Vacancetes a TailàndiaHolidays in Thailand

Tocava renovar el visat de l’Anna i per tant sortir de Taiwan. Després de demanar les vacances, evaluar on era millor fer el visat i on no havia de ploure gaire (a l’estiu és època de pluges a molts països del sud-est asiàtic), vam decidir anar cap a Tailàndia.

El viatge el vam preparar bàsicament el cap de setmana abans de marxar amb els consells d’amics tailandesos de l’Anna, de gent que ja hi havia estat i consultant sobretot TravelFish (una molt bona web per diversos països del sud-est asiàtic) i el Wikitravel.

Tailàndia és un país molt fàcil per viatjar i molt segur, amb el què podiem improvitzar sobre la marxa. A més a més, amb la recent crisi dels camises vermelles (Big Picture 1,2,3) a Bangkok no esperàvem topar amb gaires turistes.

4 hores de vol amb Air Asia i ja erem a Bangkok! Val a dir que des de Taipei és prou fàcil moure’s per Àsia.

Bangkok

A Bangkok ens esperaven la Huali i la Mo. La Huali és una ex-companya de classe de l’Anna a Taipei i la Mo és una amiga de la Huali. Van ser les nostres guies locals a Bangkok i gràcies a elles vam poder disfrutar molt de la ciutat.

Bangkok, amb uns 11 milions de persones és una de les grans «jungles de ciment» del sud-est asiàtic juntament amb Kuala Lumpur (Malàsia) i Jakarta (Indonèsia). Bangkok és amb diferència la més amigable d’aquestes ciutats.

Per netejar el centre de Bangkok i posar pau després dels camises vermelles es va engegar una campanya «Together we can». La campanya ha continuat i es pot veure per tota la ciutat (i també a la resta del país).

El tema que més uneix als tailandesos és la família reial. Hi ha una autèntica veneració pel rei i la seva família amb fotografies per tot arreu. No es pot fer cap broma o ofensa al rei ja que pots acabar a la presó fàcilment.

Actualment hi ha molts rumors sobre el delicat estat de salut del rei. L’únic fill del rei no sembla tenir cap mena de suport popular i tots s’estimarien més que una de les filles fos la reina (tot i que això és impossible).

A Bangkok vam fer tot el que calia fer: renovar el visat, visitar temples, mercats nocturns i mercats flotants (Amphawa), Kaosan Road, fer un vestit a mida en un sastre indi, sortir una mica de festa i menjar pels descosits (hi ha un apartat sobre el menjar més endavant).

Aquí teniu un recull de fotos:
Bangkok

Si no veieu les fotos (passa amb l’Internet Explorer) podeu anar al Picasa

Ayutthaya

Vam agafar el tren per anar cap al nord fins a Ayutthaya (TravelFish) a veure temples i budes. Vam topar-nos amb una mena de festa major i ens hi vam apuntar.

Ayutthaya

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Sukhothai

A mig camí de Chiang Mai (que no vam arribar-hi) hi ha Sukhothai. Més temples i més budes, però a Sukhothai estan en un parc tancat i sembla una mica Port Aventura en alguns moments.

Sukhothai

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Ko Maak

Després de Sukhothai voliem anar a la platja… però no sabiem on anar. Dubtàvem entre Ko Tao (amb bon temps garantit però ple de submarinistes i una mica massificat) o Ko Maak (una illa desconeguda i buida però on tindriem quasi segur pluja monzònica). Al final vam arriscar-nos a anar cap a Ko Maak.

Un autobús nocturn de 7 hores + un autobús de bon matí de 5 hores i ja erem a Trat per agafar el barco cap a Ko Maak. No teníem reserva però al mateix barco vam poder-ho resoldre ja que ens vam un americà que treballava a Holiday Beach Resort. De fet, al ser una illa poc turística i en temporada baixa (època de pluges) no hi havia gairebé ningú en tota l’illa! … buscàvem tranquil.litat i quasi que ens vam passar. Tota la població de Ko Maak (uns 450 habitants) es podria posar dins una avió tipus 747

Ko Maak

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Menjar

Un dels esports nacionals a Tailàndia és menjar. Bon menjar, barat i una mica picant! Les guies ens van portar a un parell de restaurants interessants aprop de Bangkok.

Menjar

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Transport

Per moure’ns amunt i avall vam agafar tota mena de transports. Aquí en teniu les fotos i alguns videos.

Transport

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It was just the time to renew the Anna visa so it was time to leave Taiwan. After arranging the leave of absence, evaluating where it was better to process the visa and where in SE Asia would not rain too much (summer time is rainy season in many regions in SE Asia), we decided to go to Thailand.

We prepared the trip details the weekend before. We took into account advice from Anna’s Thai friends, people who already travelled in Thailand and using TravelFish as a main reference (excellent website to travel around south-east Asia)and the Wikitravel.

Travelling around Thailand is very simple and generally very safe, so it was OK just to improvise on the spot. With the recent crisis of red shirts (Big Picture 1,2,3) at Bangkok we did not expect to find many tourist.

4 hours on the plane from Air Asia and voilà we are at Bangkok! Taipei is really a good base to travel around Asia.

Bangkok

At Bangkok Huali and Mo welcomed us. Huali is a former Anna classmate from Chinese lessons and Mo is a very good friend of Huali. They were our local guides at Bangkok and I think this is one of the reasons why we could enjoy Bangkok so much.

Bangkok, with around 11 milions inhabitans is one of the big «concrete jungles» of south-east Asia, together with Kuala Lumpur (Malaisya) and Jakarta (Indonesia). Bangkok is, with difference, the most friendly of these three cities.

After red shirt crisis, the clean the city center and bring people together a campaing was started: «Together we can». The campaing is still on going and can be see around the city and the whole Thailand in fact.

The subject that unifies all Thai people is the royal family. They really venerate and love their king and the whole royal family. Pictures of them can be found just everywhere. It is forbidden to joke or to make any offense to the king as you can end up in prison easily.

There are a lot of rumors about the health situaton of the king. The only son of the king is not beloved by the Thai people and all of them would prefer to have one of the daugthers as queen (but this is just impossible and will not happen)

At Bangkok we did all what is expected from a tourist: get a new visa, visit temples, night markets and floating markets (Amphawa), Kaosan Road, buy a custom made dress on a Indian taylor shop, party a little bit and eat a lot (check out the food pictures later on the post).

Here you have the pictures:
Bangkok

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa

Ayutthaya

We took a train to go north until Ayutthaya (TravelFish) to visit some temples and see more Budas. We were lucky to find a local party going on and we decided to join and enjoy ourselves too.

Ayutthaya

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa

Sukhothai

Half way to Chiang Mai (we did not go that north) there is Sukhothai. More temples and more Budas. At Sukhothai there is actually a park with everything so at some extend it fells like an amusement park. It was a nice visit anyway.

Sukhothai

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa

Ko Maak

After Sukhothai we wanted to go south and enjoy the beach… but we were undecided on where to go. The doubt was between Ko Tao (good weather almost guaranteed, lot of divers and a good number of tourists) or Ko Maak (a hidden gem with few tourists, but located in the middle of the area where monzon rains where expected). At the end we decided to take the risk and go to Ko Maak.

After a night bus (~7h) + early morning bus (~5 h) we reached Trat where we made the arrangements to take the speed boat for Ko Maak. We did not have any reservation but this was almost automatically solved at the boat when we found an American guy who worked at Holiday Beach Resort. In fact, being a not very touristic island in combination with low season (rainy season) there was almost nobody on the entire island! … we looked for a quiet place and we really found it. The whole island population (450 people) can be put into a 747-like airplane.

Ko Maak

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa

Food

One of the national sports in Thailand is eating. Good food, cheap prices and a little bit spicy here and there. The guides took us to some interesting restaurants around the Bangkok area.

Food

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa

Transportation

To move around Thailand we tried almost all available kind of transportation. Enjoy the pictures and videos below.

Transportation

If you don’t see the gallery of pictures (seems to happen with Internet Explorer) here is the link to Picasa