In Thailand, a bpai tiao is a trip of any length. I’ve written about some of my more significant bpai tiaos to tourist destinations here, to be used as travel ideas and tips.
A couple months ago, my co-teacher asked me if I wanted to join her and some other teachers on a trip to Koh Kut, an island near Koh Mak along the Eastern seaboard and near Cambodia. Feeling like I hadn’t spent much time with her, and thinking that this would be a great opportunity for me to bond with some other teachers, I smiled and said, “Yes, that sounds like a lot of fun!” Flash forward to last week, and the day of the trip had arrived – it was time for a fully Thai-style bpai tiao.
Prior to this, I had only really been on two major, Thai organized trips – the school field trips to Chonburi and Korat last school year. But, from those experiences I knew to expect a couple things and prepared myself accordingly.
The bus ride was going to be happening at night, so wear comfy clothes and bring things to be comfortable sleeping on the bus. This bus is also going to be a karaoke bus, so bring ear plugs and headphones. There are going to be a lot of pictures taken, so make sure your hair is looking good.
Wedneday
It the day the trip is going to start, and at lunch I ask my co-teacher when is the bus going to leave. She doesn’t know, so she has P’ Ao, who was also coming on the trip, call someone else to find out when the bus will leave. We find out, 9 p.m. is when we are supposed to be at the bus stop and be on our way.
Everyone finds a seat on the bus, I take one in the back corner that doesn’t have a row of seats in front of it so that I have lots of leg room and only one speaker in my general vicinity. Music plays, but it seems that there is a general agreement to rest up and not sing karaoke.
Thursday
The day begins at 6 a.m. when we stop at a road side stop that is made for tour buses. There’s two different eating areas, one cafeteria style and one fancier and restaurant style. The bathroom has lots of stalls, lots of bathrooms and even some shower rooms.
Everyone gets out, brushes their teeth, washes up, puts on make-up and then heads to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. After a bowl of guoi dtiao, noodle soup, I enjoy the sunshine and fresh air.
I also notice a group of men have cracked open a flask of Hong Thong, what Thais call whiskey but is truthfully rum, and have already polished off half of it. The bottle will be empty by the time we get back on the bus. We made it most of the way in the night and are only about two hours from the pier. We get back on the bus and karaoke has begun.
After stopping for gas and snacks from a 7-Eleven, and one last bathroom break, we arrive at the pier. Everyone gets off the bus collects their bags and gathers underneath the awning and away from any kind of sun.
As soon as the bags are set down on the benches, the smart phones and cameras come out. The next 45 minutes are spent taking various group photos, including one with the requisite banner, and selfies as we wait for the ferry to arrive.
As soon as the ferry arrives, everyone crowds around the single file plank to get on the boat, with everyone jockeying for a position. I hang back and just let everyone do their thing and kind of attempt to follow a line or an order.
On the boat, once again, the cameras and smart phones are out and again trained on the passengers. Phones are held up in outstretched arms and maneuvered so that everyone can be included in the picture.
A little more than an hour later, around noon, we arrive at the island and get into song taeows, pick-up trucks with a cover and two benches installed in the bed, and are taken to the resort.
The room situation is figured out and then it’s time to “have a look around.” We get back in the song taeows and go to Khao Chong waterfall and a little strip of beach that has the softest sand I’ve felt yet in Thailand.
Of course, each place involved taking more group pictures in various arrangements and selfies. Some people were brave enough to play in the water and jumped right on in, Thai-style, fully-clothed.
After arriving back at the resort, everyone gets ready for dinner. Lots of beautiful seafood is served, some local students were called in to perform a dance and pipet ensemble.
Then there was karaoke, during which the word that I could sing the Thai mega-hit Kor Jai Tur Laek Bur Toh, quickly spread and I was put on the list to sing, which was a big success.
Later in the evening, there was a mock pageant. I wasn’t entirely sure what was happening when I was told by P’ Ao to go up and represent our school, and by the time I figured it out, I had been crowned Miss Kaengsanamnang, including a tiara, sash, t-shirt and keychain as my winnings.
Not to long later, I retired for the evening and the karaoke continued on into the night.
Friday
Ning, P’ Ao and I wake up and get ready for breakfast at 8. In that time, it starts to rain, calling the plans to go see the fisherman into question. We wait around for a while and the drizzle stops and a bunch of the women want to go and find a wooden pier that stretches out into the ocean to, you guessed it, take pictures on.
They think they know of one at another resort and ask the driver to take us there. The driver says he has a better idea and so we again pile into the song taeows and take off. We stop at a viewpoint that over looks a cover with a fishing village, our first destination.
This place doesn’t quite have the pier the ladies had in mind, but they stage a photoshoot anyway. Some of us continue down one of the walkways and watch as a boat transfers some of its catch to another boat.
We get back in the truck and we’re off again, we pass the turn off for our resort and head to another one. Our driver knew exactly what the women had in mind and took us to another resort, one that is pretty exclusively patronized by international tourists and so was closed at the time (being the off-season).
This resort had exactly what they had in mind: a picturesque wooden pier, like what you would see in a music video (as described by P’ Ao), plus a swing! Just the right place for their last photoshoot on the island.
Everyone got as many pictures and poses as they could in our 15 minutes there before we headed back for lunch and departure. We were on the boat by 1 p.m. and back at the mainland by 2:15. This time there is no stopping for pictures at the pier or on the boat.
On the bus once again and the karaoke has started once again. We make a brief stop for bathroom and snacks at the same place we stopped before and later stop at a road side store to stock up on fruit and fruit products.
No Thai person can travel through Chantaburi and not pick up some fruit products to take home to share. Even I picked up some durian chips and mangosteen candies.
We get back on the bus, where the karaoke continues for the next nine hours. We stop around 8 p.m. for some dinner and I arrange to get off the bus in Korat, around 11:30 p.m., so I can finish my weekend in Khon Kaen. I’m sure the singing lasted until they arrive back home, likely around 1 a.m.
Over all, I truly had a lot of fun on this trip. Many volunteers complain about karaoke buses, and usually I do as well. But I was prepared this time and whenever I started to feel my mood dip, I looked around at all the people I was traveling with and saw how happy they were and how much they were enjoying these things and it made me smile and just take it all in.