LAND OF SMILES.

July 9, 2018

Two wonderful weeks later and our time in Thailand, known as the ‘Land of Smiles’, is coming to an end and we head for Bali. This country has such an eclectic range of environments, from the overcrowded bustling streets of Bangkok to the earthy, lush mountains of Pai to the white sand beaches and turquoise waters of Koh Phangan. Elephants, motorbikes, ridiculous amounts of curry and Thai noodles—you could say we backpacked and ate our way through this country with great joy.

After the elephant park, we spent a couple more days in Chiang Mai—the second largest city in Thailand with a huge coffee culture and lots of temples. It’s just south of Chiang Rai, a city getting a lot of attention right now because that’s where the Thai soccer team has been stuck in a cave for almost two weeks. Marley and I have been especially emotionally attached to this case since it has been on every Thai TV station we’ve seen, and we watched relieved as it was announced that the boys had been discovered alive almost five days ago. It’s amazing what an international effort has been put into rescuing the boys, and it has certainly been interesting being in Thailand and following the situation from the perspective of the people here.

We decided that we could have spent longer in Chiang Mai, since there is so much to see and do here, but we had to make it to Pai before leaving northern Thailand. Pai is an awesome, backpackers town in the lush green mountains about three hours north of Chiang Mai. It definitely has an earthy, hippy feel to it and a LOT of international visitors backpacking through. We stayed at an awesome hostel overlooking a beautiful rice field with a backdrop of mountains in the back...for about $9 a night. You can pretty much stay at a five star place here for the same price as a Santa Cruz burrito in SLO (my price comparison for everything). We met a couple cool girls at our hostel and explored the town with them that night. The next day we decided to try renting motorbikes because we heard it was the best way to get around—but to be ware of all the dumb, bad tourist drivers also trying motorbiking for the first time. It was the best decision. Zooming through the jungle roads, stopping at a cafe with a crazy view of the white Buddha on the mountain, we biked up to Pai Canyon which exhibited a neat series of narrow limestone (maybe?) paths above the canyon below. It started raining lightly so we decided to head back before it became too wet for us novice bikers to ride back (ha—continue reading to see the irony in this..).

The next morning we left Pai to head to our last destination—Koh Phangan, an island known for its Full Moon Party (which was not occurring when we went). But let me tell you a little story about transportation in Thailand. In order to get from Pai (north) to the southern island of Koh Phangan, we had to first motorbike to the bus station with our 25 pound backpacks, then bus three hours to Chiang Mai, then taxi from the bus station in Chiang Mai to the airport, then fly to the southern province of Surat Thani, where we spent the night, and then took a bus, two ferry rides and a taxi—eventually, 28 hours later, ending up at the Goodtimes Beach Backpackers hostel (and yes, it lived up to the name) on the beach. But all of that cost us around $85, including the flight. (Sidenote: I looked up why everything is so cheap in Thailand and it is because the average income here is about $6,000-8,000 per year.) We legitimately traveled by land, air and sea to get to the damn island—so if budget backpacking isn’t you’re thing, I’d recommend something else. Good thing we seem to be a little too used to transportation at this point, which unsurprisingly comprises a huge portion of traveling to explore the world. This brings me to a crucial piece of advice: you must learn to find enjoyment in transportation or else you will be remarkably unhappy doing a trip like this. Thankfully, Marley and I have lots of books to read (Marley is an admirable reader and is on the Harry Potter series for the 27th time), journals to write in, photos to take, blogs to blog (though I’m still not sure I know what a blog really is supposed to be like...), naps to sleep, sights to see, people to meet, and the much underrrated, daydreaming to do. And perhaps, all of the time and effort it takes to get to some of these little corners of the world, has made our time here even more special. 

We spent more time settled in Koh Phangan than we had anywhere else this trip—3 whole days. It’s a perplexing little anomaly of an island. Beautiful white sand beaches and warm turquoise water, but trash and plastic littered along the shoreline. Local beach towns with fun bars and hostels that all become vacant as soon as the infamous half-moon and full-moon parties wrap up and the thousands of tourists who just come to rage, party hop to a new island or place. (I swear they have a party for every phase of the moon here, I wouldn’t be surprised if a “1/8 waxing moon” party debuts soon.) Stray dogs roam free everywhere, sometimes outnumbering the people on the beach. Beautiful roads wind through the jungle to beaches all over the island, and run down shacks selling fruit and other goods line the streets. Italian and Mexican restaurants are interspersed between a few local Thai eateries; there is even a Western Saloon restaurant with Thai waiters all dressed up in cowboy hats and boots, which apppears strikingly out of place. 

We were grateful for our hostel, located right on a great beach and housing a super fun group of international backpackers from England, Italy, Holland and many other places, though surprisingly I think we were the only Americans there. The people who ran the hostel were all nice and a small Thai man who works there, Hao, and I bonded over the only common language we had, a game of pool. He tried dilligently to teach me some Thai and after about an hour, I felt so accomplished. I could count to ten.

On th second day there, we decided to rent motorbikes again to explore the north part of the island, feeling confident about our driving abilities after a day in Pai. It’s an exhilarating feeling, weaving quickly (but safely, mom, if you’re reading this) through a tropical island. You’re forced to be fully present and immersed in your surroundings, all your senses stimulated by the wind, the smells, the beautiful landscape—a way to experience a place differently than from within the confines of a car. We spent the day at an awesome beach called Koh Ma, and I hardly remember the last time I went in water without a wetsuit, much less in water that felt like an actual warm bath. But we learned a solid lesson about the weather that day—conditions on a tropical island, near the equator, during monsoon season...can change. Very rapidly. 

One second we were laying in the sun under a relatively cloudlesss sky,  and minutes later a light wind picks up from the west and on the horizon I noticed the sky turn a deeper blue. Less than 30 minutes later, what looked like a dark, ominous wall, started moving closer and the sun became hidden. We quickly grabbed our stuff and hopped our bikes because we wanted to beat the storm that loomed closely. After a couple minutes driving through the palm tree-lined roads, the winds had picked up so much that branches were being blown into the streets and huge water drops were drenching us. We pulled off, us novice naïve little Californians, and debated whether to try and make it back to our hostel which was still about 20 minutes away and involved a series of winding roads and hills, or post up and hope the storm blows past. There were still people on the road, but the Thai have virtually no sense of safety, and I watched a huge palm branch get flung into the street as the rain hit us horizontally, so we decided to not be dumbasses and wait this one out. We ended up posting up at a little restaurant owned by an Australian who moved to the island to take over this business, and we ordered apple pie and coffee while we waited through the mini-monsoon. No better way to wait out a tropical storm. An hour later, the storm had let up, the rain and winds had died down and we decided to finish the trek after wiping off our soaked bikes. The Australian warned us about the shifting winds on the other side of the mountain but said we’d be fine if we took it slow. It was getting dark so we hopped on and drove out. Twenty-five, very questionably sketchy minutes later, we arrived absolutely drenched but stoked, to our hostel. With a huge sigh of relief to be back, we met up with our new friends who also just biked through the monsoon, to cheers over a good ‘ol Chiang beer.