31.3.2017 Log 11
I will have good memories about Koh Kong. The boat trip to mangroves was entertaining and the jungle walk afterwards as well. Until then I didn‘t know that you can find leeches anywhere else than in water. When walking in the jungle I‘ve got a proof that you can. Three times... What was totally unexpected were the upcoming days. Jürgen - a guy we made friends with at Sunset Beach - has invited us to join him in a pub beyond the town, where he happened to land when his motorbike broke and so he got stuck there with a Cambodian girl called Srey. In this pub with a fitting name Valhalla we stayed for four days. Definitely my longest pub visit ever. All the time we have been served authentic Khmer food by Srey and in return for it we cleaned her huge garden and fixed a garden shack.
After four days we all felt that it’s the right time to hit the road again. Our next destination is Angkor Wat, but how to get there from Koh Kong? We didn’t want to return the long way to Phnom Penh by a regular bus, so we decided for a little adventure: cross through a large jungle on a small muddy road. Srey secured us a ride with a local. We rode through Oh Saom and Pursat to Battambang. The whole time the road was an endless rallye, all muddy and full of potholes and ditches, all around us there was dense and unwelcoming forest. The few villages we went across seemed more like Africa than Cambodia. The ride took one and half days and led us through one of the least populated places in Cambodia. So after all we got what we wanted: Cambodia as not many tourists will ever know it.
7.4.2017 Log 12
In Siem Reap - our last stop in Cambodia - we spent few days. I could tick off one of our main wishes: to see Angkor Wat. These vast ruins left here after an ancient civilisation are not necessary to describe at large, we all know them from photographs. It is a pity, though, that the photographs don‘t show the reality. Crowds of people are depriving this place of most of its magic. If I was a millionaire I would buy a day at Angkor Wat just for myself. At once, the place would have a better atmosphere. But even though, I don‘t regret that I have done the visit. There are not many similar places in the world. At the hostel, where we lived, a great gang of people has formed and so we spent few days drinking merrily with Kamila from Poland, Hardy from Montana and Danish couple Patrick and Anja. There was a rooftop bar ran by Kenny, who cooked us delicious Nigerian cousine.
From Siem Reap we rode directly to Thailand, to the capital Bangkok. The journey was long and perilous and not only for the fact, that I got fairly drunk with Kamila the day before. If it wasn‘t for Kenny who woke us up, we would miss our bus. The change from calm and easy-going Cambodia to overcrowded and hasty Bangkok was a big cultural shock for me. Bangkok is huge, there is this stench in the streets, the classic reek of rotten food and human excrements. The smell of incense and spices, so characteristic to Indian cities, is missing here.
Today we failed to obtain paper visa to India. We have been told we can‘t get them because we don‘t have Thai visa in our passport. We have been advised to apply online and we hope to get what we wish for: double-entry visa for at least two months of stay. So far we didn‘t apply for Myanmar visa, but we hope to be more successful with it. If not, I will probably fly directly to Nepal.
12.4.2017 Log 13
The Bangkok pit stop is nearly over. I‘ve spent here way more time than I wished to. The city is expensive and very hot. There is approximately 38 degrees of Celsius out there. These two facts are the main reason of my apathy. Instead of me enthusiastically sightseeing, it‘s me sitting in our air-conditioned hostel, killing one day after another. My activities are not really large-scale. I talk to people, drink beer and kill time on Facebook. But I did all what was in my powers here. I got the visa to Myanmar (and thanks to that I got again a little bit closer to my resolution to do the whole journey overland) and I managed to talk my bank into sending me new bank card to Thailand. For some fee, of course.
Tomorrow morning will find me sitting in a train to Cha Am, a small sea-side town which is not supposed to be very touristic, but rather popular by Thai people. I would like to hang around there for few days before moving north to Chiang Rai, where I‘m supposed to meet with my new bank card (and with Jade hopefully, after our meeting at Ko Phangan failed). I don‘t write in plural anymore, because my friend and I decided to split. I would like to use my Thai visa to its full potential, while he wants to cross to Myanmar sooner. But I‘m pretty sure that we will meet at some places again, because our plans are pretty similar. The next goal for both of us is to get to a Buddhist village called Thabarwa, close to Yangon, where we want to join the monks in their efforts and help them with their noble cause.
thabarwa.org
21.4. 2017 Log 14
After my friend‘s sudden decision to continue on his own and after the collapse of my trip to Full Moon Party at Koh Phangan, I didn‘t know what to do for a while. I only knew that I want to make the most of this country so I decided that before heading north, I will go south for few days. Instead of originally planned destination Cha Am I chose another beach town Hua Hin, because it was easier to get to from Bangkok. And that was a mistake. If it wasn‘t for the new year celebration - the water festival - visiting this place would be utterly meaningless. But thanks to this festival the streets of Hua Hin were full of joy and life. Before I got to my hostel I was honoured with all the attention the festival brings: I was soaked head to toe and my face was besmeared with some white substance. Everyone was laughing at me, so I couldn‘t resist and right after I left my backpack at the hostel I went to join in the festivities. I ended up in a first bar I was lured into. Soon I discovered that Hua Hin is one big brothel. Pot-bellied men in their fifties were walking the streets hand in hand with Thai girls in the age of their daughters. I heard about this issue of Thailand, I just didn‘t expect that I will have the opportunity to witness it first hand like this.
After one unforgettable night in Hua Hin I hurried away, further south to Krabi, respectively to Ao Nang, where I got recommended beautiful beaches and climbing localities. I met there with my Polish friend Kamila again and we spent few days together. I didn‘t fulfil my wish to visit very secluded climbing beach called Ton Sai, where you can get only by a boat, because the day before I had it planned some misfit stole my sandals on the beach and I, after one evening walking barefoot, woke up with my feet sore and aching. But even though the visit of Ao Nang remedied my feelings about southern Thailand a bit.
After few days in the south, there was the time to move northwards. To the south I travelled by trains and it was a great local experience, but to get far to the north I opted for busses in sake of comfort and saving time. There was a really long journey ahead: Ao Nang to Krabi, Krabi to Bangkok, Bangkok to Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai. One thousand and six hundred kilometers, forty hours on the road. Now I‘m in the hills again and it is a welcomed change. There is still very hot here, but it is somehow a little bit more bearable. Chiang Rai is a city of beautiful temples and I saw just a small part of it today.
Thailand is truly a beautiful country. The nature here is spectacular, the sky is like a painter‘s canvass and every evening there is a new painting drawn on it. But many people here are spoiled by greed. During last few days I became the target of some deceptive behaviour and foul play that cost me quite a lot money and spoiled the feeling I had about this country. I visited many places in my life so far, but Thailand is the first one I‘m going to write about that I don‘t want to visit it again.
2.5.2017 Log 15
Chiang Rai and its surroundings amazed me. I saw famous Wat Rong Khun - so called The White Temple, known for its original, I‘d say fairy-tale like architecture and the same day I visited Baan Dam - The Black House. While Wat Rong Khun displayed the Buddhist motives of Dhamma and reincarnation, Baan Dam was a reminder of more ancient, darker days of this land: wooden houses, furniture made of bones and tusks and so on. If Vikings lived in Thailand, their architecture would be like that.
Encouraged after a dialogue with one English traveller, who hitch-hiked in Thailand, I decided to do the same. My first hitch-hike took me to Pai - a town in the hills so favourite with people from all over the world. Whilst Chiang Rai I explored from a bicycle seat, in Pai I chose to walk and that was a great opportunity to observe the countryside life, so different from life at the south of Thailand, yet so similar to rural areas anywhere in Europe, even in my country. Pai was an enchanting place and I decided to stay there for five days, most of which I spent reading and talking to people, mainly with Mike, an older hippie from London, and Kilian from Belgium.
From Pai I went on, following the hill road to Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang, where I managed to hike a hilltop beyond the village to modestly celebrate Beltaine. The hills here are so different to how I know the hills in Europe. They are very steep, hard to access, overgrown with dense and lush vegetation and full of the strangest insects. The insects of South-East Asia are a chapter of its own: I‘ve seen beetles as big as a humming bird, flashing dragonflies and many other weird things. The night I celebrated Beltaine my only company were the ever noisy locusts and a big beautiful lizard sneaking around my tent and feeding on ants running over it. Funny was, that the lizard didn‘t mind my presence at all, I guess I was the first human it ever encountered.
Running short on time I hurried from Mae Sariang to the border city Mae Sot, where I met with my travelling buddy once again. The road led through never ending hills and along a river making a natural border between Thailand and Myanmar. Hitch-hiking in Thailand was a great experience. I saw places I wouldn‘t otherwise see, I talked to people I wouldn‘t otherwise meet and I had the opportunity to discover Thailand from a different angle. The north of the country and its folk amended my bitter feeling I acquired about Thailand after all those deceits in Bagkok. Tomorrow I will be off to Myanmar. If I will ever return to this part of the world, it would be to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Thailand is a beautiful country, but once was enough.