General note: I have no one to blame but myself — I didn’t exactly keep a diary on the trip so I am writing this out of memory. There are more write-ups over in the photo area on flickr also.

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12/20 - Suwannabhum Airport and the Glory of Thailand

The new airport with somewhat confusing name to westerners has recently opened (in September of 2006) for business. It was not only a shocking surprise (in a very good way!) but also something I immediately felt proud of as a Thai person even though I have absolutely nothing to do with it. Airports are gateways to travelers’ first impression of the country and surely the new Thai airport exceeded expectation (5 stars all around). The arrival was quite smooth despite the glitch at the United Airlines counter in Tokyo (They couldn’t locate my record due to an upgrade on previously flown flight on AA).

Even though our arrival time was quite ungodly (1am) for the locals, my mom and brother made it all the way to greet me at the airport along with a driver who will take us to the hotel. She’s gotten quite old, seemingly older every time I see her (usually once every 2 years). My older brother, on the other hand, I haven’t seen in almost 5 years. He’s not only gotten skinnier and older, but also manage to lose a lot of hair. I had expected this as the gene runs in our family but to really see it was, well, a bit of a shocker. It was very nice of them to have come quite far for a mere meet-greet. Such is the ways of the Thais, especially with family and friends. Having been living in the US for so long I have somehow managed to forget the warmth of the Thai people. I have to say that it was most heartwarming.

A lot has changed since I last remembered. From the first minute you step foot in the country to the last you will see pictures of HM King everywhere. It is the way the people say thanks, celebrate his 60th year in reign, and express love and gratitude towards him (he is very old). If you ask any Thais why the big fuss, they will tell you that our King is one of the greatest man ever lived. I agree wholeheartedly. More about HM King.

Another sign of advancement is the road and the public transportation. Highways and motorways around the country are very well kept and well lit even in the remote regions. In Bangkok, the BTS (monorail) and the MRT/SRT are both of first world standards. As much as I don’t like Thaksin (prime minister prior to the coup), I have to say that his transportation related work (or work under his authority) has immediate impact to the well being of the country in a very positive way. If you have been to the old airport you will remember that it was quite depressing.

We stayed at the Montien Hotel while in Bangkok. It is very conveniently located right next to the Sala Daeng BTS station as well as the Sam Yan MRT station, making it easy to avoid the crazy Bangkok traffic to get to most places. We also saved a bundle not having to rely on cabs as well.

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12.21 Touring Bangkok

On the first day we did a group visit to all the usual suspect tourist destinations: Grand Palace, Sanam Luang, Wat Pho, Wat Arun, The Democracy Monument, etc. These are all within walking distance from each other so it was quite easy to navigate. We also took the cross-river boat to Wat Arun and had a 1 hour private long boat ride down Klong Bangkoknoi to check out the royal boat and some river-side views. With most of the tourist attraction places, foreigners pay a certain ticket price for entry while the Thais go in free. (You’ll hardly ever see Thais there tho — It’s like how most New Yorkers have never been to Statue of Liberty) Along the roadside there were lots of hagglers for tuk-tuks, cabs, boats, etc. To really get a deal out of a boat ride, the best bet is to go to the guy that has the boat — right at the pier. I feel like the price we paid (800 BHT for the boat, 1hr) was not bad at all. That evening we headed over to a river-side restaurant call “To-Sit”. Strange name, but wonderful eclectic selection of Thai flares. My brother and mother did many of the ordering and we were just eating away at whatever comes. Biased as I may sound, Thai food truly rocks.

In the next few days a bunch of people went on to see various other places - namely the Vimarnmek Teake Palace, Jim Thompson house/museum, and Rajdomneon Floating Market. An indispensible nifty little Nancy Chandler map played key role in navigating the city and exploring without the need to haul a guidebook. You can pick one up at any bookstore and most hotel gift shop. I love that she has detailed coverage of places like Siam Center and JJ Market with little pointers of restaurants and shops along the way.

I spent more of my time reacquainting myself to the place I once called home by mainly strolling around shopping areas. The first stop was MBK (BTS Siam Station) — mainly to get a working local phone. MBK has this cell phone mega mall thing on their 3rd or 4th floor where you can get anything under the sun that relates to electronics and cellphones. Of course this too is the bargaining central. It made me mostly uncomfortable and perpetually feeling like I’ve gotten ripped off. After a few hours at MBK the place can quickly become overwhelming. It was also a place we later dubbed as the “mall of no return” as the escalators to get out of the mall were simply impossible to find (going up was easy tho, you just can’t come back down). A second visit proved that they actually switch directions of the escalators around to keep you guessing daily.

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12.22 Old Friends, Old Home

Meeting up with great old friends had to be one of my best highlight of this trip. Most of my friends from college who were thai have all moved back to the motherland so I had quite a few posses to pay homage to. They’ve all made great things of themselves so it felt even more like my little network have expanded. While all of us have grown up and the ladies becoming younger looking and prettier than ever, many things remain the same. When going out with friends, it is within the culture to race to pay for everyone. The phenomenon is quite strange to Americans who typically think only of themselves, especially in a place surrounded by acquaintances. The Thais treated my friends as their friends and truly just went overboard when it came to hospitality. In so many ways it was great, but at the same time I was consistently worried that my American friends would just take advantage of the situation and see it as a free ride. It seems one more thing remain the same as well — as that is how I always feel like I have a chip on my shoulder whenever I’m in Bangkok. This place is too close to my past.

Linc and I didn’t do any more touristy things after the first day in Bangkok. We visited Pimmalai a traditional Thai spa in On Nut (BTS to On Nut) a couple of times. A friend of mine from school quit her project manager day job to open a spa. For 250 BHT per hour you can get a very very good thai massage there. We also visited EDDY, which is an edgy japanese hair salon in Ekkamai owned by the wonder-woman Ms. Kyoko, good friend of Tomoko our haircutter in New York. A strange coincident indeed that such connection exist. I had a hair cut there and for 700 BHT and it was undoubtly THE BEST ever! (sorry tomoko). The secret? 30 minutes of shampoo massage bliss.

We also visited “Somtum Nua”, a famous northeastern cuisine restaurant in Siam (Soi 5, couple of doors down from Ban Khun Mae, BTS - Siam). I have to say this was my first time there despite the reputation. There were always too long a line for as long as I could remember. My friend once told me that they make about 1Million BHT per day selling what’s considered the most basic of thai foods. I’m not surprise because once we had our turn, it was just simply that good. What would have been a normal tasty dinner later turned into a little story when James had an “accident” laughing at our classic Pierce Brosnan story (inside joke). Embarassing, yes. Memorable, indeed.

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12.23 Go South

At this juncture the group were to split up into their own itenerary — the parents to head out to Krabi, the trio guys to head out to Samui, and Linc/I to Trang via overnighter train. All to my own lack of sense of timing, we were off to a rather “rushed” start on our trip to the south. We ended up sprinting from Ekkamai to the hotel and then to the train station. Luckily, the MRT (subway) came just in time to get us there just about 2 minutes before departure. Running in Bangkok is something people don’t do — mostly because its too hot to do so even in winter. I agree.

The train itself is a humbling experience all to its own. It is a fantastic way to see the countryside and get to know how most non-Bangkokian Thais live and travel. It is also not for the faint of heart as Linc was to soon learn very quickly. The train ticket we got was a Class 2 sleeper (860 BHT per person). This also saved us a night at the hotel as well. The trick, as I was told, was that you should always buy the “bottom bed”. I was skeptical at first because somehow I felt the top bed might be just a tad safer. Each row has 2 seats facing each other on both sides of the train. The seats fold out into beds, one at the bottom and one at the top. You get a bit of privacy through a thick blue curtain that covers the length of the bed, except for the top bed, the curtain does not cover all the way so you get hallway noise and light to disturb you at all time. The bathroom was just something else all together. First, bathrooms are about 4×4 feet max. If you open the door you have to swing yourself around and over the toilet to get in and out because there was just no room. Second, the toilet is a squattie — not just any squattie, but the kind that is a hole. You can see down to the train tracks from the squattie. Forget doing #2, it’s so difficult to balance yourself to even aim right for #1 what with all the slippery floor and the shaking motion of the train. We brought a travel bottle of “purelle” and had to pretty much clean our feet and hands everytime we go near the bathroom. Despite all that, we did have a good night sleep and all of our gears were in tact ready for a new day.

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12.24-27 Trang

The vibe of the south is always a lively one. We were quickly greeted by the folks from InSiam who would be taking care of us in the next 7 days. Mr. Nong took us for a drive to go eat the famous Trang “roast pork and dimsum breakfast”. I have to say I was dissapointed. The roast pork was more like “roast pig” - Chinese style. For the chinese, there is a key difference between the two that I won’t go into details. The dimsum was cold and sketchy. However the Trang coffee (also their other famous food) was great. It is said that Trang people put a lot of emphasis on coffee because they have to get up at 2am daily to do the chores around their rubber plantation. By mid morning everyone drink coffee to stay awake for the rest of the day. Trang province, like much of the others in the south, is spotted with rubber and palm plantations.

Before leaving for the sea, Mr. Nong had an opportunity to name Linc “Blanket” simply because he could not pronounce “Lincoln” and the word “blanket” was the closest sounding word to it that he knows. Linc took quite a liking to the oddity and so from then on he would call himself “pa-hom”, which means “blanket” in thai.

The main pier for island hopping in Trang is called “Pak Meng”. The train actually drops you off right at the pier which makes connection to the islands very convenient. Mr. Tall came to greet us at the boat. He was to be our sea guide for the next few days. We were escorted to a mid sized boat with about 20 Thais in it. It became clear to me later that Linc would be the only non Thai on the Trang trip for quite some time. We were suppose to get a private long tail boat, but the wind condition was not favorable so we ended up touring with a bigger group on the first day instead. That turned out to be kind of fun in its own way.

Our first stop was the Emerald Cave. It is an under water cave on Koh Mook where you have to swim in through this dark tunnel. At the end is an enclosed small beach with densed forestry. From the beach it looks as though you are inside a mountain. The water surrounding the area is a beautiful translucent green. On the way in, we were told to form a snake line where one person would hold on to the shoulder of the guy in front. This line helped us from straying into darkness and also help people who can’t swim to be able to get in. For us, it was totally retarded as we were constantly choked and kicked by panicking aunties. Once we reached the beach, we were greeted with quite a surprise. The beach was nice and all but there were also about 300 Dutch tourists there. You couldn’t go a foot without hitting a Dutch.

The next couple of stops were all snorkeling points, none of which were notable or memorable in any ways. The water was much colder than usual so it wasn’t too pleasant of a dive. We had a chance to chat up with a few Thai families on the boat and ate some local food, which was quite nice. That evening we were dropped off at the Koh Hai Resort — a pleasant place on the island with little bungalows amidst lush tropical garden. The food here was good. The place was very relaxing. And the view was just simply stunning. All would have been great if we didn’t send in our laundry. Not only did they deliver it one day late, they also lost one of linc’s t-shirt, broke off a button on my shorts, and permanently marked everyone of our clothes in large font with the room number. When we inquired about the missing garment, they were SOOO STUPID about getting us the mere 100 BHT refund and almost got us to miss our only boat back to shore. I really wanted to kill someone thinking that we paid to have these idiots destroy our clothes. Note to self: when on remote island, bring extra detergent.

The following day we had a private speedboat jetting us to Koh Rok Nok and Koh Rok Nai. I had written a buttload on the time spent on this island but accidentally lost it so instead of trying to re-write again, I’ll just let the pictures speak for itself. We snorkeled 4 spots around the island — occasionally at quite deep spots. We saw many many fishies, most notably schools of clown fish and a ginormous lavender-colored blowfish (fugu). The hard corals were spectacular in their own rights. There were, however, very little soft corals. Mr. Tall explains that El Nino payed a visit to the Andaman shores a couple of years back and heated the water temperature up so high for so long that all the soft corals died away. You could see the remains sunk at the bottom. It was quite sad. We also swam across from one island to the other. Our guide freaked out for a while, but we made it and actually thought it was quite easy. The key was to avoid going against the strong currents (we swam in a V shape — the water currents go in wild directions over there). That was fun.

Our last day at Trang was spent back on land, although still beach-side. We checked in to this uber posh Amari Trang Beach Resort bright and early and spent the day dreaming away in their ridiculously nice spa and poolside. This was our do-nothing-day and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time.

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12.27-30 Krabi

Posh paradise ended swiftly like a quick sweet dream over a nap. Mr. Tall came in to pick us up bright and early the following day for our land journey up to Krabi. The van we were in could use some mosquito insecticide spray big time and the smell of left-over rubber burning in the rubber farms along the way could really just not exist. Other than that, the ride was quite all right. We had 2 quite remarkable stops along the way — first was the Crystal Pond and then the Hot Spring Falls.

The Crytal Pond is a naturally formed pool with the clearest blue-green fresh water you could imagine. The water is said to have a very high mineral content. The mineral would catch on to dust and dirt particles and force them to sink to the bottom - thus makes the water clean and clear naturally year round. Occasionally you can step on gas pockets under the pool that releases farty sulfurous smelling air bubbles. Neato. (The Dutch tourist groups appeared here too!)

The hot spring falls was also another crazy natural phenomenon. While the notion of swiming in heated water in Thailand sounds kinda weird, the experience itself was awesome. The fall wasn’t big, but it was so perfect — each level had a little pool surrounded by clean rocks, nice views, and no tourists (for a while anyway). The water temperature wasn’t too hot — just enough to feel really good. One hour of fun went by so quickly before we knew it we were already shipped to Railay Bay - where we were to meet up with the 3 guys from Samui.

Railay is an area accessible only via boat. It has the feel of being on an island without actually being on an island. Mr. Tall was right again when he told me that I would be outnumbered on Railay since there are so many foreigners here. It really was just like that. Our resort — Railay Bay Beach Resort and Spa sounded spanktastic, but when we got there we found out that most of the resort was actually under construction — including the bathroom in our unit. We were so awed-struck by the notion of “privacy cottage” that we really just didn’t mind the broken private outdoor jacuzzi, the dead fish that kept dying in our private fish pond, the flood all around our private garden, and the occasionally on-and-off electricity that blew up my iPal in our private cottage. At least the button to flush the toilet existed and worked.

Timespent at Railay was very relaxing. We went rock-climbing one day, sat around the pool and beach part of the day, and went out on a snorkeling/island tour one day to Phi-Phi, Maya, Monkey bay, and Koh Bamboo. On the tour day it rained heavily while we were still out at sea in the late afternoon. The sky was gray and the water looked prettier than ever on Koh Bamboo. But when we hopped back to the speedboat, boy that ride through the rainstorm was something else all together. No one spoke anything. There wasn’t a lot of visibility - just fog and water for as far as the eyes can see. I unfortunately sat at the worst possible spot with needle-like raindrops piercing away on my skin. It was the first time in my life that I remember being really, really cold in Thailand.

Railay by nights consisted of eating, drinking, sitting around, and chatting away with friends. People were friendly and the vibe / culture has this off-beat relaxed feel to it. Though I wasnt’ impressed with the beach itself, I must say this couldn’t be more perfect.

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12.31 New Years

We came back to Bangkok on the 30th, spent some time with my family in Chinatown, shopped around Siam, and relaxed as if we didnt’ just come from the most relaxing place ever. On NYE we headed out to get dinner around sunset when the news came on all over town that 8 bombs went off all at the same time all over Bangkok. Speculation poured that it might have been the work of the Muslim guerilla group from the south or may be it was Thaksin’s (the prime minister that got axed from the recent coup) minions trying to send a message. Interestingly enough most Thais believed it was the later while most foreigners speculated that it was the former. Hmm. Whatever the case, practically all public NYE celebration in big places shut down immediately. Most everyone went home. My mom called to ask if I could stay in to be safe. A lot of friends who were planning on meeting up at the NYE party spot didn’t make it out. Bummer.

Nevertheless we marched on. My friends from college were gathering at a club name Santika on Ekkamai road tonight. Julie had helped the club owner organized the party so we were flat out rocking with the V.I.P. all night - open bar, private fireworks, performances from legendary boy band, the whole nine. I couldn’t think of a better new years party in my life. Happy new year indeed.

Of course with a great high - there must always be a great low. The first days of 2007 were marked with remnance of a happy past. I went first with a good dose of hang-over. Then Linc’s parents had their fair share of tummy problems even though they didn’t go wild like we did. Linc took the big blow with a 5-day tummy pain marathon that spanned all the way back home. I guess after eating all the things they did, it was just bound to happen. All for good causes. All for great times.

Till next trip ‘