The Final Curtain

FINAL STATS: Day count=317; theft count=1; rip-off count=1.5; tourist screw-up count=6; Chris’ photo count=2427; Emma’s photo count=135; touch-typing char/min=254; Poi skills mastered since last post: I attempted the weave. Failed.

Our final two weeks on this trip was destined to be a mad rush to see any last parts of Thailand that we missed the first few times we came through. However, our first destination was the island of Koh Lanta and, through some skill and a lot of luck we chanced upon a perfect beach (Khlong Nin) and a perfect guesthouse (Beachside – see photo) which managed to keep us staying there for over a week. Perfect sunsets, our room 5 metres from a quiet beach, attentive staff and great food. I think it even tops Goa!

Koh Lanta is a small island with a number of different beaches. Some are dominated by resorts, but still manage to retain some charm, others, like ours, still sporting primarily the small guesthouses, cafes and bars – I’m sure it wont be long before resorts encroach that beach too, but given that Koh Lanta has no airport and is a few hours minibus ride from any international connections, it is unlikely to become another Phuket. I hope.

The beach can be summed up by Emma’s classic line: “I like it here – there are no people, but it isn’t deserted”. We arrived just at the start of high season, but the crowds have been slow to turn up. We were the only people staying at our guesthouse for the duration, meaning that the shared bathrooms were not all that shared. A motorbike trip around the island confirmed that we had happened upon the best beach (for us) on the island, but also produced some lovely views, visits to some small ‘sea gypsy’ villages, a chance happening upon some elephants (not wild) getting their evening bath in the sea and two more snakes that happened to be crossing the road in front of us. The island did not feel all that ‘Thai’ – no flags, no pictures of the king, few temples, no night markets etc, but the locals were friendly, the weather was good and the atmosphere laid back, so we knew we were still in SE Asia.

The island, and especially our beach, seemed full of Swedish – both in the make up of the few tourists, and in the management of Western owned cafes and guesthouses. We bucked the trend and befriended a Dane. As I said to him one evening – Scandinavians are all the same to us Brits: invading Vikings the lot of ‘em. He didn’t seem to take offence. After an evening spent in good company with me, the Dane, a Swede and a Thai, we managed to solve all the world’s problems. Unfortunately we also had a lot to drink so we had forgotten our solutions by morning.

A last day spent helping out at a nearby animal sanctuary – this time nothing as exotic as gibbons or bears, but just dogs and cats. It is still rewarding helping out by taking the dogs for walks.

On to Phuket for a couple of days. We were apprehensive about going here, as its reputation for gaudiness and package tours is not really our thing, but we wanted to visit a gibbon rehabilitation centre nearby. We kept our stay on Phuket short. The Gibbon place was really good – not much for visitors to see but they are doing excellent work in getting the gibbons back into the wild. We stayed away from the beaches in Phuket town, which was a lot nicer than expected. A motorbike tour round the beaches did confirm our fears about the place, though. It really isn’t our kind of holiday destination.

Now back in Bangkok and preparing for our flight home on Monday. Forecast of snow back home, and a tube strike is making sure we are reminded of the best and worst of Britain before we even get back, so it looks like even the journey back from the airport will be a challenging end to the trip.

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Reflections on our journey will be too long, personal and boring for inclusion in any detail in this blog. Buy us a beer or glass of wine on our return and I’m sure we will bore you with further tales and deep ponderings from our year if you wish. However, the blog will not be complete without at least a few final thoughts…

We have both had a fantastic time. The year has been exciting, challenging, relaxing, thought-provoking, educational and revealing. Doing our ‘gap-year’ later on in life has meant we could be less worried about our image, and about getting drunk and/or stoned each night, and more focussed on experiencing the countries we are visiting. I’m not knocking the young ‘uns on their obligatory gap years before or after university, but in our experience most did seem more focussed on the bars, meeting each other and tubing in Vang Vieng than anything more cultural. I’m sure I would have done the same in their position.

We did not come out here to ‘discover ourselves’. Nor was it likely that we would ‘discover ourselves’ in a foreign land miles from home. One thing this year has given us though, is a lot of time to read, to talk, and to think, away from ‘normal’ distractions that you get at home. So we have developed our thinking, and even changed our positions, on many things – life, politics, religion, X-factor etc. I wont bore you with the details.

I loved Thailand and Laos. As did Emma, though she also ranks Cambodia up there. I think that stems from the first ‘essential’ in my list of things that makes a place a joy to be in (see a previous post) – friendly locals. A smile from us goes a long way, but to be smiled at by strangers, and not just those who want something from you, warms you to a place more than anything else. Asia seems to want to be more Western, and who can blame them with our demonstrations of opulence and affluence, but what they still have, and we are losing, is the respect for others. Even for non-royalists (of which there seem to be none in Thailand!), the quiet standing up for the national anthem in the cinemas or parks is impressive. I wonder how long they will continue to do this.

Many westerners we have seen seem to have a very flippant attitude to money. In a country where the cost of living is so much cheaper than at home, it is easy to throw money around. People seem to do this thinking that it is helping to leave large tips or not to bother haggling to a (locally) sensible price when the original price offered is still so much cheaper than they would pay back home. Unfortunately this attitude does not help. We have been to places where the economy is 100% reliant on tourism – all the local skills are lost – so when tourism decreases (e.g. when there is unrest in the country as in Thailand, or natural disasters as in Indonesia) the local economy dies and there are no skills to replace tourism. Westerners are seen as walking wallets in many places – a way of making easy money. This is what generates the annoying hassles from vendors and taxi drivers to get your business and, since it is much more lucrative serving a foreigner, the locals either can no longer afford the goods / services, or are ignored by the sellers. That can’t be a good thing. Prices to foreigners will always be higher than for locals, and tipping will always be a good way to show appreciation, but I urge all who visit places with a lower cost of living than our own to exercise restraint. And practice haggling!

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Many thanks to those of you who have stuck with the blog this far. Reading about others’ experiences is like sitting through their slideshow – what is a great memory to them is just a picture to you. However, the blog gives the choice of whether or when to read, and I hope the posts haven’t bored too much, and have given you an idea of where we are and what we have been doing. The comments on the blog, and the emails we have got during our year away have been very supportive and lifted our spirits when things were challenging and have given us a reminder of home and the people we have missed. The UK, for all its faults, is still home and this year has reinforced that fact. We will be happy to be home. Thank you.