Thailand | Part 1

We found a guesthouse in the form of an old home built on dock-like stilts over the shallow waters (and fishy-stink & garbage) of the shore and quickly found a delicious hot meal to warm our bones. Hot showered, we tucked ourselves into bed, not even taking time to unpack or get settled since we flew out the following morning.

A quick flight carried us from the trifling airport in Coron back to its international counterpart in Manila. Again, we donned every piece of clothing to avoid paying to check a bag. The second we passed through the mini-security, we stripped back to our bare minimum for maximum comfort in the intense, non AC’d heat, and waited to board.

I call this a 'Classic Will,' as any photo I ask him to take, it ends up blurry. You'll see many, MANY more as I continue to upload new blog posts...

We had a few hours to spare in the capital city, and found the coolest corner we could, grabbed some lunch (and later snacks), wrote a blog post or 12, and loosely planned our next stop; we’d visit Bangkok for a few days and decide our next move after consulting our friends who we planned to meet in Koh Tao. We had about 30 days to enjoy before heading south to some of the Thai islands, and we had a few ideas of how to spend that time.

Out of pure ease and slight laziness, we opted to stay on Khao San Road, an area in Bangkok dripping of every culture imaginable but Thai, reeking of cheesy tours and cheap fake sunglasses, and spent a few days eating street Pad Thai and seeing the few cultural sites Bangkok offers. A jaunt through the Grand Palace, a saunter through a few markets, and too many Kai-Fehs and condensed milks later, we grew tired of the constant boom-boom bass of Khao San Road and had exhausted Bangkok’s sites.

Frankly, and this is hard to say, but I’m too old for Khao San road. Had I been 18 like the other 98% of travelers here, I’m sure the all-nighters would have been incredible, an experience to recall later in life as ‘the glory days,’ although with the copious amounts of everything consumed here, I’m sure no one has enough brain cells to recollect these memories, either electively or unfortunately.

We knew it wouldn’t make sense to head north to Chang Mai or to move in to Laos, or even further south into Cambodia, so we decided to book a flight to Myanmar, where our 30 days felt like the perfect amount of time to explore the newly tourist-friendly country. We had a few days to spare before our flight to Myanmar and opted to travel a bit outside of Bangkok. Knowing little of Thailand, we heard good things about Kanchanaburi (The “K” imitating the sound of “G”). We also heard the public transportation system was extremely difficult to navigate. Feeling a good challenge on our hands, we opted for the public, tour-less option for our weekend getaway, and although not easy, it also wasn’t hard. “Just one more” condensed milk swirled ice-coffee later, we successfully boarded the correct public bus, carrying us to the main bus terminal, where we could board the highway bus to Kanchanaburi. Like most busses, we were the only “forangs” on board. And like most places, when we got off the bus, we were met by a number of aggressive taxi drivers. We waded that storm and found a tuk-tuk for a reasonable price. After checking a few places for availability, we were able to find a nice place right on the river for 300 Baht…which is a good price, about $9 a night.

The first thing we noticed about this small town is the same thing we’ve noticed about every country in southeast Asia…there are Australian’s everywhere, not that that's a problem, we have family in Australia! Just an observation.

The first night, we didn’t have much going on; we just explored, walking around the main street, found a nice local spot for some cheap Thai Food, and drank a few Changs while watching the sunset.

The next morning, we walked north to the Bridge Over the River Kwai. I had no idea what the Bridge Over the River Kwai was…and I was getting it mixed up with the Bridges Over Madison County. I blame Clint Eastwood, and the fact that I have not seen either movie, so I wrongfully assumed Bridges of Madison County was a war movie. It’s not.

To clarify: during the time of Imperial Japanese occupation of Thailand, this bridge was built by local slave labor and allied POWs. Half of the people involved died, totally around 90,000, giving the railway the name "Death Railway". Much like the DMZ, the Bridge was a bit of a fluffy tourist destination, but the little train station near the bridge had some old photos and memorabilia of the wartime, and we enjoyed the walk.

We made a pit stop through the small market, unable to avoid the worldwide ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ epidemic, and headed back to our new place (we had moved earlier that day, finding a cheaper and nicer spot the previous night while wandering around), researced Myanmar, and freshened up a bit before heading to a busy restaurant for dinner filled with more locals than Australians.

We ventured across town to the night market and found a hipster looking spot offering cheap haircuts. In much need, Will finally convinced himself to sit in the barbers seat, using hand gestures to signal what he wanted. I helped translate while Will made it clear his beard was to remain absolutely untouched, cupping it protectively and shaking his head to ensure no miscommunication occurred. He almost panicked when the guy even looked at it.

New ‘do and a belly full of fresh fruit and market sweets later, we walked home to our little double room on the river.

Starting the next morning at our favorite little local spot, eating the delicious and super spicy veggie omelet over rice for the second morning in a row, we found a rental motorbike and rode about an hour out of town to the 7 layer falls, the other gem travellers come to Kanchanabury to see. Butts numb, we started our hike up each level of the falls, swimming and splashing as we went. We enjoyed a scenic picnic lunch among many local travelers, and hiked back down shortly before the grounds were locked up for the night.

Craving the uber-spicy carrot salad I immediately fell in lust with after my first bite the previous night, I pleaded to return to that same local hot-spot, burned my tongue on raw Thai pepper after pepper, and went to bed happy with our long weekend in Kanchanabury.

The long march to the bus station meant another ice-coffee with condensed milk and plenty of added sugar to energize the way, and with similar ease, we boarded the bus back to Bangkok. With an early flight the next day, again out of laziness and simplicity, we stayed on Khoa San Road, this time in a little spot that felt directly on the nightclub dance floor. Impossible for the bass to get any louder had we been inside the speakers, we finally fell asleep minutes before the alarm went off, walked by many bar-goers still going strong, and rode to the airport to hop on our plane to Myanmar.

Oh, I also made plenty of time to stop for coffee. Twice...

From Bangkok, with Love,

Sara + Will