Bae Lan Beach area, Koh Chang, Thailand

 In five hours time it will be 2014 here in Thailand.

I've moved to the south end of the Island (not the north end as I was thinking... still don't have the lay of the land).

Pretty sure the taxi driver ripped me off when he charged me 100 BHT to come here because there are some big resorts in the area and I'm sure all these patrons didn't pay 100 BHT a person to come this far. I've read that at night, it's like extortion as taxis don't want to come this far so they can charge a high fee, but I came to this end at 10:00 AM

My room wasn't going to be ready til 1:00 so I dropped my bags, got my water, a book and my hat and headed out to find a beach. I've had this book on my bookshelf since my first trip to the Caribbean in 2008 - finally getting around to reading it and how appropriate that it is titled: "Buddha or Bust".

My resort, Lazy Republique is not on the beach, but I only need cross the road and walk down a short distance and there it is. I have to walk through the grounds of the Bae Lan Resort to find the water but here in Thailand, resorts don't mark their territory on the beach. They seem to be open to anyone and everyone. Actually, there is no beach at Bae Lan beach. It's rock wall where the water appears to be a good 18"-24" in depth at the entry point. I spend a couple of hours there reading then decide to head out the main road and see what else is in the area. This area is definitely not built up like where I spent the last two days in the Kai Bae beach area. There are a few bigger newer resorts down on the water and a tiny handful of shops selling massage, the usual water etc., and a few restaurants. No roadside food stalls.

I walk about a mile down the road and follow a real mule trodden path that says "Iscla Beach". This is where you can go zip-trekking if so inclined, mind you, the people don't appear to be that high up in the tree tops.

Iscla beach is a nice and very surprising sight to see. I walk the stretch of beach past the toney "Mercure Resort" which is busy setting up tables, lights, and linens for tonight's NYE festivities. I decide I am going to have lunch at the Iscla beach restaurant. Such a lovely setting: your choice of table & chairs, hammock style chairs or cushions strewn on wooden platforms. I want to stick to something "normal" given yesterday's episode. I pay a fortune for a beef burger and fries: 300 BHT which is $9.00 Cdn. It is presented beautifully but there are a few odd things about it that make me very wary: it's gray in colour and it tastes odd. I know that all beef in the world doesn't taste the same, it depends on what the cattle feed on, but it doesn't smell bad at all. I eat it gingerly with each bite thinking "I really shouldn't eat any more of this just in case". I guess the true test will come in the next day or two.

Lunch at Iscla Beach.

Finally, around 3:00 I show up at my resort. There is no one here except for two little Thai sisters who appear around ages 7-10. They give me the ever present "Namaste" sign language, and the older girl runs to the desk for a key and a piece of paper with my name written on it. I nod "yes". She is all smiles as she prances to my bungalow and I am following quickly behind. She unlocks the door for me and my luggage is inside the room. I give her 20 BHT for her troubles. She is huge smiles and Namaste all over again.

Bungalow @ Lazy Republique

I sit out on my deck which has two lounger chairs, read for a while then decide it's time for my daily afternoon nap.

I love my room. Definitely the nicest place I've stayed in all of Thailand thus far. Mind you, it is the most expensive place as well but then again it is NYE and places seem to charge a surcharge for tonight and tomorrow. The owners of this place are French but they don't appear to be here.  They have left a caretaker and his family in charge. I see a "shack" at the back of the bungalows where it appears the caretaker and his family reside. On top of the main building/restaurant is a nicely furnished roof top deck.

There are only 4 bungalows in this resort. It's very modern, cement, painted lime green and dark purple. The bathroom is large and modern. So nice to have a shower that is separate from the toilet unlike the other places I've stayed where, when you have a shower, the entire bathroom gets wet, including the toilet. All toilet paper rolls are covered by a contraption that keeps the paper from getting wet while you are showering. I've always had to remove the waste basket out of the bathroom too so it doesn't get wet. In Thailand you do not flush toilet paper as their septic system is unreliable here. All hotels have signage instructing to not dispose of anything down the toilet, not even toilet paper. Kinda hard to remember 100% of the time but try my best to prevent any over-flowing toilet situation. What really sucks about the all in one toilet/shower situation is that you're walking on a wet floor for hours on end every time you need to go into the bathroom for anything. I really hate that and have no idea why they design them that way. In some cases I think it's because they are tight on space but even the place I just checked out of had a very long bathroom where it would've been easy to design a separate shower stall but they didn't. I'm going to enjoy this bathroom for the next two days.

All four bungalows here appear to be reserved but I am the only person here sitting in the lovely yard at teak table and chairs with palm umbrella all lit up. It's dark as midnight here at 6:30 PM. The front yard of this place is absolutely lovely, grassy, electrically wired properly, cement pads underneath all the tables, and oil mosquito lanterns going. Now the caretaker has cranked up the Diana Krall, perhaps trying to entice in some walkers-by. So far, he doesn't have any dinner guests but by the sounds of all the chopping in the kitchen and the set-up taking place perhaps they actually have some reserved tables for later this evening.

The grounds @ Lazy Republique

I didn't get to do the elephant ride this morning. Didn't realize that they actually take reservations for it. Maybe I'll get to do it before I leave the island. I would really like to take a one day cooking class too so long as I can learn to make Tom Kha Gai soup. I'll probably look into that when I am staying at my next place for 6 days.

One thing we've all heard about is how farang men come to Thailand in search of Thai "love", or sex or what-have-you. The other night when I was at Da Riddem Shack, it was very interesting people watching. The Thai women were dressed like they were headed out to a nightclub in Vancouver. They hang out in the bars hitting on men who will buy drinks for them. The pairings of some of the couples I've seen would raise your eyebrows. Such odd matches...some 30-40 year age differences, just some really visually odd pairings.

I don't have any plans for this evening. Just another normal NYE for me because I haven't celebrated this night in decades. Don't think I'll venture from my resort tonight. I've heard the big resorts (there are two within walking distance from here) are doing big celebrations tonight but that doesn't interest me at all. Will order a meal here later on this evening and just enjoy the lovely ambiance of the place. Perhaps others will come along that I can have a conversation with. In any event, I'm spending this night surrounded by more people than I typically do so that's an improvement.

Happy 2014 everyone. Wishing you beautiful blessings and a healthy and memorable 2014.

Pai to Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Sutthi picks me up promptly at 9:00 AM. I tell him that my throat is very sore and I hope we can stop at a pharmacy so I can get some ointment or something to rub on it. My throat has been sore since I came to Thailand. It started, of course, with the recycled air on the plane but it has been getting worse every day. There is a constant scent to the air everywhere in Thailand: incense mixed with burning fires that they use to cook over and to keep warm. As well, now is the season where the farmers burn their corn fields to ready the soil for a different crop. Asthma sufferers would find it difficult here, I'm sure. Looking out from a high vantage point you could make a game of counting how many plooms of smoke you spot.

We stopped at Chinatown in Pai. Sutthi told me how the Chinese came to settle in Thailand and why they came here. We enter the "tourist trap" area and are greeted by dozens of cements roosters atop the cement fence. Sutthi says the King of Siam was a fan of cock fighting and thus the homage to the bird. We visited the temple and I got to see locals purchasing baskets of gifts for the Monks. The baskets ranged in price from 200 BHT to 300 BHT ($9.00). The baskets contain items that the Monks would need for the months and year ahead: saffron coloured towels for bathing; soap; personal care items; food items, etc. In any event, I thought we were going to Chinatown to look for an ointment for my throat but it became apparent very quickly that this was another tourist trap, but still interesting. We stopped in at a tea house and tasted a couple varieties of Chinese tea. I asked Sutthi how come we didn't pay for the tea and he said it’s the custom to offer complimentary tea to guests. Mind you, it was just a mere taste. Probably 1-2 oz. at best. 

Baskets for purchase to gift to the Monks

We are heading northwest towards Mae Hong Son today.

First stop of the day is at a lookout some 3500 meters up the curvy mountain. It’s extremely windy up here. We are immediately greeted by a group of little kids dressed in their native village dress asking if you’d like a photo with them (for money, of course). I declined. We had a coffee at the ever present coffee shop that you see in the strangest of places, and here it was on top of this mountain. Sutthi asked if I needed the toilet. Didn't really need it but thought I should take advantage of the opportunity. A woman was collecting 3 BHT to use the facility. I gave her a 20 BHT note and had no clue how to count the coins she gave me in return. Timely that Sutthi appeared. Well wouldn't you know it, she was short changing me. When I asked for toilet paper that was another 2 BHT. I had read how you need to pack your own toilet paper when you're further away from larger towns and I had done that but it was in the car. Imagine my surprise when I enter the room to see a bucket of water and a white porcelain square thing about 10" off the ground. What the heck was I supposed to do? I call out for Sutthi and he has a chuckle at my question. He steps up on the porcelain straddling one foot on each side and he squats. Oh that's how you use it. But what's the water for? Well it's to scoop out some water to throw inside the toilet so everything flushes down the hole! So glad I wasn't on my own the first time I faced that dilemma.

I had no clue how I was supposed to use these facilities!

Next stop is one I had been anticipating for months: Kam Nam Lot Cave. Stalagmites and stalactites that would blow your mind. Thing is, I wasn't prepared to take a raft into the cave. Yikes! We're talking a narrow bamboo raft, not a boat in any way, shape or form. (One of the many things I appreciate here in Thailand is that because I have hired Sutthi and he is guiding me, anything we do is just him and I and a guide from whatever it is we are seeing -- they don't cram a ton of tourists into a van, a taxi, or a boat... it's just Sutthi and I).

We enter the park area and Sutthi pays for our entrance fee which includes a young guide with a gas lantern. We hike about 10 minutes to the entrance area to the cave where Sutthi and I take our seats on the raft. Our guide sits in the front of the raft and the raft is pushed through the water by an elderly gentleman using a long, long pole. In some areas the water is shallow enough that the old man gets out and pulls our raft through the water. There are thousands and thousands of large fish in this blackened water. I thought they would make for easy catching but because they live in the cave they are considered "holy" fish and you are not allowed to catch them.

Bamboo raft through the cave

Pulling the rafts through the shallow parts.
The ripples in the water are thousands of 'holy' fish. (No fishing allowed!)

We reach our first of two landing points and our guide leads us by lantern up many stairs and through the cave so we come out the other side (still in the dark), and in the meantime our boat has been brought over to the side where we’ve walked to. The trek through the cave to admire the stalagmites and stalactites has been the hi-lite of my trip thus far. Indescribable really. To think of how many tens of thousands of years one rock has been dripping down to make the rock at the bottom grow up to meet it, it simply boggles the mind. We get on our raft and go to our second landing point. This is the area where Sutthi told me that it could smell bad because of bat poop. YES, bat poop! It did smell and the ground was as white as white could be because of the bajillion bat droppings. We ascended some stairs which required holding on to a hand railing.... it looked to be a very long climb up and with my size 10 feet and the fact that Thai people make their stairs very narrow it's been common for me that I need to descend the stairs sideways. Well the thought started to cross my mind that what the hell was I going to hold on to coming down because the railings were coated in bat droppings. We only went up about 30 steps and I called Sutthi over and told him that I did not want to go any further. Not only would I have nothing to hold on to coming down but I am also deathly afraid of bats (I put them in the same category as mice and rats).  Sutthi had earlier assured me we would not see any bats in the daytime hours but still, it's dark in there and I didn't want to take a chance. So Sutthi spoke to our guide and we headed back to the raft. I never got to see what was inside the second cave but honestly I am happy with my choice to turn back. We went to the far end of the cave where it exits out the other side of the mountain. What a spectacular view to see. We rafted back in the direction we had come in. This time the older man took the lead and I could see him jumping off and on the boat. Such hard work for a man that looked to be in his 70's.

This cave is revered as a holy site, thus the string that lead from the very back end of the cave into the village  (we never saw the village as it is a couple of miles away).

We hiked back to the park entrance and this is where we ate lunch. You can tell Sutthi brings many guests to these tourist places as the workers all seem to know who he is and greet him fondly. He ordered our lunch as he always does. Today we are eating Pad Thai and Cashew Chicken. Delicious as always! Sutthi goes and grabs a bunch of bananas and brings them to the table. You just eat what you want, return the rest and are charged for what you eat. We each ate one. Mine was full of seeds though. I had no clue bananas could have seeds in them.

We now head out on the road again towards Mae Hon Son. Well I can attest to the fact that I have NEVER in my life been on roads like this stretch of road. Switchbacks every few feet, up hills, down hills, and more switchbacks. After an hour or two of this I thought that if I didn't close my eyes he would have to pull over so I could throw up. I closed my eyes and just relaxed. What a hairy ride and if I never see a stretch of road like that again it'll be just fine by me.

We come in to Mae Hong Son and as Sutthi has done in every town we are going to overnight in he gives me the lay of the land by driving down the main streets and explaining things before we head to the hotel. We drive through town and in the middle is a lovely little lake. We get out and enjoy the Wat on the lake. Sutthi explains that the evening night market will surround the entire lake and he drives me down the roads it will encompass as well. He points to a Wat on a mountain top and says that will be our next stop today.

Night market around the lake in Mae Hong Son.

Mae Hong Son was my favourite small town that I visited in Thailand.

We drive up another switchback mountainous road on the way to the Wat. Thankfully it's only a couple of miles at most. This was an amazing Wat. Perched high on the mountain top overlooking the town and airport. 

Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu

We sat for a long while and watched people with their floral center pieces walk around the chedi three times. They purchase these floral pieces from the Monks (who make them). After you circle three times, you place your centre piece at the opening in the cement structure (inside the opening is a deity  which represents the day of the week you were born on. Thursday only had one floral piece but as were chatting and eventually looked towards Thursday, it had about 8 floral center pieces in front of it.

Circling the Chedi & placing a floral arrangement in the opening of the Chedi 

that corresponds to the day of the week you were born on.

Sunset over Mae Hong Son

The layers upon layers of mountains were really something to see.