The land of a thousand smiles

On Thursday, 9th June, 2011, 1 week before my 30th birthday,  I embarked on my very first overseas trip.

A massive stroke of generosity from a good friend for my birthday present last year (a promise to pay for my airfares to Thailand whenever I chose to go) meant that for the first time, after years of never really rising my head enough above water financially to warrant spending money on an overseas holiday (and my parents always had way more important things to spend money on like food, clothes on our backs and a good education), I could finally realise my long-held dream of catapulting myself out of my well-formed comfort zone and leaving the shores of Australia to experience an entirely new culture & way of life. I did originally intend on going on my own, when I was a single gal, and was fully prepared to book myself a  "package holiday", the type that takes you to the touristy places where mostly Westerners hang out at their spakling blue hotel pools for most of their trip, as I didn't know anything about the country or the best places to experience the true Thailand. But after a while with my new boyfriend Maurice, we decided that he would come with me, as he wanted to revisit Thailand anyway (he's been 4 times) and also he knew the best locations to go that weren't too commercial & touristy. We still wanted to visit Bangkok though, for the shopping and a bit of action, so we decided to spend a few days in the busy city and around 5 days on the island of Koh Phangyan near Koh Samui.

So at around dawn we set off from Perth to Kuala Lumpur, in transit to Bangkok. We'd decided about a week before to bring our flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui forward a day to have more time relaxing in paradise on the island. I took some Kwell tablets as I get motion sickness (also slight claustrophobia and phobia of heights!!!), and was fine for the first flight. The next flight to Bangkok was on a smaller plane which experience a little turbulence and despite taking more Kwells before it, I was awfully sick... which carried on to the long taxi drive from the airport weaving in & out of Bangkok's evening peak hour traffic (which is crazy & chaotic but somehow works, people drive like they are all part of one big snake). So unfortunately my first day in Bangkok was not the best, after a quick visit to a restaurant for food and a cocktail near our guesthouse, I ended up having to spend my evening (the busiest & most entertaining time in Bangkok) lying on the guesthouse room bed nursing a sore tummy & pounding head. I was still excited to be there though :) But was pretty frustrated that I couldn't experience it that night. I told Maurice to head out though as I knew he wanted to get out there amongst it. The next morning I feel right as rain and was raring to go :)

As we only had one day in Bangkok until we came back for a few days after the island, we didn't achieve a lot the next day. A bit of clothes shopping as we'd only brought one outfit each in our cabin luggage over, and.... FOOD. So much amazing food. I was in awe of the freshness of everything... fruit, seafood, vegies... there isn't a lot of longterm cold storage in Thailand and so fresh food is bought by locals from stalls on the street. Everything I tasted was like a rainbow in my mouth. The best & freshest seafood Tom Yum soup I've ever tasted, the sweetest mango & pineapple fruit shakes ever, yummy Pad Thai, fried rice of awesomeness, green curry & fluffy white rice to die for.

The one thing that really stood out for me that first day in Bangkok was the friendliness and politeness of the locals. There were of course some that were only being nice to try & scam you (like, unfortunately, some of the Tuk Tuk drivers who say that they will take you to a tourist landmark like a temple or market for a stupidly cheap price but who work for unsavoury tour businesses who charge you phenomenal prices and often won't deliver on the services you've paid for). But on the whole I found a people who were happy and polite despite their sometimes poor circumstances, who smiled, laughed, bowed and shook your hand. I never once saw a child who cried or screamed or threw a tantrum. Waiters & salespersons seemed happy to be there, unlike some Perth hospitality workers who act as though it is an inconvenience to actually have to serve you. When the monsoon rain came in the afternoon, as it often does this time of year, the shopkeepers & stall owners simply attached clear plastic sheeting to what they needed to protect from the water, and continued their laughing conversations.

The next morning we head off once more to the airport for our flight to Koh Samui ("Koh" in Thai means "island"). We arrived at Koh Samui airport at around 8am, and I gawked a little... it looks more like a fancy tropical island hotel rather than an airport! :) While asking an airport staff member where we could catch a ferry to Koh Phangyan, an Aussie couple happened to overhear us & told us that they had a courtesy speedboat waiting provided by their Koh Phangyan hotel with room for 6 on board, and we could catch a (free) lift with them! Score. The speedboat ride was so much fun. As soon as we pulled off from Koh Samui and the mountainous smaller islands came into sight rising out of the turquoise water, I felt the biggest weight come off my shoulders. Every unlucky, bad thing that had happened in my life up until now, all my worries, all my doubts and tribulations, just seemed pale and insignificant, petty even, compared to this natural paradise.

We arrived in Haad Rin, the developed & commercial tourist-based beach on Koh Phangyan, and caught a boat taxi pretty much straight away to a beach on another part of the island. A day after staying in a cabin on the hills near that beach, we realised that we misinterpreted the map that a friend of Maurice's had given us to what he told us was the most amazing area of the island... it was actually another bay around the corner we were supposed to be at, so we caught a boat taxi there & realised that we had hit gold... the true meaning of paradise.

Now, I'm not going to tell you the names of the two beaches we stayed at during our time on Koh Phangyan ;) as they are both relatively non-commercialised, more reasonably-priced, and less popular with hoardes of Western tourists, than Haad Rin, and so for the sake of them staying that way, you will need to do some investigating yourself if you are serious about wanting to visit these places :)

Our time on the island is something I will never ever forget. I felt like I was dreaming... In fact, it was my dream, I dreamed about visiting a place like this a thousand or more times in my dreams over the last 30 years. Everything there is so perfect. We paid the equivalent of about $20 a night to stay in a cabin literally a stone's throw from the beach. The bay water is the colour of a Blue Topaz stone, with boats captained by smiling Thai men slowly & lazily cruising in & out of the beach with their few passengers & supplies. You can walk out 50 metres from the beach and the warm smoothly lapping water will only reach your waist. The weather was a steady 25-30 degrees Celsius the whole time we were there, with a light warm drizzle or two. The food (yes a lot of this blog post is going to be about the Thai food :P ... oh my goodness, the food, was divine. I existed on mainly a seafood diet the entire time I was on the island. Big, plump, juicy, tasty prawns, the most tender squid I've ever sunk my teeth into, subtly seasoned fish that melted in your mouth. I digressed one day and had a chicken schnitzel sandwich & chips cos I was craving them *guilty* :P but holy carp it was the best sandwich & chips I've ever had. Mangoes, rambutans & fresh coconut juice (both of which I tried for the first time and LOVED), lychees and more delicious fruit shakes... we also ended up buying our own (very cheap!) bottle of Sang Som rum & mango/pineapple/papaya/coconut juice, paired with a bucket of ice from the cabin reception bar, to make cocktails.

We also attended a couple of parties on the island, one on the Wednesday night at our little secluded hideaway bay at a bar literally built on a rock overlooking the beach accessible via a rickety (but surprisingly stable) bridge, and tiny stairs built into the rocks. As someone who inherited a slight fear of heights from my mother, you can understand that this was a gargantuan feat for me... another first :) We partied at that bar until sunset, I even got a little dance out of Maurice who usually isn't the dancing kind ;) It was truly awesome, everyone who was there was having the greatest time.

On Thursday night, the night I was to turn 30, we caught a boat taxi back to Haad Rin for Full Moon Party celebrations. The beach was teeming with Western tourists. There were flame throwers & jugglers, thumping house music, cocktail bucket stalls (with advertising slogans written on the front of their kiosks like "F*** my bucket", "Emily f*** my sex bucket", "F***ing strong bucket" etc... haha... bizarre but hilarious). Also I've never seen so much fluro in all my life! There were stalls & shops with body paint that glowed in the dark & blacklights, fluro hats, necklaces, bikinis, t-shirts & bags. Once again everyone there was so happy, and I had the best birthday I've ever had seeing in my 30th year at that beach party, with the man I love.

The next day, after savouring a few hours lazing on the beach, we boated it over to Koh Samui then caught the plane back to Bangkok, arriving again in the evening. I didn't suffer from motion sickness this time so we had a pleasant evening eating at a little restaurant off the beaten track which served delicious duck and fish dishes, and a few cocktails. We stayed at a very clean and lovely airconditioned hotel room with a pool on the roof for the equivalent of around $25 a night! The next couple of days we spent doing some serious shopping for t-shirts & jeans for Maurice (for the fist time I saw his amazing haggling talent at work!!), a few makeup & skincare items for me - saving myself hundreds of dollars, and gifts for friends & family. We also visited fresh food markets, Chinatown, and the Gems Tower & Government Gem Factory both which left me in awe!

On our last full day there we took the backpack we purchased at a store the first time we were in Bangkok before going to the islands, back to see if we could get an exchange as the zip had stopped working. In true Thai style, after a lot of discussion and realising that he would lose face if he didn't do something, the salesperson and his colleague took us with the bag to a guy with a stall on the street to get the zip fixed. This proved to be a pretty funny experience as when we went back to the guy on the street to pick up our fixed bag (he did an amazing job by the way), we found out him and his friend were Italian, and he'd spent some time in Australia working as a farm hand. We had a pretty interesting conversation with them both (I talked to his friend about Italy and the place my family is from, Calabria), and he proceeded to tell me just before we took our leave that I had eyes like the Mona Lisa. A character indeed :)

One night we walked down Khaosan Road, the mecca of tourist shopping in Bangkok, which was a plethora of exotic sights, sounds & smells. We dodged tuk-tuk drivers and club employees telling us about "Ping-Pong shows, puh puh!" And I have to say, I did fall in girl-crush with many a Thai girl dressed to the nines or in promotion girl outfits for the clubs. You know what made them most attractive? Their smiles :D

Our last day in Thailand was spent savouring the food (of course :P), drinking 50 cent amazing tasting Thai iced coffee, and shopping for a few last items to take home with us. Maurice once again haggled his way into several budget purchases, more t-shirts for himself and some really great gifts.

With mixed feelings about leaving, as I was starting to miss my kitty Leon and our own bed & shower, but didn't want our awesome holiday to end, we left Bangkok for Kuala Lumpur where we spent a few hours before heading back to Wintery Perth.

The experience has changed me, for the better. It was a true perspective enhancer... I see things in a more positive light, and things I once thought important enough to worry me silly now seem petty. I feel refreshed, relaxed and revitalised, and ready to take on anything life throws at me. The only thing is... now I have the travel bug! As soon as I can once more afford to do so, I'm flying off into the sunrise again...

Yolie xx

P.S. If you want to see more photos from our trip, they're here on my Flickr :)