Off the beaten track in Thailand

The next morning I took a flight out of Hanoi back to Bangkok. Before continuing my trip to the Philippines, I wanted to back track to Thailand and see a few places I had missed in and around Bangkok. I had no idea when I would return to this part of the world, so I did not want to regret missing anything. This flight was about the easiest flight ever as the plane took off almost to the second of the departure time and in less than two hours I was in Bangkok. I had the best seat on the plane as it was a window seat and right next to where the stewardesses sat for take off and landing. There were no seats in front of me so I had infinite leg room and during the take off and landing two cute Thai stewardesses sat across from me and asked me about my travels.

It was nice being back in Bangkok as for once in my trip I was at a place I had already been too, so I knew exactly where to go. I confidently walked out of the plane to baggage and then knew exactly where to go for the most economical taxi and I got one that took me to the Mo Chit bus station. A couple of Thai people saw me with my backpack and asked if I was going to Chiang Mai. I said no and told them I was heading for Kho Yai National Park. They said window 87 for tickets to Pak Chong, which was right across the way. I bought my ticket and stopped at the 7-eleven for some snacks and boarded my bus. In minutes the bus took off. I am starting to get pretty good at this traveling thing. It is nice when the answers come to you and you do not have to seek them. It helped that the bus system in Thailand is so efficient. They have buses every 15 minutes to Pak Chong between 8am and 10pm.

Five hours later I was in Pak Chong and found a cheap hotel. Two of my favorite Europeans that I have met on this trip were two Germans named Ollie and Harry that I met in Cambodia. I was thinking of them here in Pak Chong because this town was close to Korat, which was a place that Ollie and Harry talked about visiting. They said there were no tourists in this town and they were even greeted by the tourist police there and they told them they were the only tourists there and that they were there just for them. I referred to Ollie and Harry as the German Rastafarians previously because of their love for partying, Bob Marley, and they both had really long hair.

I went up to my room to get situated and then went out to get a bite to eat. I was going to leave my key at the front desk and as I was coming around the corner there was a man with long black hair at the front desk with his back to me. I saw the hair and immediately thought it was Ollie, but I figured it must be someone who looked like him as it was too unlikely to run into him again here in Pak Chong. I came around the corner and the man turned around and sure enough it was Ollie. We both looked at each other and disbelief and then we both smiled and gave each other a hug. We then exchanged happy greetings. I could not believe I ran into these people here. This was absolutely crazy. I grabbed a beer and went up to their room and then exchanged greetings with Harry. We caught up on our travels and talked. Unfortunately, they were a little down as they had some bad luck on their travels. Harry broke a few ribs in Phnom Penh on a moto-bike. They also had their cameras and money stolen in Saigon.

This was very unfortunate because they showed me some of their pictures in Cambodia and both of these guys were talented photographers. Harry had this one picture at Angkor with a monk kneeling down in front of a temple with the sun setting and a temple in the background. This was gone as someone had broken into their room in Vietnam and took it. Ollie had this 1000$ 35 mm digital camera on a tripod and was concentrating on focusing the camera when a moto-bike driver cruised past snatched the camera and took off. Due to these circumstances, they did not have much good to say about Vietnam. I felt fortunate that I had some good experiences in this country to offset some of the bad that I experienced. I also felt fortunate that nothing like this happened to me. On the whole though, they had a good attitude about it and said it was really no big deal. They did have a good time in Northern Vietnam, as they traveled even farther north than I did to Sapa and saw the hill tribes in Northern Vietnam. They said this experience was incredible. I had wanted to go here, but it would have been another three or four days, and I did not have the time.

I have had a few emails from friends at home complimenting me on the fact that I go out of the way and see things in each place that I go to beyond the normal tourist places and also make an effort to meet interesting people. I am an amateur compared to these guys. They are even more handicapped than me as far as language because their English is not that great, but they are really great at meeting the locals. What they do is just cruise out in the countryside on moto bikes and if they see a friendly face they stop and hang out with them. They have even stayed in small huts with families that they had just met. They had some printed pictures in Cambodia of them posing with children and people they had just met. That night in the room they had some printed pictures from Cambodia of them with some locals they had met. A couple of the pictures were of a very attractive girl. I looked at these pictures and thought may be they were one of their girlfriends. They must have understood what I was thinking as Ollie came over to me looking at the girl and he said this girl was a friend and “not for the fucking.” I hate to make fun of people from different countries whose English is not great, but this misuse of English just cracked me up.

They told me that they hated big cities like Bangkok. They also tried to say something like the destination is not important, but the way. They asked me if there was an expression like this in English. I told them the expression “off the beaten track” because I knew that was the kind of places they liked. I tried to explain this to them and finally was able to with gestures like pounding my feet to explain beaten. They liked the expression so much they had me write it down.

We were so busy talking and catching up that it was all of a sudden 11:30pm, and we finally decided to go out and have a bite to eat. We were unsure if any place would be open, but we left anyway. There is a market right close to the hotel and we headed there, but it was pretty much closing. One food stand still had some food and the people motioned us to sit. I sat in the little chairs they had arranged. There were people behind the stand sitting on mats eating. Ollie and Harry bypassed the chairs and went straight for the people on the mat. Ollie grabbed one of the peoples hands bowed and said hello my friends in English. I thought that they would be put off by this and think this person must be crazy, but these Thai people immediately loved him. I got to see the way they met people firsthand. Pretty soon we were all sitting around with these people eating their food and drinking their whiskey. We soon ran out of whiskey, but Ollie bought another bottle at the 7-eleven up the street. We drank with these really kind people until 3am and they were so nice. They had some fruit including sliced mango and other dishes with rice and they encouraged us to eat as much as we wanted.

The people behind the stand on the mat were the owner of the food stand. I assumed the rest of the people were his friend and family. One of the Thai men around the mat took a liking to Harry’s shirt and offered him a trade. Harry was too nice to reject the trade although it was evident his heart was not into it. Harry received a dirty blue shirt from the Thai fellow that barely fit Harry and in return he gave the Thai man his prized Beerlao shirt that he bought in Laos. It was pretty funny as the Thai man had a huge grin on his face while Harry had a resigned but sheepish look on his face. I wished I had a picture of them together after the exchange. I felt a little sorry for Harry as he now lost another possession from his trip, but at least his new shirt would be a prized memento from a great night with really friendly Thai people. Another Thai fellow tried the same thing with Ollie, but he said the shirt was a gift from his dad and no exchange was made here.

At one point Harry left without telling anyone. All the Thai people got really restless and asked where Harry was. They were worried about him. If there is one person I was not worried about it was Harry. He is about 6’4 with long hair and kind of scary looking at first glance. I tried to assure them that he was fine. This did not settle them and they kept nervously looking around for him. He finally returned and they relaxed.

We ended up on these mats until 3am drinking Thai whiskey and having a great time. The only problem here was I knew this would delay my arrival at Kho Yai tomorrow. Pak Chong is 40km from Khoa Yai National Park. This was the reason I came here. My plan was to leave immediately the next day for the park. Ollie, Harry, and I had decided in the room we would go there together. I wanted to stay at the park, but they wanted to just visit for the day and come back. They asked if I would rent a moto-bike. I said no way. I had no desire to get on one of these things and Harry’s broken ribs made me even more adamant about not riding them.

Tags: Asia, Bangkok, Kho Yai, Pak Chong, Thailand, travel, Vietnam