Tonsai not Bonsai

When a story is told, there always seems to be a major emphasis put on “see” and “did”. As if the other 3 senses (smell, taste, hear) cannot sell the scenario. I am going to stick to the same format, however what I “saw” and “did” cannot easily be described by words. Because I saw things that are normally only imagined, and did things that would be commonplace in dreams. Thailand was indescribable. After this trip, I harbor this need to do dangerous things. At first, with this voyage, I was comfortable with safety… now it seems that only if a hazard is present, will I have fun. Here is my Thailand.

Day 1:

I was supposed to be traveling with a group associated with the ship for this whole destination. I spent the first 5 hours with them. There are no highlights. I will resume at the point where I spurned the group, and went it independently. They got me to Phuket sometime around 530. I left them at 535.

So I wanted to go out to this place called Krabi. This is where I was going to meet up with some friends for the week. But, Krabi was a 3.5 hour bus ride away, and the last bus left at 630… from a city 1 hour away. Take a second, do the math. Now, imagine the Tuc Tuc (open air taxi) ride that got me to the bus in time for me to catch it. INSANE. This guy was swerving, passing, flooring and occasionally braking. He got me there on time, and I got on the bus. I spent the time reading Freud’s “Civilization and its discontents”, which is a piece about the civilized and social man and his state as an individual. His essay about the sources of happiness is freaking priceless. Anyway. I put down the book for a while to talk to this guy beside me on the bus. His name was Lionel. He is a prosecutor from Vancouver. Lionel and I spent the rest of the evening together talking about law, adventure, and sharing stories. It was a pretty good time, and since we were going to the same place… we took a tuc tuc together and had dinner. I gave him my blog address so he is inevitably reading this… (I hope the rest of your trip went well…), he talked a lot about his cases (not too much) as a criminal prosecutor, and since I am highly interested in taking on that as a profession one day, I soaked it in. It turns out that DA’s get a lot of vacation time… anyway.

After dinner I found a cheap bungalow to stay in for the night. Five bucks, and five hours of sleep later…

Day 2:

I didn’t like the idea of spending the whole day traveling so I woke up early to A)see the sun rise, and B) go for a run… It was incredible. Southern Thailand is famous for Cliffs that rise out of nothing; I mean… shear walls that pop up like stand up posters out of the earth. I ran up a mountain (and played with some monkeys), and worked out on the prettiest beach I had ever seen.

I met up with Kyle (my room mate), Ryan and Brandon Gratias (a couple brothers from Walla Walla, Washington), Matt (who goes to Purdue), Steven (a missionary from northern Thailand), and Lukai (a Kirin refuge from Burma that was a student at Steven’s school), and we got a long boat from Ao Nang to Ao Tonsai. Ao Tonsai (AT) is a peninsula, but it completely inaccessible from land because of the massive cliffs that completely circumvent the land. There were about 50 inhabitants (as far as I could tell) and about 20 tourists there. It’s the middle of the rainy season; in paradise. AT is the mecca of rock climbing, nobody was there to do anything else. We waded through the main roads mud, past a hammock store, and to Wee’s climbing school where we booked a trip for the next day. Then we went to Dream Valley Resort, which sounds nice… but IS NOT. Our bungalos for 2 nights ran for 2.50$ per night. SO I paid 5 dollars for 2 nights, and I got what I paid for. The rooms had mosquito nets, which were nice… but had electricity hours (late evening to early early morning), no hot water, and massive amounts of algae around for us to conveniently slip on. The bathroom was a toilet, and a spray faucet… that was used as both a means to shower, and to clean our bums (toilet paper was not available). We spent the rest of the day as follows.

- spent about 2 hours bouldering

- a few hours spilunkering (cave exploring)

- open water swimming (I did a half mile open water swim without goggles or fins, through sea bridges and caves and coral… which may very well be the most dangerous thing I have ever done)

- geocaching (using a GPS to find hidden boxes in the ground)

I could describe all of these, but I will spare you. I will however tell you about one cave I found with matt, steven and lukai. We were walking down this random beach in Railay (which is a moderately hard trail hike away) and we crawled through this path in the trees that looked slightly traveled… and around a large mountain face… and up a ladder… and into a massive cavern. From there we followed this cavern (this was definitely not on any map we could find) through chamber after chamber, avoiding bats (sometimes narrowly), crawling through Guano (bat chit), and up rinky dink latters until we saw light. And then we came out on the other side of this MASSIVE mountain, about 120 feet in the air, looking straight down the face of a cliff. Ridiculous.

We had dinner at our restraurant (the place we had every meal at… pad thai (thai noodles) were ordered by all of us… for breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and went to sleep at 9pm.

Day 3:

We woke up early, had some breakfast and went over to Wee’s school to do some deep water solo climbing. For 500 baht (15 dollars) this guy would take us out all day to random rock faces to climb. His 14 year old assistant had approximately 15 tattoos and chain smoked. Tagging with us for the day was an Israeli named Jonathan… who was pestered by our boat driver for not being a Muslim. The religion in Thailand is extreme. The main two factions are Buddhism and Islam, and both are radical. I don’t think the guy could comprehend the fact that Jonathan was Jewish. I find it interesting that in areas where there are extreme religions in the US (bible belt), that there aren’t necessarily other extreme options… rather, people seem to shy away, be defensive and worship in a less dominant house. I guess that there are not many facts to base this observation on… but I don’t see radical Catholicism to combat radical Protestantism… but in Thailand, there is no option for a less pushy or extreme sect.

Anyway, this guy would took us out into the ocean, and stopped the boat about 50 meters away from a cliff, gave us climbing shoes… and let us play. We would climb up this rock face (the first 10 feet or so was barnacles and coral… neither of which if hand friendly… and thus I have 58 cuts and scratches on my two hands alone) for about 30 feet (it was freaking difficult to get any higher), back flip off (or front flip… there were options), and then swim back to the wall and do it over again… FOR HOURS. It was awesome. We had lunch on a local beach and played Frisbee, and hit the rocks for the afternoon hours. It rained pretty much for the entirety of the day, but the adrenaline and doubtless badass-ness that filled us overcame any such worry about weather or pain or fear. The day cannot be easily described… I mean… we swam to a cliff, climbed it, and then flipped off… that’s like the most absurd movie intro scenario I can think of. Oh well. WE were beat in the afternoon, so we went over to Railay (the already mentioned trail proved pretty freaking hard when raining, dark, and in flip flops), had fried ice cream and regaled ourselves with stories from the day. The cliffs, and the beaches, and the jungle were the most amazing cliffs, beaches, or jungles I have ever seen. And they were all in the same place… the same island, islands, or every stinking island in the whole bay. We did this geocache in the afternoon that was called “don’t be a chicken”, it was on a boulder, sticking out of the ocean… crazy huh.

Day 4:

Today (after sleeping outside in a hammock), we took some sea kayaks early in the morning to an island about a mile or so away that had a Geocache on it. This island was all rock face, all steep, on all sides. So getting off the kayak and onto the island was difficult, but dragging the canoe and balancing it on jagged coral was a whole other story. Kyle and I took about 20 minutes doing this, and survived. We then climbed up a rock face, through some jungle (only about 50 feet or so) got bit by red ants (which freaking hurt atleast 50 times more than your generic fire ant), and found the geocache resting on the islands lone and towering tree. We then Backflipped off of the thing… into unknown waters, for the sake of adventure. One of the Kayaks we took had a hole in it, so moving 7 men… one mile… with one sunken canoe was a pretty daunting task. We then packed up, said goodbye to our restaurant staff (who lost their only customers), and headed into Krabi. We were planning on heading over to a fresh water waterfall, but heard about the travelers special V.I.P. bus from Krabi to Bangkok for 13 bucks… (16 hours) and were sold. After some wood fired pizza, we hitched a tuc tuc to a “bus station” about an hour away (which was just a shack in the middle of a rice paddy), and then caught another 2.5 hour bus to some random town (we atleast got to see 80% of spider man 3), to an even shaddier and crappy bus station, and then we were transported 200 meters to another bus station… waited an hour. And hopped on the 9 o clock V.I.P bus to Bangkok; there was nothing VIP about it.

It was supposed to get into downtown Bangkok at 6am (4:45 and let out on a side street, next to 50 sleeping bums who woke up, and harassed us in attempt to sell us on “their” taxi).

It was supposed to cater to sleeping (it was more like driving 80mph through 4 foot pot holes for 8 hours).

Clean water? (cloudy and tinted re-filled bottles)

It was nothing as advertised… but it was wickedly cheap.

Day 5:

After arriving in BGK early in the morning, we hopped on the city bus and made our way over to the Seventh Day Adventist Mission Hospital where Steven got us a day room. Since he works as a missionary in one of their schools, they allowed us to set up camp there for the day (in a vacant hospital room next to the maternity ward). We had breakfast at the cafeteria (where I took a fire challenge with Brandon… he eats a spoon full of chilli powder and I chug a glass of Yellow Chilli liquid with chunks of peppers floating around in it… I vomited in the street next to a hospital, and still (36 hours later) taste and smell the stuff) and we all showered and hit the town. We first went to the largest electronics store in the world (not officially, but it was massive), where I bought an external hard drive (that isn’t really working), and where Kyle and I split off from the group. Kyle and I took a tuc tuc over to the Grand Palace, that was in a word… grand. It had golden spires and some really beautiful tiling that covered the outside of all the buildings. It also had the temple of the emerald Buddha, which housed a gorgeous jade Buddha. I took an illegal photo of the kings throne and almost got thrown out of the place. We then had lunch on the river, and took a ferry to the other side. We wandered around this market for a few hours, and went to a temple that housed a solid gold MASSIVE Buddha. Everyone in the market, and on the street wore these yellow shirts that had an emblem on it, and in writing said “long live the king”. It turns out, that every Monday about 50% of the population wears these shirts to show their love of the King. I bought a wind jacket that says, “love the king”… and Kyle and I, after the market went to a street that sold only King propaganda. Im talking, 30 stores that sell flags, posters, clothing, fabrics… you name it, they had it, with a picture of the King on it. The peoples love of the King was so deep that every street corner from BGK to Ao Nang had his picture and a shrine in his dedication… it was eerie and ridiculous (because he is simply a political figurehead). Anyway, he got back on the bus, took it out to our ship… and boarded. Next up, Singapore on our way to Chennai (by the way, the straight of Malacca is the most dangerous pirate straight in the world, there is an article in the National Geographic right now that talks about pirate attacks on ships in this straight. So we have a 24 hour pirate watch in effect). Here are some more thoughts.

- Lukai, the student traveling with us, is an amazing kid. He plans on going to University next year to study management. I asked him why, and he told me so he could go back to Burma to make a difference. I asked him if it would be safe, he laughed… and said “I guess”

- This was also Lukai’s first time to travel south or swim in the ocean, I could tell that he was not used to spending like we were (3 dollars for a meal, and splurge a dollar or two for a shake or some ice cream)… but his energy and excitement was incredible (he’s 19)

- I did not really get a good taste of Thailand, I mean… I had a lot of fun, but I did not see or experience more than a little bit. I would love to come back and study the sex trafficking, and the religion here… perhaps the religion of sex traffickers

- I am reading through Isaiah right now, and I find the prophecy to be amazing. I cannot believe it that someone can read such predictions, followed it up with the gospel, and not believe in the divinity of Jesus. I think that the gospels (on their own) are strong, but not sufficient for the recognition of Jesus as the Son of God. The prophecies and later fulfillments fully have put into perspective Jesus as “the truth” in being that he is the fulfillment of all of Gods promises for his people( I know this statement it loaded, but that’s what my current thought is.. for me, as an individual… not necessarily for someone who has never read either).

- Freud says that there is an interesting case “in which happiness in life is predominantly sought in the enjoyment of beauty, wherever beauty presents itself to our senses and to our judgments… this aesthetic attitude to the goal of life offers little protection against the threat of suffering, but it can compensate a great deal” à I have thought a lot about what sources of beauty lead to my happiness. Surely, its hard to find the slums of Bangkok beautiful (where hundreds of homes are found under the same sheet steel roof), or the hand of an deformed orphan child reaching out for a cookie… which I think he refers to as the little protection. I find these things interesting and poignant… but I am having a hard time figuring out why. I hope it’s because I am planning on doing something about it. I didn’t do anything about it in Thailand, I hope that I can break out of my sight and action induced coma to be more than a spectator in India.

- All big cities look the same. This I have determined. Bangkok looks just like Beijing and Beijing looks just like Tokyo. I am kind of sick of big cities, even though there are pockets in these cites that are original and distinct…

- I did laundry today for the first time since before China. That was like a month ago.

Well, that’s all I got. I thank God daily for the chance to see, to feel, smell, hear and taste… and thank him for the people that actually care about what I am up to. Thanks for reading this, and I’m sure that if I am special enough to take up some of your time, than you are special enough to take up some of mine. So feel free to email me at taldbch@mail.utexas.edu. I would love to hear from you.

tal