Travel: Food for the Soul.

Lately, I've been thinking about why people travel. I don't mean a week holiday in an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas. I mean something like quitting your job, or taking a three month hiatas, and just going, going, gone to all corners of the Earth. For me, my body craves the concoxion of feelings that come from traveling. The trepidation of, "What if?" mixed with the excitement of, "What if?" is the food for my soul. Traveling is like a herion fix for an addict. I'm addicted to that excitement of the unknown, I need the slight panicky feeling of having no idea where I am at or where I am going, and having to speak to people using exaggerated hand guestures in place of words. I spend my time wondering when I will get my next fix. It can never come soon enough.

For me, the best part of traveling is the fact that you just don't know what is going to happen. You can not plan it. You can't expect anything. I need to know that I have no control over situations. Some of the best experiences of my life came from unplanned events. I once flew to Fukoka, Japan, for a visa run from Korea. I was only planning on being there for two days. Along the way, I came across another 'visa-runner' from Korea and we scoured Japan looking for a cheap guesthouse. While we were looking for a good restaurant, my friend asked some random Japanese couple on the street for a restaurant recommendation, and we ended up eating sushi with them in a small diner, where the plates of sushi move around the bar on a conveyor belt, learning Japanese as we ate.

I had always dreamed of eating sushi in Japan, but never thought it would be at a local sushi restaurant with two Japanese people, teaching us Japanese.

And as luck would have it, the next day my visa was denied, so the day after that, I was on a plane to the good ol' U.S. of A. to figure it out. I spent four unexpected days in Los Angeles, sleeping in a Korean sauna in Korea town for $20 a night and my days were spent driving to all corners of the city and hitting the beaches. Point: You never know what's gonna happen. So just go with it....

There was this other time, when I was traveling from Bangkok to Koh Samui in an overnight van with some friends, the local Thai driver decided to take a detour in the middle of the night to his hometown village (somewhere between the two before-mentioned places) to pick up some doja from his dealer (that's Thailand). So, while he was taking care of business, he dropped us at some outside restaurant. Don't be confused by the word "restaurant". It consisted of a long, dilapidated picnic table with some plastic chairs that had been around since the turn of the 19th century. We didn't know what to eat, so a woman fried us some little fish (heads, eyes and all) and we ate it with Thai sauce. Of course, the locals in that little village had never seen us 'white-skinned' people, so we got the google eyes from all the passer-bys while we ate. That's part of the program when traveling in Asia though.

Then, the driver came back and on the road again we were: One high Thai driver and seven Americans.

There are tons of stories like these from backpackers all over the world. Each one unique in its own way. If I could quit my job and become a professional traveler, I would do it in a New York minute. However, until that day comes, I will remain a lowly English teacher, saving my money for the next big trip and spending my days in between dreaming of beaches, airplanes, and high Thai bus drivers.

Koh Chang (Elephant Island)

Going through some pictures on a lazy Saturday afternoon, I came across my last adventure to Thailand, and felt it would be quite selfish of myself not to share this beautiful country with the two or three people who might actually read this...

For my last trip to Thailand, I picked Ko Chang. Accoding to Wikipedia, Ko Chang is the third largest island of Thailand, located on the Thai east coast 310 km (193 miles) away from Bangkok near the border to Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. The name means Elephant Island. Ko Chang was named for the elephant shape of its headland, although elephants are not indigenous to the island. The island is known for several waterfalls, thriving coral reefs and rainforests.

My whole time on the island, I stayed on Lonely Beach. There are a few beaches to choose from, including White Sands Beach (Northwest), which is the most popular; and Bang Bao, which is on the southern most tip of the island. I chose Lonely Beach because I liked the way it sounded. Lonely beach is located on the on the Southwest part of the island. It takes about 40 minutes of a mountainous jungle ride in the back of a pick-up 'taxi' to get there from the pier, but it's well worth the ride.

View on the way to Lonely Beach

Surrounded by jungle on one side and ocean on the other.

The Sunflower Guesthouse is a nice spot to stay, but about a 10 minute walk to the beach. For this bungalow, it set me back about 400 baht ($13) a night, but I had my own bathroom and fan, not to mention, my 'own pool', as the manager jokingly pointed out when he showed me the place.

Sunflower Gueshouse--bungalow

My first whole day on the island, I rented a bike for 150 baht ($5) a day, and drove south. I drove until the end of the main route along the coast, a little past Bang Bao, and found myself at a little beach hidaway. It was gorgeous.

You must first cross this Indiana Jones style bridge to get to the beach.



Walking along the bridge.

Just relaxing, eating some Thai fried rice.

In case you fancy a massage, you can get one seaside.

I changed guesthouses after the second night. I was in dire need of some beachfront-bungalow-action. What I found was perfect--Siam Huts. Beachfront bungalow, without aircon, only 480 baht ($16) per night. (With aircon was 520 baht per night.) They don't have an internet cafe on sight (boo). They do have a big restaurant with the tables on a wooden deck overlooking the ocean (yeah!). The food wasn't too good (boo), but you can't beat the view(double yeah!). Almost every night, they play a double feature film on a huge projector screen outside on the deck. Every Friday, they have a huge beach party (if you are in to those kinds of things.) I also had my laundry done there, for 40 baht per kilo. (Not too bad, considering it's the only way to get clean clothes when you are traveling.)

Entrance to Siam Huts.

Restaurant desk at Siam Huts. Beautiful way to relax and enjoy a cocktail (or two).

Along the main strip of Lonely Beach, there is an awesome fruit store. Actually, there is fresh fruit (mango, durian, papaya, bananas, watermelon, pineapple) all over the island, everywhere you turn, but I fell in love with this little store. I was able to get a fresh mango shake for 30 baht ($1) and fresh mangoes for 30 baht per kilo. The mangoes were so silky sweet, they melted like butter in my mouth. My mouth is watering just thinking about them.



Here she comes with my mango shake.

Fruit, about as fresh as it comes, unless you pick it yourself.

Bananas galore.

The third day on the island, I was on the motorbike again. This time, I decided to head north up the coast and see what I could find. Along the way, I came across a sign for an Chang Chutiman elephant camp. The camp actually lies about 3km into the jungle, off the main road. It was a bumpy ride on the motorbike, and being that I hate riding on those things anyway, I decided to walk into the park.

Walking into the elephant camp.

Along the way, I came across a small little village, maybe 6-7 huts.

Small village along the path to the elephant camp.

You can pay to ride an elephant for one or two hours through the jungle, however, I just wanted to look at them and feed them some bananas. A basket of bananas to feed the elephants is 20 baht ($0.67).

The female elephant. She was chained to that area by her ankle.

If you look into her eyes, you can see she is not happy.

The male elephant. He was a little more outgoing than his female counterpart.

The rest of the trip I  just explored the island a little more by motorbike and lounged around the guesthouse and on the beach. Here are some random pics from around the island...

You can rent a kayak or canoe to get out to these small islands.

View atop White Sands Beach.

Just a few extras. If you are planning a trip to Thailand, be ready to carry around a roll of toilet paper at all times. Don't be caught empty-handed. Oh, and don't expect  your toilet to flush. Do expect a bucket of water next to the toilet with a a plastic bowl to pour water into the toilet---a manual flush system.

Hmmm, what else. The main, most important thing to remember, when traveling in Thailand is this: JUST ENJOY YOURSELF!!!!!