Thailand

Our journey to Thailand’s capital couldn’t be smoother if it tried- our night train’s gentle rhythms seem truly serene following our escape from Koh Tao. We arrive and book into a hostel, only to peep outside our window and find a glowing, gold-rimmed temple staring back at us. Welcome to Bangkok!

We settle straight into the tempo of our neighbourhood, which is a bizarre concoction of peaceful and hectic. On the main strip, Khao San Road, crowds of tourists rush up and down hunting for a bargain whilst trying to avoid the endless hagglers who call out to them. The next street over, however, is filled with quiet little shops and mostly deserted cafés that serve up our new addiction- Pad Thai.

Now, we eat a lot of Pad Thai at home, but being busy vegetarians makes it hard to consume as much of it as we would like to. Bangkok changes that. All of the Pad Thai that is served is vegetarian, and we only need to spend a dollar instead of an hour to have it sitting on a steaming plate before us. Our daily menu therefore consists of Pad Thai for breakfast, Pad Thai for lunch, and falafels for dinner. Ok, we lie- falafels only happen once in the whole trip!

Bangkok soon becomes the city of addiction, as it also doesn’t take us long to discover the infinite supply of “legal” DVDs. We stock up our collection quite thoroughly, with enough movies and TV shows to keep us busy for the remaining five months of our trip. Who knew there were so many DVDs out there that you didn’t even know you wanted to own?

A few days into our romance with the city of addiction, we catch up with Rochelle, a friend of ours from Melbourne. Together we decide to do Bangkok like it’s meant to be done- the sinful way. Red light district, here we come! After an hour of exploring the severely touristy market in Patpong, we head off to find our favourite Ping Pong Bar. Sharon bravely heads in first for a trial run, then comes back to announce that it’s worth going. We all trudge up the stairs, not knowing quite what to expect.

What we find is something quite similar to the strip clubs in Melbourne, but with a little more boredom and a lot more skill. The boredom comes across mainly when the girls on stage pull out their phones to text their friends while checking their watches and rolling their eyes… although to be fair, they also occasionally move their hips from side to side. And the skill? Well, let’s just say than none of our group ever knew that such amazing shots could be taken with a banana, or that birthday cake candles could be blown out in such an interesting manner.

We are soon joined by some of the stunning girls, and while most of them attempt to inappropriately proposition Sharon, Sandra strikes up a chat with some of the newer recruits- two sisters who have just arrived from Cambodia. An hour later, the conversation is still flowing, and many things have been learnt by both parties- we have gained a lot of knowledge about the poverty and challenges of living in Cambodia and Bangkok, and the sisters have found out all about Australia.

We’ve had such a good time together that we all head out for a night of dancing afterwards, and then make plans to head to a market the next day. The market is unfortunately closed, but we spend a lovely lunch together, learning how to really eat vegetables and tasting weird and wonderful new sauces.

Our final days in Bangkok are spent in the typical, delicious tourist way- being pampered from head to toe. We spend a few hours having various facials done, another few being massaged into tranquillity, and the final few sipping on iced lemon tea and eating Pad Thai. We are so relaxed by the time we leave that we can barely open our eyes, let alone lift our bags- but there are planes to catch, so we head off towards yet another escapade.

The longer we stay in Malaysia, the greater the lure of Thailand. It promises to be a country of beautiful isles, smiley faces, and delicious food; each traveller we meet who has visited there has a glow about them as they pronounce that they could live in Thailand forever.

We hop on a train to begin our cross-country journey from Kuala Lumpur to the Thai island of Tao. At the end of the line, a night ferry awaits; a beautiful, rusty old fishing boat with mattresses spread across the floor for travellers to share. We sleep peacefully as the boat gently rocks and rolls through the waves, and arrive refreshed at our tropical island.

Refreshed, we soon discover, is probably a good way to arrive at a Thailand tourist destination. Unlike our private isle of Redang in Malaysia, Koh Tao has been written up in every guidebook, shown on every TV show and talked about by every traveller- the result of which is hundreds of touts and thousands of tourists. Having been away from masses of Western travellers for so long, we feel slightly startled by this onslaught, and choose a little hostel on the furthest, most isolated beach possible.

This, it turns out, is a good choice. We are given a private little room on stilts, with a view of the ocean and a big comfy bed.

We spend our days relaxing, as although there are diving and snorkelling opportunities aplenty, the water is murky and the fish predominantly absent due to the high level of tourism in the area.

After a few days of readjusting to the tourist trail, we decide to head to the highly anticipated city of sin- Bangkok. Our journey out of Koh Tao is considerably more dramatic than our journey in. The boats have not run for the two days before we are due to leave due to intense storms; the tourists are restless, however, and the boats are due to run today. We get on the boat with faith, figuring that the company would not run the service if it were unsafe.

As the island becomes a distant speck on the horizon, however, we realise that this may have been a slight overestimation of safety standards in Thailand. Our boat, which originally swayed smoothly from side to side, suddenly experiences a powerful personality change. Our gentle sways become swings and splashes, which turn into rocks and rolls, which grow into thunderous lurches; soon, our boat is tipping so far to each side that instead of land being visible from the windows, one side shows nothing but heaving waves, and the other, sinister clouds.

The sky outside is a deep fusion of blues and greys; inside, we cling to one another and to the seats as we slide in every which direction. Sandra, who gets phenomenally sea sick at the best of times, is not enjoying the adventure quite as much as Sharon; fortunately, she is faring better than half of the other passengers, who have formed a green-faced commune near the toilets.

Just as we imagine that the worst is behind us, the climax hits. We crash into a wave that is bigger than our boat, and it is propelled into the air; a powerful silence overwhelms the passengers as we hang in mid-air, and then our boat crashes mightily into the sea. Screams fill the air, followed moments later by nervous laughter as we realise we are safe.

Two hours after our departure, we arrive on the Thai mainland. People stagger off the boat, glad to be on land; we pick up our bags and hope that Bangkok is at least half as exciting as the ride we’ve just had.