Krabi Reflection

With no Mid terms ahead, and my brother's stay in Singapore, we went over to Krabi for a short four days vacation together with my good friend wwt. The heat was less intense than my imagination, partially thankful for the strong Sunblock wwt offered for facial use, which I spammed mercilessly every hour or another. :) It was four days of waking up early to catch the day tours, of walking under the scotching sun, or walking along the same street down every night in the little coastal town in Southern Thailand. We spent the rest of the first day walking along the ao nang beach, near to where we live, booking tours for the following days, with the entire coastal line catered solely for tourists, selling the same handicrafts and clothes in every other stall, competing fiercely with one another, bargaining for the cheapest price options. And I wonder who is the ultimate winner here, did the tourists truly bargained for a good deal for themselves after cutting the price by a 100 bhat or so? Or did the owners already gained a valuable sum of profits from the tourists by raising the price high from the start. And as the price of commodity slowly rise with the manifestation of tourists over the years in a location, has the livelihood of the locals improved or deteriorated? Have the people turn uglier as they became more money-driven, just like how the guides asked for tips in our face and turned away saying our tips were too little? 

 

Anyway just to talk a little more about our itinerary, on the second day we went to Phiphi islands tours, going around the few beaches and bays near Phiphi and one can not deny how magnificent the view is out there in the open sea, although I can't help but to wonder how nature manage to preserve its beauty with the exploitations by the tourists, with the entire beach manifested by people from all over the world, not mentioning the amount of diesels released into the turquoise sea from the speedboats.  

Went down in the open sea near Bamboo island for two rounds of snorkelling, gaggle down a few mouthful of salty seawater, panicking when army of fishes swam towards me targeting the bread in my hand. Never knew what species we crossed path with except a few notable ones like blue Dory fish and clown fish hiding in the cave 5m down the sea, the guide was also nice to show us a sea urchin which I never dare to touch its spikes. Guess snorkelling was the highlight of the day and it was worth the sun and here presenting to everyone a ugly photo of us, never knew our faces will turn out like this, or else I probably wouldn't have spammed photos while in the sea. Keke. Ended the day shortly after the Traditional Thai Massage near our resort and chased everyone back to room to recharge for the next day.  :) 

We signed up for another day tour online which covers Rafting and elephant trekking and Atv, somewhere in the inland, 2 hours drive from our resort, and we reached the tourists location infested with Mainland Chinese tourists, as observed by the fluent Chinese spoke by the guides, with a little Chinese accents throughout. And I did not like the place in particular, of how pragmatic the guides are, asking for 300 Bhat as tips, staring at you throughout lunch and wait for the tips, which distort the definition of giving tips as appreciation to an obligation. And also how I overheard conversations by the parents telling their children to look at how swift and obedient the monkey and elephants were, without mentioning the cruelty behind the animal shows, the chains on their legs and neck. Perhaps the children wouldn't want to know or understand the predicament of these animals, but personally for me I chose to skip the animal shows. Likewise for the elephant trekking, we were told that the elephant have to make 25 trips of 30min each a day, as I lament for the ill fate of these animals in the campsites, I guess my brother was right too, that animal cruelty will never end as long as human continue to exist on this planet. 

The most memorable event of the day was to have meet four Irish guys along the tour, who are really friendly and approachable as we sat together to kill time throughout the day. Four pals who quitted their former jobs two years into graduation, and decide to come together to go around the world for a period of six months, going around Thailand, Vietnam, China, Taiwan South America and a few others that I could not recall. With a total of 8000 euros on them they began their journey 11 days prior to meeting us. And I wonder if I will do the same, probably yes. Though my main concern is in fact to travel alone by in pairs. for one I believe that one learns the most by going solo, and also having a suitable travel kaki isn't easy. For one I can't travel with someone with Wifi-anxiety, who seeks for Wifi access everywhere they go, boasting on social media networks of the 'best moment of their life' and being physically there yet not there. I admit that I was fairly irritated with my brother during the trip when he look anxiously for Wifi, the look of irritation when his connection is poor, and sticking his butt to a place with Wifi access, if really so, why travel, why bother? I'm not claiming it's wrong but I would definitely not travel with anyone who needs Wifi to survive for long. But going alone could be lonely at times too, when you see something magnificent but you have no one to share the joy with. Well maybe I shouldn't be worrying about this yet. 

With that, our vacation has come to an end with an hour of horse riding by the beach, though I was expecting something more form it, we basically rode on the horses and took a slow walk from one end to another, snapped some photos and were sent back to our resort. But again with our level of zero proficiency it would scare the shit out of me if the horse were to start galloping. Along the trip I thought of the interactions between the locals and us the tourists, how that I often read from journals that there are very little interactions between the two, with tourists returning to their homeland in disappointment due to lack of communication with the locals. Then again I felt that it's on the part of the tourists to learn to speak the native language if they really wanted more intense interactions. Comparing me with my companion, knowing how to speak very basic thai thankfully to my ocip trip last year has helped me in talking more to the locals, likewise during the horse riding, with two thai tourists among us, I observed that the guides were constantly having conversation with the two due to the absence of language barrier. I have always questioned myself what makes a good tourists? I guess I have found my own definition now, at least part of it, that a good tourist make effort in learning the local language, from which increase the intensity of communication, and to really appreciate the place. Although realistically speaking it's quite unlikely for anyone to master languages of all over the world as they go around. 

That's about it, I wouldn't say the life on vacation is much better than in Singapore, but I believe in going around to see places as long as I'm financially capable. And lastly being the planner of the trip is pretty tedious, when you get panicky as the guides did not turn up, doing financing every night to ensure the amount of money is sufficient, to which I realise I have never really appreciate Jon for planning the entire Bangkok and Pattaya trip two years back, but hopefully it's never too late to show my gratitude now. :')