Random Thai Stuff

A few random things about Thailand to small to put in their own article:

- Thailand is once again a country where two wheeled transportation is the norm for most of the country. However, due to the higher standard of living and ability for Japanese companies to operate directly in the country, they have standardized around a better sort of bike then the mixed bag that is in India. Most bikes in Thailand are Underbones (never heard this term before looking up the type of bike on wikipedia) such as the Honda Wave. These things are just about perfect developing country transport. They are small and very fuel efficient, but because of their better build quality and because they have gears, they are much more capable bikes then their Indian counterparts. We rented one in Chiang Mai for only 150 Baht a day (5 dollars) and it had no problem powering us up the 1000m meter mountain top road to see the big temple in the area.

- In Thailand and India, getting the bill at a restaurant is an incredible pain in the ass. It is not normal practice to have the "Can I get you anything else?" transaction at the end of a meal, and waiters will never bring the bill unless you explicitly ask for it. Couple this with the fact that most waiters stop paying much attention to you after your meal is done and this issue is a constant annoyance.

- On the flip side, Thailand is a great country to eat. They can get the ingredients for pretty much anything here and expats must be able to own businesses quite easily. We had pretty good Mexican, BBQ and burgers (outside of our usual Thai street food) in Chiang Mai. In Ko Samui, where we are now, we had Italian that would have been quite good even in the North End (at a place called La Taverna), with better Italian cured meat then you can get in the US. Pasta, pizza, glass of wine and a beer for around 20 dollars. Not a bad deal.

- We rented a little Hobie Bravo on the beach today, and I have to say I was impressed. This was the perfect beginner, just have fun, little sailboat. Nice fast ride, plus a roller reefing main, beer holders, a little cooler all on a tiny, sunfish size boat. Nice stable ride too, good for sitting in the sun. Might need to think about getting one of these at the lake if the lazer ever dies.

- In India we found that we tended to like the beaches that were called "overdeveloped" in the Lonely Planet because we found we liked having a little civilization on our beach. We also like truly deserted beached like Anegada and Diu as well, but the middle type, where there are enough beach motels to ugly up the place but no good places to eat is the worst of both worlds. However, were we are now, Hat Chaweng, on Ko Samui, is truly overdeveloped. The beach is great here, but this place is really a circus, with every inch of space up to the sand used for something. That mixed with the booming music of the Go-Go bars and the abundance of hookers gives the place a pretty trashy feel. You can also stay in a very nice resort here and eat Fillet Mignon, so it kind of runs the gamut. We did have a very nice day today, but after our free nights at the Marriott, we might need to try something a little quieter.