And here it was… the final few days of the trip. While it wasn’t quite over yet there was no more ‘next week’ and I had to actual start planning to get back to Bangkok and start that long ride home… but not… quite… yet…
Khao Lak is the popular name for a region on the Andaman Coast of Phang Nga Province that lies not far north of the Phuket. Khao Lak itself is actually one small village but is now used to describe a larger series of beaches/towns around the base of the mountains in the region. The Andaman Sea itself is the shallow coastal region of the Indian ocean that makes up most of the western coastline of the peninsula that is southern Thailand. That probably doesn’t mean much to you as a reader but in practice for me it meant it was a much less dense collection of tourists than Phuket itself. While the coast between some of the villages definitely had a number of quite swanky hotel there were collections of smaller hotels and guest houses, lots of locals actually living here and a variety of restaurants and shops. The big attractions of the area are two large national parks… one based around the mountains and waterfalls of the interior… the other a marine preserve about an hour offshore. Guess which one I was there for!
I’d ended up booking a strangely named bungalow called ‘The Mouth’ that was about halfway between two of the villages but walkable to both. Unfortunately because my flight was so late and then I had the roughly 1h15 drive I could tell the host was waiting up for me when I arrived. I did get to meet the welcoming party of two adorable mutts named Coffee and Latte before checking in and finally getting the shower I’d been aching for since sitting on the samui beach hours before. Unfortunately I also got the unwelcome news that they were changing my room after the first night. I wasn’t super happy about this as I was being picked up for my dive trip at 7:30 the following morning so I had to actually budget an early enough wakeup to unpack my scuba stuff and clothes for the day, repack (including my valuables) and trust that it would all end up in the new room. In the end it was fine but I grumbled. I had time for a quick glass of juice and a couple bananas before I was picked up and the minibus driver took a kind of baffling route to the pier… first backtracking down the main road then turning back and grabbing people at some quite fancy hotels (I was already debating an extra night here so was checking out prices on the places and couldn’t believe the variety between some very similar looking places.) Thankfully it wasn’t a full morning trip though as the pier turned out to only be about 20 minutes back south where it seemed most/all of the dive groups around departed. Access to the park requires a licensed operator and a reasonably high daily fee as they make at least some effort at preserving the area but I think they need to do more.
I’d strongly considered doing a liveaboard trip for my dive portion of the trip however prices were VERY high for anything that was still available when I was booking semi last minute. I’m not going to lie, I was also a little scared at how diving would go. I’ve only gone for one dive since losing a bunch of weight and my breath control is definitely still off. Divers will know what I mean, but basically my ability to keep at a level plane in the water by regulating my breathing intake amounts/speed. This combined with your weight belt and the amount of air in your buoyancy vest is what helps you ‘hover’ in the water. I still didn’t really know my weight belt needs at that point since I’m down another bunch of weight since my one dive in Greece last year (I’m closer after these dives but I think I really need a few more dives to zero it in.) In other words I was worried about flailing around like a newbie and wasting air and pissing off someone else who’d paid a fortune to be there too as I made them come up early. Sadly part of being a diving fan who lives in this terrible place for diving. I’m not super enthused about paying good money to go dive in West Hawk lake but there are definitely times when I wish I could go for a refresher dive not long before a trip that wasn’t just dipping in a swimming pool. That said… at this point I was aching to go diving. I know I don’t have many divers among my readers but there’s something about slipping under the waves and entering a different world that is the most soothing thing possible to me so I was absolutely ready.
Once at the pier I was assigned with two girls and another guy to a Spanish dive leader named Caro and we chatted a bit. The two young women were German (which would become a theme) and my personal dive buddy was Piotr from Poland. Eventually all the folks arrived, I gathered our boat was transporting two different dive shops worth of people but it was owned/run by the company I was using. Boarding was somewhat of a herding action as multiple boats were leaving for our group, another company was loading a giant way too large group of snorkelers and two other smaller dive boats loaded very nearby but at least not the same pier. My company was called Sea-Bees and seemed to be fairly well run, though nobody asked me for my dive card or to fill out any medical info in advance which is kind of a no-no. That aside they did at least have adequate medical stocks on both this support boat and eventual dive tender we were headed out to. The offshore marine preserve is the Similan Islands National Park and consists of a number of small-ish rocky/jungle islands about an hour and a half offshore. For a supposed marine preserve we saw a number of quite large cargo haulers passing between the islands and the mainland… you’d think they could stay outside the islands easily enough since I doubt anything that size was beelining for Phuket.
Eventually we saw the islands appear out of the morning haze… rocky domes topped with bright green trees surrounded by absolutely crystal clear turquoise waters and wish already visibly swarming the boat even before we docked with the actual dive tender called Stingray. We all bundled aboard with our gear (I’d only brought mask and fins and booties but some folks had full gear) and trundled upstairs to the observation deck where there was more fruit and cookies laid out. If you’re on a dive boat worth it’s salt you know you’re going to eat well. Unfortunately (and inexplicably for a hobby so reliant on lungs) the boat was full of Germans and fully half of them decided to light up a cigarette. So gross. I plonked myself down close to one of the railings despite the hot sun and tried to avoid the clouds. The various staff members unloaded the tender with whatever extra gear they’d brought from shore and lunch fixings etc then group by group we were called down for dive briefings and gear setup. I’d previously dived in relatively nearby waters on my previous Thailand trip (around Koh Lanta) so the fish forecast was about what I expected but I remained nervous as my dive leader guesstimated my required weights. I did at least get the lovely knowledge that these days a large wetsuit more than adequately fits me so no more trying to squeeze my shoulders into the largest ones they happen to have on the boat.
Once briefed our group loaded on to a zodiac and scooched a bit further up the coast before back rolling in at the head of a reef. Piotr was a nice guy but a bit of a high needs diver and went back and forth on whether he wanted Caro to take his camera in for him (he hadn’t adequately prepped his gopro for the situation however he did eventually get some nice shots.) He was also not great as a dive buddy as he had a tendency to swim off in random directions to shoot something with his camera and I’d turn around and he’d be heading the opposite direction of the gentle drift dive we were supposed to do along the drop. I was still fighting with my buoyancy a bit… this was definitely a bit too much weight but I counteracted it with a bit of extra air. Overall my consumption was decent but with the combination of trying to keep tabs on Piotr and the drift Caro had gotten a bit ahead by the time I was reaching the ‘time to signal her we should start ascending’ mark and I think Piotr was past it. This would have been fine if she’d turned around and asked for our current air despite the distance (visibility was phenomenal) but she didn’t for a very long stretch until I finally got close enough to tug one of her fins and signal. When we got above water and before the second dive she scolded us for not letting her know sooner but honestly… it was on her and to a lesser extent Piotr. I wasn’t in any danger as I was keeping tabs on my air and would have surfaced myself if I’d had to but she acted like we hadn’t been watching at all. Unfortunately getting back into the zodiac was really bad for me as though my leg hadn’t been hurting me too much for every day mobility… it was very much not a fan of lifting me+steel tank and gear+plus weight belt+however many pounds of absorbed water I had and I struggled up the ladder on that leg.
Once above water we got a delicious curry lunch and a bit of a break in the sunshine as the Stingray transferred over to one of the other islands. I know I’ve mentioned it before but a post dive hunger attack is like the post-swim snackies magnified by at least 4. I probably ate more curry than I did any other meal that trip and despite the super tiny galley on that boat this was some top tier green curry, spring rolls and some honey spiced chicken and rice as well. After lunch the smoking started again but thankfully because of the spot I’d chosen and the headwind it didn’t bother me as much. Piotr and I had a chat and I learned that he was older than he seemed and ran a recycling company back in Poland, he insisted on showing me some gnarly photos of his surgery after a motorcycle accident when his leg was reconstructed but I managed to get him to agree to send me the photos from his camera for these dives.
Dive #2 was in a gorgeous little group of rocks just offshore from another of the Similan islands, below the surface was a solid boulder garden that reminded me of some of my snorkeling spots in Fiji. Definitely some varied terrain but Caro had warned us that the current could surge here and she might be adjusting our path depending on it (and I’d privately warned Piotr to keep a closer eye on her so I didn’t have to try and bridge a gap between them again, thankfully his camera was low on power so he was a bit more restrained in what he chased after this dive.) Sure enough as we crested one area we got hit with a surge that more or less brought us to a standstill. Caro motioned us to squeeze between a gap in a giant bisected boulder and sure enough the surge lessened the moment we crossed the threshold. Annoyingly the girls had gotten to do the swim through below but I’d gotten tarred with Piotr’s brush and she had forbidden us to do it despite the fact that it was very open and I’d done way tighter swim-throughs previously.
We saw a number of lovely schools of fish on both these dives, trumpetfish, parrotfish, some wrasses, numerous lion/stonefish various kinds of blowfish, a ton of nudibranchs… but towards the end of the trip we ran into an old friend from my Fiji snorkeling… a Banded Sea Krait a very venomous (but not aggressive) sea snake that Piotr insisted on going to get a good shot of. I can’t say I blame him as they move in such an interesting way but it was as we tried to stay still in the current that my weight belt decided to break. I thought at first that the snap had come loose but as I very carefully stayed horizontal to keep it in place and signaled Caro for help I could tell that the other end of the buckle had simply pulled off the webbing. Unfortunately, when you’re sitting there in your BCD it’s not exactly easy to get the angle on it to see anything without taking it off, at which point you risk dropping some/all of the weights and completely pooching your buoyancy. Eventually she managed to get it secured temporarily and we surfaced where I again got yelled at for not managing my air despite the fact that no… I had… I’d shown her that I was at 70 (the ‘it’s time to go up’ pressure) at the appropriate time it just happened to be while she was fighting with my weight belt and presumably she forgot. I also surfaced with more left in my tank than one of the girls so I’m not sure why I got singled out given I was the one dealing with a minor emergency caused by their equipment. Side Note: I was not super surprised to discover the next day that she’d only been a dive instructor for a couple months at that point when she revealed that fact to the girls as we were enjoying the ride back in. She was nice and a good diver but I think needs a bit more seasoning.
I was definitely ready for a break after that so I was glad I didn’t have a night dive overnight planned like I’d originally considered. I fired up some tunes as we transferred to the tender as it was noisy enough conversation wasn’t really possible, not that that mattered as most of the passengers dozed off within 10 minutes of leaving the Similans and starting the transfer to shore. I wasn’t quite at that tired state yet so I watched the waves fly by and waved back at the fishermen heading out for an evening’s catch (likely squid fishing I think based on last time in this area.) Thankfully the arrival back at the pier wasn’t quite the same level of simultaneous action and we managed to get up and out and assigned back to minibuses relatively quickly. Hilariously at this point no one had asked me for money or even a credit card as a guarantee and I wondered what they would do if I checked out of my hotel tonight and didn’t return for day two as all they had was my email address and a passport number they’d never verified. Once back on board our bus Sarah (one of my new German dive buddies) and I quickly discovered that the routes indeed seemed to be prioritized by how fancy your hotel was as our driver drove past both of our places twice to hit more outlying resorts for the boomer couples in our car before doubling back to hit her tiny hostel and my smallish guesthouse. This was confirmed the next day when the driver went even more out of his way. Back at “The Mouth” I said hi to my new pup friends before getting an escort to my new bungalow, more or less a twin of the first one but with a worse view. Thankfully all my stuff was waiting and the shower was just as good as that was all I cared about at that moment. I spent a solid 20 minutes cleaning salt and generally rejuvenating then went out on my balcony and read my book as the sun slowly sank down over the ocean (though I could only see the treeline ? .) Honestly I was pretty pooped though and succumbed to the lure of the bed for an hour of semi-dozing watching a tv show before forcing myself up and out to dinner.
The lady at the front desk had recommended a place on the same sidestreet as we were located but their prices seemed a bit high so I decided to do a quick reconnoiter up on the main drag first. In doing so though I walked past the local place (called the Happy Snapper) and found a pretty pleasant garden atmosphere with open air tables and a little combo playing cover songs. I followed through and had a quick look at the main drag but nothing within a ten minute walk really looked or sounded great so I turned around and grabbed a table under a palm tree and ordered a curry and a cider. The curry wasn’t bad (though they charged extra for rice :p) the cider was wet and delicious and the band was fun so it turned out to be probably the perfect laid back/enjoyable evening I needed. I ended up staying for the rest of the band’s set, tossed them a fiver and was asleep probably fifteen minutes later in prep for another early morning the next day.
Thankfully the next day was a bit less hectic all around… I got up a bit later, had time to actually sit down and eat some pineapple and drink some juice rather than just grabbing bananas to go. Also got to give Coffee and Latte a thorough cuddle which was nice as I was really missing my girls back home. Once back at the dock I was finally asked to pay and we eventually repeated the trip out to the islands… though with only about half the passengers we’d had the day before. The same two girls were with Caro (Sarah and another) and I had a new partner named Axel who was a very large man in width and height. Otherwise the routine was the same other than us hopping off the tender instead of the zodiac or big boat this time. I was less of a fan of that as it’s not set up with a big rear deck with space for putting on fins etc so there’s some awkward squeezing about. Axel had apparently paid for an extra large tank but was either otherwise inexperienced or otherwise rusty and actually turned off my air while doing the buddy check which uh… thanks buddy? Once we were in the water he wasn’t a ton better as I ended up having the opposite problem I had with Piotr in that every time I turned to check on he’d be literally on top of me, or right under me or I’d actively have kicked him because he wasn’t watching where he was going. He also burned through that giant air tank pretty quickly and we were back above the surface in under 30 minutes. To my frustration Caro scolded us about air use again even though I’d finished with the most air left of anyone other than her. Apparently Axel had gotten a bit excited with his camera as we saw another krait and I guess his desire to take photos had clashed with a fear of snakes and he churned through some air…
We had a longer trip between dive sites this time at the lunch break which was handy because lunch included some of the best deep friend chicken wings I’ve ever had (again despite a tiny boat galley) and I pounded back a few more than I should have. The girls and I chatted and enjoyed the sun and breeze and Caro came and sat with us for a bit as well. Eventually Axel showed up as well, revealed himself to be a dentist and asked about my leg and said he thought I should get it checked by a doctor just in case for infection. To be honest I was already leaning this direction but hadn’t wanted to be warned off diving so I’d delayed a bit. This wouldn’t be an issue after today at least and I’d spotted an ‘international clinic’ near-ish to my hotel.
Thankfully Axel’s air use was more under control for the second dive but he continued to constantly be right up in my business. My annoyance factor for this skyrocketed as, perhaps feeling (correctly) like she hadn’t been checking enough the day before Caro kept turning around… but always right after I’d had to dodge the guy… so I was either too high, or using my arms to backpedal (when diving properly your arms should basically be motionless unless you’re using a camera or a light or something) and she’d make a motion to me to level out or get down to her level etc etc etc… basically always something that wasn’t going to be an issue had she turned around 30 seconds before but I’d had to dodge because Axel had come close to kicking out my regulator or whatever. It was incredibly frustrating since otherwise I felt like I was fully back in my diving groove and indeed when we got back to the boat I had fully 30BAR left and wasn’t particularly far behind her for air usage. Axel was a nice guy but I honestly needed to say something after and I waited til he was upstairs and said ‘for the record, every time you were scolding me for being too high it was cause I’d just dodged Axel’ and thankfully the other German girl said ‘yes I saw him kick you in the face at least twice.’
Highlights for day two were the second krait, a number of anemone fish of black and orange nemo cousin types, humungous schools of smaller glassfish with a few larger shoals of things like Angelfish, surgeon fish, various snappers and trevally and ooooh barracuda! (and many more) I also briefly saw an octopus but he jetted away before I could point him out to camera boy sadly. Annoyances aside, this was a gorgeous place to dive. The water was perfect, despite the offshore location current and surge were never too huge a problem and visibility was absolutely phenomenal as you can see from the photos. I gather as monsoon season arrives the visibility can get much worse but my understanding is diving more or less stops here for a couple months after the end of February which is no doubt good for the health of the park as well. I definitely plan to go back and do a liveaboard between these and the more northern/remote Sulin Island group at some point in my life. I still think they’re kind of overpriced but my Australia liveaboard remains a top 3 experience of my life so I’ll do it someday. This trip also reminded me that I really should get around to getting a dive computer.
Riding back in an hour later we logged our dives and chatted a bit about our fave dive sites. Sarah made us all jealous about her future dive plans for her current trip (I gather she was on a post school long term one like yours truly once did.) We’d also celebrated during the dive as that was her 50th trip down which made me realize I really need to consolidate my various books into the PADI app and figure out how many I’ve done now. Axel reiterated that I should hit the doctor and I assured him that I would.
A circuitous trip back to the mouth later I stopped at the front and asked if they recommended any particular clinic or if the close one was fine. Unfortunately for once language barriers were an issue but I eventually ended up on the phone with the close one and they said ‘we have no one right now if you want to come’ I told her I’d have a shower first but apparently I missed the aspect (or more likely she’d told the guy who didn’t have the best English) that they’d send a car. Instead I walked twenty minutes which was peanuts compared to what I’d been walking lately but somewhat exasperated the nurse who I’d talked to on the phone when I arrived. The clinic itself was brand new looking and spotless and I was quickly checked in, had my vitals taken and all the usual urgent care jazz. At this point I still had a deep gash which I’d been washing and cleaning daily with a local betadine clone and covering with a waterproof bandage for diving, a couple mostly healed scabby scrapes and a giant bruise and various associated bruised areas. There was also just generalized pain associated with standing in certain poses or after sitting for a while but I was fairly certain that was just the large welt straining the existing skin. The nursing staff were super great, I was less impressed with the doctor whose initial exam was basically ‘yeah that leg looks much larger than the other one’ (yeah, thanks chief) as he sent me in for an x-ray. I explained that I’d probably walked 50+ kilometers on it at this point so I doubted it was a full break if anything but I was all for an x-ray to make sure. I was less in favour of zero lead covering for my other areas while they did the x-rays but at least it wasn’t a chest film. At first glance as the x-ray came up I could tell there was no major break but waited for news on hairline issues as they sent me back to the “ER” exam room.
The nursing staff spent the intervening time doing a deep re-clean of the wound, commenting that I’d done a good job but they wanted to be sure all the debris was out. No complaints here and they had me all cleaned and meticulously bandaged by the time the doc came back in and confirmed there was no break but that ‘my bones are very big’ to which I just replied ‘I used to be much heavier.’ Armed with some new higher dose antibiotic ointment, seven days worth of oral horse pills to combat possible infection and a hefty bill for about $350 Canadian I took advantage of their car service this time and got dropped off down at the night market… that it turned out didn’t run this particular night… alas. Thankfully I realized I was actually near Sarah’s hostel and had seen a small Burmese place there so managed to get a big bowl of Burmese curry noodle soup to finally chase the last of the diving hungries away. Absolutely delicious thick and filling with a golden mango shake on the side. I couldn’t resist stopping at the happy snapper on the way back for one drink but the band called it quits earlier than night so that was all it was.
Unusually for me this had been basically the only part of the trip I’d done seat of my pants (though I’d only booked THE MOUTH right before the trip) I had nothing planned for the last few days of the trip and actually decided I’d be up for another day or two in Khao Lak rather than back in Bangkok and I’d maybe do a tour of the land based park. Unfortunately because it was a Friday night and this area is actually a place that some more local folks (both Thai and nearby countries) spend a long weekend I was out of luck for anything that wasn’t $250 a night. In retrospect I should have done one more night in the islands, one more night in Khao Lak and just returned to Bangkok the morning before I left but oh well… hindsight. It just happens that this trip was at absolute peak season of a busy year so I couldn’t be as flexible as I sometimes am on these trips.
With some difficulty I booked myself on a flight back to Bangkok the next night and headed to bed.
Since my flight wasn’t until 9pm I left my bags in the hotel lobby and hiked down towards the nearest of the villages where I’d been the night before. While I’d seen the boat sitting near Sarah’s hostel and the Burmese place I hadn’t had a good look so I walked over and confirmed that yes… this was the Thai police patrol boat that washed this far inland during the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. I wrote a whole mess of words about the tsunami when visiting Phuket on my last trip here so I won’t go back over everything but you can definitely see how wrecked this area must have been. Given it’s a series of narrow beach plains on a relatively unprotected coast it’s not really surprising. Given I didn’t have the time on land to explore the whole area I didn’t see any of the other monuments but there are apparently a number of them scattered around the ‘khao lak’ area. After marveling at the boat (it honestly looks as if it was purposely moved there) I walked through the village of Bang Niang down to the beach. There are definitely signs on the beach that this was once a bit more developed. The road down to the beach ends in a number of giant jagged blocks of concrete as though there was once a pier there, the sand trip is narrow despite the wide bay and feels like it was probably once much more plentiful and a few of places closest to the beach either feel underdeveloped or recently/haphazardly repaired. This too is probably where some of these new larger resorts came from though I suppose it’s also likely that this area being farther from Phuket has been lagging slightly behind on the recovery as tourism gets back to record levels around here.
I sat on the beach quite a while and enjoyed my last gasp of ocean for this trip. I think if I return to Khao Lak I’ll probably do the liveaboard thing ending here then spring for a fancier oceanfront hotel for a couple days just to savour the view. Spending 200+ a night when I’m spending the entire day out diving (for another couple hundred) has never seemed like a particular good use of money though. It was a HOT day though, I think 38 with the humidex and I decided to indulge and let myself have a coke and a sit under a fan. This little town was just as German focused as the rest of the area with every second shop having a sprechen sie Deutsch sign up. I couldn’t resist posting up at a cute open air café at the intersection of two roads and ordering their special schnitzel (yes again!) and a large coke to refuel. While it wasn’t in the same tier as the one at chinchilla it was absolutely delicious and made for some great people watching for an hour or so. I’d actually hoped to pick up some form of khao lak diving tee shirt but I never actually saw the physical location for my shop and none of the other shops seemed to have merch. Even the general market stalls only had the same generic mass produced thai beer company tees you see everywhere here. I remember when I dove on Koh Tau there were definitely large amounts of diving related apparel on offer. Sadly while exploring I also discovered there was a beer festival planned with what looked like a ton of extra food carts and bands, unfortunately it wasn’t kicking off until later that evening. In the end I just wandered around the town a bit longer before grabbing a gelato.
Walking around Khao Lak was another reminder of the schizophrenic thai take on cleanliness and respect for property. Garbage tends to pile up a lot here. I’m not sure if that’s a lack of people in the jobs to take it away (this seemed likely on Pha Ngan) or just lack of infrastructure. Given the tropical climate this can sometimes be unpleasant but I also know it’s not a HUGE problem like it can be some places. The scourge that is plastic bottles is definitely a big problem and I’d frequently see locals just tossing them out of their car windows. Yet at the same time many things are spotless and most public areas are well groomed. We’ve talked previously about the less than plentiful respect Thai folks have for leaving the sidewalk passable for pedestrians and that was certainly the case here as well. Yet at the same time I’ve seen multiple times on this trip a business just wrapped in chicken wire or a tarp to keep out the most casual of walk by theft and nothing more. Likewise while walking khao lak I saw a few public laundromats that are literally just shiny new machines under the barest of protections from the rain, often down a dark alley… can’t help but think of how that would be stripped in Winnipeg within an hour.
After hiking back to my digs I discovered a bigger problem… finding a cab to the airport was a bit of a problem. I’d mentioned to the lady on the morning crew that I wanted one but hadn’t given her a firm time and it seems as if no one was in the mood to drive to Phuket that evening (perhaps they were all going to the beer festival) but in retrospect given it was Friday I was probably running into the issue that most of the cabs who did that run had already driven in to catch incoming rides. In the end my lady at The Mouth found me one for $50ish and I headed in to town. It was just as well that I’d planned to go early as traffic was pretty wild at a few chokes points and it took fully 1h45 to get back vs. the 1h15 I’d been expecting. That said, as I got to the airport and checked in I had some good news. I’d purposely booked the late flight as it was significantly cheaper than the one leaving 2 hours earlier (roughly 2/3 the cost) but when I checked in about 2.5 hours early the attendant said ‘We can put you on the earlier flight if you want.’ Heck ya! This got me into Bangkok early enough to not have to go straight to bed, though to be honest it didn’t take me long to find myself there anyway.
I’d sprung for a hotel in a different neighbourhood of Bangkok from my usual haunts. I figured it would force me to explore some new areas and check out a new neighbourhood. Unfortunately it was a bit of a dud. The immediate locale was not particular exciting after dark except for one alley which is the new hive of go go bars and questionable goings on for tourists. The hotel itself was actually less pleasant than my cheaper place over near Khao San and had a dank mildewy smell every time I returned to the room until the AC had run about ten minutes, alas I should have just booked myself at one of the old standby chain and I could have had a nice soak in the pool to end my day. However, it was SUPER convenient to the subway so I ended up just shuttling all over the city from there for relative peanuts (most rides were $1-2.)
Since it was the weekend I ended up spending the next day at the Chatuchak Weekend Market which is an absolutely enormous flea market near the train station. The variety of goods available is truly bonkers though it’s thankfully semi organized into rough categories as otherwise the chaos of the tightly packed stalls would make it unnavigable. One end of the market is dedicated to art with everything from single artists in tiny stalls to small climate controlled rooms with fancier displays. I actually saw a few things I really loved but everything trended towards enormous canvasses which… even taking advantage of the shipping companies helpfully nearby with tubes and postage would not likely have fit anywhere in my house. Definitely more focused on the McMansion crowd with their giant 2 story vestibules. There are large sections for clothes and as I’d hoped I found some very cool shirts that were designs by local artists in amongst the beer tee stalls. In between are large swaths of stalls dedicated to home décor, kitchenware, used clothes (honestly few deals to be had here I was kind of surprised), pet supplies, plants and fake plants as well as books/antiques/handicrafts at one end. The crowd is an odd mix of locals and tourists, particularly in the long canyons of the inner stalls.
I knew I was somewhat pushing my luck on my suitcase weight already once everything was loaded back in both in terms of space and weight so I tried not to go crazy but I did pick up a couple of the aforementioned tees and some Chinese style soup spoons along with a few other small treats between this and later market visits. It was an absolutely stifling day again with the smokey haze that always makes it worse in Bangkok. Eventually I gave in to the lure of various great smells and scouted out for some food. Very enthusiastic google reviews and a packed house led me to a stall selling ‘boat noodles’ which was a hole in the wall with a simple menu of ‘we have it til we don’t’ noodles. I ended up getting fat rice noodles and braised pork in a peppery savoury broth that was probably top 3 for my meals in Thailand this trip. Super weird recommendation to make to someone but yeah… boat noodle stall in the middle of the weekend market in Bangkok, top tier noodles! It was hot enough that after wandering a while after lunch it was time to find some shade so I hopped back on the subway and wandered around the district near my hotel again, still not super exciting but a little bit cooler.
Later that night I decided to check out the Chinatown weekend night market which I’d never been to before. It was again thankfully a quick subway ride but I wasn’t expecting just how busy it would be, mostly because they don’t actually shut down the road in question they just slightly widen the sidewalks with metal barriers.
I’m not sure if the level of decoration was normal or it was just the fact that we were only a week and a half after lunar new year at this point. It was a bit of a different vibe than most of the night market’s I’d attended this trip but the food was phenomenal. I started with some great greasy noodles with pork and egg, later found some shrimp dumplings that were delicious if rather heavy on the msg… then finished with an amazing BBQ pork bao. Also gave in to a craving for ice cream in the form of this marshmallow wrapped then toasted ice cream bar that was incredibly messy but tasty. It was definitely an adventurous day culinarily.
The next morning (my last day) I decided to meander across the city with the vague idea of checking out some of the parks and seeing a new neighbourhood or two. Lumphini park was described to me as the “Central Park” of Bangkok. I don’t know if I’d go that far but it was indeed an expansive green space in the midst of the city core. I’d picked up a cinnamon croissant from a bizarre little food stall market under the freeway and walked past the US Embassy (flicking a quick double bird at captain Tariff) before making my way through the gates. I ate my croissant watching a monitor lizard sunning itself until some dumb girl got too close and scared it back into the water. Thankfully it turned out the park is more or less overrun with monitors and I saw a number of other ones sunning or swimming away from the main path. Very neat to see as a prairie boy though I know in parts of Thailand they’re super common. The park itself is a pleasant green oasis that unfortunately seemed to be undergoing a bunch of maintenance at this particular moment. There were a number of public art installations (frequently friendship donations from other nations) and ponds and lakes. I’m not sure how the monitors feel about the swan paddleboats but I imagine they mostly stick to the areas people aren’t blundering.
Wandering the rest of the day wasn’t super eventful. I mostly people watched and tried to dodge roadworks. One long avenue I had to walk down a public works team had opened all the sewer grates for about 4 blocks but left no warning barriers up so you were one stumble away from going headfirst into an inky horror. I eventually ended up back down in Chinatown and picked up a few more small gifts from a stall I’d seen my first visit. My other goals was (again) food related and I tried out a back alley curry bar that was recommended in my old guide book and a website I’d found. It’s basically a random Chinatown alley but they have signs up pointing you in the right direction. Two large serving carts with vats of curry boiling away. You choose which curry, you get a bowl, you pay extra if you want some Chinese sausage added… then you pull up a tiny red plastic stool in an alley filled with shophouses and you devour a delicious meal for sub $2. Again this was worth the special trip and something I’d seek out again.
Sadly it was time to head back to Canada quite early the next morning so I ended my last day with a trip to a Michelin starred restaurant near my hotel doing classic Thai I treated myself to a phenomenal lemongrass, lychee and rum cocktail… some shrimp cakes and a delicious curry… and probably spent as much as I’d spent on the previous 10 Thai meals that trip. Was it good? Yes. Was it worth that much more? Definitely not. I’d visit again though, ideally with someone else to sample a few more things… but I pity the people that come to Thailand and only eat in this sort of place.
As I walked back to my hotel, dodging yet another hooker trying to grab my wrist as I passed cowboy alley I caught myself thinking about how great this trip had been. I know it’s been obvious in this travelogue but food is a huge part of what I love about coming here and this trip had demolished even the massive expectations that had been set by the previous trip. I managed to both see my old faves and make some new discoveries. Some I’d repeat, some I wouldn’t. I had regrets about not doing a couple things but they’re relatively minor and will just go on the list for next time because there’s little doubt I’ll be back in Thailand before long. Honestly I’m surprised it took me this long to be back. I suspect next time I may try a different time of year and make a stronger attempt to just completely avoid Bangkok except as airports require it (I wish flying in to Chiang Mai direct didn’t add so much to the cost.) Despite that, I think I enjoyed Bangkok more this time than last. It’s a great city but I definitely enjoy exploring the rest of the country more. Next trip it’s definitely time to hit the east/northeast of the country and to do more diving (maybe bookend the trip with it next time.) In general it’s probably time to push out of my comfort zone a bit more next trip and I’ll probably try to add Laos on to my trip and possibly another side trip (I think I’m bumping up and doing four weeks next time if I can.)
Thankfully the flight back home was faster and my bet on booking an aisle seat in one of the shorter rows at the back of the plane with an empty middle seat next to me paid off and it stayed empty for the long leg. Making up for my ukranian friend last year by having an empty seat next me for both of the trans-pacific flights this time! Of course… I returned home to find we were in the midst of a nasty cold snap and instead of at least a slight improvement I got again and 70ish degree C temperature flip… alas.
The highlights this trip were definitely the food, the elephants and the diving unsurprisingly… the low points were definitely the complications in travelling to/from Pai even if I mostly enjoyed my time there. Lessons learned? 1. Pre-book Pai travel in advance 2. It’s probably time to get some better earplugs for sleeping. 3. Find a woman who dives/friend who dives who actually travels so I don’t have to play dive buddy roulette.
Overall recommendations for someone thinking of going?
-Thailand is a beautiful country and honestly kind of ‘Asia on easy mode’ for English speakers especially with modern smartphones. Just be willing to get out of your comfort zone a bit and you’ll have a much better time. Don’t be the American woman with her tunafish.
-Plan for some time to adjust to the heat, it’s definitely a brick wall when you first arrive.
-Don’t cram your schedule too tight but also make sure you get outside Bangkok.
As always I’m happy to discuss any of my trips further or give you some pointers if you’re interested in going. It’s a very solo traveller friendly country even if you’re a bit older than the backpacker crews those words bring to mind.
Stay tuned for one post featuring some photos I missed early…
