Month: July 2016

The sights and sounds of Ao Nang seemed too beautiful to be real. We often felt like we must have fallen into a movie scene or a postcard photograph. My personal favourite was feeling like Tarzan in the jungle, literally swinging from vines at a couple points. This was on a hike, perhaps better described as a climb, to the lagoon nestled among the limestone cliffs of Railay Beach.

The hike began with a scramble up a cliff side of smooth rocks covered in red clay. Ropes were available but unneeded, as the ascent was not too steep. Nevertheless, you did need to use all four limbs. The rocks were so smooth, from years of people climbing them, that they almost felt artificial, like the ones constructed for Tarzan’s Treehouse in Disneyland. The sound of monkeys playing in the trees above added to the effect.

At the top, the trail forked. We took the left fork to the viewpoint, rested for a moment there, and took in the beauty of the beaches below and the cliffs in the distance. The hike had not exhausted us by this point, so we opted to go back to the fork and take the other trail, which led to a lagoon. We expected a similar difficulty level, but we were in for a surprise!

After half hiking, half sliding down a long muddy slope of red clay, we figured we were getting close. Then we saw the drop. The final ten metres of the “hike” went straight down the cliff face. We hesitated. It looked like fun, but was it perhaps too dangerous? However, seeing a couple of other people go down convinced me it would be fine. I grabbed the first rope, found a good foothold, and started my descent, suddenly very glad that I have been regularly climbing at the indoor gym back home. As I went, I realized that there were plenty of good holds in the rock, and the rope wasn’t even necessary if you knew what you were doing. For those who are familiar with the rating system for vertical climbs, I would guess it was a 5.7 or so. Ellsa was a little more hesitant to try, but once she got going she, too, had a great time.

The lagoon at the bottom took us from Tarzan’s jungle into Neverland. The sun sparkled on the surface of the green-blue water, a colour one of my students once described as botanical mint. The salty water was dense enough to float in with no effort at all, allowing you to lie on your back and gaze up at the steep cliffs surrounding this small piece of paradise. The rock faces were overgrown with undisturbed jungle life – leaves taller than I am, vines as thick as my arms, and thousands of cicadas chirping in unison. The air was thick with humidity, making the water feel that much more refreshing. Floating there truly felt like a dream.

The climb back up was just as fun as the descent. By the end of it, both of us were covered in red mud, but grinning ear to ear.

We probably wouldn’t have found the hike if it hadn’t been for the tour we took the day prior. We went on a four-island adventure with Thalassa Tours, and our friendly Thai guides, Kao and Tony, seemed to know every nook and cranny of all four. The tour included both day snorkeling and night snorkeling, as well as a picnic lunch and dinner.

The entire day was an absolute blast, but the evening was definitely the best part. Besides our two guides and our boat driver, the tour group was just myself, Ellsa, and a French family of five. The youngest, Pol, was celebrating his ninth birthday, and we toasted him with sparkling wine on Railay Beach after supper. We stayed there to watch the sunset, which was incredibly beautiful, especially with the pinks and oranges reflecting off the crashing waves. The sense of peacefulness there was complete, Pol and his sister playing in the waves, and the adults silently basking in the beauty of the moment.

The next part of our adventure was anything but peaceful, but it was certainly exciting! Our little longtail boat now headed back toward Ao Nang, in the dark and amongst large ocean waves. At first, the whole group of tourists screamed at every crash of the bow against the waves, alarmed by the water splashing up at us and the loud flat thud that accompanied it, but soon Pol started humming to himself, and I joined in with the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song. We were braving the seas, indeed! The rocky ride quickly became fun rather than frightening.

The evening came to a close with the magic of night snorkeling. If you keep still in the water, look down and you will see nothing, but if you wiggle your fingers, the darkness lights up with the twinkling of bioluminescent plankton. It’s like being able to fill the night sky with stars just by the wave of your hand.

Getting a Thai massage on our first day in Thailand was definitely a good call. After an eight-hour flight delay and a case of missing luggage (which we did eventually recover), a relaxing massage in an air-conditioned room was a perfect welcome. Massages are offered literally everywhere in the Khao San neighbourhood,  but we chose the Wat Pho Massage School, located on the temple grounds that also house a 42-foot-long gold reclining Buddha, quite a sight to behold.

The massage school was dimly lit, not in a dingy way, but in such a way as to enhance the relaxing atmosphere. It smelled sweetly of citrus fruit. The room was hushed, but not silent; the masseuses chatted softly with one another as they worked. They have incredibly strong hands. During some parts of the massage, I couldn’t help but visibly wince, but I knew it would feel good later on. I was surprised to find that part of the session involves cracking your back, as well as all of your fingers and toes. However, Ellsa and I agreed that the strangest part was when they pressed their fingers into our ears. I know it is supposed to be a full body massage, but I am really not sure what that was supposed to do. Nevertheless, it’s amazing how relaxed you feel afterward, even if you didn’t feel particularly tense beforehand.

A surprising highlight in Bangkok was our hostel. We stayed at Suneta Hostel on Kraisi Road. Our first night was spent in a small private room with a double bed. Our second, in cabin dorms, which are effectively large wooden cupboards with sliding doors, each containing a single mattress, a light, and a TV on the wall opposite your pillow. For someone claustrophobic,  it would have been a terrible experience, but Ellsa and I both found them rather cozy.

One of the best things about hostelling is the people you meet, and Bangkok was no exception. On our second morning there, while Ellsa was recovering from jet-lag, I spent a leisurely breakfast getting to know a 28–year-old filmmaker from a small country in Africa.  We compared homelands in terms of population distribution and climate, neither of us having experienced the extreme temperature of the other’s home. We discussed his work and mine. The topics were nothing special, but what made the conversation memorable was that we were both genuinely interested in it. Also, neither of us were in a rush to be anywhere, a factor that I think limits us too often in our day-to-day lives.

Right before we left Bangkok, Ellsa and I had a great game of Bonanza with a young Brit named Josh and a Scot named Cleo. At first I was worried they were going to take back their offer to join in, since the rules to the game are a bit overwhleming, but they stuck with it, and the four of us had a great time. I love how easily card and board games can break the ice.

It seems pertinent to note that our travel setbacks on the way from Vancouver to Bangkok were actually blessings in disguise. While the long delay meant a somewhat uncomfortable night spent in the airport, and the missing bags were a tad stressful, as we didn’t know whether they would turn up at all, everything worked out extremely well. For one thing, we didn’t have to carry our bags around as we made our way from the airport to the hostel on the first night, and the airline had them delivered early the following morning. Even better, we arrived in the evening, and were thus able to sleep off our exhaustion and adjust to a normal sleep schedule quite easily. In contrast, our original itinerary would have had us arrive in the morning, and I’m sure we would have struggled to stay up that day and sleep that night. I’m thankful that everything worked out so well, and happy to be reminded that God’s plan is always better than our own.