Day five in Bangkok. Probably should have left yesterday. Definitely could have left today. I do tend to be pretty relaxed in my departures however so this comes as no surprise. I will endeavor to leave tomorrow night aboard the night train to Chiang Mai. Once there, I will be able to do a few day trek in the jungle, and then move on by minivan to the border of Laos. Then I can slow-boat it down the river toward Vang Vieng, where if all is as advertised, I will be able to catch up on all those episodes of Friends I’ve missed over the years. From there, back into Thailand and down to Phuket.
I’m bored. I’ve done a decent amount of stuff in my short time here, but you can only do so much. It is quite reminiscent of my time in New Zealand. My travels there were mainly small, solo adventures broken up by frequent bus travel. Most times I rather enjoyed the long bus rides, I found them to be rather comforting for some reason. I was often slightly disappointed when I could sense that my destination was coming. I imagine things will be similar here.
I’m still pretty impressed by the speakers on my Macbook Pro. It’s a bit off topic but they really seem to kick for laptop speakers. I’ve been privy to rock at least a few hostel parties relying on these alone to guide the way. I’m not as impressed with the abilities of my wireless card. I would often see people snatching signals from random places throughout the hostel. Signals to which my illustrious MBP seemed blissfully unaware of. Superheroes is a great song. Can’t help but wonder what Daft Punk is up to these days. I still can’t believe they did a show at Coney Island a few years ago and I missed it. Classic Chad. I am currently in mourning over the loss of my favorite pens. I’ve been using the same ones for all my writing. I believe that I brought three with me upon leaving, and am now down to one, in a barely usable form. I forget what happened to the first one, but I thoroughly recall stepping on the second one in Melbourne, crunching it to bits. I promised to take special precautions with the final one, which about two days after this pledge, was given the honor of accompanying me to the beach, where I kindly introduced it to a crippling dosage of sand. The outcome: it would no longer click to open and close. It just remained perpetually open. Not the worst thing in the world, but after a while I decided to Tim “The Toolman” Taylor it and that is exactly what I did. After “fixing” it, the clicking worked like a charm, except it would now no longer remain open. Which is where it can be found now. I have resorted to using scotch tape to hold down the click but after a day or so, it tends to slide up sending me back to square one. I intend on trying some electrical tape that I saw yesterday at 7-11, combined with a better, more efficient diagonal taping pattern. For my journal’s sake, I need to save this pen. I have been completely unable to secure a suitable replacement. Updates will be forthcoming of course.
So much to go over. Thais are about as sneaky as advertised. Can’t blame them but it does get pretty old quick. For instance, Tuk-Tuks will inevitably take you somewhere you don’t want to go. Unless you actually want to go to super sneaky travel agencies or Indian tailors. Seriously, how the fuck is there so many Indian tailors here? During my foot travels last night, I quite literally walked by a section of block that had three Indian tailors in a row, each with a dude outside (pretty standard), trying to get me to come inside. I found myself wondering, if someone isn’t interested enough to go into the first one, why would he go into the second or third one? Sucks for them. Then I just realized now, that if coming from the other direction, the last guy’s shop would be first, so half the time he’s the man. But what about that dude in the middle? It’s not like he was super convincing or anything. So, Super Sneaky Thai Trick #1. If the Tuk Tuk driver offers you a tour of certain areas for a reasonable price, say 30 baht an hour, be prepared for a stop at whichever Travel Agency he is in cahoots with. Perhaps if you don’t mind going through with the charade of getting a price for your intended “journey”, you can then continue on for the rest of the tour. I however would not be surprised if on that tour was a stop for Thai fashion, a.k.a. an Indian tailor.
Super Sneaky Thai Trick Story #1: I inquire at a tourist information booth near the pier, what my best option is for taking a boat in the harbor. I essentially was trying to find the boats that the locals take and not a tour boat. After getting some information, the kid there informs me that today is the last day of some promotion that the government is doing where for 10 baht you can take a Tuk Tuk around and see a bunch of stuff. He informs me that I can head to the Big Buddha, which I have no idea of the real name, but is a temple of some sort with a really big Buddha statue. Also, the Lucky Buddha is nearby as well. Then he suggest a stop at the T.A.T. Here is where it gets tricky. The T.A.T. is the Tourism Authority of Thailand which I’ve been informed is set up to be a safe place for tourists to get legit information for their travels, and be able to book their trip without commissions and hidden costs. It is situated in a government building and is a legitimate part of the government. This was all explained to me by a Tourist Police officer that I bumped into while visiting the Lucky Buddha. He actually inquired of me how it was that I came to be there at that particular time, explaining to me that it is normally not open to the public on most days and that day happened to be a special exception, therefore very few tourists would be visiting. I won’t get too much into particulars but he explained two things to me. One, the official role of the T.A.T. and its reason for being. If by this point, you’ve already noticed the hordes of travel places, or actually spent time in a few as I have, you will already understand the reason intuitively. The second, some information about getting legitimate Thai suits, made from Thai fabrics. Something about how every school uniform is made by this Thai company, and they do all the suits for Thais going abroad to study or work. So the government heavily pushes their wares, as opposed to people frequenting the many Indian shops, hurting the Thai companies. Anyway, this guy gives me all this info, writes some stuff down for me, and goes on his way, adding to his legitimacy. He helps, and goes. I then head back to my Tuk Tuk driver, who I have now come to understand is probably a student who lives in the countryside who is given the opportunity to live in Bangkok for a couple of months, drive a Tuk Tuk, and get a sense of the city. The Tourism guy explained all that to me as well. I’ve now seen, the Big Buddha, and the Lucky Buddha, so where to next? He suggests that I go to the T.A.T. office now. Good thinking I suppose, I’ll get some information for my trip up north. We drive a few blocks, pull over, and this majestically huge government building that I’m expecting to see is nowhere. It’s a travel agency. Sneaky. I figure I’ll go in, quickly get a price, and test my memory to see if I’ve thoroughly memorized my upcoming trip proposed to me by the last three travel agencies I got stuck going into. Yeah, I said it, three. Somebody has to step in the shit so that you people can leap over it with ease. In and out in a few minutes. Now I’d like to see something else. This is when he suggests Thai fashion. ‘Sure’, I say ‘Why not?’. Here is where I will tell you why not. Because you will get out of the TT, walk about three paces and realize that you have not found yourself in an area bustling with activity and Thai fashion, you will find yourself in the hands of, you guessed it, a fucking Indian tailor. The deal that I’ve made with myself is that when I find myself in a stupid situation that I’m responsible for, I must ride it out. So I did. Not a fun 25 minutes. Although that price did get lower and lower as I attempted to leave. No thanks. After this, I just had him drop me back at Khaosan Road. Point of the story, T.A.T. and Thai fashion.
Always get a straw when you buy a bottle of soda. They recycle the bottles and I doubt splendidly. Many, many lips have touched that bottle. Get a straw. Polei taught me that about China, transfers here as well. The street vendors will usually pour the bottle into a cup, others will use a plastic bag. They pour it right into the bag and drop a straw in. Fancy. I’m reminded of my earliest days of apartment living in the 97-98 era. If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing my surprisingly lengthy list of things I’ve had to wipe my ass with in dire times, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Divide by 30, that’s roughly your price in US Dollars. Most T-shirts here on the street are 120 baht, many of pretty substandard quality, but some pretty decent ones as well. I’ve only purchased one so far. Turns out that even at $4 a shirt, I’m still pretty particular.
