Friday, August 12, 2011
Alas nearly a week has elapsed since I have plopped myself in front of my computer to produce anything of literary substance. Our time in Cambodia expired shortly after our outing with the automatic weapons but not before one last night in the capital. We spent that night walking the boardwalk in downtown Phnom Phen, sharing a small bottle of our new favorite malted beverage, Hong Thong. Sitting by the water we watched as tourist and locals alike passed us by as we reflected on our week spent in Cambodia. There are moments when you are traveling when you pause to mentally digest your experiences. Such brief moments of clarity occur as you try to grasp where you are and put it into some semblance of perspective. For us that night it was the city boardwalk, a place that had you asked me one year ago where I would be, this location would not have been on my list of 1000 places. And yet it felt completely natural to be seated on the concrete bench, staring into the throngs of people at midnight near the Mekong River near downtown Phnom Phen. I enjoy purposefully pausing for such introspection if only to bring a wry smile to my face as the realization of my location is actualized and I say to myself “wow, I can’t believe I’m here right now.”
We proceeded to exit the country the following night via bus, again retracing our route back to Bangkok as we had done the previous week out of Chiang Mai. It is slightly bothersome as a traveler to backtrack instead of forming some sort of a loop or continuous path, but such was the compromise as David was on a budget of time and I crippled by parsimony. The advantage to this traveling tactic however is that one is already apprised of the ins and the outs associated with crossing a border or buying a ticket or hiring a taxi and is better equipped to make the proper decisions thereby saving both time and money. On the down side I had to log another ten hours on one of the worst buses I’ve ridden yet, spend too much time crossing the border and then cram into a mini-bus for another four hours back to Bangkok. Our night bus from Phnom Phen to the Thai – Cambodian border exacted such misery from me because of the lack of space between my seat and the man in front of me. My seat refused to recline while the passenger in front seemed to tire instantly, reclining immediately after boarding, leaving my legs forcefully pushed into the back of his seat. Squished into my seat like the clichéd sardine I remained awake as the hours ticked by slowly while we traversed the doldrums of Cambodia. To be fair, such misfortunes of traveling happen to many others and while also allowing for more interesting story telling.
After making our way back to Bangkok we returned to my usual guesthouse of choice and set out to buy our onward tickets. We were set to depart for southern Thailand towards the islands of Phuket and Koh Phi Phi, hoping to board the cheap night bus the following day. Unfortunately timing was not in our favor as the Full Moon Party on Koh Phag Nan had filled all the buses with other travelers. We were forced to stump up the extra cash for the supposed VIP bus instead, costing nearly double the other bus but allowing us to stay on schedule. And so, leaving in the rain of Bangkok our bus was indeed an improvement from the previous cramped conditions we had been enduring. A small snack was even served, although we both elected to avoid its consumption as we decided a packaged piece of white bread slathered with green custard would cause more harm than good.
Our time on Phuket was brief, as we elected to stay only one night on Patong Beach. Being such a large island Phuket is becoming overrun with tourism as the sprawls of westerners extends to every corner of the sandy surroundings. Patong Beach has a reputation for being a crowded party beach but also rather seedy with an underbelly of sex tourism openly marketed. It was a little odd being the only visitors in our guesthouse but we quickly realized that the great deal we had gotten was probably because it was located in the middle of the nightly cacophony of live bands and drunken patrons. We figured out best defense lied somewhere in the sound theory of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Alas after a few hours on the beach we saddled up with some pad thai and Chang beer and walked the streets taking in the neon surroundings.
The following morning we made our escape back to the main town where we intended on staying a night until we disembarked the bus and a local tuk-tuk driver inquired as to whether we’d like to go to the pier instead. Well, gosh darn it if we didn’t make a change on the fly and decided to grab a ferry that day out to the island of Koh Phi Phi. We were originally concerned that we might be priced out from this destination given its recent transformation as a tourist beach mecca but we figured it was worth the risk.
Monday August 15, 2011
That risk proved worthwhile as my time spent on the island of Koh Phi Phi was some of the most sublime I’ve had yet. Although it is well known for hosting the film location for The Beach, I personally align none of my interest and enjoyment of my time spent there with such cinematic trivia. In fact it’s probably worse to know that Leonardo Dicaprio made a movie here since it draws in the very sort of people who care about that stuff. Nevertheless our visit to the island was simply fantastic. Koh Phi Phi is a rather small isthmus whose only real beach lies on the narrow nape of land that connects the hillside region on either side. There are no roads to speak of, only cobbled and cemented paths, removing the nuisance of cars and motorbikes that have agitated me in every other city. Some locals use pedal bikes but there existence is tolerable.
Walking suffices for all others and we made our way from the pier on foot into the backpacker village area. Taking only minutes to reach, we quickly realized that navigating this tropical nirvana would require less effort than tying ones shoes. (Just for the record I haven’t even had to tie shoes in months; sandal paradise!) We viewed a handful of locales before settling on The Scenery, a bit of a ramshackle guesthouse set up towards the far end up the village partially up the hill. The price was quite agreeable as we were expecting to spend more based on the accurate information in the Lonely Planet.
One beach is particularly more visited by the backpacker crowd as half of the other beach has been cut off to the public by over-priced and under used resorts. I thought our beach was better anyway, curving forever in a semi-arc, allowing ample space for all the happy travelers. Low tide was exceptionally low, stretching for hundreds of feet and revealing slight sandbars and little pockets of coral rocks. It made no difference though, as we would lounge on the hot sand with only our bath towel and push our luck with the tanning sun. One afternoon we did a slight hike up one side of the island towards the viewpoints, only getting slightly lost on a couple occasions as we mistook trails to nowhere as possible outlets to new unknown viewpoints.
It is not every stop in our trip that we avoid all things touristy as we allowed ourselves to sign up for a half day boat and snorkel tour to the nearby Maya beach found on an adjacent island. It is here that The Beach was filmed and we quickly realized that it gains worldwide attention as our rickety longboat arrived to the hordes of Asian package tourists climbing down from giant speedboats. The beach was, well, very nice aside from the flock of photo snapping fools who peppered its shores. Yes, it did have the best sand I have walked on yet. But the real highlight of our little tour was on a cove on the opposite of the island where we moored for 45 minutes and I had my first real go at snorkeling. It was quite good in fact, as I floated about, testing the limits of my waterproof camera. The spectrum of fish was pretty good, as somewhat large pods of small brightly striped fish remained near the surface allowing me multiple attempts to capture them in digital film.
While our days were spent on the beach under the glaze of the sun our nights found us in similar proximity changing only our luminescence for that of the moon. For a small spot Phi Phi still drums up a rowdy beach party scene. It was bit out of our taste as we would elect to make our way farther down the sand with our own libations and seat ourselves to leftover deck chairs. Such tranquility can lull the senses into methodical submission as I desired never to leave and wished to spend my days rewinding the previous and hitting the Play button on life. I had little choice since our time was at a premium since we needed to make our way towards Malaysia for the last part of David’s trip.
