Thailand's Happy Ending!

Mid to late April 2006

So - long time no blogging! I'm now in southern Vietnam as I write this, and have passed through three different countries since I left Thailand. I'll have to rely on my infamously shaky memory to dredge up what I was doing at the end of my time in Thailand, some six to eight weeks ago, and hope that I don't have to resort to making stuff up to fill in the blanks...

After Koh Phi Phi I headed up the coast to Khao Lak, where I caught the boat for my "liveaboard" diving trip. The trip, for three days and two nights, would take us to the Similan Islands in the Andaman Sea, and involve nine dives in what was described to me as easily the best diving in Thailand.

On the boat the sundeck had been converted into a communal sleeping area by placing a tarp over it and mattresses on the deck. This meant that we were effectively sleeping outside so it was beautifully breezy at night, much nicer than sleeping in a cabin. My fellow divers were a good bunch of people from various places, and there were two divemasters leading the trip. John, a toothless old seadog from Essex Road in Islington, (just around the corner from me!), and Katrin from Germany.

John was a "diamond geezer", but unfortunately Katrin was more than a little bossy. Through the medium of diver's underwater signs, she actually managed to be rude to and impatient with my young inexperienced dive buddy Rob, (above in the red t-shirt), quite a feat given that all you have are hand-signals! Anyway, the diving itself was just excellent. We had 30 degree waters usually with 25m visibility, some incredibly beautiful sites and the best marine life I have seen anywhere: leopard sharks, reef sharks, numerous turtles and big rays, an octopus, and huge shoals of fish such as fusiliers that you could just swim right through.

After that I headed off to Khao Sok National Park in southern Thailand, to spend a few days in the jungle. It was a very beautiful area, and I spent three nights living in a treehouse up in the forest canopy. You could open up the wooden shutters at night, and be woken at dawn by the sun and the sounds of the jungle waking up. There were gibbons - you could hear them, but I never saw any. There were supposedly tapirs, (one of my favourite animals), but again I didn't see any. I took some long walks along trails in the park, swimming in the river and getting caught in a torrential thunderstorm which broke the oppressive heat that engulfs most of Thailand during April.

I then headed back up to Bangkok to go to northern Thailand, but stopped in the capital for a few days again to experience Songkran, the Thai New Year, and to do a little more sightseeing, including the Grand Palace. Songkran largely consists of most of the population stopping work for at least three days, and just having one big water fight in the street. The root of this idea is the sprinkling of water on people as a good luck blessing, but it has grown into the idea of a total free-for-all using hoses, buckets, water guns and anything you can lay your hands on. It also involves smearing a white paste on people's cheeks, which again originated as a blessing.

So the big water fight is fun, but really only for about half an hour! You stretch that out to three days, (officially, but they tend to get excited and start early, so it's really more like four or five!), and frankly it gets a bit old. I jumped in, got soaked, soaked others, then got bored after about 30 minutes and wanted it to stop now, please! The thing is, it doesn't, and simply walking down the street involves you getting soaked whether you want to or not. So you just have to make sure that your camera and anything else valuable are in plastic bags, and just accept that normal life is suspended for a few days! At least it gave some relief from the heat...

After a few days I continued by train up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai is a really interesting city, and is a great place to base yourself for treks to the hills and to take various courses. It's also a great place to spend time as although it's a major city, it really feels like a small town. As I met people there I found that I kept bumping into them again and again just walking around, which gave the place a really nice feel of community.

So after I had been there a couple of days I took a two-day trek, which was really fun and I met some great people. There were lovely hills to walk in, with waterfalls and villages to visit, and we spent the night in a large hut in one of the villages. There was also elephant riding, and bamboo rafting down a river.

When I got back from the trek, I signed up for a one-day Thai cookery course which I took with a guy from France and another English bloke. We covered about nine different dishes, including pad thai, (my favourite!), spring rolls and green, red and massaman curries. After making all these dishes we of course ate them, meaning I didn't need to eat for about the next three days. The course was taught by a funny guy who called himself "The Master". Obviously an excellent chef, but not so successful at taking a photo of me in action over a flaming wok. Master Chef, yes, Master Photographer?!? Hmmm. Finger in shot, mate....

Then I took a five-day Thai massage course. This was taught by a Thai lady who would teach you the techniques, then have you repeat them back on her and shout "LA! LA! LA!!!" loudly at you if you hurt her, (which we all frequently did in the beginning). However, we spent most of the time practising on each other, including one of the trickiest techniques which involves you balancing your victim on your knees, and working their lower back muscles with your knee caps. That one often ended up in undignified, collapsed heaps of people. Anyway, we all must have done OK in the end because we all passed and got our certificates!

So after a lot of fun and "educational experiences" in Chiang Mai, and with my Thai visa approaching its end for a second time, I headed up towards Laos with Canadian Stacey, who I had met on the massage course. It was just as we were about to leave Thailand, and the bus had stopped at a market for a break, that I realised I had to stick to an undertaking made earlier in this blog. Those fried grasshoppers were calling to me from the market stall! Actually they weren't making any noise at all, but the old guy selling them saw me looking at them in trepidation and, laughing at me, offered me a fat one. So, with Stacey on photographic duties, I looked right into its little insect face, then crunched down on it. To be honest it wasn't bad, just like a piece of spicy, crunchy batter. However, having found it wasn't that horrific I still resisted the stallholder's offer of a whole bag of them....