This is more for random people searching on Google that anything else, but I wanted to write up the five beaches that we stayed at on Thailand. The thing is that they all have their strong points, so picking one to go to is really a case of just finding the right one for you. Please note that all these visits were in mid to late November.
KO SAMUI - HAT CHAWENG
This was the most crowded and developed beach we visited. There is a main road that forms the "strip" of town, and most resorts are in the 300m or so from this road to the beach. The strip was a pretty lively place, however a good deal of the partying was hooker related. The strip also had a lot of very sleek bars, nice and expensive restaurants, as well as Starbucks, McDonald's and plenty of 7-Elevens.
We stayed at a hotel that was on the strip called The Wave Samui, which I was not a fan of. Besides my issues with the hotel, I did not realize what a pain it would be to not be in a place with beach access. There is only one place where you can take an actual public road to the beach, so most of the time we had to sneak through a resort to get out to the sand. There were a couple of relatively cheap places with beach access, I would check out those if you want to go here. If you want to pay 500 Baht for a bungalow on the beach, go somewhere else.
As for the beach itself, it was very nice. A little crowded, but not overwhelmingly so. The water is clear and the swimming nice. It can be a little hard to find a place because all the resorts put chairs out for their guests, but space can be found. There is also a strip of bars near the Ark Bar that have raised futons on the beach, and are pretty fun at night as well. You can hang here is you want to buy drinks. There were several kayak and sailboat rental outfits on the beach, and we had a lot of fun with a little Hobie Cat. There are a few hawkers, mostly of junk souvenirs, but they are manageable.
Go here is you want to:
- Party, mostly with Euros and Brits
- Listen to trance music
- Get a hooker
- Have a lot of activities, food and drinks available on the beach
- Eat at high class restaurants
- Spend a lot of money
Don't go here if you want to:
- Have a peaceful vacation
- Go to chill bars
- Really get away from it all
KO SAMUI - HAT LAMAI
I will not do a full review of this, because we used Nisha's leftover Marriott points to stay at a high end beach resort at the very end of the beach. From what I did see, it looked busy, but far less so then Chaweng. The beach was nice here, but very shallow. You could walk for probably a kilometer out into the ocean before having to swim. It was great for Frisbee in the water, and there was some snorkeling by the rocks at the headland.
If you want to know about the Marriott Renaissance, read up on it here.
KO PHA-NGAN - HAT KHOM
This was our place to do the real beach hut thing, and I don't think we could have found a better place. Hat Khom is a small beach, only about .5KM long, in a cove on the north side of the island. It is accessible from the main village on the north side by a dirt road that can be negotiated via pickup truck or motorbike. The road can also be walked in around 25 minutes. The beach has occasional boulders that add to the scenery, as well as a reef that can be snorkeled. Swimming is also good as there is a deep sand bottom area between the beach and the reef.
The only business here is the four beach hut resorts that line the beach, as well as their bar/restaurants. We stayed at the Ocean View, which seemed to have the best rooms and had the best food at the restaurant, but they all seemed OK. The huts all seemed to be in the 300-800 Baht range. There is no Internet and the only nightlife is the resort bars. One of the resorts rents Kayaks for very cheap and the Ocean View had free snorkeling equipment.
Go here if you want to:
- Stay right on the beach
- Only hear the sound of the waves at night
- Hang out with a backpacker crowd
- Be on a secluded, quiet and beautiful beach
- Not spend a lot of money
- Shower with only cold water and only have electricity from 6PM to 6AM
KO TAO - HAT SAIREE
We stayed here mainly because Nisha was getting here dive certification. This beach is very long, but also very thin. The resorts in the area push right up to the beach, so there is only a little room in front for swimming and putting a blanket down. The swimming is pretty good, but there are quite a few boats tied to the beach and ropes to watch out for. There is a place in town that rents Kayaks and sailing equipment, but not on this beach. One really nice thing here is that the main road is not anywhere near the beach. Along the beach is a brick walkway which is only used by pedestrians and the occasional motorbike.
This is kind of a middle ground between an overdeveloped beach and a quiet beach. The beach is fully developed, but there is still some open space and small hut resorts. There are a couple of 7-Elevens and plenty of Internet cafes and resort restaurants. There is also a area near the far end of the beach with some bars and restaurants that are independent of a resort.
One thing is that how quiet the beach is will have a lot to do with where you stay. We stayed at the AC resort, and the bar there pumps music until late at night, so our room was pretty loud. At other locations that are not near a big time bar, things would probably be pretty quiet. As far as the nightlife, it was still low season, so things were not really hopping yet, but it seemed like in season there would be a lot of partying going on. However, not many hookers and you could get away from it if you wanted to.
Go here if you want to:
- Get SCUBA certified easy and cheap
- Party, but not be in a total madhouse
- Spend a moderate amount of money
- Have plenty of modern amenities, but not feel like you are in a city
Don't go here if you want:
- A really nice beach
- To really get away from it all
KRABI PROVENCE - RAILAY
Railay is a peninsula attached to the mainland, but inaccessible by road due to the massive cliffs. The only way to get there is long tail boat. The peninsula is about 500m across, and has beaches at each side. The west beach is pretty nice, with giant cliffs at each side. It is wide with hard and flat sand. The swimming is calm and good, but the water is very warm and there are quite a few long tail boats. The east beach is muddy and used mainly for long tail boat arrivals. There is also another beach you can walk to in 10 minutes that I did not make it out to, but Nisha rated as one of the better beaches she has ever been on. There are some hawkers who work the beach, but they mainly sell beer, so I find them quite useful.
All the area that can be developed has been, all the flat area between the beaches as well as the area up the hill that we stayed in was used for resorts. Up the hill in back was the only place for budget accommodation (besides the far beach around the corner that is, but I am talking about the main part of town), but where we stayed at the Highland Resort was very quiet and only about a 10 minute walk to the good beach. However, since there are no motor vehicles, the place has a pretty low key feel, even more so then Ko Tao. There are a fair number of bars and restaurants, but no bars really pump music, it is more of a Bob Marley kind of place.
The rock climbing is also a real attraction here, I went twice and loved it. Things are a little expensive however, you definitely pay island prices, not mainland.
All in all, this was my favorite beach.
Go here if you want to:
- See great scenery
- Go to first class beaches
- Rock climb
- Enjoy chill, but busy, nightlife
- Spend a moderate to high amount of money
Don't go here if yo want to:
- Get a hooker
- Listen to trance music
- Eat top flight international food
- Really get away from it all
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thailand. Show all posts
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Government Matters
In the US these days, most talk about government or politics focuses on the high level philosophical stuff, Foreign Policy, Abortion, Church and State, etc. Not to say that this not impotent stuff, but this trip has highlighted for me that there is another dimension to government that is rarely talked about, overall competence.
By overall competence I mean the ability of the government to build roads, run schools, keep basic law and order. Basically its ability to provide a stable environment for people to live and work. As I have seen on this trip, the ability of governments to do these things is not necessarily related to how they are selected or what high level positions they believe in. At the highest level we have been in countries that range from stable, multi-party democracies like Japan and India, to Vietnam and Thailand, which are both currently run by unelected governments. All are basically capitalist countries, with somewhat of a socialist bent (Vietnam is officially communist, but that is not very true in practice).
In terms of overall competence I would have to obviously rank Japan as first. The infrastructure is top notch all over the country, the trains are amazing and crime is non-existent. Thailand I would also give high marks to, because it does a lot for how much money it has. Most things there seem to run at more or less a US level of quality, but I assume that they spend a lot less money to get there. India and Vietnam are similar in a lot of ways, because things seem to run OK, but you still run into some substandard roads and bad trash collection. Also, while some people in these two countries are doing very well, others are left behind in substantial poverty. Cambodia's one-party democratic government is basically a failed state. No one has any confidence in the government to do anything, and almost every road and school in the country has a sign out front thanking the country or NGO that built it for them, usually Japan.
The interesting thing about all these countries, as well as the US, is that a good number of people in all of them think the government is run by a bunch of crooks. Most of the time these thoughts are backed up by evidence. The accusations very from the money just disappearing, like in Cambodia, to the usual shady government contract deals that exist pretty much everywhere there are politicians with money to spend. Pork barrel stuff also shows up pretty much everywhere, like Shinkansens (bullet trains) to nowhere in Japan. However, even if crooks run the show everywhere, their output quality varies immensely.
The aggravating thing about this is that although the competence of government matters so much, I am not sure how one controls it. Why should India and Vietnam have similar public services despite the fact that one government is elected, and the other is authoritarian? As a voter in the US it is annoying that this never even really comes up as an issue. We know politicians positions on almost every philosophical issue, but not if they can build a decent airport.
My last thought is as to how the US fits within the ranking of countries above. Overall our government is fairly competent at basic service. We have very good roads, there are a reasonable number of cops and garbage does not stack up in the streets. However, we also pay a lot of money to achieve this decent level of service. I think our biggest problem is that our expectations for the final product of the things our government builds is so low. I am sure in Japan, Japan Railways (JR) is a giant pit of patronage and wasted money. I am sure there were all sorts of shady dealing with building the new airport in Bangkok. But, at least in these places they get an incredible train system and a really nice looking new airport. The most upsetting thing is that we get ripped off, as every country does, but often do not even get a world class product.
I guess my conclusion is that Americans should raise their expectations of government and not buy that things cannot be done, or cannot be done well. If the semi-authoritarian government in Thailand can build a nice new subway line, why can't we do so in New York or Boston? We might get ripped off, but it is better to at least get something for your money then nothing at all.
By overall competence I mean the ability of the government to build roads, run schools, keep basic law and order. Basically its ability to provide a stable environment for people to live and work. As I have seen on this trip, the ability of governments to do these things is not necessarily related to how they are selected or what high level positions they believe in. At the highest level we have been in countries that range from stable, multi-party democracies like Japan and India, to Vietnam and Thailand, which are both currently run by unelected governments. All are basically capitalist countries, with somewhat of a socialist bent (Vietnam is officially communist, but that is not very true in practice).
In terms of overall competence I would have to obviously rank Japan as first. The infrastructure is top notch all over the country, the trains are amazing and crime is non-existent. Thailand I would also give high marks to, because it does a lot for how much money it has. Most things there seem to run at more or less a US level of quality, but I assume that they spend a lot less money to get there. India and Vietnam are similar in a lot of ways, because things seem to run OK, but you still run into some substandard roads and bad trash collection. Also, while some people in these two countries are doing very well, others are left behind in substantial poverty. Cambodia's one-party democratic government is basically a failed state. No one has any confidence in the government to do anything, and almost every road and school in the country has a sign out front thanking the country or NGO that built it for them, usually Japan.
The interesting thing about all these countries, as well as the US, is that a good number of people in all of them think the government is run by a bunch of crooks. Most of the time these thoughts are backed up by evidence. The accusations very from the money just disappearing, like in Cambodia, to the usual shady government contract deals that exist pretty much everywhere there are politicians with money to spend. Pork barrel stuff also shows up pretty much everywhere, like Shinkansens (bullet trains) to nowhere in Japan. However, even if crooks run the show everywhere, their output quality varies immensely.
The aggravating thing about this is that although the competence of government matters so much, I am not sure how one controls it. Why should India and Vietnam have similar public services despite the fact that one government is elected, and the other is authoritarian? As a voter in the US it is annoying that this never even really comes up as an issue. We know politicians positions on almost every philosophical issue, but not if they can build a decent airport.
My last thought is as to how the US fits within the ranking of countries above. Overall our government is fairly competent at basic service. We have very good roads, there are a reasonable number of cops and garbage does not stack up in the streets. However, we also pay a lot of money to achieve this decent level of service. I think our biggest problem is that our expectations for the final product of the things our government builds is so low. I am sure in Japan, Japan Railways (JR) is a giant pit of patronage and wasted money. I am sure there were all sorts of shady dealing with building the new airport in Bangkok. But, at least in these places they get an incredible train system and a really nice looking new airport. The most upsetting thing is that we get ripped off, as every country does, but often do not even get a world class product.
I guess my conclusion is that Americans should raise their expectations of government and not buy that things cannot be done, or cannot be done well. If the semi-authoritarian government in Thailand can build a nice new subway line, why can't we do so in New York or Boston? We might get ripped off, but it is better to at least get something for your money then nothing at all.
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Thai food II
Here were a few of our favorite meals:
Steamed Sticky rice in Bamboo - Our guide in Chiang Dao brought us to this road side place where a woman makes steamed rice in bamboo. The rice, sugar, and coconut mixture is stuffed into a hollow bamboo segment capped with hay. It is BBQed over a wood fire until steamed. The outer husk is then hacked off, the rice left to cool, then it's ready to eat by peeling away the bamboo from the rice. Simply amazing.
Crispy Aromatic Duck - This was tasty take on Peking duck that we have many times in Chinatown. - Chopsticks, Koh Tao
Malee's Buffet - We stayed in Malee's Guesthouse in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. The first night we went to the renowned Europen-Thai fusion restaurant next door, which was fabulous. The next night we dined on Malee's buffet. She served my favorite Thai curry, Green curry with chicken, mashed squash with egg, a huge platter of fresh fruit, and many other dishes. It was like dining in someones home. Not to be missed - Malee's GuestHouse in Chiang Dao
Thai Iced Tea - I am self-proclaimed iced tea snob. Northern restaurants on good days make me laugh with their version of iced tea, on bad days make me scream with horror. Thailand is where I surprisingly found excellent iced tea. They brew it extra strong, stronger than even the South. They they pour it over crushed ice and finish it with condensed milk!
Family meal at the Highland Restaurant - The restaurant at our resort in Raliay was the best in the area. We had no idea what to expect with the "family meal." You know a meal is going to be great when it starts with "maybe you should move to a bigger table." Our came a hot charcoal cauldron with a grille on top, a bowl of broth, a platter of veggies and rice noodles, and a plate of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, and squid. We were instructed to coat the top with butter and then grill each. The resulting soup made from the meat drippings was delicious.
- Highland Resort, East Railay
Coke Zero out of a Glass Bottle - For fellow Coke Zero lovers, no more needs said.
You may notice on this list the abscense of Thai dishes in served in the US. They were there and we liked them. However, most good Thai resturants are very similar in the US. Therefore, it's just plain boring to write about Pad Thai.
- Nisha
Steamed Sticky rice in Bamboo - Our guide in Chiang Dao brought us to this road side place where a woman makes steamed rice in bamboo. The rice, sugar, and coconut mixture is stuffed into a hollow bamboo segment capped with hay. It is BBQed over a wood fire until steamed. The outer husk is then hacked off, the rice left to cool, then it's ready to eat by peeling away the bamboo from the rice. Simply amazing.
Crispy Aromatic Duck - This was tasty take on Peking duck that we have many times in Chinatown. - Chopsticks, Koh Tao
Malee's Buffet - We stayed in Malee's Guesthouse in Chiang Dao, north of Chiang Mai. The first night we went to the renowned Europen-Thai fusion restaurant next door, which was fabulous. The next night we dined on Malee's buffet. She served my favorite Thai curry, Green curry with chicken, mashed squash with egg, a huge platter of fresh fruit, and many other dishes. It was like dining in someones home. Not to be missed - Malee's GuestHouse in Chiang Dao
Thai Iced Tea - I am self-proclaimed iced tea snob. Northern restaurants on good days make me laugh with their version of iced tea, on bad days make me scream with horror. Thailand is where I surprisingly found excellent iced tea. They brew it extra strong, stronger than even the South. They they pour it over crushed ice and finish it with condensed milk!
Family meal at the Highland Restaurant - The restaurant at our resort in Raliay was the best in the area. We had no idea what to expect with the "family meal." You know a meal is going to be great when it starts with "maybe you should move to a bigger table." Our came a hot charcoal cauldron with a grille on top, a bowl of broth, a platter of veggies and rice noodles, and a plate of beef, chicken, fish, shrimp, and squid. We were instructed to coat the top with butter and then grill each. The resulting soup made from the meat drippings was delicious.
- Highland Resort, East Railay
Coke Zero out of a Glass Bottle - For fellow Coke Zero lovers, no more needs said.
You may notice on this list the abscense of Thai dishes in served in the US. They were there and we liked them. However, most good Thai resturants are very similar in the US. Therefore, it's just plain boring to write about Pad Thai.
- Nisha
Friday, November 30, 2007
Just Another Day in Bangkok
The scene is a crowded Bangkok Internet cafe. The protagonist is a pudgy, 50 something American with a southern accent. The man sits down and calls his family on Skype. Because on Skype you use headphones (there is no phone booth) and because of his projecting voice, we hear a several hour phone call I never thought would be so public. Things about this nice man Nisha and I now know:
- Evidently he has been married for 2 weeks to a Thai woman (we did not hear how they met), I am assuming some kind of mail order bride.
- She does not know much English, but their connection is like nothing he has ever felt before.
- He has never been so happy in his life, every day keeps getting better and better.
- The lord and/or Jesus are responsible for the proceeding.
- His new Thai wife likes to sleep draped all over him in a non-sexual way.
- She is a massage lady and he hopes that she can get a job as such in the US.
- He knows someone who knows someone who works in Dick Durbin's (US Senator) office, thus her Visa is assured.
- He gives her a $20 dollar a week allowance, which goes a long way in Thailand.
Gotta love Bangkok!!!
- Evidently he has been married for 2 weeks to a Thai woman (we did not hear how they met), I am assuming some kind of mail order bride.
- She does not know much English, but their connection is like nothing he has ever felt before.
- He has never been so happy in his life, every day keeps getting better and better.
- The lord and/or Jesus are responsible for the proceeding.
- His new Thai wife likes to sleep draped all over him in a non-sexual way.
- She is a massage lady and he hopes that she can get a job as such in the US.
- He knows someone who knows someone who works in Dick Durbin's (US Senator) office, thus her Visa is assured.
- He gives her a $20 dollar a week allowance, which goes a long way in Thailand.
Gotta love Bangkok!!!
Thailand Wrap
Thailand was a very nice place to visit.
That, for better or for worse, is about as strong a opinion as I can muster about it. I know it is not all that profound, but honestly, Thailand is not that profound a place. It is just a nice, well run country with really nice beaches and people. It is also quite cheap to travel around, although not as cheap as places like India and Cambodia.
We did have a very good time in Thailand. But, I am really glad that we went there after Japan and India. While those parts of the trip felt more like a real adventure, Thailand felt more like a nice extended vacation. The first reason for this is that the travel in Thailand is so much less challenging. The train and the government bus run quite efficiently. People speak enough English, and westerners are a dime a dozen, so you do not ever feel particularly out of place. There are 7-Elevens, fast food and Internet cafes pretty much everywhere. The touts are quite tame by Asian standards and the beggars are virtually nonexistent.
The other reason why Thailand is different is that everything there is less dramatic. Their sights are kind of interesting, but nothing like the Taj Mahal, Angkor, Hiroshima or even Shinjuku. You may get a little aggravated with the occasional Tuk-Tuk man, but you never have to deal with the stress of an Indian train station, or figuring out how to order a meal in Japanese.
If you come to Thailand to find yourself, learn Thai culture or experience real travel adventure, you will be disappointed. If you come to Thailand for a nice vacation, you will probably love it.
In conclusion, a few highlights and lowlights:
UPSIDES
- The beaches are really nice, often with very litte waves and prefect conditions to swim or play Frisbee in the water.
- The north was pleasant as well, but we enjoyed it much better on our trips outside Chaing Mai on a rented car or motorbike. Downtown Chaing Mai can feel like one giant tourist trap.
- There are really not many places in the world where you can pay $15 dollars for a hut right on the beach.
- Bangkok is an interesting city, good, cheap shopping and some of Thailand's best sights.
- The quality and availability of cheap food is incredible. Eventually we figured out that for Thai food, the cheaper the place, the better the meal.
- There is also a good variety of quality food from all over the world at every tourist destination, at very reasonable prices.
- Most Thais are very nice people. They do indeed seem to smile all the time, and are usually quite helpful and friendly.
LOWLIGHTS
- Some Thais, especially ones who work in tourist trap places, are not very nice. This is the cost of Thailand being so well covered by tourists.
- I really don't like the parallel transport system of buses, boats and taxis that are only there for tourists. The service on these is usually really bad, and it is not a good way to experience the country. Unfortunately, sometimes this network can be the only practical way to get from one place to another. Often this is because the government bus terminal is not near downtown or the train is sold out.
- A great number of your fellow tourists are either British frat boy types or mid-market package European tourists. Also, a good proportion all westerners are sex-tourists. This is especially bad in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Ko Samui. This may not be a problem for other people, in fact it may be what you are looking for. However, all these groups get a little tiresome for us at times.
- You will learn to hate Trance music if you stay in the wrong room at the hotel.
- Thailand has the worst waiters in the world. Getting the bill is a constaint ordeal.
- Thais care a lot about "face" and thus make for really annoying touts. I do not care if people want to aggressively tout stuff to me. However, the fact that I need to be polite to the touts, in order to prevent unpleasant behavior by them, is really annoying. At least Indian touts know their place in the world and have a thick skin.
- As Nisha has covered in some detail, Thai bathrooms suck.
- The amount of obvious Hooker-Westerner couples did not really bother Nisha and I. In fact it was kind of a game to speculate if the girls were hookers or not, then sometimes if they were really men or not (on a side note, I never imagined that any culture would be as accepting of transvestites as Thais are). However, if this kind of thing bothers you, then best stay away from the big three locations I mentioned above.
That, for better or for worse, is about as strong a opinion as I can muster about it. I know it is not all that profound, but honestly, Thailand is not that profound a place. It is just a nice, well run country with really nice beaches and people. It is also quite cheap to travel around, although not as cheap as places like India and Cambodia.
We did have a very good time in Thailand. But, I am really glad that we went there after Japan and India. While those parts of the trip felt more like a real adventure, Thailand felt more like a nice extended vacation. The first reason for this is that the travel in Thailand is so much less challenging. The train and the government bus run quite efficiently. People speak enough English, and westerners are a dime a dozen, so you do not ever feel particularly out of place. There are 7-Elevens, fast food and Internet cafes pretty much everywhere. The touts are quite tame by Asian standards and the beggars are virtually nonexistent.
The other reason why Thailand is different is that everything there is less dramatic. Their sights are kind of interesting, but nothing like the Taj Mahal, Angkor, Hiroshima or even Shinjuku. You may get a little aggravated with the occasional Tuk-Tuk man, but you never have to deal with the stress of an Indian train station, or figuring out how to order a meal in Japanese.
If you come to Thailand to find yourself, learn Thai culture or experience real travel adventure, you will be disappointed. If you come to Thailand for a nice vacation, you will probably love it.
In conclusion, a few highlights and lowlights:
UPSIDES
- The beaches are really nice, often with very litte waves and prefect conditions to swim or play Frisbee in the water.
- The north was pleasant as well, but we enjoyed it much better on our trips outside Chaing Mai on a rented car or motorbike. Downtown Chaing Mai can feel like one giant tourist trap.
- There are really not many places in the world where you can pay $15 dollars for a hut right on the beach.
- Bangkok is an interesting city, good, cheap shopping and some of Thailand's best sights.
- The quality and availability of cheap food is incredible. Eventually we figured out that for Thai food, the cheaper the place, the better the meal.
- There is also a good variety of quality food from all over the world at every tourist destination, at very reasonable prices.
- Most Thais are very nice people. They do indeed seem to smile all the time, and are usually quite helpful and friendly.
LOWLIGHTS
- Some Thais, especially ones who work in tourist trap places, are not very nice. This is the cost of Thailand being so well covered by tourists.
- I really don't like the parallel transport system of buses, boats and taxis that are only there for tourists. The service on these is usually really bad, and it is not a good way to experience the country. Unfortunately, sometimes this network can be the only practical way to get from one place to another. Often this is because the government bus terminal is not near downtown or the train is sold out.
- A great number of your fellow tourists are either British frat boy types or mid-market package European tourists. Also, a good proportion all westerners are sex-tourists. This is especially bad in Bangkok, Chaing Mai and Ko Samui. This may not be a problem for other people, in fact it may be what you are looking for. However, all these groups get a little tiresome for us at times.
- You will learn to hate Trance music if you stay in the wrong room at the hotel.
- Thailand has the worst waiters in the world. Getting the bill is a constaint ordeal.
- Thais care a lot about "face" and thus make for really annoying touts. I do not care if people want to aggressively tout stuff to me. However, the fact that I need to be polite to the touts, in order to prevent unpleasant behavior by them, is really annoying. At least Indian touts know their place in the world and have a thick skin.
- As Nisha has covered in some detail, Thai bathrooms suck.
- The amount of obvious Hooker-Westerner couples did not really bother Nisha and I. In fact it was kind of a game to speculate if the girls were hookers or not, then sometimes if they were really men or not (on a side note, I never imagined that any culture would be as accepting of transvestites as Thais are). However, if this kind of thing bothers you, then best stay away from the big three locations I mentioned above.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Thai Food I: Street Food
It took me quite awhile after arriving to Thailand to get into the food. It was not because a dislike of Thai food, since it is one of my favorite foods in the US, more more a dislike of where one eats Thai food. The restaurant culture of the US, India, and every other place I have been does not really exist here. There are restaurants, just not Thai ones. It seems that Thais will go a nice enclosed AC restaurant to have pizza, Chinese, or any non-Thai food. However, except in Bangkok, all Thai restaurants if not catering directly to tourists or in a 5-star hotel, are ramshackle open-air establishments or food carts.
The carts are not really permanent, since they are put up and taken down everyday, but they occupy the same location every night. They all have wheels to be pushed away at the end of the night. They do not have running water. They do have electricity and even meters to presumably pay someone for the power. The prices are all between 5 and 40 baht (10 - 80 cents). The ambiance matches the price - you eat on metal folding tables and plastic stools. Many are arranged in the same place to constitute a day or night food market. Some are simply a swerer or fruit seller attached to a sidecar.
In India street food is either sworn off or you know it will cost you some serious bathroom time. We had great hesitation in delving into the multitude of street eats. During our first week here, we ate primarily at tourist restaurants, which besides McDonald's, this is the place you can go to guarantee eating the worst food any locale has to offer. Slowly, as we saw more Westerners eating from them and not in the hospital with IVs, we too entered into the makeshift street restaurants.
What do they serve? Everything on a menu of a typical US Thai restaurant and more. The diversity is stunning. Curry carts offer over 10 types of succulent meat and vegetable curries. Soup carts offer something akin to Vietnamese Pho with sliced meat or shrimp, or duck. There were numerous BBQ carts with various processed meats creatively sculpted on the wooden skewer. The carts catering more to Thais include BBQed hanging offal, looking much like an anatomy class. There were stir-fry and pad Thai carts. Many served various types of iced tea - black, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, and ginger finished with condensed milk. Dessert carts had banana and nutella crepes, silver dollar pancakes filled with a coconut mixture. On every corner is a fruit cart filled with carved and chilled pineapple, banana, mango, dragon fruit, jack fruit, and watermelon whether for immediate consumption or to be whipped into a shake. The one I always looked out for was the mango and sticky rice cart. At first I scoffed at such a pedestrian dessert made with rice. However, it's hard to describe the unbelievable marriage of a silky fragrant mango with slightly salty, sweet, coconut stewed rice.
After a month in Thailand, food carts instilled in me, rather than fear and terror, a Pavlovian response of salivation. Some of the best food we had in Thailand came from these lowly eateries. Next post - more about specific dishes.
The carts are not really permanent, since they are put up and taken down everyday, but they occupy the same location every night. They all have wheels to be pushed away at the end of the night. They do not have running water. They do have electricity and even meters to presumably pay someone for the power. The prices are all between 5 and 40 baht (10 - 80 cents). The ambiance matches the price - you eat on metal folding tables and plastic stools. Many are arranged in the same place to constitute a day or night food market. Some are simply a swerer or fruit seller attached to a sidecar.
In India street food is either sworn off or you know it will cost you some serious bathroom time. We had great hesitation in delving into the multitude of street eats. During our first week here, we ate primarily at tourist restaurants, which besides McDonald's, this is the place you can go to guarantee eating the worst food any locale has to offer. Slowly, as we saw more Westerners eating from them and not in the hospital with IVs, we too entered into the makeshift street restaurants.
What do they serve? Everything on a menu of a typical US Thai restaurant and more. The diversity is stunning. Curry carts offer over 10 types of succulent meat and vegetable curries. Soup carts offer something akin to Vietnamese Pho with sliced meat or shrimp, or duck. There were numerous BBQ carts with various processed meats creatively sculpted on the wooden skewer. The carts catering more to Thais include BBQed hanging offal, looking much like an anatomy class. There were stir-fry and pad Thai carts. Many served various types of iced tea - black, chrysanthemum, hibiscus, and ginger finished with condensed milk. Dessert carts had banana and nutella crepes, silver dollar pancakes filled with a coconut mixture. On every corner is a fruit cart filled with carved and chilled pineapple, banana, mango, dragon fruit, jack fruit, and watermelon whether for immediate consumption or to be whipped into a shake. The one I always looked out for was the mango and sticky rice cart. At first I scoffed at such a pedestrian dessert made with rice. However, it's hard to describe the unbelievable marriage of a silky fragrant mango with slightly salty, sweet, coconut stewed rice.
After a month in Thailand, food carts instilled in me, rather than fear and terror, a Pavlovian response of salivation. Some of the best food we had in Thailand came from these lowly eateries. Next post - more about specific dishes.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Flaming Floating Lotus Flowers
Experiencing different festivals of the world is one of my passions, so you can imagine my delight when I found out that we would be in Bangkok for the Loy Kratong Festival. During the festival times, normally tourist-weary locals are more talkative, open, and generally in a better mood. The city is cleaner and the excitement in the air is palpable.
So far we have been extraordinarily lucky - we hit the Asakusa Samba Festival in Japan, the Ladakh Festival in Leh, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Diu and Mumbai, Dandiya in Chennai, the Durga festival in Calcutta, and now we were in town for the Thai's second most important festival of the year. It has been chance all except for Calcutta (most of these run on the lunar calender making it hard to find the exact dates).
Possibly hinting at Indian roots, the main activity of the Loy Kratong festival is to buy or make a kratong and release it with lit incense and a small candle into the river. Unlike the Hindu festivals we have attended, this one seems to have unclear origins. It seems that the Thais take is as a festival to mark the beginning of the cool, dry season and releasing of the kratong as good luck.
The kratongs are usually made of a disc of banana tree, bread, or styrofoam (think the kind that you caulk windows with). Trying to find a less environmentally damaging one, we picked was a simple lotus flower. They are decorated with folded banana leaf, flowers, incense, and candles. I read at sometimes there is money in the center which explains the three women in a longtail boat downstream from the releasing point fishing them out, dumping the contents in the boat, and throwing them back in the water.
Some of the main events took place in the park near our guesthouse in the neighborhood of Banglampu. There were plenty of foods stalls (more on that to come in another blog), balloon sellers, and 2 stages. One stage was for beauty contests and traditional dance and song. The other larger one for a Thai rock band. It was all very well organized with marine patrol and Mardi Gras barrier corrals to wait in before releasing your krathong.
The floating kratongs in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river and the Mardi Gras-like floats parading down the river made for a magical night. We released our krathong with the help of a man down the walkway from the festival. He was using a fan cover attached to ribbon to hoist up floating krathongs. I thought at first he was looking to take the money out of them as well. However, all he did was insert a stick topped with a alcohol soaked sponge, light it, and release the flaming kratong back in the water. I guess he was looking for lots of luck.
- Nisha
So far we have been extraordinarily lucky - we hit the Asakusa Samba Festival in Japan, the Ladakh Festival in Leh, the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Diu and Mumbai, Dandiya in Chennai, the Durga festival in Calcutta, and now we were in town for the Thai's second most important festival of the year. It has been chance all except for Calcutta (most of these run on the lunar calender making it hard to find the exact dates).
Possibly hinting at Indian roots, the main activity of the Loy Kratong festival is to buy or make a kratong and release it with lit incense and a small candle into the river. Unlike the Hindu festivals we have attended, this one seems to have unclear origins. It seems that the Thais take is as a festival to mark the beginning of the cool, dry season and releasing of the kratong as good luck.
The kratongs are usually made of a disc of banana tree, bread, or styrofoam (think the kind that you caulk windows with). Trying to find a less environmentally damaging one, we picked was a simple lotus flower. They are decorated with folded banana leaf, flowers, incense, and candles. I read at sometimes there is money in the center which explains the three women in a longtail boat downstream from the releasing point fishing them out, dumping the contents in the boat, and throwing them back in the water.
Some of the main events took place in the park near our guesthouse in the neighborhood of Banglampu. There were plenty of foods stalls (more on that to come in another blog), balloon sellers, and 2 stages. One stage was for beauty contests and traditional dance and song. The other larger one for a Thai rock band. It was all very well organized with marine patrol and Mardi Gras barrier corrals to wait in before releasing your krathong.
The floating kratongs in the Mae Nam Chao Phraya river and the Mardi Gras-like floats parading down the river made for a magical night. We released our krathong with the help of a man down the walkway from the festival. He was using a fan cover attached to ribbon to hoist up floating krathongs. I thought at first he was looking to take the money out of them as well. However, all he did was insert a stick topped with a alcohol soaked sponge, light it, and release the flaming kratong back in the water. I guess he was looking for lots of luck.
- Nisha
Thai Economics
I wrote when I was in India a post called Indian Economics where I tried to put in prospective the amount of money that Indian make versus the US. I thought a followup might be in order discussing what we have found in Thailand.
Going back to the same list of GDP per capita, we find that Thailand currently is at $9,193 versus India at $3,802 and the US at $43,223. So, for the purposes of this article I will say that the average Thai makes 1/5 as much as the average American and twice as much as the average Indian. I have not done as much word of mouth research to validate these assumptions, but I do believe that they are more of less true.
With these facts in mind I will say that I am very surprised how much closer the standard of living feels in Thailand to the US then it does to India. When you walk around a Thai city or town, things do not seem that different from home. Most streets are well kept and have a mixture of little shops and restaurants as well as fast food and 7-Eleven chain outlets. Streets are well kept and usually have good sidewalks. People mostly dress in normal, clean western cloths. When you are in the outskirts of a city you see a lot of giant new Tesco superstores (similar looking from the outside to a Wall-Mart, except bigger) and fancy new gas stations.
The most drastic differences I notice off hand are in transportation and street food/shopping. The mix of vehicles here is very heavy with small motorbikes. There are plenty of private cars, but there are also swarms of these little bikes everywhere, being driven by young men, grandmothers, Thai schoolgirls, etc. Also, there are a lot more regular buses and many converted pickup truck buses, or Songthaews. As for street shopping, food carts are everywhere, selling cheap Thai food staples. Also, a lot of shopping for clothes and other goods is done in large areas of small stalls that are present in any large town or city.
The end result is that it seems like Thai life is not that different from the US, but just with a lot of components being done in a cheaper way. A Thai mother still goes out to the store, but it is usually on a motorbike and often to a rustic vegetable market. Thais eat out a lot, but they only spend 20 Baht (75 cents) at a soup stand rather then $10 at Chilies. Thai teens still spend a lot of time shopping, but rather then for name brand goods at a mall, it is for counterfeit goods at a outdoor market, and they ride in a Songthaew to get there. Long haul transportation is usually done by nice tour bus, rather then private car. From what I have seen on the outside, Thais usually live in much smaller houses, but they are usually well kept.
The thing that also makes life seem similar is how a lot of the Thai ways of doing things are a lot cheaper, but are actually on the surface as good as the US version. When we stopped on our 10 hour bus ride at a rest stop to eat it was a brand new open air market place with nice tables and chairs and a array of little counters with the usual soup and curry mix. My soup and Diet Coke cost be 40 Baht (a little over a dollar) but I would take it over a McDonald's value meal any day of the week. A ride in a Songthaew is certainly not a safe as a real city bus, but with the fresh air blowing through your hair, it is not any less comfortable. A 120 Baht (4 dollar) counterfeit Abercrombie and Fitch T-Shirt is no different from its $30 version, it might even be made in the same factory.
Nisha had an interesting observation on another aspect of this big leap from India. When you read the paper here the social problems are not that different from the US. This morning she read about a protest by people in wheelchairs because Bangkok was not installing enough ramps in the sidewalk, so that they can cross the street easily. This is in contrast from India where it is not that uncommon to see someone walking down the sidewalk on their hands. The Thai story reads like something you might see in the US, but having a disabled person walking down the street on their hands is not even something we would think of as a problem in the US.
Going back to the same list of GDP per capita, we find that Thailand currently is at $9,193 versus India at $3,802 and the US at $43,223. So, for the purposes of this article I will say that the average Thai makes 1/5 as much as the average American and twice as much as the average Indian. I have not done as much word of mouth research to validate these assumptions, but I do believe that they are more of less true.
With these facts in mind I will say that I am very surprised how much closer the standard of living feels in Thailand to the US then it does to India. When you walk around a Thai city or town, things do not seem that different from home. Most streets are well kept and have a mixture of little shops and restaurants as well as fast food and 7-Eleven chain outlets. Streets are well kept and usually have good sidewalks. People mostly dress in normal, clean western cloths. When you are in the outskirts of a city you see a lot of giant new Tesco superstores (similar looking from the outside to a Wall-Mart, except bigger) and fancy new gas stations.
The most drastic differences I notice off hand are in transportation and street food/shopping. The mix of vehicles here is very heavy with small motorbikes. There are plenty of private cars, but there are also swarms of these little bikes everywhere, being driven by young men, grandmothers, Thai schoolgirls, etc. Also, there are a lot more regular buses and many converted pickup truck buses, or Songthaews. As for street shopping, food carts are everywhere, selling cheap Thai food staples. Also, a lot of shopping for clothes and other goods is done in large areas of small stalls that are present in any large town or city.
The end result is that it seems like Thai life is not that different from the US, but just with a lot of components being done in a cheaper way. A Thai mother still goes out to the store, but it is usually on a motorbike and often to a rustic vegetable market. Thais eat out a lot, but they only spend 20 Baht (75 cents) at a soup stand rather then $10 at Chilies. Thai teens still spend a lot of time shopping, but rather then for name brand goods at a mall, it is for counterfeit goods at a outdoor market, and they ride in a Songthaew to get there. Long haul transportation is usually done by nice tour bus, rather then private car. From what I have seen on the outside, Thais usually live in much smaller houses, but they are usually well kept.
The thing that also makes life seem similar is how a lot of the Thai ways of doing things are a lot cheaper, but are actually on the surface as good as the US version. When we stopped on our 10 hour bus ride at a rest stop to eat it was a brand new open air market place with nice tables and chairs and a array of little counters with the usual soup and curry mix. My soup and Diet Coke cost be 40 Baht (a little over a dollar) but I would take it over a McDonald's value meal any day of the week. A ride in a Songthaew is certainly not a safe as a real city bus, but with the fresh air blowing through your hair, it is not any less comfortable. A 120 Baht (4 dollar) counterfeit Abercrombie and Fitch T-Shirt is no different from its $30 version, it might even be made in the same factory.
Nisha had an interesting observation on another aspect of this big leap from India. When you read the paper here the social problems are not that different from the US. This morning she read about a protest by people in wheelchairs because Bangkok was not installing enough ramps in the sidewalk, so that they can cross the street easily. This is in contrast from India where it is not that uncommon to see someone walking down the sidewalk on their hands. The Thai story reads like something you might see in the US, but having a disabled person walking down the street on their hands is not even something we would think of as a problem in the US.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Potty Humor
Seeing as this part of our trip will be a major topic of conversation with the Basu family at Christmas, I will get a head start on the ups and downs of the traveling toilet situation.
The highlight of this part of the trip was in Japan. The Japanese have applied the technology we reserve for $2000 dishwashers to their the porcelain thrones, with splashing results. I had heard rumors of the wonders of Japanese toilets - they have mechanical hands that wipe the nether regions, the seats are made of solid gold, they play music, etc, etc. Some of this was true, though not the mechanical hand. There is a famous 24 karat solid gold toilet in Tokyo. If you have a golden toilet, then why not golden poop as well?
The typical Japanese toilet, the one you find in the homes, hostels, and malls, consist of a toilet bowl, seat, and toilet tank. In the high-tech ones, there is a control panel of sorts next to the bowl. This panel is studded with many buttons in Japanese with small incomprehensible pictures for those less literate. I never really deciphered all the functions, but here are some Ian, Andrew, and I figured out. With this panel, it is possible to receive squirts of water from inside the bowl to one's business areas. These jets vary in intensity, duration, and aim. During my first use, I nearly leaped to the ceiling because I didn't know the previous patron had turned the jet on high. As I became soaked, I found out that it would not cease until I found the off button. These robo-toilets also also would spray a jet of air to finish the job you did with the water and toilet paper. For the discrete Japanese ladies, there was a "fake flush" button that when pressed, would make a flushing sound during which you could tinkle or make whatever other noise you wanted without the whole bathroom hearing. One had headphone hook-up. I never found out what was playing.
Almost more important to me than the actual toilet apparatus, is the ability to clean my hands. This need is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathroom. In Japan, there was always automatic soap and water basins. However, I quickly found out that everyone carried handkerchiefs to dry their hands. This lesson is one that I will keep with me in the US. Why use a paper towel when you can carry your own?
Which brings me to my next country. I had the most trepidation about India in this regard. During my 3 prior visits, I had had some horrific experiences with splintered wooden planks as a toilet seat over a vat of mosquitoes and filth. Also, since everyones toilet use increases in India for obvious reasons, I tried to be prepared by always carrying toilet paper and a hanky to dry my hands.
Reflecting the diverse economic strata in the country, India has a wide spread between completely horrific bathrooms and sparklingly clean ones with attendants. Fancy hotels and restaurants have normal easy to understand Western toilets with paper, a flushing mechanism, a clean dry floor, and a sink with water, soap, and towels. All things taken for granted in the American bathroom experience. When there is a squat toilet in India, it generally had a flusher and a bucket of water to use instead of toilet paper (though I never figured out how to do this without soaking myself in the process). We had a squat toilet for 3 days in our stay in Mapsua, Goa. It really wasn't that bad. When it is your own, you can strip down so as not to wet all your clothes in the process. I can't stay I achieved the Zen of backpacking in India, which is to balance yourself on a squat toilet while reading the newspaper. Only the free public toilets will cause night terrors, as happened with me before our overnight bus ride from Udiapur.
Also, though this may not be evident on a quick vacation to India as your experience will likely be colored by the worst bathroom experiences of your life, Indians do care about washing their hands. This may not always happen in the vicinity of the toilet, but in every restaurant, no matter if it has a dirt floor and is made of blue tarp (the developing world's replacement for the tar paper shack), there will be a sink with soap to wash with before dining. Once you realize this, and have brought your own hanky to dry your hands, your war against the colon twisting germs in India gets a tad easier.
I do feel that I owe India somewhat of an apology about ragging so much on their plumbing in my first blog about our accommodation. I didn't think that the toilet situation could get worse once we left the land of the squat toilet. But again, I was wrong. Thailand has the worst plumbing I have ever seen coupled with a questionable system of personal hygiene as well (from what I can deduce from the facilities offered).
Here in Thailand, virtually everywhere has either a squat or Western bowl. Not really a problem - India trained us well. However, no where are these toilet bowls equipped to flush toilet paper as the exiting pipe is a narrow as a sink drain. There is generally a large bucket of water with a huge bowl or a high-pressure dish sprayer to replace the toilet paper. All bathrooms here have a generally poorly worded sign that tried to communicate to you to throw the paper in the trash. One of these signs read "some napkins go in the bucket." Not fully understaidng this, I thought to myself, where are these napkins, and why do only some need to go in the bucket, as I tossed my tissue in the toilet.
The second enormous problem with Thai plumbing and why it ranks below that of India, is that there are many places that don't have a flushing mechanism on the toilet. That's right, there is a toilet bowl with no tank. You think it's a normal toilet until you go to flush and stupidly pull at the air. Every morning, one has to try in vain to dispose of your handiwork with a bowl full of water that is kept in a bucket next to the toilet. Once hotel toilet was so terrible, that Ian and I had to use the bowl of water, the high-pressure butt sprayer, and the hand-held shower hose to get the toilet to flush. The large downside of this country wide practice is that: 1. you guessed it, your bathroom stinks at all times with the used tissues in the trash can, 2. since there is always a large bucket full of water, the bathrooms are mosquito pits, 3. you never want to flush the toilet since it's such an ordeal, and 4. your bathroom is soaked at all times.
So after a victory with flushing the Thai toilet, all I want to do is wash my hands. Therein lies the 3rd problem. Most public toilets in respectable places - restaurants, shops, etc, either have no place to wash or if they do, have no soap. Maybe I just haven't figured out how Thais wash their hands yet. In India it took me a while to figure out that it was expected that everyone wash their hands before eating in a restaurant. This really is the most maddening thing here in Thailand. From what I can tell, most Thais clean their privates, Indian-style, without the ability to wash hands. Baffling!
I know some of you are thinking, what should I expect traveling to Asia? Maybe avoiding toilet paper is more environmentally correct, I should have more respect for the local customs... I thought you might want the straight story without the social correctness sugar-coating.
Now on to Cambodia. I'm sure the situation can't get any worse. But I said that about India as well.
The highlight of this part of the trip was in Japan. The Japanese have applied the technology we reserve for $2000 dishwashers to their the porcelain thrones, with splashing results. I had heard rumors of the wonders of Japanese toilets - they have mechanical hands that wipe the nether regions, the seats are made of solid gold, they play music, etc, etc. Some of this was true, though not the mechanical hand. There is a famous 24 karat solid gold toilet in Tokyo. If you have a golden toilet, then why not golden poop as well?
The typical Japanese toilet, the one you find in the homes, hostels, and malls, consist of a toilet bowl, seat, and toilet tank. In the high-tech ones, there is a control panel of sorts next to the bowl. This panel is studded with many buttons in Japanese with small incomprehensible pictures for those less literate. I never really deciphered all the functions, but here are some Ian, Andrew, and I figured out. With this panel, it is possible to receive squirts of water from inside the bowl to one's business areas. These jets vary in intensity, duration, and aim. During my first use, I nearly leaped to the ceiling because I didn't know the previous patron had turned the jet on high. As I became soaked, I found out that it would not cease until I found the off button. These robo-toilets also also would spray a jet of air to finish the job you did with the water and toilet paper. For the discrete Japanese ladies, there was a "fake flush" button that when pressed, would make a flushing sound during which you could tinkle or make whatever other noise you wanted without the whole bathroom hearing. One had headphone hook-up. I never found out what was playing.
Almost more important to me than the actual toilet apparatus, is the ability to clean my hands. This need is inversely proportional to cleanliness of the bathroom. In Japan, there was always automatic soap and water basins. However, I quickly found out that everyone carried handkerchiefs to dry their hands. This lesson is one that I will keep with me in the US. Why use a paper towel when you can carry your own?
Which brings me to my next country. I had the most trepidation about India in this regard. During my 3 prior visits, I had had some horrific experiences with splintered wooden planks as a toilet seat over a vat of mosquitoes and filth. Also, since everyones toilet use increases in India for obvious reasons, I tried to be prepared by always carrying toilet paper and a hanky to dry my hands.
Reflecting the diverse economic strata in the country, India has a wide spread between completely horrific bathrooms and sparklingly clean ones with attendants. Fancy hotels and restaurants have normal easy to understand Western toilets with paper, a flushing mechanism, a clean dry floor, and a sink with water, soap, and towels. All things taken for granted in the American bathroom experience. When there is a squat toilet in India, it generally had a flusher and a bucket of water to use instead of toilet paper (though I never figured out how to do this without soaking myself in the process). We had a squat toilet for 3 days in our stay in Mapsua, Goa. It really wasn't that bad. When it is your own, you can strip down so as not to wet all your clothes in the process. I can't stay I achieved the Zen of backpacking in India, which is to balance yourself on a squat toilet while reading the newspaper. Only the free public toilets will cause night terrors, as happened with me before our overnight bus ride from Udiapur.
Also, though this may not be evident on a quick vacation to India as your experience will likely be colored by the worst bathroom experiences of your life, Indians do care about washing their hands. This may not always happen in the vicinity of the toilet, but in every restaurant, no matter if it has a dirt floor and is made of blue tarp (the developing world's replacement for the tar paper shack), there will be a sink with soap to wash with before dining. Once you realize this, and have brought your own hanky to dry your hands, your war against the colon twisting germs in India gets a tad easier.
I do feel that I owe India somewhat of an apology about ragging so much on their plumbing in my first blog about our accommodation. I didn't think that the toilet situation could get worse once we left the land of the squat toilet. But again, I was wrong. Thailand has the worst plumbing I have ever seen coupled with a questionable system of personal hygiene as well (from what I can deduce from the facilities offered).
Here in Thailand, virtually everywhere has either a squat or Western bowl. Not really a problem - India trained us well. However, no where are these toilet bowls equipped to flush toilet paper as the exiting pipe is a narrow as a sink drain. There is generally a large bucket of water with a huge bowl or a high-pressure dish sprayer to replace the toilet paper. All bathrooms here have a generally poorly worded sign that tried to communicate to you to throw the paper in the trash. One of these signs read "some napkins go in the bucket." Not fully understaidng this, I thought to myself, where are these napkins, and why do only some need to go in the bucket, as I tossed my tissue in the toilet.
The second enormous problem with Thai plumbing and why it ranks below that of India, is that there are many places that don't have a flushing mechanism on the toilet. That's right, there is a toilet bowl with no tank. You think it's a normal toilet until you go to flush and stupidly pull at the air. Every morning, one has to try in vain to dispose of your handiwork with a bowl full of water that is kept in a bucket next to the toilet. Once hotel toilet was so terrible, that Ian and I had to use the bowl of water, the high-pressure butt sprayer, and the hand-held shower hose to get the toilet to flush. The large downside of this country wide practice is that: 1. you guessed it, your bathroom stinks at all times with the used tissues in the trash can, 2. since there is always a large bucket full of water, the bathrooms are mosquito pits, 3. you never want to flush the toilet since it's such an ordeal, and 4. your bathroom is soaked at all times.
So after a victory with flushing the Thai toilet, all I want to do is wash my hands. Therein lies the 3rd problem. Most public toilets in respectable places - restaurants, shops, etc, either have no place to wash or if they do, have no soap. Maybe I just haven't figured out how Thais wash their hands yet. In India it took me a while to figure out that it was expected that everyone wash their hands before eating in a restaurant. This really is the most maddening thing here in Thailand. From what I can tell, most Thais clean their privates, Indian-style, without the ability to wash hands. Baffling!
I know some of you are thinking, what should I expect traveling to Asia? Maybe avoiding toilet paper is more environmentally correct, I should have more respect for the local customs... I thought you might want the straight story without the social correctness sugar-coating.
Now on to Cambodia. I'm sure the situation can't get any worse. But I said that about India as well.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Don't Look Down
We went to Railay primarily because it seemed like a nice beach and a pleasant area to relax. It certainly did match these expectations, but the highlight of my time there was certainly my first couple times rock climbing.
I went out on a beginner trip each of the two mornings that I was there. I found climbing to be more fun and more interesting then I imagined. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of challenge they would throw at you as a beginner. I have spent a lot of time climbing up little steep rock faces in New England without ropes, and did not want to just end up doing that with a guy holding a rope at the bottom.
The deal with beginner climbing in Railay is more or less this. You go to the office in the morning and they set you up with a harness, chalk bag and climbing shoes. The shoes are meant to be very tight, so you pick ones that are barley comfortable, knowing that you only wear them when climbing the wall. You then take a 10 minute walk with your Thai, rope carrying guide, to the end of the beach and arrive at a place I found out is called the 1,2,3 wall. This wall is evidently the easiest to get to area and is suitable for beginners, so it seemed like pretty much everyone who is doing the beginner half day rock climbing trip ends up down there, meaning around 10-15 climbers and the various Thai guides.
As you can see from someone else's picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a real wall, it is basically vertical in all places and is at least 100m to the very top. The first thing you do when you get there is learn how to tie yourself to the end of the rope, and how to belay, i.e. work the bottom of the rope, for someone else. You then get to put your belaying skills to the test as the guide lead climbs up the wall to get the rope to the top. The guide makes it look easy as he climbs up to the permanent ring anchor that will be used as the top of the rope for the rest of the day. He does clip in to the intermediate anchors so he has some protection, but between the fact that he is lead climbing and being belayed by someone who does not know what they are doing, I am pretty sure they prefer to never fall. After he reaches the top, around 10m up for the first climbs, he hooks the rope through the ring and then you lower him down.
Most of the initial climbs are only around 10m high, so soon after you arrive different groups and guides have strung up around 4-5 top ropes. At this point the tourists start going up and it becomes more interesting. The first climb I did was not too difficult. It was very steep, but the craggy limestone rock in Railay provides a ton of hand and footholds. I did make the climb more difficult then it should be because I was still climbing like I was scrambling up a ledge in NH. By this I mean that I was mostly using my feet and taking no risks, this ensured not falling, but limited the number of things you could do.
The Dutch guy with me did pretty much the same thing and we moved to the next rope. This is the kind of nice thing about being on a busy wall. When you get done with your rope, you just hop in line to use one of the other ropes set up by another guide. Before climbing the next rope the guide showed us how to climb using our hands more. Rather then using your hands to pull yourself up like a pull-up, as you might imagine, you can use your hands to hold your body away from the wall, giving your feet a better angle to grip small footholds. I would never do this without a rope, because if you hand lets go, you fall, but taking risks is the point of having a rope, right?
Now knowing this allowed me to take more risks and climb things that I would have never been able to make it up with my previous technique. We had fun the rest of the morning climbing the various routes, touching the ring at the top, and getting dropped down to the bottom. My highlight was climbing up a longer route that was around 20m high. My lowlight was running out of arm strength and ending up hanging by my fingers in an untenable position. There is an instinctive moment of panic, but then you remember that if you just yell "Tension" down below the rope gets very tight, and you can just hang for a minute to catch you breath and then pick it up again.
This seemed to be the most common problem people would have, running out of arm strength and not being able to make the final push over a difficult part. The Thai guides do have a little trick however. When someone can not quite make it, they just lean heavily on the rope, giving the person above the 20kg of upwards assistance they need to get over the hump. I don't think I got any help like this the first day (or perhaps I am just deluding myself), but that was how a lot of heavier guys and girls were making it to the top.
I liked it so much I went back the next day for pretty much the same program. Now with more practice, and a night to recover some life in my arms, I was able to breeze up even several of the harder 10m climbs. To give me a challenge they let me climb the 30m climb to the top of the main part of the wall. This was the limit of the 60m ropes that we were using. I was equal to the first 20m, which was a interesting, but not too hard climb I had done the day before. The last 10m however was a vertical, sheer wall with only a few handholds to use. I should have taken a longer break before tacking this beast, because I once again ended up dangling by my fingertips and needing to yell a long way down for the rope to be made tight so I could take a break. I was completely spent after this ordeal and it felt pretty good to touch the ring and take the easy ride down.
I was also entertained this day watching the other guy in our group who was a burly Nordic guy of some description. He was a lot heavier then me, but also a lot stronger. We were about equal as far as climbing, with him being a little better, due to his better time on the top of the 30m beast. He did not climb like us lighter guys, but rather just used his arms to lift himself up the mountain. It looked like he was in a bar brawl with the cliffs, thrashing around and powering himself up, but he always did make it to the top.
There should be some of our pictures of the day up soon as well, so check them out.
I went out on a beginner trip each of the two mornings that I was there. I found climbing to be more fun and more interesting then I imagined. Also, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of challenge they would throw at you as a beginner. I have spent a lot of time climbing up little steep rock faces in New England without ropes, and did not want to just end up doing that with a guy holding a rope at the bottom.
The deal with beginner climbing in Railay is more or less this. You go to the office in the morning and they set you up with a harness, chalk bag and climbing shoes. The shoes are meant to be very tight, so you pick ones that are barley comfortable, knowing that you only wear them when climbing the wall. You then take a 10 minute walk with your Thai, rope carrying guide, to the end of the beach and arrive at a place I found out is called the 1,2,3 wall. This wall is evidently the easiest to get to area and is suitable for beginners, so it seemed like pretty much everyone who is doing the beginner half day rock climbing trip ends up down there, meaning around 10-15 climbers and the various Thai guides.
As you can see from someone else's picture, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this is a real wall, it is basically vertical in all places and is at least 100m to the very top. The first thing you do when you get there is learn how to tie yourself to the end of the rope, and how to belay, i.e. work the bottom of the rope, for someone else. You then get to put your belaying skills to the test as the guide lead climbs up the wall to get the rope to the top. The guide makes it look easy as he climbs up to the permanent ring anchor that will be used as the top of the rope for the rest of the day. He does clip in to the intermediate anchors so he has some protection, but between the fact that he is lead climbing and being belayed by someone who does not know what they are doing, I am pretty sure they prefer to never fall. After he reaches the top, around 10m up for the first climbs, he hooks the rope through the ring and then you lower him down.
Most of the initial climbs are only around 10m high, so soon after you arrive different groups and guides have strung up around 4-5 top ropes. At this point the tourists start going up and it becomes more interesting. The first climb I did was not too difficult. It was very steep, but the craggy limestone rock in Railay provides a ton of hand and footholds. I did make the climb more difficult then it should be because I was still climbing like I was scrambling up a ledge in NH. By this I mean that I was mostly using my feet and taking no risks, this ensured not falling, but limited the number of things you could do.
The Dutch guy with me did pretty much the same thing and we moved to the next rope. This is the kind of nice thing about being on a busy wall. When you get done with your rope, you just hop in line to use one of the other ropes set up by another guide. Before climbing the next rope the guide showed us how to climb using our hands more. Rather then using your hands to pull yourself up like a pull-up, as you might imagine, you can use your hands to hold your body away from the wall, giving your feet a better angle to grip small footholds. I would never do this without a rope, because if you hand lets go, you fall, but taking risks is the point of having a rope, right?
Now knowing this allowed me to take more risks and climb things that I would have never been able to make it up with my previous technique. We had fun the rest of the morning climbing the various routes, touching the ring at the top, and getting dropped down to the bottom. My highlight was climbing up a longer route that was around 20m high. My lowlight was running out of arm strength and ending up hanging by my fingers in an untenable position. There is an instinctive moment of panic, but then you remember that if you just yell "Tension" down below the rope gets very tight, and you can just hang for a minute to catch you breath and then pick it up again.
This seemed to be the most common problem people would have, running out of arm strength and not being able to make the final push over a difficult part. The Thai guides do have a little trick however. When someone can not quite make it, they just lean heavily on the rope, giving the person above the 20kg of upwards assistance they need to get over the hump. I don't think I got any help like this the first day (or perhaps I am just deluding myself), but that was how a lot of heavier guys and girls were making it to the top.
I liked it so much I went back the next day for pretty much the same program. Now with more practice, and a night to recover some life in my arms, I was able to breeze up even several of the harder 10m climbs. To give me a challenge they let me climb the 30m climb to the top of the main part of the wall. This was the limit of the 60m ropes that we were using. I was equal to the first 20m, which was a interesting, but not too hard climb I had done the day before. The last 10m however was a vertical, sheer wall with only a few handholds to use. I should have taken a longer break before tacking this beast, because I once again ended up dangling by my fingertips and needing to yell a long way down for the rope to be made tight so I could take a break. I was completely spent after this ordeal and it felt pretty good to touch the ring and take the easy ride down.
I was also entertained this day watching the other guy in our group who was a burly Nordic guy of some description. He was a lot heavier then me, but also a lot stronger. We were about equal as far as climbing, with him being a little better, due to his better time on the top of the 30m beast. He did not climb like us lighter guys, but rather just used his arms to lift himself up the mountain. It looked like he was in a bar brawl with the cliffs, thrashing around and powering himself up, but he always did make it to the top.
There should be some of our pictures of the day up soon as well, so check them out.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Finally Legal: Open Water, Baby!
When we planned this trip, we knew that we would want to do some diving in Thailand. Once I found out that Koh Tao is one of the cheapest dive meccas in the world, Ian I decided that we would spend a few days there and I could get my open water certification.
There are many outfits on the Sariee Beach, the main backpacker beach. After evaluating a few, I chose Phoenix Divers mainly because they had a nice looking restaurant and had a pool for Ian to hang out in. Most places wanted 9800 baht for the certification plus free accommodation on the course days. We took a discounted AC bungalow near the pool from the AC Resort for 400 a night and the course was only 8500. This was only $270, a steal compared to the US and I was diving in the Gulf of Thailand rather then the Boston Chinatown YMCA pool.
The course was entertainingly led by Christophe, a Flemish former boys boarding school principle turned SCUBA instructor who told well-timed fart jokes. There were only 5 people in our class which I didn't realize at the time was such a bonus until I saw some of the other outfits with 12 - 20 students. One of the highlights of the whole experience was meeting other travelers.
We went on four excellent dives. One of the other students, Marek, a communications major from Germany, took hundreds of photos of the dives, some of which I posted on Flickr. The amount of fish and diversity of coral was truly stunning. The visibility was perfect, and despite being monsoon season, had no rain. Since Koh Tao is a very young diving area, there were no places with anchor damage or trash. I hope they are able to keep it that way.
The beach itself was pleasant, though this should not be the sole purpose from coming here. The walking brick street was lined with many low-key resorts, Thai and international resturants, and bars. There were a fair amount of people around, so usually a few of the bars would be packed with the fire-twirlers providing much of the entertainment. The only downside about the AC Resort was that it had a totally empty bar that blasted techno until at least 5 AM every night. I heard that it would get crowded later with Thais, but I never saw a sole in there.
Now I'm finally legal. Open water in Flordia and Aruba here I come!
- Nisha
There are many outfits on the Sariee Beach, the main backpacker beach. After evaluating a few, I chose Phoenix Divers mainly because they had a nice looking restaurant and had a pool for Ian to hang out in. Most places wanted 9800 baht for the certification plus free accommodation on the course days. We took a discounted AC bungalow near the pool from the AC Resort for 400 a night and the course was only 8500. This was only $270, a steal compared to the US and I was diving in the Gulf of Thailand rather then the Boston Chinatown YMCA pool.
The course was entertainingly led by Christophe, a Flemish former boys boarding school principle turned SCUBA instructor who told well-timed fart jokes. There were only 5 people in our class which I didn't realize at the time was such a bonus until I saw some of the other outfits with 12 - 20 students. One of the highlights of the whole experience was meeting other travelers.
We went on four excellent dives. One of the other students, Marek, a communications major from Germany, took hundreds of photos of the dives, some of which I posted on Flickr. The amount of fish and diversity of coral was truly stunning. The visibility was perfect, and despite being monsoon season, had no rain. Since Koh Tao is a very young diving area, there were no places with anchor damage or trash. I hope they are able to keep it that way.
The beach itself was pleasant, though this should not be the sole purpose from coming here. The walking brick street was lined with many low-key resorts, Thai and international resturants, and bars. There were a fair amount of people around, so usually a few of the bars would be packed with the fire-twirlers providing much of the entertainment. The only downside about the AC Resort was that it had a totally empty bar that blasted techno until at least 5 AM every night. I heard that it would get crowded later with Thais, but I never saw a sole in there.
Now I'm finally legal. Open water in Flordia and Aruba here I come!
- Nisha
Throwing a Few Brickbats
Just wanted to publicly call out a couple of places in Thailand for what I thought was sub-standard service.
THE WAVE SAMUI
This place was written up in Lonely Planet as the only backpacker type place in Hat Chawang, and the best value in the area. All I can say is that the writer of Lonely Planet must be the owners buddy, because this was my experience:
- An AC room is 800 Baht (a lot for a backpacker joint in Thailand) and is in a concrete building on the main road. At least when we were there, numerous bungalows with beach access could be had for the same amount of money, meaning this is in no way a good deal.
- They have a cockroach problem. I had to kill 2 in our room and when we went downstairs early in the morning before things were open and I saw several scurrying out of our way into the kitchen.
- We got our room and the Thai staff said it was OK for us to come down later to fill in the forms and formally check in. Very standard practice in Asia. We went out to get dinner and did not get back until 11:45. We should have checked in before we left but forgot, but usually in Asia this is no big deal. When we came back to the hotel at 11:45 the western owner busted our balls about how he could not believe we did that, etc. I understand we should have filled out the form, but he made this big deal about how since our bags were there with no form he could get in trouble with the police. Yeah right, that is what Thai police are really looking into 24 hours a day. If it such a big deal with him he should take it out on his Thai staff who let us have the key without checking in.
- Now that it was 11:45 and we had no place to stay he told us that we needed to leave a passport with him. I do not leave my passport with anyone, but he had us by the balls in this situation. When we complained he told us that it was the law on Ko Samui that he had to have a passport for us. This was a lie, the Marriott did not require any passport and I am pretty sure they do things by the book. He just wanted the passport as a security deposit, which is his right but is BS, however, someone should have told us this earlier and we would have gone someplace else.
- There is a stocked fridge and snacks in the room, which is nice. However, he makes you count all the stuff, and there are about 50 items, yourself, and sign this affidavit that everything is there when you check in. What a pain. If you want to run a mini-bar then make sure you count everything yourself. Also, he was charging double restaurant rates for a beer, this was approaching Marriott prices, in a hostel type place. What a rip.
- There is a really loud hooker bar across the street, it is open all night.
SONGSERM FERRY/BUS SERVICE
We needed to get from Ko Tao on the east side of the Thai isthmus to Krabi on the west side. These routes are notorious for bus scams, but we needed to make the trip so I held my breath and bought a 750 Baht ferry/bus combo ticket in Ko Tao. I was shown a picture of the ferry that we would take as well as a large bus that would serve the bus portion of the ticket. I specifically asked if the bus was a big bus or a minibus, I was told big. The ferry part started out OK, the ferry was older and pretty low budget, but perfectly serviceable and fine. After 6 hours (the advertised time) we arrived in Surat Thani on the mainland.
This is where the problem started because rather then a real bus to Krabi we ended up in a minibus (like the big van you take to away games in high school) packed to the brim with backpackers. This was not honest, but at least the ride was OK. The driver was not a maniac, they had DVD movies, and we got the front two seats, which were reasonably comfortable.
My big beef was when we got to Krabi. They drop you off at their little van depot, which is basically just a confined space for accommodation touts to harass you while you try to get your bags off the van. These were Indian style touts as well, very persistent, and honestly a pretty shady crew. The people there also tried not to tell you where you were, so you would not know that you are only .5km from town and do not need their "free" taxi ride. We finally did find out we could walk to town and left.
On the way out I tell the last persistent tout that "I was not going to do any business here". Thais are big about saving face, so you cannot get really mean like in India without people getting upset. However, I thought this was a rather diplomatic way of taking a parting shot before leaving, certainly not telling anyone to "F... Off" or anything like that. Anyway, this greasy slime-bag of a tout follows me for a bit acting all offended and telling me that I better leave quickly. After hearing stories about groups of offended Thais and tourists I decided to walk away, albeit slowly. This last part did not make me any happier about being dropped of in this hornets nest of low life touts however, especially thin skinned ones who evidently cannot be treated with anything but the upmost respect.
THE WAVE SAMUI
This place was written up in Lonely Planet as the only backpacker type place in Hat Chawang, and the best value in the area. All I can say is that the writer of Lonely Planet must be the owners buddy, because this was my experience:
- An AC room is 800 Baht (a lot for a backpacker joint in Thailand) and is in a concrete building on the main road. At least when we were there, numerous bungalows with beach access could be had for the same amount of money, meaning this is in no way a good deal.
- They have a cockroach problem. I had to kill 2 in our room and when we went downstairs early in the morning before things were open and I saw several scurrying out of our way into the kitchen.
- We got our room and the Thai staff said it was OK for us to come down later to fill in the forms and formally check in. Very standard practice in Asia. We went out to get dinner and did not get back until 11:45. We should have checked in before we left but forgot, but usually in Asia this is no big deal. When we came back to the hotel at 11:45 the western owner busted our balls about how he could not believe we did that, etc. I understand we should have filled out the form, but he made this big deal about how since our bags were there with no form he could get in trouble with the police. Yeah right, that is what Thai police are really looking into 24 hours a day. If it such a big deal with him he should take it out on his Thai staff who let us have the key without checking in.
- Now that it was 11:45 and we had no place to stay he told us that we needed to leave a passport with him. I do not leave my passport with anyone, but he had us by the balls in this situation. When we complained he told us that it was the law on Ko Samui that he had to have a passport for us. This was a lie, the Marriott did not require any passport and I am pretty sure they do things by the book. He just wanted the passport as a security deposit, which is his right but is BS, however, someone should have told us this earlier and we would have gone someplace else.
- There is a stocked fridge and snacks in the room, which is nice. However, he makes you count all the stuff, and there are about 50 items, yourself, and sign this affidavit that everything is there when you check in. What a pain. If you want to run a mini-bar then make sure you count everything yourself. Also, he was charging double restaurant rates for a beer, this was approaching Marriott prices, in a hostel type place. What a rip.
- There is a really loud hooker bar across the street, it is open all night.
SONGSERM FERRY/BUS SERVICE
We needed to get from Ko Tao on the east side of the Thai isthmus to Krabi on the west side. These routes are notorious for bus scams, but we needed to make the trip so I held my breath and bought a 750 Baht ferry/bus combo ticket in Ko Tao. I was shown a picture of the ferry that we would take as well as a large bus that would serve the bus portion of the ticket. I specifically asked if the bus was a big bus or a minibus, I was told big. The ferry part started out OK, the ferry was older and pretty low budget, but perfectly serviceable and fine. After 6 hours (the advertised time) we arrived in Surat Thani on the mainland.
This is where the problem started because rather then a real bus to Krabi we ended up in a minibus (like the big van you take to away games in high school) packed to the brim with backpackers. This was not honest, but at least the ride was OK. The driver was not a maniac, they had DVD movies, and we got the front two seats, which were reasonably comfortable.
My big beef was when we got to Krabi. They drop you off at their little van depot, which is basically just a confined space for accommodation touts to harass you while you try to get your bags off the van. These were Indian style touts as well, very persistent, and honestly a pretty shady crew. The people there also tried not to tell you where you were, so you would not know that you are only .5km from town and do not need their "free" taxi ride. We finally did find out we could walk to town and left.
On the way out I tell the last persistent tout that "I was not going to do any business here". Thais are big about saving face, so you cannot get really mean like in India without people getting upset. However, I thought this was a rather diplomatic way of taking a parting shot before leaving, certainly not telling anyone to "F... Off" or anything like that. Anyway, this greasy slime-bag of a tout follows me for a bit acting all offended and telling me that I better leave quickly. After hearing stories about groups of offended Thais and tourists I decided to walk away, albeit slowly. This last part did not make me any happier about being dropped of in this hornets nest of low life touts however, especially thin skinned ones who evidently cannot be treated with anything but the upmost respect.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Take me home, country road...
In the category of things that you would never expect, it is a little known fact that Thailand is in love with elevator music.
Not that I have any big problem with John Denver, but I have heard his songs more in the last 3 weeks then in the previous 3 years at home. The most humorous rendition being from our guide as we walked though the jungle north of Chiang Mai. In fact, we just missed the big John Denver tribute concert scheduled in Chiang Mai later this month.
Mix tapes of 70s and 80s elevator music hits are de rigueur at most classy establishments. If you are lucky these songs are the original versions. If you are not so lucky they are instrumental versions, or even worse, covers sung by a lesser quality Thai singer.
This seems strange until you hear Thai popular music. Basically the only Thai music I have ever heard played sounds like 80s elevator music with Thai lyrics. The stuff is truly horrid and the couple of videos I have seen on TV are even worse. Perhaps this music helps foster the chill, laid-back and happy vibe that people love about Thailand. That being said, I would take some brooding US or UK music any day of the week.
Not that I have any big problem with John Denver, but I have heard his songs more in the last 3 weeks then in the previous 3 years at home. The most humorous rendition being from our guide as we walked though the jungle north of Chiang Mai. In fact, we just missed the big John Denver tribute concert scheduled in Chiang Mai later this month.
Mix tapes of 70s and 80s elevator music hits are de rigueur at most classy establishments. If you are lucky these songs are the original versions. If you are not so lucky they are instrumental versions, or even worse, covers sung by a lesser quality Thai singer.
This seems strange until you hear Thai popular music. Basically the only Thai music I have ever heard played sounds like 80s elevator music with Thai lyrics. The stuff is truly horrid and the couple of videos I have seen on TV are even worse. Perhaps this music helps foster the chill, laid-back and happy vibe that people love about Thailand. That being said, I would take some brooding US or UK music any day of the week.
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Ants, Frogs, and Hooker Bars
I know that I have already posted a blog about our accommodation. However, it was early in our India travels and Thailand has opened up new frontiers in the pitfalls of the cheap hotel.
Rarely are we staying in places that we have a reservation. This is just not that kind of trip. Generally, we read about the accommodation in the Lonely Planet, have a place or two in mind, and then head there when we show up in a new city. Ian or I will stay with the bags while the other one goes to look at the room.
Each of us have a few things that we look for in a room that are essential - a bed, toilet, shower head, and sink. We both ask a few things of the proprietor as well - is there hot water, and is there electricity? Bonus items are a view, windows, a TV, fridge, a shower separate from the toilet room, bedding of any kind, and towels. However, Thailand has a few oddities about the accommodation, which reflect the cheap backpacker clientele that frequents these joints. Here are a few of the more bizarre things we have come across, that never occured to me to ask or look for:
- the presence or absence of a toilet tank - I need to write an entire blog dedicated to this. I could not believe the toilet situation could get worse after India, but it has. (multiple places)
- the presence of a loud hooker bar across the street (Ko Samui)
- a frog pond under the bungalow that sounds like a symphony of off-key oboes (Ko Tao)> I had to sleep with ear plugs in.
- beds that look like mattresses but feel like plywood (Ko Tao)
- Bollywood music being played in the hallway all night (Goa)
- using terry tablecloths blankets (Ayatthuya)
- ant swarms (every beach place)
Just thought you would appreciate the tip next time you are in the market for the $15 hotel in Thailand or India.
By the way, there are many new pics up today.
- Nisha
Rarely are we staying in places that we have a reservation. This is just not that kind of trip. Generally, we read about the accommodation in the Lonely Planet, have a place or two in mind, and then head there when we show up in a new city. Ian or I will stay with the bags while the other one goes to look at the room.
Each of us have a few things that we look for in a room that are essential - a bed, toilet, shower head, and sink. We both ask a few things of the proprietor as well - is there hot water, and is there electricity? Bonus items are a view, windows, a TV, fridge, a shower separate from the toilet room, bedding of any kind, and towels. However, Thailand has a few oddities about the accommodation, which reflect the cheap backpacker clientele that frequents these joints. Here are a few of the more bizarre things we have come across, that never occured to me to ask or look for:
- the presence or absence of a toilet tank - I need to write an entire blog dedicated to this. I could not believe the toilet situation could get worse after India, but it has. (multiple places)
- the presence of a loud hooker bar across the street (Ko Samui)
- a frog pond under the bungalow that sounds like a symphony of off-key oboes (Ko Tao)> I had to sleep with ear plugs in.
- beds that look like mattresses but feel like plywood (Ko Tao)
- Bollywood music being played in the hallway all night (Goa)
- using terry tablecloths blankets (Ayatthuya)
- ant swarms (every beach place)
Just thought you would appreciate the tip next time you are in the market for the $15 hotel in Thailand or India.
By the way, there are many new pics up today.
- Nisha
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Quick Update
This is going to be really quick since Internet here is 2 Baht per minute.
Anyway, we left the circus at Hat Chawang to spend 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Ko Samui. This was us finally spending the Marriott points spoils of Nisha's hell year at Accenture in 1999-2000. The hotel was really top notch. Perfect little sand beach with people filling your water and ice tea cups all day. Nice pool and bar. Excellent food. Jacuzzi tub on your private porch. $20 per hour Internet?
Yes you read that right, thus, no blogging at the Marriott. Honestly, it was not easy to stay under our $100 a day budget, even with the free room. It is not near a town, so you have to eat there, and everything is at normal hotel prices.
From there we took the ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan, near Ko Samui, but known as a backpacker mecca. After having plenty of time to get to see European tourists and the hookers that love them, with the requisite 24/7 trance music, on Ko Smaui, we were looking for something a little more out of the way. We found it on Hat Khom, on the north side of the island. It is a little cove about a 20 minute walk down a jeep track from the fishing village on the north side of the island.
There are 4 little bungalow operations there with about 40 rooms total. All around 300-600 (10-20 dollars) Baht. Bungalows are basic, only have electricity during the night (they have to run a generator) and only cold water. Our porch with 2 hammocks is only 10m from the surf however, and the beach is very nice. Also, there are several little beach bars with good food and cheap Beer Chang. Perfect place to spend a couple of days to really get away from it all.
In fact, I had to walk 20 minutes just to get to this Internet I am using right now.
Anyway, we left the circus at Hat Chawang to spend 2 nights at the Marriott Renaissance Ko Samui. This was us finally spending the Marriott points spoils of Nisha's hell year at Accenture in 1999-2000. The hotel was really top notch. Perfect little sand beach with people filling your water and ice tea cups all day. Nice pool and bar. Excellent food. Jacuzzi tub on your private porch. $20 per hour Internet?
Yes you read that right, thus, no blogging at the Marriott. Honestly, it was not easy to stay under our $100 a day budget, even with the free room. It is not near a town, so you have to eat there, and everything is at normal hotel prices.
From there we took the ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan, near Ko Samui, but known as a backpacker mecca. After having plenty of time to get to see European tourists and the hookers that love them, with the requisite 24/7 trance music, on Ko Smaui, we were looking for something a little more out of the way. We found it on Hat Khom, on the north side of the island. It is a little cove about a 20 minute walk down a jeep track from the fishing village on the north side of the island.
There are 4 little bungalow operations there with about 40 rooms total. All around 300-600 (10-20 dollars) Baht. Bungalows are basic, only have electricity during the night (they have to run a generator) and only cold water. Our porch with 2 hammocks is only 10m from the surf however, and the beach is very nice. Also, there are several little beach bars with good food and cheap Beer Chang. Perfect place to spend a couple of days to really get away from it all.
In fact, I had to walk 20 minutes just to get to this Internet I am using right now.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
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.
- 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.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Planes, Trains and Songthaews?
Just wanted to share the details of our 26 hour journey from Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand to Ko Samui, a resort island in southern Thailand. Hopefully this will be the longest travel day we ever need to subject ourselves to. For the record you can fly but it is at least 200 dollars a person, which our budget does not allow, so for under 100 dollars a person we did the following:
Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.
Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.
Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.
Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.
Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.
Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.
Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.
Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.
We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.
Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.
Thurs. 8th 15:00 - Take uneventful tuk-tuk ride to the train station.
Thurs. 8th 16:30 - Board overnight train to Bangkok in Chiang Mai. We have 2nd class sleeper, which is pretty nice, you do not have a private room, but you have your own private bunk. There is a nice wide bed and a guy comes out with fresh sheets and blankets and makes the bed for you. Had a good night sleep on the train.
Fri. 9th 7:00 - Get off train at Don Muang airport station. This is Bangkok's old airport with is only used for a few domestic flights, so spend a long time walking around the now abandoned international terminals to find the domestic terminal. Whole place feels like a time warp to 1988.
Fri. 9th 10:00 - Board flight to Surat Thani, the nearest mainland city to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 11:30 - Get off plane and get on bus to take us to downtown Surat Thani.
Fri. 9th 12:00 - Arrive in Surat Thani and get lunch of fabulous roast duck from a local Thai street type place. Also, get combined bus/ferry ticket to Ko Samui.
Fri. 9th 13:30 - Board bus to take us the 55km to the ferry. Nisha unintentially pisses off English girl behind us by reclining in the seat to take a nap. Brit bitches under her breath and we laugh about her later. I guess only she has the right to recline her seat on a bus.
Fri. 9th 15:00 - Arrive at ferry dock and get on ferry to Ko Samui. It is an old Japanese setup, so it takes me a minute to figure out why I know what some of the signs mean even though I don't speak Thai. Good to know a little of my Japanese stuck.
Fri. 9th 17:00 - Arrive at Ko Samui. Can't pay 500 Baht for cab to take us across the island to Chaweng beach, so take a songthaew for 100 Baht each. We are the last ones on so Nisha gets a seat and I end up standing on the tailgate platform hanging on to the roof rack bars, with a local Thai guy. This is actually a much better place to be since Nisha ends up being squished by the same difficult English girl from the bus.
Fri. 9th 18:30 - Our 40 minute ride to the other side of the island takes and hour and a half due to flooding from the recent rains. Really aggravating when you are in town for 30 minutes but don't want to get off since you can't figure out where you are. Finally check in to hotel.
We were mentioning on the way that this trip would be my Mom's worst nightmare. Not only because of all the modes of transportation, but the fact that only on the train and the plane did we actually have reservations.
Needless to say, a day of bumming around on the beach is going to feel pretty good.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Mobile Dining
There is no such thing as an authentic Thai restaurant.
OK, that might be a strong statement, but the dining culture around Thai food is really something quite unique. In the first 10 days we have been here we have not seen a "Thai" restaurant that does not cater almost exclusively to foreigners. Rather, Thai food is almost exclusively served in numerous carts which appear on the streets sometimes at lunch time but usually around dusk. Some carts are free standing, but others are a scooter sidecar. The carts are also thankfully accompanied by plastic chair and table setups, also on the street. At most there are restaurants that are just a few tables in a storefront which has a permanent kitchen set up on the sidewalk.
It is very strange because there seems to be no fancy Thai food. Everything at all these places only costs 20 to 40 baht (50 cents to a little over a dollar). Don't get me wrong, the food is often very good, but it is unusual that eating with motorbikes and buses buzzing past you is the pinnacle of authentic Thai food, at least outside of someones house.
The other odd thing is that many places, especially the ones that are a storefront with a sidewalk kitchen, do not have a menu. It seems that basically Thais just walk up and order something from a list of standard Thai dishes that everyone should know how to make. It is almost like going to someones house and someone just asking you what you would like, assuming you know the ingredients that are present in the average American kitchen and what is reasonable to cook.
The best approach we have been able to take when eating at the food carts is to first walk down the sidewalk behind the row. If you cannot read the signs telling you what type of cart each one is, the affords you the opportunity to see what equipment and ingredients they have, and what type of food they likely prepare. For example, if there is a big vat of broth, it is likely a noodle soup cart. If they have a big wok, then they probably specialize in fried rice and pad Thai. Hotel trays of curry mean that curry of top of rice is a popular option.
I know to people at home it probably seems gross to be eating, very often, from food carts in a developing country. However, so far we have had a lot of luck with these carts, never having any problems at all. The one nice thing, and perhaps why Thais consider this the normal means of dining out, is that you can very clearly see the cleanliness of the area where the food is prepared. Usually it is very clean, much better then most Indian or low end American restaurant kitchens that I have snuck a peek into.
The only catch is what happened to Nisha when she was hungry. She pointed at a cart of fruit and said she wanted to go over and have a snack. However, before we made it over the proprietor fired up his scooter, and the sidecar full of fruit was soon speeding down the road.
OK, that might be a strong statement, but the dining culture around Thai food is really something quite unique. In the first 10 days we have been here we have not seen a "Thai" restaurant that does not cater almost exclusively to foreigners. Rather, Thai food is almost exclusively served in numerous carts which appear on the streets sometimes at lunch time but usually around dusk. Some carts are free standing, but others are a scooter sidecar. The carts are also thankfully accompanied by plastic chair and table setups, also on the street. At most there are restaurants that are just a few tables in a storefront which has a permanent kitchen set up on the sidewalk.
It is very strange because there seems to be no fancy Thai food. Everything at all these places only costs 20 to 40 baht (50 cents to a little over a dollar). Don't get me wrong, the food is often very good, but it is unusual that eating with motorbikes and buses buzzing past you is the pinnacle of authentic Thai food, at least outside of someones house.
The other odd thing is that many places, especially the ones that are a storefront with a sidewalk kitchen, do not have a menu. It seems that basically Thais just walk up and order something from a list of standard Thai dishes that everyone should know how to make. It is almost like going to someones house and someone just asking you what you would like, assuming you know the ingredients that are present in the average American kitchen and what is reasonable to cook.
The best approach we have been able to take when eating at the food carts is to first walk down the sidewalk behind the row. If you cannot read the signs telling you what type of cart each one is, the affords you the opportunity to see what equipment and ingredients they have, and what type of food they likely prepare. For example, if there is a big vat of broth, it is likely a noodle soup cart. If they have a big wok, then they probably specialize in fried rice and pad Thai. Hotel trays of curry mean that curry of top of rice is a popular option.
I know to people at home it probably seems gross to be eating, very often, from food carts in a developing country. However, so far we have had a lot of luck with these carts, never having any problems at all. The one nice thing, and perhaps why Thais consider this the normal means of dining out, is that you can very clearly see the cleanliness of the area where the food is prepared. Usually it is very clean, much better then most Indian or low end American restaurant kitchens that I have snuck a peek into.
The only catch is what happened to Nisha when she was hungry. She pointed at a cart of fruit and said she wanted to go over and have a snack. However, before we made it over the proprietor fired up his scooter, and the sidecar full of fruit was soon speeding down the road.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Adventures in Northern Thailand
After Ayutthaya, we headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city and the cultural capital. This, like Goa, was on everyone's "must see" list of Thailand. On paper and in the book it sounded great - an abundance of outdoor activities, plenty of bars, and a laid-back atmosphere. What this amounted to was a sort of European spring-break. Do you really need to walk around a foreign country in your swim trunks? There is no beach for hundreds of miles. Initially, we planned to do a 2-3 day trek or bike ride. However, we didn't feel comfortable with the types of tours available. Many of them read like this:
Day 1: trek through Long Neck village, bamboo raft down a river, see elephants at work, sleep in a Lisu village.
Day 2: visit Monkey Farm, trek through Big Ear tribal village, mountain bike through national forest, swim in waterfalls, sleep in Hmong village.
Day 3: more of the same
You get the picture. Too many activities, too long on a tour bus for our liking. We rented a car and took a road trip north with no particular destination in mind, only a Northern Thailand road map.
Our first stop was in interesting orchid farm. I can't believe I even try to grow orchids in New England after seeing their success. Next was the Queen's Botanical gardens. The first thing I would do if I were Queen after abolishing poverty and disease, would be to decree such a spectualr botanical garden. The place was about 100 artfully and naturally manicured acres featuring waterfalls, a herbal walking trail, and glass houses. The highlight were the several glass greenhouses holding an orchid collection, desert landscape, carnivorous plant house, water garden, and bromielad house among a few. The tropical greenhouse held a specimen of the largest palm tree in the world.
We stayed at a lovely bungalow style guest house called Malee's, with a killer Thai buffet at night made by Malee herself. We started our explorations of Chiang Dao with a visit to the famous caves and then a dip in the natural hot springs.
It is evident from being in Thailand for a short time that their love for the King and Queen is rivaled by their love of elephants, their national animal. Many Thais have turned this love into a business. There are at least a dozen "elephant training camps" around the Chiang Mai province. Some of these are actually conservation centers that have hospitals and work on elephant husbandry. We tried to sign up for a 3 day course with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center but they were full. However, the majority of these seem to be the Thai version of an elephant circus. We visited the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp with some trepidation as I had heard that elephants in some of the camps are mistreated, but I wanted to see for myself. The elephants did look healthier than your average city living elephant in India. They were in a very natural setting, no concrete and plenty of water and food. The morning was spent watching the elephants bathe, feeding them, and then were were presented with basically an elephant circus. They raised the flag, bowed for us, moved logs around, picked up trash to demonstrate the agility with their trunk, and painted.
The part I have a problem with is that these are billed as "elephants at work" by every Thai person. I saw no working or training. Also, why when logging with elephants has been banned for 100 years in Thailand, do these animals need to work? The elephants at the Mudumalai park at least were moving logs to be used as fuel for their own dinner. They actually had work to do as well - to herd wild elephants away from villages. There are no wild elephants in this area or logging. How is using a endangered animal to pick up trash training??? Of course money is the motivating factor. These elephant camp stops are on every tour and the vast majority of the people there were on a tour. Also, if it was called a circus, no one would want to come. I am glad that they are treating the animals well, births are occurring, and they are raising awareness for the animals. If you go to a camp, just know that you are really going for a circus show.
On the same note as the elephant circus, visiting the tribal villages seeming like a human circus. There are about 8 different tribal villages that have settled in this area from Tibet, China, and Myanmar. The government has either provided them with refugee camps or land dotted with villages. The Long Neck village is actually a village of Burmese refugees near the border that wear many gold rings around their necks. I was interested in visiting a few of the villages. However, I don't know if it is the bad translation of the brochures, but all the treks made it out to seem that you were visiting a human zoo or circus. Instead we hired a local guide in Chaing Dao and visited a few villages in the hills around our guest house. They were the poorest people I have seen in Thailand so far. There were 5 different tribal villages on the same road that all spoke a different language. All their kids went to the same school to learn Thai, which will probably result in the death of their indigenous languages. They all lead agrarian village lives and supplement their income from selling their colorful textiles to tourists.
Our guide's friend named Mr. Moon, then lead us on a trek through the jungle near Chiang Dao mountain. As it had raining the previous 3 days, the waterfalls were beautifully swollen and the paths muddy. Both Ian and I had the feeling that we were in an American Vietnam War movie. Actually, the Deer Hunter was filmed near here. There was no Charlie to shoot at us, only Mr. Moon who showed us how to make a potato-gun-like device out of 3 pieces of bamboo.
With so much to do in Chiang Dao, we never made it farther. But the beauty of the road-map-road-trip is the found in the journey.
- Nisha
Day 1: trek through Long Neck village, bamboo raft down a river, see elephants at work, sleep in a Lisu village.
Day 2: visit Monkey Farm, trek through Big Ear tribal village, mountain bike through national forest, swim in waterfalls, sleep in Hmong village.
Day 3: more of the same
You get the picture. Too many activities, too long on a tour bus for our liking. We rented a car and took a road trip north with no particular destination in mind, only a Northern Thailand road map.
Our first stop was in interesting orchid farm. I can't believe I even try to grow orchids in New England after seeing their success. Next was the Queen's Botanical gardens. The first thing I would do if I were Queen after abolishing poverty and disease, would be to decree such a spectualr botanical garden. The place was about 100 artfully and naturally manicured acres featuring waterfalls, a herbal walking trail, and glass houses. The highlight were the several glass greenhouses holding an orchid collection, desert landscape, carnivorous plant house, water garden, and bromielad house among a few. The tropical greenhouse held a specimen of the largest palm tree in the world.
We stayed at a lovely bungalow style guest house called Malee's, with a killer Thai buffet at night made by Malee herself. We started our explorations of Chiang Dao with a visit to the famous caves and then a dip in the natural hot springs.
It is evident from being in Thailand for a short time that their love for the King and Queen is rivaled by their love of elephants, their national animal. Many Thais have turned this love into a business. There are at least a dozen "elephant training camps" around the Chiang Mai province. Some of these are actually conservation centers that have hospitals and work on elephant husbandry. We tried to sign up for a 3 day course with the Thai Elephant Conservation Center but they were full. However, the majority of these seem to be the Thai version of an elephant circus. We visited the Chiang Dao Elephant Camp with some trepidation as I had heard that elephants in some of the camps are mistreated, but I wanted to see for myself. The elephants did look healthier than your average city living elephant in India. They were in a very natural setting, no concrete and plenty of water and food. The morning was spent watching the elephants bathe, feeding them, and then were were presented with basically an elephant circus. They raised the flag, bowed for us, moved logs around, picked up trash to demonstrate the agility with their trunk, and painted.
The part I have a problem with is that these are billed as "elephants at work" by every Thai person. I saw no working or training. Also, why when logging with elephants has been banned for 100 years in Thailand, do these animals need to work? The elephants at the Mudumalai park at least were moving logs to be used as fuel for their own dinner. They actually had work to do as well - to herd wild elephants away from villages. There are no wild elephants in this area or logging. How is using a endangered animal to pick up trash training??? Of course money is the motivating factor. These elephant camp stops are on every tour and the vast majority of the people there were on a tour. Also, if it was called a circus, no one would want to come. I am glad that they are treating the animals well, births are occurring, and they are raising awareness for the animals. If you go to a camp, just know that you are really going for a circus show.
On the same note as the elephant circus, visiting the tribal villages seeming like a human circus. There are about 8 different tribal villages that have settled in this area from Tibet, China, and Myanmar. The government has either provided them with refugee camps or land dotted with villages. The Long Neck village is actually a village of Burmese refugees near the border that wear many gold rings around their necks. I was interested in visiting a few of the villages. However, I don't know if it is the bad translation of the brochures, but all the treks made it out to seem that you were visiting a human zoo or circus. Instead we hired a local guide in Chaing Dao and visited a few villages in the hills around our guest house. They were the poorest people I have seen in Thailand so far. There were 5 different tribal villages on the same road that all spoke a different language. All their kids went to the same school to learn Thai, which will probably result in the death of their indigenous languages. They all lead agrarian village lives and supplement their income from selling their colorful textiles to tourists.
Our guide's friend named Mr. Moon, then lead us on a trek through the jungle near Chiang Dao mountain. As it had raining the previous 3 days, the waterfalls were beautifully swollen and the paths muddy. Both Ian and I had the feeling that we were in an American Vietnam War movie. Actually, the Deer Hunter was filmed near here. There was no Charlie to shoot at us, only Mr. Moon who showed us how to make a potato-gun-like device out of 3 pieces of bamboo.
With so much to do in Chiang Dao, we never made it farther. But the beauty of the road-map-road-trip is the found in the journey.
- Nisha
Those Ransaking Burmese
After showing up with Delhi Belly, Ian and had a slow start into Thailand. We saw a few of the temples and the Grand Palace (like Thailand's Buckingham Palace) while waiting for our visa to Vietnam to be granted. The largest draw was the world's biggest reclining Buddha, so enormous that he can barely fit in the building. Bangkok was a pleasant, clean city with horrendous traffic and a pleasant backpacker's neighborhood (Banglamphu) that looked like Bourbon street with more hookers.
Our first stop out of the city was the sacked city of Ayutthaya, one hour north of Bangkok. The spiritual and political capital of Thailand was here until the 1700's when it was ravaged by the invading Burmese. Not only did they torch all the structures in the city and looted the gold, but they also went though the trouble of knocking down about half of the large brick and stone structures resulting in the still standing ones to lean as if in the middle of an earthquake. Thai archaeologists then unearthed some large vaults of gold and a relic from Buddha in the 1950's. However, the city was unable to protect itself from modern day looters and thieves who pilfered the rest of the treasures. It was a shady area to stroll through and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most visited area was a stone Buddha head that has been overgrown by a Banyan tree at the Wat Phra Mahathat, a very sacred sign in Buddhism. Of course Ayutthaya has their ridiculously large Golden Buddha as well. I don't understand why Buddhism here is celebrated with such opulence when the teachings of Buddha, as I understand them, shun such displays of wealth. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be appreciative.
Our next stop, Chaing Mai..
Our first stop out of the city was the sacked city of Ayutthaya, one hour north of Bangkok. The spiritual and political capital of Thailand was here until the 1700's when it was ravaged by the invading Burmese. Not only did they torch all the structures in the city and looted the gold, but they also went though the trouble of knocking down about half of the large brick and stone structures resulting in the still standing ones to lean as if in the middle of an earthquake. Thai archaeologists then unearthed some large vaults of gold and a relic from Buddha in the 1950's. However, the city was unable to protect itself from modern day looters and thieves who pilfered the rest of the treasures. It was a shady area to stroll through and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The most visited area was a stone Buddha head that has been overgrown by a Banyan tree at the Wat Phra Mahathat, a very sacred sign in Buddhism. Of course Ayutthaya has their ridiculously large Golden Buddha as well. I don't understand why Buddhism here is celebrated with such opulence when the teachings of Buddha, as I understand them, shun such displays of wealth. If anyone can shed some light on this, I would be appreciative.
Our next stop, Chaing Mai..
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