A Life Less Ordinary

Hello! I’m working on getting this album on to my website through a variety of measures, but the internet at our housing here in Hong Kong sort of sucks. Actually really sucks. In the meantime, you can allegedly just go to the link in this post to view the slide show of my favorite pictures. If you have problems viewing it, email me or comment and I’ll try to fix it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/evanjdoran

Life is funny. It always seems to happen that things eventually equal out. Here I am yesterday, having probably one of the best days of my life. I get to spend a beautiful day on the beach with my best friend and girlfriend Bekah. We relaxed at the pool, read a bit, and then got coconut oil massages. All courtesy of Bekah for my birthday. It was amazing, the first and best massage I’ve had and will have for awhile. We then had a great meal on the beach watching the sunset and capped it all off with 2 episodes of West Wing. Lovely. Then there’s today. I thought our flight from Krabi was at 11:05 am, it wasn’t. Try 12:05. We we’re 4 hours early getting to the airport. Oh well. Then we got to Bangkok and because Bekah’s next flight wasn’t for another six hours, she couldn’t check in. We had to say goodbye and boy was that not fun. Serves us right for having such an amazing preceding day. Love you honey!

I finally got to Hong Kong and here are some first impressions:

1. As expected, the airport was extremely efficient…with people wearing masks
2. No smells compared to Bangkok
3. There really are a ton of tall buildings here…Jesus
4. There really are a billion 7-11′s, but they’re all tiny
5. People speak less English than I thought, my first three encounters with others had the following responses, all to a question as to where the taxi’s are:

• “You go dis way and go levt and down stairs” in angry tones
• “Take the corridor to the end and take the elevator to G and queue for Kowloon taxis” by far the best
• “You go down” from smiling garbage lady
• And then a ton of yelling from the cab driver, not out of anger but I think just a general lack of hearing ability on his part

I guess we’ll see more as it was dark and late when I arrived so tomorrow will really be my first test. Till then, adieu.

Krabi is awe inspiring! Arriving two days ago by long tail, I never imagined this place would hold so much beauty. That bumpy ride from Nopparat Thara Beach to Railey West was exhilarating, but being dropped off at literally the highest of high tides left us playing Robinson Crusoe, or Oregon Trail. Either way we had to ford the Andaman Sea to get to a reasonable piece of terra firma, which happened to be right by our hotel lobby. We’re staying at the Railey Bay Resort and Spa and while this place has its eccentricities (Power shortages and funny A/C) it is simply stunning. We’re surrounded on all sides by giant limestone karsts, which are tree spotted jagged mountains that you often see represented in Chinese jade pieces. Our beach here at Railey West is fine and it interestingly has the largest variation between high and low tides that I’ve ever seen. Like football field size beach variations. However, the real gem is Phranang Cave Beach, which is through slummy Railey East and a cavernous walkway. We enjoyed chicken satay and minimal long boat noise while lying on a picturesque beach on Tuesday.

Wednesday we participated in an jet boat cruise to Ko Phi Phi. PP, as it’s abbreviated, is actually pronounced something like “Go Pee Pee” and actually consists of the larger Phi Phi Don and smaller, uninhabited Phi Phi Ley. We started with a drop off at Maya Beach on PPL, which was the now infamous scene in the movie The Beach. While I could see potential if it was entirely deserted, the place was extremely crowded by the tens of speed boats ferrying less than clothed Europeans. Thankfully our stay there was brief and we headed off for some snorkeling. Bekah and I were both taken aback by how close the fish came to us. There wasn’t a large variety of fish that say the Caribbean might have, but what it lacked in variation it made up for in pure scenic beauty. Imagine crystal blue water surrounded by brown and orange cliffs dotted with rich green foliage. I wish I’d either had a water proof camera or the balls to take pictures with mine in the water. We next headed to Monkey Beach, which as it sounds is a beach almost fully inhabited by cute monkeys, though I don’t know the exact species. We all took turns throwing them these disgusting little fruits (I would know, I tried them) and they nearly climbed aboard the boat. On our way to lunch we made friends with our Thai guide who took us to a mediocre restaurant on Phi Phi Don. She told Bekah that her recently tanned skin was nice, and asked if I was allergic to the sun given my red hued face. Apparently the ridiculousness of someone allergic to the sun coming to the coast of Thailand never crossed her mind.  We made our way to yet another snorkeling stop and then stopped at our last destination, Bamboo Beach. This was a place straight out of heaven, a brief respite from all the cliffs, but great sand, water, and few people.

Bekah and I have been eating reasonably well, given our general aversion to things cooked on greased out old toilet seats. Well, they might as well have been. Call me xenophobic, or just plain scared, and we did the beach food thing, but some of those vendors in Bangkok were truly terrifying. And I’m not talking about the people. Unidentified meat product swimming in urine colored broth with dark brown noodles and some sort of vegetable grown in a truck served from a rusted out trolley is not appetizing whether in Bangkok or Brussels. We’ve had minimal lunches, mostly owing to mediocre food provided on tours and our large complimentary breakfasts, which fortunately are western style. I still can’t do the rice and soup for breakfast thing. Our dinners have been great. We’ve had extraordinarily good Thai food in both Bangkok and Railey, including amazing Pad Thai, fried rice and some good curries. We had pizza one night along with Erdinger, Bekah’s favorite beer. We’ve tried a few different cocktails as well. One less-than-favorite was a Singapore Sling, about which my Bangkok guidebook says, “If not here, than where?” I’ll go with Singapore. I bet they say the same thing about a Long Island Ice Tea in their Omaha series. The pineapple colada’s and strawberry daiquiris are very fruity, but delicious after a hard day’s work of swimming and reading on the beach. I feel truly blessed to be able to see such a place in my lifetime.

I don’t know when I’ll be able to post my pictures as I seem to have lost my cord that connects my camera ot my computer. Luckily it’s a Sony and if I can’t find a replacement in HK then I don’t know if a replacement exists.

Such was the advice we we’re given by our tour guide at Ayutthaya. For those of you not in the know (which I’m sure is everyone), Ayutthaya is the ancient capital of Thailand. I think it was at least. Bekah and I took the extremely expensive $20 tour which included the hour long trip there and back, lunch, and a day’s worth of English guided touring. Thailand is soooo expensive. We just had dinner for like $10 bucks. In all seriousness, Ayutthaya was simple awe-inspiring. We’re talking about a place that has temples that range from 900 to 300 years old in various Thai, Burmese, and Cambodian styles. Apparently, young Thai women like to visit this particular big Buddha and leave money for luck. I can’t tell you which big Buddha exactly because, well, they’re all big and all, well Buddha like. The guide was quick to tell us that they wish for rich and handsome men, but those are far and few between.

Yesterday was also an interesting day. According to the not so friendly tuk-tuk drivers of “amazing Thailand” it was a government holiday in which tuk-tuks got free gas. What was not included in this brief description was that passangers had to stop at various shops for the drivers to get said discount. We visited a tailor and the proprietors response was literally, “You got dragged here right. No clothes…thanks for coming!” No joke. When we’d seen a few back ally temples and stopped at two stores we told the driver we wanted out. Then he said and I quote “You fucking! Fucking! Fucking! You so stupid! Why you come to Thailand?!” So friendly. Like the guy tonight screaming on the corner. He was less friendly, more terrifying.

Anywho, more dispatches from the big Bangkok later. Off to craziness.