Jul 2007

after enduring india's tough love for a few months a return to the friendly, cleanly thailand should have been a welcome treat. it was for a few shorts days, but then i realized how much i actually enjoyed india for its unhygienic bathrooms, filthy streets and insane street characters. the summation of these attributes, as well as a few others, have kept the majority of india off the high-roller and trendy backpacker vacation list. this fact i knew well before travelling to either india or thailand, but upon my return to bangkok, things seemed a little too orderly, a little too clean and altogether a bit tame. or maybe i was just looking in the wrong places.

after negotiating a cheap price for a used guitar, i boarded a bus to kanchanaburi, a green spot on the kwai river. known mostly for its "death railway", which was built during WWII by a myriad of prisoners "working" for the Imperial Japanese army, kanchanaburi was a pleasant way to spend a weekend. i guess that statement contains the same hidden meaning that "she's nice" does. to continue with the history lesson, the railway never made it to its intended destination of yangon, but it still runs from bangkok through kanchanaburi.

after listening to floating river karaoke for a few nights, i realized that maybe kanchanaburi should be left to the tourists. not too much of a concession from the gritty backpacking contingent.

alas, i was off to an area more densely populated with wealthy scandinavian tourists than any other in SE asia. phuket. an infamous name since the tsunami, and a place that needs no introduction to anyone in thailand. the beaches are long, the waves are big and the views are awesome.

sharing it with a few thousand people is a downer, but atleast budget accommodation still exists, barely. a few vendors also roamed the highway running by the beach. this guy sold fish balls that smelled like fish and tasted like rubber.

i also spent a few nights on the "world-class" island of ko phi phi. to say i was unimpressed is an understatement. the beaches were covered with chairs and the water full of boats. maybe it was the wrong season to be there, but after 2 nights i was sick of being stuck on an island with too many people. the hike up to the viewpoint was perhaps its only highlight.

i continued my beach theme after entering malaysia on the east side and taking an extremely fast and dangerous boat to the perhentian islands. powered by generators and lacking roads, cars and for the most part alcohol, the islands offer something thai beaches lacked - peace and quiet. it also had heaps of rain, but swimming with rainbow color fish is a fantastic way to spend a rainy day. the snorkelling 30m from the shore was absolutely sublime. i think scuba diving will have to happen somewhere in indonesia.