Welcome to the Jungle

Our ship makes waves whenever we come into a country and Thailand was no exception. We landed in Laem Chabang, which was a small town two hours away from Bangkok. We did not have any kids dancing for us like in Namibia but they did set up a makeshift marketplace for our arrival. Next to that was a fleet of buses. I hopped on one heading towards the airport in Bangkok.

Traffic was surprisingly normal here, at least compared to India. People mostly followed the lanes, there were no bicycle carriages, and I even saw a few speed limit signs. Still, by US standards it was a frenzy. The one rule of the road was if there’s an open space, fill it. We barely left half of a car length between our bus and other vehicles. Red tuk tuks weaved around our bus. The tuk tuk is the Thai equivalent to the Rickshaw. They have four wheels and are basically doorless golf carts.

We arrived at the airport for our early morning flight. My experience flying on Thai airlines went better than I could have imagined. The airport itself was designed as a giant tube shaped terminal with metal wires wrapping around it. We ogled the architecture briefly before a heading through a frighteningly unthorough security stand. At check in I found out I was upgraded to first class.

First class seats

Thai airlines really pamper you when you get first class. I had enough legroom to fully extend my legs and a personal TV. What really won my affection were the steaming fishcakes they served. We landed in Phuket only an hour later, and for the first time in my life I wanted the plane ride to last longer.

Phuket was unexpectedly touristy. At first glance, it had an atmosphere like the Bahamas with white tourists, clubs and ritzy resorts lining the streets. I expected a poorer and more jungly environment. Instead, it looked like Spring break in Florida. I quickly learned initial perceptions can be deceiving.

I set out to explore the town with one of my friends named Becky from the University of Iowa. We found an outdoor restaurant/bar and ordered a few drinks. The bartender was intrigued with us and we talked with him for about 45 minutes. He was a fat shirtless Somoan looking man. His accent was hard to understand and he kept mumbling something about “lady-boys” before erupting into a hearty laugh.

A short time after leaving, I saw a street with an obnoxious amount of lights, noise and people mashed together. Of course I headed towards it. The only thing I can compare it to is Iowa City on New Years Eve. Club after club laid next to each other blaring music in competition for the flocks of people. Food vendors crowded the street but thank god they were around. Without the smells from their fresh fruit and pastries I would have only been able to smell the booze, sweat and puke.

Patong Street

Much like India, everyone here wanted to talk to me. However it was clear their only interest was my money. Men would come running up to me and display a case full of watches, sunglasses, fans, bracelets and other trinkets. Owners of suit shops would want to shake my hand and if I did they latched on and attempted to haul me into their store.

Many of the things they offered were obscene and inappropriate for this blog. It would be only a half description of the area if I didn’t include the scantily clad women grabbing onto me or the men handing me menu’s containing unmentionable things. I’ll leave it at this, I went into one place I thought was a bar and saw some things that left me scarred. Send me an email at ajwhitters@semesteratsea.net if you are willing to know the sick but true experience I had.

The main topic locals wanted to discuss was these lady boys that Thailand is apparently famous for. Gorgeous women were everywhere and I couldn’t imagine that any of them were not real, but according to the locals many of them aren’t. The girls, whether real or not, were given no respect here. Even out at the clubs stunning women were given no attention. It was so strange to me, if any of them came to Iowa City they would be hounded by men vying for their attention. Here most women were left dancing by themselves.

After an excessively late night out on the town, I had to wake up at 7:00 the next morning. We were traveling to one of the most famous sites in Thailand, the Koh Panak Islands. After the bus ride, a fragile looking motorized raft carried us the rest of the way. Pale dinner plate sized jellyfish floated by as we crept through the green waters. We were headed towards a group stone blocks that lay far ahead.

As we got closer to the blocks, I realized their enormous mountain like size. Their stone cliffs soared straight from the ocean to create undisturbed nature reserves. A sea of green trees, vines and shrubs were growing vertically from the side of the mountains. We were introduced to our personal guide, Ahm, who was going to take us for a closer look. We hopped into kayaks and he paddled us away. While pointing towards the mountain, he said in a humorously thick accent, “there, we go under.” I didn’t know what was going on so I just nodded in agreement.

Once we were in the shadow of the mountain, I saw what he was talking about. There was a little crevice that we were apparently going to try to fit into to go under the mountain. Ahm paddled into it as he said, “You, lay down so no hit head.” It was excellent advice because even when we flattened out, the cliffs were two inches from our faces. We were like a dollar bill being slid into a vending machine, no extra room in any direction.

The entrance

After the claustrophobic entrance, we arose to a darkness you can only get in a cave. Especially because we had been out in the bright light thirty seconds earlier, we couldn’t see our hand when it was an inch from our face. Ahm handed us a pathetic flashlight and that barely lit the way. The temperature was 20 degrees cooler than the 95 degree heat torching us outside. I noticed a poignant scent that was a mix of must and something else I couldn’t put my finger on. I realized what the smell was as the flashlight illuminated hundreds of bats dangling from the ceiling. All Ahm needed to say was “guano.”

We saw light piercing through the darkness from a small slot at the other end so we again smushed ourselves into the canoe. I was blinded as we emerged because of the bright sunlight. My eyes adjusted to behold the most beautiful place I have ever been. We were in a small lake protected on all sides by cliffs. It had a prehistoric feel with dense vines and trees flowing down the cliff walls.

When we emerged into the light

As we paddled, I could feel the life all around us. I saw a group of monkeys playing ten feet away. They energetically flung through rocks and vines enjoying their untouched paradise. I could hear the flapping from birds soaring above us. A bright gold bird with a red beak drew my attention with a loud caw. A different guide pulled a squirming horseshoe crab from the water. We took many pictures and talked in soft voices about how spectacular the area was before ahm told us we had to leave. If we didn’t depart soon the tides would imprison us for hours. This would be the best jail ever.

Monkeys

We squeezed through the cave and explored around the coastline. I felt bad for skinny ahm having to paddle us around so I grabbed the oar for a while. We went to another island, one where part of the movie “Tomorrow Never Dies” was filmed. The island was appropriately called “James Bond Island.” The movie “The Beach” was also filmed in the area.

For the final portion of the day, we ate a seafood dinner and swam around on a nearby beach. I did flips from the top of our boat and watched locals play a hackysac like game with a wooden ball. This day was incredibly relaxing.

Part of our delicous dinner

After a long night out I woke up the next day with two hours of sleep to head to a national forest three hours north. I slept for most of the bus ride but each time I looked out the jungle had gotten denser. By the time we stopped, it had grown into an impassable entanglement of life.

At our stop there were tiny men with pointy hats walking amongst a group of elephants. These men boarded the elephants in an unexpected way. The elephant grabbed them by the trunk like a log and then sat them on top of their heads. The elephants had a bench attached to their back but it didn’t seem like they cared. We used a stand to climb up. These two to three ton beasts made no notice of our relatively minute weights being added. They were bigger and hairier than I expected.

Once onboard the elephants carried us into the jungle. They plodded along slowly as we watched the jungle scenery flow by. Steep mountains of life protruded in the distance. The amount of plant life here was amazing. I don’t think it would be possible to walk off the path without a chainsaw to cut your way through.

The guides seemed very in tune with the elephants. They didn’t speak any English so we couldn’t ask questions but we heard him talking to the elephant continually. It was a little creepy. We learned beforehand that these guides traveled down from the north and live with the elephants. They treat them as Americans would a child. My elephant was rebellious and, perhaps appropriately, was obsessed with eating. He would ignore our trainers kicking while stopping to eat an entire bushel of plants. After we were done we fed him about 10 lbs of fruit and he was still reaching for more. His apetite was incredible!

Next we went on a jungle hike. We tromped along for a while as an English speaking guide pointed out different plants and animals. There were birds, lizards, and an uncountable number of plant species. They actually have about 10 to15 times the diversity of plants as we have in the Midwest.

Right as we finished hiking, the rain began to fall by the bucketful. Now, much like my Namibian safari experience, I was trekking through the jungle shirtless and shoeless. At this point you stop caring about bugs and cleanliness. I was wet, muddy and hot. A fitting jungle experience and I loved it.

The final portion of our jungle excursion was a raft ride. Again we had paddlers ready to do all the work, so we hopped in and were able to just take everything in. There was a lot going on too. You couldn’t see far into the forest because it was so dense but you could hear the hoots from monkeys, bellows from frogs, buzzing from insects and chirps from birds. Steep mountains drifted by on either side of the river. By the time we had finished the rain dwindled into a light warm pattering. Pictures and words do the area no justice, its something you need to see for yourself.

After a wild final night in celebration of St. Patty’s Day and our last day in Phuket we caught our flights back home. As we headed towards our hotel in Bangkok I looked out and realized how big the city is. Its buildings towered as far as I could see. Censuses are poor here, but estimates say the city is between 20 and 60 million people. As is expected in this big of a city, the roads were deadlocked in traffic jams. A ride that should have taken 15 minutes took us two hours. Comically, our guide said traffic was better than normal because it was a Buddhist holiday.

One of my friends from home, Chris Bublitz, was studying abroad here in Thailand and had met up with me in Phuket a few days earlier. I had all these jungle and kayaking trips scheduled during the day so I only got to hang out with him during the crazy Phuket nights. For my two days in Bangkok, he hung out with me the entire time and his guidance was greatly appreciated . He helped me with prices, insights into the country, and directions. Even more than that, it was just great to see a familiar face from home.
For the first (and only) night we were in Bangkok, he brought us to a place called Kho San Road. It was similar to Phuket with clubs all around, people barraging us with fliers, and vendors demanding our attention. In the stores nearby, I bought a bunch of $2-3 DVDs and a few t-shirts. I’m planning on buying most of my stuff in Vietnam. Its supposed to be cheaper and its so hard for me to find any time to shop with so much going on.

On Kho San Road there was a vendor with a bug cart. I told a girl I was with I would eat anything she picked out if she bought it. A mistake there, the most expensive thing was ten cents. On the cart there were worms, different sizes of grasshoppers, maggots, water beetles, scorpions, cockroaches and other bugs I have never seen. She picked out the cockroach and scorpion for me. The four inch long cockroach was disgusting. The wings were nearly unchewable and reminded me of eating basil leaves. The insides were the same texture as kidney beans but had a sour taste. Afterwards I was handed the a full scorpion. It was equipped with claws, tail and all. It tasted fried and was crunchy. It actually tasted pretty good, especially after eating the cockroach.

Scorpion Dinner

I danced the night away at local clubs. We had to leave Bangkok by 2 pm this day so I decided to get an early start by not sleeping at all. My friends and I were out exploring the town by 7 am. We first went to go get a massage. It felt immaculate after the tiring experiences I had over the past few days. It lasted for half an hour and cost only 3 dollars!

Then we hopped onto a water taxi which took us around the city. We stopped at the Grand Palace and had quite an experience with a flock of birds attacking us. We ended up not even going inside though because it cost a lot of money and we wanted to check out some more of the city. We saw some stores and ate some good food before we ended up getting stuck in a myriad of transportation. I gave my thanks and goodbye to my friend studying in Thailand and hopped on thebus back to the ship just in time.

Thailand was much more developed than I expected. Their roads and public transportation worked well. Many people had cell phones and their malls were the largest I have seen. It was clear tourism was the basis for the economy. From the rowdy nightlife to breathtaking jungles and beaches I can see why people want to travel here. I saw more white people here than in any other country, even South Africa. I think if I could pick one place to study abroad this would be it. Everything was cheap, the people were friendly and the food was the best I’ve had yet.

Still there were lots of problems here. The most disturbing thing was the way they treated women. As I said, there were some scarring things happening. Also, just outside of the main parts people walk through, there were crowded slums of local people. I would consider Thailand a modern, but still third world country.

Tomorow I will be in Vietnam for all kinds of crazy stuff. I might even be doing a snakes blood shot that has a beating heart in it… Tons of stuff going on in my life with trying to arrange student loans, study for classes, write this blog, respond to emails and keep somewhat of a social life on the boat. Whew, need to get some sleep to prepare for whatever crazy things I am going to do in Nam.