tooth soup

photo credit: CW Ye

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!

Throughout our trip

in Thailand I endeavoured to keep a diary of our experiences, so that when we returned to Perth and reality descended on us with all its myriad demands, we could remember all the things we did and people we met. There were times when I failed to do so as a direct result of things that we were doing, but I count that as an indication that we were doing it right. Since I have a few days respite before my supervisor returns and I can round out the graduation forms with his signature, I figured I’d reproduce that diary here. It was kept in shorthand at the start, mostly with bullet points, so I may add some commentary from memory in italics. The rest is verbatim: @s, smiley faces, bad grammar and all. Hope you enjoy it, and I’ll try and get some of the better photos, and a rough-cut movie up sometime soon.

Chiang Mai

28/10

• Arrived, checked in @3Sis
• Huen Phen, Northern Thai for dinner.
• sweet, sweet sleep.

29/10

• visited temples: funeral celebrations at Wat Chedi Luang; teak-made Wat Pan Tao; main one, Wat Pha Singh.
• visited 3 Kings monument
• mastered riding in red bustaxis!
• visited icon plaza and central department store: huge!
• Dinner @ Bierstube, German food + 2 x Chang King Browns = sleepy.

30/10

• Blind masseuse in the morning. Pretty much died.
• Was lead on wild goose chase by 2 (TWO!) red taxi drivers;
• had lunch @ pizza hut in defiance. >:D Shall try again to get to the lunch bar (or not).
• came back to hotel, cooled down and planned/booked some courses.
• Went to Sunday walking markets, got rained on, went back to hotel, back out, bought stuff & ate vendor food. :)
• witnessed first national anthem stop.
• came back to get some sleep before cooking class.

31/10

• up early for cooking class!
• cooking class was awesome! Very long day of eating, ended up being very full, didn’t even need dinner. :)
• coffee and ice cream did happen though.
• relaxed in the evening with a beer and some premier league.

1/11

• ELEPHANTS! Went to elephant nature park and spent the day feeding, washing, and interacting with the elephants. Absolutely amazing! Only got back to hotel @ 6pm. Totally knackered!
• Dinner at Huen Phen again, convenient. Then back to sleep our final night in Chiang Mai.

The elephant reserve that we went to was called ‘Elephant Nature Park’ and was aimed at educating visitors with regards to the cruelties the elephants had endured. All the elephants had been rescued, which meant that a lot of them were blind in at least one eye, or had limbs that had been cut off or blown off with landmines. We didn’t ride the elephants or get them to do tricks, but we were able to feed them a lot and wash them in the local river.

Pai

2/11

• Caught minibus from Chiang Mai -> Pai. Pick up in red bus-like. Thought at first this was minibus but only transport to station.
• minibus to Pai was bit cramped, great views, incredibly curvy! Minivan driver was mental, overtaking around corners, hammering it.
• arrived in Pai, called Run to pick us up, he told us to hire a motorbike! We ended up getting a scooter — best. thing. ever. After shaky start, got the hang.
• Went into town on scooter to Beer Cafe, then back to bungalows.

3/11

• spent day bombing around on scooter, saw waterfall, canyon, markets, awesome fun! Ate at Ban Jarong great food! Accidentally drove thru night markets.

Cave Lodge

4/11

• had to return scooter :( before catching the bus to Soppong. even more rough + ready than minivan.
• we got it to drop us off at Tham Lot where we thought it was a ‘short walk’ (from LP guide) but after an hour of walking we hadn’t got anywhere. Eventually caught a lift the rest of the way (4km!) to get to Cave Lodge.
• Got straight into it thanks to Dave, Sam + Adrian. went to Lod Cave for an hour, amazingly huge caverns; the guide kept pointing to formations + telling us what they look like.
• came back and drank with the other residents. then sleep :) (despite there having been a spider in our room)

5/11

• got up with the intention to go to village walk with Jack + Sarah — Sarah had a wee bit too much to drink. So took a while. We swapped rooms while we waited.
• Sarah ended up being too sick to do much so we signed up for a kayak tour w/4 American girls/women. Super fun! I was on my own + Lou was with the guide. Went through Lod cave plus rapids and over two dams. Awesome.
• At the end some local kids jumped all over our kayaks and tried to pull us away, v.cheeky.
• Back to the lodge, had some lunch and wished the manchester boys luck in their quest to climb and sleep in a huge fig tree near the exit to Lod cave. They had ordered a huge pizza to eat up there :)
• We waited + then convinced Adrian (really nice Perth guy who was into nature and caves) to go down to the exit to see the swifts’ nightly migration into the nests there. It was pretty spectacular, until we almost got brained by rocks falling from where Sam + Dave (the british tree lads) were climbing. Decided to head back shortly after that, but Adrian detoured us to Hair Cave.
• Hair Cave was a push in the dusk, neither Lou or I were really dressed for it (Lou spelunked in a skirt!). But was very cool once we got down there. Amazing formations, and no guide to push you. Eventually got back out with slipping + swearing and went back to cave lodge for a rare warm shower.

6/11

• Night before we got convinced by John to do the (2) caving experience — serious caving! he told us it was just a bit of crawling + some short climbs. We had to wait a little bit for Adrian + Brad to get back from Soppong after dropping Jack + Sarah off. A new couple joined up, Angus + Lucy, and we took off on the hour drive up to the drop point for the walk.
• We then walked down to the cave. That sentence is contained a punishing up and down trek over mud and making a path through dense undergrowth (this was the first time the tour had been run in over a year!). Lou + I had a fun time getting down the hill, in our completely gripless shoes. Fell over about six or seven times! Eventually got down to the cave. Trek inside was awesome. Some highlights:
• Bats! Really tiny ones as well.
• 20m crawl through water
• huge house centipedes
• amazing formations (sparkly! pure white, etc.)
• a banana tree, pale green, growing a couple of kms in the cave – from a seed, amazing.
• white fungus growing from every piece of wood in beautiful arcs.
• pure white slaters.
• A moment at the end of the trek where we turned off our headlamps – pitch blackness. Total except for two specks of light that appeared (luminescent) fungus? after a long time of eye adjustment.
• 2 hours 20 there, 1 hour or so back.
• Oh, and 2x snakes!
• We then trekked all the way back up, incredibly sore, and took the van back up. Happy, tired, in desperate need of a shower :)
• Saw a man with blood streaming into a tin cup, and Adrian found a straw hand.
• Showered and drank with the other peeps until we went to bed!

7/11

• Bit of a relaxing day, we got up late, did some washing (including our shoes, which took some scrubbing).
• Lou went for a massage while I snoozed; when I woke up I discovered she had locked me in! Oh well, more snoozing :)
• When she came back she convinced us to go for a trek to ‘Tortoise Cave’. I groaned a bit (a lot).
• A black limpy dog accompanied us the entire way, going ahead + then looking back to see if we were coming – our own personal guide dog. We later learned that he had done the same to the earlier group (Adrian, Sam + Dave). What a trooper!
• To get to the cave we had to pass through a family’s front yard, only the lady was home but she was very friendly and lead us through her fields – pointed out the fact she had cleared the whole field in 2 days by herself. Crazy.
• The cave itself was hard to get into + it was getting dark so we took some photos and trudged back out. Lou squee’d at the little piglets in their pen and the lady came out and gave us a papaya + a cucumber (huge!) to take with us. We thanked her profusely + went back to the lodge. The dog stopped at the same place it had started following us, presumably to guide another farang :)
• We had dinner (Nung cut us up the fruit and cucumber, shan eat it with salt) and crashed early, with an offer from Angus and Lucy to give us a ride to Mae Hong Son in the morning.

Mae Hong Son

8/11

• We had breakfast, packed + left Cave Lodge in a rush — Angus + Lucy had promised a ride to Sam + Dave as well, + they needed to be there by 10AM! S, D + I all crammed into the back of the pickup while Angus gunned it into town, Thai style! (i.e. never ever take your foot off the accelerator). We dropped off S + D, said our goodbyes, and careened off on a route that would take us up to the Myanmar border before down to Mae Hong Son.
• The constant twists and turns of the drive made me feel a bit sick, and by the time we got to Mae Aw (a Chinese village on the Thai side of the Myanmar border – go figure) I was feeling pretty dreadful. Lou was totally fine thankfully – I don’t hink Angus or Lucy would have appreciated two carsick travellers. At Mae Aw we had samples of tea, and a totally Farang can of coke for me that settled my stomach a bit.
• There was a wooden, handpowered ferris wheel (seriously) that Angus and I cranked for the two girls plus three other Thai tourists that were there (bit harder getting the westerners up :P)
• After that effort we wound down to a waterfall, lingering for a while to enjoy it before heading towards a long-neck Karen village. It was a bit weird, and I felt a predictable Westerner guilt for taking their photo etc. Still we bout a bunch of stuff :/
• Oh! Before we got to the village we got stuck due to the 2WD going down a shelf of rocks near a river. Thankfully a few locals showed up and we managed to lift the chasis up and jam some rocks under the tires so they had some grip, although as it lurched forward the rocks fired out and smashed my shin, giving me a lovely cut + bruise. :(
• Anyway, after the village we went down more twisty roads and ended up in Mae Hong Son where A+ L dropped us off after some lunch. We checked in, organised ourselves, then went to the lake to see the markets, where we caught up with A + L and also Alana and Sam (different Sam who went on caving tour with us), 2 Canadian Cave Lodgers. We all had drinks then Pad Thai, then said our goodbyes + went to bed.

9/11

• Bit of a rest day planned, as we were exhausted by the pace of the previous days. Still, we hired a scooter and decided to head south Pha Bong Hot Springs. After going back and forth through Pha Bong, we gave up looking and decided to keep going south as it was a great day for riding. Eventually we stopped for lunch @ a road residence/restaurant where the owner chatted to us and asked us to sign his guestbook (Lou drew koalas, kangaroo + a happy Australia). He advised us of some amazing sunflower fields further on, but said it was up steep hills. The confidence in our scooter was low — its brakes barely worked — so we decided to head back. We still had a couple of hairy moments ( I shaved an inch or so off my thongs using them as rubber brake pads) but got back to town safely.
• We used the arvo to rest up and went up to the temple for some photos before lazing at the hotel + booking Phuket accommodation.
• The night was similarly lazy, with us going to the night market + eating and drinking while watching some preliminary lanterns go up. The Chang is starting to affect us a bit; even after just one King Brown of 6.4% mix we’re hit hard.

10/11

• Scooter ride
• Festival
• Mae Hong Son
• Lanterns, boats, fireworks, Muay Thai, beauty pageant

The festival mentioned here was Loi Krathong, which involves people getting little floating decorations with candles and incense and letting them go onto the lake. There is also a simultaneous festival known as Yi Peng where lanterns are released into the sky. You can read more at the wiki, but for us it was a pretty amazing night. There were lights floating all over the lake, lights heading into the sky at regular intervals, and fireworks and flames going off constantly. Also, there was the rather bizarre combination of a beauty pageant going on right next to a Muay Thai boxing ring. Something for everyone, I guess.

Phuket

11/11 + 12/11

• Gross
• Stayed mainly in hotel + read
• Dino Park minigolf
• Got out of there fast

Phuket is just…I dunno. I guess if you like staying in those kinds of massive hotels, but Lou and I were just horrified by the commercialism and the–well, is ‘rape’ too strong a word? Let’s go with ‘abuse’ then. The abuse of the coastline with deckchairs as far as the eye could see. That and we felt more harassed here than we had in weeks up North. Do not recommend.

Ko Lanta

13/11

• Transit to Ko Lanta via 4 hr stop in Phi Phi. Also kind of gross but found spots to sit + enjoy a bit of quiet.
• Organised diving when got to Baan Phu Lae — much better, way less people on the beach :D

14/11 — 18/11

• Diving!!! Koh Ha. Corinna/Natalie @ Scubafish
• Transit to Krabi/Rai Leh to hopefully meet up with Angus + Lucy on their boat! And do some rock climbing.

It seems a lot to skip over with just the phrase ‘Diving!!!’, but we completed our PADI 4-day Open Water Scuba Diving course while in Ko Lanta. It was pretty full-on, with DVD sessions followed by pool instruction, before having two separate days out under the open water. Lou and I both got a wee bit seasick on the first day, which lead to Lou getting slightly panicky before she went under, but other than that it was fine. We dived off the coast at Ko Ha, which has a lagoon perfect for viewing coral and fish. We ended up seeing some fairly rare specimens of Sea Moths; tiny, fragile looking ground dwelling fish. As well as hundreds of other species of tropical fish in all their dazzling colour. Well worth the cost, and now we have another activity that we can enjoy back on the Aussie coast.

Rai Leh

19/11

• Rai Leh is incredibly hot + humid — we slept in after a bucket + chang night at Chillout Bar and ended up finishing breakfast just in time for the mid-morning heat. Accordingly our goals for the day were modest: find an ATM + Internet cafe. To do that we walked down Ton Sai beach, though we had to stop once to refresh ourselves with lassies and shakes and a heavenly breeze. We decided to go back to our room to get our bathers on so that the water could cool us when we made it to Rai Leh West beach.
• Round two saw us out in the middle of the day, and we felt it. The sand glowed with heat and the humidity was near 100% with no breeze forthcoming. We had wasted the low tide, so rather than climbing around the chunk of rock that separates Ton Sai from Rai Leh West we were pointed up the ‘jungle route’ by some helpful Americans. And a jungle it was, steep and steamy, and slippery in thongs. Eventually we made it down, found a spot of shade and had a swim to cool off.
• While we sat and air dried, we watched two dogs have a nasty fight (requiring beating with shore detritus to break them up) and a big ghost crab digging his hole — cute!
• After our swim we found a computer and were happy to find A + L on their way — hoping to see them tomorrow. Lunch and some new sunnies for me, and then the trek back to our hotel. A couple of hours of reading, punctuated by showers to cool off, and now it’s time for dinner and drinks :)

20/11

• Woke to msgs from A + L, saying they were in the Ko Hong region + we should come out. LP had no mention of the place so we went down to the long tails and asked how much it would be — 3500 baht each! Way too expensive, so we msg’d A+L and went with our original plan — lunch and visiting princess cave on Rai Leh East.
• After getting guidance from two German couples, we made it through to the East, and wandered in the rough direction of a restaurant near the cave. However, before we could find it amongst the developed mangrove front, the heavens opened and we got mighty soaked. The only option was to duck in a nearby restaurant and commiserate with some ultra-farang burgers.
• Eventually the rain stopped and we decided to have another crack at finding the cave. Did finally find the road that lead up to it and trekked there, to find a really nice, very large cave. It wasn’t as well preserved as those we saw @ cave lodge — not as pristine, with stalactites snapped off and walkways installed. But still pretty cool.
• Spent the next couple of hours meandering back to our hotel, stopping for a shake when the rain came down too hard, then scrambling over the muddy jungle route back to the room.
• Ended up back at the Chillout Bar, drinking White Russians and listening to the local acoustic band. Good night to finish off our time in Tonsai :)

Trang

21/11

photo credit: tochis

This is a

pre-emptive farewell as I’ll be away for four weeks starting Friday, tramping around Thailand with Louise. You may have heard about the floods over there that have displaced over 2.5 million people, although there’s an equal chance that you haven’t given the media’s obsession with the Queen, CHOGM, and sharks at the moment. We’ve had to skip Bangkok in our plans for the moment, heading North to escape the encroaching waters that are reported to be the worst in 50 years. Not exactly the environment we were looking to land ourselves in, but there’s a most to be made.

So the toothsoup will stagnate for the next month or so, but I promise I’ll be back with lots of amazing photos and tales to tell once I return. Wish us luck and solid land.

photo credit: Patrick Hoesly

Yesterday, I had

the singular pleasure of reading a book in its entirety, start to finish. That book, Cian will be happy to note, was Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett. It was the first time in many, many years that I’ve been able to nom down a novel in one sitting. The act itself evoked memories of when I was a kid and Mum had driven us up to the library to borrow a big bagful of books. We’d come back and be eager — really, terribly eager — to sit down and read the stash of novels we’d nabbed. Made me want to join up at a library again (and also reminded me of Ray Bradbury’s excellent short story “Exchange“).

But apart from memories, the thing that really struck me was that of my much deeper emotional involvement with the story. Now I admit that I’m already very familiar with Pratchett’s work, having been a fan since I was only a wee little dude reading Truckers and Diggers and Wings. But taking that into account, I think it was the actual process of sitting down and reading for a long period of time that allowed me to strip off the various critical reading hats and really just read to be entertained.

And it’s reading as entertainment that I would also like to get back into. I appreciate that (like the ‘whole writing as fun’ thing that I mentioned a couple of posts ago) it’s wishful thinking to want to go back to my original, untainted-by-critical-knowledge self, but I also think that I sometimes approach reading books like a scoring board. To be ticked off when I finish them and to be analysed while I read them. It was really nice to forget that for a while and just get caught up in the adventures of Polly and her crew. I’m going to try and recapture that feeling in the future.

Anyway, apologies for yet another blog post about reassessing the way I do this whole writing and reading thing. In less esoteric news, I had a wonderful time yesterday recording a podcast for the lovely JOMADdogs, which will be up sometime soon (earlier than some other podcasts I’ve done, eh Tim? :P). I also finally go home tomorrow, after spending 5 weeks away from Perth. I honestly can’t wait.

photo credit: Mourner

This week, I’ve

had nothing to do. Nothing! I finished my Cosmos internship last Friday*, flying out to Albury to visit my Uncle and Aunt at their farm. They have around fourteen horses, beautiful creatures, and I accompanied my Aunt as she took one of the pacers around to a trainer’s place to be worked. I hung out with the trainer’s three ancient dogs while they saddled the horses and ran them around the sandy track. After we dropped the horses back off, we travelled around the paddocks, stopping off to chase a calf back to the right field before travelling up to the top hill to get a good view. I may have sneezed several thousand times, but it was worth it; it’s truly beautiful country.

Caught up with my other Aunt over coffee before heading out for nine holes of golf. My driving game was absolutely horrendous, but I had a couple of nice short set-up shots.  Had dinner and a chat with my Uncle, then watched the Wales vs. France rugby game. I haven’t really ever followed rugby, but now that I know some of the basic rules of play it’s fairly enjoyable to watch. Plus, y’know, it’s a field of green with a small white object being moved around. I’m pretty much genetically obliged to follow it with an intensity completely independent of any actual interest in the game it represents. Anyway, it was an absolutely lovely time, and I came away a lot more relaxed than I went in.

So now I’m in Melbourne, enjoying the fine company of Mark and his lovely fiancée Monique. They are. Amazing. Cooks. And I’m sleeping in a double bed for the first time since leaving Perth (albeit on the ground, but honest-to-snoozeness I do not even. It’s heavenly). Melbourne is just as great as I remembered (the coffee, oh my the coffee), though I haven’t gotten out as much as I might’ve if I’d come straight here. As it stands I’m quite content to spend most of the day snoozing and having the occasional wander down the streets.

Louise and I surpassed our six year anniversary yesterday. Apparently this is supposed to be celebrated by candy and iron. The former is kind of impractical to send through the post, and the latter, well. Iron? Really? Anyway, she’ll just have to be happy with the little gift I picked out in Sydney. All of which is besides the point, that point being that she is the best ever and I’m glad she’s put up with me for this long. Our next year is going to be amazing, I’m sure of it.

And with that, it’s time to enjoy some kind of unbelievably delicious dessert that Mon is currently putting together in the kitchen and kick back with a cider. You may start your envy…now.

—

*I’ve listed the articles that appeared at COSMOS online news on my Articles page. I’ll have a few things in the next magazine as well! :D