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(94 votes) Published: Jul 11, 2008 9:51 p.m. In 3 Favorites Lists Viewed 526 times
In March of 2008 my father who works in Iraq invited me to Thailand for his R&R (Rest and Relaxation). At first I was a little nervous at the thought but every day after, I was getting more and more excited. April 10th of 2008 I boarded a plane in
my hometown of Panama City, Florida, and that is where my journey began...
In the air
Okay so I fly out from Panama City on a prop plane 1 hour to Atlanta at 6 in the morning. I had a 3 hour layover and after roaming around in the airport shops, I boarded my plane. Destination...Tokyo, Japan.
This is the seating inside the Bowing 777 airliner.
This is the TV screen on the back of every passengers seat.
The lovely useless half of Canada. A large portion of the country is covered in these lakes.
Where we were at the time of the last shot.
A while later we were here...
The outside temp., altitude, and speed the plane was traveling.
Distance traveled so far and time taken to get there.
A pretty cool lookin frozen river that was leading into Canadas Great Slave Lake.
A tiny part of the Great Slave Lake
The first mountains I’d seen on the flight. This is the beginning of the Alaskan range.
This is some seriously rugged terrain...
Coming up on Anchorage, Alaska.
There it is... Anchorage is the city on the top section of land here.
I figured since it is a pretty big place and the last big city I’d be flying near while still in North America, I just might be able to get phone service on my cell. So I turn it on and there they are... 3 bars! So I tried to make a call and at first I thought it might work but apparently I need some different type of SIM card for it to work...
Goodbye America. Here we are above the Bering sea.
It’s all basically ice.
As I coped with the thought of leaving my continent behind, they brought me a lovely meal with this fruit included. It was like nothing I’d ever eaten before and I suppose it’s Japanese fruit. If anyone can tell me what it is I’d appreciate it =D
This is the shore of Japan...it’s pretty exciting to see another country for the first time in your life.
Well I got off the plane when we unboarded in Tokyo 22 hours later!!! I had stayed awake the entire time partly due to my excitement and also due to the fact that it was daylight for the entire flight. We were following the sun on the trip. So basically we left Atlanta at 10:15am and arrived in Tokyo at 1:30 pm the same day! Odd experience nonetheless. Oh and work of advice... don’t fly Delta airlines if you can avoid them...the service was poor, as was most of the food.
I happened to see this posted on the wall of a Arab bathroom stall in Japan. (The toilet was one of those you’d squat over to do your business)
"We will have peace with the Arabs and they will love our children more." I thought it was interesting.
I was a little tired on the 6 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand so I just rested and skipped using my camera. I was served another meal and decided I’d ask the almost non-speaking flight attendant of Japan airlines for a few drinks... She happily obliged by bringing me a small bottle of Bombay Sapphire. When she saw I had finished she brought me a large bottle of hot Sake which I finished in 10 minutes. I had a damn good buzz going and was watching some movie on my TV when I fell asleep............ I wake up a few hours later feeling like my head is going to split open. It so happened that we were descending and I wasn’t awake to equalize the pressure in my ears. I definitely don’t suggest it.
THAILAND
I landed in Bangkok at about 8:50pm local time the same day I left Panama city but 30 hours later. I wandered around the insanely huge airport terminal for a good bit before finding where I needed to be to get my 30 day visitation visa. Once I got my visa I headed to where my dad, his wife Phen,her son Ohm, and daughter May were meeting me. I met up with them and we left the terminal. After being accustomed to the 70-75 degrees F of the airplanes and terminals it was a bit of a shock stepping out into the 84 degree streets of Bangkok. So we drive out to the hotel we were staying in. I get settled in my room and go downstairs for some good ’ol Thai food I’d heard so much about. I ate about half of what was on my plate and my stomach started to hurt pretty bad so I didn’t eat anymore.
Come to find out that the thing that made my stomach so upset was a lovely little condiment called fish sauce. This stuff is basically juice strained from a concoction of water, salt, and fish that are all put in large barrels and fermented in the heat of the sun. In my opinion completely disgusting.
So. After a nice loooong shower I went to sleep.
ZZZ...zzz...ZZZ...zzz...
Waking up in a foreign country is a pretty different experience. It’s like waking up after a life-like dream and wondering if it actually happened.
We got everything together... me only having to gather the contents of my one backpack containing a couple pairs of clothes and my bathroom amenities. We set off en route to a city called Korat.
Korat
We stopped by a place where Phens Brother was working and stopped to say hello to him. This was a place where the people of Korat came to worship their Guardian, Yamo.
This statue is Yamo. I was given a bundle of long incense sticks and a few thin sheets of pure gold. These were to be lit and held while praying for what you want from life. You then put the burning incense in a small rock bed in front of the statue and put the gold sheets on the foot of the statue.
A little gold flake on the Jasmine flower necklace I was given at the statue of Yamo.
We left and began traveling to the northern part of Thailand to visit Phens father.
It is very common to see this on the highway... 6-10 people packed into the backs of truck.
We stopped on the side of the road and Phen bought about 6 fat bamboo sticks. She gave me one and showed me how to open it. By cracking it and peeling down the sides until the inside is exposed. I ate some and to my surprise it was delicious. Khuola is it’s Thai name. It was a mixture of rice, taro, (a sweet, potato like vegetable) coconut milk, salt, and sugar. It’s all boiled and poured into empty bamboo stalks. It then hardens and you eat it!
We stopped in a city called Nongkhai to stay in a hotel. Here’s the only picture I took there. It’s the view out our hotel window overlooking the Mekhong river which separates the two countries of Thailand and Laos. You can see Laos right over there on the other side of the river.
Udon Thani
Udon Thani is where Phens father lived so we stopped by his home and spent a little time with him. I went off with May and we walked around for a while. In that time we came across all different kinds of fruits growing wild.
This is called Pak tob. She took some to make a dip to use with the meal the other were fixing.
This is called Jackfruit or in Thai, Kanun. It’s a kind of tangy fruit that’s orange in color on the inside and gets as big as 2 feet in diameter. Pretty tasty.
Here is unripe Papaya. Thai- Malako. It’s normally deep orange or red on the inside. Pretty good taste if it’s fresh.
Here are some unripe Bananas.
I forget what this one was...
Here are a bunch of small Tomatoes. Thai- Ma
These as most of you know are Coconuts. They are VERY abundant in Thailand. Thai-Ma prouw
These are some species of Pear. They weren’t ripe so I didn’t eat any.
These are Mango. They weren’t ripe though. For those of you who don’t know, Mango is VERY tasty in my opinion and I suggest you go out and buy some to try it at least. Thai- Mamong
In the Mango tree I found a Iguana about 1½ long. I tried to catch him and almost did but he got away. Thai- Kingka
Sala. It’s red with little thorns all over it but when you get it open it’s worth it. Really good fruit.
We left shortly after me and May got back and set off for our next destination... Loei city. This is where Phens sister lives near. Hmm seems like we’re doing allot of traveling on Phens families account...
On the way I took this shot of these snakes above the highway. It’s Thai name is Payanack...in English that means "King snake". Do you remember the Mekhong river that separates Thailand and Laos? Well Payanack is the supposed guardian of the river. It is said long ago that Payanack was spit into the great river by the king dragon, Payano.
Loei City
We arrived in Loei city and headed to one of two hotels in the entire area. The one we went to was called the Loei Palace, a hotel run by the prestigious hotel chain, Amari. Me, my dad, and Ohm waited in the car while Phen and May went inside to negotiate a price. It so happens that in Thailand just about anyone can bump up the normal prices for foreigners or as the Thai call them, Forang.
Phen and May came back to collect us and we set off to our room. This is what the entrance to the place looks like.
Well Phen did a good job because we got a 3 bedroom 3 bathroom suite on the top floor furnished with antiques, a 64" television, very comfortable beds, and all the bottled water you can drink for the low price of $85 a night! Or in Thai Baht(their currency) B2650.
Here’s me out on the balcony
Here’s the view from the see through elevator
This was later the next day in the lobby looking out.
Later that night I went out the fire exit and up the stairs to the roof and this is what I saw... This is when it actually hit me that I was in Thailand...
When I was done taking in the view on the roof I went down to the Hotels restaurant to meet up with my dad and Phen. May and Ohm were swimming in the pool. We all sat down and ordered. I ordered the Woon sen Goon yup which in English is Glass noodles and Prawn, my dad ordered some type of fried fish, and Phen ordered Phad Thai which constitutes of fried noodles and various vegetables and seasonings with any choice of meat. We all shared our food and I’m going to be dead serious here... no exaggeration... It was the best meal I’d eaten in my entire life! Everything was just cooked perfectly and seasoned with only the freshest spices and herbs that were actually picked from the hotels garden. It was so good that when I couldn’t eat anymore, I went and emptied my bowels so I’d have room for more. Long story short... Amazing hotel.
The monk cave
The following day, we all packed into the car and headed off to Phens sisters house. She only lived a short distance from Loei city so it was a short drive. We came to her house and a short while after listening to Phen and her talk back in forth in Thai, Phen told me that her sister was going to take us to a place that she believes no white person has ever been. That’s a big deal considering that Thailand has been inhabited for thousands of years longer than where I’m from.
Phen continued to tell me that there is a cave up in the mountains away from any place forang would stumble upon. She said this cave is inhabited by just one monk who watches over the place.
She didn’t tell me much more than that but we set off shortly after that and about 20 minutes and many dirt roads we came upon Phens sisters Tamoran farm. Tamorans are a kinda peanut like, sweet, fruit. I didn’t care too much for them but they are pretty popular with the Thai people.
These are Tamorans.
There was a one way dirt road that went through the farm and this was the one that led to the cave so we all piled in the car again and started down the bumpy road that went on for what seemed like 100 miles...
Here’s a shot of some of the mountains in the distance on the way to the cave.
This is where they say a few other monks live... still a short way to go to the cave.
We came to the foot of the mountain where we had to hike some distance up the mountain. Here waiting and guarding is the king snake.
We hiked about a half of a mile up the mountain and came upon this beautiful bamboo forest with a stone stairway leading up to the cave.
There was something creepy about walking through the towering forest of bamboo shoots. I’m not sure if it was so creepy because of the fact that I felt rather vulnerable as anyone could have been watching
through the green stalks, that every couple minutes you’d hear what sounds almost like a gunshot in the distance which was actually a bamboo stalk snapping under it’s own weight, or that there were many sightings of wild tiger in the area. All of it put me a little bit on edge but my adventurous nature kept me going...
This is an insanely huge mosquito larvae! I picked it up out of the water with a leaf and the bitch was the size of a small fish. I’d like to see the full grown version of it.
Here’s me coming up on the cave entrance.
We walked into the cave entrance and a short distance in after passing a pool of water blessed by the monk, we came so a side opening that led onto a small platform on the side of the mountain that had this Buddha there.
There were thin sheets of gold like these all over the rock walls around the Buddha.
These are some musical instruments the monk used while worshiping his god...
There was nothing too spectacular in the main chamber except for a ladder that led up into a small dark entrance 30 feet above the cave floor...I wanted to go in it but I had no light source. I’m going back one day and checking it out.
So we’re all just wandering around the main cavern listening to bats squeak and it hit me... I had to shit. So I got out of the cave as fas as I could and instead of going down the stairs in the bamboo forest I go right and follow a small path that was on the side of the mountain. I jogged a little ways and relieved myself, used my bottled water to clean up and kicked some dirt on...well you know. Then when I was gonna turn around and go back to the cave something caught my eye. I looked over on the side of the mountain and saw something gleaming. I start that way and see a narrow cave ahead of me. It was pretty well lighted from the light at the other side so I go in and come out to a stone cavern open to the side of the mountain. There I found a smaller Buddha.
Then I went a little ways back in that cave which led to where I was sure the monk slept as there was a small bed and a muzzer net(mosquito net) over it. I left it alone and continued down another path which led to a ladder that was about 15 ft high.
I went up the ladder and into a small cavern. I took a couple steps and ducked when I heard a loud flapping noise above me. I looked up and saw a large bird flying out of the cave. I ran up to the entrance and tried to get a picture of the 2 foot white owl that was standing on a branch 10 ft from me but it flew off before I could get the shot.
I turned back to the cave and used the flash of my camera to get as far back as I could. I’d flash and take a couple steps, flash, couple steps, etc. I did this for about 50 feet in but it would have been dangerous for me to go much further without proper lighting... So I turned back =[ I’m going to definitely visit this cave again and bring flashlights and some guide lines so I wont get lost and go explore this cave some more.
So we all left. On the way out I saw this statue of one of their gods. I forget the name of this one...
While on the way out back to the city Phen saw some of these growing on the side of the road and stopped to pick one. It has a really odd feel to it. Kinda like wax.
We were on our way back to Loei and took a couple dirt roads and stopped at a small village. Here is where Phens mother is buried. She paid her respect to the grave and we went to go see the villages temple.
Here’s the temple. The sun was setting on it and it made for a pretty awesome shot.
Me, my dad, and Phen walked to the other side to go in the temple. As me and my dad walked up the steps little kids who were playing nearby stopped what they were doing and stared at us as we walked by...I just figured they don’t see many white people and kept going into the temple.
Here’s the Buddha that was in the temple. You can see in the picture that there are smaller jade Buddhas on the shrine...
We spent a little while in there admiring the interior and talking. We exited about 20 minutes later and outside waiting for us was the entire village. Turns out most of the younger ones had never even seen white people before! It was pretty odd to be the minority for once...
We all stayed one more night in the Loei Palace and early the next morning we set off for Pattaya. This is where Phen and her kids live. Pattaya is also the second biggest city in Thailand, only second to Bangkok. I took a couple days to get there so we arrived at about 6:00pm in the evening 2 days later.
Pattaya This is how allot of Thai people make their money...by selling tings to people at stop lights. This man is selling car air fresheners made from Jasmine flowers.
Odd fact: In Thailand it is the year 2551! So I was born in the year 2532 according to the Thai calender.
May bought this lovely sack of silk worms from one of the stoplight sellers. She started popping them in her mouth like they were candy so me, being the curious person I am, asked for a couple just to test them out. Let’s just say I won’t be buying any for myself...
They have these on allot of lights in Thailand. It’s a timer telling you how long the light will remain that color. It counts down for both red and green. There are no yellow lights in Pattaya. Not that I saw at least.
timed light
This is another god I believe. May taught me that it’s half monkey half fish... I was curious as to how something like that is conceived so I asked her if some horny monkey jumped into the ocean, grabbed the nearest fish, and had it’s way with it?! Haha! The funny part is she nodded in agreement...
So after riding around for a bit, we came to the community just before Phens house. We stopped and looked around the shops and bought some Thai food. We drove from there to the house and everyone got settled in. Then we had our meal.
After a short while my dad asked if Phen could go into the city and buy some Starbucks coffee grounds for the next morning. (Yes they have Starbucks. Not to mention everything you’re used to. Remember it’s the second biggest city in Thailand.) Phen didn’t want to take the car so she asked me if I’d like to come along with her on the motorbike which is what
%75 of the people in Thailand drive. Having seen only a small bit of the city I agreed and we set off for the Starbucks.
After buying the coffee we started heading back home but Phen noticed something wasn’t right with the bike so we stopped on the side of the road and checked it out. Turns out the tire was flat and only one of us could ride on it at a time. She flagged down a moped taxi and we decided I should ride with the taxi guy. She gave him the directions to her house and we all left. Her moped having a flat tire was lagging behind and soon we were completely out of Phens sight. We went down a couple roads I recognized a little bit and he turned into what we thought was Phens neighborhood. I got off and paid the guy B80 ($2.60) and I walked up to a house and he took off. Well it turns out it wasn’t Phens house... So I was thinking "Okay I’ll just walk around and find the place." So I walked around...but didn’t find the place. A little edgier but keeping my cool, I walked up to the security booth for the neighborhood and asked the couple guys there who spoke a little bit of English if they knew where a woman named Phen lives. They didn’t have a clipboard with names so they couldn’t help me. I walked around for about a total of 2½ hours before leaving the neighborhood figuring it must be a different place.
It was about 11:30 at night now and I was vainly wandering around walking up and down the road hoping to find where I needed to be. After another hour or so I walked to the town I was in earlier that night. I was mostly just looking for someone who might help me so I walked up to an internet shop that was just closing and ther
Jul 11, 2008 10:14 pm - and there sat a group of people talking in Thai. I approached them and told the ones that spoke some English about my situation. I had to talk to them as if talking to a child. In simple sentences and small, more common English words. They understood and said they’d take me to the police station in the city. So a girl named Lek, her brother, their female friend and I got into their truck and went to the police station. They talked to the police and explained what was going on while I waited. The police were complete pricks and weren’t helpful at all. It was obvious that all they cared about was getting me out of the station and out of their hair. So I asked Lek and the others if we could drive around and try to find Phens house. They happily obliged. But after 30 minutes looking around we still couldn’t find the place.
I told them thank you for what they had done for me and that I’d keep searching on foot. Lek told me that it was a bad idea for me to do that and convinced me to stay the night in a hotel just a minutes drive away from the internet shop. She gave me her number, got me set up in a room, and told me to call her in the morning so that she could help me find my family. So I paid the hotel owner about 4 dollars worth of Thai money and she gave me a room, food, and some bottled soy milk. (which is really good BTW) I set down the bag containing Starbucks coffee grounds and my helmet I’d been carrying since I got off the taxi, ate, showered, and got some well deserved rest.
The next morning I woke up at 8am to what I hoped was my dad knocking on the door, but it was the hotel owner. She came to ask me if I’d like any breakfast. I said that would be nice and she went off into the town to get some food. I was wide awake and she was taking too long so I just grabbed my stuff and headed off to the internet shop. Right as I was arriving, Lek was leaving to come pick me up. We both sat down outside the shop and talked for a little bit. I told her I wasn’t too worried and that I’m sure someone will find me. I figured since there wasn’t much I could do, I would just get on one of the computers.
I think I logged onto Mypsace an RE for a few minutes but them Lek told me that there was an English speaking man here that knows his way around the area and that he might be able to help me. I go outside and the guy I talked to was an Irish vending machine filler. We talked for a little while about what happened, how it happened, Where I needed to be, what I remembered about the house...stuff like that. Well me and him were talking when Phens daughter May rode up to me on the moped crying her eyes out obviously scared to death of what might have become of me. She hugged me and called Phen and my dad told them where we were. Shortly after the two of them got there in the car and I could tell they were worried sick too. They thanked Lek and we went to the house. The house in the neighborhood I had almost walked by. I was off by about ½ mile.
Well they told me about what they had been doing and I told them about what I had done. They had stayed out until 4am looking for me, had made fliers with me on it which they had given to hundreds of people, went to just about every police station in Pattaya including the one I was at, they had went to radio stations who were broadcasting that I was missing, and were up again a 6am looking for me again. I was a little bit flattered and embarrassed at the same time as you could imagine.
Well it turns out that there was a guy murdered on a road in Thailand that night...The EXACT same road I was walking on for 4 hours in the EXACT same area of road only 20 minutes after I had checked into my hotel. Remember how I was going to continue walking around on that road and Lek convinced me not to? Yeah...it very easily could have been me. Whew!
Here’s a scan of the fliers given out and the official police report.
Flyer with crappy 5 time photocopied cellphone picture of me, my dad, and Ohm.
Police report
We went out to have fun during the Song Kran festival now that everyone was happy now.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, there is an annual festival that takes place in Thailand, Mayanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam called "Song Kran". It’s a 3 day festival in which everyone throws water on everyone haha. It’s tons of fun. Nobody gets mad even if they’re wearing dry clothes and you throw ice cold water on them. Everyone is cool about it and everyone is game! Here are a few pictures of the festival going on in Pattaya.
Yes this is an elephant on the side of the road in a big city.
Me covered in flour and water haha
People having fun during the Song Kran festival =D
LMFAO!!!
So now that I was found. Phen and May told me that they had to go thank Buddha for returning me safely. So we drove to the highest point in Pattaya where they prayed. Also they filled me in on a Buddhist tradition. Sometimes when Buddhist want something they pray for it and promise to buy x amount of things for Buddha. I could be anything. Small sculptures, little model boats, sheets of gold, etc.
These are what I’m talking about.
Well in Mays case it was 100 roses... May is the Younger one.
In Phens case, it was 10,000 firecrackers! This is Phen holding most of em and Ohm helpin out.
Here’s me in front of all the Firecrackers.
I set them off and I’d never heard anything like it. It was pretty damn cool.
Here’s a picture of a small portion of Pattaya.
We left that place and headed off to a place a short drive away called "Big Buddha hill"
So we get there and damn...when they say big Buddha they mean big.
Here’s a picture of Pyano the dragon king. That’s Pyanack the snake king coming out of his mouth.
Here is the big Buddha.
I sat down and one of the cats from the temple behind the Buddha came up to me. It came and, without me even touching it, laid on my lap. According to Phen this is good luck.
In Thailand they have a Buddha for every day of the week. What day of the week you were born dictates what Buddha is yours.
This is Sunday Buddha
Monday
Tuesday (mine)
Wednesda
Wednesday night
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Good shot of Wednesday- Sunday Buddhas and Big Buddha.
This is all pure gold sheets on the wall in front of big Buddha.
Well we left Big Buddha hill and went back to the highest point in Pattaya to watch the sunset.
This is part of the coast of Pattaya. Reminds me of where I live...Panama city.
Me just watching the city.
Another shot of Pattaya but almost dusk
We stayed in Pattaya for a few more days and did random stuff. Just hung out doing things in the city, going to the famous Jomtien beach, riding jet skis, just havin fun. We decided to go to an island called Koh Chang down south east of Pattya off the coast of a city called Trat. So the next day we got the essentials packed and were off again...
This is just a mountain on the way that I thought was pretty cool
It could almost pass for an active volcano in this picture
We stopped at a bazaar on the way to Trat and here we found dozens of piles of this fruit.
We arrived in Trat that night and stayed in a hotel
The next morning we got some breakfast and headed out to a dock to catch a car ferry to Koh chang.
Here’s me out on the end of the car ferry in my super fly shirt.
A really big ant I found on the ferry. It didn’t have any poison but I let it bite me and it ripped off a small chunk of skin.
Checkin’ it out
Koh Chang (Elephant Island)
We arrived on Koh Chang about 1½ hors after leaving the mainland. We drove off and onto the island and began our search for a place to stay the next days. All of the good places to stay were on the west side of the island so we made our way up the incredibly steep mountain road. It was really dangerous and would have been an impossible task if it was a shitty car or if it was raining. It unnerved me a bit when we caught up with a truck with lots of thick metal pipes hanging off the back. Despite the mountains we made it over the peak and began our decent to the west coast of the island a good 30 minutes later.
I took this from the road on our decent to the west side of the island.
Hmm those trees look oddly familiar... What do you think?
After stopping at about 6 different bungalows on the beach we found one that suited us perfectly. It was on the beach, The place was pretty quiet and clean. The people were friendly. It was nothing luxurious but we weren’t planning on staying in our rooms the day’s we’d be spending there.
The name of our the place was Nature Beach
Here’s one of the bungalows. This was the one I was staying in. Not too shabby.
Here’s the inside fully equipped with a muzzer net.
I went for a swim the same day we got there to try out the water. Here’s our place on the beach from the water.
What was kinda interesting is that every evening we stayed there, it rained. Here’s the beach during one of the storms.
I sat there with my camera trying to catch some lightning for about 30 minutes.
Then I finally got it.
The next day I went trekking up a cliff
This thing was a pretty serious climb. I had to jump from rock to rock and with one slip I would have fell on to the rocks below. One portion of the climb I had to use a vine to lean back on and pull myself up...once again I could have easily fell if it had snapped.
I got to the top and here’s the view...
This is a better shot of the beach from the cliff
So when climbing the cliff got old I saw that there were 4 smaller islands off the coast of Koh Chang and they looked like they’d be within kayaking distance. So me and May decided we’d rent a ocean kayak from some people on the beach and kayak out to a couple.
Here’s a picture of all 4 of them. 1 to 4 being left to right.
We paid for the kayak rental and set off from the beach headed for the closest island. It only took us about 30 minutes to get there.
Here’s the beach as we just came up on it.
There is coral all over a section of the beach. It’s obvious that there were living reefs here before they were ruined by people.
There was a dead tree that had strings tied all over it and pieces of coral hanging from the strings.
Me and May went hiking through the jungle on the island to see if there was anything interesting.
There wasn’t too much there to see except some banana trees.
Here’s the view of Koh Chang from the first island
and another
We took off from island 1 and I got a shot from the kayak of the main island.
Here’s another of Koh Chang but allot farther out
This is island 2 as we were coming up on it
We kayaked onto the shore and started exploring.
I found a cave right on the shore.
I climbed in and as soon as I did I heard squeaking abd flapping so I knew there bats in there. I climbed a little way in and took a picture with my flash.
We walked around for a little bit longer and went back to where we left the kayak. I decided that since it wasn’t a really big island I’d climb to the top. May wanted to stay behind so I left her and started my climb. It was allot more steep than I had thought and I was wearing flip flops so it was a little tough.
I got to the top and figured hey since I came all this way I’ll go check out the other side of the island so I started the decent. I could tell no one attempts what I was doing because it was VERY overgrown. after about 15 minutes I came to this spot.
Here’s another shot a little bit further down. At this point I was struggling not to slip because my feet had become sweaty and the dirt from the groud mixed with it to make mud. Not to mention that I was climbing down on an angle of about 35 degrees with nothing but grass to hold on to.
This is a picture of island 3 and 4
Well I climbed back over to the other side and met up with May who had spent the whole time looking for shells and coral. We stayed there a bit longer and then left for the bungalows.
We got back just at three hours of being gone. Later that evening everyone got in the car and we went looking for things to do the next day. We went about as far south as we could on the west side of the island (the road doesn’t go all the way around) and we came to a fishing village.
Here’s a picture of the fishing village from a cliff
We all left and went back to the bungalows since it was getting dark and turned in for the night after dinner.
The next morning we were eating breakfast and talking about what we’d do for the day. We had heard about a pretty cool waterfall not too far away and decided that would be fun, so after breakfast we all got ready and left for the waterfall.
We parked and started hiking down a path leading to the waterfall, which became progressively more and more difficult.
On the way we came across some fruit trees.
Here is some wild citrus fruit
This is a fruit called Mangostein. This one is unripe but when they turn purple you peel them open to expose about 8 white sections. It’s not my favorite when it’s warm but really good when it’s cold.
Another shot of the hike there
We finally came to the waterfall about and hour after we began the hike.
It wasn’t too impressive but worth the hike
I got May to get a shot of me diving. This one wasn’t too great...
So I tried again and pulled it off perfectly =D
When everyone was done swimming in the basin under the waterfall we walked a little ways down the river and found a place with a rope going across the water. I tried walking across it and almost made it to the other side a few times.
Later that night back at Nature Beach, they had a fire show on the beach for anyone who wished to attend. This guy here was really good.
The next day me and May went out on the kayak to visit the other two islands we hadn’t been to yet.
Here we’re coming up on island 3 and 4. It took us about 1½ - 2 hours to get there.
Here’s 3 by it’s self.
Coming up on 3’s beach
A storm was rolling in. There’s 2 and the main island from island 3.
We left 3 after a pretty short period of time because there was nothing too interesting. Here’s the main Island from 4
The only thing interesting on 4 was the water. I grabbed my mask and snorkel and swam around a little bit. There were allot of really cool fish there that’d I’d never seen before. There were also lots of different types of corals.
Before we headed back to the bungalows we stopped by island 2 one more time to collect some shells and coral.
We spent one more night at Nature Beach and the next day we took the car ferry back to Trat
Here’s the last shot of Koh Chang
We went back to Pattaya and 2 a couple days later I got a taxi to Bangkok which is only an hour away and caught my flight to Taipei, Taiwan. I got a plane from Taipei to San Fransisco, spent one night there and early the next morning and caught a plane to Atlanta. From there back to Panama city.
Here I am Back in the states... but guess what?
September I am leaving for Thailand once again...this time to stay!
Jul 11, 2008 10:36 pm - wow man I was flippin the fuck out cuz I wasn’t sure if I had this entire egg copied in my cursor and then I posted it and only half showed up I was like O_O
this shit took me about 9 hours to write and organize...over the course of three days.
Jul 11, 2008 10:43 pm - I gave up reading the text half way through part 2. Nice pictures and you gave good information and shit which most of these eggs lack.
Awesome. After viewing/reading all that, I feel like I went to Thailand.
In the pic with the firecrackers on the posts... Is that a [i]mountain[i] of firecracker papers behind there? O.O If so, holy crap, they like firecrackers...
Thumbs up, Man!
Jul 12, 2008 1:28 am - ATL yeah I know that %90 of people that click on the egg won’t read it but I had to type it all for my own satisfaction.
Dodge thanks. Yeah I put allot of effort into this egg moreso than any other egg I’ve posted. However there WERE more than 350 pictures and 10 - 15 videos of even more. Had some really cool vids and allot more of really good pics but while kayaking to island 2 on the last day of koh chang my camera got humidity in it somehow and the 2 gig chip with all of those pics and vids were lost. I was sooooo pissed but i got over it and came home. I went to an old friends parents who own a photo studio and his dad recovered about 200 pictures and put them on an archival disc. what sucked though is the vids couldn’t be saved as vids...only as pictures of the first frame. BUT it was enough to make a decent exploration egg. Like I said at the bottom, this September I’ll be moving to Thailand so I’m planning on having more exploration eggs up in the next year. I’ll be sure to get a portable hard drive and I’m buying an olympus stylus so that I can get underwater pics too =D if you liked this one, keep your eyes peeled for some good ones to come.
and thanks about the avatar thing haha. I still have "props to Dodge" as the title for it
Jul 12, 2008 1:30 am - and yes...that is a mountain of firecracker papers...you should have seen the side of that hill where the small mountain of FC papers dropped off...
Jul 12, 2008 2:08 am - Here are some Thai words I learned while I was over there. Some of it was because of the need of being able to express what I mean more clearly to people who spoke little english and some was just from me asking.
Joking - Talok
Funny - Sanook
Thank you - Khab khun Khrab (male)
Thank you - Khab khun kaa (female)
You&rsqu ;re welcome/ no problem - Mai pen rai
Patience - Me marayad
Fast/ hurry - Raw
Slow - Cha
I am - chan
Excuse me - Keo toad
Sorry - Sea jai
Very nice, how much - Soy jung loi, tow rai LMAO
Hello - Sawadee khrab (male) Sawadee kaa (female)
How are you - Sabay dee mai
Doing well - Sabay dee
Not quite well - Mai dee tow rai
Crazy - ba
Go - phai
Stop - Yud
What did you say - Ahray
Very good - De mak mak
Yes - Chai
No - Mai
Hungry - hu
Smells good - Hom
Stinks - Men (there was allot of confusion with this one...I thought she was trying to tell me that men stink! lol)
Hurt - Jeb
Delicious - Ahrayy
Not delicious - Mai ahrayy
~how to call a young person whose name you do not know: Nong nong ~if you know their name you say: Nong (name).
~how to call an older person whose name you do not know: Pee pee ~if you know their name: Pee (name)
Thirsty - Hu nam
Water - Nam
You - Khun
How - Yang rai
Where - Te nai
Who - Kai
When - Mae rai
King crocodile - Chanawan
King snake - Payanack
King dragon - Pyano
Balls - hum
Two balls - Song hum
Toilet - Hung nam
Like - chob
You stink like two dirty balls - Khun men chob song hum sokkaprod LOL
Numbers:
zero - soon
one -nung
two - song
three - sam
four - si
five - ha
six - hok
seven - jaeb
eight - phad
nine - khoaw
ten - sib
eleven - sib eat
twelve - sib song
thirteen - sib sam
fourteen - sib si
fifteen - sib ha
sixteen - sib hok
seventeen - sib jaed
eighteen - sib phad
nineteen - sib khoaw
twenty - ye sib
twenty five - ye sib ha
thirty five - sam sib ha
fourty five - si sib ha
fifty five - ha sib ha
sixty five - hok sib ha
ninety nine - khoaw sib khoaw
one hundred - nung roy
one hundred one - nung roy eat
one hundred eleven - nung roy sib eat
five hundred - ha roy
nine hundred - khoaw roy
one thousand - nung phan
one thousand five hundred eleven - nung phan ha roy sib eat
two thousand - song phan
five thousan - ha phan
ten thousand - sib phan
Jul 12, 2008 7:10 am - I really wanted to read the whole thing but I have a feeling it would take at least half an hour. Good job man, this is excellent. 5*
Jul 12, 2008 6:43 pm - please please please tell us you fucked her she is fucking cute and pehn is hot in her own mature way but tell me if i got this right pehn is your mother and may is your sister/half sister?
this is by a very large margin the best egg i have ever seen
Jul 14, 2008 8:06 am - ok so phen isent your step mom and may isent your step sister
but are you related in any way?
and if phen and your dad are hooking up then you fucking may...... fuck it shes too cute fuck her ass do it on the deserted island
Jul 14, 2008 5:43 pm - Durian...you’re right. Every time I tried to remember the name I tohught of Datura...If I’d said it was that everyone on RE would be like "OMG dude go back to Thailand and send me some of that shit!!!" But yeah Durian is the name and I did try it. I don’t like it very much...it’s known to be a very smelly fruit and the taste is not extremely great either...every once in a while I got a good bite of it and it tasted alright but other than that I’d just as quick skip eating it.
Jul 15, 2008 1:53 pm - Yes, the durian is just one of those things where you either hate it or love it. Some consider the odor to be foul, but others think of it as a nice smell. If you like the smell you will like the taste and vice versa. I think it’s great.
Jul 29, 2008 7:28 am - I have been to Thailand once
and nothing in the world.
No brochure
No travel agent or TV program can describe it as well as you just did.
Easily the best exploration egg i have ever seen on rotteneggs
5*’s without a doubt
(not like it will make much difference, LVL 6 MEGAPOWAA)
I especially liked the pictures off the plane,
they were immense
Aug 02, 2008 9:55 am - Thanks Tuffy. The reason for that is that I got to see the "Real Thailand" Not the gay tourist bullshit 99% of the foreigners see and visit while they’re there.
No I didn’t get any Thai stick.
I haven’t smoked weed in about a year and I’m not planning on starting again. But say I did, I still wouldn’t have went looking for drugs because Thailand is EXTREMELY harsh on them... even innocent ol MJ
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