Thailand: Thoughts
by phill
The holiday is
fast disappearing from my memory, although we have yet to go through our photos properly–I’m sure that’ll help. Anyway, while it’s all relatively fresh in my mind, I wanted to go through what I thought were the best bits of our trip. A top five seems appropriate, but since everything was so great, I won’t number them.
Cave Lodge — Not strictly an activity, but more of a hub where you have access to activities. The lodge is located just by the Burma border and is run by John. John’s a bloke who left Australia for Thailand 20 years ago and has never looked back. He’s mapped the region extensively and knows just about everything there is to know about caving and exploration. His book, ‘Wild Times’, makes for an impressive read. I would absolutely recommend staying here: not only is it a central location to a huge number of caves, waterfalls, and villages, but the atmosphere of the place is friendly and enjoyable. All of our nights were spent around the fire, having a laugh and a beer with fellow travellers. We made some great mates and ended up doing things like caving and kayaking/trekking that we never thought we would be able to do. Take my advice and do caving (2) — extreme caving. You’ll never forget it.
Diving in Koh Lanta — We really ummed and ahhed over doing a diving course while we were over. Our main concern was the expense which, even in Thailand, is significant. We were also a bit hesitant about the quality of the courses, as there were rumours that some of the centres were graduate mills that just want you in and out as quickly as possible. Eventually we decided to go for the Scubafish dive training centre in Ko Lanta. Definitely worth paying a wee bit extra for, as we were put in a group of three and given as much help and advice as we wanted to get us through the training. Huge thanks to Corinna and Natalie! The diving itself (near Koh Ha) was just spectacular. Crystal clear waters and a huge number of fish and coral that was just begging for a return trip. Even if you don’t want to do a dive course, the trip out there for snorkelling would be a great day out.
Elephants in Chiang Mai – This should really be enough said at that. However, there are a LOT of elephant parks around Chiang Mai, so I’d like to give some info about the one we went to. It was called ‘Elephant Nature Park’ and its aim is to buy ex-working elephants from around Thailand and give them the best treatment they can get before they die. Most of the elephants were blind or injured. We didn’t go on rides or see any of the elephants do any tricks like other elephant parks (we were informed that in fact an elephant’s spine can’t comfortably take much more than one average adult–it isn’t built for that). Instead, we learned about each individual elephant’s story, and spent the day feeding and washing the elephants. Much more friendly to the elephants, and we knew that every baht that we put towards that day was going to be spent on helping buy more elephants and pay medical costs for the current ones.
Emerald Cave in Koh Muk – Emerald Cave is frankly the most beautiful place we found ourselves in. It’s a naturally formed beach with a miniature jungle located amid soaring limestone cliffs. The only way to get in there is to swim from the ocean through a pitch-black cave, the water in which glows an eerie green with the light from outside. There aren’t too many words to describe it; we’ll be putting a video up on YouTube as soon as Louise cuts it together, so keep an eye out for it. Suffice to say it’s a must-see.
Scooter riding in Pai – Really this could read ‘scooter riding in X’, because scooters are fucking awesome, and the countryside in Thailand is a blast to ride through. Roads are either long and straight or wind smoothly up mountains. The sun on your helmet, the wind through your hair, and a girl on the back seat of your (child-sized) motor. It’s also to do with the sense of freedom you get when you have a vehicle to get you around. All too often you might spent an entire holiday at the whim of taxi drivers and public transport, but hiring a scooter for a day is a reminder that there are other ways and means to get around.
Alright, I think I can stop at five different activities. Of course there were other aspects of Thailand that were consistently great: the food, the people, and the weather being three I can immediately point to. We never felt harassed (well, not in the regions where we didn’t expect to be harassed), and could always make ourselves understood to the locals. And the food, my life, the food was amazing. So that’s Thailand. Highly recommend everyone go there at least once in their life — like John at Cave Lodge, you might find yourself staying for a lot longer than you planned!
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