Thailand - April 5 - May 18
April 6
It is an interesting budget hotel. Our room /fan, no air con / costs 515 Bahts. There is an old fashioned stylish lounge around the reception with well lit desks and shelves with books written by people who once stayed here. There is a restaurant on the main floor. The food is delicious - my favourite so far - different types of spicy fruit salads - I also had a classic Galingale soup /lemongrass, ginger, coconut/, and different curries. The restaurant serves only the guests - as the writing in the hall says - sex tourists are not welcomed. There is also: 'no complaints please....not at the price we charge... if the hotel doesn't meet your expectations move to a luxury hotel." There is also a swimming pool with hammocks around it - and that is how we spend our first day here - eating and cooling off in the pool.
April 7
A Skytrain and a boat on Chao Phraya river to Grand Palace, Green Emerald Budda shrine and Wat Pho. To enter the palace grounds you are told to behave and dress decently - elbow length shirts, knee covering pants or skirts and closed shoes - no sandals or flip-flops. In this much over 30 degrees heat, it is a lot to ask. For at least two hours we wander about various bombastically adorned halls, pavilions, buildings with murals, watch changing of the guard ritual. Adjoining the palace is the royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha housing a jade Buddha renowned for its miraculous powers - so it's crowded inside and outside. After taking off our shoes, we follow others, sit on our heels, raise hands in a prayer-like gesture, and watch a group of about thirty young /7- 10 years old/ orange clad monks reciting something after their teacher.
The next to see is Wat Po, the oldest temple in Bangkok. There are so many Buddha images here that I manage to remember only the largest one - 46m long and 15m high reclining Buddha which illustrates his passing away, that is passing into nirvana. His eyes and feet are built of mother-of-pearl. Around it there are shrines where people light incense and leave flowers. Our Italian companion wants to go and see another wat across the river. We part here then as our attention is drawn to the Thai Massage School located just outside the Po temple. Our feet are begging us to give them a reward for carrying us the whole day and we just cannot resist.
Sitting side by side, we spend a divine hour of excellent touch with hands, cream, a stick, wet towels. When the left foot is being treated, the right is burning with impatience.
April 8
Booking our next flight at Austrian Airlines office - our visa lets us stay in Thailand for 30 days - so the departure date is May 4. I have a feeling we may want to stay here longer - have to enquire about it. On the way to Skytrain we come across Jim Thompson's store. He popularized and got rich on Thai silk, later disappeared mysteriously. The store is full of marvelously designed clothes, bags, household textiles - above our budget I'm afraid. I'll see how we stand financially before we leave and may be visit the place again? In the shopping mall a few blocks further we buy a suitcase on wheels - Kamila's choice - for storing things we don't want to carry to other parts of the country. Our hotel has a storage facility free of charge. Leaving air-conditioned shopping mall we are back in the scorching sun and stinking polluted streets. Over dinner of green curry and spicy salad, we chat with a couple from England about Chiang Mai and children's books - she is a school librarian.
April 9 -10
I forget to mention that my arm is very well, thank you. The ointment, the pills, the sling and the good wishes from all of you my friends worked and it pains me only slightly when I try to sleep on my left side, but serves me well during the days. We pack again, leave two pieces of luggage in the hotel's storage and head for Chatuchak Weekend Market to stroll among its overwhelming over six thousands open-air stalls, wiping sweat from our faces and perusing the antiques, clothes, crafts, instruments, jewelry, basketware, ceramics and what not. About 6 pm we flag a taxi to a Railway station where our train to Chiang mai leaves at 7:40. The station is very busy - the Sonkran Holidays - New Year, which is three days, but in practice seven days long is just about to start. Our second class tickets give us sleepers with sheets and pillows in a car with other /mixture of local and foreign/ travellers. The smells and sounds of the train remind me of past railway trips in Poland - well in the old times sleepers were not affordable to me and my likes, we usually travelled standing in crowded halls, seats were uncommon luxury. At 7am the beds are folded and we arrive in Chiang mai about 9. After unsuccessful call to Leszek, first a songthaew /a shared taxi - kind of an open mini van/, then a tuk-tuk /a three-wheel engined car/ takes us to a guest house recommended by an American met in Bali. It's full - we check in a house next door in a room with a fan and a swimming pool in the courtyard.
The first walk along the old city moat leads us to the Chiang Mai Thai Cooking School where we stop and enroll for five days of classes starting the day after tomorrow.
April 11
We move to Grace's Guest House which is cheaper /250 Baht/, has no pool but a charming cafe downstairs. When we venture outside for a walk - we end up drenched with water. The Songkram festival starts on Wednesday according to the calendar, but local youngsters can't wait and start the famous water fights a day earlier, and as we live to find out later - continue for five days. So we stay inside reading and doing some algebra. Douglas, the American /Vietnam War veteran and a former hippi/ who lives in Thailand permanently or rather semi-permanently, visits us and gives lots of info about the surroundings as well as lends us his Lonely Planet up-to-date guide book.
April 12
The next few days are similar - we walk in the morning to our school, along still dry streets, have cooking experience until about 3 pm and come home completely soaked - we are an easy target. Kamila bought herself a small water gun, but it's not a good defense against big buckets and hoses. We learned to cover everything in my daypack with plastic bags, take things easy and enjoy the refreshment. After a trip to the local food market, we watch our teacher prepare the ingredients and cook. Then to our individual stations and ..... panic over the wok! First we are going to a market to see and learn about vegetables, rice , coconut milk making.
Then a van takes us to Sompon Nabnian's, /the school founder and main teacher/ house in a village on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. There is a herb garden, presentation room and about 30 cooking stations. The first dish, which happens to be my favourite, is Chicken In Coconut Milk Soup. After sampling the dish cooked by the master, we are very nervous and keep forgetting the order of ingredients to be put in the pan. The result however is divine, at least to my standards. Then comes Fried Mixed Mushrooms with Baby Corn. We are panicking over the wok as much as most of others, some people are more experienced - it is their second or third day.
Yammy again. Next is Red Curry with Fish - the curry paste is given to us - to make our own we have to wait to day 5. Love it. By now we know it was a big mistake to eat breakfast today, it will not be repeated in future. The following is Fried Big Noodles with Thick Sauce - cannot eat much of it by now. Later, Papaya Salad and Sticky Rice is made in pairs - Kamila with an Aussie women, I with a girl from Hong Kong. And for dessert we make Steamed Banana Cake - lovely soothing dish after all the spices.
At home Kamila joins Thai kids from our house and spends a few hours pouring water on any passer-by. There is no need to eat dinner tonight, and on any other of the school days.
April 13
Today the classes are held in the city at Sompson's restaurant called "The Wok". We are given a shopping list and in groups off to the market again to find the ingredients for today's dishes. For 'breakfast' we make Fried Big Noodles With Sweet Soy Sauce - it comes with an egg so it is kind of breakfasty. Now we also know not to finish all our dishes - save stomachs for all of them. Steamed Fish In Banana Leaves is more complicated - most of us need help in wrapping the fish in the leaves. Then comes yummy Yellow Curry With Chicken which we set aside and start another - Chicken With Cashew Nuts - both dishes we eat with rice for lunch. After a short break back to stations to make Spicy Prawn Salad North-Eastern Style and Bananas In Coconut Milk for dessert. Kamila's versions of her dishes have much less chillies and she enjoys them as well as the rest of us more exposed to spices. After school we see the proper Sonkram parade - Buddas on floats each decorated with different arrangement of flowers and leaves, men and women in festive clothes with colourful umbrellas, and people standing on the streets sprinkling specially sensed water with herbs on them.
April 14
Vegetable Carving for the start today. A rose and a lotus flower made of a tomato and leaves made of carrots. The first dish is Clear Soup With Minced Pork followed by Spring Rolls which we eat together. Delicious. Roast Duck Curry and Chicken With Ginger we cook one after another and eat together for lunch. I watch Kamila, a picky eater who is particular about all dinner ingredients to be separate on the plate, savour all the concoctions with more and more joy.
Chicken In Pandanus Leaves is an appetizer we make next, and end with our sweet winner - Mango With Sticky Rice. At night water fighters usually stop their activities and tonight we join a couple from Calgary and a African-French Aussie for a stroll in town. We walk through Night Bazarr, watch some Thai sing and dance on a stage; Kamila makes a successful trial on a climbing wall, and have drinks in a pub.
April 15
We get an introduction to Thai spices, vegetables, sauces - this is the first day of a series, however you can start any day. The soup of the day is Thai Hot and Sour Prawn Soup. Wakes you up al right! Then Thai Style Fish Cakes. So so. Green Curry With Chicken is one of the Thai super stars and I agree it deserves the reputation. When we start the next dish, the popular Phat Thai /Thai Fried Noodles/ the kitchen turns into a mad house - the heat on the burners is either too low or too hot, nobody seems to remember the order of things, there is a lot of screaming and a lot of smoke. The result is not bad on most plates though. After a break we make Spicy Minced Chicken Salad and Water Chestnuts With Coconut Milk. Later, Kamila and other kids are taken by Gee who lives in our house on his boat to the moat and continue the water craziness. I'm a bit worried. She comes back happy and full of stories to tell.
April 16
After three days of cooking in the restaurant location, we are again taken to the house outside the city. We are given a mortar and a pestle and ingredients to make a curry paste to our own liking. Lots of pounding. We use this paste to make Panaeng Curry With Pork. Kamila gives this dish her highest score and eats it to the last drop. Fried Fish With Chilly And Basil looks great on the plate and tastes incredible. Another curry then - Chiang Mai Curry With Chicken - the only curry without coconut milk and rather sweet in taste. I like it a lot. We eat it together with Sweet And Sour Vegetables. After lunch and a walk through the garden we prepare a small portion of delicious Spicy Glass Noodle Salad and Black Sticky Rice Pudding. Tomorrow we are going on a trip to see the country around Chiang Mai.
April 17
Yes we had a ride on an elephant!!! It was a 23 year-old female called Chitala. First we both sit on the seat attached to her back, the mahout - the guide is sitting on her head. After a while Kamila asks to try the head so the mahout walks beside us. Chitala is quite lazy, stops often, gets some leaves for chewing, and takes time to drink when we get to a waterfall. After an hour ride along a hilly countryside we get to the place where we are supposed to get off her, but she refuses to approach the wooden platform, turns around a few times and goes back on the trek in spite of the mahout's shouts and a full basket of bananas given to convince her to finish the job - and here we go again for an extra hour with her, this time walking more vigorously. Why she wanted to give us an extra ride reminds a mystery also to the mahout. Before the time with Chitala, in a different place called Maesa Elephant Camp we saw a group of over 20 elephants - babies included - bathe in the river, walk in procession, dance, play a ball, carrying and piling logs /their regular job/ . The most amazing thing we saw was elephants painting pictures - right in front of our eyes we saw one painting a bunch of flowers with green leaves and red blossoms. Other three did similar or abstract compositions. All the pictures were for sale - 2000 baht a piece. One of them - our favourite was sold fast, no not to us this time. In the afternoon Miau and her husband take us to Doi Suthep Temple 16 km up a very winding road from Chiang Mai. Then a staircase of over 300 steps leads to the north's most sacred wat with its exquisite copper plated chedi /or stupa - a monument erected to house a Buddha relic/ topped by a five tired gold umbrella. There we do lots of things for good luck - hit gongs, light candles, get sprinkled and blessed by an old monk, shake some sticks until one falls out and indicates which prediction to read from the list. Back in Chiang Mai we walk through a crowded Sunday market. Close home we meet a girl who stays in a guest house close to us, very much distressed - she has just been robbed. A guy on a motorbike stopped in front of her, pulled her handback off her shoulder and drove off. Doesn't happen very often, but it does, as the Lonely Planet and other books warn.
April 18
Today we are resting, doing laundry and making plans for tomorrow. I'm also tempted to have a cashmere tailor-made coat after seeing a sample on the girl from Calgary. Or a Chinese silk shirt. Or pants. Hmmmmmm. I thing we will go to Chiang Rai - even more to the north, and to Mae Sai and get a new Thai visa. Or we'll do it in Chiang Knong on the border with Laos.
April 19
We are leaving a trail of bags behind us - one is waiting for us /at least I hope/ in Bangkok, now we leave another in our guesthouse in Chiang Mai. A tuk-tuk to the bus station, and a comfortable, air conditioned bus takes us to Chiang Rai. It's a three hour ride which we spend chatting with Darek from Poland who lived in the same guesthouse and happens to have similar plans for the next few days. The recommended guesthouse 'Baan Bua' turns out to be nice, clean and full of friendly people /nothing unusual really/ including the owners - an English/Thai couple. We decide to escape the heat of the day /42 degrees today!!/ in an air-conditioned shopping center. At night we join Chris from England /Kieslowski's zealous fan - just brought a collection of DVDs from Laos/ for a walk to the night market where we listen to some local artists and eat choosing food from different stalls.
April 20
What a day! We have been to two other countries - Birma, or rather Myanmar and Laos.
The two of us and Darek decide to take a tour with a Nok, a Thai woman who will drive us for the day in her air-con car! The temperature today is a bit better - only 37. First stop is at the village of Akha, one of the hill tribes that live in the mountainous region in northern Thailand. These are 'fourth world' ethnic minorities who migrated from either Tibet. Myanmar, China or Laos. They have no citizenship, no right to own land, no access to health care and schooling.
The Akha people wear beads, feathers, and dangling ornaments on their heads and leggings. Their houses are made of bamboo on wooden stilts and thick grass roofs. Their favourite pastime - smoking opium. Tourists are their main source of income so we pass several stalls with crafts for sale. The second tribe we visit are Karen the 'long-neck' people , though this term refers only to women who wear brass ornaments around their necks and limbs. They look like separate rings but in fact are continuous coils which may weigh up to 22 kg and 30 cm high. I wish I could send some photos we took there as it is such an incredible sight I can't describe properly. The women look as if they had necks at least twice as long as ours. There are a few theories about the origin of the custom, one being that long neck was always regarded as special and more beautiful. Nowadays we hear they do take them off for sleeping at night at least. And of course the tradition is slowly dying out - assimilation to modern life is gradually happening - we saw TV antenna here and there and lots of Coke cans everywhere. Later passing lots of soybean and tea fields we get to Mae Sai, the northernmost town in Thailand. There we cross the border to Myanmar /or Birma/: pay 5 US dollars to Myanmars immigration officers, leave our passports with them, get a piece of paper allowing us to stay in the border town market for a day, walk through the market for half an hour, walk back to the office, get our passports, proceed to the other side to the Thai Immigration Office, fill a form and get a new 30 day Thai visa. Easy and quick, but of course I did feel a bit nervous.
West to see the official center of the Golden Triangle, where the borders of the three countries meet, at the confluence of Nam Ruak and Mekong River, famous for the opium trade days - now illustrated well with historical displays at the House of Opium. A boat takes us on a short trip along Mekong /we are told about the biggest freshwater fish that lives in its waters/ to a larger river island of Don Sao. It belongs to Laos but we are allowed to stop there without a visa, but a 20B arrival tax. Darek buys a bottle of whisky with a snake inside and another with ginseng roots. I decide on the ginseng one as well. The day ands at about 8 pm when we get to Chiang Rai and spend the night with Darek and Chris digesting today's experiences as well as food at the market, and later playing pool in one of the cafes on the way home.
April 21
Slept till noon. Have no ambitious plans other than Internet and stroll along the town hiding in air-con cafes from time to time. Well, when I decided to take a samlor - a three wheeled pedicab - to the Hilltribe Museum, it turned out to be closed already. It's out of season time here and everything closes earlier than the book says.
April 22
10 am bus back to Chiang Mai and our guest house, different but similar room for 200 Baht. We visit Kelash - the tailor from Nepal down the street. Shirts, blouses, coats? - decisions decisions. Later we spend two hours sending a few pictures to Leszek. The disk with pictures from Bali is in the storage in Bangkok, but there are some still in the camera. And the ones we have taken here - difficult to choose from the zillions we have. For dinner we eat masala at the Indian restaurant next door.
April 23
Sto lat Jerzy and Wojciech. We are falling into a trap of buying things because they are there in front of our eyes, without giving it enough thought whether we need them or not. I resent myself when it happens, but it does more and more often especially at the night markets. Some junk attracts my attention and all of a sudden it lands in my bag making my wallet lighter. I need help - it's like a disease. Tomorrow I'm renting a motorbike and I'm out of here - to the numerous temples in and around the city. But today is the weekly Sunday market!!!!
April 26
I mixed up the days last time - on the 23rd was the Night Bazaar - every night event, and the 'Sunday' market was of course on the 24th. Anyway, on Sunday I left Kamila in our guest house /she watched a movie with her Thai friends/ and went for a long walk in the old town surrounded by a moat, visited three old temples /13th century/, got sprinkled with holy water by monks waiting there for visitors, stopped a few times for iced water or coffee to cool down. And at night we bought a few more trinkets...
And yesterday - April 25 was the Motorbike Day
.
Picture me with Kamila behind holding up traffic at a busy city intersection. And imagine nobody is showing us a finger or yelling assholes at us - road rage is nonexistent here - thanks god otherwise we would have been in trouble. Yes there are lots of honking but to warn you rather than intimidate you. At red lights all motorcycles weave between the cars or close to the curb in order to get to the front of the column - a manouver that scares me a lot, so I patiently wait in line keeping a safe space to the car in front, unknowingly blocking other bikes from proceeding. When they manage to pass sometimes, we get friendly smiles or may be rather a laugh. At the beginning of the day I got even stopped by the road police, I guess I was riding suspiciously slowly, my driver license checked - I was let go with a blessing.
I wouldn't have ventured to the busy streets after a few not too successful morning trials on the side streets /last time I rode a motorbike, or rather a scooter, was 30 years ago/ , if we hadn't met Hayley, 'a guardian angel' from Edmonton, who happened to eat breakfast at our cafe, offered to give me instructions and then ended up leading us all the way to our planned destinations on his own motorbike. It is amazing how things work out sometimes, or actually most of the time. First we went to Hilltribe Museum on the city outskirts, then up a winding road to the top of a 1650m mountain to revisit the Doi Suthep temple. Riding down along the 15 km road with the engine off was an amazing fun in spite of my hands almost hurting from squeezing the brakes. Then the rush hour traffic on the way home - thank you Hayley!
And about the temple - I forgot to add last time - the steep, paved road up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep was built in 1935 entirely by the voluntary labour of people from all over the north, using primitive tools, organized and led by the most revered monk in northern Thailand and completed in 6 months. Before it could be reached only after a climb of at least 5 hours. The road, the magic relic enshrined in its chedi, the miraculous legend of its founding /a white elephant with a shrine on its back climbed Doi Suthep, trumpeted three times, turned round three times, knelt down and died, indicating that this was the spot for the temple/ made the temple one of the most important places of pilgrimage in Thailand. That's why I wanted to spend more time there, see its red, green and gold splendour again, sound the bells around the terrace, be sprinkled by the old monk, have a white thread tied around my wrist by the monk's assistant / a monk is not supposed to touch a woman/ for good luck, and look again at Chiang Mai from its top.
April 26
Post office - sending a parcel to Toronto. Pizza lunch - promised to Kamila. A thunder storm with a short blackout. Dinner with Gaan - a Thai woman - our teacher from Cooking School. Hayley didn't show up - doesn't feel good tonight.
April 27
Breakfast with Darek - fruit we bought last night at the market: dragon fruit - like white melon with poppy seeds, snake fruit - smells like old socks but tastes sweet, rose apple - sweet and juicy, guava - dry, not tasty at all, maybe not ripe enough. Yesterday we also bought a coconut, had it halved and today Kamila plans to scrape it empty and polish the outer skin so we get two smooth bowls. Got this idea from someone; we have the flint paper ready. Another plan for today is Thai massage. Tomorrow we are definitely going back to Bangkok. Feels homely here, we know lots of local people and other travellers - that's what I like most in our journey, even more than seeing new places, but it's time to move on.
April 28
The massage was today, in a dark cool room - it's called Thai whole body massage - was great but not different from shiatsu massage as I know it. At 6:30 a songtaew /a small pick-up truck with two benches in the back - serves as a local taxi alongside with tuk-tuks/ picked us up and took to a place for boarding a big bus with reclining seats and air-conditioning.
April 29
At about 5:30 we arrived in Bangkok in an area full of guest-houses called Banglamphu. The streets were quite busy with people who either haven't gone to bed yet or have already gotten up - I'm not sure/ Tired and disoriented, we followed an Australian couple to the guesthouse they selected, and now Kamila is sleeping in the room /we got what we paid for - a crappy little hole with a shared bathroom in the hall for 160 Baht / while I'm asking around for prices and departure times for our tomorrow's destination - Krabi and the islands around in the south.
May 6
This is our fifth day on Ko Phi Phi /or Ko Pee Pee/ - an island on the Andaman Sea, and the last - bought a ticket to another island this morning so we wouldn't postpone moving on again. This place somehow grows on you /well like many other places/ and makes you sorry to leave. So many things to do here: excellent snorkelling, rock climbing /Kamila/, beach combing, hiking hills for incredible views, taking boat trips to other islands, listening to stories about December 26 and picking up debris together with many other volunteers. But I have to go back to
April 29
A trip by bus, boat and the skytrain to Atlanta Hotel for repacking and getting our reef shoes - will be needed on the islands. A call to Lauda Airlines - booking a flight to Warsaw for 18th of May. A night stroll along Khao San Road, lots of noisy music, neons, and party atmosphere - green curry with the Australian couple met on the bus.
April 30
With a relief, we leave our dump /where we slept surprisingly well/ and the area called by the Lonely Planet 'a great dame of shoestring travel' and spend the next night on a bus to Krabi.
May 1
The guesthouse we stay in Krabi feels like Sheraton by comparison. Peter, the man in charge is not only friendly but proves my belief that most people are honest - gives me money I gave him by mistake.
May 2
A ferry to Ko Phi Phi.
Koh PHI PHI from above / as we see it later from the top of a hill/ looks like two kidneys, with the land bridge connecting them is only about a few hundred meters long. The bridge forms two beautiful bays with long white beaches. This is also the area which was mostly destroyed by the big wave on Dec. 26. After settling in a bungalow belonging to Andaman Beach Resort - partly rebuilt already, we take a long walk along the beach over the rocks and see rows of empty bungalows waiting to be rebuilt or those higher on the hill at least cleaned. In the main village a few stores and restaurants are opened, as well as a few dive centers. In one of them Kamila talks to the man in charge and gets details about an open water scuba diving course. The seed is planted and now she thinks about it seriously. I agree hesitantly to cover half of the cost; she has to pay the other from her budget. Later we decide to sleep on it for a few days and wait until we get to Ko Tao Island, another one famous for excellent diving sites.
May 3
A day of snorkelling around the island from a boat. It stops several times for us to get into water also around Ko Phi Phi Leigh, which is sheer cliffs, caves, and pretty coves - one used for filming "The Beach" a few years ago. Feels so good to be a small fish again in a big aquarium, or a big fish among schools of angelfish, barracudas, sergeant major fish / yellow and black striped/, my favourite parrotfish, clown fish, like Nemo playing hide and seek with moving anemones and hundred of others I don't know the names of. Feels a bit scary swimming over giant clams closing their big mouth in a quick spasm, huge black urchins with weird blue spots /eyes?/ and long spikes better not be touched and corals in shapes of huge mushrooms or flowers. Watching those creatures will never bore me, reading about it again however must be way on the boring side. Sorry.
May 4
At 9:30 we join a group interested to know more details about the events of Dec. 26. A volunteer guide shows us around and has pictures with 'before and after'. The morning of that doom day started with an unusual low tide on both sides of the 'bridge'. At about 10:30 the first wave came from the Ao Ton Sai bay and a few minutes later another bigger one from the Ao Lo Dalam bay, creating a huge whirlpool or as somebody called it a mud shake, destroying buildings and uprooting palm trees in the process. Tsunami came to Ko PP two hours after it hit Phuket - those here could have been warned and had enough time to run to higher grounds.
The afternoon Kamila spends climbing the nearby limestone cliff with an English couple we met on the tour. Geared with a proper harness, climbing shoes and quickdraws she accomplishes four hard climbs. She complains of sore muscles for the next couple of days. Nick takes turns belaying the girls; I just get sore neck from looking up and taking pictures.
May 5
To the tool shed for shovels and gloves. We are shy initially to join the volunteers at work, but it doesn't take long to get the hang of the tasks - picking or digging up the rubble - tiles, pieces of glass, metal and putting them on one pile, wood debris on another. Shower after five hours of working in the heat of the day feels heavenly.
May 6
Thai pancakes for breakfast again - banana and pineapple filling for me, banana and chocolate for Kamila. Walk up a 180m hill to a viewpoint to see the picture postcard view around. Instead of going back the same way, we decide / daddy would do it/ to go to the other side of the hill. The way is longer and steeper than we thought and when we reach the Hat Ranki beach I refuse to climb it back. The only other option is to take a boat. For that we have to wait for high tide so that one of the two boats on the shore can be launched. So for the next three hours we swing in hammocks, fly a kite, try snorkeling - too shallow though, - all these thanks to a gypsy family who lives on this side. Finally a long colourful boat takes us to our home bay just before sunset. At night - a fire show at "Hippie Bar" and packing.
May 7
A ferry to Krabi /2 hours/, a bus to Suratani /3 hours/, another ferry to Ko Samui. A night in a bungalow on the northern shore of this huge island at Maenam Villa.
May 8
Breakfast with a view - our table just three meters from the water of --- Gulf of Thailand - part of China Sea I guess. It's Mother's Day in Canada - I expect a special treatment. A trip to Big Buddha - a 12 m high silhouette with a sea behind it. A new temple is being built beside it - for a donation you can write your name on a brick which will be later used. Return home by motor taxi - two of us behind a man on a motorcycle. At night, playing 'spoons' with a Dutch family - two twin boys Kamila's age.
May 9
A catamaran speed boat to Ko Tao. Decide to stay and enroll for Kamila's dive course with Stingray Dive as they give us free accommodation in the package.
Dinner with a view /same sea/ on low tables and matresses on the floor.
May 10
First day of the course with the teacher - Joanna from England. After signing papers and agreeing to conditions Kamila spends the day watching instructional videos, listening to the teacher and taking mini written tests.
May 12
Started with a pouring rain the day didn't look good for snorkelling. It cleared out later and it was good enough for another day in the underwater coral gardens. Kamila is taking her written final test before noon and two dives in the afternoon. I take a boat trip around Ko Tao with four 1-hour snorkelling stops at different bays. It's better to have a partner to share the views and point at unusual shapes or fish. By myself however i can take any turn I want, stop and float over whatever catches my attention and wait. Once I see a camouflaged grouper I woudn't have noticed if I had swum faster; another time a green spotted eel emerges for a few seconds from under the coral; I take time watching the Nemo-like anemone fish; for a while I follow and hear a big parrot fish scrape the coral with its jaw; I see one fish with a tail down, not moving, dead,I wonder, and another one swimming around it and tickling it - playing I suppose; later I'm in a shaol of slender long mouthed silver crocodile needle fish / which I mistake for barracudas ha ha/ which like to swim close to the surface. Every time I start swimming covered with a new layer of coconut oil sun tan lotion - I must smell yammy because some fishes graze at me gently, taking me for food apparently. Just a remainder how relative and subjective things are: a young couple asked by me how they enjoyed the views tell me "nothing special". And it was their first snorkelling experience ever! Was it too high expectations case on their part or too low on mine? Or is it not cool to admit that something pleases you? Or is it a certain frame of mind that doesn't let you be too happy? I am in this condition sometimes - complaining instead of counting my blessings.
May 13
Kamila has her final two dives. Mama is watching her from the boat, enjoying the sea horizon and warm water for swimming. This is our last full day in the island. Tonight we are going to watch a video with Kamila and other divers made but one of the instructors.
May 14
The last breakfast 'with the view' and collecting shells on the beach. To Bangkok, first by cartamaran to Champhon /2 hours/, then an eight hour ride on a bus /air-con, reclining seats/. This time, for the first time we are spared another movie with another psycho on a killing spree or a monster on a prowl, determined to destroy humankind. This is the common choice for public viewing on buses and boats. In Canada these films would be rated 'extremely violent' for restricted audience. Once I even complained to the boat operators, obviously with no effect. We arrive in bangkok at 9pm in Kho San Rd area - to late to go anywhere else so we stay in the familiar cheap guesthouse. This time we are punished for trying to be too frugal - Kamila is bitten by bedbugs at night.
May 15
Breakfast with Chris, the Englishman met in Chiang Rai. At the table beside us sits the Dutch family with twin boys with whom we played spoons on Ko Samui. Small world again. The afternoon we spend in the weekend Chatuchak market buying jeans, walking shoes for Kamila, and a few trinkets. Kamila develops a strange rash on her skin. Allergy to something? At the pharmacy I get pills and cream. No sooner than the next night do we find out the real culprit - bed bugs!!! I spend a sleepless night fending off those buggers while Kamila sleeps in oblivion.
May 16
Off we go to Atlanta hotel for the rest two nights - this time we even splurge on air-conditioning. It's so hot and humid that every time I get outside my glasses get foggy!!! Today we see Bangkok from 309 m on top of the highest hotel. Later we have dinner at MK - there is a pot of boiling broth on the table and you cook your own soup from the ingredients you order from the menu. Our concotion turned pretty delicious. And the night we sleep under covers!! - first time in over a month.
May 17
Chinatown and the Golden Budda - made of gold worth today 41 million US dollars. Sukhumvit Road and Siam Society - nice respite among the busy noisy street on Soi 21. Back to Atlanta to take advantage of the swimming pool and cool room. We have to start packing. Our plane to Vienna leaves at 23:30.
May 18
Sorting out our possessions and initial packing last night give us a full day to take a few more trips in the city. First to the Khlong Toey fresh food market where Kamila buys three coconuts for her scraping and polishing project. I buy ingredients for the Tom Kha Gai soup: ginza, known also as galangal or Siamese ginger, kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, chillies, fish sauce and coconut milk, hoping I can smuggle them to Poland and cook the soup for my brother. With the produce, conquering this man made jungle in a tuk-tuk, we land in the Lumphini Park the largest and most popular park in Bangkok,where Kamila can freely make a mess scooping out the coconuts on the grass. and the mother can assume a reclining position contemplating the last hours in Krung Thep meaning "City of Angels". Later we hide from rain in a huge gazebo where two Thai men after watching Kamila working hard and hurting herself with a knife offer to help and empty two halves in no time. Kamila sulks and takes offence instead of being grateful , she wants to do the job herself. As a result, one coconut remains undone , there is no time later in the day. Another result , a typical new conflict between a practical mother and an overplanning daughter. Chris - the Englishman's appearance helps to smooth things out when he joins us for a stroll to the King RamaVI Monument and a trip back to the hotel's swimming pool. After 6 pm we leave the cool room and have the Tom Kha Gai in the restaurant downstairs. Looking out from the taxi to the airport we sadly say good bye to this steamy Asian metropolis, and even more sadly to our journey to unfamiliar places.
