“Thailand” translates to land of the free. Siam, the former name for the country, means
the land of smile. And from a
tourist-marketing standpoint, the second one is better.
Actually, the land of smile is not unfitting for
Thailand. Graced with beautiful beaches
and rainforests, cheap prices, cheap medical care and a lax legal system when
it comes to pleasures like sex, alcohol and flying lanterns, Thailand has set
itself up as the ultimate tourist destination of Eurasia.
On the plane flight over, Annika, who is sitting next to me,
faints. After waking, she is still
disoriented, prompting the flight attendant to call overhead for a doctor. A nice doctor from Miami comes back from
first class to help. For anyone who is
curious, this is one of my arguments for why I want to be a doctor summed
up.
Arriving in Bangkok is a real shock after India. The airport is filled with Caucasians and
East Asians (read Japanese, Chinese and Korean). The line for Thai passports is deserted, to
the point where the worker comes over to help with the international
arrivals. I get stopped at passport
control because my arrival sheet does not have a departure sheet attached, and
I am forced to refill it out. Julia left
her phone on the plane, but the airport staff quickly return it to her. Like India, Thailand is a place where people
will bend over backwards to help you. Perhaps
an extension of the famous eastern hospitality.
Marty warns us that such services are not free, and that we should
always tip.
On the bus, around 9pm, we are welcomed by “Sam,” our tour
guide for the next 24 hours, with a bow and a grin that seems artificially
big. Which makes me a bit wary of
him. But it is not artificial, and I am
a bit wary of him. India has made me
suspicious of overly friendly people. But
this is not India. This is the land of
smiles, and Sam is doing his best to get 18 sleep-deprived people excited about
Bangkok.
We arrive in a hotel that looks like a 6-year-old girl
designed it. But it has a pool and free
wifi, and the staff is extremely chill.
That is another eccentricity of Thailand. For the most part, people are very lax about
everything. You want to check out late?
No problem! You want to store your stuff
here for a week? No problem! You want to
stay an extra night? No problem! You
left your key in your room? No problem!
They also have the wonderful policy that if someone says “never mind,”
the topic in question is never thought of again. There is some confusion about lost bus
tickets? Never mind. Here is a new
ticket.
The next morning, Sam takes us to the Royal Palace, a
complex of living, administrative, and religious buildings. It is an odd mix of Thai, Chinese and European
decoration. My favorite is the Thai
colored glass. The main temple plays
host to the Emerald Buddha, which is dressed in gold clothing that reflects the
season. Thailand has been blessed with a
huge amount of precious stones and gold, and walking through the palace museum
rivals a walk through the tower of London’s vaults.
A boat ride across the river and we are exploring another
Buddhist Temple with some of the steepest steps that we have encountered on
this trip. Almost all of Thailand is
Buddhist, and it shows. But for the all
of the austerity that Buddhism preaches, the temples are extremely ornate.
After lunch, we are free for a week. Cassie, David and I have decided to travel to
Chiang Mai on the night train. But ops,
the train is not running. Sam stays and
helps us figure out a bus alternative.
We try to tip him, which he only excepts after our insistence. When we get to the bus station, we find out
that the bus is full. Can we wait until
tomorrow? No, we have nowhere to
stay. The bus station makes some calls,
and soon we find ourselves on a shuttle bus to a different bus station and on a
private bus to Chiang Mai. We also book
tickets for the way back. We are given
blankets, snacks, and a voucher for free food at a rest stop half way.
Chiang Mai is best described as Ely on steroids. Its proximity to the rainforest makes it a
jumping off point for everything from trekking to zip lining. It is also a RIYP haven (Random International
Young People), whose average age appears to be 27. We met a lot of people from around the world
at our hostel, mostly on vacations. The hostel where we are staying is a family
owned, out of the way place. Only the
husband and wife speak English well, but the girls (one is only 8 years old)
are helpful to the extent they can be.
The wife becomes our main liaison.
She calls taxis for us and makes sure that they give us a good price,
straightens out reservations for some of our last minute escapades, and answers
our endless questions. Every morning the
family cooks breakfast for anyone who wants it (fried egg and toast). The family even helped us out with a couple
of bigger issues, but I am getting ahead of myself.
Because we took the bus, we arrived earlier than
expected. The hostel stored our bags,
and told us to take some bikes and explore Chiang Mai. They also gave a simplistic map. A couple hours and several one-way streets
later, we are hopelessly lost and off the map.
In an act of desperation, we go into an insurance agency’s office to ask
for directions. They end up calling the
hostel, which sends a truck to pick up the bikes and us. The insurance people will not accept a
tip. They are just being helpful. The girl who picks us up asks how on earth we
got here. We aren’t sure. We ask her if this has ever happened
before. She says no. Well, first time for everything. That evening, we go out for Italian for
Cassie’s birthday.
The next day we go white water rafting. In Chiang Mai, most companies will pick you
up from your hotel/ hostel. We are
picked up around 9am, and drive far up into the forest. We get to base camp just in time for lunch
(most places will also feed you extremely big and delicious meals). After a quick safety lesson we are thrown in
a raft with a British couple and our raft guide and are sent down level 3 and 4
rapids. We get stuck a couple of times,
we flood the raft twice, we almost lose our guide once, we go swimming a couple
of times, we pull each other in the water, and we have splash wars with the
other rafts. After a few hours, we get
to the end and get cookies and pineapple.
After a power point of humiliating pictures, we get back in the van that
picked us up. But we are not headed
home. We stop at a gas station, where we
meet another van that takes us up into the mountains. We have a homestay tonight. We are put up in a nice couple’s house in
what I am guessing was once their children’s bedrooms. They speak no English, and we no Thai, but
other than that they are wonderfully nice.
She is an amazing cook. We go to
bed early. The next morning, up early
for zip lining. 3.1 miles of zip lining.
Our guides love to mess with us.
Actually, that turns out to be pretty universal. All of our guides love to mess with us. Which is awesome and fun.
That night was Thailand’s festival of lights. The sky was filled with flying lanterns. The creator of movie Tangled must have
visited Thailand. We bought two, one we
let off in memory of Cassie’s grandfather.
We managed to stumble upon a huge fireworks show. We met a British man, who told us that this
year the festival was a little smaller because the country was technically in
morning of a prominent monk that had just died.
I have a hard time imagining how the festival could have been any
grander than it already was. I will just
have to come back some time.
Next day are elephants.
We are going to an elephant rescue, which apparently rescues elephants
from abusive owners. Although the
conformation email says 8:45, the truck shows up at 8:30, leaving us scrambling. In the morning, we feed elephants and learn
how to ride bare back. We have lunch,
then we go out for a trail ride. Although we are the ones that are supposed to
be controlling the elephants, in reality it is the Mahouts, the elephant’s
individual trainers that are doing most of the work. We soon give up trying to use the commands
that we have learned, and instead just go along for the ride. At the end, we give the elephants a bath, and
begin an all out free for all water war with the Mahouts and the other people
in our group. A quick shower, and we are
done for the day.
Tuesday is tiger day.
We head to Tiger Kingdom, a reserve where they breed tigers to help
preserve the gene pool, and so that tourists like us can see them. And pet them. And snuggle with them. We start out with the 2 month olds, which are
the size of house cats, and end with full grown 16 month old tigers.
That evening, all of the globalites who are in Chiang Mai
get together to celebrate Cassie’s birthday.
It was very nice to see everyone again, and we spend the evening
together.
Wednesday morning is chill, and we go out for an American
brunch. I get chocolate chip pancakes
and a mango smoothie. Actually, I have
had about a smoothie a day in Thailand.
It is a vacation after all. In
the afternoon we go to a spa for a Thai massage and hot herbal press. It is heavenly.
Arriving back at our hostel, we try to decipher the return
ticket we have. It doesn’t have a time
on it, which is a little disturbing. After a confusing phone call, the husband
owner of the hostel takes David on his motorbike to the bus station. Apparently our ticket had, for some reason,
been invalidated. The husband argued
long and hard for us, and we got a new ticket without having to pay for it. After this, the three of us caucus. We were going to tip the hostel owners
already, but how much? We agree on about
1,000 Baht. It was about what we paid for one person for any one of our
excursions, about $30 or so. But it was
also about what we paid in total for our hostel stay. Needless to say, the wife was stunned. But we were adamant. We had been so much trouble, and they had
helped us so much, it was only fair. She
would not take such kindness lying down.
She paid for our taxi to the bus station, despite our protests. It was a good, Minnesota style kindness
competition.
But it does bring to life the wealth discrepancy even within
Chiang Mai. We could easily spend close
to 1000B on almost every activity that we did, but to our hostel owners it
seemed like a ridiculous amount of money.
Thailand might be growing rich off tourism, but it is not even by any
stretch of the imagination.
So here we are, on the bus again. They served us a strange green drink that
tasted like bubble gum. Actually, there
are a lot of weird herbal drinks here.
It is pointless trying to ask what they are, since the answers usually
are something to the extent of “its an herb found in the mountains.” Thanks, that is so helpful.
Overall, Thailand has left me feeling warm and fuzzy. Chiang Mai might be one big tourist trap, but
it is the nicest tourist trap I have ever seen.
People were always nice and helpful, and in general were not trying to
rip you off. Except maybe the tuk tuks
(auto rickshaws). No one hawked products
at you on the street. No one creepily
followed you. And despite Marty’s
warning, very few people expected tips, although we were sure to tip whenever
it seemed appropriate.
I am sad to leave Thailand.
It has restored my faith in humanity, which was much needed after
walking through parts of India. But we
must keep moving forwards! Tomorrow we are off to Hong Kong
No comments:
Post a Comment