28-6/jan koh chang
Left koh phan gan, and my friends, and went up north to bangkok, to catch another bus to Koh chang. Here the buses are working very good, and of course it's the cheapest way of moving. And the heart of these bus connections is of course khao san road, one of the turistic bubbles in bangkok.
It took 4,5 hours to reach surathani, anf the sea was strangly flat. A 100km or maybe 200km of earth, are separating 2 complet different worlds, and from one of those, even if the bad info we have here, it's difficult to imagine the other. Then 10 hours by bus. And was I was lucky again because I sat just next to a canadian girl, that was a very interesting person. Her name was kim. She has been traveling for the last 6 years, and of course, working every now and then. Once in bangkok, took me half day to decide where to go. Koh chang, another island, looked a good place. It was supose to be a quiet and no busy place, but expensive. I met Lior on the bus. The second lior from israel that Imeet in this trip. He has also been traveling for a long time. 2 years in india, learning percussions. I think that the name was tabla. And 6 months in nepal, and he was now working in bangkok, in a israeli clothes company. I guess I have already written that thailand is absolutely crowded of israeli people. They use to come here for 6 months after the army. Boys must join the army for 3 years, and gurls 2. So I guess many of them need a kind of disconnection for a while. Due to the tsunami, the island was a little bit more crowded than it used to be in other x-mas times, but not that much. I guess in the future (soon), it's going to became the next pukhet, or koh phi phi, because people will keep on coming. And I can say that this a big pity, because the island now it's quite ok. No big buildings neither big resorts. No much concrete. Most of the buildings are made by wood, and bamboo. You can find mostly bungalows, for one or two people, with or without bathroom, and close to the beach, but fortunately, not by the beach. There is always a line of mangroves that separes the sea from the resorts. And I really hope that if the island explotes, turistically, they are going to be strict with eco-laws, and will not only accept western money at any price. The north of the island (white sand beach), is the most exploted. But most of the bars and restaurants and shops are by the road, about 500 m from the sea. In the space between, bungalows, or hotels, that are not allowed to pass the mangroves (palmeres) height. But unfortunately, mangrove are really hight, so they can be hight as well. But let's be optimistic. I decided to go to the south-west. It's a more peacefull area, with a nice beach, jungle, less turists, and less bars and restaurants. There wasn't electricity for a few hours a day, and some of the small resorts had generators. Water was only cold in this area (as it was in all the guest house I've been), and there were no roads to reach the beach. And of course, no lights during the night. And that was great. You could be laying in the beach, after walking in the middle of the jungle, and seeing very few turists. There were a couple of nice bars, made by bamboo, by the water, were I and my new friends, use to have diner every night. I met 2 girls from israel, hila and yael, that tought me how to write in hebrew, even if it's not that easy, but not even difficult. The difficult part is to understand what I am writing. I spent the new year's eve with them, and a girl from vic, sonia, that has been (and still is) living in san francisco for the last 4 years, after merring an american guy to get the visa. The other girl was from san francisco as well. And then, Some swedeish people, joey and gerhard. New year's eve, was nice and different, of course. 25 or 30 degrees, on the beach, with fire shows... And then I spent a few more days with david from england, and a couple from israel, shi and his girfriend, and 2 more girls from israel. I rent a motorbike one day, and saw that the eastern part of the island, 2 hours far from thailand and cambodja, is not exploted at all. Maybe because there is no beach at all. A few rocky or muddy beaches. And higher mountains. I was walking in the jungle, alone, for more than one hour, and didn't see anyone.
Let's see how the island is going to be next time. I'm not very optimistic about this idea. The thai government is suposed to make from koh chang an eco-turistic destination, and limitate the turists, but, there's something that... I don't know, I'm very suspicious about that. Let's see.
(Ribas! I spent 2 nights in a tent, as small as the one we had in the interail, many years ago!!)
So this island, has been a good place for me to rest, read, think about this very present, about the tsunami, about where to go next, and what to do there, about going somewhere, voluntering...
I met jim in koh chang as well. He was with me and chris, eileen, zac, ana and liam in koh phan gan.
After that, I went back to bangkok, to meet zac. We've decided to go to india, calcuta, in the north-eastern part, close to bangla desh. We will try to go down, south, and maybe, if it's not that dangerous for our health, will try to do something in the affected areas. It's not secure that we will do that. There's no info here about voluntering. A part of me would like to do it, and another is very scared about this idea. I know there are going to be a lot of new diseases, a part from the normal ones for westerners. So we have to see. I still don't know if there's is something usefull that we can do. So please, if you have some info about how to do something there, please tell me. But tell me also if you, that have more info about the tragedy, think is too dangerous.
So, I'm spending the last days in thailand, just waiting for the indian visa. I'll get on friday the 7th, and we leave on saturday, early in the morning. We'll be in calcuta at 11am.
I havn't still visited the north of thailand that I heard is great, but Thailand is the heart of this part of asia, and I'll visited later on. Chiang mai, chiang rai... daniela told me great things about this area, and about its people and landscape.
So next blog is probably going to be from india.
It took 4,5 hours to reach surathani, anf the sea was strangly flat. A 100km or maybe 200km of earth, are separating 2 complet different worlds, and from one of those, even if the bad info we have here, it's difficult to imagine the other. Then 10 hours by bus. And was I was lucky again because I sat just next to a canadian girl, that was a very interesting person. Her name was kim. She has been traveling for the last 6 years, and of course, working every now and then. Once in bangkok, took me half day to decide where to go. Koh chang, another island, looked a good place. It was supose to be a quiet and no busy place, but expensive. I met Lior on the bus. The second lior from israel that Imeet in this trip. He has also been traveling for a long time. 2 years in india, learning percussions. I think that the name was tabla. And 6 months in nepal, and he was now working in bangkok, in a israeli clothes company. I guess I have already written that thailand is absolutely crowded of israeli people. They use to come here for 6 months after the army. Boys must join the army for 3 years, and gurls 2. So I guess many of them need a kind of disconnection for a while. Due to the tsunami, the island was a little bit more crowded than it used to be in other x-mas times, but not that much. I guess in the future (soon), it's going to became the next pukhet, or koh phi phi, because people will keep on coming. And I can say that this a big pity, because the island now it's quite ok. No big buildings neither big resorts. No much concrete. Most of the buildings are made by wood, and bamboo. You can find mostly bungalows, for one or two people, with or without bathroom, and close to the beach, but fortunately, not by the beach. There is always a line of mangroves that separes the sea from the resorts. And I really hope that if the island explotes, turistically, they are going to be strict with eco-laws, and will not only accept western money at any price. The north of the island (white sand beach), is the most exploted. But most of the bars and restaurants and shops are by the road, about 500 m from the sea. In the space between, bungalows, or hotels, that are not allowed to pass the mangroves (palmeres) height. But unfortunately, mangrove are really hight, so they can be hight as well. But let's be optimistic. I decided to go to the south-west. It's a more peacefull area, with a nice beach, jungle, less turists, and less bars and restaurants. There wasn't electricity for a few hours a day, and some of the small resorts had generators. Water was only cold in this area (as it was in all the guest house I've been), and there were no roads to reach the beach. And of course, no lights during the night. And that was great. You could be laying in the beach, after walking in the middle of the jungle, and seeing very few turists. There were a couple of nice bars, made by bamboo, by the water, were I and my new friends, use to have diner every night. I met 2 girls from israel, hila and yael, that tought me how to write in hebrew, even if it's not that easy, but not even difficult. The difficult part is to understand what I am writing. I spent the new year's eve with them, and a girl from vic, sonia, that has been (and still is) living in san francisco for the last 4 years, after merring an american guy to get the visa. The other girl was from san francisco as well. And then, Some swedeish people, joey and gerhard. New year's eve, was nice and different, of course. 25 or 30 degrees, on the beach, with fire shows... And then I spent a few more days with david from england, and a couple from israel, shi and his girfriend, and 2 more girls from israel. I rent a motorbike one day, and saw that the eastern part of the island, 2 hours far from thailand and cambodja, is not exploted at all. Maybe because there is no beach at all. A few rocky or muddy beaches. And higher mountains. I was walking in the jungle, alone, for more than one hour, and didn't see anyone.
Let's see how the island is going to be next time. I'm not very optimistic about this idea. The thai government is suposed to make from koh chang an eco-turistic destination, and limitate the turists, but, there's something that... I don't know, I'm very suspicious about that. Let's see.
(Ribas! I spent 2 nights in a tent, as small as the one we had in the interail, many years ago!!)
So this island, has been a good place for me to rest, read, think about this very present, about the tsunami, about where to go next, and what to do there, about going somewhere, voluntering...
I met jim in koh chang as well. He was with me and chris, eileen, zac, ana and liam in koh phan gan.
After that, I went back to bangkok, to meet zac. We've decided to go to india, calcuta, in the north-eastern part, close to bangla desh. We will try to go down, south, and maybe, if it's not that dangerous for our health, will try to do something in the affected areas. It's not secure that we will do that. There's no info here about voluntering. A part of me would like to do it, and another is very scared about this idea. I know there are going to be a lot of new diseases, a part from the normal ones for westerners. So we have to see. I still don't know if there's is something usefull that we can do. So please, if you have some info about how to do something there, please tell me. But tell me also if you, that have more info about the tragedy, think is too dangerous.
So, I'm spending the last days in thailand, just waiting for the indian visa. I'll get on friday the 7th, and we leave on saturday, early in the morning. We'll be in calcuta at 11am.
I havn't still visited the north of thailand that I heard is great, but Thailand is the heart of this part of asia, and I'll visited later on. Chiang mai, chiang rai... daniela told me great things about this area, and about its people and landscape.
So next blog is probably going to be from india.
posted by Unknown at 14:01
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