Traveling the World

Ever since the accident I’ve been careful. So careful I missed out on one of the most amazing experiences in life: a speedboat tour of the Phi Phi islands in Thailand. I told myself I have to come back to Thailand one day so I can do this tour. Maya Bay was the filming location for “The Beach,” a Leonardo DeCaprio film. I have rested in bed each day and missed out on the opportunity of swimming and other things.

The staff of the hotel felt bad for me, so the first day they made a 3 or 4 egg omelette instead and didn’t charge me (brought it into my room). The following days they used the hotel truck to drive me to get food and see the doctor

I am feeling a bit better today because much of the initial shock and pain have subsided. Last night I went to a neighborhood doctor and he took my dressings off and cleaned out all the wounds. Before I saw him I knew my big toe hurt so I couldn’t walk on it, but I didn’t realize until after I saw it that the whole toe was swollen. I asked him to look at it and he determined nothing was broken (obviously, because I could move the toe to walk, but it still hurt). He said it would be fine.

The thing that sucks about living/traveling in third world countries is that they don’t believe Neosporin or bacitracin works. I asked the doctor and several pharmacies in town, and none of them carried it, except one place that wanted to charge me 200 baht for a small tube (about $5). So now I have to use rubbing alcohol and iodine for the next week before I can get home to China and start using the Neosporin (and I hope it won’t be too late for my wounds to heal properly).

Today we are going back to Bangkok. Because of protests in Thailand, the main road from Krabi to Bangkok is closed, so we have to get off at a city 3 hours away called Surat Thani and take a different bus down a different road so we can make it.

This morning we rolled out on our motorbikes with me in the lead. Today was my day to shine, to show my friends I wasn’t useless and could plan a day trip. Everything went as planned. I got us where we needed to go without any problems. Around 1:30 we were leaving the Mangrove Forest Walkway that leads to the Khao Khanab Nam cave to go back home when I had an accident on the bike.

We were in a parking lot and a truck started up the hill to go back onto the street, and 2 of the bikes in my party were already at street level, so i gunned it to beat the truck so i wouldn’t lose my friends. Well, bad luck for me because I hit the ramp at a weird angle and couldn’t turn in time and I went over the mini median and hit a mangrove tree. I was wearing a helmet, but also sandals. The truck driver rushed me to the emergency room because I lost a lot of skin. In the end, I have an abrasion on my left ankle, 2 on my right elbow, one really bad wound on my right palm (you can see a clear layer of skin lost, and a little bit of the muscle), a bad wound on my right knee, and 3 terrible wounds on my big right toe (lost A LOT of skin there). I’ll post pictures when I get back to China since I can’t upload any pictures right now. They gave me good dressing and pain meds and antibiotics, and all I had to pay was 470 baht (about $13).

I had to pay 6520 baht ($195) in damages for the bike

So today we rented scooters It cost 200 baht per bike ($6) and we have it for 24 hours, and we’re actually renting them again tomorrow. Today we rode out to Thalen Bay in the north about 60 kilometers and took pictures. For the entire trip up it was pouring and there were no food stops or gas stations or toilets, so we had to “rough it.” I got soaked but it felt good to ride in the mountains and it felt even better to ride a scooter for the first time, especially because I haven’t driven since I left America. Oh yeah, and they drive on the opposite side of the road (compared to America).

On the way south we stopped at a little shop where a muslim woman was running a street vendor. We got some orange juice with pulp and pad thai with fresh shrimp for 40 baht ($1.50). After that we rode further south to Klong Muong beach and stopped at Siew Bay, where the Prince’s beach getaway is located. The beach was deserted since no one really knows about it. It was a great place to stop and swim! The water was very calm because the mountains and surrounding islands stop the waves from coming ashore. The clouds and rain overhead made the mountains in the distance look mysterious and fantastic.

From the past few days of being in the sun I’ve become red like a lobster (mmmm… lobster ::drool::).

2 days ago we went to the Grand Palace in the west of Bangkok. Went to patpong in the evening to show the girls what it was like (patpong is a show where the girls put things in weird places), and they normally say pay 100 baht for a beer and see the show for free, but most of these places also then try to make you pay for the most ridiculous things. This place tried to get us to pay 5400 baht. We pretended to call the police as we grabbed our beers and walked out. After that we treated ourselves to a nice 2 hour Thai massage for 280baht.

Yesterday we left Bangkok and took a private car to Ayuthaya (however you spell it). We saw a few temples and the summer palace at Bang Pa-in. I wasn’t too interested in it all to be honest.. I just couldn’t get excited at those sites. One thing to note is that I happened to ride an elephant

We got dropped off at the bus terminal early, so we settled our tickets and took a taxi back into town to get the girls the best exchange rate we saw for the entire time we were in Thailand (1 rmb = 4.94 baht). The taxi driver took the long way and after an hour and 15 minute ride we paid 350 baht. We ran to get the errands done and caught another taxi back to the bus terminal. The way back lasted 30 minutes and only 140 baht (so we know the first driver screwed us).

We left at 8pm and took a chartered bus like Greyhound (but obviously not) to Krabi town, where we arrived this morning. We were harassed like usual, and eventually came across a good place 2 hours later (we took a taxi to Ao Nang, instead of going out to Koh Lanta island).

We had thai food for lunch, which I had to RUN back to the hotel because the food didn’t agree with me (literally ran for 10 minutes to get back). Later in the today we had Burger King for the sheer purpose of having a burger, since BK doesn’t exist in Wuhan and burgers are yummy. After BK we walked on the beach down to this mini forest and took some pictures on the huge rocks. Then we walked back to the hotel and died from exhaustion.

So yesterday we got to our accommodation (an apartment). For 4 people it costs 2100 baht per night. We only have 3 people with us right now, since the other two were stuck in Shenzhen last night because of a typhoon.

In the afternoon we got schwarma (I had 2, Nick had 2, Matt had 1) and mango milk shake (each had 1). The schwarma cost 60 baht each ($1.77) and the mango cost 40 baht each ($1.18 each). So we spent 420 baht at one place ($12.39). We made the Arab man VERY happy.

After lunch we went down to Nana Square (on Sukhumvit Road, one of the longest roads in the world) to where all the expats and foreigners hang out. While there we saw an elephant walking on the road and paid 20 baht each to feed it and pet it (don’t worry, got pictures and video of it ). One thing that’s very interesting is that sex is everywhere. It’s not hidden in Thailand. Every bar we drink in, every street we walk down, there are girls (and ladyboys) hooting and hollering at us. This is because Thailand is a service country (and not the good kind). Most of the foreigners come here for sex, they call it Sex Tourism.

Last night we went to an Indian restaurant, and ended up getting 3 meals (Butter Chicken, Chicken Korma, Paneer [Indian Cottage Cheese with vegetables], and Naan (like pita bread). Total cost was 1135 baht (or about 220 yuan, or $11 per person). It was very expensive because we got charged 30 baht per water and 70 baht per rice, plus a service tax of 10% and a 7% VAT tax.

Later in the day I tried to text Lucia but hadn’t set my phone numbers to be +86.. so the text didn’t go through. Went to bed around 11pm because this morning we went out to the JJ Weekend Market (one of the largest and most famous in the world). At the market I bought some sew-on flags of the different countries I’ve been to (and ones I will see very soon) and had A&M Root Beer for the first time in many months. Tried to buy a pair of shorts for a fair price of 250 baht ($7.50) but the guy decided to renege on his deal.