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Beetle writes home


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Landed in Bangkok June 30th, and was immediately assaulted by oppressive moist heat. Got a cab from the airport down to the center of the city and walked around until I found a cheap hotel (the first one I walked into actually). They informed me that bringing "guests" to the room would cost 400 baht extra, which probably said something about the neighbourhood (and the hotel!).

I fell asleep for a while, and then I went out and got a 2 hour traditional (no happy ending) thai massage. Quite painful actually, won't be doing that again. Elbows and knees! :shocked:

Then I went and grabbed something to eat. At pizza hut. Yes, yes, not very adventurous of me. Finishing that, I went to the hotel and tried to sleep. Tried. A hard hitting jet-lag had me awake until around 5 A.M. (I did get to see the last 4 episodes of Lost season 5 together with my room-mates the cockroaches though).

SGL.

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I had planned to relocate to a new hotel the this day, but as I didn't wake up before 1 P.M. when the maid knocked on the door, that was out of the question (check out time was 10 A.M.).

Out of the hotel, I startet walking towards the Lumphini park, which was located some kilometers away. Drenshed by sweat long before I got there, I took refuge at an air-conditioned McDonalds past the park (which wasn't that big of a sight, the park that is). After breakfast at McDonalds, I headed for the snake farm. That on the other hand was quite fun. Lots of snakes! I had hoped for a snake-around-the-shoulders picture after one of the shows, but they only took time for the kids (stupid kids! :mad:).

Then another long walk up to some huge super malls located close to Siam Square (the so-called Times Square of Bangkok); Siam Paragon and Center World (or something like that), filled with lots of expensive designer stuff way out of my price-range. Then another long trek back to the hotel. The walks themselves were actually quite interesting, as I got to see a lot of the city while practising my dodge and shun skill with the street-hawkers.

After a short rest and a change of clothes, I got myself some dinner at Pizza Hut again. Then I had an hour foot massage (yes, massages are extremely cheap over here) before I headed over to Starbucks to do some research online. It had gotten quite dark when I headed back to the hotel, and the entire area had gotted transformed to a giant human meat-marked, with old white men walking around with petit thai girls. Well, well.

Another night fighting the jet-lag, more successfully this time, unfortunately though, with much less time to sleep before I had to get up. The cockroaches had brought some more friends, but got dissappointed when they learned they had to wait until season 6 were out.

SGL.

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After about two hours of sleep, the alarm rang, telling it was time to get up and head for the airport. I had calculated more than enough time to get to the airport, and my wannabe formel-1 taxi driver got me there WAY faster than I was comfortable with. At least it gave me some time to research and deciede upon my next destination. I had a ticket to Ko Samui, but wasn't sure whether to stay there or take the boat further to Ko Tao.

Landing at Ko Samui, at the nicest little open-air airport I've ever seen, I deceided to check out this island for a while. After a short minibus ride to Lamai beach, of found a place that had some simple but good bungaloes at the beach.

The beach and the water is wonderfull here, but all the tailors ("Hello sir, where are you from?") and the masseurs ("MassAAAAge!!!!") get a bit annoying. In the evening all the girlie bars wake up, and all you hear is screams when you walk by. Lamai was probably a nice little town once upon a time, but seem to have suffered a bit from all the development after Ko Samui became a popular tourist destination.

So tomorrow, I plan to move on. Ko Tao is next. A small island a bit north of this one, known to be a divers paradise, and much more layedback. I have never dived before, but maybe I get to try it there? Early up tomorrow.

SGL.

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Boat to Ko Tao was full, so I stayed at Lamai for another day. Ended up taking a guided roundtrip around the island, which actually was quite fun! Next day, with a ticket book in advanced, I got on the boat to Ko Tao. Some tailors here too, but no army like in Lamai. ;)

I signed up for a diving course, and spent a couple of hours watching an instructional movie while trying not to fall asleep. Thereafter, I got a big book and homework to read 120 pages + finish a test! :shocked:

Today, I finally got to the actual diving bit. Only in a dirty pool today, but still fun. Tomorrow we'll be going out to the sea and dive deeper.

Also, forgot to write mention that in the last post, but I've gone over to a thai diet (no more PizzaHut or McFood). Somethings are very good, while other stuff can be just weird. The squid I ate today definitely falls in that category...

SGL.

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From what I read Thailand seems to possesses some beautiful places, but the heat keeps me from going there. Is there any way of avoiding it? In Mexico, for example, me and my gf, who was born and raised there, usually stick to altitudes above, say, 1500 meters. It's actually possible to visit a lot of placesd and see a lot of stuff without going lower. Would a strategy like that work in Thailand? ;)

RPGbericht (Dutch)
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Started the day with some diving theory, thereafter we took a boat out to two diving sites and went down to about 12 meters. The descent was a bit painfull on the ears, but the experience was totally amazing when you first got down. Lots of fish!

Quite like it here in Ko Tao, will probably stay for a while. :)

Hey Sverre, you get to watch TV with the Children of Gorakiki and feed on Cthulhu spawn. What do you have to complain about? :lol:

Not that much. Which is why I have to make up something! Cthulhu spawn tasted weird! ;)

Take care and be back soon. There might be news to add to the "future releases" section.

Even more?:happy:

From what I read Thailand seems to possesses some beautiful places, but the heat keeps me from going there.

The heat can be a real killer...

Is there any way of avoiding it? In Mexico, for example, me and my gf, who was born and raised there, usually stick to altitudes above, say, 1500 meters. It's actually possible to visit a lot of placesd and see a lot of stuff without going lower. Would a strategy like that work in Thailand? ;)

If you go to the north of the country, Chiang Mai f.ex., during the "cool season" you should be okay.

SGL.

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After two dives down to 18 meters and a written final exam, I'm now a PADI sertified Open Water Diver. :thumb:

Diving went much easier today, no problem with equalization, much more relaxed and lots of fish and other sealife to observe. Very cool! I'll probably take some more advanced courses too so I can go down to 30 meters. :)

Quite loving it here. Only drawback is the lack of fellow roleplayers, otherwise I'd may have moved here! :D

SGL.

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Yesterday I got up late after celebrating my Open Water Diver certification together with the other divers the night before. In the evening, I signed up for Muay Thai training at the local camp, and had my first training session, which was exhausting. Only about an hours time, but it was hot and demanding, scraped my knuckles and bruised my shins.

Next day I trained 2 hrs of yoga in the morning, signed up for the Advanced Open Diver course for the next week, signed up for a full-day snorkling trip in a couple of days, and then trained Muay Thai again in the evening. Bruised my shins even worse today, and opened the wounds on my knuckles again, so I went to the pharmacy afterwards and got some boxing linement and liquid skin. And I'm loving it! :thumb:

SGL.

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Well, there obviously is something as having too much fun. My shins and knuckles were too messed up for Muay Thai training today, so only yoga training in the morning. Also, it rained almost the entire day! :eek: On the positive side, I had ample time to work on ShareWorld and my group's houserules. :)

SGL.

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First another layed back day where I mostly worked on ShareWorld, then the snorkling-trip day: Went around the island in a boat and snorkled at selected places. Rained a lot, and seemed like the boat was going to capsize on the way back. Crew put on safety vests and all... 8 Muay thai fights on the stadion in the evening, 4 ending in KOs. Brutal. :shocked:

Then I started on PADI's Advanced Open Diver course, with 2 dives during the day and one in the night (instructor had a double torch failure >:->). Saw lots of cool fish, jellyfish eating fish, hermit crabs, moray eels, barracudas and more. Amazing world underwater! :cool:

SGL.

Edited by travellingbeetle
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Completed the AOWD course with a day of deep diving and underwater photography. Most of the pictures turned out bad (too little light and a camera that kept jamming), but some were okay. Then it was another night of partying, celebrating the completion of the course (didn't really need an exuse to party, but it's nice to have one). The following day was one for recovery and working on houserules.

Then, another day of diving. Just a so-called "fun dive" this time, but with some complications. Ran out of air on the way up after a deep dive, after the divemaster misunderstood my signalling. Shared some air with my diving buddy, but then he too ran out of air. Luckily there was a drop tank there so it went okay, but still a bit uncomfortable. But got right back to it and dived some more later in the day.

Signed up for the "rescue diver" course next week. Hope to get some more muay thai training done before that.

SGL.

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Spent the weekend training muay thai and yoga, and then started straight on the Rescue Diver course the following Monday. Tokk 3 days, and was quite physically demanding. Poor divemaster trainee that was our "victim" must have swallowed half the water in the gulf of Thailand while we practiced the so-called "Rescue breaths" (which in my professional opinion is just a waste of time...). Had a lot of fun. Got bitten by a sharksucker fish and my buddy blew his eardrum, ending his course early. Then again, as after every certification, lots of celebration in the evening! :)

SGL.

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A day of recovering was followed by another day of partying with the dive crew. Last night on Ko Tao, danced to the early hours. Nearly missed the boat the day after, but reached the airport on Ko Samui in time and returned to Bangkok. I will definitely be going back to Ko Tao again later to do some more diving. Made many new friends and had an amazing time.

SGL.

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Stayed in Bangkok for 3 days, before heading back to Norway. Bangkok was crowded, polluted and full of scammers, so I felt quite ready to go home by the time of my departure. So now I'm back in Norway, and back to BRP Central in full. Loved Ko Tao, but didn't really like the other places I stayed. Going back to Ko Tao next year! :)

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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