Bangkok is wild! I arrived at Don Huang yesterday evening and caught a bus to Khao San road with the horde of fellow backpackers. Brandon had already spent a night here, so I found him at the hotel (Sawasdee Bangkok Inn) and booked a room for myself. We went out for a meal and then wandered the surrounding Khao San area, stopping for drinks here and there along the way.

Being the main backpacker drag in Bangkok, Khao San road is bright, crowded and noisy. You can’t make eye contact with any one of the army of tuk-tuk drivers without being asked “where you going?”; the streets are full of food carts, minibus bars and loads of tourists. We ended up walking into a bar with a good live band playing thai cover songs and had some goofy fun with a bunch of really nice thai kids. In the morning Brandon flew to Krabi, and I had a walk around town for a couple hours before I got on a plane to Krabi as well.

My flight landed in Krabi in the evening so Brandon and I had planned to meet up at a hotel in the center of town. I split the taxi ride into Krabi city with some fellow travelers and joined up with Brandon who had already booked a double room for us after a short day-trip to another island. We went out for dinner at the row of food carts by the water and enjoyed some mystery-snacks and noodle soup. A few drinks later we walked around a bit and decided the only thing going on was a live band playing to a handful of people in a small bar. A good choice as the band allowed people to go up and sing songs with them, so Brandon rocked the mic for a bit. We chatted with some other travelers and hung out with the band as they were closing up. They bestowed upon each of us our new thai names: Som Chai (myself) and Som Suk (Brandon). We had bought a boat ticket for Koh Phi Phi earlier so we woke up the next morning to catch it…

Even though Koh Phi Phi has the reputation of being quite touristy, it’s still supposed to be one the most beautiful Thai islands. Just next to the main island of Phi Phi is Phi Phi Leh, the island made famous by the movie The Beach. We arrived in the late afternoon, found a very basic double room for 450 baht and then hit the town for food and drinks. The next morning we hired a longtail boat driver guide to take us around the island for a couple hours. Incredible. We swam in the warm, crystal-clear water and sat on Maya beach. After riding back we lazed around for a bit then went out again for another night filled with scandanavians, beer and buckets. I’m going to start calling Thailand “New Sweden”.

Just as the night was getting started, Brandon and I were watching a kick-boxing match at a bar in town when a stampede of people ran inside and up the stairs. Soon almost everyone was upstairs asking eachother what was going on - apparently there was an earthquake reported in the ocean and someone started a tsunami panic. In the short period of time before we all found out that there was nothing to worry about, much of the town closed up. The night didn’t pick up again for a few hours, but we stayed out until sunrise…
In the morning we hopped on a boat to Koh Lanta.

Koh Lanta lived up to my mental image of the lazy tropical Thai island: friendly, lazy and beautiful. Brandon and I spent plenty of time napping in hammocks and drinking beer on the beach, hanging out with other travelers and locals (inbetween which there is a lot of grey area). Upon arriving we were greeted by a wall of touts each offering a free taxi ride to their bungalows or resorts. We decided to go with Thong to the Lanta Family Resort. On the pickup-truck ride from the pier with Thong we met the charming (and always drunk) Mr. T, who lives in a shack next to the bar at the “resort”.

We settled into a two-bed bungalow about 100 feet from the beach for 300 baht and napped in the hammocks for a few hours. Before the sun went down we took a walk up the beach towards the town and found several empty beaches, although the swimming was not great because of the tide. I ended up turning in early that night, passing up on some late night wandering around / drinking.

The next day we decided to go on an elephant trek. Since Thailand outlawed the logging of native hardwood trees, most of the country’s elephants have been out of work. In an effort to save them many were transported to the south to live on carrying tourists on jungle treks. We went to another “resort” where they arranged the trek for us and were soon sitting on top of Bo, our friendly elephant guide. I would describe the experience not so much as a trek but more of something like “an hour in the life of an elephant”. There seemed to be a set path that Bo was to follow, but he did so at his own pace. Every couple minutes he stopped to mess around with some tree or a bush. We made our around back to the starting point and bought a bunch of bananas to feed Bo before we headed back home.

It ended up being a relatively mellow night as most of the people around were preparing for the full moon party that was scheduled for the next night, which I missed because of my flight back to Bangkok… Brandon stuck around for the party, though, which sounded fun.

It turns out that the dateline time-difference befuddled me once again and I arrived in Bangkok one full day before Sarah was to arrive. Oh well. After the afternoon boat ride and 4-hour-delayed flight, I was throughly exhausted and found a room off of Khao San for the night.
The next day I booked a decent double room (with AC and a bathroom) as Sarah was set to arrive at 2:00am that night. I used the day to explore the city on foot and by taxi - Siam Square, China Town, Banglamphu, Sukumvhit and a few neighborhoods inbetween. A partied-out Brandon arrived from Krabi in the evening, so we had dinner together and hung out until Sarah was expected to show up around 3:00am. Brandon was falling asleep and I was getting quite worried, so we said our goodbyes and I set out to find Sarah. I walked up and down Khao San road, leaving notes and checking in various hotels trying to find her, but had to give up around 5:30am (the scene on Khao San at 5:30am is rather seedy - in a not-really-dangerous-but-sort-of-creepy way). I managed to sleep for a few hours and checked up on our meeting spot in the morning. Even though Sarah was there, she was not given the note I had left for her and so had left a note for me. The reception girl didn’t even tell me about it when I specifically asked if there was a note for Jordan! I even looked over the sheet of names with rooms booked at the hotel, which she wasn’t listed on. Sometimes the language barrier is a bitch…
Eventually we connected via email and I caught up with her at noon at our original meeting point. Apparently the taxi driver thought he knew the specific hotel she was looking for but drove her to the wrong neighborhood (Sukumvhit). So she booked a room there and found Khao San early in the morning. Next time we’ll just meet at the airport!

Sarah and I walked around a few spots, including one of the large malls (MBK) near Siam Square looking for deals on camera equipment. Not much was found. Later on we booked a flight to Krabi for the next afternoon to explore some more islands in the south…