roundtrip out of Dubai would be a crossborder hop to Oman. In any case, Airtreks, whom we bought the tickets from, is very slow to give us any information, so all that is on hold now ...
In the meantime, it'll be lots of islands and relaxing and enjoying Thailand while it's still good.
Beer Updates:
Not a lot of beer drinking the past few months, but here are some standouts:
San Miguel Light -- very very light, and further lightened by the fact it's often served with ice cubes
San Miguel -- not too shabby for one of the world's cheapest beers
Red Horse Stallion -- a true third world beer -- skunky (and cheaper than SM)
Chang -- less skunky than RHS and not bad for the price
Singha -- King of Thai Beers
Book Updates:
Robert Penn Warren -- All the King's Men -- great
Lawrence Durrell -- Mountolive -- soso
Saul Bellow -- Humboldt's Gift -- BORING!
Santo Clauro et.al. -- Molvania: A Land Untouched By Modern Dentistry -- brilliant
Ernest Hemingway -- For Whom the Bell Tolls -- good
J.D. Salinger -- The Catcher in the Rye -- beautiful
Isaac Bashevis Singer -- The Manor -- nice
Pearl s. Buck -- A House Divided -- OK
Heinrich Boll -- The Lost Honour of Katharine Blum -- over my head
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