An Often Overlooked City

Lonely Planet called the city of Phetchaburi, "An often overlooked city." Hannah and I didn't want to overlook it so we had the bus to Bangkok drop us off.

Hannah and I were the only people to get off the bus which meant around 50+ people were indeed overlooking the city. I have to admit, it's kind of an easy city to miss if you're not looking for it. When the bus door opened up and Hannah and I jumped off, we quickly realized we had no idea where we were. Hannah, who I have appointed in charge of the guide book, quickly got her bearings and pointed us in the direction to the one guest house mentioned in the book.

After walking through the city for about thirty minutes -- and turning down various taxi drivers -- we arrived at the riverside guest house. Immediately we were greeted by a man with a scar across his face who spoke about ten words of English. Eight of the words he spoke though were, "You go trekking in jungle with me tomorrow?" There are only two things that could make a man with a scar across his face scarier: 1) If he carried around a big machete. 2) If his English translator's name was CHOKE. Hey, Mom and Dad, I'd like to introduce you to our new friend Tom:

(PICTURE: Once again, a smile can be disarming.)

The reason that Phetchaburi attracted Hannah and I is that it is located near Kaeng Krachan, the largest national park in Thailand. Hannah and I really wanted to go for a jungle trek but the prices in the book were a little above our budget. Luckily, Tom had already signed up two Germans for the trek which meant the total cost was cut in half.

The next morning we all piled into the back of a pick-up truck and headed to the park to look for wild elephants, monkeys, leopards and other animals, insects and birds.

(PICTURE: The Germans and Choke, our translator.)





(PICTURE: Hannah and I in the back of the pick-up truck.)

Immediately upon entering the park we saw a crab-eating mongoose run across the road. This is ironic because when we were children I used to call Hannah, "Silly Mongoose." Why? I don't know. Another thing I didn't know -- what a mongoose looked like.

A few minutes later while driving we all spotted a giant pile of dung on the side of the road. Tom immediately stopped the truck and jumped out. His excitement for big piles of shit couldn't be contained. I guess that comes with the territory of being a tracker. The poo belonged to a herd of elephants...and we were going to find them.

(PICTURE: Hannah was pumped to see elephant doody.)

Bathroom Signs

Hannah is on a big kick taking pictures of bathroom signs in different countries. Here's one sign that we saw at a rest stop that I think could work in any country:

Hot And Cold Water

(PICTURE: Hannah trying to flee the fleas...)

On the sixth day of our trip Hannah and I checked into Ban's Diving Resort on the other side of Ko Tao. Ban's was highly recommended to me by my buddy/blog fan Steve who took a dive course with Ban's a couple months ago. Hannah and I were originally going to take a course with Ban's too (Hannah to get her open water and me to get my advanced) but we opted not too. I'm glad we made this decision because frankly, the diving wasn't that good. I'm sure normally the diving on Ko Tao is great but the visibility this month was terrible. Out of all the dives I've ever done, these two were probably the worst.

Hannah was battling a cold and I told her she couldn't dive. Rule 1 in diving is not to dive if you're congested or sick. Hannah didn't put up a fight and decided to snorkel instead. She came out on the dive boat with me and went snorkeling while I was under water. She was also disappointed with the visibility and marine life and after freezing our butts off on the boat after, we decided to hit the mainland the next day.

That said, this blog entry isn't about the cold water in Ko Tao. This blog entry is about the cold water everywhere in Thailand. Besides our first night here, we haven't had hot water once in our hotels/guest houses/bungalows. For those of you who know my sister well, she isn't exactly a fan of showering. It's not so much that she opposes being clean but hates when her hair gets really wet since it takes forever to dry. Up until this night at Ban's, Hannah had only showered once (REMINDER: WE'RE ON A HOT SWEATY TROPICAL ISLAND!).

After going in the salt water, Hannah's hair was already wet so she sucked it up and decided to shower at the hotel. Once we were both ready we went and watched another gorgeous sunset. This one was highlighted by a stray dog trying to catch fish in the water. After the sunset, Hannah and I went for a walk along the beach to find a restaurant. While strolling, I noticed something strange: a thousand bugs were flying above Hannah's head. There were no bugs anywhere else except above Hannah's head. I pointed this out to Hannah and she said it must be the gel in her hair. She tried to shake the bugs by sprinting along the beach. I'd say she lost roughly half of them. The sad news is that this really just gave Hannah a reason NOT TO SHOWER AGAIN. It's been a week since that night...and no shower (although Hannah claims rinsing in a waterfall we went to counts!).

(PICTURE: A pretty picture of a dog trying to catch a fish at sunset. Oddly, this dog had less bugs on it than Hannah.)

Ko Tao

(PICTURE: On our private beach in Ko Tao)

Hannah and I have talked about hiking the Appalachian Trail together for quite some time. We have a grand vision of our journey from Georgia to Maine ending with the publication of a book entitled: "Hiking with Hannah. Backpacking with Ben." Depending on how you hold the book you can read about our trip from my perspective or from Hannah's. You know, a classic "he said/she said" type of book. And yes, only our parents would probably buy it.

Well, those dreams came to a crashing halt on the island of Ko Tao. When Han and I arrived on the island we decided to start off on the east coast which we had read was the remote side of the island. After docking on the island we were immediately confronted by a dozen taxi drivers all asking us where we wanted to go. We told them the name of the beach (Ao Leuk -- it's pronounced Ow-Lock...I think) and they instinctively all laughed. We had no idea why they were laughing and they didn't exactly elaborate. We chose one taxi driver and got in the back of his pick-up truck. (On a side note, most taxis here take some form of pick-up truck form where the passengers sit in the bed). The taxi driver told us he would take us close to the beach but couldn't go all the way there because "the road was bad." After about a seven minute drive we realized two things:

1. We had paid too much for our ride since it was really close and easily walkable (Again, bad job by Lonely Planet).

2. The road was really bad.

Here's a picture of Hannah after she slipped on the road:

As you can see the road is pretty broken up. After this first little fall I took Hannah's bag (big brother points!) so she could go slowly down the incline. While Hannah inched her way along -- and sometimes purposely used her butt sliding technique -- I had an epiphany: this road is no Appalachian Trail! At the rate we were going on this road, we would need at least a year to finish the trail.

Eventually we got to the beach and paid $12 for a bungalow. Besides us, only one other bungalow was occupied (late in the night a couple also came). There were so few people actually staying at the resort that we were actually outnumbered by stray dogs...and one took a shining to us.

Odds and Ends

Here are some other odds and ends from Ko Phanang:

1. I woke up one morning and Hannah was doing pilates on the beach. That was roughly 9 days ago. She's been complaining she was sore up until yesterday.

2. For the most part Lonely Planet has been a pretty poor source of information. Many of the time tables are wrong as well as nearly every quoted price in the book. We've also had much more luck finding tastier food on our own compared to their recommendations. However, they did recommend a kick butt place for sunsets -- Amsterdam Bar. Every night on Ko Phanang Hannah and I would drive up this hill to a bar overlooking the west coast of the island. The place not only had a beautiful view of the sunset but also amazing fruit shakes.

3. Hannah is a slob. Yes, a slob. She has the unbelievable ability to dump out her bag all over a room. This is a picture of a hotel we stayed in just for a night before departing the island. Notice my bag in the foreground versus hers in the background.

4. It seems to me that every place Hannah and I go to Bob Marley's voice is pouring out of the speakers. On Ko Phanang there is even a Bob Marley village near Sallad Beach...and about twenty dudes (Thai and foreign) who look like Bob Marley. This is just a general question: at any given moment, how many beach/island resorts/bars around the world are playing Bob Marley at the same exact time? My guess is at least 10,000. On Ko Phanang alone there are probably 75.

Waterfalls and Crocodiles

Despite my tender ankle, Hannah and I decided to go on a hike to a waterfall. If my injury wasn't enough to turn us back perhaps something more dangerous would. I don't know, maybe something like five guys in Army uniforms carrying M-16 machine guns at the start of the waterfall hike.

Yeah, when Hannah and I arrived at the park and started to hike these five or so guys with freshly polished guns crossed our path. Normally this might be a reason not to go hiking in unfamiliar woods but these guys seemed really friendly as they smiled and waved at us. A smile can really be disarming (although in this case I wish I had the arms).

So, Hannah and I ventured into the jungle. For the record, the voice in my head had spoke out earlier when I told Hannah we wouldn't go on another hike to the highest point on the mountain unless we had a guide. This hike we were told was easy enough to do on our own.

The hike was quite pretty with two different waterfalls and a well marked trail. When we got to the top of the mountain we discovered a sleeping hiker in a hammock and a great view of the island.

As we rested, I asked Hannah what animals were in the jungle. She opened up her Lonely Planet Island edition (thanks for the book, Steve!) and began to read. I forget all of the animals she said except one -- WILD CROCODILES.

Frankly, this scared the crap out of me. I can't remember if I blogged about it earlier this year or not (I'll search in a minute) but I have had FOUR dreams of a crocodile eating either a friend or a family member of mine so far this year (I usually have this dream after eating salty hot pots).
Each time the dream is about me and X (one time even my sister) walking through the woods when a croc jumps out and devours X. I try to fight off the croc in my dreams but soon am chased by it through the woods. When Hannah told me that there were crocodiles in the jungle I had a slight moment of panic. A minute later this appeared from under a rock:

It's hard to tell from this picture but that lizard is at least two feet long. It was a big boy. This lizard didn't scare me so much but it made me start to think, "What if some bigger reptiles are near." Hannah and I soaked in the view for another minute and took off...

Being A Good Big Brother

(PICTURE: this picture was taken at around 7PM on the beach. That's the beach restaurant. To get to this restaurant/our bungalow you need to traverse down a hill which is a heck of a lot darker...)

My ace travel adviser Adam Cooper told me that I had to go to the Ko Phanang night market to sample the "greatest chicken on a stick anywhere in the world."

After watching a beautiful sunset one night, Hannah and I drove to the night market. Unfortunately the chicken stand Adam recommended was out of out of chicken. All they had left were two pork sticks. I tried them and they were delicious. The sauce was really sweet and only peaked my interest on how the chicken would taste. The next night Hannah and I went back again an hour earlier...but the chicken was already sold out. All they had left this time were the chicken innards. I tried them...and they weren't so good.

But that isn't the point of this blog entry. The point is about me trying to be a good big brother. After the night market, Hannah and I rode carefully back to our bungalow. It was dark out but we managed to make it home without a problem...well, almost home. The only problem with the Ocean View Bungalows is that there is no driveway. At night I had to leave my bike parked on the street. From the street down to our bungalow is a treacherous step path with NO LIGHTS. Hannah and I didn't know there were no lights and thus didn't have a flashlight with us (Hannah was given a travel light as a present by a friend and I had my cell phone which handily has a flashlight built into it).

Those that know Hannah know that she's a klutz. A big klutz. She's had many falls in her time including one back in college that had left her with a recently discovered broken bone in her foot (this was discovered AFTER she ran the D.C. marathon). Well, I didn't want any sprains/broken bones on my watch so I told Hannah to wait by the bike (again making her wait alone on the street) so I could go fetch some light. I should tell you now that if you ask my Dad, there are two klutz's in our family. Hannah is one and I'm the other. I made it about four steps down the pitch black path before I twisted my ankle and fell. Whoops. The ankle is broken but it is still sore...a week later.