joumaseblog: A farrang is a guava

Homies!

Here is the skinny so far...

So after the wet (and frankly quite annoying after a day or two) festivities of Songkhran, we headed down to Koh Tao to spend a few days chillin' like villains. We first stayed at a very cool, but quite remote place (only accessible by longtail boat taxi) owned by two brothers who were pretty cool, and reassured me when i jumped into the water for the first time, right onto some spikey fucking thing that left black needles in my foot. Anyway, i wanted to do my open water dive course (Koh Tao is the busiest diving training centre in SE Asia) so we moved to a busier beach where i signed up to do my open water with Lizzie Bosman from Big Fish and was pushed out in record time (2 and 1/2 days).

We then went to see what all the fuss about Koh Phan Ngagn was about, and frankly, i still dont understand it. Sunrise beach is pretty cool, but the place is full of Israelis, who are mostly dickheads (sweeping generalisation, but this time its TRUE!) and pretty expensive. The complete lack of thai food and abundance of fire jugglers ("its my light staff, maaaaan") should have been a sign... Anyway, so we wanted to see what the Andaman coast looked like, so we moved across the peninsula to Koh Lanta and saw that it looked much the same as the other side, except it rained. Anyway, koh lanta was pretty cool because there were some exciting caves and an old fishing village to explore. The caves were quite unspectacular, but shuffling across slippery, narrow beams above 20 metre drops with little-to no light was pretty damn exciting. The real "3rd world" experience, neh. Our guide was pretty cool too. He was a Muslim, he told us many times. He has a Muslim friend from South Africa called Imran, or Ron, for short. Imran hasn't visited for a while and he misses him.

After the caves we went to explore the old fishing village which was pretty cool, but damn hot, although we found some woman selling the most awesome prawn fritters for 5 baht each! thats 1 Ront 20! Crazy! Al was feeling a little chewed up by the sun, so we stood by the side of the road like helpless farrang and waited for a taxi. Luckily a kind chap in a van with tinted windows found us and offered to take us back to our hotel for the princely sum of 300 baht. No worries. So we get in the van, Al in the back and me in the front. Then Al starts laughing and says "you're a policeman!".
"No, no, no" he assured us, this was his friends car, and he was just using it. Apparently his friend had lent him his gun belt and walkie alkie too. Cool friend. Anyway, the guy was super sweet and gave me a little gold buddah amulet which i havent lost yet. The same cannot be said for my guido sunglasses that are in the possesion of one of the cleaners in our hostel who assures me that she saw Alex pick them up (between you and me, i think Alex stole them too). Anyway, what is a farrang in Thailand to do?

We spent the last few days seeing stuff in Bangkok (and getting involved in an attempted travel scam, too much to explain here) and just eating the best food i have ever had in my entire life. And the cheapest. Who knew there was a whole nation out there who also thinks that chilli for breakfast is a good idea? This place is amazing.

Tomorrow we start the trek up north, Kanchanaburi, Ayuthaya, Sukothai and then Chiang Mai which i am particularly looking forward to, as the food is apparently hotter than it is in Bankok. Fuck, I cant wait. I have uploaded a few pictures for your viewing pleasure, but as soon as i find a computer with picasa i'll put all the good ones up, with explanations, although this may only be once i am back in Saarf Efika, chillin' by Germiston lake, tunes boomin' from my chorrie, and my china, Jan Youens manning the braai. I'll bring the chilli sauce...

Keep it real,

Grek

Pics below are: view from our balcony at the first place stayed on koh tao: