thailand
Will Faught
April 2012
February 2012
Awoke still sick with a bad back. Ate a cheap lunch at a local restaurant. Rode the bus to Chiang Khong at the Thailand–Laos border. Shared a tuk tuk with a guy to the Mekong river shore and exited Thailand. Bought passage across the river and landed on the Laos shore. Paid the fee and entered the town of Huay Xai in Laos. Walked up the hill and looked at a few places and chose to stay at a nice hotel with wifi and air con.
chiang rai huay xai laos thailand travel
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Woke up still feeling sick, and also felt like I had thrown my back out (the “mattresses” were really stiff). Showered, ate lunch, stayed in all day watching BSG, bought a bus ticket to Chiang Khong at the Thailand–Laos border, went out again for dinner, then returned to the hostel.
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Still sick and miserable. Slept in, showered, ate lunch, returned to my hostel and stayed inside all day, lying on my back watching Battlestar Galactica with my head angled up to reduce the running of my nose. Ate an expensive dinner at a pizza place nearby to try to cheer myself up.
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Awoke feeling sick again. Returned the scooter I had rented the day before. Checked out and rode a taxi truck to the Arcade bus terminal. Rode the bus to Chiang Rai for a few hours and listened to podcasts. Arrived and wandered around for ten minutes looking for my hostel. Checked in, ate lunch, then returned to my hostel and stayed inside on my bed the rest of the day feeling too sick to do anything.
chiang mai chiang rai thailand travel
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Rented a scooter and rode it to Doi Suthep. On my way back, I came across a scooter accident that had just happened. The driver was a man from Nebraska named Paul. He was in really bad shape. All the skin on his right knee cap had been scraped off and he was bleeding heavily from his right arm. He took an antibacterial wipe and a clotting pad from my first aid kit and some toilet paper I had to soak up the blood from his arm.
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Went to the Elephant Nature Park and fed and washed elephants all day. I didn’t realize the way elephants are trained to be ridden and do tricks is so brutal and inhumane. Returned to the hostel and planned my next few days. Craved McDonalds, so I ate dinner there. Watched some Battlestar Galactica.
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Rented a bicycle and headed for the interior of the old quarter. Stopped to east some street food for lunch. Saw several temples. Rode to a neighborhood outside the old quarter that supposedly was a nice place to shop, but was sorely disappointed. Returned to the hostel for a couple hours. Ate dinner nearby. Rode my bicycle to the night market a few blocks away and browsed the stalls there for an hour or so.
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Ate an American breakfast at a restaurant across the street. Rode the minibus to the Ko Phuket airport and arrived at 1:30 PM. Ate lunch at Burger King and then had four or so hours to kill. Drank some beers in a bar to use their free wifi. Flew to Chiang Mai at about 7:30 PM and arrived at about 9:30 PM. Rode a taxi to my hostel, A Little Bird Guesthouse, in the old quarter of the city.
chiang mai ko phuket krabi thailand travel
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Bought some lunch to go and put it in my day pack. Rode a long tail boat from Krabi to Railay East. Climbed to the vista point overlooking the Railay area. Ate my lunch while admiring the view. Tried to hike to a nearby lagoon, but it was too muddy. Walked to Railay West and went for a quick dip in the ocean and then laid on the sand and read for an hour or so.
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Rode the ferry in the morning to Krabi. Met a girl my age from England named Louisa who had been teaching English in South Korea. We were both going to the same hostel. Checked in. Planned what to do the next day. Walked to see a nearby temple. Walked from the temple to a nearby night street market for a delicious dinner of street food. Returned to the hostel for some quality computer time.
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Got up early and had the showers to myself. Walked to the travel agency where I’d booked the boat tour and bought some bananas on the way. Was led to the boat tour company office, then to the pier, then to the boat itself and boarded. The tour wasn’t organized as well as the Angthong Marine Park one, so we didn’t really know where the next stop was, or how they would signal us that the boat was leaving when everyone was snorkeling.
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Rode a minibus to a nearby pier and boarded a ferry bound for Ko Phi Phi. Was a little worried about my pack — as I usually am — after I stowed it on the deck like everyone else, but it was soon buried under a bunch of packs. Safety in numbers. Got off the boat without trouble a couple hours later. Wandered the streets of Tonsai Village for over an hour in the burning sun, sweat running down to my chin and in my eyes, looking for a dorm bed somewhere.
ko phi phi ko phuket thailand travel
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January 2012
Decided to stay in Ko Phuket one more day to see a beach or two and get a feel for the place. Got up at 9 AM, ate toast for breakfast, got ready, and was out the door by 11 AM. Walked twenty minutes to the bus spot in Phuket Town and rode a bus to Hat Kata. Got off and followed a woman to the beach. Beheld the beach, took some snaps, then walked along the surf for a little ways.
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Woke up and felt much better. Went on a boat and kayak tour of the Phang Nga islands to the north of Ko Phuket. A minibus picked me up around 8 AM and took me to Ao Por Pier in the northern part of the island. The boat was large and had two stories. There were about forty to fifty customers on board. Visited the famous island that was in the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun.
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Woke up still sick. Went downstairs for a breakfast of cereal and toast. Took a while getting ready. Called Tess. Wanted to talk to the hostel staff about getting a map of Ko Phuket, where to get lunch, and where to rent a scooter, but I couldn’t find anyone. It was already past 1 PM, so I left on my own. Found a small place for lunch and had pork fried rice.
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Woke up still sick. Decided to skip the dive class so I wouldn’t miss the west coast. Packed my gear and bought a ticket for Phuket. Quickly reserved a bed at a hostel before I left the hostel. Walked to the ferry pier and bought some snacks at the 7-11 along the way. Arrived at the boat just in time, sweat pouring down my face. Fortunately, the boat had air con.
ko samui phuket surat thani thailand travel
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Woke up still sick. Had planned to take a dive class on the nearby island Ko Tao, but didn’t want to do it while sick. Decided to wait here an extra day to see if I felt better the next day. Took a while getting ready. Ate a delicious lunch again at the small restaurant nearby. Chose a spicy and delicious green curry to open my sinuses. Returned my beloved scooter.
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Woke up sick with a cold. No sore throat, but my nose was really runny. Took a long time getting ready. Rented a scooter from a nearby shop and rode to the 7-11 to buy lots of water and orange juice. Ate lunch at the same small restaurant nearby. Rode to a pharmacy to buy some medicine to alleviate my symptoms and bought a nose spray. Feeling more composed, I set out to see Ko Ma at the northwest corner of the island and some other beaches on the west coast.
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Rode a minibus early in the morning to the Big Buddha pier on the north side of Ko Samui. Rode a ferry to the island Ko Phangan for about forty-five minutes. Rode a songthaew taxi truck for 100 baht to Baan Tai beach. There was some confusion about where to find my hostel, and I walked around in the searing heat for twenty minutes before slogging into the place to check in.
ko phangan ko samui thailand travel
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Woke up at 7 AM. Got ready for the Angthong Marine Park island tour. The bus was late picking me up, but I got to the dock in time to eat the tiny breakfast and hot chocolate they served me. We started a little late, but they made up for it later. About forty people plus five or so staff. Lots of cold Cokes to go around throughout the day to slake our thirst.
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Beach day! Slept in until 9:30 AM. Showered and got ready. The hostel bathrooms were disgusting, so it took me about an hour to finish. Called Tess. Got lunch. Headed to the beach with a used copy of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson that I had picked up the night before. Swam in the surf and baked in the sand and read about buried treasure all afternoon until the light fell and it felt time to leave.
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Arrived at the bus station in Surat Thani feeling greasy and exhausted. Found my pack and turned around to approach the ticket office, then, feeling somewhat dazed, tottered into the waiting area. Found a seat and set my packs down. Saw the Vietnamese English guy board another bus soon afterward, and was sorry I hadn’t said goodbye to him. Wish I could remember his name. Another bus took me to the ferry pier on the coast, and I dozed on the way.
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Spent the whole day killing time at my hostel, waiting for my sleeper bus to depart from the train station at 7 PM for Ko Samui. Chatted in the common room with a Canadian who had been in Thailand for three months. He recommended seeing Ko Chang, a small island to the east, and skipping Pattaya, in his words a place where old white men go to get native girls. Got some insight from his stories into the way Thai family members support each other, and why so little money is saved per paycheck.
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Rode the BTS and MRT to Hua Lamphong station to arrange transportation to Ko Samui. Bought a sleeper bus ticket to Surat Thani that would depart at 7 PM on Sunday and a ferry ticket from Surat Thani to Ko Samui. The bus company would get me from the bus station to the ferry pier. Then I rode the MRT and BTS to Mo Chit station and explored the JJ weekend market for several hours.
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Rode a minibus to Ayuthaya and rented a bicycle to see the ruins. Returned to Bangkok by minibus and then rode a taxi and the BTS to the Patpong night market to buy a couple t-shirts. Returned to my hostel to plan my trip to Ko Samui.
ayuthaya bangkok thailand travel
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Sunday, January 8, 2012 Arrived in Bangkok around 10:45 PM. Checked into my hostel just after midnight. No problems finding the place, thankfully. Monday, January 9, 2012 Let myself sleep in. Rode the BTS to Saphan Taksin station and then rode the Chao Phraya Express boat to Chang station to see Wat Pho. Backtracked to the BTS and rode it to Udom Suk station to meet the Thai girls that I had met in Dalat, Vietnam.
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