Hey everyone!
Sorry if you’ve written me and I haven’t gotten back to you! I didn’t realize how tough it would be to write and respond to everyone! I’ve been keeping busy though, let me tell you about it:
So I think when I left off, I was in Bangkok and was going to depart for Penang, in Malaysia. Had I planned ahead a little bit, I think I would have gone to visit more of Malaysia, because Penang kinda sucked, but the rest of the country looked awesome. Fun was still to be had in Penang however: We spent one night in a fishing village called Teluk Bahang, and hiked through a nearby national park to reach Monkey Beach, my first tropical beach! Hurray! It wasn’t spectacular or anything, but swimming in a warm ocean contrasted greatly with my experiences in the northern California pacific. We went to the local night market that evening where the food was fantastic and cheap! For about $3 I bought a massive dinner. It’s definitely nice to see the positive effects of relaxed food regulations for once instead of the drawbacks. After getting a new tourist visa for Thailand, I returned with my coworkers to Bangkok and spent the 4th of July watching Die Hard 4 on the big screen here. I figured Bruce Willis and explosions were the closest I could get to fireworks and celebrating the USA.
The next day I said goodbye to my coworkers for the last time and hopped on a train to Ayuthaya, a city built on the ruins of a much older city. I took a train, and splurged on a room with AC, satellite TV, and a hot shower. Splurging in this country however involves paying $10 a night instead of $5, so its not really the biggest problem! I got to catch up on the Copa America with the TV in the morning, and in the afternoon I explored the city. Ruins are cool, very ruiny. I took some neat pictures, saw the famous Buddha head in the tree, and met two very nice girls from Holland who were doing the same. We ended up chatting for the rest of the night, and they asked me to join them on their trip to Khao Yai National Park. They suspected my training as a Zoologist and my previous employment would be useful… they were right!
So the following day, we took a train to Pak Chong, the city nearest the national park, and found a lodge with a swimming pool that gave guided tours of the park. We signed up for the guided tour, and it was seriously one of the best tours ever. The guide and I got along great, we had the same camera and we traded lenses often so I could take long distance shots and he could take close up shots. He found all the monkeys and birds, I found all the frogs, lizards, and bugs (I would have made my Herpetology teacher proud). To the group of people I was with I ended up being a second tour guide, I answered lots of questions about ecology and life webs and the behavior of many of the nearby animals. It was fun to employ my degree, I’m not used to it, most of the time I’m surrounded by people who know as much as I do! The coolest animal sighting for me were the two Draco Lizards I saw out of the corner of my eye on a tree. They are basically little lizards with wings on the sides of their body. Attached to the rib cage, the bones bend outwards and the lizards can glide from tree to tree. I was fortunate enough to see one of the lizards fly and practically died of nerdy zoologist joy. It was like watching an Animal Planet special right before my eyes. The rest of the tour involved fantastic views (almost unrealistic seeming), swimming in a gorgeous waterfall (apprently made famous in the movie The Beach, I haven’t seen it), and learning to hold an enormous scorpion (you’ll see). We spent the night in rented tents in Khao Yai, and I ran all over the place in the night finding different kinds of frogs and toads. It was heaven.
The next day we decided to hitch hike out of the park, stay and the previous lodge one more night, then move on to the island of Ko Chang. Interestingly enough, my sense of direction failed me for the first time in a while, and i hitchhiked us the wrong direction, which we discovered on exiting the wrong entrance to the park! Whoops! Luckily for us, the Thai people (all 7 of them) were incredibly friendly. They’d already taken us to a waterfall on our way out of the park, and I’d given first aid to one of them who had a nasty burn on his hand (thanks for the first aid kit Shane!), so they were very interested in helping us out. They didn’t speak any English, so I pulled out the road map of Thailand my mom gave me, and proceeded to discover that the Thai people were headed to Catchanaburi, a city only 1 hour away from Trat, the port city leading to the island of Ko Chang. So, rather than head back through the park to the resort, we decided to head towards Ko Chang with our nice drivers. So 5 hours were spent laying down in the bed of their pickup truck watching the Thailand sky fly by. They took us to lunch too, which was totally fun because we had a massive language barrier. They ordered for us and everything was delicious. As we figured out, all 7 of them worked for LG, the electronics company, and were on holiday in the National Park. Using gestures and a map I was able to discern that they thought Japan was going to win the Asian Soccer Championship. In the end we made it to the bus station of Catchanaburi rather late in the day, but a whole day sooner than we expected. We took a bus to Trat, and the next morning hopped on a Ferry to Ko Chang, but not before I stopped at a bookstore run by a Frenchman and bought a copy of The Count of Monte Cristo. Cassidy would be proud.
Ko Chang was an interesting place. It was a much nicer island than Penang. Cleaner, clearer, better beaches, and very catered to backpacky tourists. We rented beach bungalows and had breakfast, lunch and dinner on the beach every day. We took a snorkeling tour in the Gulf of Thailand, and I saw real, natural coral for the first time in my life. Swimming with fishies is fun. Manik, one of the dutch girls, found a Leopard Gecko in her bungalo that was enormous. I failed to catch it several times, it was very fast. Burgers in Thailand are quite bizarre I’ve discovered, I’m not sure I like them. As a group, Manik, Eres (the other Dutch girl), and I decided that all resteraunts were to be rated on the amount of dessert they had avaialable compared to the amount they offered on their menu. Most resteraunts failed, and considerably low marks were given to the resteraunt that offered me Chicken Pie over the unavailable Apple and Blueberry pies. The best resteraunt was the Irish pub (as is usually the case anywhere), which had an amazing apple crumble, and pancakes with coconut milk and mango. Yummy!
After 4 days in Ko Chang we returned to Bankgok. Manik had to return to Indonesia, Eres left for Ko Samui, and I’m waiting ’till Monday when I have tickets to see the Thailand soccer team play the Australian soccer team in the AFC Asian Cup. It should be good! Until then I guess I’ll let my sunburn heal, send out emails, watch Harry Potter, and try to survive. I bought some books, Watership Down and Gulliver’s Travels. I thought Gulliver’s travels would be appropriate, and I’ve never read Watership down. Books are priceless here on trains and busses! Bangkok is much to big of a big city for my tastes I think hehe. After’the game on Monday I’m thinking I’ll go to Cambodia and see Ankor Wat, or goto Chiang Mai to see Elepants. I haven’t decided yet. both things are going to happen, the only thing I don’t know about is the order.
So in conclusion, goto this link for pictures:
http://www.kylekyle.com/pics/thailand
(Someday this will be in the gallery instead)
They aren’t sorted, I haven’t had time, but they should be enjoyable!