Our Thailand Beach Trip

After our fun yet depressing week in Cambodia, we were looking forward to a few days at the beach. Thailand has some of the best beaches on earth, though you've probably only heard of it's most famous, Ko Phi Phi, because it was hit hard by the tsunami a few years back. Or, maybe you've seen the movie "The Beach" which is set on a spectacular beach in Thailand. Everything was planned out. Our flights were booked to a city called Hat Yai, not far north of the border with Malaysia. All we'd have to do is catch a bus then hop on a ferry. We landed in Hat Yai and boarded a "songtheow" (a shared taxi) with literally 20 other people, crammed into the back of a pickup truck. Everything was going relatively smoothly until we hit the water. Unbenonst to us, but southern Thailand was in the midst of some of the worst flooding in memory. Being the stupid tourists that we are, we kept trying to get to the beach, thinking maybe something was lost in translation. Every time we asked about getting to Pakbara, where we would catch a ferry, everyone would just shake their head and say "flood, flood, closed." We had no idea how bad it was, so we kept asking "Is there another way to get there?", "Are there trains going north?", "Are you sure we can't get there?" All our questions were greeted with the same bewildered look, hand signs to indicate how high the water was, and the word "flood, flood." Luckily Steph's aunt is Thai, so we managed to get her on the phone to talk to the locals. She confirmed that there was flooding and it was, in fact, very bad. Maybe we'd be able to go tomorrow, or maybe it'd be a few days. Finally beaten, we went back to the airport and flew back to Bangkok. How's that for a disappointing day? We ended up back in Bangkok watching the images on TV of Hat Yai covered in 10 feet of muddy water and realizing how stupid we were to keep insisting that we must go the beach.

The streets we drove through - this was actually a good area

View from the plane - towns under water!

Well, back in Bangkok. Flooding was still a problem north of Bangkok, so we weren't sure what to do. Eventually we realized that we couldn't be sure that anywhere in Thailand would be okay to visit, so we decided to move our flights up and spend our last 4 days in Bangkok. You'd think in four days we'd get to see everything Bangkok has to offer, but we didn't do much. Go to markets and eat was pretty much it. There's endless entertainment if you just walk around the malls. We saw a trained monkey perform, some Thai kickboxing, fashion shows, all sorts of live music, but our favorite was the "lip syncing" concert. Groups in matching outfits would get up and lip sync Asian pop songs with a coreographed dance. The funniest part was the group of about a dozen teenage boys in the audience who knew every song and the dance to go along with it. Imagine a bunch of 16ish Thai boys singing and dancing in unison to boy-band songs in the middle of public. I couldn't help but think these kids would immediately be beat up if they did that in the US. It was hilarious.

Thai Boxing match that was going on outside the mall - We saw UK vs. Italy

The one touristy thing we managed to do during our final stay in Bangkok was visit the Jim Thompson House. Jim Thompson was an American businessman who revitalized the Thai silk industry in the 50s and 60s. He lived a very interesting life - he was an ex-architect, a retired army officer, a one-time spy, a silk merchant, a millionaire and a renowned collector of antiques, but even more interesting than all of that was what happened to him next. During a trip to Malaysia with friends, he went for a walk in the jungle one afternoon and has never been heard from again. There are lots of theories as to what happened to him - eaten by animals, suicide, captured by natives, taken by the CIA, even taken to China to revitalize their silk industry. They never found any clues other than a few people who say they saw him in the days following his disappearance, and the unsolved murder of his sister a few months later. He just vanished. Very strange. Anyways, he left behind a goldmine of antiques at his house in Bangkok, which has been turned into a museum. The house and surrounding gardens are very nice and his antiques collection on display is amazing. 

Jim Thompson's House

The gardens at Jim Thompson's House

Some of the antique collection

It was a real shame to leave Thailand early. Everything is cheap, the food is good, and the culture interesting. Can't get much better than that. Our only comfort was knowing that we'll be back. Steph's uncle visits every year so we'll come visit again with him as soon as we get the chance. For now, it's off to the mecca of Asian culture - Tokyo!