Thailand is a backpackers mecca. It's name means: 'land of the free,' and it's nature is no different - a place where anything goes, and there is something for everyone. From the noisy, fast-paced city streets of Bangkok; to the jungle wilderness of Chiang Mai and the north; to the sun drenched, peaceful shores of Koh Phangan, that turn into world famous beach parties by night. Whatever your fancy - you'll likely find it in Thailand. Travellers can spend their days shopping in bustling and colourful markets of locally made treasures; riding elephants and playing with tigers; drinking mai tais on secluded beaches until sunset, and dancing to rhythmic beats until sunrise; touring ancient buddhist temples by tuktuk, and ending the day with a thai massage; or loosing themselves in sois drinking singha and whiling away the hours.
There isn't much the traveller really needs to bring to Thailand - but a few things are essential: an open mind, a calm disposition, and a sense of adventure! So far, Karlos and I are 10 days into our one month south-east asia adventure. And so far, we've tasted it all...
Bangkok!
Our first stop, as it is for most people - was Bangkok. Oriental City. A large, sprawling, coughing, spluttering, monstrosity of a city - full to bursting with cars, motorbikes, tuktuks, and people. So many people. All with somewhere to be in a hurry. And so much noise. The city never sleeps. It never stops. It is hot, humid, dirty, smelly, and chaotic. It can take you twenty minutes to cross a road if you don't bite the bullet and make the step. Thai's don't seem to believe in pedestrain crossings, indicating, or, in fact, road rules of any kind. 'Health and Safety' is clearly not a Thai concept - few of the cars have seatbelts, for example - but it is a friendly place, and you can't help but smile, and relax, amidst the chaos. It works.
Everyone wants to help you out, know where you're from, know where you're going, and, most importantly, take you for a ride in their tuktuk! The first time I visited Bangkok was 5 years ago, and it intimidated me. This time I was a lot more confident, fierce almost, and therefore found it a lot easier to get around. The Thai people are friendly alright, and keen for you to enjoy their country - but they also want your tourist dollar. It pays to carry a map with you, know where you want to go, and know how much you are willing to pay to get there. Bartering is expected. Part of the experience. And travelling by tuktuk is fun - exhilerating whizzing in and around and through traffic, with the wind in your hair - but the best option by far is to flag down a taxi, and insist they put the meter on. We found out, after a day of being in the city, that distances we were paying tuktuk drivers 120baht to drive us, were in actual fact only around 40baht according to the taxi meter. Live and learn! 120baht is only NZ$6 after all... ;-)
Our first night in Bangkok we wandered up the street to find a restaurant. We had only walked a few metres before we found one, decided "that'll do," and went in. A small, softly spoken Thai lady, with excellent English, gave us our menus and bought over cold drinks. The menu was vast... my method of opening the menu at random and picking the dish in the centre of the page was a winner - a delicious chicken and vegetable stirfry appeared for me. Karlos' meal came a little while after mine - clearly as mine was ready first! No silver service here! - and we ate our food, drank our beer, whilst watching the day turn into night outside. Stall holders stood on street corners, cooking delicious smelling meats, and passers-by would stop to purchse their dinner - eating it sitting at brightly coloured plastic furniture at the side of the road. Stray dogs wandered past, paused for a scratch before moving on. Pedestrians moved in a city waltz - sidestepping motorcycles that pulled out of side streets, leaping over holes in the pavements, and zigzagging across 4 laned roads in-between the traffic. We stayed in the restaurant long enough to watch the heavens open and a monsoon downpour wash the streets, lightening the air. We walked back to our hotel that night, chugging on bottles of beer, and darting from one awning to the next to avoid the rain. We fell asleep to the quiet hum of our room's fan, and the belching of the night sky as she thundered all night long.
We stayed in Bangkok for a couple of days - exploring the malls for cheap wares, and the temples for a feigned attempt at being cultured and interested in buddhism. First stop was the mall though - MBK, as apparantly is was the best place for a bargain - and we spent best part of a day getting lost in there. Very easy to do - literally! MBK has 7 floors and each floor is like a rabbit warren, you can turn a corner and instantly forget where you came from. We bartered with salesmen and women for the best prices on dress (for me) and shorts (for him) until we were bartering just for the fun of it I think, long after our desire to actually purchase anything had gone. Neither of us are social shoppers - we're the get in, get out QUICK kind - but the experience was certainly one to have. Even the food court was a fun experience - no McDonalds, Subway, or Dunkin Donuts - this is hardcore oriental food, only for the thick stomached. I selected something that resembled chicken, but tasted more like pork... but I won't think more of that... Actually, the most stomach turning part of our day at MBK... was Karlos' ecounter with the feeding fish. A tank of fish that, when you put your feet into their bowl, EAT your dead skin away. That's right! The Thai's actually charge you for this bizarre torture.
Day two involved a trip to the tailors before our temple visit. On the way home from MBK the previous day, in another monsoon downpour, we were succumbed into visiting a "varrry gooood" tailor by our entrepenurial tuktuk driver. Who, by the by, had a VERY distinctive bodily twitch and such a nervous disposition that we really weren't sure of his capability to actually get us home in one peice. Still, we got in anyway(!) and allowed him to take us to the tailor. What harm could it do - I knew him taking us there would mean he would get a petrol voucher, and we would get a cheaper tuktuk fare, so 'what the hell.' And, as it goes - it was actually worth the sidetrack. Karlos was really impressed with the quality of the fabric and designs, and he ended up purchasing 3 tailor made shirts, and 3 sets of trousers ("just like James Bond!") for just NZ$300. He was stoked. We also managed to get a free beer out of it - so we were both stoked. Our tuktuk driver had to honour his "if you buy suit then tuktuk free" promise - and would likely get a much larger petrol voucher because of it - so the three of us were stoked. And the tailor... you get the point!
And so, after collecting Karlos' custom-made clothes (trying them on to find them a perfect fit and me wolf-whistling) we made our way to The Grand Palace. The mother of all temples. To be honest - as far as temples go - yeah, it's great. But we were totally uninterested in this. Let me set the scene - it was 30-odd degrees, humid as a sauna in the jungle, and we had to bustle about with around 10 billion other tourists, wearing FULLY sleeved and trousered clothing. Apparantly this is a sign of respect. To who, I ask. Buddha? Because I'm sure the big B-dawg would rather his people cool and breezy when they come to hang out with him - not sweating themselves slowly to death. I don't know - maybe I'm missing the point and being catty - the heat does horrible things to me...
And so there we were. Surrounded by giant, gaudy, multi-coloured temples, glittering in the blazing midday sun - watching hoards of other visitors sprinkle water over their heads with large, bulbous, flower-type things; rubbing Buddha bellies; burning incense; taking off their shoes and entering the temples in order to press their foreheads to the ground in front of an emerald Buddha figurine... and we were like... ooooo-k! All we can do is sweat, and think "once you've seen one temple - you've seen them all"... and so we readily accepted the notion that 'this is not our thing,' and left the palace better off for having 2 visitors less, our money anyway, and off we went to de-robe somewhat - baring our naked shoulders and knees for the rest of Bangkok to see.
After a bustling couple of days we slowly allowed ourselves to sink into Thai culture, tolerating the heat, humidity, noise, and pollution with calm and grace... but before Bangkok consumed us completely - we bought train tickets to Chiang Mai, and got the hell outta there!
To Chiang Mai, and the north... !
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