Part Five: The Travel Diary of South-east Asia

 The Travel Diary of South-east Asia

Here continues the series for anyone who is interested about my travels over a year ago. I spent three months in South-east Asia. Though true to the actual handwritten diary in terms of events which I recorded on my trip day-to-day, I have changed the names and where possible gone into more detail for each day with the luxury of having a laptop this time around! For part four click here. Part five concerns Ko Tao and its infamous pub crawl, as well as Ko Phi Phi.

23rd of January 2019 - Ko Tao, Thailand

Another day of the same and a night of the extraordinary. Hired mopeds again, went to a viewpoint again and listened to some chilled music in the blissful surroundings again. The blissful surroundings are by now pretty much a given in Thailand, but still at certain times when you step outside yourself it takes your breath away. But I digress…

    Phoebe arrived at five and the three musketeers were alive again! We took our mopeds down to Choppers Sports Bar and signed up for the crawl that evening. I glanced at the sign up sheet and saw a page crammed full of names. I guess everyone from the full moon had taken the logical step of coming to the next big party. I grew excited as we left to get some food and Dan told us of his previous experience at the crawl. We all went for Pad Thai in the end, from a street vendor whose food was infinitely better than its appearance. Jake had told me before I left that the more awful a street food place looked the better the food was usually, and here he was definitely right. I could actually eat Pad Thai every day. After this Dan came out with the revelation that you had to wear the free vest out for the night and I panicked. I hated anything that showed my arms in intimate crowded spaces because of the fact I had ‘music is my whore’ tattooed on my left arm (a really embarrassing story for another time), Dan constantly reassured me it would be fine but I think Phoebe saw the fear I had in my eyes and left us out of the blue. She turned up a few minutes later with some bandages and wrapped them round the hideous ink, saying ‘if anyone asks you had a bad fall’. What a life saver.

    Anyway, we headed back to Choppers and had a shot as we arrived. A guy at the check-in area gave us a quick run down. 4 bars, a free shot at each bar, discounted drinks at every bar, live music and a ladyboy cabaret. I remember thinking ‘lord help me make it to the end’.

    We went upstairs and it was already carnage. People standing on tables pissed up at 7pm always gives you the inclination you’re going to have a bit of a crazy night. Me, Phoebe and Ben got rounds in, and by the time it had made its way back to me we were onto the next one. I was already feeling drunk - I still feel drunk writing this up this morning - and everything is tinged with an intoxicated haze from here on in.

    I remember the second bar well enough, it was the pool party bit of the night. When we arrived here I switched from rum to whisky (why?!) and the hosts gave us a bit of paper with a Thai word or something like that. We were to leave our groups and find the one other person with the same word in the group. This was my worst nightmare, but I was drunk enough at this point to really enjoy it. I went round chatting to people and their faces all blurred together until they were a reflection of the pitch black sky above. Eventually someone let on to me that my partner had left early on, so I searched for the musketeers. I found Dan chatting to a Scot from our hostel, bizarrely named Rodrigo, and listened to them crack jokes which I simply couldn’t join in on because I was too focused on trying to stay on my feet.

    We moved on towards the next place and during the pilgrimage found Phoebe with a dutch girl called Aleta, who joined us at our table to watch the ladyboy’s do their thing. They danced to absolute trash music, but they danced very well. A highlight was when they picked a random guy from the crowd and a few of them took turns to give him a full on lap dance. I remember this, I remember laughing, I remember getting a picture of Dan with one of the performers outside after, and that’s all I remember of this section of the crawl.

    The next place was some kind of live music place with a band singing ‘Sweet Caroline’ ‘Take Me Home, Country Roads’ ‘Wonderwall’ and all the other awful songs that repetitively bash your ear when you go out anywhere for the night. But of course, in the moment I sang my heart out, and gulped down more sweet poison. I remember chatting to Aleta for a long time too, although what we were talking about I had no idea. She was very pretty, and I thought that maybe there was some sort of spark between us gently heating up as the night and all its haze continued.

    Now the last place was a beer pong bar and of this I really only have three distinct memories. The first was playing a game against Phoebe and Aleta with Dan and losing comfortably. The second was seeing Dan at the bar attempting to order a drink with his money and his head and hands sprawling out across the place, forcing me to act sober for a second and get his baht back into his wallet for him. And the last was pure hot shame with a side order of rejection.

    Me and Aleta somehow ended up losing the others for a time and played beer pong together against some strangers. We were having fun and crucially winning against a couple of blurred faces on the other side. As Aleta lined up the winning shot I drank the moment in and watched, amazed at the complete swish (is that what it’s called?) she hit on the final cup. We hugged completely ecstatic and I took this moment to ask her, with these exact words by the way, ‘would it be OK if I kissed you now’. She said ‘what?’ and I repeated. She looked completely agasp and firmly said ‘No’, taking a big step back from me. What was I thinking? I shiver even now a year and a half later typing this up. That moment entirely sobered me up. I mean the word choice is something to be marvelled at for its complete opposition to smooth or sexy, ‘would it be ok if I kissed you now’. Jesus.

    Of course, I apologised profusely and felt the blood rushing to my cheeks as I soaked in the shame. I got us reunited with the others to kill the awkwardness I’d just created with my drunken misjudgement and felt it was time for me to head back. I didn’t even say goodbye, I just trudged in a random direction until I found home and played the moment over and over in my head all the while, shivering each time. Nothing like a bit of despair to end an otherwise amazing night though, ay?

    The worst part was this morning, when I headed across the way from my hostel with Phoebe and Dan for breakfast feeling like a wreck, and saw Aleta coming around the corner. I felt so bad I literally ran into a shop to hide, and came back with my head in my hands to Phoebe and Dan’s laughter as they mimicked the fateful words I’d foolishly uttered last night. I knew I shouldn’t have bloody told them!

24th of January 2019 - Ko Tao, Thailand

Today has been another great cure for the hangover I was suffering with - aside from almost bumping into Aleta, of course. 

    After breakfast we went snorkeling and I could see why the island was a hot spot for diving. The water was clear and fresh, and the corals weren’t so bad either. The highlight of the trip was probably two little islands we visited that were connected by a narrow strip of golden sand. It’s crazy some of the things that nature dreams up. We sweated out the alcohol climbing up a viewpoint there and then went snorkeling in the shallow waters by the beach, which turned out to host the most fish! All kinds of species swam round us wherever we went, and I managed to take some pretty good underwater pictures of us all with the GoPro. 

    After this it was kind of like mine and Dan’s first evening here. We watched the fire performers, ate lots of curry and drank a fair amount of beer. This would be our last night with Phoebe which was very sad. Her plans were all pre-booked flights and things, so she was headed somewhere else, whilst we were heading to another notorious party island that Dan and Phoebe had both talked about a lot called Ko Phi Phi. It was sad to think that we’d be split up, and we clinked beers for the last time, before all simultaneously deciding enough was enough. I think this might have been preluded with Phoebe falling asleep and gently snoring on her bean bag, but she fervently denied it. I can’t say anything about snoring anyway, god knows what my dorm companions think of bed 2.

25th of January 2019 - Ko Tao > Ko Phi Phi, Thailand

I can’t really say much more about traveling from one place to the next. It has its moments. Like when the sea wind whips your hair and the sun shines over another island you have to say goodbye to, and the stark contrast of these peaceful scenes with the anarchy of the coach stations which still leave you reeling in shock. I caught a glimpse of a conversation on our 6.30am ferry as well, where two strangers hit it off, switched numbers and arranged to meet in Cambodia, which warmed my heart as I saw the guy smile from ear to ear holding the bit of paper she’d left him. But in general it’s boredom. Early morning ferries and bumpy buses as you watch the shitty film you managed to download before your shitty 4g ran out on your shitty 4 inch screen. These days really drain you, and it’s lucky the light at the end of the tunnel is always bright enough to take you out of that grating slumber.
    So it was the 6.30am ferry to mainland, bus to Krabi and then finally the ferry to Phi Phi. Me and Dan had booked a twin room this time which was heaven sent after a while in hostels. Phi Phi was different straight away. A tiny island, there was no need for motors, and instead people waited at the ferry with carriages offering to wheel your bags to where you were staying. In our ten minute walk to the place I felt tourism vibes more than with anything so far. On both sides of the narrow streets were hostels, western style bars, tattoo shops, travel booking shops and massage parlours. Was there any local scene here or was it all simply there to serve us, as we treated it like Butlins or some other holiday resort? The lyrics I’d written after the full moon party came back to me again, nagging. This was just something a traveller has to negotiate. On the one hand, experiences that were the highlights of one's life, changing them as a person for the better - becoming more accepting of other cultures, experiencing the things which unite us as human beings rather than divide us. On the other, the destruction of the environment we were inflicting with every flight, bus and boat; every island wrecked for a party; every bit of ocean we dived in and coral we depleted. This, along with the dependence we’d created on our tourism for the locals.
    I tried to shake this feeling of guilt as we started drinking our homemade buckets at the flat but it did end up following me into the night. I still got thoroughly drunk and had some laughs with Dan, but when we came across some old college friends of his and joined them I just couldn’t stand it. I felt my age for the first time. These girls still had a lot to learn about the world. That sounds condescending but you’d understand if you were there. So I left them, headed up to the god send of an empty room and left the key under the mat for Dan.
    The last thing I thought as my head hit the pillow was this: ‘Only one more night here’

For part six click here