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Just three and a half hours after leaving Bangkok I was in Delhi.After collecting my bag and making my way through customs I eventually found my driver, among hundreds of others, holding a sign with my name. We left the terminal and he led the way to his car.My first impression was crazy, it was so different to anything I'd experienced. It felt like stepping back in time. It was hotter and more humid than Bangkok, it was busy, dusty and loud... The taxi's I found unexpected - I didn't realise they would be the old British models like in the photo below (wasn't quite this busy).
Also, I find the people to have such an old-fashioned style, like they've come from the 60's. Beggars would approach us when we stopped at lights, and there were so many people, young and old sleeping on the footpath... I think Old Delhi was the worst. I was surprised at the vegetation - it was very green, but everywhere else was so dirty... rubbish piled everywhere... old tyre's stacked on to rooftops of decaying old buildings.... cows finding food wherever they could. An hour later we were at the Tibetan refugee area which was where my hotel was.
Reluctantly I had to leave Ko Tao. I was to take a ferry to Ko Samui where I'd spend one night before flying at 6am the next morning to Bangkok and then on to Delhi.I arrived on the island and took a transfer taxi to an area that's relatively close to the airport, not realising that it's really expensive and accommodation was scarce.
After walking down the main road for a while I visited a guesthouse where a German guy overheard me enquiring and suggested that we share his double room. That was good enough for me, and pretty lucky too, so I dropped off my bags and headed back down for dinner.After dinner and a few beers we decided to head out and visit some of Samui's bars... 6am's not that early.
We stopped by a convenience store to buy some walking beer before arriving at a bar where we ordered a bucket, as you do in Thailand, of whiskey and coke. Perhaps not too sensible as a bucket of Thai whiskey tends to go straight to your head. From that bar we went to another, then another, then another. Met some random Brits and Irish and talked shit with them. The bars were crazy, lots of working girls and lady-boys around the place. Saw an older gentleman walking down the street with a Thai girl on each arm. The island is completely different to Ko Tao, so much bigger and more commercial - made me glad that I'd opted to spend my remaining days relaxing on Tao.All of a sudden it was 4.30am and my taxi was arriving to pick me up at 4.50. I downed my last drink, possibly unnecessarily, and raced back to the guesthouse where I had just enough time to grab my bags before jumping in the taxi. I was in a great mood checking in at the airport, chatting to a few of the other passengers who were so boring having just woken up. From what I remember, Ko Samui airport is really strange. The check-in area is a hut and from there you take a weird open-sided bus to somewhere else (memory hazy) and then another before boarding the plane. Once in the sky I started sobering before landing at Bangkok where I felt like shit. I had the day to wait for my connecting flight so I'd previously decided to visit one of the major attractions that I'd missed during my previous visits; the Grand Palace. Annoyingly Thai airways didn't let me check in my bag so I had to lug it around with me all day. After getting off the bus at Khao San Road I sat at a cafe for breakfast. My hangover was punishing. I forced down my omelette and juice and sat there for about an hour, by myself, I may have fallen asleep. Eventually I got up the energy to make my way to the palace. It was alright, I think it would have been more enjoyable if it hadn't been so hot, I didn't have my massive bag with me and I didn't feel like curling up and dying in a corner somewhere. The hours soon passed and so did my hangover. I made my way back to the airport, checked in and waited to board my flight to Delhi. Was just a little scared.
In the evenings I'd been tagging along with the Aussies I met on the boat. They'd spent a bit of time on the island already and knew the goings-on. They took me to a Psytrance party... got me drunk... sat in horror while I ate animal flesh... etc.Once the diving course was over I moved to cheaper accommodation near them; my own bungalow on a hillside looking out to sea. Pretty basic, but peaceful and with a beautiful view - at night the illuminated squid boats would light up the sea.The rest of my time spent on the island was ridiculously lazy. We'd wake up, sit at the restaurant playing uno, drinking, eating, sitting and eating until it was time to go out for dinner. Afterwards we'd sit and drink at bars along the beach. Chris took the piss out of me at any opportunity and Cybelle cut my hair, very well, which was nice. We made friends with the Austrian Petanque team who were about to go to the world championships in Pattaya, some locals (actually from Burma) and another Austrian who'd spent some time in India.One of the 'athletes' from the Austrian Petanque team was bitten on the neck by a snake at our restaurant. Not poisonous though.It was fun, I had planned to spend time at Koh Pha Nang and Samui but opted instead to relax the days away with these guys. Dogs were everywhere. I was lying on the beach when one came and stood on me... one leg on my stomach and another on my 'bits'. It then bit my book and started play-biting my arm. I got up and threw a stick and tried again to ignore it. It eventually got bored and went up to a German couple and grabbed the guys towel for a tug-of-war. It was really funny. In the end I had to help him out so I walked up and threw a stick. Walking back to my bungalow each night was a mission. I got lost every night. The paths were hard enough to follow even in the daylight, and in the dark it was just a little scary. Some nights a dog would escort me home, one night a pup walked me back, slept on my deck then escorted me back the next morning.
After arriving on Ko Tao I hired a scooter and went searching for a dive school. I decided on 'Buddha View' which was OK, perhaps not as personal as smaller schools... Because they offered subsidised accommodation, and as the world-cup had just started I opted for the fancy-ass room with Cable TV. The room was mint, I had my own massive deck and for the first time on my trip; hot water!!!
Before starting the course I toured the island on my rental. It's pretty small and many of the roads are just dirt and big rocks... felt a bit dodgy taking the bike over them without a helmet.
I sat in my room to watch the Italy vs. NZ game, was very exciting.
The course took 4 days. The first was just a lesson, the second day was in the pool, the third day was out at sea just to a few metres and on the last day we were meant to go down to 18m... my gauge was telling me I was at 25m and while I was fussing over it I missed a black shark that was right in front of us. Was so annoyed, everyone else in the group saw it except me!
We had another dive to just 12m where we took off our fins and played around standing at the bottom of the sea. Was so much fun, could just jump up, do a double somersault then land on my feet again. Couple of guys did a big matrix style fight, was quite funny.
The water, coral and sea life were amazing I'd recommend Ko Tao to others wanting to learn.
From Hat Ton Sai on the west-coast, I decided to make the overnight trip to Ko Tao which is a small east-coast island. This meant parting ways with Jonus who couldn't make it that far before flying back home. The trip consisted of a few hours in the bus and 11 hours by boat. I was thinking that an overnight passenger boat's got to be pretty flash... nice beds, bar, food. Turns out that it was more or less a freight-boat (complete with squealing pigs in tiny cages). The upper level housed mattresses sprawled down each side for the sleeping human cargo. I had a 2 hour wait in the town of Surat Thani before boarding. Bought some ice-cream from a Swensens (reminding me of the Swensens that used to be in Newmarket) then wandered through the stalls. One of the vendors was selling crickets, silk-worms and ants by the gram - piping hot, ready to eat. I was annoyed that I'd wasted my appetite on the ice-cream.Before boarding I met a crew from Melbourne who were also on their way to Ko Tao, enter: Chris, Steph, Monique and Sybelle who, as it turned out, I'd be spending a bit of time with in the days to come. I thought they were Kiwi's originally as Chris was wearing a huffer tee with the NZ map on the front.The trip was fine, woke up semi-refreshed at the port the next morning.
It was time to leave the island and on Meredith and Tim's recommendation we headed to Hat Ton Sai (Koh means island and Hat means coast). The ferry ride landed us at Rieley beach where we could either pay 200Baht for a taxi-boat or trek over the hill to reach our destination. We decided to walk, which was a bit of a mistake given our massive bags we had to lug over. It turned out to be more of a climb, a really sweaty one. The area is famous for rock climbing due to the amazingly steep rock faces that jut out from the sea. This means 1) the surroundings are stunning 2) there's rock climbers everywhere. The first point we could deal with but it turns out that rock climbers are dickheads. Actually I can't say that as we didn't talk to any but I just assume they are. With their light frames and nerdy rope things. Also the beach was quiet with only one bar, full of rock climbers. It was really, really nice and we each had a big bungalow to ourselves for about $7NZ a night... but it was just a bit boring. Ended up leaving the next day.
After making my way back to Thailand I headed down to the Andaman coast for some beach time. I took an overnight bus from Bangkok all the way to Krabi. I needed a sleeping pill as the roads and drivers were making me really anxious. We did some damage to the front of the bus by going over a bump at one stage but all was fine apart from that. Met a couple of cool Germans and the world's most boring Canadian on the way. Was really glad the little man inside the luggage compartment didn't steal anything from my bag which apparently happens very often (ref: Duncan Blair).From Krabi I took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi which is a couple of islands where 'The Beach' was filmed. The surrounding islands are beautiful and the main inhabited island is nice, esp as there's no cars or motorbikes - just small walking lanes everywhere. There's just so much rubbish on the beaches though, it sux. So many Israelis! To the extent that I'd be walking with another guy who's blonde down a lane and a vendor would call "shalom!" out to us, perhaps the two least looking Israeli people in the world. Had some nice seafood, saw some cool fire shows, had a Thai massage and drank a lot of beer. We were talking with a lady from one of the guesthouse's who was telling us what it was like when the tsunami hit, pretty crazy that over 1,500 people died on that small island alone. She showed us some quite disturbing photos. There was still a lot of rebuilding going on and there's now tsunami escape routes signposted around the place. Took a boat trip round the islands on one of the days and hired a kayak on another. As well as a fair bit of snorkelling the boat trip consisted of a stop at Monkey bay where the monkeys jumped on the boat as soon as we landed, I got fright and some Israeli's laughed. It was funny watching one of the monkey's still scrounging around on a boat as it was departing. It was trying to weigh up what it should do as it got further and further from land... it finally decided to leap from the stern, arms flailing above its head, and swim back to shore. Cormac Flynn is a gaybo.
Well, I had to leave Sihanakavivouliville eventually to fly back to Thailand.I booked the bus to Phnom Penh for 9am the next morning... it turned out, however, that my last night was to be one of the biggest I'd have there. I met a Pommy guy, an Aussie girl and a German girl before heading down to the Frog-bar (which never closes) at the beach. We were escorted by the dog 'Monkey' from the guesthouse who slept beside us while we drank.Frog, Dog, Monkey... with me? I've been playing the crappest pool since leaving NZ, but after a few drinks I managed to step up my game to win the pool comp and $10 which subsidised most my night. Ended up having the most random conversation with this British guy that I beat, I think he had a similiar sense-of-humour to me which is how I came to laugh the spring-roll out my nose. Stayed at the bar with them and another girl from Melbourne before leaving at 7am... this gave me an hour to pack, half an hour to sleep and a few minutes to get to the bus.I was so drunk and sleepy and the guy beside me was so fat and smelly and it was so hot and my head hurt and the horn from the bus (which they constantly honk ) was so loud that I felt like getting out and walking. I eventually made it back to Phnom Penh where I had a final look-round and where the rain decided to piss down while I was in my tuk-tuk. My hangover subsided by the afternoon and I got back to Bangkok safe and sound that night.
This place was cool. Maybe I'll live here.
I had more time in Cambodia than was needed for Siam Reap and Phnom Penh so, on Meredith's recommendation, I decided to visit Sihanakoville on the coast.
I stayed at a place called the Monkey-Republic which is owned / run by some Poms that seem to be in it for the lifestyle. There were some really cool people there, got ridicously drunk each night and at one stage I laughed most of a spring-roll out my nose. When happy hour ended at our guest-house we'd go over the road to another happy hour, where a handle of beer was 25 cents... Both bars had a kitten that I would inevitabally end up playing with. We'd then go to a bar at the beach and occasionally end up in the water - sadly this saw the death of my second MP3 player. Lucky I have one more which I managed to fill with music from a place that loads music for tourists.
One of the days I went for a boat trip out to the islands... went snorkling and then headed out to a really nice beach where they cooked freshly caught fish for us.
The next morning I arranged for a driver to take me to some of the more recent relics of Cambodia's past.
The first stop was the Killing Fields, or as the government calls it the 'Genocidal Centre'. It was quite a haunting place, the first stop is a glass-walled building that stands in front of you. As you get closer you see it's filled from top to bottom with human skulls. I think the first level are the skulls of girls aged 10 to 20. There are remains of the victims clothes at the bottom, the fact that some of the clothes are branded drives home how recent this part of their history is.
Looking at the skulls you can see whether the victim was shot or bludgeoned to death... the Khmer Rouge wanted to save bullets so the guards occasionally had to kill with farm tools or rifle butts etc.
I noticed bits of bone and clothing still sticking out from the ground where I was walking.
What's crazy is that next door is a place that tourists can pay to shoot an assortment of guns and explosives.... what the guide book doesn't tell you is that they'll actually bring out a live cow for you to shoot with a rocket launcher! What kind of person would visit a place like the Killing Fields then go "Right, now I feel like blowing up a cow!".
Next stop was the S21 Detention centre where all the prisoners were taken and tortured before being taken off to the killing fields. Again this told some pretty shocking stories of Pol Pot's reign. I didn't know that among other ex-pat's at least one kiwi was tortured and killed there.
Another crazy thing is that these sights have been sold by the Cambodian Government to a Japanese company who are profiting from the entry fees!Later in the day I visited some other areas of the city including the Russian markets (not Russian whatsoever). When I came out I was looking for my driver who wasn't at his tuk-tuk. Turned out that he was having a couple of beers with his mates. He invited me to join him for a few... it was his shout so I was happy. Just a little worried as to how much he'd had before driving me back though.
So My Monk and Mr Boi dropped me off at Phnom Penh the next day. However, being on the back of the bike for the hour long journey meant the pasty skin on the under side of my arms got badly burnt. I also had red spots covering one of my hands (from god knows what), one of my legs was swelling up behind my knee, maybe a bite, and the humidity was getting to me.
I decided to break my $5 a night budget and check-in to the Renaksi, which at $30 is the most expensive hotel listed in the lonely planet. It was nice, the grounds were beautiful, the room was massive and breakfast was included.
I checked into my room at around 3pm and didn't leave 'til the next morning.
