Sawadee! That's Thai for "Hello!" In 3 weeks I learned to say that and "Thank you". It was a great trip, very busy, and I've acquired a couple of new skills along the way.
I arrived in Bangkok late in the evening. On the bus into the city I met an English woman and we strolled up and down the infamous Khao San Road looking for a guesthouse. It's the opening scene of the novel "The Beach", and a very strange place. It's like somebody took Surfer's Paradise away from the Queensland coast and dumped it in the middle of Bangkok. It's full of backpackers. The sidewalks are almost impassable because on one side there are shops, restaurants, internet cafes, and travel agents (some places are all these and more), and on the other there are stalls selling souvenirs and food. If somebody stops to buy something, everybody else has to stop and squeeze past. At any given moment, there will also be new arrivals with backpacks attempting to negotiate these paths, and people showing off their disabilities in the hope of a donation. (I'm sorry if that offends, but that is really what they're doing - why else would they be busking in the middle of backpacker central, like a tourist attraction or a circus act? I realize that I'm probably opening a big can of worms by talking about this...)
Progress is slow. The alternative is to walk in the street, which many people do. It's quite wide, but you have to be careful not to get run over. Actually, not getting run over is a major accomplishment when crossing any road in Bangkok, and it ain't easy in Chiang Mai either! Also the tuktuk drivers are constantly asking where you're going, in the hope that it's somewhere that you can't walk to and you'll let them take you for a fee.
The guesthouse we found was a decent family-run place, cheap and fairly quiet. But I wasn't crazy about Bangkok - I found it intimidating and threatening after Tokyo (Japan is a "safety country", after all) and I had no interest in sightseeing, only in getting away. I found the tourist information office without getting run over, and with a minimum of harassment, aside from the one tuktuk driver who took advantage of the fact that I had to wait to cross the road, to offer to take me somewhere I wasn't going. The tourist information office gave me some nice brochures about Chiang Mai, and told me when the buses and trains left, but completely misinformed me about which city bus to take to get the bus terminal. Fortunately they also gave me a bus map. After looking at it carefully, I double checked at the guest house as I was checking out and got the right info.
Thai buses are funny, especially in the city. They barely stop except when a LOT of people are getting on board. At the Democracy Monument there are 2 bus stops - one on each side of the road. All you have to do is watch for the bus you want and flag it down. The conductor walks around carrying a metal tube full of ticket rolls and cash. She rattles it up and down the aisle, looking for new arrivals to collect from.
At theÊbus terminal I had to spend some time looking for the buses that would actually leave the city. Once inside the other terminal building, getting to my destination of Ayutthaya turned out to be a whole new puzzle. I walked up to ticket windows that said "Ayutthaya" above them but if they weren't closed, the person behind the glass pointed me further along the building. I was almost out the other end when a woman in a uniform took pity on me and led me on board the right bus.
It took a couple of hours to get to Ayutthaya, and the bus didn't stop where I'd expected, according to my map. Some men were waiting when I got off the bus and I thought they were touts but all they wanted to do was look at my map and help me get oriented! First impressions can be deceiving...I checked out the place I'd noticed in the LP, but it was full so I asked the owner for a recommendation. "Clean" was more important than "cheap" (none of them are very expensive, after all, especially by Japanese standards) but she gave me one in each category. I was very happy with the "clean" one.
In the guesthouse that evening I met Duncan, from Australia. We went to the night market, but by the time we'd waited for the rain to stop, it had pretty much shut down. We cycled around the town the following day. At the museum we kept bumping into groups of young soldiers taking a tour. They looked very sharp in their perfectly-fitted uniforms, but I bet if they tried to raise an arm they'd rip something. The uniforms fit so perfectly that they appeared to have been sewn onto the guys' bodies. We also visited Wat Mahathat, one of the ruined wats (temples) that Ayutthaya is famous for. (The city's collection of ruined wats is actually a World Heritage Site.) A group of young monks had come to talk to foreign visitors. It's a project that is frequently assigned as part of their education, not just monks but other students too, and we spent a long time chatting with him.
That evening we noticed that a guesthouse near ours was showing the Bledisloe Cup rugby match - Australia vs NZ. Of course, we had to watch it. I cheered for NZ, since I figured most of the rugby team I had joined back in Tokyo would be upset to learn otherwise. But Australia won, so Duncan was happy. When we left, a gang of dogs was hanging around in the street outside. There are a lot of dogs in Thailand who seem to have no owners and nothing better to do than talk to each other at the top of their voices in the middle of the night. Despite the heat, I shut my bedroom window that night for some peace and quiet.
Duncan & I had decided to travel together to Chiang Mai and we left the next morning. The first part of the journey was by local 3rd class train, which was fascinating. It's very crowded and the seats are hard and it's always running late. People walk up and down the aisles selling an astounding variety of things to eat, including soup. We had 40-minutes to make our connection in Lopburi but by the time we finally arrived we had only 5 minutes to spare. But of course, the express train was late too. The air-con 2nd class express included in-flight service (lunch as well as afternoon coffee & cake) and a bit of entertainment, too. Beside Duncan was a Thai man in a Hawaiian shirt who fell asleep and snored so loudly that everyone within earshot kept looking at each other and laughing.
The scenery was beautiful. At first we were travelling across a flat plain, with hills in the distance. Sometimes we could see buildings or huge golden Buddhas in prominent positions. The houses looked like shacks at first glance, but they all had TV antennas and most people's pickup trucks looked pretty new. I bet they've got big colour TVs inside. As we got further north, the hills closed in around the train line and it began to rain on & off. We were starting to get hungry again and naturallly we were past our scheduled arrival time. The "flight attendants" started heating up food and it smelled so good...unfortunately it wasn't for us but those who would be travelling back to Bangkok. Fortunately, at that point we finally pulled into Chiang Mai.
The guesthouse we wanted to stay at was full, so a tout led us to his sister's place. After settling in we went to the night market, which is more about souvenirs than food, so we found an Indian restaurant that gave us a huge amount of food. Tandoori chicken turned out to be pretty much the whole chicken, rather than a few wings and drumsticks. And we'd ordered other stuff besides. We were hungry, but not THAT hungry.
The next day we explored the city a bit and visited Wat Chiang Man. That was really interesting. Duncan had a book about Buddhism and we'd both read the first chapter, which tells Buddha's life story. So we could follow along with the paintings around the walls inside the wat. It was a funny place. A monk was sitting on the floor reading a newspaper, another was cleaning the windows, and a computer was set up to one side. Then there was the central altar, enclosed in glass. A clutter of Buddha statues in various positions, and the empty boxes that the computer had come in! It was good to see this as a living place with a real, day-to-day purpose. The buildings were so beautiful. White with ornate decorations. Mosaics of inlaid mirrored glass - red and blue and green. And lots of gold everywhere, especially on the roof.
That night we found a pub, which would be our "local" for the rest of our time there. At the next table was a foreign girl and a Thai guy. The girl came over and asked Duncan if he was Australian, because she was and she hadn't met any other Aussies in Thailand. The Thai guy worked at the pub a bit, fixing electrical stuff and interpreting for us, and he also makes beautiful batik sarongs which are displayed for sale all around the place. Some little kids came into the bar to sell flower garlands. But they got bored with work, and put their stuff down to play with us. They climbed all over our laps and got us up to dance. Very cute! Duncan ordered an evil drink, a "bucket", which is a metal ice bucket containing a full bottle of Maekhong whisky, Red Bull, and Sprite. And enough straws for everybody.
I was carried home that night and in pretty rough shape in the morning. But we'd decided to try to move to our first choice, which Duncan took care of while I went to a cooking class. The cooking school is outside in the garden of a restaurant and at one point a mangy-looking dog came in off the street, so one of the staff chased him away with a big knife! I learned how to make my own curry paste using a mortar and pestle. If I wanted to try this in Japan, I'd probably have to get a food processor since I'm sure my downstairs neighbours wouldn't like the pounding. It was great to make all these yummy things and then get to eat them. It's pretty simple, really. I think the tricky part will be finding the ingredients in Tokyo!
Duncan and I both cooked the next day (Tom Yum Goong and Pad Thai, among other yummy things!), but I took the following day off to relax. The lesson was curry paste again, and my stomach was suffering from too many chilis. (I'd insisted on eating Japanese food the night before, so my stomach could have something more familiar.) My last day of cooking got off to a rough start when the ketchup bottle exploded at breakfast, covering me and my surroundings in, well, ketchup. It hit everything but the scrambled eggs it was meant for. I managed to get cleaned up and a German woman staying at the guesthouse lent me a clean t-shirt, since everything else I had was at the laundry. Duncan had left to do some errands about 2 minutes before the explosion, so he missed all the fun and, sorry, I didn't get a photo.
Our cooking class was at the home of the school's owner, in a guarded compound 10-15 kms outside the city. First we had a tour of the market. I saw a cockroach crawling on the tamarinds but other travellers said it was the cleanest market they'd seen. The class was really outdoors this time, with a gentle breeze from the mountains to keep us comfortable. And of course, the food was delicious.
On my last day in Chiang Mai, I finally did a bit more sightseeing. I went to Doi Suthep, a hill outside the city with a big wat on the top. I walked to a corner on the road leading out of town in that direction, and saw a Thai man with an Asian woman who looked like a backpacker. The man asked me if I were going to Doi Suthep and told me we'd need a couple of more people in the songthaew before we could leave. (A songthaew is a pickup truck with bench seats down the sides in the back and - usually - a roof over them.) For places like Doi Suthep there is a standard fare, and it's just a case of waiting until they have enough people to make the trip worthwhile for the driver.
The girl was Japanese, now living in Bangkok, and she was just in Chiang Mai for the weekend. We spoke a mix of Japanese and English. She was from northern Japan but as a student she lived very close to where I live now. When we had enough people, we set off on the 1/2 hour drive to Doi Suthep. There were lots of people climbing its 300 steps, and of course lots of other people selling them stuff. It was the Queen's Birthday, a national holiday (so that's why her picture was being put up all over Bangkok!), and there were many Thais there. They were worshipping at the temple - praying, lighting candles and incense, making donations, and getting pieces of gold leaf to stick onto one of the many golden Buddhas. Again, it was good to see this temple as a living place used by locals instead of just a tourist attraction.
The wat was beautiful and colourful. The golden roof shimmered in the rain and mist. ÊIn order to go into the actual temple area, we had to remove our shoes and socks. I guess if it weren't raining you could leave your socks on. The wet marble was slippery under my bare feet, but it was better than having wet socks. I was also wearing a sarong because my skirt was too short for going into temples. There is a supply of sarongs for people who are wearing shorts or short skirts. Bare legs are a no-no. But it's free and there's no hassle.
I invited an English girl who rode up with me to come to the pub that night. She brought all the people she'd been trekking with and it was a good evening. Duncan got very drunk and I had to return the favour of carrying him home. He was still in pretty rough shape when I left in the morning. I had really enjoyed travelling with him and I liked Chiang Mai, but it was time for me to go south.
From Chiang Mai I flew to Surat Thani via Bangkok. Then I had to spend the day waiting for the night boat, which left at 11pm. There are some internet cafes and travel agents, but Surat Thani is really pretty dull. The highlight of my day was when some students came up and asked if they could interview me. As I've mentioned, this kind of thing is very common. They are very friendly and a bit shy but not at all embarrassed. I want to get my Japanese students to try it. They asked me a few questions set by their teacher, and then took a picture with me. They gave me a postcard from Koh Samui with a thank-you note written on the back, and then they left.
In the evening I found a cafe near the port, which had satellite TV and therefore gradually filled up with other people waiting for the same boat. I caught the end of "Something About Mary" and a bit of the Thai version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?", which I recognized because it looks like the Japanese version. Then, I'm embarrassed to admit, I watched "Titanic". I know, I know, I said I'd never watch it but there wasn't much else to do - my diary was up to date and the TV was right in front of me. But I did have to leave before the end.
The boat had a low-ceilinged upper deck with lots of foam mattresses on the floor. Backpackers and Thais and all our luggage filled the place. Trying to carry the luggage around was tricky, because only small children could stand upright! I fell asleep pretty quickly. It was hot and sticky, but there weren't any mosquitos, for which, after being devoured in Chiang Mai, I was very grateful. I'd used a whole bottle of insect repellant spray in Chiang Mai. Luckily, in the city these are not malaria mosquitos. When I awoke it was daylight and soon we were in the port hamlet that is the main town on Koh Tao. I had booked to go to the Buddha View dive resort but nobody came to meet me. (It wasn't even 8am yet!) I wandered into the nearest dive shop. They radioed for someone to pick me up, and gave me coffee in the meantime.
At Buddha View I spent the day relaxing. I lay on the beach for a while but it was so hot that my waterproof sunscreen melted off. If I'd known how the weather was going to change I'd have made more of an effort to work on my tan that day. The following day was good, too, but I spent the morning in the classroom. In the afternoon we were in the pool, but I was wearing a wetsuit and lots of other equipment so I couldn't get the white bits brown. My arms and face were already tanned from cycling to work every day, but my legs are still pale even now. At the end of the day, our instructor Marco (Swiss-Italian) told us he wouldn't be able to teach us the following day because some Italians had requested an Italian-speaking instructor. Our new instructor, Alex, was German. We spent the morning in the classroom again and then went out in a boat in the afternoon. Every day we rode in the back of a songthaew to the port and had to climb over several other boats (carrying all our gear except air tanks) to get to ours. After our dive on the second day, we were the first group back on board, and while we waited for the others we watched a storm approaching. It hit just as the last group came back and we had a rough ride out of that bay and into the next one. At that point they gave up trying to get back around the island to town. Instead, we and our gear got into a longtail boat and were taken to shore. The rain was cold but the water was warm and shallow. So shallow that the longtail, being more heavily loaded than usual, scraped its bottom on a sandbar. We waded ashore carrying all our stuff and the songthaews took us back to Buddha View, which was just in the next bay over.
After all this, when we got back Alex informed us that some German guests had arrived requesting a German-speaking instructor and so the next day Fred would be teaching us. We had a late start as all we had to do in the morning was write our exam. We all passed it, it wasn't very difficult. Then we went out to dive again. We did 2 45-minute dives that afternoon, going to about 10-12 metres. Along with Fred was Bill, who was taking an advanced-level instructors course. Part of his course was teaching us, so for the last 2 days of our 4-day course we actually had 2 instructors, and it's Bill's signature on our cards. We got our cards on the afternoon of our last day, after 2 more dives in the morning, including our deepest yet - 18m, the deepest you can go with only an Open Water certificate. And that was it. We were finished.
I had been planning to leave to go somewhere more sunny, because everyone was telling me Koh Tao's weather was November's instead of August's. But I only had a few days of vacation left and didn't want to spend a whole day getting somewhere, which is how long it would have taken me to get to any non-rainy place. So I decided to just relax and stay where I was. I had some friends from my course to hang out with and it was peaceful during the day. I slept a lot!
The day I left the island started off bright and sunny, of course, and we went to the beach. I took the afternoon express boat to Chumpon and as the songthaew left Buddha View the usual storm was coming in. It hit as the boat arrived and after waiting for the other passengers to disembark, and carefully making our way along the rickety floating pier to get on board, we were soaking wet. It stopped raining by the time we left, and the swells didn't LOOK that big, but the boat hit them hard. Every time we came down on one, it would crash, shudder, and creak, and alarming things would happen. The windows didn't shut properly and the walls of the hold where we were sitting moved independently of the window frames. The floor heaved under our feet, and when I looked back it was easy to imagine the entire boat just folding up in the middle. I was VERY tense. OK, I admit it, I was terrified. I wanted to tell them to SLOW DOWN. Just the week before, a boat going from Koh Pha-Ngan (after one of the infamous full-moon parties) to Koh Tao had sunk - a girl in my dive course had been on it. And my trip across the Gulf of Thailand to Chumpon was scheduled to take 2 1/2 hours. I wondered how I'd ever make it. After about an hour, through which I counted the minutes and almost the seconds, I managed to doze off and when I awoke the sea was much calmer. Then we were cruising up the river to the dock, which took ages. Of course, we were late. But I had time for dinner before boarding the sleeper train for Bangkok. I slept very well! Terror is exhausting.
After arriving in Bangkok at about 5:30am I went to a hotel for my last night. I showered and took a river express boat to visit Wat Pho, wandering around with an American woman I met nearby. That was the extent of my sightseeing in Bangkok, but I was more comfortable there than when I'd first arrived. I went to Khao San Rd and did some souvenir shopping, emailing, and eating. I bumped into an English girl from Koh Tao and had some drinks with her that evening. At 4:15am I hung up on my wake-up call. I went back to sleep for a long time. It was 5:40 when I awoke and my flight was at 7:20 so I dressed quickly, finished packing, and was very impatient about getting a taxi!
At the airport I was so late that the United Airlines staff could check me in but not assign me a seat. Then I found that I had to pay 500baht departure tax. Fortunately I had 550baht in my wallet. In the departure lounge I had to wait until everybody was seated and I worried that they'd tell me there was no room for me. Instead, the finally put me in Business Class! It was great. I was very comfortable and didn't mind at all that the flight was 45 minutes longer than usual because we had to fly around "super-typhoon" Bilis as it hit Taiwan - we had to go via the Philippines instead.
And then I was home in Japan. Because I had come from Thailand, the customs inspection was a bit more detailed than usual but not much. Instead of asking lots of questions, the officer simply showed me photos of guns, knives, syringes, pornography, etc, and asked "Do you have any of these?" (Well, I had a Swiss army knife...) He also had a cursory look through one of my bags. Then I went home. And back to work the next day.
Copyright Ailsa Wylie 2000