THAILAND!!!!!
A few years ago, I really had a different idea about what Thailand would be like. I always pictured some random, turbulent, SE Asian country—with a vague recollection of hearing of a place called ‘Siam’ in some history class. In fact, SE Asia really held no appeal for me. I can definitely say I’ve changed my mind about this, so I’ll let you guys know about the trip. We had a week-long vacation here, because of Chinese National Day/Autumn Festival, and as I’ve been here for 2 of them, I know how crowded it is here. People from other places come to Shanghai, and just crowd up the streets. Plus, traffic is closed on major streets between certain times, so it’s a challenge to actually
get anywhere in a reasonable amount of time. Yes, this time I decided to escape.
Fionnie had been trying to get me to go to Thailand with her for a while, so I gave in, and I’m glad that I did. (I had been considering finally going to Prague over the vacation- a place I’ve wanted to go for a long time now, but never had the time or the cash simultaneously.) The ticket price was put up a bit, actually a lot, to capitalize on the other people escaping the crowds here, but it was well worth it. Tickets were 3600 RMB, which is over $400. It’s much cheaper at other times of the year, more like $250 round trip. We took my favorite airline, China Eastern, on an overnight flight to Phuket, Thailand. With such pleasant service and wide variety of refreshments and entertainment, China Eastern is unmatched. **snicker** As if. These guys are total fucking jokers. After forcing us to watch ancient home video style gags during the flight, the gave us only one choice of meal. Seafood, and it was so nasty—I still remember the smell of it. And they actually told Fionnie that “international flights on all other airlines only offer one kind of meal, and that’s seafood”. Heh. Not even remotely grounded in truth. So, what if you’re allergic to seafood? I just couldn’t eat it, nor could Fionnie or the 3 Americans sitting behind us. Actually, their dinner consisted of bags of peanuts and rolls of bread they could bum off of other passengers, who also couldn’t stomach the meal. Yeah,
so I didn’t eat anything between 6pm and the next morning in Thailand. Oh, after the shit service, they neglected to give Fionnie and I, and some other passengers, the documents we had to fill in to enter Thailand. Monkeys operating an airline. You’d think with this start, the trip would’ve been bad, but actually it was really great. The flight was probably 4 or 5 hours, I forget, since I just tried to sleep through as much of it as possible.
…moving on… We arranged a taxi to Phuket Town from the airport, a
half-hour cab ride for like 4 bucks. Not bad, it was really just a regular car, and the driver had good English. The first thing I noticed, aside from the fact that they drive on the left side of the road, is that there are people zipping around on motorcycles everywhere. They even have their own lane on each road, like a really wide shoulder just for bikes. Often, I’d see a guy gun past us at high speed, with a girl sitting side saddle on the back, like people double up on pedal bikes here. And I thought WE were already driving fast. That’s scary. I was also struck by the fact that there were no high rises here, which
is really different from Shanghai, whose skyline seems to climb higher each month.
Once in, after checking out a few places, we settled on the Imperial Hotel. It was pretty nice, and was about 700 baht a night, or about $16, which is actually on the high side for Thailand. From there, we got a boat to Ko Phi-Phi, where we spent the rest of the vacation in bungalows on the beach. “Ko” means island, and “ph” is just pronounced as “p”so yeah…it’s really called Pee-Pee Island. Despite an unfortunate name, the place is gorgeous. It has some fame, or notoriety depending on your point of view, as being the island used in the filming of “The Beach”. The guy who directed trainspotting directed this one. It’s not great, but it’s worth seeing. Anyway, warm but not really hot. No humidity. Since we went in the low season, there weren’t too many tourists. Warm aquamarine water, coconut trees and long white beaches. This was exactly right for me, I
spent many an hour just lounging under a tree in front of the beach just reading or napping. The food was excellent as well, and the seafood was fresh and cheap. I had shark with 3-season Thai sauce for one meal, and I’ll be craving that again for the next few months, when I return to Thailand. Food, actually everything, was so cheap compared to China, much less the States. The best beach we found was at the Viewpoint bungalows. There was an Italian restaurant and BBQ right next to that beach, so it was a hit with me. All the furniture was made from split wood, as was the deck. Just seemed right for the place. I should also mention how nice the locals are, both in Phuket Town and Ko Phi Phi. Really friendly people, genuinely helpful, and they really did have that smile that Thai’s are known for. Maybe it’s just that I’ve been here for too long, but a lot of people I have to deal with in Shanghai (esp. cab drivers) are rude by comparison, so this trip really was an escape. Every day there was stress-free, the only real “decision” was ‘Is it going to be Thai food or something else’. Really rough. I also had a dog for the time I was there. Every time I went to my beach, this dog would come over near me and just lay down in the sand next to me. Never bugged me to pet him, or anything like that, just wanted to be there next to me. Each time I left, he’d walk me to the end of the beach. Same thing every day, so in the rare instances he was gone, I’d ask Fionnie where our dog went. So, Fionnie finally got out of China for a bit, and tried to swim a bit. I was getting her to try and float on her back, but she started laughing each time so that didn’t work out too well. It was still nice to just kind of stand in the water holding her and looking out over the horizon, with mountains to either side, and another island off in the distance. Some times, there was no one else on the beach or in the water but us. All ours. I was surprised to see that some of the ‘locals’ were also foreigners. There are people from Germany, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, UK, and so on all just living there and running small businesses. Pubs/restaurants, diving/snorkeling charters, shops selling traditional handcrafted things and so on. The one woman, from England, had lived in Thailand for 10 years, and on Ko Phi Phi for a lot of that. They’ve just kind of dropped out of society. The one guy, no idea what he did really, but obvious that he really lived there, had these huge dreads and just rode his mountain bike around all day. These girls were running a charter boat/diving thing. They basically just hang out all day, until it’s time to go scuba diving with some customers, then come back and do it over again. That would be so cool to just get away like that. Actually…well I am living in China, some might say that’s getting away…but this is much different. I asked Fionnie a few times if she’d consider quitting her job, so we could stay longer, but she didn’t even humor me on that one. It was good, I’ll definitely do it again. A good experience, and the last time I was in Hong Kong, I saw something about Indonesia, specifically Bali, so I’d really like to look into doing that as well this year. Even Myanmar (formerly Burma) would be cool, too. Next time I go to Thailand, I’m bringing nothing but my passport and cash. Most everything you could need is there, and cheaper than anywhere else I’ve ever been before. You could even pick up a casual wardrobe AND luggage for the return for about $100 with some hard bargaining, with some tapestries/handcrafted stuff as well. I think as it stood, I dropped like $600 or a bit more for the whole thing, and that’s with airfare being jacked up for the holiday, and the fact that I covered the hotel expenses on my own so Fionnie could really spend money on whatever she wanted her first time abroad. This trip could definitely be done later in the year, from Shanghai, for cheaper than what I did, but I can’t complain. I also took the lazy way through the trip, just lounging. You can do parasailing, scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing, or just charter a boat, and there are plenty of places for Thai massage (no, nothing illicit), but be warned they’re pretty rough. Oh yeah, they have Thai kickboxing there as well. Next time in, I’ll try more of these things if I’ve got the time, but I’m happy with how it all went. There’s a lot more I could write, but screw it. Don’t read about it, just grab your passport and get your ass there. Guess
that’s it from me. Hopefully I’ll have something else for you guys soon. I’ll be back to the States in January for a week or two, so I’ll see you all then. Take it easy.
James