Thailand 2001

Tuesday, 2001-10-16

12.25 Just a few minutes until the Boeing 747-400 "Melbourne" of KLM will be landing on Bangkok International Airport. After an eleven hours flight, good catering, but a nightmarish narrowness regarding our seats I try to accustom myself to the adventure of the Tropes. Would it be still heavily raining or have we met the right time? From Hamburg we started the previous day to Amsterdam, where we changed planes and flew over Germany, Czechia, Hungaria, Bulgaria and the Black Sea. Further over Turkey, Iran, Kuwait and the Indic Ocean, India, the Andaman Sea until we finally reached the Thai coast.

14.30 After landing we take the airport bus to our hotel: The Monarch Lee Gardens (nowadays Sofitel). Our room is on the 20th floor and provides a fantastic view over Bangkok - skyscrapers and concrete wherever one looks. We have a short rest, which Barbara ends when she calls us on the phone. We agree to meet her and Julia in Nonthaburi. After this we walk out of the air-conditioned rooms of the hotel - into the heat. Taxis and Tuk-Tuks can not yet convince us to engage their services, because we want to see things on our own and on our feet. The first sight to visit is the Hindu temple Sri Mariamman, where the annual Navarathi festival is just about to start.

On roads with heavy traffic we walk further westwards passing Assumption Cathedral and College until we reach Oriental Pier. Here is the landing for the express boat that we are going to choose as the best means of transportation in Bangkok at all. But however - it takes us 80 minutes to get north on the Chao Phraya River to Nonthaburi. We are happy to meet Barbara and Julia at last and sweat like hell in the muggy tropic air. The sweating becomes even worse when the fish we have ordered (no - Barbara has) arrives at our table. The waitress tells us with a smile on her face, that the cook managed to prepare it not that hot. But for Katharina's and my taste it is! The sun sets early and fast, and it is already dark when we take the bus through the suburbs of Bangkok. The last kilometers we travel on the "Sky Train", whose track is stilted above the streets and buildings like the expressways.

Wednesday, 2001-10-17

After an ample breakfast in the hotel we walk to Oriental Pier again. The express boat takes us to Tha Chang, where we leave it and head on to The Grand Palace. We visit the convent Wat Phra Kaeo with his beautiful architecture and design and several buildings of the King's Palace. After running around that much we are hungry and tired. It is easy to find something to eat, but not that easy to find something we trust at the moment. It takes some time until we have learned what can be eaten and what might not be advisable. I have rice and poultry which we take onto an oval green territory called Sanam Luang.

Katharina is carefully studying our guide book during the lunch break and we decide to visit the shrine Lak Muang. But a native man stops us and recommends to rather visit two other temples. After he has convinced us of the beauty we might miss out on, he bargains with a Tuk-Tuk driver who is obliged to carry us around for only 30 Baht (only 1,50 DEM). First we visit Wat Bovonives, a small temple with a separate building as a shelter for more than one hundred statues of Buddha.

After we have returned to our Tuk-Tuk, the driver requests to get us to an "Export Center", nothing more than a tourist's trap to leave money for carpets, jewelry or suits. Since we resist on going into the building we agree to a sort of compromise: We are now driven to a tailor, who has really nice suits to sell. As a barter deal the driver gets the gas vouchers he is keen on. But even if we get special prices and everything can be shipped to Germany at no cost, I kindly decline the tailor's offers. And so we leave the shop. The driver is now perfectly relaxed again and ready to drive us to the Standing Buddha. This statue is about 30 meters high - or 45 (?) - this depends on the source of information.

As a goody our driver takes us to Wat Benchamabophit (the marble temple) just when the sun sets. An amazing beauty of a building! Lizards are running across the walls and warm themselves in the lights of the park lamps. As it gets more and more dark we rejoin the driver and a few minutes later he drops us off at the pier where we manage to get the last boat home. Our plans to find something to eat there are torpedoed by the first heavy tropic rainfall we experience. Before we can understand what is happening we sit in a taxi to the hotel without any arguing about the price. The driver smirks as we leave his car - wet, hungry but somehow home.

Thursday, 2001-10-18

Again the express boat is our choice to get into the center of Bangkok. The landing is situated directly at Wat Pho, another famous temple. We encounter a man telling us that Wat Pho is closed in the mornings due to maintenances and who suggests that we might visit the Golden Mount. As we arrive there (the driver is talked to a "special price" by the passer-by), it is drizzling and the view from the Golden Mount (a stone hill with a Stupa on top, which is covered with beaten gold) is not that spectacular.

At the foot of the mount there is another beautiful temple (Wat Saket), where we are almost alone. Only one other tourist is walking around and we talk to him recognizing that he is German, too. Since we are strong-willed not to give into the Tuk-Tuk driver's request for visiting an "Export Center" again we talk with the German guy if he has got some experiences with that. He turns out to be a regular visitor of Thailand in general and Bangkok in special and is furthermore convinced, that one can make a real bargain in those centers - as long as they are Government controlled. And - as if someone would have arranged it - the Export Center around the corner is just that - controlled by the Thai Government. So we agree and are driven to the Export Center, where we are not really interested in all the jewelry and things. In the end we leave the shop with the least expensive necklace and a little elephant as hanger. Not sure to which of our relatives we should give it as a present, Katharina will keep it as a memory. Apart from this allocation problem all people involved are very happy: The Tuk-Tuk driver gets his gasoline voucher, the Export center has the revenue (and hopefully not hat much profit), we have the necklace as a souvenir - a perfect win-win situation.

Then we are taken to the next great attraction: Wat Traimit with the Golden Buddha. The solid golden Buddha (6 tons, worth 25 million DEM) had been found 1955 by mere chance when a stone Buddha statue fell over during restoration works. In front of the temple an old Banyan tree and an altar for Brahma are situated. The tree is decorated with hundreds and hundreds of colored ties. A beautiful picture.

Back through heavy (stinking) traffic we reach the open gates of Wat Pho, but not without being approached by a "teacher, not a guide" again. This time we kindly decline the offer of that man whose sister lives in Hamburg and who knows Beckenbauer so good like he had been his class mate.

The main attraction of Wat Pho is the Reclining Buddha. The impressive gold plated reclining Buddha is 46 meters long and 15 meters high, and is designed to illustrate the passing of the Buddha into nirvana. The feet and the eyes are engraved with mother-of-pearl decoration, and the feet also show the 108 auspicious characteristics of the true Buddha.

The large grounds of Wat Pho contain more than 1000 Buddha images, most from the ruins of the former capitals Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. There are a lot of chedis, four of them constructed to honor the first three Chakri kings (two for King Rama III). There are also a massive 91 others Chedis of varying sizes around the grounds, along with chapels and rock gardens.

We leave Wat Pho and take a walk down to Chao Phraya river, where we hope to find an municipal boat for a trip through the "Klongs", the Bangkok canals. But the information is always "tomollow" or "only private boats". That's why we use the express boat back to Tha Pien and find an Internet Café to write some news to our family and friends. Back at the river we sit down in a restaurant with a terrace on the first floor, that offers a beautiful view on and across the river, where Wat Arun is colorfully illuminated. The restaurant even has an English menu, which helps us a lot. As we try to leave the place, the ground level is already under water - more than half a meter of the Chao Phraya drives us into using plastic chairs to leave the restaurant at all. This might also explain why using the bathroom isn't advisable anymore. The ferry to to Wat Arun leaves just there - so we use it to get across. In Wat Arun there are some feistivities which keep us from entering. But nevertheless we try to find a possibility or side entrance...

Back in the Hotel (Taxi drive) we enjoy our "Welcome drink" in the bar on 37th floor we haven't had so far.

Friday, 2001-10-19

Although the alarm clock was scheduled on 6 o'clock, I wake up at ten minutes past eight. Damn! Since it will take a whole day to get to Kho Chang, we can't reach the island today. 

At 9.30 we arrive at the bus station Ek-ka Mai and find it very difficult to get a ticket. Lots of counters and Thai letters everywhere. Finally we hold two tickets for a bus leaving at eleven o'clock to Trat. It is too late, when we recognize that are buses to Trat from other companies leaving even earlier... So it's already half past four in the afternoon when we reach Trat - exactly the time when the last boat to Kho Chang is about to leave a few kilometers away. A pickup driver offering a lift is convinced that the last boat goes at five o'clock - and that he is going to make it there anyway. We don't take the time to think about and get into his car. While he is speeding with what might be 100 kilometers per hour, another of the heavy tropic rainfalls is coming down, bespattering us in the open car. We arrive only shortly after five - but no boat can be seen. In the office we are told to pay 160 Baht anyway and to enter another pickup. 300 meters later we are asked to get out of the car and - happy us - the boat arrives.

While dusk falls, we can see the silhouette of the elephant island with pickups waiting for us at the shore. We manage to get onto one that is heading to White Sand Beach and the Moonlight resort where we are happy to meet Barbara and Julia again.

Yummy dinner and a walk on the beach, a "fire show" and live music at Oodie's - that's how the day ends.

Saturday, 2001-10-20

A whole day - and only for relaxing. Get up at 10, lying on the beach until the sun sets. In the evening we have dinner at "Tautawan", Dju takes as to with his Pickup to a bar that is worth remembering. All the walls are patterned with finger colors...

Sunday, 2001-10-21

While Barbara and Gandschanah have to leave and return to Bangkok, Julia, Katharina and me rent three mopeds exploring the island on our own. We visit the Klong Plu waterfall in Klong Plu National Park. Unfortunately I slip while I wade through the shallow water beneath the falls. I am able to catch my camera, that is dangling around my neck but nevertheless I cannot avoid pushing it hard on the rocky ground. Looking through the ocular I see -  nothing. Everything is just black. I recognize that the clamp of the mirror must be damaged. That's it for mirror reflex photography...

Back on the mopeds we drive on lonely streets and through palm groves. After noon we stop at a small beach, where we swim and play beach volleyball. Katharina is very tired and sleeps on the beach. On our way back she manages to fall from the moped when trying to cut a corner. At the coconut beach we have to stop by and enjoy the view and the hammock.

The sun perfectly sets when we return to Moonlight resort.

Monday, 2001-10-22

Another day on Kho Chang. But this time the alarm clock rings at 6 o'clock and we take the first pickup to the National Park again. We have booked a day trip with two guides. Unfortunately they don't speak English at all, but we manage to understand each other. Again we have to walk to Klong Plu waterfall first. But this time we leave it on our left hand side, climbing more and more up until we reach the plateau where the river starts its descent. Although it is early in the morning, the sun is burning down on us. So we appreciate walking in the river bed with our shoes on. It doesn't take long until the river gets so deep that it reaches our hips, and a few minutes we find ourselves swimming in the river, trying to get from one rock to the other. One of our guides always stays with us, while the other one is carrying our baggage.

On a big rock the guides encourage us to go swimming. At this place there is another waterfall roaring. At its feet we try to swim against the current. But the water's too powerful. We are pushed back by the cataract to the rock on the opposite side of the basin. Katharina is very exhausted. She doesn't really know whether to enjoy the swim or to save her powers for the rest of the tour. The problem is that we are not able to ask our guides about the length or the difficulty of the remaining part. We have to trust them (and ourselves).

A few hundred meters after we have climbed the waterfall we just have swum in, we leave the river and walk up a steeper path - through the deep jungle. From time to time the elder guard uses his machete to cut the bamboo and other obstacles in our way. Finally we reach the highest hill on the northern part of Kho Chang, which has no name (at least not a name I remember), but is 468 meters high.

We do not stop there, it seems that our guides are in a hurry. Meanwhile I have left any feeling for time. Maybe we have walked three hours, maybe five. These are the moments when you think of how addicted you are to people who you have never met before, who don't speak either your language nor the English one. The choice is follow or get lost in the jungle on this island.

Finally we reach a gravel road, leading us to an elephant camp. This would have been an interesting thing to visit, but at this time we are just exhausted and willing to get into our chalets again. So we say good bye to our guides and get on the next pickup back to moonlight resort spending the evening on the see-saw. Drinking a melancholic coconut cocktail at the Tautawan is the last event on Kho Chang.

Tuesday, 2001-10-23

In the morning it seems that everyone has so much time. Unfortunately we don't think the same way since we have to catch our ferry to the mainland. As the pickups are all packed with people when arriving at our site, missing the 10 o'clock boat is the logical consequence. The songthaew we finally take arrives at 10.15 at the wharf, but we are not allowed to enter the car-ferry but pointed to another little boat departing at 11 o'clock. Anyway - the boat takes us directly to Laem Ngop, and the songthaew to Trat is cheaper then the one we had in the other direction. We arrive in Trat at 12.30 trying to find a bus to Chantaburi. As air-conditioned buses are rarely seen, we take a non-ac one. The moment we take a turn from the main road to Chantaburi a heavy shower is coming down. Just then the bus driver stops and somehow we are able to get the message: On the other side of the road the bus to Korat has stopped, too - and we take the chance to change buses. It seems that this must have been our last chance to get to Nakhon Ratchasima, as Korat is called when one has plenty of time to do so.

After another six hours on the bus and two violent and ear-deafening movies on the TV we reach Korat in the evening. Getting off at the bus station we have some problems to find a Tuk-Tuk (!) Almost no-one speaks English, we have to help ourselves with hands and feet. Finally the local bus takes us into the city, from where we find the way to the hotel on our feet. After occupying our room (very simple and very cheap) we walk half an hour around the blocks, stopping only for a few emails in the internet-café.

Wednesday, 2001-10-24

Since there is no chance to get breakfast at our hotel, we go out to find something that doesn't has rice as a basis. This is not easy, and we end up in the "Royal Home Bakery", eating several pieces of cake and baguettes. We fail to take the local bus to the bus station again, so we walk there instead. The 1305 bus (non-ac) takes us to Phimai.

Phimai has been declared as an "historical park" due to the ancient Khmer ruins that are situated there. It is located on a high plain surrounded by three large canals. Most of the buildings are built of brick and sandstone, or a combination of the both materials. No one knows who actually built Phimai, or why it was built at the particular site it occupies. However it can be found that it was built in the 12th century and some years before Angkor Wat. As we hear the architectural style closely resembles Angkorean buildings.

We take our time and enjoy the shadows of the ruins. Between the sandstone walls we often find ants walking on the ground like cars on a highway. Large insects and pieces of the carob's fruits are carried away as if they were as light as a feather.

After our visit to the historical park we stroll around the local food market deciding pro a corn cob before we leave the little town returning to Korat in the evening. Dinner at "Texas Korat" - rather expensive and not that nice.

Thursday, 2001-10-25

The night wasn't easy - mosquitoes all around us that came through a hole in the mosquito screen. This time we make it using the local bus to the bus terminal after asking the tourist police for help. Then everything is happening very fast: The moment that we arrive at the terminal we are asked by several people where we want to get to and pushed into another bus. Wondering why it is air-conditioned and why the fare is that high we ask for the final destination. Unfortunately this has nothing to do with Prasat Phanom Rung where we want to go to on this beautiful day. At least this must be the reason why we are pushed off the bus a few moments later. Lucky us - it is only a walking distance back to the bus station we just left.

After half an hour of waiting and a two hour's drive we reach Ban Tako, where moto-taxis (450 B to Phanom Rung) offer their services. On our way I lose my Norwegian cap, that I bought three years ago (as a substitution for another cap I lost on our journey through Norway and Sweden by bike). The driver doesn't care and I don't know how I should make it clear to him. I don't know which Thai water buffalo breeder is now carrying around my Norwegian cap, but I hope he's lucky with it at last.

The Phanom Rung Sanctuary is one of the most beautiful and important Khmer historic sites in Thailand. It is dedicated to the God Shiva, the supreme Hindu deity and it symbolizes Mount Kailasa, the heavenly abode of Shiva. Phanom Rung was built during the 12th century and is set on top of Phanom Rung Hill, which can be seen from very far away since it is a very ancient, extinct volcano - with no other hills around. Due to this outstanding position it can be easily understood why the ancient Khmer chose this elevation as a basis for themselves. The sanctuary itself is not as big as Phimai, but greener and more friendly.

After two hours and a futile discussion with our bike-taxi drivers to take us also to Prasat Muang Tam, we are taken aback to Ban Tako while the bus to Korat is almost already waiting for us to leave. So we return early to Korat and our hostel. Katharina takes a nap while I go out shopping. (A backpack for 20 Baht is quite a bargain!) After the lights fall we visit the Korat night market in the Manat road.

Friday, 2001-10-26

Half past seven in the morning we get up, leaving at eight from the bus terminal. This time we are extremely precautious to get on the right bus. The video shown today is "Mission to Mars", quite tolerable. Today's destination is named Phitsanulok or - shorter - Pi-loh. Phitsanulok has been a major community since the time of the Khmers and enjoyed great prosperity during the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods.

Thanks to our travel guide book we find a neat guesthouse ("Lithai") with comfortable rooms. We book for two nights before we start to look for a laundry. In a back yard we find the "Buddha Casting Factory", where one can learn from the exhibition, how all the Buddha statues are made. There is a special type of Buddha images called "Sukothai Buddha" which is produced mainly in this little factory.

Afterwards it isn't easy to find something to eat. At least Katharina's happy with her corn cob. In the evening we have a romantic dinner on one of the many houseboats on the river Nan. On our way back to the guesthouse we stroll over the night market.

Saturday, 2001-10-27

Next morning we are up early to get the bus to Sukothai. This might be the cradle of Thailand and has been its capitol in ancient times. We are lucky because Loy Krathong, probably the most picturesque and beautiful of all Thai festivals, starts early this year. On the full moon night of the twelfth lunar month (usually in November), the tide in the rivers is highest and the moon at its brightest, creating a romantic setting. The Thai people choose this day to hold the 'Loy Krathong' festival, meaning the 'festival of light.'

'Loy' means 'to float,' while 'krathong' refers to the lotus-shaped receptacle which can float on the water. A krathong contains food, betel nuts, flowers, joss sticks, candle and coins. 

Sukothai is the origin of the festival and celebrates this every year with a spectacular light-and-sound show held in the Sukothai historical park. We see preparations all over the site - people wearing ancient clothes and rehearsing scenes for tonight's show. In the afternoon, when we almost have to leave in order to get the last bus back to Pi-loh, a beautifully colored crowd is gathering at the main entrance of the park.

Several beauty queens are carried on sedans, everyone carrying an umbrella for protection against the hot October sun. It seems if there are thousands and thousands of people taking part in this procession. Since most of the tourists are still inside the park or have already left at all, we are able to enjoy the preparations undisturbed.

Sunday, 2001-10-28

Monday, 2001-10-29

Bus to Autthaya and fever

Tuesday, 2001-10-30

Ill in Ayutthaya

Wednesday, 2001-10-31

Train ride to Bangkok

Thursday, 2001-11-01

Kao San Road and departure