I had to put it down I was a little disappointed in the sequel but free book if you find it totally recommend shantam it’s like an epic novel but a true story incredibly powerful Gregory David Roberts then I found two other books there I think one was called steeped in history and the other one was called the horse boy so I already mentioned the horse boy in a previous video but just to mention again because it is so powerful the horse boy was written by a guy who takes his son to Mongolia to explore the shamanic culture there because his son has autism and he believes that shamanism has some potential to help him to heal and it’s just both heartwarming and also heartbreaking you know to read about the struggles that this family goes through trying to help their son who is you know really not doing well until they take this trip and then they have some remarkable experiences and just it is such a powerful story it actually made me cry at the end and then steeped in history which is the other book that I found at a different free book library and I forget the name of the author but that book just I do wanna mention because I don’t know it’s uh it’s a mind-opening book for me because I really like history and I didn’t know half of what was in that book about a lot of different historical subjects around the world it’s nonfiction and it is very powerful as well so I do recommend all three of those books to you and so that’s the end of the library segment of this video and I think that I’m going to wrap up this segment there I might go on to other subjects or I might just end it here by the time I get to my motorbike and I guess that’s about it for now I’m going to save my coad Island trip for another video I did make an attempt to get over there with my motorbike but uh it didn’t quite work out and so I think that’ll be another video thanks for watching and take it easy
Watch the video by Gabriel Traveler
This is copam Thailand [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Two Hey there good afternoon it is just a little bit past 12:00 noon January 6th the usual hot and humid here on cop payam Island Thailand in the Andaman sea near the town of ranong and Myanmar to the Northwest so a Yi Beach and Bay is right up ahead
My motorbike is parked about a kilometer that way I’m going to walk over there and uh get cruising I was considering whether or not to film a video today obviously I decided to go ahead with it my last day here on the island I still haven’t decided my plans
As far as whether I’m going to visit the nearby coang Island more about that a little later but uh I saw this uh little Bungalow Resort look interesting and decided to uh start a video here going The Bungalow and cool restaurant and there’s another one right next to it rosta
Something now there’s a bit more of a reason why I decided to go ahead and film today and also to start the video right here because I’m pretty sure that uh where I stayed the last time that I was here way back in 2008 16 years ago was somewhere along
Here so you have the rosta baby bar tonson Bungalow is where I started the video and then frog beach house so these are all different places that you can stay and I guess you can access them from that little path but there is the main road so to
Speak just down that way which I’m going to walk too and then many more Bungalows along here so I have no idea if the place that I stayed the last time is still here or not none of the places here quite look familiar to me it was a classic very
Simple beach hut for very cheap I kind of recall it was maybe 150 bot which is like $5 now I’m paying more than 30 bucks for a bungalow that isn’t even right on the beach so no idea how much they are here but uh times have changed in the past 16 years
So the other reason that I decided to start the video right there is because well because I stayed here and also I found a good book there and so that’s what I’m going to start off talking about in this video as I walk along the beach here
So I have been an Avid Reader throughout much of my life but not recently I am actually traveling with three books fortunately that aren’t that uh thick and heavy but uh on this trip and have barely read any of them one is called the science of sleep
I haven’t read a page of that one another one is a Paulo Coello book manuscript found in Acra I think it is which I’ve read just a little bit of and then another one now I forget uh what that one is called which I mentioned previously I started reading
It and then months later went back and started it over and then haven’t read that in months and so I just don’t have time for reading I am very busy with the videos and all the travel planning Etc but uh before YouTube then I had a
Heck of a lot more spare time on my hands while traveling YouTube didn’t really become such a focus of my travels until around you know 2012 2013 that 3mon India trip and I will point out again here we have this just incredible scene of all the uh crab holes and the little balls
Created by the crabs digging out their tunnels in one little ball at a time and then you end up with like these designs almost it’s just really quite mindboggling when you look at the beach how big it is and see all the dark area versus the lighter area and the entire
Dark area is all covered in these tiny little balls I almost feel kind of bad walking along here ruining their hard work but but uh that is most of the beach so that’s the way it goes so when I was here in 2008 then I Saed that this uh cool beach hut
Bungalow place I forget how long 4 or 5 days something like that but uh they had a library just a bookshelf with uh books and it was a you know leave a book take a book kind of a thing and I found on that book shelf shantam by Gregory David
Roberts which is one of my all-time favorite books and then there were two other books that I read on that uh trip and so I thought that I would mention and recommend these books because they were all just phenomenal I forget if I found the other two there
Maybe maybe one of them but uh the other two books I also found at uh Free Library bookshelves so shantam is kind of a true story autobiographical by Gregory David Roberts I’m not going to like you know tell the whole book and ruin it for you
But just to give the general idea of the book he is an Australian drug addict and he Robs a convenience store at gunpoint in Australia and gets busted gets put into prison he manages to escape the prison and flee to India where he then embarks on this whole crazy crazy
Journey of getting involved in the underground Mafia of Mumbai India goes on more drug Rampages becomes this kind of international Man of Mystery you could say in which uh he has like multiple passports and he’s going around uh doing all this stuff associated with the uh Mafia business and gets involved in the
War in Afghanistan in the’80s Russia trying to take over Afghanistan or the Soviet Union Etc really really amazing book it is like 8 or 900 pages I got totally wrapped into that and was sad when it was done I have since tried the sequel what is it called the something
Mountain and it hasn’t grabbed me the same way and I haven’t finished that one so the uh second book is one of the alltime most insane stories you will ever read also probably true so shantam is based on his life but he keeps it very vague as to what exactly
Is true and what is fictionalized this book The Secret Hunters by ranal fines not to be confused with Ray fines the actor ranel finds is a professional explorer who was voted by some organization as being the greatest living Explorer he is still alive British guy so renold finds is on an expedition to
Antarctica and they stop at this Supply shed that I believe was on the Antarctic continent or an island right next to it something like that and I guess it’s a place where you can stop and you can access I don’t know if it’s for emergencies or what but anyways they
Access this uh shed and inside the shed he finds a manuscript the most random thing a book you know written out or typed out or whatever looks at it and he like whoo What the heck is this doing here and then he just like puts it somewhere
Takes it back home puts it on a bookshelf and then like 2 years later he finally gets around to picking up the manuscript again and taking a look and he starts reading it and is blown away by the insanity of this story basically it tells the story of how the manuscript
Ended up in Antarctica and uh whether or not it’s true is unverified so he edited the manuscript and then published it as a book as a work of fiction because all of the characters and everything are I guess not identified he doesn’t know at all who this person was
But as for what the story is about so the SEC Hunters refers to an underground organization that is dedicated to Bringing to Justice Nazi war criminals so the secret Hunters they’re secretly hunting for Nazis that escaped prosecution and so the scope of the book covers World War II and then various
Other events because the author the supposed author lives later in like maybe the ‘ 80s or ’90s or something and what happens is just so crazy in terms of the entire story and then how this manuscript ends up in a storage shed in Antarctica is just the
Ultimate climax to the book so I don’t want to give this one away at all but uh check it out the secret Hunters by rold findes just phenomenal and then the third book that I read on that same trip is called Dove and I forget who the
Author is of that I will put it down below but uh it is the story of a young man who sails around the world so I will keep that one short I mean that’s basically it great book you know full-on adventure story not as you know mind-blowing as the other two but
Uh I’ve had that association with kayam you know ever since finding those books and being grateful that I happened to come across especially shantam and the secret Hunters so uh anyways where is my motorbike I forget if it’s further that way this might be the spot right here I think so the end
Of the main road so one of the reasons why I decided to go ahead and film today is because when I uh filmed the video yesterday then I tried to go to Al Quang pee beach hiking and as I showed in that video then I ended up at this really funky
Construction zone near the water but I think that there was a uh much nicer Beach the other way that I didn’t walk and so I figured I should go explore that way and see if that beach is a nice one I’m also going to end up back at
Uh my favorite Beach on the island and take another swim all right the motorbike is up ahead here we go my last day on Lovely cop payam so I also wanted to clarify a couple of things that I’d said in previous videos so my hotel is to the right just a
Minute now I’m not certain but I think that that road or perhaps another one actually goes through to that other road that I was on in the first video when I arrived and realized that i’ gone down the wrong road it is a road parallel to this one that accesses the same
Beach but then once I realized I was on the wrong road Google Maps was directing me to go all the way back to the other main road which was you know like 10 minutes out of the way and then come back down this road here that I’m
On but I might have just been able to cut across and save myself about 15 minutes of driving so and then the other thing that I wanted to mention is that uh I am now less certain about what the situation is on neighboring coang Island so previously I had said there
Were no roads no motor vehicles I’m pretty certain that that was the case years ago including when I was here in 2008 and then yesterday when I spoke with uh somebody at a tourist office inquiring about cooch then it sounded like there were in fact roads there now
That had been added in recent years but then I looked on Google Maps and it shows a road but just one short road that doesn’t go to the beach on either side it’s like right in the middle of the islands just going maybe a kilometer or something but it doesn’t connect the
Coasts at all so now I’m kind of even more confused about what the situation is there so if I go there then I will of course find out I will make up my mind about that sometime today or maybe even just tomorrow morning there are kind of pros and cons of uh stopping
There all right going to do the drive I think to out Cai and take a swim get some lunch and then go explore the other Beach a Quang pee so I’m back at the lovely alow Quai [Applause] Beach and nice and sunny today I am going to uh swim some laps in the
Water work up an appetite and then people had recommended the hippie bar which might be that one right there so I will head over there check it out for lunch oh man I am so looking forward to getting in that water and so another thing that I wanted
To clarify was uh in the last video I was talking about how I prefer this beach to the one that I’m staying on a y I like that AOW Quai here has just a little bit of a slope and so it gets deeper quicker and so it’s easier to get
In the water without having to like Walk and Walk and Walk and then it is narrower and so it has less of that sort of just too big feeling of you know feeling like you’re in a massive parking lot on the beach or whatever and then I said that uh it was
A smaller Bay which it kind of feels like it here because of that uh you know more severe curve there but you can see it keeps going and going that way so it’s actually about the same size as Ai and maybe even a little bit bigger so I’m really curious about uh
What’s out at that point out there that would be a fun uh walk along the beach the whole way but a long one you must be able to access it by a road with a motorbike somehow so we’ll see how the day goes but maybe I will uh take a side
Road check that out over there all right time to jump in that lovely looking water had a nice swim there it is just such a perfect afternoon here nice and warm but a little bit of a breeze so uh just swam for 15 20 minutes or something and then did some sort of
Yoga exercises on the beach for a little bit now definitely ready for some lunch and a drink so I wanted to mention another random sort of random topic here which is spiders so some of you will remember I encountered some spiders in my room back in India in the Himalayas couple months ago
And War there is insect squishing mentioned in this segment of the video so these were some good siiz spiders like around that big or something in my room in India and I did not want to be living with spiders in the room so twice I squished two of the spiders
Now just wanted to uh mention no I do not like go around killing every bug that I come across there are various little spiders in the corners of my room now in my Bungalow that I’m not bothering and ants I kind of don’t mind there are some pretty big ants like this big
And fortunately they don’t uh bite or bother at all so I haven’t been worrying about those guys but there are more big SP here even bigger and I have been squishing them so the first one that I saw was inside my room as I came in and something kind of bizarre
Happened when I tried to uh get it so I just saw one of the big crabs go into that bigger hole there here you have the same phenomenon with the little balls but uh different style they’re more spread out they’re just less of them not sure if they’re the same crabs
Probably similar sized holes and then some uh bigger holes so I’m not sure if this is the hippie bar I’m assuming so because it is freaking awesome so uh I’m going to finish telling the story here and then come back here and get a look inside there wow it is
Wild so I come into my room and right away see a spider on the side of the bed it’s like a wooden frame that goes all the way down to the ground and so I especially want to get those spiders that are big ones that
Are you know right there near my bed or whatever and I had my shorts in my hand this guy was moving fast it stopped around the corner of the bed I took my shorts I went to swat it and then when I drew the shorts away it was
Gone completely disappeared here I never saw it again unless it was the same one that I saw later like I think hours later I don’t know what the heck happened to it if it maybe grabbed on the shorts and then jumped off when I pulled them away and I didn’t see it or
Something it was kind of strange but uh anyways later I saw it again and or maybe another one inside my room on the wall grabbed my sandal got it and and then it happened once again about the same size it was about the same size as the ones that I saw in uh
India definitely a different kind so I got two of them inside my room there and then last night middle of the night I go into the bathroom open the door and there is one on the floor right in front of the toilet and this one was
Even bigger not quite the size of my hand but getting close and I got a video of it I uh grabbed my camera which was right there on the table next to the door going into the bathroom just took a few seconds of a shot because I didn’t want
To scare it off because these guys move fast I wanted to make sure and get it especially this one man it was just so big and so the way that I got this one was I I stopped filming I put the camera on the table also on the table was my
Journal I grabbed my journal aimed looked at it and then I just did like a drop with the book just like K plunk and Bam right on it hit it dead instantly so I got nothing against spiders personally I know they’re just living their lives trying to survive
But uh I don’t want to live with spiders that big just hanging right around where I’m trying to relax and sleep and everything I’m sure they’re probably harmless but I don’t know I mean maybe they’re maybe they’re venomous but uh you know most spiders aren’t venomous and it’s actually usually the smaller
Ones that are more dangerous butth anyways there you go not surprising to find spiders in tropical jungle Paradise of course all right let’s go take a look at this cool Place Who this place is Wild what a work of art o that looks like a good SP to sit down let me grab It holding them eny is this hippie bar yeah great do you make Mojito uh yes one moreo please thank You well thanks for the recommendation guys I wouldn’t have known about this otherwise I’d seen the ship and was intrigued but hadn’t gotten around to uh checking it out Before and there’s another level You Whoa it’s huge man there’s so much to it all these secret little spots another bar All right all right all right what a cool place there we go things are happening mojito accomplished food is on the way let’s give it a Try oh yeah that’s a really good One so I have here panang curry with pork and mixed Seafood sweet and sour sauce with some vegetables and steamed [Applause] rice All so I’m back at almost the end of the road but not quite so yesterday I hiked up there didn’t find anything too interesting and then hike down here also didn’t find anything too interesting but there was another way to go and as I showed it seems to be motor bikable so
Let’s give it a try here try to get to Al Quang pee you can see dir path and then here mysteriously it turns into a cement path I went to the left here yesterday so going to the right and hoping this gets to a nicer Beach or something okay maybe this
Is a good spot to park the bike can see the uh sea out there going Barefoot for now my feet are definitely not really that toughened up but uh try to get down there okay so I am seeing what looks like quite a nice Beach down there so I think this is
Going to be worth coming back to oh yeah this is looking really good snorkeling whatever that says something Bay Resort old signs looks like a resort that was in better shape at another time probably around the same time that those signs were Created totally derelict now chairs piled up I wonder if because of Co I wonder if they had to shut down because of Co and it’s never fully come back and so this more far-flung Area hasn’t been uh revitalized since the pandemic maybe in the coming years with the help of this video and my other ones and other people realizing this is an amazing Island then it will uh come back here but uh for now it is definitely really quite uh
Neglected but a nice spot oh yeah [Applause] oh man this is Ultimate if only the uh things were more cleaned up here a great uh secluded beach water looks lovely so what are we looking at out there it’s got to be Myanmar I guess okay last stop of the day let’s go check out the peninsula at the far end
Of the aaai Beach so this is the road going to a y Beach and my Bungalows looks like this is going to go along that Peninsula to some extent it says they’re beautiful Rock by the beach so that sounds nice let’s go take a look another area of this island to explore
That I didn’t know anything about before copays sea Arch what the heck is that I haven’t heard about that okay let’s go see the sea Arch there is the sea and I think this is going to be again uh ala Quai but the other end
Of it you are here there we go the red we’re actually kind of in the middle still it is a big Bay oh I see the arch nice wow very cool surprise this island has so much more than I realized from the last time that I was here when I didn’t have a
Motorbike so I didn’t see nearly as much of it there is the Arch nice one quite small but uh cute B so that is the end of the peninsula let’s continue down the other road to the end it is very close see what’s There very oddl looking thing here I guess an oven nice resort there we you must be almost to the end of the road or maybe not this little island just keeps going and going and what is this kind of neglected Resort it looks like not yet the end okay looks like this
Is sort of the end but then sort of continuing I guess that’s sand up ahead all right let’s go walk up there so we have lots of sand but no beach I cannot see the sea from here maybe it’s right over other side of those trees and there’s the water
It looks a little Mangrove like as far as I can tell some trees in the water so where does this go on the map it showed a village yeah definitely uh like Mangrove kind of or maybe exactly Mangrove huh another shell of a building I keep seeing
These beginnings of a building and then it’s not clear let’s deal with it okay well this path keeps on going but uh I’m kind of done for the day I don’t have too much hope there’s going to be anything especially wondrous and fascinating out Here let’s just uh poke around the other corner and then probably call that Done huh somebody got a motorbike out here but no motorbike tracks okay something interesting what the heck it’s like a oh he destroyed Bridge whoa and there’s the village but you can’t get there because of the destroyed Bridge whoa somebody’s saying hello to me hello s cup what a
Trip so what is the story is it unfinished or destroyed by the tsunami that is definitely possible this looks kind of 20 years oldish although these are all kind of stacked up a little more uniform than they should be if they were ripped off of there by a
Tsunami but of course tsunamis do strange things so could be or another storm or just an unfinished project whoa hello hello I guess not too many people make it down here oh they’re like getting in the boat to come get me or something I don’t really want to do that uh
Oh no no no thank you no thank you not really in the mood for uh that whole very oddl looking movie so to speak going to be the only Foreigner there I guess they obviously just get back and forth with the boats very very interesting though they have their own genuinely uh private
Village in part due to the destroyed Bridge so people can’t access the largest gas station in the world huh 20 bot wow okay well ending things on a very interesting note here that is going to do it for today and for cop payam I have to decide to tomorrow
Coang a very short boat ride stay there for a couple of days or get back to the mainland and get across the peninsula over to Chon and then boat to kotow which I will do regardless as I mentioned before my friend Victor is on Copan and so I’m headed over there to visit
Him in the uh next few days but uh we’ll probably make a stop or two along the way so more coming from Thailand see you
Video “A Random Thailand Video Discussing a Bunch of Things” was uploaded on 01/09/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Gabriel Traveler on Gretopia