Bangkok and Chiang Mai
June 26, 2008This past week has been really busy, running around everyday. Last Friday morning I got picked up at 5:30 to go up to Ranong to get my new visa. Took about 4 hours to go from Phuket to Ranong, then we boarded a ferry, got off the ferry, sat in the immigration booth on the resort island owned by Myanmar, then got back on the ferry 10 minutes later to go back to Thailand. Then we got some lunch and I got dropped off at the bus station at about 1pm. The overnight bus to Bangkok didn’t leave until 9pm so I dropped off my huge 50+ pound army bag in the police box at the bus station and walked around Ranong for about 2 hours. The bus station lies across the river from the actual city, so I walked over the bridge and into the ‘city’. There isn’t anything to see, so if you have to wait like I did, I guess you can get some exercise in the hot weather but there isn’t anything to see. So after my trekking I went back towards the bus station and went to this place called Kiwi Orchid. It is in the Lonely Planet guide book. It was right in front of the bus station, it is yellow, can’t miss it. It was nice to have a place to relax, eat some food, banana shake, or watch tv if a movie is on. Better than sitting at the bus station. Eventually it was time to catch the bus and I got on the VIP bus. It wasn’t anything special, just seats that recline pretty far, but since I usually sleep on my stomach I didn’t get much more than 10 minutes of sleep at a time.
I arrived in Bangkok at like 5am…I was going to call my mom’s ex-student, Eve, but seeing as how it was 5am on a Saturday…didn’t want to wake her up. So I sat on my luggage for a while and ended up talking with this guy from Liverpool. Once I got ahold of Eve around 7am we both shared a cab from the Southern bus station to the main train station, Hualumphong. There are pretty much 2 train lines, one to the North that stops at Chiang Mai and one that goes East to Ayudayaphet (or something like that). There is one that goes South but I don’t think it leaves from Bangkok. Don’t hold me on that. So anyway, I got my ticket to Lak Si station, close to Eve’s house, and she was like “Hurry, it leaves in 1 minute.” So I picked up my 50+ pound army bag and did a 100m sprint down the terminal with a fireman’s carry. I threw my bag on the train and jumped on as it started to pull off. That was a great start and introduction to the fast paced lifestyle of Bangkok.
Saturday, Eve took me to this outdoor/indoor (if you count metal roofing as indoor) market where people just sell trinkets, bags, silks, cottons, ect. There are only 100 of the same types of shops. I got a big North Face backpacking bag for 1200 baht, about 36 dollars. It was something at the top of my list to get since I am backpacking around now, instead of staying in one spot. The bag is usually $150-200, granted my bag is 90% likely a knock-off, but I looked at the stitching and felt the durability of the bag and I’m sure it’ll be fine. Can’t wait to eat those words in an upcoming entry! The next day, Eve’s dad took us to a muay thai fight that was being filmed for tv. We got VIP seats next to the ring, normally 1500 baht ($45), for free!! Her dad used to fight and used to be a trainer and knew the people at the place really well so they just let us in. Sweet. It was a fun time and good fights. I picked the winner for the first 3 fights so decided to bet on the 4th fight. I bet 200 baht ($6) and thought my guy was going to win, but the other guy started coming back…Luckily it was a split decision and so it was a tie, I got my money back. It’s pretty funny, people have all of these hand signals to bet and their odds. There is no betting counter to get a receipt or anything, people just bet each other and one person or a 3rd party holds their money.
After the fight, Eve and I went to Siam Paragon shopping mall, the most expensive mall I’ve ever seen. The first stores I saw when I walked in: Valentino, D&G, Armani (suits, not just AE t-shirts), and pretty much any high-end designer brand you can think of. Those were like the only stores in the mall, other than Starbucks and McDonalds. Actually there were like 6 floors but it was expensive so we didn’t stay. We went to eat at A&W Rootbeer. I know right? I’ve seen at least 5 in Bangkok so far, I haven’t seen more than 3 in America ever. So it was nice to get a huge draft A&W root beer, my most favorite drink ever. Then we went to MBK mall. This was a 6-floor mall as well, except it just had about 5 million small boutiques of people selling cell phones, cameras, electronics, t-shirts, trinkets, ect. Pretty much anything. It was cool to look for unique stuff and get deals. Which brings me to a short segment:
How to Haggle in Thailand
Thai people are extremely sensitive to haggling and take everything personal. They don’t like to lose face in front of other people. This is how you get the price down: “How much is this?” “250 baht” “Do you have a discount?” Say this gently and soft to avoid catching attention of other customers. “OK…220 baht.” “Hmm..that’s still a little high, can you give me more discount?” “No no 220 baht” Then look at it like you want to buy it, hold it, examine, feel the material, then reluctantly say, “Well…that’s ok” And when you walk out, if they can really give you more of a discount they will stop you and say “Ok ok, for you 200 baht.” If they don’t say anything, there are 100 other stores with the same thing. It seems strange to just straight up ask for a discount…as I am pretty sure this won’t be the case when I am in India. I will have to be much more aggressive then.
So then later, my friend Zack came from Nepal. He is teaching English in China and was visiting friends from Denison in Nepal for 2 weeks. Now he is here in Thailand with me traveling around. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we walked around Bangkok looking at temples. I highly recommend Wat Pho and the Grand Palace (which includes Wat Phrakaew). Other than that, just walk around. We saved money by walking about 2-3 miles back to the BTS Skytrain instead of taking a Tuk-Tuk from Khao San Road. Khao San Road is the backpacking HQ of Bangkok. If you are desperate, you can probably find a room there. There are a lot of good shops there as well. MRT Subway and BTS Skytrain are the best ways to get around the city. It is only like a dollar at most to get from one end of the line to the other. I don’t mind walking, so we just walked to places that the trains didn’t reach. Bangkok isn’t dangerous. I haven’t been out walking at night so I can’t really comment about that but it isn’t like thugs are following tourists around with baseball bats and brass knuckles. It reminds me of any major city in Japan.
One thing I also learned is never take things from people on the street handing stuff out. Like they might say “Here, release this bird for good luck!” Then you do it and they are like “100 baht.” Another one is “Here, feed this corn to the birds.” I took it and then he was like “50 baht” “No, here” I tried to give it back to him and he wouldn’t take it back so I dropped it on the ground and walked away. He was appalled, his face was actually in shock. An example of people being overly sensitive. To avoid getting into the situation, just don’t take things from people.
Wednesday night we got on the train at 9pm to go to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, there were no sleeper cars available so we got to take seats all the way there for 10 hours…It was like the VIP bus all over again. We watched a movie then tried to sleep but it was to no avail. I just drank a Red Bull when we arrived though. While Zack had to go to the bathroom I started talking to this lady who had a place to stay. She had pictures and spoke pretty good english and it was only 100 baht ($3) per night. So she took us to her place and there was a guy who worked there during the summer from Cleveland, Ohio. The place ended up being really good and we got a room there. I highly recommend the place as it is cheap, clean and the people who run it are all really nice and helpful. It is called Ticket-2-Asia. It is on the northeast corner of the inner city. Let me explain. The core of the city is surrounded by a moat. So things are either inside or outside the moat. It isn’t a big city at all, no public transportation (just cabs, pick-up truck cabs and tuk-tuks). I wouldn’t necessarily recommend going here actually. It wasn’t all that great. Just temples to see and after walking around Bangkok for a few days you kind of get ‘templed-out’. We took a whole day to just walk around the city and saw more than enough. We did go to Doi Sutheph, which is a temple up on the mountain, about 16km from the actual city and I think it is at the tallest point in Thailand. It had a neat view of the city, which would have been better in the high season I think since our day was just overcast. To get here people will ask 500 baht to take you there, stay for an hour and return to the city. RIP-OFF. If you go with a group or just walk to the north edge of the moat, right in the middle there is a big gate and just sit there until you have about 4 or 5 people and a pick-up truck will take you there for 50 baht one way. Then, when we were done we just walked out of the temple and a guy offered 50 baht to take us back down, just the two of us.
The second day in Chiang Mai we took an adventure trip that was 800 baht. This is how it was described, “Takes about an hour by minivan to get to the jungle. Then we go through the jungle for half an hour to reach the hill tribe. Then you walk to a waterfall where you can swim around and relax for a little. Then you walk to the elephants and ride them for an hour and then get on bamboo rafts and ride down the river for an hour.” As with most things, it didn’t live up to all that it could have been. It did take an hour to get up to the place where we walk to get to the hill tribe. It did take 30 minutes to walk up the mountain and then it took an irreversible turn for the worse. To put it in terms Americans might understand, it was like visiting a small group of menenites when you are supposed to go see an amish community. It was just a tourist trap with like 5 people selling scarves and pillow cases. There was a shed with some ‘historical’ artifacts, such as tools to extract and purify opium and ‘tobacco’ pipes, which where actually marijuana pipes made out of bamboo, according to our guide. The hill tribe thing was pretty lame. Then we climbed back down, got into the van and went to another village where some ladies were making scarves. Who ever knew scarves would be so popular in a place that doesn’t ever get cold or snow. Another tourist trap and guilt trip. “You buy scarves and help dah peepool of da villahge. They poor, have no mahney. 3 days to make one scarf.” Then we drove to the waterfall. No, you couldn’t swim and it wasn’t a classic ‘waterfall’. It was something I could have, and have, seen at Hocking Hills. Then we got on the bamboo raft, which only lasted 30 minutes. It was really cool and fun though. 5 minutes down the river I was goofing around and pretended to smack my face on a big tree branch which resulted in losing my balance and falling into the water…which happened to be like 1 foot deep and I thought it was at least waist high. I managed to crawl back on the raft and enjoyed the rest of the short journey down the river. It would be something fun to do with friends, like canoeing but on a long skinny bamboo raft. Then we got on the elephants. That was fun but I was hoping for something more scenic than just spending the whole 45-50 minutes going up and down hills in the jungle. I wanted to see some open countryside in the valley as well. The last leg of the journey was fun though, we got to walk through the river on the elephants. I was hoping one elephant would spray someone with water but they didn’t. And, since we went on the bamboo rafting right before the elephant ride I couldn’t bring my camera or video camera for fear of them getting wet and ruined so I couldn’t get any video or pictures of riding on the elephant, which I was reallllly bummed about. I didn’t even get to get my picture taken ON the elephant because this Dutch couple wouldn’t get off the elephant to let other people take pictures, and then the elephant riders were anxious to get the elephants back. I did get to feed the elephant bananas though, I stuck them right in its mouth. The elephant’s tongue was really slimy and cool. Then we got to ride back in the van for about 1 hour. If I would go there again it would be to rock climb. Outdoor stuff is about the only thing they have there, hill tribes (sucked…), rock climbing, ATV off-roading, kayaking, white water rafting, ect.
We walked from the moat all the way to the train station which took about an hour. It wasn’t bad and we didn’t have anything else to do at 8pm.
So, to recap:
Bangkok: 4 or 5 out of 5.Things to see: Wat Pho, Grand Palace (which includes Wat Phraekaew), Khao San road (all of these places are in the same general area and within walking distance to each other). Siam and MBK malls for shopping. Walk from Siam to Khao San area. It is fun and interesting to just walk through normal streets of Bangkok where there aren’t any tourists, just Thai people going about their daily lives.
As far as eating, I’m sure a lot of people say this but I would recommend somewhere where Thai people are eating. Not some restaurant in Siam shopping mall, but someplace on the way to Khao San from Siam on a side street or something. I have learned to eat food, not just macaroni and cheese and pizza. I like the spiciness of Thai food.
Also, you’ll see lots of food venders everywhere and the fruit is always soooo fresh and juicy, more so than America. I’ve never eaten so much pineapple as I have here. it just tastes so fresh and has lots of juice. It is like 10-20 baht for a big bag of pineapple, watermelon, whatever fruit you want. I also like to buy the fried chicken that street venders are selling, it tastes really good and I haven’t gotten the runs from it.
Chiang Mai: 2 or 3 out of 5.Things to see: Doi Sutheph Temple, walk around the city? Isn’t much to see…Just walk around and go to some temples. There is actually this one temple that is really worth going to. It is behind a new temple but the temple I am talking about is in ruins.
Don’t go see the hill tribe, it isn’t as great as you make it out to be in your imagination. It’s no National Geographic.
Tonight I went clubbing in Bangkok with Z-bag, Eve and her friend. We took a cab to Route 66. It was a SWEET club. Had four sections: north, south, east and west. Each one was a different style of music. There was house music, one room was playing some swing music? The place we were was just usual club music: rap and hiphop. It was interesting because there wasn’t a dance floor. What would be a dance floor in America was filled with standing tables where ‘waiters’ would come and you would order a bottle of whiskey (most common and cheapest). Then they also supply water, tonic, soda, ice, pepsi. It was interesting and had a lot of fun! Way better than Sugar or any bar in downtown Columbus.