Thailand Take Two

When I was planning on joining Kathryn and Christian on their Southeast Asia trip, I intended on meeting them halfway through their journey. However, when I asked Christian how they were getting from city to city  (and country to country), he said, "We'll figure it out when we get there."

That sounded nuts to me. How do you not plan ahead? How was I supposed to find them? After being in Southeast Asia, I understand how much easier it is to book train and bus tickets while there.

My dad had a week of meetings in Bangkok and suggested I tag along. Uh, yes please. He extended his trip in Thailand so we had a five days to travel after the conclusion of his meetings. The cheapest flight had me arriving in Bangkok before his meetings were over so I had one week to travel alone.

I didn't expect to be back in Thailand so soon. I was there less than two months ago prior just starting an epic journey through a sampling of Southeast Asia with Kathryn and Christian.

Bangkok

When I first got to Bangkok, my goal was to find my way to Phuket or Luang Prabang, Laos.

I spent my first night in one of the top hostels in the world. When I was doing some last minute research on Phuket right before bed, I ended up on a travel forum of best places to visit in Thailand. It convinced me to ditch my current plans.

Also, since had to meet my dad back in Bangkok in a week, I didn't want to go too far from the capital city. I decided to keep things simple and head to cities around Bangkok that are smaller and less touristy.

Nine hours after I found out a city by the name of Phetchaburi existed, I somehow ended up there.

Phetchaburi 

When I got off the minivan, I couldn't find a motorbike driver that knew where my guesthouse was. (The city is small they don't have taxis or even tuk tuks.) I couldn't find any person that spoke English. After forty five minutes of a failed game of gestures, a man summoned his friend who was wearing a shirt that read "Tequila! It's five o'clock somewhere." That's the kind of man I trust. He translated for me and I got dropped off at my guesthouse.

When I arrived at Sabaidee Resort, I expected to check into a room with a fan. The owner told me she ran out and only had bamboo bungalows left. It was the first time I've slept with a mosquito net. I tried to blog from my bungalow but changed my mind when fifty some little bugs covered my computer screen as soon as I boot it up. 

First + third world problem?

The next day the guesthouse owner arranged to have a tuk tuk driver take me to Thailand's largest national park-Kaeng Krachan. I am sure it is beautiful and has many animals but I wouldn't know. The driver didn't speak a syllable of English and after only thirty minutes in the park, he took me to a temple. (Typical.)  I wish I was a Buddhism scholar so I would have a better understanding of the countless temples I've seen. I feel ignorant that after a while all the temples look the same to me. Sorry, Mom. Don't get me wrong, they are beautiful. But Thailand has over 10,000 temples. I was already "templed out" from the last Southeast Asia trip.

After the failed trip to the national park, I rented a bicycle to go to the Khao Luang caves.

There were so many monkeys outside the caves.

I didn't read anything about the caves. The owner of the guesthouse told me I had to go because "it is so beautiful." I shouldn't have been surprised when I saw many Buddha statutes inside.

Kanchanaburi 

The next day I rode a minibus (with an aviator wearing monk riding shotgun) to Kanchanaburi to visit Tiger Temple and Erawan Park.

I got to my hostel at 1:15pm. As I was walking to my room, I started chatting with a man from Germany. Our conversation was cut short because he mentioned he had to catch his 1:30pm tuk tuk to the Tiger Temple. I chucked my bag in my room and hopped onto the tuk tuk with him. Talk about good timing.

Visiting Tiger Temple was a strange experience. Click one of the links if you want to know what the Tiger Temple is but the Cliff Notes version is -- monks take care of tigers. The tigers are in a canyon for five hours a day to meet with tourists. When it is your turn, you are escorted by two staff members. One takes your camera to take your picture with the tigers. One takes your hand and guides you through the canyon. I was too excited and tried to keep wandering around the canyon solo. That is frowned upon.

You can choose to take "regular photos" or "special photos." This is the special photo that is supposed to cost an extra 1000 THB (33.55 USD). For some reason they let me do it for free. A staff member said, "sit here so I can put the tiger's head on your lap." Sure, I will oblige.

Because the tigers barely move, some think they are drugged. Some think they are calm due to magical monk mojo. One of the volunteers eloquently stated, "They are just lazy as shit." They have a slow metabolism and it was ridiculously hot. I wanted to just lie around in the shade too.

On my second day in Kanchanaburi, I caved and booked a tour. I usually don't like doing tours but it made things much easier.

We went to Erawan National Park which is home to a seven tier waterfall. It is the dry season so there wasn't much water. It was gorgeous so I cannot imagine what it looks like during the wet months. I hiked up to the top level with a German girl named Isa. She also is 23 and traveling alone through Thailand. When we were discussing future travel plans, we discovered we wanted to take the same path to go to the same cities. If I didn't have to meet up with my dad, I would have traveled with her.

I love waterfalls and as an added bonus, you can swim at each level.

Remember the fish foot pedicures I mentioned in my Southeast Asia post? That type of fish was present at each of the waterfall levels. When I first stepped on a partially submerged rock, a fish started nibbling on my foot. I, of course, freaked out, spazzed, and fell into the water. It is the strangest feeling. I do not like it and I didn't want them biting my feet. As long as you keep your feet moving, they won't touch you. Later I tried to do that and smashed my foot into a rock so hard I started bleeding. Typical.

You normally have to pay for the nibbling fish so some people sat patiently and got a free fish pedicure. Others were not given a warning about the fish. It was highly amusing to see and hear their reactions.

We swam at several of the levels. The cool clean water felt refreshing, and I could have stayed there all day. One of the waterfalls even had a rock you could slide down into the pool of water.

After spending time at the waterfall, we went to an elephant camp for an elephant ride and bamboo rafting. I felt super cheesy but my touristy ride on an elephant was fun.

We then took a ride on the death railway to the River Kwai Bridge. I talked to an Italian lady about the bridge. She hated the food carts and shopping stalls set up next to the bridge.

"It's as if there were tourist shops next to Auschwitz."

This reminded me of my problem with an elementary school next to the killing fields. Same same... but different.

There were several Chinese tourists at bridge. While using one hand to balance the coconut they just bought from a food vendor, they used the other hand to snap pictures of the bridge.

Some tourists sat on the tracks and had a friend take artsy portraits for them.

Is this good or bad? I don't really know.

From Kanchanaburi I wanted to continue onto Sangkhlaburi and Three Pagoda Pass. At Three Pagoda Pass, you can get a one day Myanmar visa. I decided it wasn't worth the hassle so I headed to Bangkok a day early. 

Bangkok

One of my favorite parts of traveling is how different  things can be from one day to the next.The breakfast at my dad's hotel was more expensive than two nights in my bamboo bungalow. Don't worry. I convinced the hotel to give me breakfast for free.

That night I went to a Thai cooking class with my dad and we learned how to use a mortar and pestle to make green curry paste. It was tantalizingly fragrant. We also cooked tom yum soup, pad thai, and pomelo salad. Yum. 

The next day was my dad's final round of meetings. After getting advice from the bell boys about where to go, I decided to take a day trip to Pattaya.

In Pattaya I took a ferry to Koh Lan. It was one of the most beautiful beaches I have been to. However, it was swarming with tourists. My fault. I should have done more research. I blindly trusted the bell boy because he said it was his favorite beach and went just last week. There are so many beaches in Thailand that if you look, you can find exactly what you are looking for. They have guide books just about the Thai beaches. 

After doing the beach thing for a bit, I wasn't feeling it so I decided to head back to Bangkok.

I found a tuk tuk to take me back to the bus station. The woman riding shotgun said to name my price. "20 baht." She nodded and waved for me to get in. I got a mini-driving tour of Pattaya because they had to drop off other people first. When we finally got to the bus station, I tried to pay her 20 baht.

"No, no, no. 200 baht."

She was yelling at me for not paying. I'm stubborn and do not give in easily. It is one thing if the ride was supposed to cost 200 baht. The same service from another tuk tuk that morning cost me 50 baht.

The driver started yelling at me too. "Monkey! You get in. We go police now."

The lady got out of the car and grabbed my wrist. "Police now."

The day before, I learned from some tourists that the locals call tourists "monkeys" because they are hairy. Who knew my lesson on Thai slang would come in handy so soon?

Yes, it sounds like a great deal of hullabaloo over not much USD. I don't like being taken advantage of because I'm a tourist. I honestly believe she understood the difference between 20 and 200. I think she was trying to scare me into paying more. Although, a trip to a police station (or jail) in a foreign country would have been an interesting cultural experience, she wouldn't have actually taken me to the police, right?

When I travel I think in terms of the local currency. In Southeast Asia if you think in USD, you'll always pay too much. If you think in USD in New Zealand, you will go hungry. Sure, I when I look at prices I consider how much USD it costs... and RMB and HKD. Anyway, that's a blog post topic on its own.

So, I have been trying to figure out how they come up with transportation fees in Bangkok. It cost me 125 THB (4.19 USD) to get from Bangkok to Pattaya. She claimed the tuk tuk from the beach back to the bus station cost 200 THB? What?! According to my three weeks of travel in Thailand, it is much cheaper to travel between cities than within cities.

In the end I ended up giving her 50 baht which was all the change I had. I heard them yell "monkey monkey monkey" as they drove off.

On my last day of traveling alone, I stayed in Bangkok to hit up a couple museums before our flight to Chiang Mai.

Many people think I'm nuts to travel alone. The way I see it is that any and all places are dangerous in some way. Hell, it can also be dangerous if you travel with people.

After the Connecticut shootings, people in China told me not to go home because I would get shot to death. You can get killed and kidnapped anywhere. That's no reason to live in fear. That doesn't mean I walk down sketchy dark alleyways (that often). As a famous lion once said, "Being brave doesn't mean you go looking for trouble."

Three things I'm grateful for:

1 Traveling with my dad.
The two of us had never taken a trip together and I'm grateful for the opportunity to spend time with him. Before the trip he said he was excited to to experience how I travel.

2 Kindness of random Thai people
When I was wandering around Phetchaburi, I passed a dessert stand. I stopped, duh. I didn't speak a word of Thai and the lady running the stand didn't speak a word of English. I pointed at the miscellaneous blobs on banana leaves and tried to ask what it was. She was unable to explain. You try using gestures to act out Thai sweet egg custard (which is what I later found out it was). She handed me one of the servings. Free dessert?! I wish I could have given her a hug. The one she have me was so good that I bought another serving. She picked one out for me. I am not sure what it was but it tasted good. That's all that matters, right?

3 Things wrapped in banana leaves
This one is related to number 2. Things in banana leaves are just tastier. I'm pretty sure this is a universal truth. Everything I had that was in or on a banana leaf was delicious.

I also ate things that looked and tasted just like a Chinese 粽子. It very well could have been Chinese. Chinese or Thai, it doesn't matter. If you haven't had 粽子, try one. If you are remarkably lucky I may even make you one. (Lucky not because the ones I make are particularly good. Lucky because they are a hassle and a half to make.)

Thailand Take Two Part Two: Chiang Mai with Dad up soon