finishing off my journeys
I think I left off about when I'd been invited to go and help give out milk powder to mothers in the slums of bangkok.
That morning at 6.15 I met up with the guy. We continued on the metro and then got off near the river. This, he told me is where the poorest area of bangkok is. The people who live there have built their own houses on land owned by the council, and have no guarruntee that they won't get kicked off at any time. We met up with a retired nun - she used to teach science at a catholic school. Now she lives in one of the slum houses and organises the milk and food runs. We started off by organizing ourselves quite complexly. Apparently some people had scammed them in the past - posing with babies that weren't theirs and then selling the milk powder, so now they weigh the babies and take pictures every so often to keep tabs on them. My job was to weigh the babies. It wasn't too difficult - most people didn't come with their babies so I only had to weigh some, and the rest of the time I just stood and chatted with another vollunteer - a regular. After this we did another milk run in a different area - same drill, and then we went to the nuns house for tea and biscuits. While there, the guy who invited me said he could do some accupuncture to help me with my tummy problems. Sceptical but knowing it wouldn't do any harm, I let him put two needles in both my hands, which wasn't particularly pleasant. After this we went shopping and baught tons and tons of rice, oil, fish sauce and tuna, which we brought back and bagged up to give to a load of people in the same place we did the milk run. Apparently the nun gets donations to buy all the stuff (presumably from churches I guess).Then I headed back to meet up with lewis and his william to catch the train down to the islands.
I had been feeling a little under the weather that day, and that probably made it easier to sleep on the train. Apparently the other two didn't get much sleep. In the morning we caught the ferry, and then began the worst experience of my whole trip. The boat was a catermerang and it was very bumpy. Every time the boat rocked down, my stomach came into my mouth. surfice to say, it was barely a minute before the first passanger started throwing up - namely my friend lewis! As the minutes rolled by slowly and I clung to my seat, peering to my left where I could see the horizon, more and more passangers joined him, and even the sea-hardy looking Thai passangers who came last and hadn't been able to find seats took a bag just in case. About an hour in a clammy australian guy came to the front where we were sitting, clinged to my seat and clutched his stomach nervously. Eventually he sat down and threw up. After almost two hours, we Thankfully grabbed our bags and got off, to find the taxi service to our hotel. The "taxi" turned out to be a pickup truck with seats in the back, and we joined a couple who were going to the same hotel. Not only that, but the tarmack on the roads were intermittant, and at points they just vanished abruptly, leaving a stony track and a very bumpy ride up and down the mountainous island. Finally we got to the hotel, where we took to our beds and enjoyed a much needed kip.
We didn't do much that day, and the next day I got up early to walk to the other side of the isand and find out about scuba diving courses. Apparently this is one of the cheapest places to do them. The place I found told me I wouldn't have time to do it though, and in the end it's quite good I didn't take it up because later that day I got pretty ill and just stayed in bed for the afternoon and evening, not even able to get up without feeling sick. Thankfully before that I had enough energy to go snorkeling in the sea near our hostel, because it was quite beautiful swimming with all the tropical fish. You had to be careful though - if you put your foot down the coral was sharp. I had a problem with my snorkel - it got filled with water easily and when I came up in shock to get the water out, I'd often end up kicking a piece of coral which would leave a razor thin cut on my foot. I also tried to climb a rock in the middle of the bay which turned out to be a mistake - I ended up getting cut on my thigh and my finger - it's almost 3 weeks later and I still have the last remains of them.
As I say I felt very ill that evening and actually the next day all I did was head out to the pool and have a swim the next afternoon, just before the sun went down. I decided to just take it easy and build up my strength to do more things the next day. I did feel better the next day though, so I went with william (lewis was a little hung over from the night before) to the north coast of the island, where there were three mini-islands joined by a sand bar. We went snorkeling from the sand bar, and climbed up one of the tiny islands to see the sand bar looking like a postcard.
Next day we parted company - me going back to bangkok because I still wasn't getting better and it's a bit pointless going on holiday when you're ill, and them heading down to the next island to catch the moon festival. In Bangkok I chilled out ran the moon festival hash and then caught the plane to hongkong. I arrived at the airport in the early evening, and as I'd not found any affordable rooms I decided to spend the night at the airport. I first headed over to Macdonalds to use the internet (turned out the internet is in the whole airport so I didn't need to go there after all) then I found a large bank of seats and lay down, using my towel as a pillow. After a while, other people joined me and the whole bank of seats turned into Hong-kong airport free hostel.
Hongkong turned out to be an expensive massive shopping mall - at least what I saw of it, and I took a very expensive and not very interesting tour on a bus. The best bit was finding a marks and spencers and drooling over all the english food I could get there - but I didn't have any money to buy much of it with so it was just for looking.
Soon I was back in the airport, where I skyped my parents, and then the checkin lady wouldn't let me in without actually purchasing a return ticket out of taiwan. Apparently hong kong is the only place they do it. I was glad I had my laptop and went to sit at a table and book a ticket. However, the tables I picked happened to be restaurant table and I was made to buy an unsavory and expensive slice of cake.
The flight was pretty uneventful although I was pleasantly surprised with a free meal on the plane, as well as some rather good oolong tea. My journey ended when I arrived back in Taiwan and took the bus ride back to my little apartment.
That morning at 6.15 I met up with the guy. We continued on the metro and then got off near the river. This, he told me is where the poorest area of bangkok is. The people who live there have built their own houses on land owned by the council, and have no guarruntee that they won't get kicked off at any time. We met up with a retired nun - she used to teach science at a catholic school. Now she lives in one of the slum houses and organises the milk and food runs. We started off by organizing ourselves quite complexly. Apparently some people had scammed them in the past - posing with babies that weren't theirs and then selling the milk powder, so now they weigh the babies and take pictures every so often to keep tabs on them. My job was to weigh the babies. It wasn't too difficult - most people didn't come with their babies so I only had to weigh some, and the rest of the time I just stood and chatted with another vollunteer - a regular. After this we did another milk run in a different area - same drill, and then we went to the nuns house for tea and biscuits. While there, the guy who invited me said he could do some accupuncture to help me with my tummy problems. Sceptical but knowing it wouldn't do any harm, I let him put two needles in both my hands, which wasn't particularly pleasant. After this we went shopping and baught tons and tons of rice, oil, fish sauce and tuna, which we brought back and bagged up to give to a load of people in the same place we did the milk run. Apparently the nun gets donations to buy all the stuff (presumably from churches I guess).Then I headed back to meet up with lewis and his william to catch the train down to the islands.
I had been feeling a little under the weather that day, and that probably made it easier to sleep on the train. Apparently the other two didn't get much sleep. In the morning we caught the ferry, and then began the worst experience of my whole trip. The boat was a catermerang and it was very bumpy. Every time the boat rocked down, my stomach came into my mouth. surfice to say, it was barely a minute before the first passanger started throwing up - namely my friend lewis! As the minutes rolled by slowly and I clung to my seat, peering to my left where I could see the horizon, more and more passangers joined him, and even the sea-hardy looking Thai passangers who came last and hadn't been able to find seats took a bag just in case. About an hour in a clammy australian guy came to the front where we were sitting, clinged to my seat and clutched his stomach nervously. Eventually he sat down and threw up. After almost two hours, we Thankfully grabbed our bags and got off, to find the taxi service to our hotel. The "taxi" turned out to be a pickup truck with seats in the back, and we joined a couple who were going to the same hotel. Not only that, but the tarmack on the roads were intermittant, and at points they just vanished abruptly, leaving a stony track and a very bumpy ride up and down the mountainous island. Finally we got to the hotel, where we took to our beds and enjoyed a much needed kip.
We didn't do much that day, and the next day I got up early to walk to the other side of the isand and find out about scuba diving courses. Apparently this is one of the cheapest places to do them. The place I found told me I wouldn't have time to do it though, and in the end it's quite good I didn't take it up because later that day I got pretty ill and just stayed in bed for the afternoon and evening, not even able to get up without feeling sick. Thankfully before that I had enough energy to go snorkeling in the sea near our hostel, because it was quite beautiful swimming with all the tropical fish. You had to be careful though - if you put your foot down the coral was sharp. I had a problem with my snorkel - it got filled with water easily and when I came up in shock to get the water out, I'd often end up kicking a piece of coral which would leave a razor thin cut on my foot. I also tried to climb a rock in the middle of the bay which turned out to be a mistake - I ended up getting cut on my thigh and my finger - it's almost 3 weeks later and I still have the last remains of them.
As I say I felt very ill that evening and actually the next day all I did was head out to the pool and have a swim the next afternoon, just before the sun went down. I decided to just take it easy and build up my strength to do more things the next day. I did feel better the next day though, so I went with william (lewis was a little hung over from the night before) to the north coast of the island, where there were three mini-islands joined by a sand bar. We went snorkeling from the sand bar, and climbed up one of the tiny islands to see the sand bar looking like a postcard.
Next day we parted company - me going back to bangkok because I still wasn't getting better and it's a bit pointless going on holiday when you're ill, and them heading down to the next island to catch the moon festival. In Bangkok I chilled out ran the moon festival hash and then caught the plane to hongkong. I arrived at the airport in the early evening, and as I'd not found any affordable rooms I decided to spend the night at the airport. I first headed over to Macdonalds to use the internet (turned out the internet is in the whole airport so I didn't need to go there after all) then I found a large bank of seats and lay down, using my towel as a pillow. After a while, other people joined me and the whole bank of seats turned into Hong-kong airport free hostel.
Hongkong turned out to be an expensive massive shopping mall - at least what I saw of it, and I took a very expensive and not very interesting tour on a bus. The best bit was finding a marks and spencers and drooling over all the english food I could get there - but I didn't have any money to buy much of it with so it was just for looking.
Soon I was back in the airport, where I skyped my parents, and then the checkin lady wouldn't let me in without actually purchasing a return ticket out of taiwan. Apparently hong kong is the only place they do it. I was glad I had my laptop and went to sit at a table and book a ticket. However, the tables I picked happened to be restaurant table and I was made to buy an unsavory and expensive slice of cake.
The flight was pretty uneventful although I was pleasantly surprised with a free meal on the plane, as well as some rather good oolong tea. My journey ended when I arrived back in Taiwan and took the bus ride back to my little apartment.