Eventhough this was not my first time in the sea, I was thrilled to be in the beach of Thailand and this was something that I had planned for some time. And travelling in a group of 23 people from differnt countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Britain, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand and of course Nepal was surely a thrill in itself. On top of that, Chaitya's company and her partnership in all the expenses till the end was quite unique in itself for me! By the way, this was her 7th Crazy trip !!!
We went to a beautiful chinese budhha temple located on a hill in the island. It was a laughing budhha. Then we climbed up high to the top of the hill to find a sacred place with Buddha's foot print on it. The footprint was nicely painted with golden color and looked quite bigger and not humanely in size. To be honest, I was not used to this kind of sacred places which were nicely decorated. Normally we did have sacred places in Nepal but these were either messed up with holy powders during 'Puja' or one had to put some effort to gather his thought to imagine what the object would look like in the past....but it looked natural....probably an untouched beauty! Well, probably we should learn from the way Thai people had been maintaining these sacred places!
One thing about this human nature. May be its crazy trip, perhaps I felt like going crazy for some moment too! It's about a cute child probably in the age of 3/4 years, who was accompanied by her Cambodian father in the group. She was so cute that every lady in the group probably liked to play with her. First a vietnamese, then a Cambodian, and then a phillipino tried to talk to her. Vietnamese tried her language and phillipino tried english language but from her expression I could understand that she did not follow any of these languages. At the end, obviously a cambodian was able to make her comfortable. I thought how different we humans were. Being human we didn't have a common language that could be understood by even a child. If the same child was to be brought up by a Nepalese parent then she would probably never understand the cambodian. huh! I said to myself, "Are we human in real?"-"Are you crazy?"
On the way to the Palace, I learnt from a Cambodian friend that we could easily go to the Cambodia and then to the Vietnam by road from Thailand. She was a cambodian lady just graduated from AIT and was very enthusiastic to tell us about her country and the things we should see in there. I asked her if there was 'Tuk Tuk' in her country. She said 'Yes'. Then I asked her how much would a 'Tuk Tuk' cost? Straight away she said, 250 baht. I repeated my question. She got surprised and reiterated that it was just 250, this time a littel annoyed and put more emphasis on discount that I might get on bargain. I said to her that the cost was probably for a trip. I tried to explain her ... I told her I would pay an amount if I had to buy a shirt in a shop, so similarly how it would cost for a 'Tuk Tuk' there, if I had to buy it like the shirt. Then she understood and stared at me as if I was crazy guy, she never imagined I would ask her about the cost of a 'Tuk Tuk'. Yah I was crazy, after all it was a crazy trip!!!
I could never imagine how a Crab would taste. I had not had its taste till the dinner in a restaurant near the coast in the trip. We ordered fried rice, a big fish with hot lemon soup and Sam Tam (veg salad alongwith crab) and of course a basket full of ice pieces. I wished to try crab meat when I came earlier in Bangkok but could not do it. Alongwith fired rice, first Sam Tam was served with a small black crab. I got a piece of it to try but I could not stop myself from staring on it for awhile....didn't know where to start it from... Chaitya came for my help...somehow I took out little (tiny) meat out of it and tasted it.... a big Woh...and one could see my face, nasty way. I just could not keep it inside my mouth and had to spit it on the floor. It had so hard smell and it tasted like rotten egg. I thought to myself... okay my wish fulfilled, that was the taste of a crab meat huh....I tasted the big fish with hot lemon soup. It had really great taste and much better than what we would normally have in Kathmandu. I kept on eating it so that I could put that bad taste of crab meat away. After awhile another Sam Tam was served. But this time it was red crab but a bigger one. Chaitya asked me to try this once. I said Woh no more no more huh! She said she tried that once before and tasted good. So, I felt I should give this nasty Crab a chance more and then I requested a piece of it as I did before. Hastily, I put the piece in my mouth, afraid I would get the similar taste as before, trying to avoid the bad taste I had earlier. Surprised, this time, it tasted really great. It tasted like a lobster that I had when I was in Roskilde. Well, I thanked to myself that I gave it a try otherwise I would have minded bad taste of the crab meat all in my life....probably it would have been worst for crab lovers huh!!!
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Every person has different way to see things, analyze the problems and express the feelings. It seems you enjoyed the trip as I did. But how you felt and what you found interesting or crazy can differ from mine. So instead of commenting on your post, I’m posting my experience on this 1st crazy trip of year 2007.
On 17 June, we gathered in front of AITCC to make a crazy trip to Ko Si Chang. Though 33 people agreed to join, only 21 people made it. The result was that we had to pay additional Baht for the words given by those unknown friends. For me this crazy trip was totally different than the one I used to have before. Normally I used to join the trip alone and wrap the trip up with lots of friends but this time I had a friend with me from very beginning.
The crazy trip started with a crazy question of Armi during lunch on the coast in Si Racha. Oops…Everything was just crazy-trip, people and even my camera. For the first time I was with fully charged good looking camera but the camera had also gone crazy in this crazy trip adding additional craziness to the trip. Posing for a snap was another fun though I did not give any unique specific pose I supposed to.
Getting on the boat to go to Ko Si Chang was also crazy in the sense that we had to walk on the narrow plank onto the roof and narrow passage without handrail. No chairs so we sat on the floor of the top deck, viewing beautiful scenery and boats on the blue sea. All the faces were following us that was little bit awkward. But it’s OK as such. That was also a fun.
On Island, we started off going up a steep hill to a Chinese temple. And then to the top of the hill with Buddha’s foot print and had a long break after the sweaty climb. The view from the top was amazing and the peace...I couldn’t find the words to express. It was beneath in my mind and in my heart. Then we headed to a huge Buddha up another hill after a short break for ice-cream and drinks. We lost Jonathan on the way as he was walking very fast (better say running) and continue our crazy trip in our own. Thanks for Cambodian friend who can speak Thai fluently. We reached there without any trouble. My camera had gone crazy there so ask a friend to take a snap in front of huge Buddha statue.
The trip became more fun after onward. We went to palace area. Lots of group photos in different pose, oh my goodness, but it was really nice to see. One funny thing, we were accompanied by a dog in a view point. So sweet of him. We were running out of time so picked up one tuk-tuk and headed to departure port where we met Jonathan waiting for us. There we tasted dry squid which was very hard to chew but the fish snack was delicious.
The dinner on the coast was superb than the lunch although both were in same place but of course in different vendor. The fish in lemon soup was the best. I should also mention it; it was a part of crazy trip. When you tasted the crab (that one is raw I think) in papaya salad, I felt very sorry for you seeing your crazy face. I thought you will never dare to eat crab in your life. But for the good other friends had order the crab curry which was delicious I think.
The travel in the van while coming back to AIT was also remarkable. We had a nice talk with songs in background. We dropped Jonathan to his hotel in Bangkok and finally we reached AIT, home away from home, around 11 I think.
It is worthy to let you know that i enjoyed your company. Thanks.
Hey seems so interesting & crrrraaaazy trip.WOW! and ya crab lovers may feel bad on your first crab taste. But must feel better on second time.
So keep it up & do enjoy a lot.
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