Tag: pictures

Getting around in Thailand hasn’t proved to be as much of a challenge as one would think it could be.  Since arriving here I’ve managed to take every conceivable mode of transport available.  I’ve taken trains, cabs, moto-taxis, bicycles, boats, buses, canal boats*, tuk-tuk, elephants, and my favorite bi-ped.

This will be my last post from Thailand for at least a month and a half, the plan at the moment is to spend about a week or a week and half in Cambodia and a month in Vietnam followed by a few weeks in Laos (gotta see the plain of jars.)

My impression of Thailand has changed since first blush quite considerably.  I enjoy Bangkok now that I know how to deal with it appropriately and I tend to take it in small bites otherwise it’s easy to get overwhelmed by it all.  It was fairly naive to have the impression that the smiles given here have nothing behind them, what I didn’t think about is that capitalism lies behind the smiles.  Everything here revolves around money in some form or another.  It is still a developing country so this attitude has to be understood to make it bearable, otherwise I’d feel taken advantage of at every corner. That being said I still plan on coming back here for a few more weeks at the tail end of SE. Asia and give the wwoofing here a shot to see how that goes.

*canal boats are a frenetic little boats that fly along the canal that crosses through the middle of Bangkok.  Used mostly by the locals I’m typically the only falang (foreigner) on the boat. They stop for fractions of a second at each pier where people disembark and embark at a pace rarely seen.  I stood confused the first time I got to the pier until the attendant hastily pointed a finger at a spot on the boat.  After that it’s an invaluable  resource for me to get around the city, since 99% of the rest of the time gridlock grinds the city to a halt.

I added 5 pictures a few days ago, notably of a me and a tiger.

Current Location: Bangkok, Thailand

I sit and stare at the crystal blue water and think I’ve failed to find any of the true Thailand.  I’ve seen temples and historical places and met a few people here and there, but I have the nagging suspicion I took the easy way out most of the time and haven’t experienced the true Thailand.  After being here a little over a month now I feel I know little more than I did before I got here with regard to Thai culture.  I’m not sure exactly how to remedy this for the remainder of South East Asia but it’s something to ponder on for the next few weeks.

At the same time It’s hard not to become more cynical towards a lot of the interactions here because of the tout culture.  I’ve come to realize that any information that comes to me unasked for is a lie and to believe the complete opposite of whats told to me.  A good example of this is at the Cambodian border where I was told countless times that if I left the border that day I wouldn’t be able to return the same day, of course this was completely unfounded and was able to return with no problems.  I realize they are just doing their job but from my perspective it gets very tiring to be on guard 24/7.  I keep reminding myself to have faith in humanity and that they are just doing a job, but it’s hard to remember that after being lied to for the millionth time.

I spent a few days on Koh Phi Phi island, famous for several reasons.  One was that it was devastated by a tsunami shortly after Christmas in 2004.  Any signs of the tsunami are far removed from what I can gather. The guidebooks say that rebuilding has been done to survive another tsunami but I find that hard to see as most of the structures look to be built with the same half-hazard construction I’m used to seeing.  The other reason is it’s where the film “The Ocean” was set, something I neglected to watch or read before getting here.  We went around on a longtail one day to see all the “pristine, deserted” beaches.  I wouldn’t go so far as to call them deserted as each one was flooded with longtails disgorging their passengers but they do manage to keep the beaches clean which made for some stunning beaches.  Pictures can’t do the blues justice, it’s a shifting kaleidoscope of blues.  It was fun to sit on the veranda and just look out into infinite blue.

Another long bus ride and I’m back in Bangkok figuring out what happens next.

Added a few pictures yesterday.

Current Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Imagine walking around in a sauna all day that is turned on to low, that is about the best description I can give regarding the heat and humidity here in Thailand.  I’m not sure I am completely used to it yet but it’s something I am slowly accepting as a fact here.  This usually leads to me hiding in the mall for lunch as they are usually air conditioned, actually I’ll hide in any building given the choice of air conditioning or even  a fan at times.

I’m liking Chiang Mai for several reasons one of which is the touts here are of a different breed than those that exist in Bangkok.  I like to paint the picture that the touts in Bangkok are like running into a wall over and over again, but in this case it’s the wall that incessantly runs up against you.  They eventually break you down and you succumb to their pitch.  Here in Chiang Mai I can actually walk down the street without being bothered by anyone, a great way to learn the city.

I originally wanted to head south from Bangkok and work my way back north on over to Cambodia and Laos but ended up coming up north to Chiang Mai for the Loi Krathong festival (festival of lights) which I heard about in Bangkok and decided to check it out.  While here I’ve sort of found the sense of urgency that my time here is very limited.  I’ve done a cooking course, ridden an elephant, fed monks, and seen loads of temples along with going to the festival.  It’s been a pretty long week but fairly amazing what I’ve seen and done.

The elephant riding took me a while to get over mentally, but I rationalized it away with saying that I rode a horse with no qualms so why should this be any different.  I couldn’t see an elephant having a hard time getting around with me on it’s back.  It turned out to be loads of fun and the group I was with for the day all had an amazing time with the guides and elephants.  We learned 3 different ways of mounting an elephant as a mahout would, took them to wash them down in the river and played in the mud with them, not a very stressful day for the elephants I’m thinking.  I have something like 480 pictures from that day alone so sorting through them will be a bit tough, hopefully I can get to it sometime in the next few days.

The cooking course was also amazing, for the price of what I would pay in Hawaii for dinner at a thai restaurant I learned to make my 5 favorite dishes (green curry, pad thai, mango sticky rice, papaya salad, and coconut seafood soup) and they all turned out amazing.  We got cookbooks as well listing about 30 different things we could have learned so hopefully I can master them all.

The festival itself is the second largest festival in Thailand next to their new years celebration and Chiang Mai turns out to be a really popular place to celebrate it.  It’s utter chaos on the streets starting at about 7pm with fireworks going off literally everywhere.  And I’m not just talking sparklers, everything that you can imagine going off is happening all around you with little regard for who is around, it’s really quite unnerving to have aerials going off little more than 2 feet away from you.  The celebration is basically to ask forgiveness from the water god of the sins they had committed through the year and to ask for blessings.  We made our own krathong here at the hostel and set them off down the river so hopefully my sins will be forgiven.

As much as I’ve liked Chiang Mai it’s time to move on, the plan is to take a bus to Ko Tao (turtle island) in the south to learn to scuba dive.  I think the bus ride is something like 20 hours, which I am not looking forward to but it’s the cheapest way to do it.  For 1200 baht a 20 hour bus ride is cheap as chips.

edit: I found some time on my hands and sorted through some pictures.

I haven’t moved from Bangkok yet for reasons I’m not entirely sure of. I think one good possibility is that while in New Zealand I became accustomed to staying in one place for long periods of time (about 1 month.) The only problem with that here in Thailand is that I only have one month I’m allowed to be in the country before having to move on, this is mostly due to the fact that I planned my trip into Thailand poorly and didn’t apply for the 2 month visa which I wanted to do.  The good thing is I will probably come back to Thailand since it is a major airport hub which would mean it’s cheaper to fly out of here than elsewhere.

The nickname for Thailand is the Land of Smiles in case you were wondering, often abbreviated as LOS when reading about it online.  At first I thought it was some sort of marketing for Thailand and didn’t really believe it but since getting here I have come to see why it’s called the land of smiles.  I don’t think you’ll find service like this anywhere else in the world and such genuinely happy people.  A good example of that is the person who might be opening a door for you to a mall or a hotel, they look really happy to be of service you can’t help but smile with them.  When I look into the eyes of these people I see actual mirth behind them, it’s quite infectious.

I went on what will probably be my one and only tuk-tuk ride the other day, it turned out to be a practice in patience.  I went to two tailors, one travel company, and one jewelry shop mixed in with loads of more Temples (wat) and all I really wanted to see was the Palace.  I knew it was going to happen this way and I figure everyone that comes to Thailand has to at least do it once so it was an experience.

I decided to get out of here on up to Chiang Mai by train tonight, 14hrs on a train when I hear you can do it 6 hours shorter by bus but I figured it would be kinda neat to go by train at least once, and it comes with a bed.