Thailand Gap Year: Ramblings from the bottom of an Anphetamine laced Whiskey bucket.
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Thailand Gap Year post 5
April 14th, 2010 
admin Thailand Gap Year Post 5…
Thursday 3rd May
Thai boxing matches with Swedish birds
There is something really not quite right about watching 2 five year olds kick and punch the crap out of each other. But that is exactly what I did this evening. One even got knocked out. Now that was the point that I though Ok this is definitely not quite right. I had seen a flyer for a Thai boxing contest earlier in the day – 7 matches culminating in a championship bout between the local champion and the Bangkok Champion. The matches were ordered in weight and consequently age. To be fair the kids were loving it . I went there with 3 Swedish girls and 2 Canadian guys from the hostel. The “stadium” if it can be called that was raw as it gets, big metal bench seats surrounded a blood spattered ring. The stench wasn’t pretty either, mixture between sweat, deep heat and Urine from the long drop toilets. The fighters would emerge from behind the stands pray to each corner and then proceed to do a special dance that effectively stretched all of their limbs. The fighters themselves didn’t look too tough, being English I’m sure I could take one on. Well that’s what I thought until I saw these guys in action, I have no doubt that some of these guys could kick the head of a man clean off. If I was going to get in the ring, (which you could actually do) I would have taken on one of the 5 year olds. Depressingly I probably still would have lost.
Thailand Gap Year Post 5…
The evening was spent betting beer with the Swedish girls and watching Thais batter each other. I remember there was a particularly monotone commentator droning into a microphone constantly I have no idea what he was saying as it was in Thai, I like to think it was along the lines of “Hello everybody. I’m a little girl. I don’t know what I’m doing here, I think I have left the gas on, somebody please take this thing of me? No very well I shall continue….” The constant gibbering was accompanies by this horrendous noise, I shall not refer to it as music, kind of a cross between bag pipes and a cow being slaughtered; or possibly Christina Aguilera.
After the boxing was over, 2 of the guys staying in the hostel decided to get in the ring. A huge fat Scottish dude and a smaller fat Canadian. It was not really a contest, more of a serious beating, but they seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards I went to a beach bar near the hostel.
Thailand Gap Year Post 5…
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Thailand Gap Year Part 4
April 14th, 2010 admin Thailand Gap Year Part 3
KO Phanang
The hotel Sunview was on the west side of the Island, a collection of wooden huts on stilts sloping down from a cool bar at the entrance over looking the beach. Basic but perfect. 200 Baht a night – £2.85. I got settled into my shed had a shower (a hose pipe on the wall in the bathroom) and a sized up the toilet. Well it was a toilet but no flush, for this you had a bucket. Instead of toilet roll you had a hose to give yourself an enema. Strangely addictive after getting over the initial horror of reaching for the bog roll to find nothing there but an instrument looking like a barman’s soda tap.
1st May
Full moon Party
I went up to the hotel bar at about 10.30, there was a free taxi coming and I figured I’d meet some of the other guests. As I had dinner got chatting to this Australian couple. Now how about this for a coincidence the guy (called Porky) lives in Sydney and is training to become a pilot, he has just done his PPL and is at a very similar stage to me. He also had the business card of his flying instructor on him so he gave me his details. Small world eh? So we decided that we would share some flight hours in Sydney when we get the chance.
Also in the bar were 3 blonde Swedish girls (bingo), 2 Canadians “dudes” and some Americans. The rain was solidly tumbling onto the roof as our taxi’s turned up. 2 pick up trucks, we were going to get very very wet.
Thailand Gap Year Part 3
Wet we did, but who gave a shit, I had just had some Amphetamine laced Thai whiskey from a bucket. This was going to be a quality night.
We headed into Hat Rin and the place was swarming. The town is perched on a headland sandwiched between 2 beaches. Mostly tourists turn up to get wasted and dance the night away ( literally until 11am). As we followed the crowd down to the beach the crowed got thicker until we emerged half way up sunset beach. It was an incredible sight, 1000’s of people on the most beautiful beach getting hammered. And I mean hammered. All along the beach were locals selling childrens sand buckets with a bottle of vodka can of coke and a red bull. Hmm. I was no exception. The recollection of the night is somewhat hazy passed 3am. I remember talking to loads of people, one bird came up to me and said I looked like Mathew Mchonohey.
Unfortunately I saw several fights and I saved someone’s life. This young guy of about 25 had the shit kicked out of him by this guy, I saw him stamping on him and the victim was knocked out motionless face down in the Sea. I ran over and jumped on the guy on the floor and told the aggressor that the police were coming and to leave, he legged it. I grabbed the guy and dragged him out of the water, and put him in the recovery position. He wasn’t breathing and I could not feel a pulse. Someone called the paramedics I shouted, and there was already a crowd gathering. Fuck well if it has to be me I had better do something: I had to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation. In about a minute the paramedics arrived and took over, he made it and spluttered back to life. I never thought I’d ever have to do that, but I’m very pleased now that I had been on a first Aid course.
Thailand Gap Year Part 3
The rest of the evening was soured when I hid my boots and got them stolen. This made the following day a nightmare as in my drunk state I agreed to accompany these two birds back to their hotel, unfortunately there hotel was 1 mile up a rocky gravel path and I had to negotiate it with alots of ouch ohh ah! As I gingerly wrecked the soles of my feet.
As I began to sober up I decided that seeing how I had no clue where I was or where I was staying the only sensible thing to do was keep drinking and see where I ended up. As we neared the girls hotel I heard the rumble of a car coming up the road, fuck this I thought, I’m going to hitch the rest of the way as my feet were now cut to shit. I was pretty surprised to see it was an English landrover! Uk plates on and everything. The driver pulled over and I negotitated a lift. Turns out that Daniel – the driver was on a round the world trip too, except he was driving it. His Land rover was pretty special too, a Wolf conversion, the type the UK army uses, only 5 of them were ever built for private use. He has a sight here www.thelonewolf.com we chilled out at the hotel bar for a bit and swapped stories and I downed beer to fight off the hangover. He told me about how he had travelled through Iran and been tailed and arrested by the secret police for 3 days. They were suspicious of what he was doing and to be fair he was driving around in a military version landrover. The thing looked like it could launch a coup in a third world country considering the equipment it was carrying. When he was there he filled up his landrover for under a $1. Diesel is ($0.063 a litre in Iran.) After a while we drove back to had rin as the girls had decided to move as their bungalows were too remote, so I found myself back at the scene of the crime, shoeless once again. To be fair I managed until about 11 o’clock but then eventually I t got too much. I threw up into a dark alleyway and got a very expensive taxi back to my bungalows to do some serious sleeping.
Thailand Gap Year Part 3
April 14th, 2010 admin Then I took a trip down to the beach and did some shopping and had some dinner. I went in to a restaurant and asked them if the could cook me a thai red curry, it wasn’t on the menu but I really felt like having one. It was the best I have ever tasted, fresh lemon grass and coconut milk with red chillis in just the perfect quantity. I actually got up and went into the kitchen to thank the chef personally it was that good. After dinner (to be fair it was early) I went for a swim and sat down to watch the sun setting over the horizon. As I sat on a bench I got chatting to this Malaysian girl, Karen from Singapore, she was also 28, and here on holiday on her own, we talked for a bit and then headed back to our hotels, she suggested we meet up that evening for a drink so I gave her the name of a bar and arranged to meet at 8. I went back showered and put on my new T-shirt ( great quality as the dye on the Tshirt had started to run in the rain!).
Now I don’t know if I got the wrong time, wrong bar or wrong girl but she never turned up, so I got chatting to 2 very attractive Dutch girls: Martine and Elina, then rest of the evening was a blur of super tiredness, cocktails, and me forcing the girls to say things like “SNNNORKLE” with their crazy accents. I ‘m also rather proud that I managed to get my only piece of Dutch into a conversation “Nurken en de Kurken” – Fucking in the kitchen) thanks to Mr Ogden for that one. We ended up in a bar where the gayest barman took a shine to me.
Thailand Gap Year
By the time I went to bed I was exhausted, I had to be up to get on a bus which was coming to get me at 10.30. Naturally I over slept.
I woke to the sound of the receptionist banging on the door, the Taxi was waiting to take me to Ko Pangnag and had been waiting for sometime. I had one of those moments you get when you are suddenly woken from a deep, deep sleep: your surroundings are unfamiliar and you are not really sure what was going on. I sat bolt up right and shouted OK! Before I was even awake. My eyes were not working properly as I clambered around the room randomly stuffing my clothes and possessions into just about anything I could. It took me 10 minutes by which point the taxi driver was well with in his rights to drive off. This was my first encounter with the laid back attitude of the Thai. He just laughed as I ran up to him and said that he would like to go sometime before Christmas.
I apologised to the other people in the taxi – an Australian couple and also and a French couple. There was a steady stream of rain pouring down as there had been pretty much all the time since arriving in Thailand.
The day was devoted to travelling to the island, climbing into several different buses that all travel at a ridiculously slow speed.
The destinations was Surat Thani a commercial port town which served as the embarkation point for Ko Samui and my destination Ko Pangnan. I met more people on the Ferry, a 19 year old girl from the Netherlands who was travelling Solo called Astrid, Some Canadians, and several Thai Lady boys. Some of them were slightly dubious looking to say the least.
Also on the boat I met a Thai girl who was touting for business on behalf of a hotel – sun view. So I agreed to stay there (10,000) tourists turning up in one town tends to make finding accommodation difficult, so I was not taking any chances.
Thailand Gap Year Blog Part 2
April 14th, 2010 admin My 30 minute bus journey turned out to be a little bit more than I bargained for, I got on the completely full coach to be greeted by 40 or so Thai faces starting at this crazy English man. What the hell was he doing on one of these things? Sleeping that’s what – I was exhausted so I passed out at the back, next to a sink and someone’s underpants. No joke I think the driver must live on the bus as he had washed and hung up to dry 3 pairs of y-Fronts. Lovely. I would wake up periodically to ask the Thai man next to me if we had reached Krabbi yet. No about 2 hours more… The journey took 4 hours! Fuck! 4 hours! It isn’t even that far, but that is how things are here. SLOW. During the journey I was somewhat taken aback to see a 50 ft sign of Keith Floyd (quick Slurp?) advertising his new restaurant. What was even more surreal was that my Mate Barry had emailed me last week to say that he bumped into Keith Floyd in a restaurant in Manchester the week before and had a beer with him. Six degrees of separation anyone?
When I arrived at the bus station I jumped in a cab and asked to be taken to the beach,. I ended up in AO Pha Nang, a stunning resort town. I checked into a hotel marvelling at the signs posted around the place “Room FORRENT!” and “check out 11 noon.” (Pardon?) or “Drive safety!” (for car insurance). I know I was onto a winner as the register showed to Swedish girls staying there. Why ! I had a dog and I named him…. BINGO!
The Thailand Gap Year Blog. Part 1
April 14th, 2010 admin Ceasing to exist, Crazy signs, and endless travelling oh and finally reaching Thailand.
Thailand Gap Year – 30th May
Fuck knows where I am now, I do know that it has taken me 30 hours 4 plane trips and a night lost to jet lag. I’m sitting writing this on a bus travelling extremely slowly thorough the Thai jungle en route to Ko Phanang where tonight there will be one mother bitch of a party. The 1st May full moon party. Now this is supposed to be one of the 50 things you do before you die, and if the rumours are to be believed the whiskey out here may just help with that.
But first how did I get from the relative sanity of cape town to being surrounded by crazy thai people.
Thailand Gap Year
The journey was a pain in the ass, I left Sarah’s at 6am South African time, and arrived in Singapore at 2am South African time, although by then I was no longer in South Africa, in Singapore it was 5am and time to wake up. Some how I had ceased to exist for a few hours. Although I have to admit the vew from the 747 window was incredible as we passed along Africa and then flew over Madagascar. The visibility was near perfect and I could see the curvature of the earth miles off into the distance. The only upset of the trip was loosing flat Eric to Johannesburg airport – but it is what he would have wanted, to spend his days endlessly going round and round on a carousel in Africa. RIP.
I had to wait for my connection in Joberg and then also in Singapore airport. So I spent a few hours in the airport entertaining myself mainly at the mass quantities of stunning Fasians (Fit Asians) wandering around in their uniforms.
Thailand Gap Year
Taking off from Singapore was cool, hundreds of high rise apartments dotted the coast line, as hundreds of freighters and sail boats went on their way in the Aqua marine waters below. The flight to Phuket crossed the Andaman sea and skirted along the Malaysian and Thai coast, hundreds of Limestone Islands and peaks rose dramatically out of the sea making the trip a surreal yet beautiful event. On the trip I got talking to an Austrailian/American couple (she was a yank – he was an Aussie). By the time we landed I was hyper tired my brain was slow and I was feeling a little out of it. So I wasn’t quite prepared for the Taxi husslers at the airport entrance.
“Hey! You! Way a Wanna Go!” I wasn’t sure so I decided that I would head to Krabbi for the night before heading to Ko Pang Na for the full moon party. As I sat waiting in the 38 degrees heat, humid sticky heat not like in the bush, I looked around and saw a woman pealing mangos next to me, crazy decorated lorry going passes ( on hand mud flaps with Jesus’ portrait painted on!), I smiled, and thought to my self I’m going to love this place.
Gap Year Thailand Journal.
March 15th, 2010 admin 30th May
Ceasing to exist, Crazy signs, and endless travelling oh and finally reaching Thailand. Fuck knows where I am now, I do know that it has taken me 30 hours 4 plane trips and a night lost to jet lag. I’m sitting writing this on a bus travelling extremely slowly thorough the Thai jungle en route to Ko Phanang where tonight there will be one mother bitch of a party. The 1st May full moon party. Now this is supposed to be one of the 50 things you do before you die, and if the rumours are to be believed the whiskey out here may just help with that. But first how did I get from the relative sanity of cape town to being surrounded by crazy thai people. The journey was a pain in the ass, I left Sarah’s at 6am South African time, and arrived in Singapore at 2am South African time, although by then I was no longer in South Africa, in Singapore it was 5am and time to wake up. Some how I had ceased to exist for a few hours. Although I have to admit the vew from the 747 window was incredible as we passed along Africa and then flew over Madagascar. The visibility was near perfect and I could see the curvature of the earth miles off into the distance. The only upset of the trip was loosing flat Eric to Johannesburg airport – but it is what he would have wanted, to spend his days endlessly going round and round on a carousel in Africa. RIP.
I had to wait for my connection in Joberg and then also in Singapore airport. So I spent a few hours in the airport entertaining myself mainly at the mass quantities of stunning Fasians (Fit Asians) wandering around in their uniforms.
Taking off from Singapore was cool, hundreds of high rise apartments dotted the coast line, as hundreds of freighters and sail boats went on their way in the Aqua marine waters below. The flight to Phuket crossed the Andaman sea and skirted along the Malaysian and Thai coast, hundreds of Limestone Islands and peaks rose dramatically out of the sea making the trip a surreal yet beautiful event. On the trip I got talking to an Austrailian/American couple (she was a yank – he was an Aussie). By the time we landed I was hyper tired my brain was slow and I was feeling a little out of it. So I wasn’t quite prepared for the Taxi husslers at the airport entrance.
“Hey! You! Way a Wanna Go!” I wasn’t sure so I decided that I would head to Krabbi for the night before heading to Ko Pang Na for the full moon party. As I sat waiting in the 38 degrees heat, humid sticky heat not like in the bush, I looked around and saw a woman pealing mangos next to me, crazy decorated lorry going passes ( on hand mud flaps with Jesus’ portrait painted on!), I smiled, and thought to my self I’m going to love this place.
My 30 minute bus journey turned out to be a little bit more than I bargained for, I got on the completely full coach to be greeted by 40 or so Thai faces starting at this crazy English man. What the hell was he doing on one of these things? Sleeping that’s what – I was exhausted so I passed out at the back, next to a sink and someone’s underpants. No joke I think the driver must live on the bus as he had washed and hung up to dry 3 pairs of y-Fronts. Lovely. I would wake up periodically to ask the Thai man next to me if we had reached Krabbi yet. No about 2 hours more… The journey took 4 hours! Fuck! 4 hours! It isn’t even that far, but that is how things are here. SLOW. During the journey I was somewhat taken aback to see a 50 ft sign of Keith Floyd (quick Slurp?) advertising his new restaurant. What was even more surreal was that my Mate Barry had emailed me last week to say that he bumped into Keith Floyd in a restaurant in Manchester the week before and had a beer with him. Six degrees of separation anyone?
Happy New year from Thailand gap year info.
January 15th, 2010 admin With the new year upon us things are hotting up in Thailand. February is always a very popular time to travel to thailand. Which means there will be loads of thailand gap year students hitting the beaches and exploring one of the most exciting countries in South East Asia.
Its not Thailand….but
November 24th, 2009 admin Fancy a trip to South Africa during the world cup on your Gap Year?
Well it seems you can.
Xtreme Gap are running a World Cup Holiday in South Africa. This consists of a 4 week tour round the country, all transport and accommodation included!
