Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know what the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world
In a show with everything but Yul Brynner.....
Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand! Just hearing the name Bangkok brings back memories of the 1980s smash hit "One Night in Bangkok" by Murray Head (and surprisingly we haven't heard from him since then). We've been doing a lot of traveling over the past few weeks and will finally be spending the next week and a half in one place - Northern Thailand - before moving on to Vietnam. A fellow backpacker from the UK probably put it best, jokingly telling us that we were "typical Americans - trying to take the world by storm in nine months!". Guess we can't argue with that!
When we last left off we were heading to the island of Gili Trawangan off the western coast of Lombok in Indonesia. We had heard from many other travelers that Gili "T", as it is commonly referred to, has one of the better party scenes in Indonesia. By the third day on the island we were still waiting for the party to begin. The island did provide several days of relaxation. We stayed in a little bungalow near the beach and travelled around the island by horse and carriage as there were no motorized vehicles on the small island. We were finally rewarded with a good party at one of the local bars the final night on Gili T and stayed out until the wee hours of the morning partying with the locals and other travelers.
The next day we hired a small motorboat to take us back to Lombok and spent the next couple of days relaxing at a beachside resort in the town of Senggigi. We then decided to head back to Bali and spent our last few days in Indonesia in the town of Kuta ralaxing on the beach, surfing and experiencing some of the crazy Kuta nightlife. Traveling around over the past six months and experiencing various forms of nightlife from around the world we thought that we had seen it all, but the Kuta bars brought a whole new meaning to the word "party"....people flying off the top of the bar into the crowd, people exposing themselves on the dance floor (beans, franks and melons!!).... And about 95% of this craziness can be attributed to the Swedish group of travelers, in particular the Swedish women - quite a crazy bunch. Little did we know that we hadn't seen anything yet and were in for a real treat at the full moon party...but more on that in a minute!
Our next stop after Indonesia was the country of Singapore. For all of you who thought that Singapore was a city in Malaysia, it is actually its own country at the southernmost tip of Malaysia. One should note that Singapore was a part of Malaysia for a brief two year period in the 1960s....but we'll keep the history lesson for another day. We had all heard about many of the crazy Singaporean laws but didn't totally believe them until we had the chance to walk around the city. There was definitely no one chewing gum or smoking and not a dog could be found anywhere in the city (it is illegal to chew gum, to smoke, and to own a dog in Singapore). Luckily for us, we made it out of the country without violating any of the other crazy laws: no spitting in public, death for drug possession, jail time for public drunkeness....we should say that we didn't get caught for this last one. These laws have made Singapore one of the cleaner countries we have been to so far on this journey.......(Cairo, Egypt was a close second...not)
Our 48 hour stopover in Singapore was long enough to take in all of the sites. It was time to move on to Malaysia. After a pleasant 6 hour train ride, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, the country's largest city. Walking the streets in KL, we were surprised to find a plethora of reputable western merchandise selling on the streets at very cheap prices. Bill picked up a pair of Seiko Kinetic watches for a whopping US$10. We found several other software, DVD, and CD bargans as well.....the gifts are coming! KL is well known for having the world's tallest building, the Petronas Towers. After our shopping spree, we headed to the observation deck on the Towers to catch a glimpse of the city from above. We ended the day at our favorite Chinese restaurant before catching a night train to Penang, an island just off the western coast of nothern Malaysia.
Length of bed in Malaysian night train = 6'3"
Length of Rob with feet relaxed = 6'8"
Night train bed + Rob = No Sleep
Night train bed + Rob + RonBicardi&Coke = Sleep
Luckily we were prepared for our 8 hour train ride to Penang. We all thank Ron for joining us on this short leg of our journey. Penang is described in the lonely planet book: "with easy going kampung (villages), sandy beaches, warm water, good food, and plenty of things to see, who wouldn't like Penang?" Penang is described by the RTW crew: "with its nasty beaches, dirty water, lack-of food, and not much to see, who would like Penang." Enough said. Although we hardly gave the place a chance, it was on to Thailand..
Our first stopover in Thailand was a small town called Hat Yai, near the Malaysian border. Rather than wait for the 11:30AM train the next day to the port near Ko Pha-ngan, we decided to go by mini-bus earlier in the morning in order to get a jump on the crowds heading there for the full-moon party. Our mini-bus was not exactly spacious or pleasant. Imagine 11 people crammed in a Toyota minivan with Mario Andretti at the helm chugging Red Bull. We endured the uncomfortable, nerve-racking experience for 4 hours and arrived at the port tired, but unscathed. We would later find out that the train station in Hat Yai was bombed that morning killing one person and injuring thirty others.......somebody is watching out for us.
The island of Ko Pha-ngan turned out to be a pleasant surprise for the crew. Several travelers had been warning us of the overcommercialism of the full-moon party event, but we found it quite impressive and the island more beautiful than expected. For those of you who haven't visited our link to the full-moon party page, we will offer a brief description. Every month on the night of the full-moon, backpackers from around the world congregate on Haad Rin Beach and party through the night. The event has grown over the years and recent crowds have been reported at over 10,000. The sheer number of people coupled with the energy of the crowd, and the fact that no-one knows anybody else created a really open social atmosphere.......the $0.50 beers helped also. They helped some more than others as we noticed streaking and other interesting "relations" occuring in the not-so-dark moon-lit bay later in the evening. One of our favorite places was a really mellow bar on the hill overlooking the bay called "The Bar" which allowed us to view the party from a completely differenct perspective. We all rank this party as the biggest that we've ever attended and the one of the best on this trip.....so far. We spent the rest of our days on the island reading, relaxing, and crashing our motorbikes.
And now we are here in Bangkok. Confusion, craziness, people, more people, lack of communication, intense heat, humidity, and water........these words sum up our Bangkok visit so far. Let us explain the last one.....water. We would like to say that we mapped out our itnierary so that we would be in Bangkok for the Thai New Year festivities, but it was actually by sheer luck that we ended up here during one of the biggest celebrations of the year. For some reason unknown to us, the Thai people like to get wet during the 10 days leading up to the New Year. People pack the streets with super-soaker water guns, buckets, hoses...virtually anything that will get someone wet. They also have the strange custom of mixing Thai powder with the water and rubbing it on people's faces. For the last 3 days, we literally have not been able to walk the 50 feet from our hotel to the internet-cafe/gas-station next door without getting soaked or "greased", the term we've coined referring to the "powder slime in face practice." The first day it was great fun. The second day it was cool. Today, we're glad that it's the last day of the ceremony. We plan to do a few day trips out of Bangkok during the next week while we simultaneously work out our visas for Vietnam, China and India.
Over and Out-
Roger, Roger
