Oct 2006

Lots of people were waiting at the end of the rickety pier that we hobbled off the boat onto. A guy asked me if I wanted a taxi. 'Yes', I did. It turned out that his taxi was actually a 4WD pick up and we were in the back but it wasn't so bad and we got to our bungalow in about ten minutes. We had chosen to stay at 'Simple Life' bungalows on Sairee Beach. It was basic with a bed, a fan, and a bathroom with a cold shower and we were glad of the mosquito net that we had brought with us. We told them we'd stay a couple of days maybe more if we liked it. We ended up staying seven nights and at 400 baht (6 quid) a night it was reasonably good value.

Boats line the shore at Sairee Beach

Ko Tao is a tiny island. You could take a boat around it in about 1 to 2 hours and it has a reputation as one of the best diving centres in Thailand and the world. Sairee is the longest beach on the island with about 8 or so bungalow outfits and it had a laidback atmosphere mainly created, for me, by the waiters at Simple Life restaurant who were so chilled out that any more and they would have been asleep. As he listened to the cool house and chill out music and waved his fist in a forward motion the barman would say to me 'It's chillin' yeh?!' He did this about three times a day and I would reply 'yeh yeh yeh' and nod my head every time. One of the guys had a habit of singing in Thai to the customers in a really high pitched voice with his eyes closed and his hand on their shoulder like he was singing a love song which had them embarassed and the rest of the bar laughing. I sat in that bar every day for at least four hours drinking cocnut or mango shakes, or beers and reading, playing pool or just watching the sea. It was 'the simple life'. The beach was beautiful too, the waves were gentle, the swimming good and the water clear. Longtail boats would line the shore taking diving groups in and out and bringing fish to the restaurants but not so many that you would be disturbed by the engine noise too much.

A Heron enjoys the simple life and maybe a fish or two if he's lucky

We didn't dive as it would have cost us about 140 quid each to do a four day diving course, which we would have needed not having dived before. However we did take a snorkelling trip one day which was a good experience. We had five stops around the island to dive off the boat and snorkel for about half an hour each time. There were loads of fish and coral to see and it was sometimes quite amazing underwater scenery although we didn't get to see some of the dive sites that are so famed for their beauty. In particular I had read about the Japanese Garden which is supposed to be amazing with corals of all different shapes and colours, big fish like Tuna, and eels and sharks swimming around you. Maybe another time.

The food and particularly, as you can imagine, the seafood was great. A big plate of spicy seafood salad with prawns, squid and fish was about 60 baht (90 pence) as was a big bowl of curry with rice. I think I had about six spicy seafood salads in the time I was there - I couldn't get enough of them. The restaurant got quite busy in the evening with diners from nearby bungalows coming to eat and listen to the music which in my opinion was the best there was to offer.

Other than eat, read, sunbathe, sleep and that one trip we really didn't do too much and it was the perfect place to relax and reflect after the intense month or so of travelling beforehand. One evening sticks in the mind although not that readily I must admit. I decided to go to the bar for a couple of afternoon Changs (the local beer 6.5% -oooh!) at about 4pm. What the hell. Ruth said she would join me soon but two hours and four large Changs later she finally turned up. We ate some dinner and Ruth said she was going back for a sleep so I went and sat on the balcony for a while but then returned to the bar for a 'digestif', as they say in France. Anyway, a few gin and tonics later and I got talking to some of the diving instructors who were going out for the evening I said I would go along and that is pretty much the last thing I remember about it although I must have made some sort of impression as the next day I had the embarassing experience of not being able to remember people's names when they were saying hello to me. After that I laid a little low and stayed off the Changs.

We decided to make our next stop Ko Samui which is the largest and most commercial of the three islands on the gulf coast and it would prove to be quite different to our experince on Ko Tao.

Well we arrived Bangkok at a relatively quiet and calm Airport -not what I expected really. No-one tried to extort money from me or rifle through my bags, we were through passport control and outside within 30 minutes. Not exactly proving the horror stories that you hear of. The one daft thing we did do was order a taxi from the stand just outside the airport door. This cost 700 baht (about 10 quid) and whilst the service was good we could have got a regular taxi for about about 100 baht. You live and learn. We were staying at the Century Park Hotel which is the epitomy of style, class and sophistication only the best, of course, for Yamma every time. Or should I say this time! The room was so big that Ruth did a celebratory run and several jumps around. It had a walk in wardrobe with real slippers and gowns, air con, a huge glass walk in shower and more toiletries than you can shake a stick at. (Why do they give you crappy toothbrushes though?) Good value at about 35 quid a night through Asiarooms.com. This sort of luxury was of course an indulgence which we booked six months before in England and not something you can afford to do for a year! But it was worth it for the rooftop pool with waterfall and jacuzzi attached.

We were only staying for three days before travelling around the country and we were pretty tired after spending the last month constantly on the move so generally we didn't do a great deal and hung around the hotel quite a bit. We did however visit Patpong on the first night we were there. This is the main red light district with gogo bars and massage parlours all around. Girls who barely look old enough to be finishing their GCSE's line the streets outside every place. We must have been asked about 20 times whether we wanted to see a ping pong show. I'm not totally sure what we looked like walking around but I'm fairly convinced that we looked like a normal 28 year old man and his girlfriend so why they would think we would want to see it I don't know. Anyway I couldn't talk Ruth into it! The whole place is teeming with people at night and a loud market selling allsorts crowds the streets that are lined with the aforementioned bars. Its quite a crazy but not that pleasant a place and I think that some of the people (and their kids) that were there were a bit shocked. I wouldn't recommend it as a family destination.

We generally found Bangkok to be quite confusing, we tried to find a bar to sit in during the day but outside of an area called Banglamphu (the other side of town to where we were staying) they don't seem to exist. This meant that we spent a lot of time wandering around and hanging out in internet cafes. The skytrain was the main resource for us when travelling around the city because there was a stop near the hotel, although because its so huge we didn't get to see a great deal of Bangkok this way. We did visit the Chatuchak Market on our final day which is a mindblowing eight thousand stall metropolis of a market. It pretty much sells everything you could ever think of and is a great place to buy souvenirs, clothes and food. It so huge though you need to have an idea of what you want before you go. We staggered around the tiny lanes full of stalls for about three hours before finally giving in to heat exhaustion, fatigue and deafness and went back to the quiet peaceful hotel with air con, cocktails and Italian restaurant.

Bangkok train station

One thing I want to mention about my stay at the Century Park Hotel is breakfast. It truly has the greatest breakfast I have ever eaten. I was getting through three courses every morning. I would start with a salad of pineapple, watermelon, papaya and grapefruit together with a selection of fine fruit juices. Moving on to the cooked selection I would have bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, beans, tomatoes and toast and I would round off my morning munch with a danish pastry a cup cake and two coffees. You aint gonna eat all day after that. Until lunch.

A little bit drunk on the train...and sporting my new haircut... which cost less than a pound!!!

We took the train from Bangkok to Chumphon, it took fourteen hours overnight and I think I probably had one two many Chang beers as you can see from the picture. When we arrived at four in the morning and had to wait until six for a boat I wasn't too happy. Our destination was Ko Tao the smallest and most remote of the inhabited islands on the Gulf Coast and after a three hour boat journey, on which everyone looked wrecked from over travel, we finally got there.

Ruth despairs at my despicable behaviour

Thanks to Qiang who has pointed out a mistake. In my recent post on Hong Kong I mentioned that Shenzhen in China has a population of 30 million. This was incorrect and the population is, in fact, just over 10 million. Thanks again Qiang.

Getting up at 5am in the morning is not something I enjoy but in the circumstances (the fact that I am travelling around the world like mr smug from no.10 smug street, smugland) it wasn't so bad, although your bag does seem to be a little heavier than it is at any normal hour! Beijing Airport was pretty quiet when we got there, just the first few flyers of the day milling around. Our flight took us to Shenzhen which is an industrial city in Southern China and by the grandest standards this city is sprawling - 30 million Chinese live there. We didn't get to see it much as we were simply passing through to the port for a ferry to take us to Hong Kong but we did notice that it was tropically hot and sunny. The boat was comfortable and quick, it only took about 1 hour across Victoria Harbour into downtown Kowloon and the view as you came into the port was pretty mindblowing, the scale of construction in Hong Kong is surely without rival in terms of its visual impressiveness with skyscrapers in every direction.

The Kowloon Hotel

Hong Kong is divided into two main districts which are separated by the body of water in between them. Where we were staying was Kowloon - The Kowloon Hotel in fact and this is where the hustle and bustle is really at its peak, there are apparently 100,000 people for every square kilometre here and it shows. Every ounce of available space is taken, the roads are narrow and the buildings are tall and people pour out of every orifice of it 24 hours hours a day. This, combined with the extreme humidity can make it a rather oppressive place but it feels very alive and exciting at the same time. The other side of the water is Hong Kong City where all the big companies and their various skyscraping headquarters are based. The biggest, clearly dwarfing the rest is the 'Two IFC Tower' and it is not only the biggest in Hong Kong but also the biggest in Asia, a formidable sight. It was also great to see the HSBC building designed by Norman Foster which was one of the things I had been looking forward to.

On arrival we decided that it was no distance to reach our hotel by foot so we changed some cash and off we went. After trying to find the hotel for about half an hour with a heavy pack on your back and 90% humidity you kind of get annoyed. It was at this point we stopped and asked and eventually we stumbled into the foyer in a sweaty mess. The hotel room was small but immaculate and we were very pleased. We got sorted and headed out. It can be quite daunting when you first get to somewhere because you really don't know where you are going but the beauty of Hong Kong is that it is compact and well sign posted and you can get your bearings fairly quickly. We wandered around a few streets and went for some dinner and drinks. They have bars with happy hour which is a good job as Hong Kong in normal hour is expensive (in some places as expensive as London although you can generally eat cheaply) so a couple of discount cocktails were just what we needed.

HK Street Scape

Along the way several things were particularly striking about the place. There is a very cosmopolitan feel to Hong Kong with lots of shops like Gucci, Burberry, Vivienne Westwood - all the big fashion names were represented. The people there seem to be fairly affluent and it shows in the way they dress and carry themselves. There is also a diverse cultural mix and in particular lots of Indian people, most of whom were trying to sell me a suit or read my palm, one guy said to me, "You have a very lucky face sir. Do you know why you have a lucky face? Its because this month of September and also October is very lucky for you." I didn't stop to hear any more and must have heard "Do you know why you have very lucky face sir......" being shouted down the street at me about 20 times after that. In the end I was shouting back, "Yeah, its September."

On any given building in Kowloon there might be 5 or 6 signs for different shops, restaurants or services that you can get in that building and you have to walk inside and take stairs or catch the lift to get to them, this results in the space above the street being littered with neon signs advertising everything from the ubiquitous massage parlours to the not so popular Hong Kong Haemmorhoid Centre! Hong Kong differs from Beijing in that they speak the southern dialect of Cantonese rather than Mandarin although in truth so many speak English or some English at least that we never once had any problem not being a Chinese speaker. Food, like the language, is also diffent with the Cantonese speciality being dim sum which are baskets of steamed dumplings and other small dishes that you order several of, a bit like an oriental tapas and really very delicious.

No title required

Before you arrive in Hong Kong you see pictures of the harbour and read about the magnificient view at night but nothing really prepares you for how impressive it is. As you come out of the subway, as we did on that first night, and walk through a small garden to the Avenue of the Stars (like Hollywood but with Asian actors) you suddenly see the buildings across that harbour lit up with colour and spotlights, their reflections rippling on the water. I could not stop looking at it for about twenty minutes in order to take it all in and I went back every night we were there just to see it again.

Victoria Harbour looking moody in the rain

On our second day, after a stunning dim sum breakfast, we went to the Hong Kong museum of Art in Kowloon. It was pretty cool and they had an exhibition by an artist whose name I can't remember who had made sculptures from hair. Apparently the hair of 10,000 different Americans. The room full of tiny shoes that she'd made was particularly impressive. We also saw work by Qi Baishi who is considered one of the greatest ever Chinese artists. His work was great and full of humour, one of his caligraphy scrolls was translated as, "Visitors enquiring about the wellness of my wife in order to receive discounted work will no longer be entertained," which he had hung in his workshop. He was obviously a bit of a grumpy old git, but he did have a one year old son when he was seventy five which I thought was quite an achievement. On the ground floor, that we visited last, there were exhibits of ancient Chinese jewellery and artefacts some of it about 2500 years old which was impressive by its age but by the time we got to it I was suffering from museum fatigue and had to get out of there.

That evening we went to a night market. There was a great deal of crap for sale but some nice jewellery and leather stuff and I bought a leather notebook. We ate in a little street cafe where a crazy old geezer was trying to get us to order what he wanted us to order and managed to flog us two of the biggest beers I've ever seen, although I wasn't complaining and the food was great. Ruth bought a Baby G watch for about 2 quid and on the way home it rained. When we got inside the hotel the watch had stopped! It started again the next morning but I don't hold out much hope for its long term future.

On our final day in Hong Kong we visited the space museum which failed to impress as much as the art museum had although we did go to the space theatre which is a huge domed cinema that shows you space scapes abopve your head and aroiund you in a 360 degree perspective. It was a fairly good show but there were some people sitting behind us who were gabbering on through the whole show. Even when Ruth turned around with a theatrical ssshhhuussshh!(in true teacher style) they still kept on. We decided that either they had never been to the cinema before or they were ignorant idiots.

In the evening we went for a meal at the Hong Kong Hot Pot restaurant. It was similar to the hotpot we had had in Huehot but not so spicy, things are never quite as good the second time you have them but it was still delicious. We sat at a table next to a massive tank filled with big fish looking at us and lobsters clawing at the sides. We had chicken. The following morning we had cake and juice for breakfast from the bakery (of which there are several fantastic ones in Kowloon)and got packed up. There was a free shuttle bus to a train which then took you to Hong Kong Airport. You could check at the train station before getting on the train which was fantastic as you didn't have to carry your bag any further and could relax from that point on. A fine example of Chinese efficiency I thought. The airport was generally unremarkable as most airports tend to be although we had some pretty good Chinese food there in the 'banana leaf cafe'.

The flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok is the best flight I have ever been on. It was operated by Cathay Pacific who are in their 60th anniversary year and the stewardesses were in various uniforms from the last 60 years. There was a special annivesary menu from a top Hong Kong restaurant and enough free gin and tonic to total a horse, as well as individual TV for every passenger. It makes you realise how crap package flights are when you fly in relative style!! As the captain announced, we touched down in Bangkok at about three in the afternoon local time, outside temperature was a moderate 27 degrees centigrade with a slight breeze......