Paradise Island-Part 2-The perfect massage

So as I was saying before, I broke away from my little bit of paradise at Wai Nam beach to go to the northeast of the Koh Pha Ngan island to Mae Haad which also has a small island called Koh Maa that is connected by a strip of sandbar. When the tide is low you can walk over and have a look and even get a drink at the local Reggae bar(something I’ve yet to do so perhaps in the next couple of days before I leave) It’s a smallish bay that is known for good diving and snorkeling. Since I arrived the weather has been very windy and the sea rough so not good for visibility. Hopefully before I leave I’ll get to enjoy some great underwater scenery.

It seems that while my stay on the east side was with an ocean view and focused on doing a lot of yoga and hiking the jungle, my accommodation here has been in a jungle/garden atmosphere and doing walk/runs in the early morning and at sunset time getting a massage on the beach. I know, it sounds decedent and my goal has been to find the perfect massage. A Thai massage is a lot of stretching and deep pressure on points of the body which is often quite intense. An oil massage is what westerners are most familiar with. I have discovered a Thai oil massage and this in my opinion is the “perfect massage”. A combination of the wonderful Thai massage stretches with a deep tissue massage done with coconut oil to moisturize the body. I’ve had three so far and the best was last night while watching the sunset over the ocean.

In my photos you will see a picture of a Great Horned Beak bird and we saw it on our hike to the remote beach (Ploy beach) on the other side of the island. It did seem quite tame and was taking a banana out of a woman’s hand. So the story continues here in Mae Haad. The first morning I was here I went for a run and was dive bombed by a bird and it nearly landed on my head! My heart was racing and I stopped to look at it and sure enough, it was the same type of bird that I had seen on the east side. Come to find out later at the local breakfast spot “Four Tables” that this there used to be two birds here and apparently a number of weeks go, one went missing. The one remaining is a menace and tries landing on people, taking their food and beach accessories and is just plain obnoxious! I showed some of locals my photo of the other bird and they think it’s the same one and is the male. I think the female here is bored without her mate so therefore causes havoc with the tourist.

Island life……it’s hard to beat and even harder to break away from and if it weren’t for the fact that I’m leaving next week for Bali I’d be really sad to leave. I really have enjoyed my time on the islands and feel the most relaxed since I left the states.
Follow this link to see all my photos from Koh PhaNgan www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/KohPhaNgan

Paradise Island-part 1....finding the perfect spot

Sorry about the delay in blogs. I think the island life is getting to me…meaning I’m extremely relaxed not to mention the limited internet connection here on the island. So, I’m going to write this in two parts because there’s more then one story in the past two weeks.

I came to Koh Pha Ngan on the 7th of January after doing yet another one of these “too good to be true” package bus/ferry deals. The reason being is that I had already scheduled it before Lana and I left Bangkok for Cambodia and even though I vowed to never do that again….there I was waiting in traffic in Bangkok, arriving at a totally different ferry then I thought I would and at 3:30am. This meant waiting until 7:00am to get the ferry over to Koh Pha Ngan which was 4 ½ hours on very choppy waters. Luckily I don’t get seasick but it was a long, long night and day!

I finally arrived and planned to make my way to the east side of the island in a area called Haad Thian and where a spa/resort called The Sanctuary is and where I was hoping to stay but they were booked up because of this huge gay wedding of a couple from Las Vegas and Tokyo-not sure where they live now-but it was one festive event….more on that later. So I ended up staying at a place called “Lovelip” very close to The Sanctuary so I could also take advantage of the yoga and meditation classes at the Sanctuary. I didn’t really connect with the bungalow at Lovelip so I started exploring some other options. I wandered over to the next beach called Wai Nam and there it was! Paradise found and I was determined to stay there and apparently so was everyone else so it took patience and three more nights at a bed bug infested bungalow (I realized this after nearly scratching myself raw and thinking that the mosquitoes were brutal here!) before I could get a room. In spite of the above mentioned it was worth it. I had an amazing bungalow with a view of the ocean, cliffs and coconuts trees and slept soundly to the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore. I left the bed bugs behind but did have an infestation of ants but hey….this is the islands. No hot water showers or flushing toilets but it more then paid off to stay 6 more nights in paradise. Wai Nam beach also had a platform overlooking the ocean to use for yoga and meditaton. I took advantage of this as well as doing a few classes through the Sanctuary.

Back to the wedding! The event took place the day after I arrived and right on the Haad Thian beach. The bridegrooms were dressed up in colorful kimonos and the guests were clad in wild makeup and outfits. Come to find out one of the grooms is an entertainer in Vegas and many of the guests were talented as well so they put on quite a show after the ceremony plus a fireworks display that was pretty spectacular. It was a fun night and I met some really nice people including Davie from South Africa who became my hiking and hanging out buddy for some of the time I was there. I made friends with a couple from Germany and Victor actually helped me to carry by bag over rocks and cliffs when I first arrived by boat (since it was rough they said they couldn’t take up right into Haad Thian), a sweetheart of a man, Michael, from the Uk but living in Thailand and Amsterdam, and Anna from the UK who I grew to really enjoy our walks and talks together.

Davie and I hiked over to an even more remote beach which was about a 45 minute hike and was beautiful. Another day we hiked into Haad Rin(where I took the boat from) which was close to 2 hours up and down through the jungle and as I was swinging on vines to help myself down the steep embankments, I re-named myself “Jungle Jane”. It was incredible with great views and on the way back we got caught in the rain and were totally drenched but it was worth it!

There is a bit of a party scene there on the island but it’s one that you can partake in or not. The dance parties on Tuesday and Fridays nights barely get started before midnight and go until noon the next day. Needless to say, I did not go and luckily was far enough away that I wasn’t kept awake by the music. After all, Koh Pha Ngan is famous for their “Full Moon Parties” that attract thousands of people.

So sadly I tore myself away from this lovely paradise after ten days only to experience a different side of the island……….”same, same but different” as the Thai’s like to say. I will tell you all about that in part 2 of “Paradise Island”

If it seems too good to be true....

It probably is! We asked our travel guru Bill what he thought was the best way to get to Koh Chang which is an island not too far from the border of Cambodia and he said we could take a taxi to the border for $30 and then in Thailand get either a local bus or a mini van (which he said they make you wait till it fills up. We figured we get to the border and look at the options. We happened across a travel agent in Siem Reap and decided to check out what else they had available. Lana was ready to jump over the desk and kiss the Thai girl who informed us that a bus/ferry combination from Siem Reap to Koh Chang would cost us $12 each! We decided that it sounded like a great deal so why not?

A minivan picked us up at 7:30am from our guesthouse and took us about 10 blocks to a travel agent and told us we had to get out and wait. For what? Another bus oh course. An hour or so later a bus came and crammed us all in along with our luggage like sardines for the 2 ½ hour ride to the border. The border wait was chaotic and we waited in what seemed to be the never ending line that took about 1 ½ hours. We then waited…again, for a minivan to take us about another 10 blocks or so to another wait station. By this time our patience was wearing thin but what are you gonna do? We waited until 3:30 and Lana and I were stuffed into the front seat thinking we had the best seat in the minivan but I was literally on the hot seat-not sure what made it so hot but I was getting pretty cranky during the 4 ½ hour ride. I’ve also wanted heated seats but NOT in Thailand!

We arrived to Trat and were rushed out of the van and literally had 10 minutes to get our gear and onto the last ferry. After what should have taken 7-8 hours total, 13 hours later we finally make it to our destination. Thus the title of this blog!

Finally once in Koh Chang we had some time to relax. The first day just getting to breakfast and the pool felt like quite the feat for the day. The next day we rented a double kayak for about 2 hours and had a great day! We enjoyed a wonderful sunset, great food and some classic people watching. Time to relax for the remainder of my time in Thailand!
Only a few from Koh Chang www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/KohChang

Honk if you've been to Cambodia

After reading online about the border-crossing scams, we decided we were brave enough to give it a shot. We got up at 4:00 a.m. to take a taxi to the Moh Chit bus station. The Bangkok street markets were already open and active. Our bus was packed with locals, we were the only “falongs” heading for Aranyaphratet. We arrived at the border around
9:30 a.m., prepared for the fake Visa salesmen and con-artists. It wasn’t as terrifying as we had been told. We only had to walk one block to the 1st window for the Passport check. At the second window we paid the $20 for our Visas into Cambodia, plus an extra 100 Baht for no copy of the photo. (No one mentioned that!) The 3rd window stamped our passports, and finally we went out to meet our ride to Siem Reap. He was supposed to be waiting for us with a sign reading “Toni Bodeau”, but we waited and wandered around for two hours, dripping in sweat in the dirty, hot and humid border area. Finally, he approached us and said he had been looking for two men. We fooled him! He took us to the Poi Pet bus station, where we met our taxi driver, Mr. Heng (or “Hung” as I referred to him!) We spread out in the air-conditioned taxi, surprised that they drive on the right side of the road in Cambodia. Mr Heng never stopped honking the whole way to Siem Reap, about a 2-hr drive. In fact, everyone seems to hook in Cambodia for this reason or that.

At the Two Dragons hotel, we met my dad and his friend Bill. We cleaned up, had a fresh strawberry smoothie, and then took a Tuk-Tuk to Pub Street for dinner. Bill wanted to go to Happy Pizza, where they serve “ganja” with anything. During dinner we were constantly interrupted by kids selling books and bamboo bracelets. They spoke English and were persistent yet delightful and funny. “America has 300 million people, minus 4 – because you 4 are here!” joked one boy. We walked about the town for awhile, and then headed back to the hotel because we were getting up at 5:00 to go to Angkor Wat temples to see the sunrise.

Our guide and Tuk-Tuk driver were waiting for us when we came downstairs the next morning. It was pitch black and I was wondering who the hell gets up this early…apparently many people do since it was packed already. We waited for the sunrise(a bit of a disappointment but still nice)while we struggled to understand our guide and Lana and I had to interpret for each other very often. He was a wealth of knowledge for the things we could understand but after about 10 hours later and too many “Lana’s and Toni’s….as he used the plural for our names…we had about all we could handle for the day. Plus it was hot, hot and humid to boot! Back to the guesthouse and another strawberries shake, shower and back out to explore Siem Reap. It’s a great town, filled with many restaurants and shops. The only thing unlike Thailand is that they really pester you to buy, buy. Lana become “Madame America” with many of the young kids trying to sell us on whatever the special “Happy New Year” priced item was.

The next day we got up (a more reasonable 7:30am start) and used the same driver but decided to decipher for ourselves with a guide book the different temples we visited. One that Lana and I really liked was out about 40 km away and we had to hike in about 1 mile or so up to a waterfall and along the river where there were many carving in the water and rocks along the river. It was really amazing to see. Being that it was New Year’s eve we headed into town again and Lana and I got a foot scrub/massage under the full moon. This is the life! We had a couple of drinks in an outdoor café and chatting with the sweetest boy who looked about 14 but said he was 18. After some excitement of the police chasing some boys on a motorcycle with guns we decided to head back to Two Dragons and bring in the New Year with the local Cambodians from the guesthouse. We danced and listened to music and counted down the New Year…..a very different way to bring in the New Year.

New Years day the four of us headed out to Tonle Sap Lake and rented a boat to see the floating villages of Kompong Khleang. This was incredible to see how the 6000 villagers lived in a village of about 1260 houses. You’ll see by the photos how they lived in houses on very tall stilts to accommodate the heavy rains and rising water levels. They row everywhere; to floating veggie and fruits markets, fish markets and just about anything else they may need. We got out and walked along the village and met some of the locals. The children are not shy at all and followed us and loved to pose for photos. This was truly the “real” Cambodia. Between the floating village and Angkor Wat we were so glad we took the challenge to cross the border and visit this amazing country. We figured going back over the border to Thailand would be a breeze….or so we thought!

I downloaded all the photos I took so I know it’s a lot but I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Cambodia

Happy New Year!!