For those of you who have been following us closely (Malc!), you may
have noticed that we have been in Thailand for nearly a month now and
yet there have been no blogs!
We are as surprised as you! We
planned the South East Asian leg of the trip around Thailand as we wanted to ensure
maximum sunshine & peak season craic! But three weeks in and we had to
admit to each other that Thailand
didn’t appear to be hitting the mark!
Maybe it was because we had such
high expectations or was it that the neighbouring countries had delivered so
much more that we could have ever imagined, but in comparison Thailand appeared
a little bit jaded, definitely travel-worn and dare I say it, just a little bit
too familiar….
The big beach destinations, such
as Phuket and to a lesser extent Phi Phi, were a mish mash of ugly concrete
over-development and neon and I felt like I was in Benidorm, (not that I have
ever been!) rather than the tropical paradise of Thailand. The unsavoury drain
smells and presence of rodents also didn’t add to a winning formula.
So we were left with either a sprawling concrete jungle or in Phi Phis
case a higgle-di-piggeldy rat warren, that didn’t really offer anything past
generic Internet cafes, dive centres and tattoo palours. The simple “tourist trap” formula was designed to
get you on-line or in the water, but as far as seeking out any genuine Thai
culture? Forget it! Even if you dared to stray past the perimeters of the “TT”,
there was generally not too much to see in terms of local villages or culture as
current habitation of the islands is singularly down to the recent tourism
phenomena. Before we took an interest in the “Land
of Smiles”, the previous occupants of
the islands were sea gypsies and they used the islands as sometime small ports
on their travels around the Andaman
Sea, and so the islands
up until 30 years ago had been left pretty much uninhabited.
So we realised pretty early on that we were home away from home so to
speak and this was reflected massively in the food offering as pizzas, burgers and
anything you could put in a deep fat fryer were on every menu in town, with not
a sniff of a chance of coming close to anything resembling authentic Thai food,
which is a shame, as I love it! In fact, Berts favourite meal of our time here so
far has been a stir-fried grasshopper from Phuket night market! Although it may
not look that way in the picture below!
Maybe I am being harsh, in some ways it’s hard to go wrong with Thai
food as the fresh herbs and spices make it so tasty. That is, once you have
reassured them that you would prefer your dish of choice not to be “farang
safe” ie custome-made for the western palate and totally devoid of spice! This
happened in almost everywhere place we ate and even when we asked for “pet”
(spicy) and then “Pet Pet” (uber spicy) we were never given anything that
didn’t pass the “farang safe” standard.
Getting back to the familiar, nothing
is more familiar to us Brits than a chat about the weather. It’s a national
obsession and why we pay so much to escape to sunnier climes on holiday, so
when the unthinkable happens and the weather doesn’t deliver in Thailand,
in December… well it’s a big black
mark!
That said, once the weather picked up (about a week) and we accepted
these places for what they were, we did have an awesome time. All it took was a
couple of buckets of some gut-rot thai whiskey and fun-time Bobby was out jumping through
flaming hoops of fire at Koh Phi Phi’s full moon party!
But how could we have known that all this was just a warm-up anyway to
the main event….Southern Thailand
and The Trang islands!
The Trang islands are a small collection of paradisical islands in the
deep south of Thailand.
They are simply stunning from the white sandy beaches, crystal clear waters,
craggy limestone kharsts and deep green lush jungle that it is amazing that you
have all this to yourself and there is no-one else there! Bliss! Our first
Robinson Crusoe experience was at Koh Nhai and we were so blown away that we
started a new tradition of celebrating each new landing with a toast to our new
destination!
And if we started the day toasting the awesome scenery, then we ended it
with a similar such toast when the sun descended, illuminating the sky and
giving us some of the most magnificent blood red sunsets that we have ever
seen.
All this island living gave me a whole new appreciation of the sea,
specifically the subtleties in colour shimmering around the different islands:
Aquamarine, turquoise, emerald….. blue and green just don’t cut the mustard
down here!
However, the exterior calm and peacefulness is not mirrored below the
surface as there is a hub of marine life just waiting to be discovered or as
Katie and Peter sang so tunefully once, it’s a “whole new world!”
Whilst some of us appear to have been born with flippers…
….I am divided on the subject of diving – love the coral gardens and the
beautiful tropical fish, but hate the deep blue drop offs and descending into
the wide open watery spaces, constantly plagued by the fear that someone in the
group will put their hand vertically on top of their head: a sign that a shark
is amongst us! Gulp. But there is the Troll cup at stake here (a dare devil
initiative to be awarded at the end of the trip for the most daring
participant) and so I must continue!
We were also lucky enough to see the sea come alive at night. You have
to pick a dark spot, so we took a longtail out to a shadowey cave and dived in.
The phospherance comes to life in the dark like green glittery confetti when
you swim in it and we both looked like we were in the Mark Almond “Tainted Love”
video whilst we were in the water!
The last word on the water has to go to the emerald cave on Koh Mook.
We turned up at 8 in the morning to this…..
…..which gave us a bit of a wake-up call! The idea was that if you swim
through the opening to the cave, through 75m of total pitch blackness (and
eerie groaning sounds!) then you would be rewarded with a secluded beach with
emerald water right in the heart of the cave. (Remember what I told you about
the troll cup!) Was it worth it? Decide for yourselves!
So Thai be, or not Thai be? That is the question. Well after a slow and
disappointing start Thailand certainly upped it’s game and once we went south, we had our very own little piece of paradise – well for a couple of weeks
anyway! The diving was awesome, (all the better for the lack of sharks - maybe they were on their xmas hols?) the vistas immense, the sunsets romantic! Talk about a great turnaround! We are just glad that we had the chance to see these islands as they were meant to be seen - peacefully, sleepily and with a drink in hand!
