Exit China

 

Winter had started to chill the air during our last days in Beijing (although still nothing to compare with Mongolia in October), so Thailand was a welcome transition as we were not very enthusiastic about living through a second winter this year.

 

The day we took the plane was itself quite an experience as we had to send two packages (one to the US and another to Europe) before catching the flight. We had heard rumors that sending packages from Thailand can be a bit risky (some friends we made in Mongolia had still not received theirs after 4 months), so sending from China seemed like a better option - although there is a risk that the Chinese authorities can open a package and confiscate any “sensitive” or “cultural” items. In the end we decided it was worth the risk as it does not make sense to bring two -12 degree Celsius sleeping bags to South East Asia, or any winter clothes for that matter.

 

We arrived at the post office in the neighborhood of our Guest House early on the 20th, where the employees began to pack our boxes, inspecting every item carefully before putting them in. The Kazakh rug John had been lugging around for the past weeks made the cut, and so did our winter clothes and a set of paper kites; however, sleeping bags, calligraphy brushes and chopsticks were quickly rejected… Apparently the “regular” post office will not send anything made of wood or containing animal parts such as feathers or hair. However, there was an alternative… John hopped in a taxi and sped down to the International Post Office where all of the sensitive items were packed by the authorities without a second glance, while Bekki went back to our guest house to prepare our bags.

 

Long story short, we made it to Bangkok with a lot less in our packs.

 

 

Bangkok

 

Unfortunately John caught a cold in Peking which was amplified by Bangkok’s tropical weather. He spent several of our six days in this bustling city sleeping it off.

 

We did however stay in the Shanghai Mansion, a luxurious hotel in Bangkok’s China Town, thanks to a generous invitation from Florent and Cecile, before moving to the backpacker district of Banglamphu.

 

Bangkok is the perfect contrast to Beijing. Despite the fact that the Chinese capital has 20 million inhabitants the city is not really very exciting or very dynamic in feel (regardless of its constantly changing skyline). Much of Peking was rebuilt and renovated for the 2008 Olympic Games and today the city has an almost sterile, controlled feel to it. Bangkok on the other hand feels like a city constantly in motion, evolving not according to a “master plan” cooked up by party members, but by the dynamism of its multi-ethnic inhabitants all vying to scratch-out a living from this amphibious conglomeration of tall buildings, canal neighborhoods, temples and palaces, waterways and traffic.

 

We quickly learned that the best way to explore the city is using its diverse forms of public transportation: sky trains, metros, rickshaws, river taxis and its infinitely complicated yet largely complete bus system. We absolutely loved it, and combined our six day stay with sightseeing, shopping for warm weather clothes and applying for our visas to Myanmar.

 

We were also directly in the throes of the first days of demonstrations to overthrow the prime minister. We actually stumbled upon the first night of demonstrations while walking with our friends Kolja and Manu to see Democracy Monument. We stuck around for a while as there were speeches, famous Thai singers, free food and plenty of people willing to explain to us what was going on. Two days later we learned that demonstrators took over the headquarters of the Finance Ministry, and two days after we left Bangkok we learned of the four people who were killed. One thing that we had read about Thailand is that even throughout political troubles the country moves on as if everything is perfectly normal. So far as our experience goes, unrest seems to exist as a parallel flow to regular, everyday life. (We did however choose to stay in a neighborhood a bit further from the demonstration for our two nights in Bangkok before flying to Myanmar on the 11th of December).

 

 

Koh Pu

 

Thailand was not originally a “destination” on our Asia tour… We saw it more as a convenient country from which to transition from China to Myanmar. Yet plans change and we ended up booking our tickets to Rangoon for the 11th of December. With extra time to kill, we decided to head south, and attempt to find one of those Thai island paradises where we could lay back for a while. Thanks to a recommendation from a Thai friend of a friend, we took the night train south and hopped a boat from Krabi to the island of Koh Pu.

This place is really something else, especially when compared to many of the other islands in the Andaman Sea. Surrounded by Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta and just a quick boat trip to Phuket, one would assume that this would be just another island completely invaded by Western vacationers. Do not get me wrong… Koh Pu does have its share of resorts and tourists, however the traditional island life and economy easily coexist with the tourist bungalows. Most of the island is actually dedicated to rubber trees and crab fishing, and any land that is not used by humans (which is most of it) belongs to the jungle.

 

We stayed in a small collection of 8 bungalows owned by a woman from Krabi. As we were her only guests we had the pick of the litter and chose a secluded bungalow at the edge of her property, surrounded by tropical forest and a stone’s throw from the beach. To be clear, this was no Club Med: cold showers, electricity only in the evenings, geckos in our bed, no internet and monkeys raiding the camp (for Bekki’s sake, we are trying not to think too much about the mosquitos). But we did have excellent food prepared by the owner, who was more than willing to teach us the tricks of Thai cooking; hammocks, squid fishing lessons, free mask fins and snorkels, a sea kayak, and best of all, no other people on the beach for a 100 meters in each direction.

 

We met a lovely couple (former world travelers themselves) from Berlin and their two children staying not too far from us. Our evenings therefore consisted of delightful diners with this enthusiastic pair, who were ready to welcome us to their city.

 

Our plan to stay 5 nights quickly transformed into 7.

 

 

Koh Phi Phi

 

Our lethargic sojourn eventually needed to come to an end, as we had trouble justifying to ourselves visiting only one place in southern Thailand. We therefore hopped on a long tail boat (I have no idea of the day or date) and motored for 40 km to the islands Koh Phi Phi, made especially famous as the location for the film The Beach in 2001.

 

I guess that no trip to Thailand is really complete without visiting one of the iconic destinations that helps to draw some of the country’s 16 million yearly visitors. The islands themselves are stunning but the hordes of mostly European and some American tourists are often mindboggling. We did manage to pick up some tips from a French lady who has lived here for 20 years about where to go and what to do. As a result we spent our day (December 6, 2013) snorkeling a reef on a secluded beach with only two other travelers.

We will take a boat tour to some of the islands’ more exquisite coral reefs tomorrow for snorkeling, then on Sunday it is back to Bangkok to finish our preparations for Myanmar.

 

Although we are enjoying our “time off” in Thailand, the traveler’s itch has caught up with us and we are ready to move on to a less touristic and more enriching destination.