In order to get to the ferry we needed to take a longtail and them climb onto the ferry, which was a bit adventurous, as usual. The inside of the boat looked a bit like a wide-body plane, and it’s got 116 seats. Even though the boat looked flashy and cool from outside, the inside was different. You could smell the thousands of sweaty travellers who had used this vessel before us. Besides, I’m not sure when was the last time they cleaned that boat, and I also saw quite a few cockroaches. But at least the damn thing was pretty fast. We reached Ko Bulone at 10:20.

I had intended to stay inside the boat in order not to stress my sunburn too much, but the smell was unbearable. The aircon tried its best but did not manage to beat the smell. So at last I went to the upper deck, where you’ve got no protection from the sun. Actually, it was not too hot up there, because the speed of the boat was good enough for a refreshing breeze, but I was clearly afraid of burning my skin. But then again, the view was great. There are lots of small and not-so-small islands here that already look a little bit like the ones in Phang-nga bay.

After passing Ko Talibong we reached Ko Muk (or Ko Mook) at …, where of course again the treacherous longtail transfer to the beach took place. The beach looked quite nice, we could see a rather large resort with a swimming pool behind the trees. The resort looked well-planned, since it didn’t spoil the natural character of the island.

A few minutes later we reached Ko Ngai. We didn’t have to practise our balace again, because Ko Ngai Resort has a pier, so there’s no need to use longtails for the transfer. Those who don’t stay at Ko Ngai Resort will have to pass a treacherous trail along the rocks to reach the main beach where most of the accommodation is located – pretty dangerous when you have to carry heavy bags.

Noom and I didn’t have to do that because we were staying at Ko Ngai Resort. Right after check-in we had to realize we also had to do some hiking because our bungalow was on a hill, overlooking the bay. Great view, but pretty hard to get up there in the midday heat.

After taking a short rest we walked along the trail to the main beach. The beach looks good, not many guests there, but actually it was rather late in the afternoon so we didn’t explore the area but just stayed under the first tree we could find and slept for a while.

Our first stop was a snorkeling location off Ko Hin Ngam.

Next we went to see the beautiful stones at Ko Hin Ngam again, which was not very interesting for Noom and me, because we had already seen it. We realized there were much more people on the island this time, mostly Thai groups. We had planned to take a look at the soft corals at Ko Jabang next, but there were too many people at that place so we gave it a miss and headed for Ko Yang instead, which was a really good place to snorkel as well.

Next we stopped at White Sand Beach at Ko Rawi for lunch. The water at the beach was literally littered with longtail boats, and the campground was crowded with Thai tour groups. When we found out that these groups were planning to go to exactly the same places we wanted to go to, Man decided we stay longer at White Sand Beach to avoid the crowds. Noom and I preferred to stay on the beach anyway, so we really liked that decision. So I went exploring the corals right at the beach (which are actually really nice) and later took a nap while Noom slept during all of our stay.

I must say the longtails boats here at Tarutao/Lipe are starting to annoy me. Their engines appear to be much older and noisier than at Krabi. They kinda spoilt that beautiful scenery at White Sand Beach because they were constantly moving in and out of the area, so you could never enjoy a moment of tranquility. Another noise ingredient were the tour groups. Thais, as gentle as they may be when you talk to them, tend to get very noisy when they travel in groups. Ko Rawi was no exception to this.

Our next stop was Laem Song at Ko Adang, which is the National Park’s campground there, but before we got there, we stopped at Ko Jabang to see the Soft Coral. This time there was no current, the water was clear and the colors of the corals really bright and beautiful, but unfortunately I could not dive down to take some close-up photos because the water above the coral was full of tourists and there was a big chance of hitting someone on the way up.

Ko Adang’s beach was not as not crowded. What a relief! While the others in our group hiked to some view point where you’re supposed to get a nice view of Ko Lipe, Noom and I decided to sleep on the beach. The sand here is not as nice as at Ko Rawi, it’s rather shredded corals and shells than sand. But nonetheless, there’s a lot of shade and the water is clear. The beach is rather steep, not shallow as most Thai beaches. It seems the beach option we had chosen was a good one, because the other members of our group didn’t look too impressed with the view. We stayed until 5:30 pm then went back to Ko Lipe.

Tags: Ko Lipe, Ko Tarutao, Andaman, Thailand Beach

Today we don’t want to do any tours but stay on the beach and relax. Our plan is to spend the hot hours of the day with massage and with planning the remaining days of our trip, so first we head to the Internet room and check information about Ko Ngai and Ko Lanta. Internet is very slow (as everywhere on the island) and costs a whooping 3 Baht per minute.

So after having spent almost 300 Baht online without coming to a final conclusion, we finally connected our laptop to our mobile phone and surf via GPRS. Seems to be a little cheaper and faster than the Internet cafe solution.

We decide to leave Ko Lipe on Sunday and head for Ko Ngai, where we will stay for 4 nights. After that we’ll move on to Ko Lanta. At Pakbara Speed Boat Club we’re buying our boat ticket Ko Lipe – Ko Lanta and also finalize our bookings at Ko Ngai and Lanta. It’s now almost 2:30 pm, so we move on to a one-hour foot massage. When we’re finally on the beach, the sun is pretty low already, but that’s good news for my brown-reddish skin.

Tags: Ko Lipe, Ko Tarutao, Andaman, Thailand Beach

Despite such annoyances, we got up at 5:30 am in order to have some time to wake up before we had to meet Man at 5:50 am. He arrived on time and we strolled from the Tourist part of Ko Lipe over to the Chao Leh (sea gypsies) village on the other side of the island, which was a 5 or 10 minute walk. When we arrived at the Eastern beach, the sky was just starting to get a little pink, so we were right on time. Unfortunately there were quite a few clouds blocking the sun on the horizon, but the resulting sunrise was still nice. Not exactly nice were the tons of trash scattering the Chao Leh village. I will never understand why people would want to live under such conditions and not move all their trash to a central dump. It would make their village so much nicer and safer.

At 7:30 we had breakfast. I must say I don’t like Bundhaya’s breakfast too much. The bacon is 60% pure fat and 40% meat, the ham doesn’t look to promising either. The bread is ok, and so are the fried eggs, but someone should tell the “master of the eggs” how to make decent omelettes, because his are far too oily and don’t really taste good. You can try the Asian treats, but if you’re not too fond of squid (like me), it’ll be hit and miss for you. Another option you have are corn flakes. The juices are not fresh, which is a shame in a country like Thailand.

At 8:30 we met Man again to go on a boat trip to several islands and snorkeling locations. It was quite a long trip before we reached our first stop, a snorkeling spot just off Ko Dong.

Next our boat moved further West along the shoreline of Ko Dong. This island looks like a marvelous beach spot. There are numerous small beaches along its coast, all in their natural condition, so lots of trees and shade right behind the beach. No tourists. A destination if you want to rent a longtail boat for a day. We actually stopped at another snorkelling location before we stopped for lunch at Ko Rokroy.

Tags: Ko Lipe, Ko Tarutao, Andaman, Thailand Beach

The day began very early, at 4 am, since we had to check out from our hotel and arrive at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport by 5:50 am in order to check in on time for our Air Asia flight to Hat Yai, departing at 6:50 am. The night before our departure, we had called 1681 and ordered a taxi to pick us up at our hotel at 5:15 am. This worked perfectly: as promised, we received our confirmation call at 4:40 am, the driver arrived well before 5:15 and took us to the airport in less than 30 minutes.

Checking in was also no problem. While there were long queues at the counters for Air Asia’s international flights, the domestic counters were deserted. So without any delays we could move on to our gate. Unusually (at least according to my experience with Thai Air Asia flights) boarding started on time and we even took off from Suvarnabhumi right on time. After a boring flight we arrived at Hat Yai International Airport at 8:20 am, as scheduled.

From that moment on things were getting more interesting because it’s not too easy to get to the islands of Tarutao National Park, but we were soon relieved: the minivan, provided by our tour operator (SmileSunNature), which had to take us from the airport to Pakbara Pier in neighboring Satun province, some 100 or 150 km from our location, was already waiting for us. At first we were surprised to see the two of us were the only passengers in the minivan, so we started making ourselves comfortable, when the van pulled into Hat Yai’s minivan terminal and the driver told us we had to wait for more passengers. Fortunately after not more than 15 minutes all seats were taken and our trip could continue, however, not quite as comfortable as right after leaving from the airport.

Despite that delay we didn’t have to worry about missing our express boat that would take us to Ko Lipe, via Ko Tarutao and Ko Kai (เกาะไข่ – Egg Island), because the tour operator called us every half hour or so to check on our progress. We finally arrived at Pakbara Pier well before 11 am, the departure time of our boat. The “boat” was actually a pretty large speed boat with seats for around 40 passengers, provided by Bundhaya Speed Boats. And as it turned out, they had managed to sell every single seat, or so it seemed. The passengers were predominantly foreigners, mostly a tour group from Russia, a few Western Europeans, a British-looking guy (pink skin, lots of tattoos) with his Thai wife and their three children plus quite a few Thais.

I didn’t like the speed boat trip too much. It was a bit too crowded for my taste (safety was ok, life jackets for everyone) and the landscape was all but zooming past. Hardly any chance for nice photos. But ok, at least we reached our destinations quickly.

The first stop at Ko Tarutao National Park Headquarters is hardly worth mentioning. It seems they only stop here to allow people to take pictures of themselves with the “Ko Tarutao National Park” sign. Been there, done that. Click. Noom and I actually used the 15 minutes to have a quick early lunch (Khao Pad Bpoo – Fried Rice with Crab Meat) which was provided by Man, our (private!) tour guide – a very nice guy as it turned out.

After Ko Tarutao we had another quick stop at Ko Kai, a really small island with beautiful whites beaches and a marvellous limestone arch. Nice photo stop, but that was it, because finally we had to get to Ko Lipe.

We arrived there at 2 pm. Before we could actually reach the beach, we had to change from our speed boat to a longtail boat, which was a bit uncomfortable with our bags, but we arrived without any incidents anyway. Our hotel is Bundhaya Resort. It has a large beachfront restaurant terrace (really nice), as well as a beachfront massage terrace. The bungalows look like typical Thai budget bungalows from outside.

Noom and I were not staying in a bungalow, our room was wall-to-wall with other rooms, which means you share every single word with your neighbour. The room is equipped with Air Conditioning and a wall-mounted fan, which gives us enough air to breathe. We’ve also got a small terrace with two deckchairs.

Considering we had to wake up very early that morning, we didn’t feel like exploring the island or going to the beach, but had a nap in our room first. The late afternoon we spent on the beach before enjoying our rich and tasty dinner (included in our tour package) and a conversation with Man. Tomorrow he’ll take us to see the sunrise at one of the other beaches, which means we’ll have to get up early again, so I better finish this entry NOW.

Tags: Ko Lipe, Ko Tarutao, Andaman, Thailand Beach

Shortly before reaching the town of Thaimuang I got stuck behind a white minivan which was driving in a very erratic way. Sometimes slowing down to 40 kph, then going 90 kph, and to make things worse, the driver chose a pretty wiggly line, often driving on the wrong lane, then cutting back to the left side, often just narrowly avoiding to crash into the ditch or other cars. I didn’t dare to overtake the guy, it just seemed too dangerous, to I preferred to keep a safe distance.

We called the cops and told them exactly where we were and what we were seeing, but they failed to show up and arrest the guy. It would have been easy to set up a roadblock and stop him but nothing happened. We even passed a large police station on the way.

After some time the van stopped, and when I just wanted to pass him, he started driving again, so I was stuck again. Amazingly, he drove very fast now and went in a straight line, so I guessed there were two guys on board and the sober one had taken over. In the end, after having followed the van for about 70 kms, the van turned into a small road and vanished. It seemed as if there was only one guy, so I can’t really explain the change in driving style.

Before the festival actually begins, the family thoroughly cleans the house, since it’s unlucky to do any kind of cleaning during Chinese New Year. (You clean away your good luck.) The main activities during the festival seem to be praying, meeting other family members and eating.

Kitjar stresses that his family has a Penang-Phuket Peranakan (Malaysian) Chinese background and thus CNY might be celebrated in a different way in “purely” Thai-Chinese families.

Where were the traffic police on Tuesday when a mysterious marauding motorcycle gang blasted their way down a dusty road in Ban Jor Kor, Amphoe At Samart, Roi Et? The leader of this motorcycle gang is believed to be Maeow Charan 69.

A photo shows that this gang of “Wild Ones” has no respect for traffic laws. The traffic police should conduct an investigation as follows:

1. Did the leader of the motorcycle gang or any of his posse carry motorcyclist licenses? Many believe that they did not because Maeow and his gang prefer to ride in Mercedes-Benz limousines.

2. Why didn’t they wear helmets? Meow wore nothing on his head, but some gang members did sport baseball caps.

…

Read more open questions to be investigated…

Note: The reckless motorcycle driver in the photo is Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during his 5-day Reality TV publicity stunt in the North-eastern Thai province of Roi Et.

I started from Central Chidlom, my destination was Yaowarat (Chinatown) because I expected to see some kind of New Year’s celebration there. I planned not to take the direct way, but instead to make a detour via the old town center. The route to get there was flexible: if a soi looked interesting, I wanted to follow it, keeping in mind the overall direction.

So, here’s the route I took:
Central Chidlom – New Petchaburi Road – Lan Luang Road – Ratchadamnoen Klang Road – Dinso Road – Mahannop Road – Phraeng Nara Road – Atsadang Road – Ban Mo Road – Chak Road – Tri Phet Road – Pahurat Road – Soi Wanit (Sampeng Lane) – Yaowarat Road – Charoen Road – Kao Lan Road – Soi Sukhon 2 – Traimit Road – Hualamphong

In total, according to Google Earth, I covered 11.52 kilometers on foot. Don’t ask about the condition of my lungs. And besides, I’ve always had suicidal tendencies.

But let’s go into detail.

From Central Chidlom to New Petchaburi Road (ถนนเพชรบุรีตัดไหม่), there’s not too much to see. There’s a McDonald’s, and you cross Khlong Saen Saep. That’s it. Oh, yes, traffic jam, but isn’t that everywhere in Bangkok?

The first part of New Petchaburi Road, roughly between the intersections with Chidlom and Phayathai (ถนนพญาไท), is a shopper’s paradise. Apart from the traditional Pratunam Market, there are Pratunam Center and The Platinum Mall, both of which are “wholesale” malls which aim at the same kind of small clothing shop you find in Pratunam Market. They’re not even wholesale shops, but targeting ordinary consumers. I checked out The Platinum, which is brand new. Looks nice, many shops, pretty busy, but freezing cold.
Pratunam Market:

Further on towards Phayathai Road, you pass the famous (notorious) Pantip Plaza. THE paradise for the geek, you find computer hardware and peripherals, legal software, pirated software, pirated DVDs, digital cameras, MP3 players and generally all geeky toys imaginable. I couldn’t avoid a quick stop there, but then hey, I had a plan and no time to lose.

New Petchaburi Road gets a bit dull between Phayathai Road and Yommarat intersection. Most of the small shops were closed, probably due to Chinese New Year.

At Yommarat/Uruphong (อุรุพงษ์), I passed the elevated expressway and crossed the railway. All trains leaving from Bangkok’s main station (Hualamphong) have to pass this crossing, but still it’s not really busy. All along the railway, there are shanty towns, the huts often seperated from the trains by less the half a meter.

Right after crossing the railway, I turned left into Lan Luang Road (ถนนหลานหลวง), and this is where you gradually make your way into “old” Bangkok. On the left hand side I passed a beautiful villa, which houses some governmental asset management organization.

A few minutes later I reached Phadung Krung Kasem Market (ตลาดพดุงกรุงเกษม). Normally you see a lot of activity there, mostly flowers and fruits being sold, but today it was quiet. Yea, you guessed it: Chinese New Year. At least there was enough “life” around to capture a few impressions.
 
 

Paris in Bangkok???

After leaving Phadung Krung Kasem Market, I crossed Khlong Phadung Krung Kasem, entering the Sub-District of Pawm Prub Sattru Phai (ป้อมปราบศัตรูพ่าย). There, the first building on the left hand side is the Department of Social Welfare, another beautiful old villa.

5 minutes later, I saw a nice little park behind an entrance gate and found out that it belongs to the Prince Damrong Royal Library. I have no idea if it’s worth going there, but it sure looks good.

At the end of Lan Luang Road, I reached the bridge that connects Ratchadamnoen Klarng Road (ถนนราชดำเนินกลาง) with Ratchadamnoen Nork Road (ถนนราชดำเนินนอก). This is a nice but busy spot, from here you can see King Chulalongkorn’s Throne Hall at the end of Ratchadamnoen Nok and Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Klang Road.
 

There’s also Mahakarn Fort, Wat Ratchanata and Loha Prasart, the Metal Palace. AND you have a very nice view of Phu Khao Thong, the Golden Mount. This spot is also the final station of the river taxi.
 

I continued on Ratchadamnoen Klang Road until I reached Democracy Monument. If I had stayed on this road, I would have ended up at Sanam Luang and Grand Palace. I’ve been there many times, so this option was not interesting. I decided to turn left to boldly go where I’d never been before – Dinso Road (ถนนดินสอ).

I soon found out I had been in this area before, because after a few minutes I reached the City Hall and the Giant Swing. Walking straight on would again have taken me to familiar places, so I turned right into Mahannop Road (ถนนมหรรณพ). This was a good choice because I reached a Chinese Temple at the end of this street. A huge crowd of Chinese-Thai people was trying to get inside to pay their respect to the temple.
 
 

I didn’t join this fun but continued my mission by turning left into Tanao Road (ถนนตะนาว). After a short distance I found a lovely small street and turned right – Phraeng Nara Road (ถนนแพร่งนรา). Small old townhouses, lots of potted plants, people working in their shops, it was a beautiful scene.
 

At the end of Phraeng Nara Road, I turned left into Atsadang Road (ถนนอัษฎางค์). I walked past the Ministry of the Interior and Wat Ratchabopit and then reached an area of shops which sold HiFi accessories. Pretty cool shops, I thought, until I discovered a very small market alley full of these shops. I didn’t see the name of this alley but followed it anyway. It is between Charoen Krung (ถนนเจริญกรุง) and Phra Phitak Roads.

At the end of the market, I reached Ban Mo Road (ถนนบ้านหม้อ). There were still lots of HiFi shops here. When I got to the intersection of Ban Mo Road with Phra Phitak Road, I was not entirely sure which way I had to go now: left towards Pahurat Market (ตลาดพาหุรัด), the Indian garment market, or straight on towards Pak Khlong Market, the flower market.

I felt that Pak Khlong would be the bettet choice, and after a few minutes I reached the first couple of flower shops. Actually, I did not get to the central part of the market, but even so, it was pretty busy.

At the end of the road, I realized I had reached Rama I Bridge already, so I knew I had walked the wrong way. Instead of walking all the way back, I chose Tri Phet Road, which passes between Suan Kulab College, a pretty school building, and Wat Ratchaburana temple.

At the following intersection I reached Pahurat Road already, but it did not look very interesting, so I chose to walk right through the garment market.

Around halfway through the market, I was quite surprised to find that I had reached Siri Guru Singh Sabha, the Sikh temple where I had been to attend my friend Bob’s wedding celebration.

Yaowarat Road, which is Chinatown’s main road, begins right at the end of Pahurat Road, so I walked there to check for any signs of New Year’s celebrations. There was nothing, so I decided to walk through Soi Wanit, which is a market alley and runs parallel to Yaowarat Road.

There are tons of fashion, garment and accessories shops and the soi is rather spacious, which makes it more convenient to walk there, compared to Pahurat Market. Whenever I reached an intersection with a connection to Yaowarat Road, I walked there to check for the New Year’s celebrations, but it was not until I reached Ratchawon Road that it really started.
 

From here on, Yaowarat Road was blocked for traffic and a large number of people were gathered there. Most people were dressed in red, as far as I know, that’s a lucky color for Chinese people. Also the streets were decorated with red Chinese items. There were also the inevitable golden cats waving at you.
 

Lots of police were patrolling the street, and at the following intersection a huge crowd was gathered. I realized they were trying to get a glance at some VIP some 50 meters from where I was standing, shielded by the police. A golf cart arrived to pick up the VIP, and I tried to take a photo. This was a somewhat unpopular idea, since many people around me started yelling “No!” (right, suddenly they CAN speak English…) and one even pushed me. I can only guess that the VIP belonged to the royal family, maybe princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
 

After the VIP had left, there was a little more space for walking. Just for a short while, though, because the police started allowing traffic through again. Okay, Yaowarat is an important road, but with that many people roaming the street, it was not the greatest idea. The situation got really bad at the Y-shaped intersection of Yaowarat and Charoen Krung roads. Here they had set up a stage for a Chinese theater show, complete with a huge dragon, puppeteers playing a lion and musicians.
 

Here, the street was packed with people, but still traffic was trying to pass through, including buses. Even though traffic was merely crawling, it was not a pleasant situation to have buses pass only 20 cm from you.

The crowd also had one very negative effect for me personally: my mobile phone was stolen. Happy new year… After realizing the loss, I immediately got to a payphone and cancelled my prepaid card.

Having had that bad experience shortly before the end of my little walk, I continued in a slightly depressed mood. My plan was to finish my littel trip by walking the 500 meters from Charoen Krung road to Hualamphong, Bangkok’s central railway station and catch a taxi there. On the way I visited Wat Traimit, which is the home of the largest golden Buddha statue in Thailand. That was the last highlight of the tour.

The U.S. Embassy in Thailand on Thursday warned American citizens to stay away from an anti-government rally planned Saturday in Bangkok for fear of violence.

Follow the link for more information: Foreigners Warned Of Saturday’s Anti-Thaksin Demon – Thailand Forum

Reisewarnung der amerikanischen Botschaft Bangkok:
Vorsicht, bei der am Samstag (4.2.2006) geplanten Demonstration gegen die Regierung Thaksin könnte es zu gewalttätigen Ausschreitungen kommen. Veranstaltungsort ist der Platz rund um das Reiterstandbild des Königs Rama V. in der Ratchadamnoen Nok Road, Bezirk Dusit. Da nicht bekannt ist, ob die Demonstranten vorhaben, den Platz zu verlassen und einen Zug durch die Stadt zu machen, sollte die Gegend besser weiträumig gemieden werden.