Local Insanity

Nicole: ‘We are doing pretty well so far - we have taken a bus, the SkyTrain, a tuk-tuk, and almost got arrested.’ Brian: ‘Yeah, and all before noon.’

Flying to Bangkok on a delayed flight and arriving at about 0130, Nicole suggested we find some benches and sleep. I dazedly assented. We found some benches (actually rows of plastic airport chairs) and each got situated on our own rows. After a while it got pretty uncomfortable, so I moved to the floor. The next time I woke up was because it was too cold, and I noticed Nicole had also moved to the floor next to her bench. After that I woke up and the sun was shining. We went to go do immigration and they got confused - our names weren’t on their list. We explained that our flight had arrived about six hours ago and that we’d just slept in the airport. They took us to the office and talked amongst themselves for a minute before asking what we’d been doing. We told them we’d been sleeping. They told us we were supposed to go directly to imigration. We told them we were sorry, but we didn’t know. They said we were lucky security didn’t find us, or we’d probably have been arrested. They then stamped our forms and sent us on our way.

We took a local bus through the morning rush hour traffic to Siam Square, which took about an hour. From there we took the SkyTrain to get to the Myanmar Embassy so that Nicole could get her visa. Now comes the part about backpacks. both of ours were too small to hold stuff for our travels and souveniers, so we decieded to get new ones in bangkok where they’d be cheap. Well, cheaper than the US and Singapore maybe, but not exactly cheap compared to Vietnam. Mine is a Lowe Alpine, medium-sized bag about 80cm in length. It cost me 1800B. The plan is to use it to keep all the extra stuff that won’t fit in my original two bags and then… Nicole’s bag is smaller and cost her 1300B, whereas a comparable one was selling at the North Face store for 2650B. I love haggling.

several hours later

And they’re late, by two hours. Nicole went to go pick up Lora from the airport, and we were supposed to meet at the Siam SkyTrain station at 1615, about 105 minutes after Lora’s flight is supposed to arrive. I don’t even know if Nicole made it to the airport, much less found Lora (oh yeah, this is what it was like to not have a cell phone). I do know that I have Nicole’s passport, so she has to find me.

one hour later

Three hours. Crap. Do I try to find them? How do I get word to them? Do I stay? What if they never show up? The childhood mantra of ’stay where you are’ doesn’t work as well as one gets older.

THEN: S$74.00 Flight from Phuket to Singapore 600B Taxi to Airport 500B Departure tax

And here I thought I was getting a good deal on a flight. ‘Only about 1800B’, I thought, ‘that’s only 700B more than the bus, and that takes 18hr or so.’ Well it really cost me 1800 more than taking the bus, all because of an expensive taxi and, as the LP calls it, a ‘cheeky departure tax’. Other snags today: my taxi was waiting at the wrong place, so I left 30 minutes later than planned, but it just made me nervous, not late. I had to leave my swiss army knife at the counter. On the way back from Vietnam they simply checked it in an envelope, but they wouldn’t do it this time (on Tiger Airways, a subsidiary of Singapore Airways, which I used to fly from Vietnam).

On the plus side, the flight is pretty much empty, and I get to sit in an exit row. Yay for leg room.

NOW: Okay the taxi was because it was too early to take the 200B airport shuttle. The departure tax is annoying, but its pretty standard practice and I DID read about it beforehand, it just slipped my mind. The swiss army knife could have been saved if I’d checked my bag, but I didn’t want to. Besides, it was a cheap knock off I’d bought for S$5.00. So I was really just being grumpy and exaggerating. I don’t want this journal to become a rant, so that’s partly why I included these NOW parts.

THEN: Phuket doesn’t seem to even stretch its legs and brush its teeth until 0900. There are people just setting up shop and it’s already 0915. I guess this is more a reflection of the average traveler here rather than the Thai people. I’m kind of glad to be leaving, in part because of this cold I’m getting, in part because of the ultra-touristy nature of the place, and in part because of the impending final exams. Phuket is nice, but I don’t think I’d come back without a family and cash to burn.

• 43B Internet @ 1B/min
• 170B Brunch (eggs + toast + ham + bacon + tea + juice + pineapple pancake)
• 50B Chair by the beach

As I talk to more and more travelers I’m realizing that it is possible to travel for extended periods of time, optionally using australia as a sort of work hub. It would be really cool to do that with Sarah for a year or so. Maybe life doesn’t have to be as formulaic as I’ve been told. Careers don’t have to start immediately after school, house and car and mortgage and wife and kids can wait. Let’s see what the world has to offer.

• 140B Dinner (garlic pepper pork + banana shake)
• 105B Misc stuff (ice cream + post cards + stamps)
• 168B Snacks (actifed + dried pineapple + lychee drink + ritz)
• 30B Chicken wing
• 300B 1 night @ Merit Hill Bungalows

NOW: Can you tell I missed Sarah? It’s hard seeing lots of couples and families around when your girlfriend is halfway around the world. I am still going to look into the traveling option. I don’t have immediate plans to go to grad school, so it might be cool to do it next year or something. However, that would pretty much exclude Sarah from it. If I want to go with her we may have to wait until after grad school. It’s all up in the air. I’ll see when I get back.

THEN:

• 600B James Bond Island tour
• 100B Souvenir plate

Like most places, in Phuket only the walkers, workers, drivers and dogs are up at 0630. I Tried for 0600, but didn’t really succeed. Sunrise still hasn’t really occurred. Well, it has, just on the other side of the hill. I’ll take sunsets over sunrises though.

• 62B Internet @ 1B/min
• 200B Brunch (club sandwich + garlic bread + vanilla shake)
• 105B Snacks (dried fruit + ice cream + banana bread)

So the James Bond Island tour included the movie which used the island, The Man With the Golden Gun, and was shown on the way there and back on the bus. I think the best part was the boat ride in Phang-Nha bay. The rock formations are awesome, even in the less than optimal light. The island itself is a crowded tourist mess, much like Phuket, and didn’t exactly have what the brochure promised. Oh well. It was still worth it, though it wasn’t as nice as the one in Vietnam for USD7, which included an awesome lunch and fruit. Oh and as I sit here I’m surrounded by white people, an odd feeling. I’m looking forward to Chiang Mai and Laos, maybe I can escape the tourist trap.

• 130B Dinner (pork curry w/rice + banana shake)
• 300B 1 night @ Merit Hill Bungalows

NOW: Phuket really is touristy. What I don’t like about tourists is that they seem to refuse to believe they’re someplace else. They want things to be like home even when they’re away. I guess Phuket sees a lot of people from Sweden and surrounding areas, so there are a number of restaurants with Swedish menus and Swedish food. My own selection of meal that day is not exactly Thai (club sandwich), but I like to think it’s mitigated by the fact that I was sick.

THEN:

• 300B 1 night at Merit Hill Bungalows
• 60B Internet @ 1B/min
• 120B Breakfast (eggs + toast + pineapple juice + tea)

Phuket is a major tourist trap. Like Bangkok, the whites are mostly European, with a dash of Canadian. As I write this I’m sitting on Kata Beach, the furthest one south on the west coast of Phuket. Kata was recommended to me by a couple I met in Surat Thani, and I can see why. It’s more relaxed, more family-oriented (there’s a Club Med), and fewer shops. The problem is that there are too many resorts here. They claim the whole beach and set up their umbrellas and chairs along the whole thing. I think I’ll try for a sunrise swim tomorrow, see if it cuts down on the number of people. In all, Phuket seems nice if you’ve got a family, a sweetheart, and a lot of cash. Thailand has not impressed the cheap bastard within like Vietnam did.

• 40B Lunch at food stall (chicken + pork + rice)

Okay, Kata does have more shopping, it’s just behind the resorts. It also has cheap eats.

• 45B 5L water bottle
• 40B Internet @ 1B/min
• 135B Dinner (sweet and sour prawns w/rice + sprite)
• 600B Souvenirs
• 10B Dessert

NOW: Well there are lots of resorts, and they do ‘claim’ the beach, but it’s still public. I made lots of comparisons aloud and in my head between Thailand and Vietnam, which is quite a bit cheaper.

THEN: Mom said in a recent email that the world seems reluctant to be saved. I can think of few better examples of this than smoking, but maybe that’s because I’ve been saturated by it for the last few days. It seems that everyone abroad smokes, local and foreigner alike - except those from California, but we are few here. Until just now I was sitting in a tour office in Surat Thani.

Now I’ve been packed into yet another minibus, switched over halfway from Bangkok where I boarded a really nice bus. I don’t know if this is what people expect or whether everyone feels as duped as I do.

Enough complaining. It could be worse. At least we have aircon. Thailand has been pretty nice, you just gotta learn to roll with it, just like everywhere else in S.E. Asia.

60B Brunch (sandwich + sprite) 100B Transportation to beach 300B 1 night at Merit Hill Bungalows 62B Internet @ 1B/min 100B Transfer photos from camera to CD 165B Lunch (red curry pork + banana shake) 2100B Various cloth for gifts 140B Dinner 145B Snacks

NOW: So bitter. As I said I’m happier now. I just didn’t follow my rule of ‘don’t expect much’ that I learned from my first trip to Malaysia. It’s much better when you can actually follow that. And, to the credit of this bus company, this minibus wasn’t as bad as the other one.

20B Taffy candy (like Abba Zabba) 25B Orange juice 27B Internet @ 1B/2min 15B Sock rental for Grand Palace free* ride around west Bangkok 200B entrance to Grand Palace 20B entrance to Wat Pho 20B* ride to Siam Square 40B Boba (Milk Tea) 70B ride to train station 40B two bottles of water @ 1.5L/bottle

THEN: Do NOT believe the tuk-tuk drivers or helpful Thais who point you to them and tell you about the surrounding attractions. If they tell you something is closed, even only until 1500, do not believe them, however nice they seem. If money is more valuable than time then you can score a free ride pretty easily by letting them drive you to a silk shop or something, but if you have limited time that’s probably not the case. Reasonable fares are around 40B to 90B, depending on the distance (e.g. Siam Square to Banglamphu for 60B-70B).

NOW: If you can’t get them to go below 100B, just take a metered taxi. I was still pretty upset about the tuk-tuk drivers because I’d fallen for it AGAIN, so I didn’t take the time to write about the cool stuff I’d seen. The Grand Palace is amazing. It is very large and has a lot of neat gold stupas and lots of Buddha figures. Wat Pho has the famous reclining Buddha (if you’ve never seen a picture, think of the song One Night in Bangkok). I took the tuk-tuk again to Siam Square for about 10 minutes just to get that boba. I was craving it.

7000B Suit 20B Donation to temple 800B bus ticket to Phuket @ 1830 15 Nov 300B 2 nights at Bamboo Hotel free* Tuk-tuk around west Bangkok 10B Donation to temple 5B Boat to Siam Square 240B Lunch @ Sizzler’s 30B SkyTrain to Mo Chit 300B Camera bag 30B SkyTrain to Siam Square 40B Boba (Chocolate and Green Tea) 40B 1kg Rambuttan

NOW: So I never got around to writing an entry for today, mostly because I was upset about the tuk-tuk drivers and the suit dealers. It’s the 23rd right now. I’ll explain:

You’ll see in the next entry, but tuk-tuk drivers are notorious for not driving you where you want to go without driving you to a suit shop or export center first. To quote the LP:

“More obvious [than the gem scams] are the tuk-tuk drivers who are out to make a commission by dragging you to a local silk or jewelry shop, even though you’ve requested an entirely different destination. In either case, if you accept an invitation for ‘free’ sightseeing or shopping, you’re quite likely to end up wasting an afternoon or - as happens all too often - losing a lot of money.”

How true. I didn’t lose a lot of money on some scam, but I did get sort of conned into buying a suit for probably 60% more than I ought to have paid. Live and learn I suppose. Despite this I did see some cool temples and a really tall standing Buddha. The purists reading this (if there are any) would scoff at my choice of eating establishments for lunch, but to them I say that when you’re feeling cheated it makes you feel like going someplace safe, and they had a salad bar, which I used quite a bit. I think I got my money’s worth on that one. Another purchase I don’t regret is the camera bag. It’s been quite nice and was a glaring omission up ’till now. I bought it up in Mo Chit at a weekend market that my (ahem) helpful tuk-tuk driver told me about.

40B Lunch 20B Water bottle 25B Dinner 60B Midnight snack 11B Internet access @ 1B / 2min

THEN: We arrived at the Thailand border around 0530, and immigration took about an hour. A little while later we arrived in Hat Yai, where we were told to get off the bus and wait for the one going to bangkok. There were four of us going: me, an Indonesian couple and their five year-old daughter named Sarah. After waiting about 20 minutes we were told the bus would come at 1400 - it was currently 0800 - or we could take the mini-bus at 0830. We opted for the mini-bus, which ended up being 45 minutes late and very cramped compared to the bus we’d just come from. This was our home for the next twelve hours, including stops. It was not fun, but at least the other passengers were nice. The Indonesian couple paid for my food along the way because I had not Thai Baht. I offered them Malaysian Ringgit or Singapore Dollars and they just said no, don’t worry about it. They also paid for the taxi to the hostel. Hopefully I can repay them tomorrow. After checking in to the hostel at about 2200 I went exploring, which I’ll catch up on tomorrow.

NOW: I never did pay them back or get them a t-shirt like I thought I might. I hope the had a good holiday. The exploring I did was basically a night market which had lots of touristy stuff with a dash of culture. It was pretty neat. As you keep reading you’ll notice the tone of things is kinda dark. I was just a bit upset about feeling as though I’d been taken advantage of, and I feel better about it now, so don’t worry.

S$7.20 Groceries at Georgie’s S$67.00 Bus ticket to Bangkok S$12.00 Taxi to GMC RM3.00 Meal at bus stop

THEN: I’m on the bus at a rest stop and I just noticed there are three monks on board - cool. So my departure was pretty rushed. I called the bus company to reserve a spot and told them I’d pick it up the next day - this was the 10th. For a variety of reasons I was unable to pick up the ticket until today at 1400, leaving me 2.5 hours to take the MRT and bus back to school, pack, and then go back. By the time I got back to campus it was 1510. I packed as quickly as I could and went to the bus stop. Just as the local bus arrived I realized I’d taken my ticket out of my wallet when I removed the receipts, so I ran back to my room, calling a taxi on the way. The taxi got me there in 20 minutes - 10 minutes early.

All this excitement, and I hadn’t even left Singapore.

NOW: Yeah that was cool. The only not so great part ended up being that the aircon in the bus was on high and you couldn’t turn it down. I had some trouble sleeping.