Thailand Travel and Life by Island of Sand

Thailand Travel (Islands)

The primary focus of this lens is on traveling to various islands in Thailand. A secondary topic is living life in Thailand for long-term residents. I have lived in Thailand for13 years and have been to many islands-i am currently living on Samui Island. I have worked in Thailand and have gained an understanding of the system.

About Me and Samui

This module will focus on new things i have learned on this current trip to samui island. i am on the balcony of a bungalow about thirty feet or so from the water. i paid 8000 baht for a month. there is no air conditioning or hot water but the water is warm anyway. it is a nice room with concrete walls and glass windows. it has a great queen size bed.

Generally speaking the restaurants at places like this are a little bit expensive for the low budget tourist. If you are going to stay one or two weeks it probably doesn't really matter. In my case i have been here for nine weeks (i am also teaching some English and i work over the net). I would like a fridge and a few items for the room, but that will have to wait.

So, send me a question if you like and i will try to answer. if you want a pal in Thailand to consult with more and for a long duration you can paypal me at jack.islandofsand@gmail.com i will be there for you. i also have a lot of knowledge about living in Thailand generally- i taught English at schools here for 12 years- i know the ins and outs and almost everything there is to know about visas etc.

Thailand Travel

Here are some books that I have written on traveling in Thailand. They are first hand accounts and are not meant to replace a Lonely Planet type of guide book. They outline specific itineraries and give tips and hints for budget travel. Sort of like traveling on a shoe string budget. Not quite the backpacker budget because most of the places on on the seashore, but a good low range of costs for people staying in a bungalow etc. There is an excellent resort hotel that is absolutely gorgeous and low cost-considering that it is a high end place, perhaps, five star. It even has a movie theater. I didn't stay there but checked it out while hiking and walked all around the ' estate ' .

Photographs and Memories

Over the years I have taken thousands of photos of the islands and especially of sunrises and sunsets and the water. Here is one. Others can be seen on google + photos and high quality full definition print can be purchased at http://fineartamerica.com

Here are the links:

Fine Art America- http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/neel-wain.html

Picasa Online- https://plus.google.com/photos/103148378180063861507/albums?banner=pwa

* if you are interested in a digital file of one of the pics, send me a mail at islandofsand@yahoo.com
and make me an offer via paypal. jack.islandofsand@gmail.com

The Visa Scene

I have made many trips to immigration offices in Thailand and have had several type of visas. I will give a little info here, enough to clarify a few issues that can be confusing.

The Tourist Visa: those planning a trip for less than a month as a tourist can receive visa on arrival. Please check with online Thailand immigration, as there are several countries where this is not possible. Travellers from the U.S. should not have a problem. It is possible that you will be asked to show a return ticket, but not likely. You will be given a thirty day ON ENTRY visa. There are those who confuse the issue by refusing to call it a visa-but it is a tourist visa when all is said and done. After 30 days you have to leave the country. It can be extended for a week for 70 dollars at an immigration office (please check online for exact extension period-the rules change now and then. If you would like to stay in Thailand for longer than that I will provide some good options if you Paypal ten dollars, and email to islandofsand@yahoo.com I will go into some detail on lengthier stays in the Kingdom. I can also help those who are considering retirement in the kingdom, or those eligible for a retirement visa-the age requirement for this visa was recently lowered to 50 years of age and higher. I have had experience with obtaining this visa and some contacts who can help.

By the way: I am putting up a new site at myislandofsand.com within a few days, please have a look and sign the guestbook. It will have a shopping cart with my digital photo files- fineartamerica.com sell prints. The digital files are 15 dollars (full high definition).

That's all for now from the IslandofSand. http://myislandofsand.com

Ominous Clouds on the Horizon

One of the first rains in months, but that season will arrive. I hear the rainy season on Samui is opposite that of the rest of Thailand. It rains a lot in November and December. Click on the photo to go to the store or contact me for the digital file.

What's the Best Island in Thailand?

Okay, so there a hundred or so of them, which one of them is the best low budget island to go to? Okay, it doesn't absolutely have to be low-budget, it could be an expensive one-tell us which one you like the best.

Thailand Culture

A few books about Thai culture that are available on Amazon.

Please Sign Our Guestbook

I will try to provide some benefit to those who sign the book and provide and email. I will in some case create a link or post to your pages. We can help each other.

Getting Around an Island

Depending on where you stay, a little transportation could be necessary. If you stay at a place way far from the main island road - all islands here have a main road - though most islands don't have the traffic problem that Samui does. A few years ago I stayed on White Sands Beach on Elephant Island (ko Chang in Thai - Chang is Thai for elephant). In fact, starting in 2002 I visited that island twice a year and always stayed in the KCY Bungalows on the beach. It was a gorgeous place then - with little ethnic places to eat and family run places that knew tourism and offered budget travel. A few years I arrived to see that the last hut was being burned - on the trip before their were surveyors around and I knew what they were doing. They were getting ready to build a hotel. And that is what is there now. The beach has nothing left but expensive hotels. It was a good place to stay. Just a few minutes to the main road and a little town with Indian food and cheap pizza. Now the town looks like a commercial slum. Ugly is the only way I can describe it. There is a wall in front of the hotel that has cut off a lot of beach. There is a sign saying it is dangerous to swim - dangerous because the hotel lets of waste water and creates an undertow. The signs have always been around because at certain times of the year when there are storms around it can be dangerous to swim. But less I stray I will put that info in another module. TRANSPORTION : At White Sands on Ko Chang I was happy without it. There are little taxi trucks on all the islands and if one wants to visit another place the trucks are a cheap and generally safe alternative. After they burned the huts it became a challenge to find another beach as nice as White Sands was. In fact I haven't found a place like that, though I stayed in a variety of places on Elephant Island in search of good cheap bamboo huts on the sand. The problems were that some of them were isolated, which means eating in the only one restaurant associated with the huts - and sometimes they jack up the price because, well, there is no alternative. So the idea of renting a motorbike comes to mind. If you talk to tourists, some will tell you that it is perfectly safe. Most tourists seem to have one. And most ride around without a helmet.
As appealing as it sounds - and it is cheap - I am going to write a little story here - it is what I have seen. I am going to tell the truth and leave it up to travellers to make their own decision. I have ridden one around. Yes, it can be okay. But: As some of you know, as I write, I am on the sand - sitting on the balcony as the suns rises. Okay, it has risen. But it's seven in the morning and the heat is just starting to make itself known.
Here is what I have seen in the nine weeks on this island and a little of what I have seen in 13 years on islands. The tourists come and go. I talk to them. I see them come and go. I hear their stories. Here is what I have heard.
A group of Australians - two sisters, a brother and the brother's girlfriend. They rented motorbikes and got around on them. The girlfriend wasn't cut out to stay in a hut on the sand. She was a five star gal. But the guy was in love with her. The two sisters loved the huts and couldn't stand her. Well, she was pretty and the two sisters were somewhat aged and plump and well just a couple of good people. I sometimes thought there was a little jealousy involved. I do not know. But I am a hut person. One day they came back without the girlfriend. She hit a car and was in the hospital. She cut her knee deep enough that the blood was pumping out. The guy was running around trying to arrange insurance and trying to move her from the private (see pirate) hospital that the ambulance took her to, to a cheaper government hospital. The girl had had an organ transplant a couple of years before and her immune system was weak, so there was the concern of infection. She had to go home. Her boyfriend arranged a ticket, using my internet connection.

The bad part of the story: the hospital charge 3000 dollars for the operation and like I think she was in the hospital for all of two days. The insurance wouldn't cover it because she didn't have a licence and she wasn't wearing a helmut. READ FINE PRINT HERE. The airline couldn't fly her home on economy so he had to upgrade to business class. When she arrived in Australia she was told she had to pay 1500 hundred bucks more - she had to have her leg up- that's why she couldn't fly economy. Anyway the trip got expensive fast. I hope she is okay.

Yesterday I saw a Russian guy on the beach. His wife sent me some foxy Russian girls over to study English, so I follow their story a bit. About ten days ago the wife had an abrasion on her neck - she told me that late at night on Chaweng Beach - the main nightlife spot - that a Thai guy grabbed her purse and ripped it off her neck while she was riding a motorbike. I have heard this story before on another island. That one had a different ending. Two Thai guys tried to ride buy and steal a tourist's backpack - the tourist ripped back his backpack and the two Thai thieves were on the street. Happy ending perhaps. But the Russian lady lost her purse and sprained and abraded her neck, and they were lucky they didn't crash. She came to the beach a few times after that and I could see that her neck hurt. Then a week later her husband crashed the bike at night - maybe drinking, I don't know, and drinking is not the only motorbike related problem - there are just two many crazy drivers passing in the opposite lane. Sober people end up dead. I finally saw the husband yesterday. He broke his nose and has multiple abrasions and a foot wrapped in a bandage. His big toe has a little cast on it. Before I got here the girl I was going to visit wrapped up her motorbike in a pot hole at night. So, that's the story. Have a thought. I won't go into it other than to say - late late night and motorbike is not a good story. No helmut is not good story. And for me - I don't ride them, but that is me. I like the day time. I am not a big bar nightlife person on the beach and when I want to do that I will walk down the beach and walk back. The problem is that not all beaches have a lot of nightlife. And I could use some bar scene after nine weeks on a fairly remote beach - maybe I will stay on Chaweng Beach for a day or two and walk around - by the way a lot of tourists who have never ridden a bike take advantage of the islands to rent one - an island in a foreign country where people drive on the opposite side of the road (if your from America), is not the perfect place to learn how to ride a motorbike...

My story: Way way back I went to White Sands Beach with a Thai girl. I had just come to Thailand for a vacation. I had a colleague in Japan who participated in hill riding in Thailand. The idea was to get to the top of a muddy hill - he shattered his femer, went back to Japan, where they put a rod into his bones. In fact, he had to have the operation twice because they botched the first one. When I saw him he was hobbling with a cane.
I rode a minibike a lot as a kid. The Thai girl thought we should rent a bike (they all will). I told her I wasn't keen on the idea. I hadn't ridden anything other than a little minibike and that had been a long time ago. Anyway, we are up on the main street and I am trying to get started on the moped. She is standing at the side of the rode. I reach for the break and accidentally twist the throttle and I take off like a rocket. I am on the wrong side of the rode going the wrong way. I barely miss the first parked car on the rode in front of me. I kick the other one with my foot while trying to stop the missile I am on. Then I make a sharp left and I end up - just as I finally grab the break - inside a stall on the other side of the street - I mean INSIDE the open shop. I surprised a lady in there and was shocked myself. As I was shooting across the street, through the corner of my eye, I saw cars coming...
Let me cap off the blog by saying that for a few years I rode a Fino in Chonburi with a girlfriend. We used it to go to school and shop. The rodes were wide open and rural and it was beautiful and somewhat safer, but I still always had the feeling that it was impossible to be really safe. Part of it is riding on the side of the rode, outside the main traffic. It was fun though. But at the same time I felt that I missed the walking I used to do when I took a truck to school and walked inside the campus etc. It took out a part of healthy living.

That's it for now- from myislandofsand.com

The Thais are Fond of Reggae, and so am I

I will put popular Reggae music here. Please click through to see content.

Teaching English in Thailand

I have taught at a variety of schools in Thailand, and at all levels. I travelled a lot when I first came here (and spent a lot of money) and I taught part-time for a bit initially. There is some variation in schools, in the quality of the students, in the salary and in the conditions. There are thousands of jobs at the base salary and some good jobs. If you've never taught before you might expect to start at the bottom, but it doesn't have to work that way. It certainly helps to have a one year contract completed in Thailand- it shows the school that you made it through a year, and if you have a reference you can use it.
If you are a teacher with all the credentials you can disregard the above and start looking for salaries way above the base range. I completed about half of a masters in education but am not credentialed formally - but 30 years of teaching has taught me a lot. Most of what I discuss is aimed towards people who want to teach a language here - it does not have to be English, but by far most of the jobs are in teaching English. They also learn Chinese, Japanese and French to lesser extents but these areas are growing. If your like most teachers here you will have a four year degree - if it is in English it will be a plus, but it isn't necessary. There are many teachers here without a degree - the lucky ones who look around can even get a good job - but it complicates the work permit issue because formally a college degree is required.
I don't want to commercialise my lens too much (it already leans that way and i will change that as soon as my dotcom page is up), but for now i will add that i have spent hours analysing the want ads and years in schools and i can consult on it for people who are seriously considering a stint teaching here. I use Paypal: jack.islandofsand@gmail / if you send $15.00 I will chat on skype or on another venue and give you the benefit of 13 years of experience so that you don't have to learn from scratch. I will leave it at that. The picture is a picture of some students learning English with yours truly. Click on the photo to view some photos on Fine Art America - Sunrises and Samui Island plus some. By the way the bandana probably won't win you points with the Thai administration - more about that with consultation - hey, I like to wear it on occasion.