Chinese New Year in Singapore and the islands in southern Thailand

Dear reader, I'm back!

First of all, some of my lazy French friends asked me to write a summary in French of each article, so from now on, my posts will start with  few lines in French.

Resume du premier episode asiatique:

Apres trois semaines en Europe entre Londres et Paris en janvier, me voici enfin en Asie pour de nouvelles aventures. Je suis tout d'abord alle a Singapour rendre visite a mon ami Chor pendant le nouvel an chinois, puis j'ai decolle direction Bangkok. Pour des raisons de visa et de vaccin, j'ai du legerement modifier mes plans de voyage (qui demeurent de toute facon toujours assez flexibles, ca ne serait pas fun sans la possibilite d'improviser!) et suis reste dans les iles du sud de la Thailande pendant deux semaines et demi: Phuket, Koh Phi Phi, Koh Lanta et Koh Phangan de l'autre cote. Le sud etant assez touristique, ca n'etait pas forcement la partie la plus culturelle du sejour mais j'ai pu glandouiller tranquilement dans des endroits paradisiaques et surtout rencontrer plein de gens tres cools venus des quatre coins du monde. Bisous, a la prochaine.

Once the doctor gave me the green light regarding my wrist, I immediately booked my flight for Asia, visited friends between Paris and London and before I could realise, I was on my plane to Singapore, back to my travels.

So here I am, end of January, landing in Singapore a bit more than a year after having visited this place for the first time. It seems that by luck I picked the best time to be there, arriving just before Chinese new year celebrations. I was staying at my friend Chor's place and he brought me around to all these dinners, making me discover the tradition from the inside.

Briefly speaking, the Chinese New Year consists in many dinners, with traditional food served only during the two weeks that new year celebrations last, spending weekends visiting family and friends (they will have their door open and a big banquet ready to receive you at any time of the day), and of course some gambling, a very strong Chinese tradition. A very surprising and unexpected tradition linked to the "visiting" are the red envelopes. It basically works that way: married persons will have to carry such envelopes containing pristine bank notes, and when they meet non-married persons, they would offer them one of these envelopes. So when you go to visit a family friend, all the married adults in the room would come to you and basically give you free money, a very unusual and surprising tradition I had never heard of before! And on the plus side, it made losing at poker on my last night much less painful...

Next stop on my list was Bangkok, where I only spent a day and a half to check a few things regarding my visa for Myanmar and some vaccination I still required for the trip. Because of this missing injection, I had to stay in the South of Thailand and avoid the more infected northern regions. Bangkok being a big hub for my travels, I knew I would come back here at least a couple of times and therefore did not bother visiting too much of it. I only saw a very dirty city (arriving from Singapore, every city in the world would probably look dirty) and more interestingly I ended up in the park were big demonstrations against the regime were held, an improvised camp were many demonstrators are living and protesting. Everyone tells you to avoid it of course, but in the end I was very surprised by the quietness and the peaceful way in which people were trying to show their anger to the government. Thais are known for being very peaceful and always trying to avoid aggressive confrontations and loss of temper in public, but I did not expect this. Even though roadblocks perturbed the traffic and some areas were full of military clothes, Thai flags, nationalists slogans and "Shutdown Bangkok, restart Thailand!" T-shirts, I did not see any trace of brutality, no fireguns, nothing clearly indicating violence. Of course, you should avoid wearing the wrong colours in some areas (I will not get into details, but basically the 'yellow' camp seem to be protesting against the 'red' one), but overall I felt pretty safe there, at least during daytime.

Demonstrators camp

I then took a night bus to Phuket, probably the most famous island in Thailand, and arrived in the morning in Patong, the main touristic town on the island.

Oh. My. God.

I have rarely seen a place as ugly as Patong. It is full of retirees on holidays, burning under the sun on an extremely crowded beach, drinking beer all day long... I can't even find words to describe it. Honestly, I would not even want to get paid to spend a holiday week in Patong.

Vision of hell: Patong Beach

But wait, we keep hearing about Phuket, and not only as a tourist pack destination. Where are the beautiful beaches, five-stars resorts, villas and turquoise water which attract jet setters and those happy few from all around the world? I decided to rent a scooter and went on to check other bays, further south from Patong. I passed a nice boutique hotel and decided to stop there to ask for directions (I was trying to find some 'secret' beach I had heard of). As I parked my scooter, I realised it could be a good idea to have a look at the place... which turned out to be pretty amazing. And since no one bothered asking me if I actually was a client of the hotel, I ended up spending most of my day by their amazing sea-water swimming pool... So yes, there are still some hidden paradises in Phuket!

Vision of paradise: Villa Royale hotel, Phuket

I also went on a highly recommended eco-tour, literally it had the best reviews I have ever seen on TripAdvisor so far. They pick you up in the morning at your hotel and bring you on a boat, where you enjoy plenty of delicious Thai food before the real thing starts. You go on a canoe with another tourist and a guide, and while you lay down and relax, the guide will paddle into cave and hongs, making you discover mangroves and beautiful untouched nature only accessible this way. Experiencing this level of quietness in such an incredible scenery was a truly unique experience, and the contrast with messy Patong couldn't be stronger.

Entering a hong

Hong seen from the outside

Back on the boat, you are introduced to the Thai tradition of kratongs, floating light supports made of natural components and with the help of your guide you build your own one. 

Our beautiful kratong

Sunset from the boat

Then, after having had dinner and watched the sunset from the boat, you're back on the canoe and into a cave full of bats to light up the kratongs and release them. Finally, when the lights fade away, and you're in the true darkness of the cave, the best part is still to come: play with the water and hundreds of bioluminescent plancton will light up like stars in the water. Astonishing.

I left Phuket after this awesome day and took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi. A very small and therefore very crowded island, good for diving and partying with drunken Brits. Not that Patong wasn't fun party wise, but at least the crowd on Phi Phi is much younger. To give you an idea of the atmosphere, there was this bar with a muay Thai (Thai boxing) ring in the middle where people could volunteer to fight and would win buckets of alcohol for that. Having a beer in front of this spectacle, while Arsenal was being raped by Liverpool on the screens broadcasting the English Premier league made it for a good night. Alex, this very cool dude from Annecy I met there, was always in for a fight. He even won three of the four fights he took part in! And if you need more, head north to the beach, where you'll find a taste of the full moon party, people playing with fire and loud music all night long.

The ring, with some Thai kids showing off their skills

I also went on a tour of some nearby gorgeous islands, but too touristic. When you arrive on monkey beach, see monkeys being fed by everyone and some tourists giving them beer, you know that something is wrong. And you understand why it may be worth to pay a bit more for eco-friendly tours.

Something went wrong on monkey beach 

On the islands around Koh Phi Phi 

Sunset from our long boat

Next stop was Koh Lanta. We (I was traveling with Alex at that time) ended up in this beautiful bay, 500 metres of sand with two five star resorts, our small hotel, a few restaurants, some villas up on the hill and only one local bar, playing live music every night in a very laid back atmosphere. Which made it a great place to mingle with other people around, who were not necessarily backpackers like us (especially not this Brit cool gay couple on their five star honey moon) but still very open for a chat. 

Yet another great sunset on Koh Lanta

We met really cool Chileans (which was excellent for my Spanish) and I ended up spending the whole following day with them, chilling and recovering from our Phi Phi intense partying.

We then went to the other coast of Thailand, and arrived in Koh Phangan four days before the infamous full moon party. For those who haven't yet heard about it, the full moon party, held as you could have guessed on every full moon night in Koh Phangan, is one of the biggest parties in Asia, and the island is literally invaded by thousands of revellers every four weeks. It is quite a big deal when you travel in Southeast Asia.

Following some friends advice, we were staying in a bungalow in Haad Yuan, five minutes away from the main party place, Haad Rin, but only accessible by taxi boat, which means that it was a world apart from soulless Haad Rin. Finding a bungalow had been quite difficult, the whole bay having been invaded by a group of 62 Canadians, but we managed to find a very decent and cheap one, with extremely good breakfast included.

Our set of bungalows

 Breakfast in paradise

But once there, I discovered a totally different mentality. Most people were here to practise meditation, yoga, to relax and enjoy a simple and free life. I met Saga, a Finnish girl who over the week became a very precious friend, and who had discovered the bay two years ago. She introduced me to the main places and most importantly helped me get into the right mindset to fully enjoy it. Overall, people there were so open that I had very deep conversations and finally started to appreciate what traveling really is. As Saga put it, "there is so much to discover when traveling. Everything around you and so much within yourself". And it's only now, about five months into my travels, that I am starting to grasp this idea. 

Bamboo hut in Haad Yuan

The full moon party became actually not so important, but I still went with Alex, since we wanted to meet many friends there (but never found them within the huge crowd) and since we first came to the island for that reason. Plus it could still be fun to watch drunk people get burnt trying to do stupid games on the beach. 

Overall, it was good fun but I didn't stay very late. The mass of dancing persons was truly impressive, and I found a spot with decent music a bit further north from the main five or six main bars, but surrounded by so many fluokids I didn't really manage to get into the mood. Even if it wasn't the best night of my trip, it is still something I will remember and I am glad I did. I woke up the next morning went straight to meet Saga at a party in Haad Yuan that had been going on all night long and went on raving till they stopped in the early afternoon. Much more my kind of fun!

Aussies and Brit, my new post- full moon after party friends

After that, Alex went back to Phuket were his parents now live, and I cancelled my trip to nearby Koh Tao, one of Thailand best diving spots apparently, to stay a bit more in Haad Yuan and enjoy this peaceful paradise. Diving will be for another occasion, and probably not right after the full moon when Koh Tao suddenly crowds up.

The view from the top, very worthwhile trek

Sunset from the ferry leaving Koh Phangan

That's it for today!

From wherever on the planet you are reading this, have an amazing day and enjoy life!

Besos,

อองรี

San Pedro de Atacama, back to Argentina & Uruguay

Located at the heart of the most arid desert in the world, the small town of San Pedro de Atacama is one of Chile most famous touristic attractions. The town itself has not much to offer, but its surroundings are definitely worth a visit. San Pedro is by far one of the most expensive places in Chile, but prices seem outrageously prohibitive mainly because we were arriving from cheap Bolivia, so we decided not to stay too long there and to do as much as we possibly could in a couple of days.

Agencies offered some tours which were quite similar to what we had just done in Bolivia, so we selected the only ones that seemed relevant to us. 

One day, we rented mountain bikes and went to see both the Death and Moon Valleys, some impressive rocky landscapes, as you can see on the following picture.

 Death Valley (1)

 Death Valley (2)

We started biking at 9:30am and came back at 7:30pm. A whole day biking in the driest place on earth, under a burning sun. You can imagine how tired we were when we went to bed, but at least we felt asleep loaded with great memories.

On the following day, we went to a tour to visit other beautiful places in the middle of the desert. It was mainly a set of stunning lagoons, the first one being deep and salty enough to let you float as if you were in the dead sea, and the last one, where we enjoyed some pisco sour watching the sunset, was basically a very vast and thin layer of extremely salty water, of a stunning changing colour, as you can see on the following pictures.

 Salty lagoons in San Pedro de Atacama desert (1)
 

Salty lagoons in San Pedro de Atacama desert (2)

  Salty lagoons in San Pedro de Atacama desert (3)

Salty lagoons in San Pedro de Atacama desert (4)

Next stop on our route was Salta, on the north west corner of Argentina. After about two months out of the country, I was finally back. It felt so good to be once again in Argentina that I am even tempted to say it felt good to be "back home"...

Salta

After having changed our dollars on the black market as usual, we visited the town and we (Duncan, Dan, Carl and myself) organised a traditional asado (barbecue) with some great Malbec, before heading to Manu Chao's concert. The concert itself was ok, except that I got robbed by some pickpocket gang who had quite cleverly thought that such a big crowd full of backpackers would be an easy target. Luckily I only had my wallet with me, with no credit card and wasn't carrying a lot of cash. The fun part of this story was when I ended up at the police station, negotiating with the officer so that he would take my testimony. At first he clearly refused to cooperate and to do his job (probably a question of showing some nice statistics to the minister at the end of the year, or perhaps he simply wanted to go home early...), but when I started to shout angrily at him in Spanish, he understood I would not leave before getting an official document... which I manage to get in the end!

Another good memory (because, overall, getting robbed there will remain a funny memory) was the night we spent at Loki Salta, one of the many Loki hostels in South America, but which was surprisingly located very far from the city centre. Because of a special deal they were offering (basically, you could stay there for free, they still make their money on drinks and food they sell at the bar), we met there so many persons we had been traveling with at some point over the last few months, including a large group of Dutch girls and, of course, many Israeli we had met in Bolivia.

At that time, I had realised that I needed some change. Despite the fact that the area between Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina had offered me some of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen in my life, I was getting a bit bored of dry mountains... So I decided to change my plans and booked a flight to Bariloche, in the Argentinian lake district, at the north west border of Patagonia, a place considered as Argentina's top skiing destination in winter and a great place in summer for people who enjoy mountains and gorgeous lakes.

Ruta de los Sietes Lagos, between Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes

Bariloche (1)

Bariloche (2)  

 Bariloche (3)

Bariloche (4)

Natural park near El Bolson

I stayed around Bariloche for six days, visiting San Martin de los Andes and the charming hippie village of El Bolson. Literally, the city was self-proclamed non-nuclear zone fifteen or twenty years ago and they hold a market every other day, where a crowd of old hippie, white rasta and pseudo bohemian wander around looking at ethical home-made products, eco-friendly wooden educational games, sipping some organic fruit juice and occasionally sharing a joint. Weird medicinal plants shop juxtaposed with the pharmacy complete the picture of this laid-back town, surrounded by beautiful mountains, lakes, and clouds of weed.

After that, I took a night bus to cross Argentina all the way east to the Atlantic coast, in order to see the Peninsula Valdes, a world heritage natural site mostly known for its very unique wildlife. I got there early enough to catch a tour to the Peninsula. It was the end of the whale season so I didn't get the chance to see any of them, but I did see sea lions, sea elephants, pinguins, a tapir, more lamas, and some strange animals I had never heard of. Unluckily no killer whales, even if it usually a good spot to watch them. 

Unfortunately, due to some technical issues, I cannot post any photos yet about it...

The sea lions and elephants where probably the funniest. We saw some sea lions aggressively fighting for a female, whereas sea elephants spend their days literally doing nothing. Unlike sea lions, who go hunting for fish everyday and sleep on the shore, sea elephants live at a very different pace. Because they go hunting for food quite far and deep in the sea, they spend four months eating and living in the sea and then come back on the beach for two months and spend their day chilling in the sun, sometimes going for a swim when they feel like it. Life's hard, really.

From there, I went back to Buenos Aires, where I was staying for a week or so at a friend's place, mainly recovering from the forty four hours I had spent in busses in just four days, and then simply meeting some friends, eating even more beef, going to pool parties... Life's hard, really. The city was also living its hottest summer in a century, with a lasting heatwave causing massive disruption and electricity and water shortages, even sometimes for a few days in a row for the worst afflicted areas of the city.

I also spent a weekend in Punta del Este, Uruguay, staying at a friend of friend's place. This guy basically retired and he now spends half of the year playing golf in Punta, and the rest of the time in France. Life's hard, really. I have rarely met anyone as warm and welcoming as him, and really had a lot of fun over those 48 hours. He showed me around Punta, from the beautiful villas up north in Jose Ignacio to the old town where the Rio de la Plata meets the Atlantic, from the more Bohemian bars of La Barra, a place that probably looks like Ibiza twenty years ago, to Punta's famous casino... and I must say that I was very positively surprised by what I discovered. Punta is kind of a mix between Miami and Saint Tropez, but in South America. Real estate is booming, but except a few uggly towers with too many storeys located in the centre, they managed to build classy and not too glossy buildings, and even some amazing ones, like the one in which Zinedine Zidane bought a flat (a whole floor with its private infinity pool, to be more precise). Money (and probably not always of the cleanest kind) pours in from everywhere, but mostly from rich Argentinians who want to invest some of their wealth abroad, in a more stable environment than Argentina's economic mess. Therefore, the whole thing looks like a massive bubble, especially because Uruguayans (like in many other South american countries) live on credit. But unless Argentina suddenly turns into a stable and business-friendly country, the bubble could keep on inflating much more... 

Anyway, from a purely touristic perspective, over the summer Punta becomes full of Porteños, who live just across the rio, and rich Brazilians fly in with their private jets to be there on Christmas and NYE. Punta becomes the place to be for a few weeks, and I can now understand why.

Again, no photos to show you from Punta for the moment...

Finally, just before Christmas, my parents and my sister Claire came to visit me. We spent a week in and around Buenos Aires, spending a day in Colonial del Sacramento, Uruguay, and one for a lunch outside of the city centre with some friends. My cousins also came to BA right after Christmas, so it was really cool being all there together on the other side of the planet.

We spent NYE in Montevideo, a city that literally shuts down for two days at that time (every Uruguayan seems to have left for Punta!) and then went on traveling to the northeast of Argentina. We visited some of the famous Jesuit missions located between Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, saw the biggest barrage in the world in terms of electricity production, built on a river in between Paraguay and Brazil and of course, concluded this fantastic trip with two days at the Iguazu falls. We first saw this magical scenery from the Brazilian side, stopping at an exotic birds park where we saw many colourful toucans and parrots, and finally spent our last day on the Argentinian side of the waterfalls, from where you can better experience both the power of the waterfalls and the sense of entering a lost world of wild forest and unreal waterfalls.

I'll leave it there! 

To tell the truth, I'm writing these few lines from a beautiful restaurant in the South of Thailand, facing the sea, so... I was a bit late and still have quite a bit to catch up! 

Kiss love peace dear reader!

El Riton