Ko Tao, Thailand

18th - 22nd July 2011



Arriving back from Kanchanaburi for Djalma to teach for one more day before his two week long holiday began, the parents and I decided to head into the big weekend market in Chatuchak. We spent a solid five hours there. After sorting out some important passport stuff we had lunch and then Berna and I paired off for some girly shopping time while Ned sifted through the markets for presents.
I can not believe what an excellent shopping companion my mother-in-law is, as we traipsed our way through the narrow maze of shops and stalls we stopped off to look at various items, trying things on and generally admiring the choice. I bought a couple of dresses, one of which I am deeply in love with – a floor length dress with thin straps made from good quality cotton printed with a bright red/dark pink cherry pattern. No way would I have bought it had it been only me but a little encouragement from Berna and it was mine, and not a jot of guilt, even when I got home! Berna got some light weight trousers she needed for the humid weather here and a pretty skirt from the same shop as my cherry dress.

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Ten

The following day we had a mission to get to Hua Lampong train station where our train was due to depart at a few minutes after three. I had booked the tickets the previous day, Sunday, for the eight hour trip down to Chumphon where a ferry departs early morning for the islands but although I double checked the time I hadn't double checked the date. After an aborted taxi trip we decided to try some last minute luck in the BTS and the metro. After running, huffing and puffing our way between transfers and trains Djalma re-checked the tickets to find that I had booked them for the following day, oops. It worked out in our favour we arrived at the station a good five or ten minutes after our train departed and we were able to change the tickets for a train a couple of hours later.

Departing after 5pm we arrived in the wee hours of the morning in Chumphon where we caught a couple of hours sleep at a hotel before setting off at 7am for the ferry.

Two and a half hours later we pulled up on Ko Tao and made our way to Sairee beach where we got a couple of, as Jonny later put it, 700 baht shit holes. They weren't that special and we shared our room with plenty of ants, fortunately none of which made it into bed with us.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

The following day Jess, Jonny and Garrett arrived and we caught up with them in the afternoon having much to talk about since Bangkok. In the evening I went for a little run on the beach which killed my calves later and after a much needed shower I joined our little group for beers and dinner. We sat at a table on the beach enjoying the sea breeze and the company, tucking into lots of fresh seafood and more beer. We arranged to share a boat and tour the Island the following day.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

Meeting each other for breakfast we set off in our brightly painted boat in search of beaches, rocks to jump from and coral bays to snorkel in. The sea was rather choppy and as we set off round the outcrops of rounded rock we were greeted with plenty of water. In the face.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

But the sea was a sapphire blue, the ride was smooth, the company good and our taxi boat driver, proficient and it was a great start to the day. I've no idea of the the names of the beaches we visited but in all of them the coral was more than half dead and tragically damaged, there were some fish that were friendly but it was sad to see such battered sea gardens.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

Our masks and snorkels were rubbish but good enough for an afternoon and it wasn't long before we found an enormous rock for Djalma to test his nerve and good luck from. Snorkelling round and climbing up onto the behemoth we all decided that it looked rather risky and tried to talk him down. Natural he wasn't having any of it so Jonny went to check the depth of the jumping ground, deemed safe enough Djalma waited for the boat to chug round so I was in prime photographing position – as he said later he wasn't about to do it with out pictures or an audience.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

We moved on and found a beach to have lunch, some sweaty 7-Eleven ham and cheese or tuna sandwiches with crisps and lots of water. We soon departed after a couple boat heaving with passengers pulled up and made our way to the final stop; The Oriental Garden.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

This place was supposed to be the best diving site on the Island... Well, there were more fish. Much of the coral lay shattered on the seabed and the bits which were still standing were a shadow of what they should have been. The small shoals of fish which were inquisitive where the most exciting part, Jess and I swam together and were surrounded by lots of the little creatures swimming up close to our faces to get a better look, different fish passed us by and we floated at the surface thinking our amazing it all was. We left our gear on our long tail boat and swam to a small outcrop of rocks where there were steps to the beach.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

The view was incredible, the sky was blue, the brilliant white coral sand reflected the most beautiful shade of aquamarine near the beach and a beautiful deep blue further out to sea. We had a quick and slightly painful walk across the little sandy spit that connected the two green hills trying to avoid the ticket man so we wouldn't have to pay the 100 baht fee to visit the Island. After a few photos and last lingering looks at the incredible beach we made our way back to our boat and around one last corner to Sairee Beach.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

Almost as soon as we stepped foot on dry land Jess headed for bed with what we assumed was a minor case of heatstroke but what later we learned was Dengue Fever. This was unknown to all of us that evening and so Djalma and I walked up the length of the beach with Ned and Berna and had a nice quiet meal on the beach before heading back home for some much needed sleep.

The next morning at breakfast Garrett came running up to deliver the news that Jess had been taken to the clinic with suspected Dengue fever. It was particularly awful because at that point I confused Dengue Fever, a non fatal infection which takes approximately a week to recover from, with one of the more serious infections that there is no cure for and only a 1 in 3 chance of surviving without permanent brain damage or dying (I think this is Japanese Encephalitis). I very nearly cried with relief after I googled it to find that it is only serious if haemorrhaging occurs and there is no medical attention. As soon as we finished eating we headed up to the clinic for a little visit. After a day in the sun she was looking more than tanned and healthy although very tired. She lay in bed with a saline drip looking very fragile and more than a bit bored, wondering out loud if the staff wouldn't mind speeding up the drip and letting her go early. We stayed for about an hour before leaving so she could get some rest. Back outside I discovered that someone had pilfered my new havianas and I was most annoyed all the way back to our room.

After an episode of JC (Jonathan Creek) we headed back up to the clinic and we said our goodbyes, the clinic had arranged for them to go to the nearest hospital on Ko Samui where they would be able to monitor her daily and where they also had supplies of blood should any complications occur. We left them, hoping and praying that everything would turn out just fine and that Jess' stay in hospital would be a little air-conditioned, all paid for, break and nothing more than that. As we walked down the corridor Djalma and I both thought to ourselves how lucky we were to have met them both and how good it would be to see them again.

Having passed in the news to a very woeful Garrett we headed back to our room and went straight to bed. The following day, Friday, we got up around 9am and started to get ready to leave, I went for a very half arsed run along the beach, barefoot running on a gradient is painful! And then we packed up and had breakfast waiting for the evening to come round, playing cards and chatting, so we could jump on the night ferry back to the mainland.

From Ko Tao, Thailand

Kanchanaburi, Thailand

13th - 16th July 2011



Pulling up at the bus station at the wrong end of town, we got a taxi to a cheap hotel on the river Kwai and arrived in time for a beautiful sunset. The rooms were small but comfortable and we looked out over the garden and onto the river, it was so serene and laid back after the hustle and bustle of Bangkok, the only sound of traffic was the odd modified scooter in the distance.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

After taking plenty of photos of the sunset we headed into the hostel's restaurant for a beer and dinner. Munching our way through a selection of food we downed a few beers and chatted amongst ourselves before heading up to bed.

I woke up the next morning feeling more than a bit dodgy and spent the morning resting in-between trips to the loo. Djalma, a sweetheart, went out a brought me back a little packet of my old friend Immodium with a natural alternative of guava leaves. He made me chew the small oily bitter leaves for a good minute before letting me spit out the green goo, it tasted vile but it worked and a few hours later after lunch we headed out to see the infamous “Bridge over the River Kwai”. It was an easy walk straight down the road, even I could have found my way back!

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We passed by shrines and food stalls and beautiful flowers and most unusually, a dog with eyebrows. We were rewarded by a fine sight and plenty of drink and food vendors after good half hour walk. The other side of the river was quite undeveloped and stretched out in a sea of green towards mountains in the background.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We wandered around before crossing the bridge, letting an incoming train come by first (parts of the track are still working but most of it has been de-commissioned I think). As dusk fell the bridge came to life with different colour lights illuminating the structure from the outside, it was tacky but pretty. On the other side we climbed down the steps and walked around a small manicured garden leading up to a rickety viewing platform.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

After a few more pictures in the lessening light we headed back over the bridge and walked back to the hotel.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

The next day we were up relatively early, for us anyway, and we took one of the modified open taxi's to Erawan Waterfalls. We reached there after an hour of driving through some beautiful greenery and past more distant mountains and arrived just in time to watch a group of scantily clad Russians troop up the first part of the trail. Taking our time we followed after them listening to familiar sounds of good old Ruski.

From Erawan, Thailand

The Erawan Waterfalls are a series of seven waterfalls of varying size and characteristics that you follow up a trail which starts out with good steps and bridges and then trails off into not-a-fat-lot. The first was beautiful and not far up the trail, it was swamped with picnicking families and swimmers and full of fish.

From Erawan, Thailand

The next one worthy of mention is the fifth fall, the water flowed over smoothed, rounded rocks and was shaded by tall green trees, I could imagine it empty – picture perfect.

From Erawan, Thailand

Djalma and I hiked up to the remaining two waterfalls while Berna and Ned relaxed and went back down at their own pace. The trail ran out and we had to climb over tree roots to avoid big sludgy puddles and generally be a bit Indiana Jonesy. The last set of waterfalls was alright, Djalma played about in the water and despite warnings that it wasn't safe to do so, he followed the fall down on his bum while I took the path back to meet him at the end of waterfall six. The water was a powdery blue and really beautiful once the sediment on the bottom settled. On the way back down we stopped at number four which was the tallest and most impressive, I grumbled a wee bit having had enough of the waterfalls for one day but it was pretty and I didn't grumble for long.

From Erawan, Thailand

We made it back down to the car park just in time to get the last four seats on the bus which took an hour and a half to get back and would have been painful if we'd had to stand the whole time after all the steps we climbed up and down. Back in town we stopped off at a Brit-Thai restaurant where Ned had eaten breakfast the same morning, we wolfed down a few beers which went straight to my tired legs and I demolished fish and chips, telling myself not to feel guilty because all I eat at home is good Thai food. The proprietor was a character and a half and more than a bit full of himself and his not-that-magnificent culinary prowess. To be fair the English stuff did taste very English, which as Djalma pointed out, wasn't necessarily a good thing. I didn't last long after that and was curled up and asleep before 10pm.

On our last day, Saturday we squeezed in the Death Railway Research Centre, an incredibly well put together and poignant display of artefacts, information and explanations. One thing that did strike me was the fact that although many POW were used to build the railway, far more Burmese, Tamils and Malaysians constituted the workforce and proportionally speaking they suffered far greater losses than the English, Dutch and Australians put together. I guess Westerners are really only interested in the fate of Westerners when it comes to situations like that. While we were in Nepal I read 'The Forgotten Highlander' an account of a Scottish POW who suffered horribly at the hands of the Japanese but I do not recall much mention of the Asian workforce who also suffered the same brutalities, working and living conditions.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

After an iced coffee in the café above the Centre we walked across the road to have a look round the War Cemetery. The grounds were maintained by a foreign charitable company and well looked after with flowering plants surrounding each of the small headstones. While the other three sat in the shade of a large tree I walked round taking pictures and reading the quotes and epitaphs, I had to swallow back the tears, it was all emotionally draining stuff and I was glad to get out of there, flowers or no.

From Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Walking back to our hotel we had breakfast and then got one of the moped taxis to the station where we returned to Bangkok the same way we came albeit with a slightly less kamikaze driver.

Bangkok, Thailand: Week Ten

11th - 13th July 2011



PANIC STATIONS! I spent the best part of Monday scrubbing our apartment clean, I sorted out things in cupboards that for weeks I have just been ignoring, I mopped the floor – for the second time since arriving (shock horror) and then promptly ran out of steam when it came to tackling the bathroom floor. I managed some yoga pre-housework and then waited for Djalma to bring some food up on the way home from work, we lay on the bed and did not much else for the rest of the afternoon. “Not much else” included several episodes of Jonathan Creek and Djalma playing solitaire on the computer.

Tuesday. Big day. Parents in law arrive. We both got up just after 5.30am to go to the airport but Djalma had an epiphany on the loo before we left and thought I should stay behind in case they left the airport before he got there. Not needing much encouragement I went promptly back to bed and dreamed about their imminent arrival. Meeting them at the Airport Sky Link I took them back to our apartment successfully avoiding any nasty accidents with the mental early morning Bangkok traffic. Getting them up to the 7th floor along with all their baggage was... a challenge.
In our room with the air-conditioning on Berna began the BIG unpack. Wow. It was like Christmas, or a full delivery for a thriving sweet shop. Among the most exciting gifts were new flip-flops and wine. Djalma was ecstatic with his new socks, I kid you not. After checking into their room around midday we headed out for lunch, beef noodle soup, and to take a little stroll around the park. We didn't get very far before weariness overcame us all and then it was back to our respective rooms for them to have a snooze and me to watch numerous episodes of SATC season 2.

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Ten

We took them to the noodle-man for dinner (where we usually get hot basil chicken rice from) and then went back up to their room for a little catch-up. I was falling asleep about as much as Ned who was snoring on the bed within a matter of minutes but after a little Guaraná I managed to hold out until 10ish when we went back to our own apartment for bed.

The following day, after a late start we packed up and headed out to Kanchanaburi, famous because the Death Railway passed through the town and over the River Kwai. After a good three hours in a comfortable mini-bus driven like the clappers by a man who had clearly paid instead of studying for his driving license, we arrived in the beautiful town by the river, our first excursion outside of Bangkok.

Bangkok, Thailand: Week Nine

4th - 10th July 2011



I tried and failed to get up early and get a head start on the day as per usual. Another Monday of yoga and housework followed by fart inducing duck and rice (it's the chilli peanuts that do it). We lay on the bed and watched Alice in Wonderland and then went out for Pad Thai but the guy's stall wasn't there, much put out we headed back in search of an open restaurant and settled for thin noodles instead.

After an excellent nights sleep I started the day with a run round the park but my efforts to bring the awareness of a yoga practice to my rounds in the park were fruitless, it was so difficult to keep my concentration. Back upstairs I followed the YJ video for back bends and twists and then finished off with extra stretches before dropping off the laundry at the little old Chinese couple opposite our apartment block and Djalma's work shirts for ironing with the lady at the end of our Soi. I stopped off for an enormous breakfast of hot basil chicken rice from the noodle-man before picking up some lunch stuff for Djalma at the little Tesco, filling up loads of water bottles then collecting the laundry and hanging it out upstairs. The effort of being a housewife for longer than five minutes knocked me out and I lay on the bed and re-watched Enlighten up, a documentary following one man's contact with yoga – it made a lot more sense having practised for a little longer. I headed out to my usual café for the air-conditioning and coffee frappe where I typed up the previous week.
I waited for Djalma to finish work and we had dinner together with a little beer before heading back home to relax.

Hooray for Wednesday! We didn't do much during the day, Djalma had a meeting and I did a spot of yoga before we met up with Jess and Jonny (who we travelled with for a month around Goa) for a long overdue and much anticipated catch-up. I was a over an hour late, getting a bus from Victory point was ridiculous and it wasn't that I got lost (for once!). We sat and talked and talked and talked, it felt so good to see them again and speak to a friend. Of course to fuel the talking we drank; beer and buckets and didn't get home until the wee hours of the morning having made plans to meet again on Friday.

Needless to say Thursday was spent in recovery, no yoga, no running, nothing at all strenuous.

And then...

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Nine

It was Friday. I managed a run before going out, which as far as I was concerned gave me free license to do whatever I wanted. Djalma and I got all dressed up and went out to meet Jess, Jonny and their Irish friend who had arrived the previous evening, Garrett. We had a couple of beers before getting some dinner and then some buckets. The evening flowed so smoothly it was great but just to give it that extra kick we decided to try a little Bangkok delicacy; crunchy insects. Cue a locust each, I managed a very dry crunchy leg but most people gave theirs straight to Djalma after a tentative lick or nibble. Did he turn them down? Of course not, instead we filmed them all going down the hatch. Delicious.

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Nine

We got in a taxi to Silom and after a couple of beers from the supermarket we treated ourselves to a ping pong show. Walking up some steps into a room with a stage taking up the middle we paid our entry fee, which also included a drink, and settled in to watch some very bored and rather tired looking (in every sense of the word) women move around one end of the stage talking to each other in their pants making a very half arsed attempt at some un-sexy gyrations and wobbling of assets. One lady with a bit more gumption and attitude then the rest hitched up her tiny skirt and got to work on her back. We watched as she blew a trumpet, I don't think you need telling which end did the blowing, and offered it round for us lucky people to have a blow. She then forcefully ejected darts from her muscular lady bits and popped several balloons a few feet away, it's worth a mention that there was a huge fat man sitting at directly in the firing line and all of us winced in anticipation when a dart came flying out but missed it's target, despite his sizeable bulk he never took a hit and then our performance artist, in between wheedling, cajoling and demanding a little something extra in her tip box, lay back down and proceeded to pop in and then pop out, little white ping pong balls in our direction. We were thoughtfully provided a table tennis bat and did our best to return the rather wet missiles to the stage. Our talented entertainer took a break and another woman came on stage and proceeded to slowly draw a chain with long dangling spikes from her nether regions, needless to say it made everyone wince and cross their legs whether they had the same set of genitalia or not.

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Nine

Leaving the tired mamas behind we went out in search of a club and got another taxi down town to a club Djalma had read about. After a fair bit of debate over the entrance fee we rolled in and proceeded to drink whisky and cokes and dance the rest of the night away. It was our first time inside a club since arriving in Bangkok, unbelievable given it's reputation for a party and the two months we'd been living in the city. It was so much fun, I don't remember the music being all that great but it was certainly good enough for a boogie. When we did leave the club it was full on day light, a very rude awakening, we put the guys into a taxi and sent them back to Kao San Road and we jumped into another one and headed back to Ratchprarop. A quick stop at 7-Eleven for a hot-dog and we were up the stairs (just) and in bed well after 6am.

From Bangkok, Thailand: Week Nine

The guys stopped round very quickly on their way to the train station the following day, we were all feeling the pain, and then went on their way to Ko Pha-Ngan in anticipation of the imminent full moon party.

Sunday went by in a blur, Djalma worked, the computer cable gave up the ghost and the battery died, I lay on the bed for most of the day utterly bored and unwilling to do anything else. Friday night more than made up for a very lazy weekend.

Bangkok, Thailand: Week Eight

27th June - 3rd July 2011

Yet another week remarkable unworthy of mention, and another entry in my diary detailing the day to day goings on of our mini break in Bangkok. Because we didn't go on any day-trips I decided to photograph myself doing yoga, I also made a little video, which was so appalling that I deleted it (and resolved to film in B&W only in future – red cheeked and sweating profusely never looks good on camera).

From Ginger on the Mat

Starting at the beginning... Ahhh Monday. Not really the beginning of our week any more, Djalma is about half way part of his working week, while still view it as the day to start doing good and useful things, like; walking, yoga, housework and calling my much loved Nan back in the UK. Actually I was calling to see how her weekend had gone, speaking to her before the weekend she had told me about her plans for Saturday which involved a trip to see one of her oldest friends, Big Edna, Mum took her in the car along with a picnic and they had a lovely afternoon, just what you need to perk you up – friends! Despite living in a huge cosmopolitan city like Bangkok, I occasionally feel like my Nan, at seventy nine years young, has a superior social life to mine (she frequently assures me on the phone that this is not the case – I think she is just being kind).

Tuesday rolled around and after a session following the tiny bottomed woman and sweating like pig in a bacon factory I showered and made use of the floor cleaner I bought weeks ago in Tesco. Using far too much of the bright blue cleaning fluid I decided to leave the balcony door open and leave the ridiculously foamy floor to dry and hopefully de-bubble. I came to the café I am sitting in now, Raku Raku on Rang Nam Road, got a café latte frappe and spent a few hours writing up the previous week, cooling down in the air-conditioning and using the free wifi to download films.

Our mid-week weekend was finally here, we slept in till late morning on Wednesday, I managed a little yoga but not much (actually my beginner yoga video is broken up into three sessions of twenty minutes each so if I'm not feeling particularly energetic I just do one video and if I am, two – I'll build up to the full three in good time). In fact we were so lazy in deliberating about what we wanted to we ended up doing bugger all, we made it out of the house in the evening, went to the street-side restaurant by a local petrol station and had an excellent dinner of salted, grilled River-fish, minced pork salad, mango salad and rice. It was light and tasted delicious, we walked down the road to Century shopping centre where they were charging the full ticket price to see Transformers 3 so after a spot of deliberation we got the BTS to Central World only to find that as it was opening a day early (films are usually released on a Thursday) and it was the première, they also were charging full ticket price. We faffed about decided on whether or not to see and not wanting to waste an evening (and really rather wanting to see another Transformers film) we decided to splash out and got our tickets, missing the little film about the King (mandatory before EVERY film) but getting there just in time for the other trailers. Excellent. It wasn't as funny as the first or the second but it had it's moments and the two and a half hours flew by – now you can't say that about LOTR can you?!

Woke up with a headache on Thursday so I elected not to do anything except stay in bed and feel sorry for my little self, I emailed people and called my Nan again. We were on the phone for a good three quarters of an hour as she described the jigsaw that she had finally received through the post. I say finally but from placing the order to her receiving it, it was only about a week, not bad for a personalised jigsaw puzzle! This is the collage I sent to the printers, I'm still waiting for an opinion on the quality from my little sister and my Mum, but for anyone who's interested in sorting out their own puzzle here is the link to the website I used

My headache continued throughout Friday but this time I decided to get out of bed and do some yoga in an effort to ignore it. I did a good forty minutes, the first and second video. These videos probably don't mean much to you, in summary the first is basically sun salutations and warrior poses and the second is about back bends and twists, the former is much more of a cardio effort so when I'm feeling lethargic I follow the back bends and twists and feel better for doing something. I also set aside some time to do a bit of thinking about what to do after we travelling is over. Recently Djalma has been pushing me to go to Wat Po, where they run a recognised course in Thai Massage, and I have been resisting. My original plan was to study massage when we got to NZ, but after the debacle that was the Ayurveda Massage School in Kerala, India I am very reluctant to study outside a western classroom. After a rather heavy discussion on Wednesday night and a lighter one on Thursday I decided that as a person who relishes anticipation and a bit of forethought, perhaps a couple of hours reflecting on things that I really want to do wouldn't go amiss. So after a fair amount of internet research I decided that, all things considered (housing, job opportunities and family support) it would actually be best to go to Brazil. I met Djalma after work for some big noodles with huge quantities of pork and sounded him out with my new idea. Well, if I had any doubts that he wasn't going to like the idea they certainly went out the window when I got his reaction! The idea of going back home to his much loved friends and family a lot sooner than we had previously planned to, put a whopping great big smile on his face. On the way back home we picked up some beers to drink while playing cards and then got caught in the driving rain a hundred metres from our apartment block, so we stood under a little alley and drank a beer and chatted about Brazil until the worst of the rain passed.

Nursing a baby hangover I urged Djalma out of bed and into the nearest KFC, I don't know about anyone else but when I feel like the business end of a dog I need fast food, fast. One Zinger burger later and I felt a whole lot better on the way back we stopped at the little café and spent a few hours reading and planning for his and my parents up-coming trips. Back at home with travel guide fatigue we watched Nicolas Cage in Bangkok Dangerous, a film about a hit man doing four jobs in Bangkok where he forms a mentor relationship with a young Thai man who runs errands for him, very similar to The Apprentice with the much hotter Jason Stratton but inferior in terms of hair colouring, his nasty lank black hair ruined the film for me (yep, that's about as cultured as my opinions on film gets).

Djalma was back at work for his six hour writing lesson on Sunday and left early in the morning. I managed to kill over two hours on the net before I got out of bed and went for my first jog/walk since the last Sunday, err my running program seems to have gone down the toilet. Finding it a little more difficult this time round I resolved to step up a gear and actually follow the program properly the following week. For anyone who is interested I started a new blog to track my progress or lack of it in yoga and running: www.gingeronthemat.blogspot.com
Other notable events for the day include an hour long conversation with my wonderful Mum which, just like my conversations with my Nan, put a big smile on my face. Djalma made it home just as the heavens were about to open and surprise, surprise we played a few games of cards.