5 weeks ago
I arrived in Ranong, in the south of Thailand, close to the Burmese border.
From there I went to Paksong to TCDF for a volunteer job. It was quite a
challenge to arrive in Ranong.
Before
going to Ranong I said goodbye to Guillem, he went back to Vic after 8 months
of traveling in Asia. He started his trip without a word of English, nervous if
he would be able to travel alone. But after discovering that Southeast Asia is a
backpackers Walhalla, it took him just a few days to settle in and go with the
flow. We both left in February and we met in May on the beach in Ton Sai. It
was hard to say goodbye after being together 24/7 for 5 months. Te echo de
menos pequenyo!
We said goodbye and that evening at 6 I got on the bus that was supposed to arrive the next morning at 9. I had the pleasure of sitting next to a South African guy who had just worked for 2 years in Saudi Arabia, teaching English, and talked about it like he had just escaped from hell. He told me that during these 2 years he wasn’t able to do anything because of all the rules in the country and that he was always surrounded by the same (boring) people. When I asked him why he had chosen Saudi Arabia and more importantly why he stayed there that long, he told me that it was a good place for him to control himself, because he wasn’t very good at that and needed it. He seemed new to everything in Asia and followed me everywhere until we split ways the next morning…
The next morning at 6am we arrived ‘somewhere’ and I was the only one going to Ranong, so I didn’t have to wait but was immediately taken to a very small pickup and we were on our way. I just didn’t have a clue to where, but I’m used to that by now. We had to stop twice to move my bag, because the pickup was so small that the weight of my bag actually brought it out of balance. And no, my backpack isn’t that heavy... Well, not anymore...
We arrived at an office and I appeared to be in Suri Thani, about 6 hours from Ranong by bus. The bus was leaving at 11.30am. So I sat there and thought… ‘It is 6am, they told me I was going to arrive in Ranong at 9am… and my bus is leaving at 11.30am… Something is not right here…’
After telling me over and over again that Ranong is VERY dangerous, she offered me a 4 hour taxi ride to Paksong for 4000 bath, what’s more or less a 100 euros… So I sat there thinking what to do and while she, standing there in her pajamas, was pressuring me that she wanted to go to bed, I finally decided to go to Krabi for the 3 days that I had left before starting my volunteer job.
The next day I was preparing things in my room when I heard drums and fireworks. So I went outside to find a group of people with metal sticks and scissors sticking out of their cheeks. OMG! Freaky! Apparently they do this for the vegetarian festival that’s held every year. I’m not quite sure why…
The next day I started my 7 hour bus trip to Ranong with a cute 4 year old on my lap. The woman who was with her was bringing her to her parents in Myanmar. They were both Burmese, so I could say the few words that I learned when I was in Myanmar. Mingalaba!
Now I would be the moment to start telling you about my weeks at TCDF and DinDang but I will first jump back in time when Guillem and I arrived in Thailand in the beginning of October. We had been traveling pretty intensely for about 6 weeks and it was time to relax. Time to do some serious chilling on the islands Koh Tao and Koh Phangan. After a trip of 2 nigths and one day in buses, pickups and a boat we arrived at Koh Tao. We stayed in Chalok in the south of Koh Tao for a week.
We interrupted our busy schedule of doing nothing with a dive so now and then. Ihasia is the diveschool from Brujo, a guy from Madrid who started this school a few years ago not knowing that it would be such a success. It’s mostly visited by Spanish people, so I could keep on practicing my Spanish. We met Carla and Sergio with who we hung out every day and our last day we dove at Sail Rock all together to see bullsharks.
And we got lucky! Bull sharks have a bad vision so they only start seeing you when they’re about 2 meters away from you and then they turn! Later I heard that not all bull sharks are so friendly, in Florida for example they take little bites of people…
After Koh Tao we spend Guillems last 10 days on Haad Yuan, a quiet beach on Koh Phangan with a nice party so now and then. We stayed at a guesthouse where the whole staff is Burmese. Boys and girls between the age of 16 and 25 years. They work from 8 am till 12 am and still manage to smile all day long. One boy told us about how he traveled from Myanmar to Thailand. A horrible trip over sea and thru mountains, walking for days. He was only seventeen. We became quiet listening to his story...
They tried to teach us more Burmese words than we already knew, but there was no room left to learn more after being in Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand. We were already making sentences using all languages at the same time. The week at Haad Yuan was very relaxed and lazy, mainly beach, movies at night in the restaurant, joking and talking with the people of the guesthouse, food, a shake or beer and sometimes a party. To explain how lazy we were; even doing the laundry was too much of an effort. So I think I can say that our mission of doing completely nothing was a success.
After this I was very ready to start working for TCDF! Soon I will upload my story about my weeks in the beautiful Paksong area!
