Tue, 25 May 2004 - Thailand: Bangkok to Bangkok
Dear All
It seems like a funny title, doesn't it? Bangkok to Bangkok. But that the way things go here. Everything comes in and out of Bangkok especially when you cross from south to north and vice versa. I've crossed the south like a child spinning recklessly just to get dizzy. I went to Ko Pha-Ngan by mistake.
I rarely ever use travel agents anymore except during time when the government service is unusable (i.e. like in an oppressive country like Myanmar) but this time I did. Buses coming out of Khao San Road are actually cheaper than those from the government and I was amazed at the quality it offered. Not only were the seats soft and comfortable but the ride of the baby bottom smooth roads was like sleeping back in the womb. I am still amazed at the comfort, quality and well set infrastructure this country offers especially after coming from countries where the roads are never finished. This is an easy country, people keep telling me, and now I know why. From any agency you can have your entire commute planned and organized with the appropriate sticker glued to your shirt to indicate the distance you've purchased your ticket for. There is always a price for convenience and this time is come in boredom.
The bus, which awkwardly stopped at 11pm for dinner, made an early arrival at the ferry to Koh Pha-Ngan. This is a place that only farang, the semi-derogatory Thai name for westerners, go to since it is all the essentials a two week vacationers need: sun, sand and sweet FA. We were re-stickered with the appropriate boat sticker and color and then onto the island. My first impressions of the island flashed me back to memories of Goa's Arambol Beach with white sands, emerald green waters and Israeli food everywhere. This is the two-week holiday-er paradise. The curved sand side faces miles of warm waters with palm trees surrounding the topless backpackers as they discuss the world of Thai that they care little about. The jungle enclosed beach of Haad Rin, the one famous for it's Full Moon Parties, was lightly scattered with bathers as they take in the last of the sun before the unfortunate monsoon hits on this side of the Gulf of Thailand. Like in Goa, you can waste your days pleasantly reading, sun-bathing or watching movie after movie in overpriced restaurants. Unlike Goa, the streets are paved and not just dirt paths, there isn't a sewer running through the middle of the beach and the entire beach is cleaned every morning by the beachside restaurants -- a marketing idea that Indian's don't have. I, oddly, spent little time on the beach. I was in the mood for partying and reserving my sandy time nothingness to the end of my trip. I came for the full moon but...
I had mistaken the Full Moon on the calendar for the Black Moon (stupid black circle!) so this is the party I went to. This rip off of the commercial real thing was basically a heavy trance party with glowing cobweb over-hangings surrounded by psychedelic art that twisted in the black light for those who were took measures to be twisted. Again, memories of Goa filled my mind and by 3am, when the girl I was traveling with had had too much, we left back home. It was strangely uneventful and not the beachside super-party I had expected. I will miss the Full Moon but maybe catch it again near the end of my trip if my budget allows it. The hotels take full advantage of the situation by raising the prices by double and one insisted we eat a 300 Baht meal before the party. I eat usually for 30 Baht per meal so this seems a little extravagant. This is the land where the Thais truly don't like us. This is where they feel free to screw us for every Baht we have. This is the land where the only locals on the island are those in the tourist trade. There was one exception -- I met the doctor of the private clinic to Haad Rin.
Dr PP took me out for dinner on both nights that we met. He was the only person I really talked to here which is peculiar as I often socially butterfly around in western tourist traps like this. He told me that Buddhism, the religion that consumes 95% of this country, is studied in medical school but its ethics are questioned highly and that they are debated and sometimes considered wrong. The world of free thinkers is confided to the highest levels of education since, as Dr PP mentioned, his nurse girlfriend can't think for herself and needs to be instructed around to be happy. He has often asked her to be more free willed but without success. The respect for those in authority is almighty in Thai life leading then to have a strong sense of family bond and value. He will not be able to marry her. He has found another anyways but has not told her. The new girl is a doctor as well but doesn't live on the island so it is too early to break up with the first one. Infidelity is universal. Dr PP is a wonderful man who I gained much respect for and changed my view that all Thais hate westerners. Thais are generally nice people, like all those in Asia, with the minority who do business with us distorting the entire picture. Dr PP was the first Thai I met who talked openly about Thai life to me, especially on the medical angle, but I met many foreigners that interested me more. I realize now that I have been traveling for so long that you cannot learn about a culture to any real extent in a month or more. You need to integrate and learn the language which requires time. My new passion here, seeing as how Thailand is more west that east, will now be how westerns live in this new world of alternate thought.
I have met many people living here for several reasons. Some have Thai relationships and support themselves on their saving, some start businesses which require a Thai connection (often a lawyer to co-sign on everything) and some work teaching English. All have their different perspectives on the Thai world and their connection to it. My first encounter was a British man who found a Thai girlfriend, not uncommon here, and was planning to live together once he came back from the UK. She speaks very little English and he speaks even less Thai. So what is going on here? What do these two have in common to keep them together if they cannot communicate with each other? I found this out on my way off the island.
I left the island pretty angry. Hila, the Israeli girl I met on the bus there and shared a room with, told me that I "was like a child and immature" and "that she couldn't understand why any girl would want to be my girlfriend or wife". She couldn't explain why she said this and told me her English wasn't good enough for reasoning. She apologized when I got upset but caring not for an apology for an unprovoked insult. I walked off in an immature huff preparing to leave the next morning without her. The moral, I convinced myself, was that life is too short to spend it with people who don't appreciate you. The next day I caught the ferry to the mainland where I met a cute Thai girl who asked me if I had a girlfriend. When I answered no she giggled and told me how she couldn't believe it and that it was impossible. The pieces clicked together. In their home country, westerners cannot score even if the net is uncovered and the goal wide open. Here, we, er, they become Olympic superstars even without a minute of training. For the men, having a Thai woman is the lowest maintenance relationship you can have with some girlfriends insisting on spoon feeding their boyfriends and giving hourly Thai massages. Sorta concubine like. For the woman, the color of the man's skin means something which at first glance means money, passport and a better life for the women that offer themselves to them. There is attraction on some level and nobody is getting hurt since this is all consentual so I don't want to make this seems like it is a forces plastic relationship. All relationships are based on personal gain. Some are just for different reasons. But does this story work the other way around (i.e female westerner to male Thai)?
I found an Australian girl who was living and working in the cocohuts of Khao Sok National Park. This is one of many National Parks in Thailand but this is one of the best. I got pulled in by the touts to a nice bungalow and by the next night I was prepared to trek. Trek? Do I trek? I don't have the right shoes or the right mentality. Often I find that I end up wanting to go back to shower half way through the trek but I decided that a few hours in the jungle would be good especially now that it is low season. I was soon proved wrong.
The morning shone bright as the sun ripped bits of rays through the jungle canopy holes. I managed to avoid the 200 Baht cover charge by finding a back door to the national park which added to my content. The first kilometer was easy. The paved stairways lead to wide dirt paths that were filled with jungle noises. I saw no animals which makes sense. Animals are multilingual. The monkeys listen to the birds. The birds listen to the frogs and the frogs listen to the insects. The Insects, being the most omnipresent animals on the planet, know all (more than Hindu cows) and know when danger comes. They will scatter appropriately away from the oncoming threat which signals the frogs who ribbit a warning to the birds who translate that call to the monkeys. The monkeys who speak bird, flee away from the foreign invader. For this, all I saw of wildlife were the mosquitoes, who use the calls to their advantage, and the leeches, which found a fine dinner between my toes. By the time I had reached the desired waterfall, told to be 11 leveled and magnificent but was only five meters tall and 9 leveled at best, I was dirty and frustrated. I managed to lose the path several times as it shortened to life threatening thinness which angled off to treacherous hillside below. I nearly died several times and came to the conclusion that being under prepared, under skilled and under-equipped was a bad idea for someone like me to go trekking alone. The jungle was a mess of giant leaves, bamboo and spiky tree branches that I always seem to grab when I tried to stabilize myself on the path. I rested at the water fall. The necessary break and the feeling of completing my journey were very cathartic until it started to rain. Of course
The first scam I encountered here in Thailand was at the Surat Thani bus terminal. They told me I would have a non air con bus with a seat to myself but I discovered that I was just put on a government bus. I realized this when I saw a ticket collector on the bus took money from the locals. Only government buses do this. I luckily only paid twice the price but I have heard of others paying up to ten times. Lesson learned and now I know what a government bus looks like. I hate travel agents. I don't go to them unless I know I can get a better deal. This was the way to Khao Sok but I decided to go to Krabi (pronounced gra-bee) for no reason but to fill my time.
I am not in the mood for beaching yet. Sitting on the beach doing nothing is for those who sit and struggle in their offices everyday dreaming of doing nothing. I am on my year long trip to do something. My nothing will come at the end. I skipped Ko Samui because it is very expensive and I passed Ko Tao because it is for divers -- something else I don't do. So I went to Krabi to see what's up and nothing else.
Krabi, the town, is a nice place with little traffic and few people in the low season. You are harassed by taxi and boat drivers but this I understand as most don't work these days. There is everything you need here from ATMs to night markets. There are hotels and traveler-related everything here but little is used and most places are empty like caves. I came to this town to see something called Diamond Cave which, after the effort of waiting for the boat to fill to capacity, I made it to Riley beach and saw the cave, a 20 minute look was enough, which had nice limestone stalagmites and a orange waterfall made of stone which I expected to be crystal as the compound is quartz -- silly assumption on my part. I left Krappy, er, Krabi the next day and now I am in BKK.
Thailand has less and less appeal to me as I travel it. There is no Taj Mahal or Bagan. There is no marvel of human achievement or some natural wonder. The beaches are the best I have ever seen and the diving must be great but so far nothing here has impressed me. I am trying not to be defeatist but, as my friend Brad put it, Thailand is a "resort town". The food here comes in small portions for some reason and often I must order two dishes. The only impressive thing of this place is how tight the cop uniforms are as the strut down Khao San Road. They look like 1970's Village People wannabees (I prefer the Indian myself). I must get one of those suits before I go.
I expect more from the North. I will head there today without sleeping a night in Bangkok. Overnight from Krabi to BKK then overnight to Chiang Mai. The bus ride to Chiang Mai cost 30 Baht -- a lure to get you to go to their hotel when they stop the bus. I am not fooled by this one but will take advantage of it anyways.
Next to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai then Pie and into Laos
Well, things have changed. I often write these newsletters in two parts. One day to write it and another day to correct and think over the letter. Since my first part, I discovered, thanks to Kent, that it is better to get a visa in BKK than at the border so I will get my visa, wait three days for it, and head to Kanchenaburi to see the Bridge over the River Kwai and a Tiger Temple where you can pet real tigers. I will come back to BKK on Friday then off to Chiang Mai...
Be Well
Oren Jalon
World Traveller
This message is brought to you by M-150 -- the super juice compeditor of Red Bull that comes in a glass bottle making it look like medicine but actually is just a mixture of neutral sythetic chemicals, lots of sugar and caffeine. I still drink it daily.
