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My kids, John and Sarah, came to stay with me for three
week in August 2004. They were to arrive on the 6th
of August at Don Mung Airport Bangkok around 6:05am.
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Now this is John
nearly seventeen & if any of your teenage doubters want
his email address I will be glad to pass it on. On the
other hand on the left is Sarah my doubter & if any of
your teenage sons want her email address forget it. |
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Therefore their holiday began for me
on the 5th, the airport is at best 2hours drive
away, but as anybody who knows the traffic in Bangkok will
tell you the best is very frequently not what you find.
Bangkok is a vast sprawling metropolis where you measure
distance not in miles or kilometers but in time. I decided
that as my son John, who is nearly seventeen, wanted to dive
while he was here that we would all spend a six- day holiday
down on Phi Phi Island in the far south of Thailand. I had
never been there anyway and also because I have a friend who
owns a dive shop there.
So we all set out to
stay in the Dynasty Inn Suckhumvit Soi 4 Bangkok which
more by good luck than good judgment we got to with little
difficulty on the evening of the 5th. Having had a very
disappointing snack at the Dynasty it was early to bed with a
wake up call at 4:00am the next morning. Why 4-00 you may well
ask. OK I need an hour to wake up with copious amounts of
strong Coffee at the best of times. The evening before, just
after their plane had taken off from Heathrow, London, I also
had checked at the very expensive Internet shop owned by the
Dynasty directly opposite their front door that the aircraft
would be on time. The Thai Air Ways web-site is very good in
that respect. At best it’s a 20min, drive to the airport from
there as the entrance to the freeway is very close to the
hotel but for all that and to make sure you are there in good
time, you need to allow at least an hour. As it happened the
traffic was good so we were there in very good time, only to
find that their flight would be delayed by 40min, This was
giving me indigestion as my timing for the onward leg down to
Phuket by one of the local airlines was good providing that
there where no delays. Needless to say that when they
eventually turned up there was no time for hugs and kisses as
there was then a mad dash pushing trolleys full of heavy
baggage down to the Domestic Terminal which is about 1.5Km
away from Terminal 1 where they were to arrive. Thankfully we
reached there out of breath - well me anyway - in good time to
catch the flight. So we were off in the very under populated
aged 747 for the 1:15 flight to Phuket. There was a little
time to catch up on the flight, Black had been quite excited
about the arrival of John and Sarah for about a month before
and also excited about his first trip on a big aircraft.
Thankfully it was obvious from the first off that everybody
was going to get along. |
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Looking out to see from the
ferry terminal if you can call it that just outside Phuket
town. |
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View from the small pier on Phi
Phi South beach. |
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airport in Phuket I rang the number that Kenny from the dive
shop had given me for a taxi firm down there that the dive
shop always use. He first took us to Phuket town for a pizza
and then on to the ferry for Phi Phi which is about 30miles by
sea, more or less east of Puket. Although it was somewhat
overcast for most of the day it was a nice trip. Phi Phi
consists of a small piece of useable land between two
mountains which run near enough from north west to south east
off the west coast of southern Thailand. This gives you a
north beach and a south beach, where the ferry lands on a
small jetty. The south beach is occupied by a mass of small
watercraft, dive boats, long tail boats, and ferries all
looking really quite pretty and for me interesting in the
crystal, clear water, the colour of which ranges from white to
aquatic jade. Kenny had many times described it as Paradise
which being naturally skeptical I took with a pinch of salt
but I now found him to be very accurate. On the island there
is no motorized transport, OK I saw one small motor-cycle
sidecar unit but I was told that that was not allowed in the
town area anyway. This meant that including our bags
everything had to be muscle powered. Young, extremely fit,
Thai men push over-sized wheel barrows containing everything
that is required for life including all the building
materials, through the narrow walking streets, very busy with
locals and holiday-makers alike. |
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The view at the front of our
bungalow in Phi Phi |
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| One of the monkey family in the
tree above our bungalow having finished Noi’s lunch. |
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| Having eventually found
somewhere to stay about 50yd’s from the jungle on two sides in
a very basic but clean small bungalow for about $13.00USD per
night one for me Noi and Black and one more for John and
Sarah. We then set off to visit Kenny to the south of the town
on the south beach just to get the low-down on John’s diving
and say hello. This was about a 15min walk taking it easy,
then off for something to eat at one of the many restaurants,
the first night we picked a Thai style restaurant really quite
near the bungalow as everybody was, to say the very least,
tired. This was looking out over the south bay watching the
boats slightly bobbing in the extremely still waters. It was
decided that John would not start his open water course the
next day but take a day to recover from the journey, so
beginning the day after. |
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| Looking out from Kenny’s dive shop
in Phi Phi |
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| One of the many little settlements
I think only accessible by sea on Phi Phi. |
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| On the second day on
the island I finally gave in to the relentless badgering from
the long-tail boat owners to take a trip to the other beaches.
A further $17.00USD secured a three hour trip and I have to
say really quite good value, which included the hire of masks
and snorkels which were well used. I managed to get a little
sun burned but a very good time was had by all. The next day
began early with breakfast before the start of John’s diving
course at 8.30am. The rest of us spent the day on the north
beach lazing under the trees taking in the magnificent view
and reading. This beach has more up market accommodation with
a nice, very reasonable restaurant catering for all sorts of
food tastes. There is plenty of shade from the trees
overhanging the beach so I secured one of them to watch Sarah
and Black play all day in the sand and water, Black’s swimming
is coming along but only good for a length of a short swimming
bath but there was no danger as you can walk right out in no
more than knee depth and almost as far as the eye can see, at
only waist deep. |
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| Sarah and Black messing about in
boats on the North Beach. |
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| All I need is a tall ship and a
star to steer her by. |
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Noi was most amused at the European women
going topless on the beach not being able to
understand what that was all about at all. Thai
people in the main go back to Victorian times
where the likes of beach-ware is concerned and in
many other things as well. OK, you don’t get the
sort of view that you would see in the old brown
and white photo’s of trolleys that are pulled up
and down the beach with the bathers stepping out
of them at the waters edge covered from head to
toe like a wetsuit but they will go swimming in
their normal shorts and tee-shirts. So despite
what the media will try and tell you as far as
morals are concerned for at least 97% of Thai
people it goes back to where the west was over a
hundred years ago. If you don’t believe me and
having seen the very misleading media coverage
that I have seen, I would not blame you.
Come and see for yourself. The rest of our
days on the island were spent relaxing in much the
same way. On the last day I think Noi had become a
little tired of the beach and decided to stay
around the bungalow. She had managed to acquire
some of her favorite
food consisting of local vegetation and massive amounts of
extremely hot chillies and was just going to chill out, if you
can say that after the food she was going to eat. A gram of
this concoction would send most westerners to hospital. Anyway
a family of the local monkeys had different ideas. One
appeared at first and she parted with a small amount of food,
That was a big mistake as that one called the rest of the
clan, she was then surrounded. This was amusing at first but
as time went on, one mother carrying a baby decided to take a
bit out of her knee so she had to stay the rest of the
afternoon indoors. Luckily this was just a nip and didn’t draw
blood or it would have been a case of anti rabies treatment.
John successfully completed his diving course and we made the
return trip six days later having had a very nice time. |
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Noi in Phi Phi after a hard day on the
beach. |
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Noi having found a friend in Phi Phi you
can see the plaster on her knee which there was no real
need for after the monkey bit. |
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Noi at the Phaow of the boat in one of the
many coves in Phi Phi. That John you can see snorkeling in
the back ground. |
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We arrived back home
really quite late around 10pm, so everyone was ready for bed.
Over the next week or so we made trips to the Crocodile farm,
Nong Nooch, Pattaya Park and other local amusement which I
have already covered in other stories so I won’t bother to
describe them again here. (They are in the story entitled
Holiday at Home) On the 18th of August I took the
day off and went to Bangkok for my Pilots Ground Test. I think
the kids where quite happy just to stay still for the day.
Over the next two weeks John went flying at Chonburi on
several occasions, which was a big surprise for him. |
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I have seen this done many time now and I
have also heard that sometimes they come unstuck.
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This young Thai man had better know what he
is doing. |
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The magician it's
all done with mirrors. |
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| John’s first flight
in a QuickSilver. |
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| John on one of his
many flying trips. |
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| John on one of his
many flying trips. |
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Who’s flying John
or B-Din |
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On the 21st
we all set of for Kanchanaburi to see the world famous Bridge
over the river Kwai, this place was made famous by the film
staring Alec Guinness and Jack Hawkins in the 1960’s. I saw it
for the first time over nine years ago now on my first visit
to Thailand, the actual bridge that is, it was certainly a
place I had never expected to get to in my life. However in my
youth I had heard about it many times being the most famous
place along what has become known as the death railway that
was started by the Japanese in around 1942 from Bangkok to
Rangoon. I had heard about it long before the film as my Uncle
Don, my father’s brother was there on the railway having been
stationed in Singapore at that time. The British forces there
were ordered to surrender to the Japanese. If you have not
seen the film its worth digging through the archives to find a
copy as the situation is well portrayed in it. Now I think
that although the situation was well portrayed it may have
been on the up side compared with the harrowing stories I was
told as a boy. However there never was a commando raid on the
bridge as the Hollywood people portray and it was eventually
bombed from the air. As it happened the film was showing for
what must have been the 9000th time in the bar over
the road from where we spent Saturday night. So having had our
evening meal there I enjoyed seeing it again as by now it’s so
old that it’s off the repeat list. I say it must have been
shown for at least 9000th time in the bar because the locals
seamed to know the script word for word. |
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A cross the river where we had lunch on the
first day in Kanchanaburi. |
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Looking up river from the bridge |
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Washing the elephant by the side of the
bridge. |
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| One of the many old
steam engines on display in and around Kanchanaburi, this
one was at the side of one of the waterfalls.
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John and Sarah seemed to enjoy the trip
taking full notice of the museum that we went to as soon
as we arrived. I was quite surprised by this since we
forget the WW2 period is very distant history for young
people of today. Then again they may just have been
placating the old man. We spent the rest of the next day
visiting local water falls which Sarah said was the
highlight of her holiday. The most spectacular one being
the Erawan waterfall some 40 miles from Kanchanaburi but
well worth the trip, set in pristine countryside well
protected by wardens, all the visitors there Thai and
foreign alike were having a great time splashing around in
the cool waters on a hot day. The bridge you see now in
Kanchanaburi is the replacement concrete and steel
construction which replaced the wooden one that you see
will depicted in the film (shot in Sri Lanka,
incidentally). From the museum window in the coffee shop
section we could see one of the many graveyards for the
allied solders that I have to say is magnificently kept.
Kanchanaburi is a cool place to visit but it’s is sure a
shame that so many people had to die there for the place
to ever be heard of. It is flat country all the way from
Bangkok to the river but on the other side the mountains
form a natural border between Thailand and Burma. In the
town there are a great number of small hotels and boarding
houses. The one we stayed at I have to say was very nice
with very pleasant helpful staff. Not expensive at all at
$15.00USD for the night for two small but well appointed
clean comfortable bungalows. |
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The first part of the Erawan waterfall |
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The third part of the Erawan waterfall. |
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Black enjoyed having a much bigger brother
for a while. |
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The day before the kids where due to
return home to England we spent in Bangkok seeing
some of the very many tourist sights that I have
seen many times before. After a very nice,
reasonably priced breakfast at the open air bar
known as the Bus Stop just across the road from
the Dynasty that we had stayed in the previous
night, we started off on the tour that my friend
Philip had agreed to joins us on. Getting on the Skytrain at Nana station and going
to the end of the line presently on the Chao Phrya river. We
caught the local Chao Phrya Express ferry up river, getting
off across from the Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn. While
there some local schoolgirls who were on a day trip, took
great interest in us, filling out questionnaires etc, for
their school work, being just about the same age as John they
took a particular interest I think but they also were very
interested in Sarah, with to them her very beautiful white
skin that they would kill for. Thai lady’s would love to have
our white skin as it’s a sign of wealth, quite different from
a peasant with dark skin. |
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| View from the side
of the pear on the south beach. |
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| Swimming with the
fish I just wish they would remember which bit of white is
the bread. |
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| All getting along
well after dinner. |
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| I sat around smoking
and talking politics with one of the local fortune tellers, a
lady who had been educated in the States
many years before. Back on the other side of the river after a
$0.04c ferry ride we saw the Wat Pho
with the reclining Buddha, this I have to say I saw for the
first time as I must have managed to miss it on other
occasions. Although world famous I have to say to me it’s over
the top. OK, the building is
very nice but then so are they all. As you go inside and look
between the pillars of the building you see a big gold thing,
I say this because you have to pop your head around the
pillars to look up and down the length of the Buddha. Rather
like a flea would have to look at a dog being on its back. See
what I mean; over the top. The
building for sure was built around the Buddha but to do the
job properly it would need to be ten times the size, or indeed
the Buddha would need to be ten time smaller. OK gripe,
gripe, gripe,
never mind we saw it. Then a short taxi ride to Khao San Road, something to eat and
generally chilling out for the rest
of the afternoon waiting for
the night market to open at Pat Pong. We took a taxi there but
had to get out about a mile before we reached it. The traffic
just came to a halt so as it was virtually in sight we walked
the rest of the way. The mass
of stalls was as ever not changed in the 4 or 5 years since I
had seen it last. One of the most amazing
things about it is that they bring it all out and put it all
away each and every day. We had a small meal or at least the
kids did in the Madrid bar, reasonable food for reasonable
prices. It is a small bar decked
out in the Spanish style with
about 20 pretty young waitresses and only about 20 seating
places so you could have a waitress/hostess
per person if you see what I mean. The market seemed quite
slow outside but it was early. Pat Pong is on the list
for all the tour operators as a night place in Bangkok and is
very soon avoided by expats and
residents. But a half hour look around the market is OK and no harm. From there we
had to call it a day and get back to the hotel to pick up the
bags and the truck. The traffic still looked just as bad so we
took the Skytrain again which
got us back to Nana in probably a third of the time it would
have taken in a taxi. So we were now early to be going of to
the airport but then there is always Nana Plaza for one last drink at one of the
outside bars. I picked the Pharaohs Bar owned by one of the
black sheep of the Walls family, as in Walls Ice Cream. It’s a
nice friendly bar set more or less right in the entrance to
Nana Plaza. John was in the lime-light
there and I was asked by one of the many very pretty young
waitresses how I managed to have such a handsome son. I sure was not
going to leave him there on his own. The traffic was not
looking bad in that part of town so we were able to chill a
little. But this was only to lull you into a totally false
sense of security as it was fine on the expressway, that is
until we were about a mile from the airport itself. Then we hit the queue
just to get into the airport. It’s a good job I know Bangkok
and the troubles you can have. The queue to check-in was no
better at the Thai airway stalls. However having finally got
there the staff took care of the escort facility for kids
under eighteen very well. We were instructed to meet her at
midnight and she was on time, a very smart young woman quickly
whisked them away into the immigration and for me that was the
end of that with only the trip home to my own bed to look
forward to. |
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