Ruke & Rinjee Take on Thailand

"This will make a good story later," my boyfriend Luke said as we waited in the back of the large, open-sided flatbed truck. With no idea where we were and no idea where we were headed next, we only knew it was about 4:30 a.m. and we needed to scoot over on the bench to make room for other bleary-eyed backpackers. I inwardly rolled my eyes at his calm certainty; I was growing more impatient by the minute and just wanted to reach our destination, Ko Tao, a 21-square mile island in the Gulf of Thailand. But I should have learned by that point that travel during this summer vacation would be anything but simple, fast or relaxing.

Earlier in the week, it took a 15-hour journey for me to reach Thailand from Korea. I barely arrived in time for my first flight, a midnight departure which proved to be the coldest but most deliciously-scented flight of my life. Because AirAsia gives passengers nothing for free, not even water, I had a bit of trouble swallowing antihistamines to knock myself out in order to escape the amazing aromas of everyone else's pre-paid entrees. Lacking a blanket (or anything warm in my baggage), I was forced to make a classy move and insert my arms inside my t-shirt for warmth/survival while I tried to sleep. I grabbed a nap in the airport in Malaysia, then was the lucky recipient of a non-reclining seat (and a full-volume video game-playing seatmate) for the two hour flight to Bangkok. Fun.

I forgot all about the stressful/unpleasant/long journey upon arriving in Bangkok. Water fountains! Cheap snacks galore! Signs and instructions in English! A free city map! Friendly women on the train to the city center who wanted to be my friend and take pictures with me! I was more than ready to explore the city for the 11 or so hours until Luke's flight arrived.

Thailand's heat smacked me in the face right away, but so did the gorgeous, striking colors. Taxis of bright pink, electric blue, Tic-Tac orange, and a Packer-esque yellow and green combo were a far cry from Korea's almost exclusively black, silver and white cars. There were vivid flowers I'd never seen before, and tour buses adorned with dragons, cartoon characters, flames and flowers of all colors. Palace roofs and mosaic decorations glittered in the sun; even payphones were multi-colored.

Colors! Colors! Colors!

It may sound strange, but I was happy to be in an environment where I could take a break from reading trying to read. I'm at the Korean reading level of a slow kinder-gardener  ̶  able to sound things out slowly, but I lack the vocabulary to comprehend much at all  ̶  so I expend lots of mental energy trying to read signs, menus, packaging, anything. After all my effort, I either have no idea what the word means or I realize it's a word borrowed from English that uses Korean consonants and vowels to approximate the original (스크린 골프 = suh-kuh-reen-gol-puh = screen golf). I excitedly embraced the Thai squiggles all around me and gave my brain a vacation.

I spent my first balmy Thai afternoon walking a lot, sweating a lot, fumbling with the unfamiliar currency, browsing the street markets, wandering past parks, checking out an elephant museum, exploring the zoo, waiting out a rainstorm, getting a $15 facial and gobbling up my first of many plates of spicy Pad Thai. Then back to the airport to meet Luke, who arrived safely after just two days of travel and two stops in China.

We spent a couple days navigating Bangkok's busy streets, being harassed by tuk tuk drivers, lounging by the pool, checking out temples and discovering tiny, cheap restaurants and food carts with amazing soups and curries. Then we were ready to get out of the city. Soon we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere at 4:30 a.m.

Left: Riding in a tuk tuk, a motorcyle-powered rickshaw which cost about $2 per ride,
Center: Exploring the backstreets of Chinatown, Right: Enjoying a tiny street restaurant's offerings.

Though we booked our bus/boat combo tickets to the island at a legit tourist information center, the trip was disorganized and confusing from the start. When our taxi driver couldn't find his way from our hotel to the departure point at the info center, we thought we'd miss the bus. We gave up on him and got out to walk, then found the center a block away. We made just in time to wait for almost an hour. Finally, a tiny van picked us up, then picked up a dozen more people, then brought us to a huge bus (with bright daffodils painted on the side). We rode through most of the night but disembarked for a disoriented two a.m. bathroom break and snack. Back on the bus, we drifted in and out of sleep, but sprung into action when we came to a halt and a man poked his head up the stairs to shout, "KoTaoKoTaoKoTao!" Then onto the truck, which took us to a port, where we learned our boat would set sail at seven a.m. With over an hour to kill, we downed some sandwiches and beers, then were finally just one step away from the island.

A mere 17 short hours after our trip began in Bangkok, I emerged from the underbelly of the boat where I'd slept for the majority of the trip and felt like a chick who pecked its way out of its shell to discover an amazing new world. The sun was shining, the water was brilliant blue and the beach stretched out welcomingly in both directions. Luke and I were rejuvinated after downing some Pad Thai and fresh seafood, and it seemed that all was well.

Top left: The truck we found ourselves on at 4:30 a.m., Top right: The boat is ready to depart!
Bottom: Arrival at Ko Tao.

It's not a fun moment in your vacation when you begin to think the hotel you've booked doesn't exist; that after all these years of internetting, you've finally been had. Showing locals the name and address of the hotel we'd booked online produced only confused head shakes. "The hotel should send a taxi for you. Just call them," offered the woman at the tourist information center. It would have been good advice if our hotel had a phone number.

Double-checking the web site and confirmation email were of little help, so we pressed on and found a taxi to share with a German guy and English girl. We barely had time to get acquainted before we arrived at our hotel. Namasin House did exist! And for $20 a night, we were the proud inhabitants of one of its four rooms that came equipped with a bed, a fridge, a fan, a dresser and two locking cabinets, mis-matched and inside-out curtains, a TV and a private bathroom with a doorframe so low that Luke kept smashing his head on it. Later the humble abode would also be home to a healthy amount of sand and, for part of one evening, a tiny lizard. Paradise!

Left: Namasin House's hi-tech reservations desk, Top right: My anti-head-smacking solution,
Bottom right: Stray dogs dotted the grounds of our hotel.

In the following days, Luke and I made the most of exploring the lush, hilly island by moped. I was a bit nervous after a brochure advised to watch out for coconuts that could fall from the trees at any time. I was a lot nervous when I got on the machine and became acquainted with the stetches of dirt roads punctuated with loose gravel and deep gulleys, the crazy drivers, speed bumps, steep hills, and numerous dogs laying in (or sauntering across) the road. I set my fears aside to spend two days covering 46.7 km of island roads while finding scenic overlooks, tucked-away beaches, open-air restaurants and a putt-putt course.

Top left: Deciding to avoid a perilous road on our mopeds, Top right: A warning I tried to heed,
Bottom: A view that made the scary journey worthwhile.

Unfortunately, our days of picnics on the beach, sitting neck-deep in the gentle waves of the lukewarm saltwater and cruising beneath the potentially dangerous coconut trees quickly came to an end and it was time for a second round of bus/boat shenanigans in reverse. At least on the bus ride home we got lots of free juice boxes! We had one more day to wander the Bangkok streets, then the return trek to Korea was exponentially more pleasant with a companion, not to mention the sweater he loaned to me.