The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
And then to Koh Samui, an island where the tourism industry is fully developed but the rainforest is still intact. From the approaching car ferry it looks like a shagpile rug thrown over a patient etherised upon a table. Continue reading
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
Koh Phangan
The Wiki tells me that the monthly full moon parties on Koh Phangan’s Haad Rin Beach started in 1985 and grew quickly, to the point now where they routinely draw in as many as 30,000 revellers.
The party has got so big that it has spawned dozens of imitators, advertised on sign boards all over southern Thailand… the No Moon Party, the Half Moon Party, and my personal favourite, the “Ample Moon Party” (which presumably comes somewhere between half moon and full moon). But the full moon bash is still the original and best.
I was a bit late for me, not just because the party doesn’t really get going until midnight, but also because I am at the time of life where a full night’s sleep is just so much more appealing than a night of semi-naked gyration and waiting for the sun to rise.
So I skipped the party but bought the video of the party. I took in a pre-party party on Koh Samui, then went to bed, got up the next day and rode the ferry to Phangan to see what it’s like when all the island has a sore head. Continue reading
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
So much for the rain. The newspapers were full of flood warnings as I set off on the second leg of my journey around Thailand, but it rained only three times on a three-week trip.
Those three rain storms all came on the first day as I drove down the east side to catch the ferry to Koh Samet. The rain came in blocks of sky, an aggravated shout that soon ran out of breath. For a while it was like driving through a liquidiser. Mostly, there was brilliant sun. Continue reading
Here’s a quick guide to some of the Waboba stockists in Phuket:
Patong Beach
It’s easy to find the Waboba Balls at Patong Beach. If you drive along Thaweewong Road (the beachfront) until you get to a kink in the road at the junction with Bangla Road, on your left you’ll find KR World Sports. The balls are in there. Stockists in Thailand currently only have the Waboba Extreme Ball. Other balls and beach toys will be coming later in the year. Continue reading
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
The flat sea was too much for my children’s grandfather. A mountain man, not used to flat horizons, he spent the boat journey from Phi Phi to Krabi taking gulps of air on the rear deck as vertical karst rocks passed us like papercuts in the brilliant sun. Continue reading
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
There’s a dive shop every 20 metres in Phi Phi Town, and each one has a tattooed dude from Croydon or Helsinki just dying to sell you a half-day trip to the local dive sites.
But many of the people in the know just keep on walking past these shops and on out to Blue View Divers in the Viewpoint Resort at the eastern end of Loh Dalum Beach. Continue reading
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
In the hierarchy of traffic accidents, a ding is smaller than a bump, and a prang is bigger than both of them. I dinged the hubcap on the hirecar. To take a break from driving, we took the boat to Phi Phi, chocolate-box island of upside-down cliffs and impossibly concave beaches. Continue reading
The balls are here at last. We spent the last week rolling out the balls in Southern Thailand.
The Waboba Extreme ball is now available in various dive shops, sports shops and hotels in Phuket and Krabi. We’ll be posting up a full list of retailers in the next few days.
Next stop, Bangkok and Samui.
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
Pattaya is Russian, Phuket’s Kata Beach is French and Karon Beach is Swedish. Certain beaches pull in certain nationalities.
At Kata Beach, this is easy to explain. Club Med dominates the seafront.
Waboba being a Swedish product, we were pleased, but somewhat bemused, to see the mini-marts at Karon Beach doing brisk business selling what looks like a local Swedish newspaper.
But what draws the Swedes to Karon Beach? It was a mystery to us until we found this (see picture). If you’re Swedish, you don’t need me to tell you that you’re looking at Håkans Bar, one of the most famous (to Swedes) landmarks in all of Indochina.
It was, apparently, the base for some kind of Swedish television program. Was it a documentary or a reality TV show? I haven’t a clue, but I’m told it was immensely popular and it keeps the Swedes coming here.
There are bits of the TV show on Youtube here. Maybe someone Swedish can tell us what it’s all about.
The Bionic Salesman
A Journey around Thailand
If God or Buddha or the Cookie Monster gave you the chance to go back and re-experience any minute of your life, which minute would you choose?
I was thinking about this on top of the hill overlooking Kata Beach.
Almost exactly a decade ago, Misty and I had our honeymoon here in a hotel called the Plub Pla.
There have been a few moments in life when I knew instantly that the memory of them would shine for as long as I could remember anything. In my mind, they are invariably associated with supernatural conditions of the light – a laser beam of sun, a moon impossibly large… God playing with Photoshop.
The Plub Pla was a strange and beautiful hotel. You drove up a track through the rainforest and arrived at a sprawling estate of pools, huts, a tower and split-level decking, with views over the canopy of trees down both sides of the island. Continue reading
