As soon as we returned to Thailand from the visa run got an evening bus to Chumpon and ate dinner at the market before departing. We caught a swangthaw to the closed bus station but found out that we could hail a passing bus, so after waiting 5 minutes got on the way and arrived in Chumpon two hours later. At the guest house, the owner was awfully pushy about selling us a boat ticket, being tired ignored her and went to bed only to learn the next day that she was being helpful as the ferry to our destination only leaves once a day. Chumpon is a quiet town, so after spending a night booked ourselves a ride on a slow cargo boat to Koh Tao on a night departure. The boat ride took about 6 hours, which we slept in the comforts of our shared cabin, which luckily we arrived early enough to secure couple of beds.
Koh Phangan was beautiful with blue green waters, mountains, and jungle surroundings. Our time was mostly spent on Haad Grud, Haad Salad, Haad Yao, and a short trip to Bottle Beach. We came back to Koh Tao and finished up our time before flying out from Bangkok to Nepal by taking a snorkeling trip, the highlight of which was swimming with Black Tip Reef Sharks. The stops on the way included Shark Bay, Aowleuk, Hin Wong Bay, Mango Bay, and Nang Yuan.
Showing posts with label ferries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ferries. Show all posts
Myanmar Visa Run
A visa run involves going to a neighboring country in this case Myanmar being the closest and the one we've heard many good things from other travelers, decided to cross over there by ferry. Before though we had to figure out a few things and of course eat breakfast. We arrived at Ranong just before day break and walked in the semi-darkness to the morning market to get delicious hot coffee and donuts to dunk. We got hot sweet rice and other tasty treats before setting out on our task. The first thing we needed was to confirm the cost of the visa and then convert it to dollars as the only acceptable method. We walked to a hotel but they didn't know, so we decided to wait it out a bit until the banks opened. Afterwards walking towards the pier came to another hotel, which did confirm the price and so went to a bank to convert the currency but they wouldn't do it so after hunting for another one got the required $20 per person for the visa fee. We walked back to the hotel to retrieve out big bag and went looking for the swangthaw to take us to the immigration pier. Walking on the road, spotted the #6 swangthaw, negotiated the fare, and got going for the 30 minute ride.
As soon as we got to the pier, were surrounded by touts to take us to the other side, many of which were overpriced, so after going through the Thai immigration formalities found a cheaper boat for the 45 min crossing to Myanmar. Our little boat took off in bobbing seas with us clutching out things and excited to see another country. On the Myanmar side, we handed over our passports to the captains son, a 12 year old who held our documents on open seas and we prayed that he wouldn't slip or fall. With out papers checked and proceeding on arrived on Myanmars shore, disembarked, and found a country completely different from the one left behind shortly. Saw both men and women walking in sarongs, lots of tea shops, men chewing on Betel nuts, men on boats fishing, and a general sense of calm and life moving slowly. As soon as we entered, a man approached us and took us to the immigration authorities who asked for the money. We gave over the money along with our passports and held our breaths as the officer inspected our $20 dollar bills. If the bills have even the slightest tear, are old, crumpled, the authorities won't accept them and will send you back. Gladly ours was accepted and we were presented with a 14 day stay with the restriction of not going further than 3 km. They held onto our passports, took our haggard pictures, and gave us temporary identification cards.
Upon exiting, the man who had helped us was Ali, who then took us on his motorbike to a nearby hotel as we opted to at least stay one night and explore the area. We checked in and found a country full of extremely hospitable people with quick smiles and delicious food.
Walking back to the pier along the beautiful blue green waters of the Andaman, found a Burmese restaurant with ready samosas at the table along with good chicken filled patties and ate them with cups full of hot green tea. While eating a man by the name of Mohammed came by introduced himself and told us of how he heard of two Americans in the area. He was extremely friendly and told us of good places to eat Pakistani food. He works as a driver, has a son but his wife has passed away, and has worked in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. He's 34 years old, has 8 brothers, and parents that live in Yangon. He is the driver tonight for a wedding, so invited us to attend and we eagerly accepted.
Earlier, ran into Ali again and chatted with him and found out that he was married at the age of 14, has 2 kids, is himself Bengali but married to a Burmese woman. We were also ticked at the fact about speaking Urdu to the locals as many speak it as they have settled here from surrounding countries. We were invited to sit down and drink tea with Ali, another man of the same age, who is Pakistani who offered to pay for our drinks.
We haven't properly slept or showered, so walked back to the hotel to take a rest before coming back out to attend the wedding. Walking back out later after a hearty dinner with lots of complimentary food, walked past the wedding with music, decorations, and general merriment. Spotting Ali, discussed the political situation, which talking in Urdu felt safer as the authorities are never far away. Mohammed invited us to come in to the wedding reception and sat us down in front of a mountain of dessert with ice cream, coconut pudding, and sweet bread. He even brought over the bride/groom for us to take pictures. I even saw the videographer shooting us, while eating and grinning from ear to ear.
It was a full day, so thanked our friends and walked back to the hotel to sleep with the sounds of croaking frogs and men chatting outside.
We've just arrived and already feel like we have made friends, even strangers such as when walking to our hotel offered us food when we walked by his street stall for free. Next day, I attended the Friday prayers at the nearby mosque and sat down for tea, when Ali came by with his 96 year old father and wife and decided to join us. Being a Friday, it's his day to relax so told us more about his family and learned that he never attended school but is making sure his son is. His father spoke English and was able to converse with him a little bit. Despite being deaf in one ear and blind in one eye, he seems very fit and rides with his son on his motorcycle. Time flies and it was time for us to go back to Thailand so Ali again paid for the drinks and arranged for our boat back. I got our bag from the hotel and we ran towards the pier to catch the boat before the Thai immigration closed. Got back our passports, said our hasty goodbyes, and got on the boat to head back. We arrived on the Thai side 15 minutes before closing, got the visa extension, and rejoiced for our time well spent.
As soon as we got to the pier, were surrounded by touts to take us to the other side, many of which were overpriced, so after going through the Thai immigration formalities found a cheaper boat for the 45 min crossing to Myanmar. Our little boat took off in bobbing seas with us clutching out things and excited to see another country. On the Myanmar side, we handed over our passports to the captains son, a 12 year old who held our documents on open seas and we prayed that he wouldn't slip or fall. With out papers checked and proceeding on arrived on Myanmars shore, disembarked, and found a country completely different from the one left behind shortly. Saw both men and women walking in sarongs, lots of tea shops, men chewing on Betel nuts, men on boats fishing, and a general sense of calm and life moving slowly. As soon as we entered, a man approached us and took us to the immigration authorities who asked for the money. We gave over the money along with our passports and held our breaths as the officer inspected our $20 dollar bills. If the bills have even the slightest tear, are old, crumpled, the authorities won't accept them and will send you back. Gladly ours was accepted and we were presented with a 14 day stay with the restriction of not going further than 3 km. They held onto our passports, took our haggard pictures, and gave us temporary identification cards.
Upon exiting, the man who had helped us was Ali, who then took us on his motorbike to a nearby hotel as we opted to at least stay one night and explore the area. We checked in and found a country full of extremely hospitable people with quick smiles and delicious food.
Walking back to the pier along the beautiful blue green waters of the Andaman, found a Burmese restaurant with ready samosas at the table along with good chicken filled patties and ate them with cups full of hot green tea. While eating a man by the name of Mohammed came by introduced himself and told us of how he heard of two Americans in the area. He was extremely friendly and told us of good places to eat Pakistani food. He works as a driver, has a son but his wife has passed away, and has worked in Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines. He's 34 years old, has 8 brothers, and parents that live in Yangon. He is the driver tonight for a wedding, so invited us to attend and we eagerly accepted.
Earlier, ran into Ali again and chatted with him and found out that he was married at the age of 14, has 2 kids, is himself Bengali but married to a Burmese woman. We were also ticked at the fact about speaking Urdu to the locals as many speak it as they have settled here from surrounding countries. We were invited to sit down and drink tea with Ali, another man of the same age, who is Pakistani who offered to pay for our drinks.
We haven't properly slept or showered, so walked back to the hotel to take a rest before coming back out to attend the wedding. Walking back out later after a hearty dinner with lots of complimentary food, walked past the wedding with music, decorations, and general merriment. Spotting Ali, discussed the political situation, which talking in Urdu felt safer as the authorities are never far away. Mohammed invited us to come in to the wedding reception and sat us down in front of a mountain of dessert with ice cream, coconut pudding, and sweet bread. He even brought over the bride/groom for us to take pictures. I even saw the videographer shooting us, while eating and grinning from ear to ear.
It was a full day, so thanked our friends and walked back to the hotel to sleep with the sounds of croaking frogs and men chatting outside.
We've just arrived and already feel like we have made friends, even strangers such as when walking to our hotel offered us food when we walked by his street stall for free. Next day, I attended the Friday prayers at the nearby mosque and sat down for tea, when Ali came by with his 96 year old father and wife and decided to join us. Being a Friday, it's his day to relax so told us more about his family and learned that he never attended school but is making sure his son is. His father spoke English and was able to converse with him a little bit. Despite being deaf in one ear and blind in one eye, he seems very fit and rides with his son on his motorcycle. Time flies and it was time for us to go back to Thailand so Ali again paid for the drinks and arranged for our boat back. I got our bag from the hotel and we ran towards the pier to catch the boat before the Thai immigration closed. Got back our passports, said our hasty goodbyes, and got on the boat to head back. We arrived on the Thai side 15 minutes before closing, got the visa extension, and rejoiced for our time well spent.
Old French Town
Cambodia, like its neighbors was ruled by the French so has beautiful old charming French buildings around town and viewing them with the setting sun makes a picturesque image as the golden sunlight meets the pastels and yellows of the old fading and sometimes crumbling buildings. Battambang is such a town and outside of viewing some of the old French architecture there isn't much to do and the charm lies in just that, exploring the town on bicycles and cruising around the river. We arrived late into town and being a small area, were able to walk a few minutes to our hotel where we were able to get dinner as they were shutting off the lights.
All towns in the country are dominated by markets (psar) and the one in Battambang Psar Nat was a wonderful place to sample local flavors and we got our breakfast of rice porridge and noodles to start our day. The few sites in town as stated earlier are the old buildings and the night market, another place that exists in many countries. We decided to get ambitious the next day and rented a few bikes to peddle out to Phnom Sampeou, which is a religious site consisting of monastaries, caves, monks, and sadly more brutal history of the Khmer Rouge where they ruthlessly killed people. The hike to the top provides great views of the countryside below but one has to watch out for many mischevous monkeys that will gladly take your food. There are a few impressive caves around the area and with the help of a local were able to locate many of these hidden areas on foot. There was one disturbing cave in particular where the Khmer Rouge soldiers bludgeoned to death approximately 1,300 people and would throw their bodies from the cave opening below. In display were the many bones and skulls of the deceased now encased in a Buddhist shrine to ease their soul and spirit.
Another reason for being in this town is to take the picturesque 9 hour boat ride on the Sengker River all the way to Siem Riep. The boat departs early in the morning, so had to wake up around 5:30 AM to get ready and head out to the dock. We started the day with a traditional Khmer breakfast of duck eggs, rice porridge, and fish all provided for the wonderful price of free! Yes, the gracious hotel owner was kind enough to send us off on a full stomach and everytime encounters of such amazing kindness happen to us, we are always taken back by the people's genuiness and amazing friendliness. The ride up the river was beautiful, tragic, and happy. It was beautiful because of the sites that we passed, which consisted of floating villages, locals fishing, woman and kids bathing and playing in the waters and basically using the river to provide for their livelihood. It was tragic because at many places along the river we passed slums and many shanty towns with floating garbage, burning trash, and open pipes from houses above running into the river with many kids playing in the dirty water. It was happy because despite the hard conditions present everytime we passed a house a kid would pop up and smiling beamingly would shout out "hello" above the loud boat water and wave like a flag in the wind with all the enthausium that he/she could muster. We couldn't help but break out in gigantic smiles and never got tired of waving back during the entire ride duration. I know for both if us if anything can be said about winning over a country, it definitely is the people and we certainly fell in love with their optimitic, enthuastic, and friendly attitudes.
All towns in the country are dominated by markets (psar) and the one in Battambang Psar Nat was a wonderful place to sample local flavors and we got our breakfast of rice porridge and noodles to start our day. The few sites in town as stated earlier are the old buildings and the night market, another place that exists in many countries. We decided to get ambitious the next day and rented a few bikes to peddle out to Phnom Sampeou, which is a religious site consisting of monastaries, caves, monks, and sadly more brutal history of the Khmer Rouge where they ruthlessly killed people. The hike to the top provides great views of the countryside below but one has to watch out for many mischevous monkeys that will gladly take your food. There are a few impressive caves around the area and with the help of a local were able to locate many of these hidden areas on foot. There was one disturbing cave in particular where the Khmer Rouge soldiers bludgeoned to death approximately 1,300 people and would throw their bodies from the cave opening below. In display were the many bones and skulls of the deceased now encased in a Buddhist shrine to ease their soul and spirit.
Another reason for being in this town is to take the picturesque 9 hour boat ride on the Sengker River all the way to Siem Riep. The boat departs early in the morning, so had to wake up around 5:30 AM to get ready and head out to the dock. We started the day with a traditional Khmer breakfast of duck eggs, rice porridge, and fish all provided for the wonderful price of free! Yes, the gracious hotel owner was kind enough to send us off on a full stomach and everytime encounters of such amazing kindness happen to us, we are always taken back by the people's genuiness and amazing friendliness. The ride up the river was beautiful, tragic, and happy. It was beautiful because of the sites that we passed, which consisted of floating villages, locals fishing, woman and kids bathing and playing in the waters and basically using the river to provide for their livelihood. It was tragic because at many places along the river we passed slums and many shanty towns with floating garbage, burning trash, and open pipes from houses above running into the river with many kids playing in the dirty water. It was happy because despite the hard conditions present everytime we passed a house a kid would pop up and smiling beamingly would shout out "hello" above the loud boat water and wave like a flag in the wind with all the enthausium that he/she could muster. We couldn't help but break out in gigantic smiles and never got tired of waving back during the entire ride duration. I know for both if us if anything can be said about winning over a country, it definitely is the people and we certainly fell in love with their optimitic, enthuastic, and friendly attitudes.
Musical Chairs and then some Komodos
In our last post, we had mentioned our sleeping arrangement on the boat and so would like to explain that portion in detail here. Our boat pulled onto Komodo Island to drop off the French couple that we had met. Sabeen and I now alone with just the crew passed off the time pleasantly enough watching the sky and observing the stars. Earlier, we had noticed some buggy creatures walking around the boat but didn't give it much thought until the time had come for us to bed down and sleep for the night.
The crew put down couple of mattresses for us on the deck, when we noticed a huge cockroach sauntering around as if he owned the boat near our beds. I had also noticed smaller ones coming out from cracks and below the deck as evening progressed. We both knew that trying to lie down and sleep in such conditions would be impossible and so decided to improvise our sleeping arrangement.
My wife had the brilliant idea of taking the deck chairs to design a makeshift bed. We had about 5 chairs to work with, so after a few different designs and tweaks, it was decided that since I was taller I would have 3 chairs to lie down on and Sabeen would rest her feet on my third chair. We put the pillow under us to provide some cushion and pulled the ikat blanket on top of us to try and spend the 6 hours before daybreak. I actually managed to sleep, while Sabeen on the other hand did not. Regardless, we woke up at 5 AM or so to prepare our hike on Komodo Island at 7 AM.
As we disembarked the boat and met up with the ranger to begin our 2 hour hike when we got in line with a Swedish family who was doing a longer hike and decided to follow them on (we got lucky, only paid for a 1 hour hike). As soon as we had started that we noticed a Komodo sluggishly walking the trail, which we followed for a few feet before he was pushed off by the ranger to clear the path for the remaining hikers. This was the biggest Komodo we had seen so far. Komodo Island is bigger than Rinca and has a population of about 1,200 resident dragons. According to the rangers, it is difficult to spot dragons on Komodo Island, due to its size at approximately 32 Sq KM, so we considered ourselves lucky to have seen one at the start of our trek. We continued hiking through the island and spotted a flying lizard, monkeys, cuckatoos, and heard sounds of many exotic tropical birds overhead. Komodo Island also has a resident deer population and the dragons actively hunt these. By the conculsion of our hike, we spotted another dragon but it quickly disappeared in the bushes. As we made it back to the ranger station, there were baby dragons along with about 3 or 4 adult dragons lounging around....This was a bad location as it was right near the bathroom.
We got back on the boat to head to Pink Beach to snorkle. The boat sailed for about an hour, which we passed by eating lunch. We pulled up to the stop, pulled on our masks and dived in. The reef was spectacular, with 6 foot and wider coral fans including Brain coral, sponges, Sea Cucumbers, and a rainbow of tropical fish including some huge Jacks and blue green Parrot Fish. There were sea urchins below our feet and colorful sea anemones with fish playing inside its protective cover from preys. While we enjoyed the beautiful colorful underwater garden, little did we know of the impending storm blowing our way.
After an hour or so, we left our watery world, got back on the boat to find another snorkeling spot called Angel Island when some serious weather moved in. The skies closed in, the water turned a dull grey, the wind picked up, and the crew battoned down the hatches to prepare for a wet ride back home instead. The rain started and came down in sheets, we couldn't make out any of the outlying islands and instead contended ourselves with freshly served Pineapple. We got back safely but cold and wet and made a beeline for our hotels before closing out the day with some hot Bakso (meatball soup).
The crew put down couple of mattresses for us on the deck, when we noticed a huge cockroach sauntering around as if he owned the boat near our beds. I had also noticed smaller ones coming out from cracks and below the deck as evening progressed. We both knew that trying to lie down and sleep in such conditions would be impossible and so decided to improvise our sleeping arrangement.
My wife had the brilliant idea of taking the deck chairs to design a makeshift bed. We had about 5 chairs to work with, so after a few different designs and tweaks, it was decided that since I was taller I would have 3 chairs to lie down on and Sabeen would rest her feet on my third chair. We put the pillow under us to provide some cushion and pulled the ikat blanket on top of us to try and spend the 6 hours before daybreak. I actually managed to sleep, while Sabeen on the other hand did not. Regardless, we woke up at 5 AM or so to prepare our hike on Komodo Island at 7 AM.
As we disembarked the boat and met up with the ranger to begin our 2 hour hike when we got in line with a Swedish family who was doing a longer hike and decided to follow them on (we got lucky, only paid for a 1 hour hike). As soon as we had started that we noticed a Komodo sluggishly walking the trail, which we followed for a few feet before he was pushed off by the ranger to clear the path for the remaining hikers. This was the biggest Komodo we had seen so far. Komodo Island is bigger than Rinca and has a population of about 1,200 resident dragons. According to the rangers, it is difficult to spot dragons on Komodo Island, due to its size at approximately 32 Sq KM, so we considered ourselves lucky to have seen one at the start of our trek. We continued hiking through the island and spotted a flying lizard, monkeys, cuckatoos, and heard sounds of many exotic tropical birds overhead. Komodo Island also has a resident deer population and the dragons actively hunt these. By the conculsion of our hike, we spotted another dragon but it quickly disappeared in the bushes. As we made it back to the ranger station, there were baby dragons along with about 3 or 4 adult dragons lounging around....This was a bad location as it was right near the bathroom.
We got back on the boat to head to Pink Beach to snorkle. The boat sailed for about an hour, which we passed by eating lunch. We pulled up to the stop, pulled on our masks and dived in. The reef was spectacular, with 6 foot and wider coral fans including Brain coral, sponges, Sea Cucumbers, and a rainbow of tropical fish including some huge Jacks and blue green Parrot Fish. There were sea urchins below our feet and colorful sea anemones with fish playing inside its protective cover from preys. While we enjoyed the beautiful colorful underwater garden, little did we know of the impending storm blowing our way.
After an hour or so, we left our watery world, got back on the boat to find another snorkeling spot called Angel Island when some serious weather moved in. The skies closed in, the water turned a dull grey, the wind picked up, and the crew battoned down the hatches to prepare for a wet ride back home instead. The rain started and came down in sheets, we couldn't make out any of the outlying islands and instead contended ourselves with freshly served Pineapple. We got back safely but cold and wet and made a beeline for our hotels before closing out the day with some hot Bakso (meatball soup).
Komodo Found
In the evening, we checked out some travel agents for pricing to Komodo and Rinca, the two islands where the lizards roam free. We bargained with a few and learned that having more people on a cruise reduces the price and thus decided that the next day we would try and find some people or check back with the agents to see if they had a full boat that we could board for a discounted price. The cruises are all inclusive and include lunch, dinner, snorkeling, and "sleeping" accomodations to be explained later.....
Walking back to our boat, please note, there is no ranger escort and you are left on your own to mind the beasts and perhaps make a run for your life should they come looking.
24 hours to Flores
Our plan is to keep going east to the island of Flores with stops to Rinca and Komodo to see the famed dragons roaming free in the wild. The travel time to Flores by bus all together is about 24 hours and both of us have mentally prepared ourselves for the arduous journey through rough but beautiful and rugged land. The only way to see the dragons is by chartering a boat from either Lombok or Flores. We looked at the distance and pricing from Lombok for a 4 day cruise on the sea but instead opted to go on ahead to Flores. Our journey to Flores involved a 15 hour bus journey through the island of Sumbawa and then a 8 hour ferry ride to finally arrive at the harbor in Flores. The public ferry doesn't offer a lot of comfort but its cheap, reliable, and slow but gets you there safely.
Upon arriving at Sumbawa late at night, our bus yet again encountered some mechanical issue and we were stranded outside while our bus sat on the ferry. We waited for an hour after the obligatory smoke breaks were completed by the crew and then miraculously departed. We tried to sleep through the night as the bus rolled on through the tight and twisting turning road. I would often wake up and find a bewitching moon lighting up a Jurassic Park like landscape full of craggy twisted peaks and find my snoring companions or a crying baby trying to snooze close to her mother.
Arrivng at the ferry crossing, we made the journey watching Indonesian version of MTV and some comedy shows, all of course in Bahasa Indonesia. The time was passed writing in our diaries, taking a few pictures, walking out on deck, making faces and playing with the little kids on board.
Bali Bali!!
Getting back to Bali, we stayed for one night in Denpasar and then moved out to Ubud, the cultural heart of the area to spend a few days.
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