Backpacker's Tales: Thailand

Backpacker's Tales: Thailand 1.1

(UPDATED VERSION)

Includes:

Relevant pictures and videos
More on land transportation and food
Culture
Weather
Scenery
Language

Note: These are just brief accounts on my experience/knowledge/observations there. They may not be 100% accurate and I may have missed out some important details so pardon me for that. =X Will post about the things I did there soon.

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I've just gotten back from a 10 day trip to Thailand. It was sooo fun! I didn't miss home at all. =X In fact, I was just getting used to the environment there. I feel like I can live there forever. Haa.

There was so much to do, so much to see, so much to eat, so much to BUY!!!! The whole trip was extremely tiring though I was sleeping a lot. Not gonna blog about it in detail because there's just too much to say, so I'll only blog about the more important parts.

Prior to this trip, I've been to Bangkok and Pattaya once before, about a decade ago. But this experience is nothing like the former. Here, I was eating with the Thais, living with the Thais, chatting with the Thais, playing with the Thais. Finally, I got to see for myself what Thailand is really really like. It was a very enriching experience, and it is something I'll always hold close to my heart.

In short, I went there with Kh, Mum, Gerrie, a Thai aunt, her 2 children and her 2 family members. We visited Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Udon, Nong Khai and Isaan. I stayed overnight in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Udon, and toured Chiang Rai and the Nong Khai region during the day. Here's the rough outline of our route.

THE FLIGHT

It was my first time flying on a budget airline. It wasn't that bad. Except that the budget airport in Singapore is extremely CHEAPSKATE. -_-" For a start, the interior design of the flight gates looks like a hospital. Never mind that. You still have to tolerate the kiasuism of typical singaporeans. Expect a long queue at your flight gate before it is even officially announced on the tv. Why? FREE seating! Must get the best seats! How to know which is your gate number first? Easy. Follow the air stewardesses. They are surely the ones who get to enter the gates before anyone does. This is something we unintentionally learnt at the budget terminal.

2 hours is a pretty short time for a flight. As Kh puts it,"Haven't settle down, want to land liao." Yep, so there's really no point flying non-budget. Initially my mum insisted on flying by Cathay Pacific, but there was a clash in schedules so flying by Tiger Airways is really not a bad choice. It's quite fun in fact. We always tease the stuff inside for being so lousy. "Hey, they use budget font." "Ooh, cheapskate chair." "Budget seats?" LOL.

At the arrival hall, they don't even have plasma tvs to display the flight schedules. They use Teletext on cheapskate box tvs! In the check-in area, you get Mini Toons and Hang Ten instead of Gucci, Burberry and sorts. Cheapskate things, cheapskate clothes! Ooh so freakin cheapskate! Ok, I shall stop teasing them already. =X

Tiger Airways

By the time I took the camera out, there was only this much of Tekong left to see. T_T Was trying to take a picture of Kh's base. =X

LAND TRANSPORTATION

For most of the journey, we travelled by van. The van is nothing like any I've seen before. It's not just a van. It's a van cum mobile karaoke box (complete with neon lights, disco style) cum movie threatre (complete with surround sound system). It is very spacious and clean, and can sit 10 passengers comfortably. The driver charges 1,800B a day, exclusive of fuel charge.

our van... almost a home to us, considering the number of hours we spent in it. >_<

Other modes of land transportation include meter taxi and tuk tuk. The taxis are relatively comfortable. Taxi fares are dirt cheap over there. You just wonder how the drivers earn any money at all. Oh wait, their petrol is even cheaper. 1 Baht for 1 litre!!! They've got so many taxis there. With such low fare rates, who needs a car? It's frustrating though, when you can't catch one at peak hour.

There was once, at 6pm in Bangkok, we tried to catch a cab back to our hotel. There was a huge traffic jam then. We flagged down more than 10 cabs, (or should I say 20?) but none wanted to take us because our hotel was too far and they wanted to avoid the jam. Hey, if you want to avoid the jam, then don't stay in the jam lah! I don't know what they were thinking, contributing to the jam and then refusing to take passengers. Anyway, we concluded that our only hope is in the tuk tuk. After over an hour of waiting, we finally found 2 who were willing to take us. It was really fun taking the tuk tuk. It was fast and furious, and sooo dangerous. However, the drivers conspired to cheat us. Thank goodness we brought our Thai aunt along. She overheard their conversation about wanting to raise the fare, and scolded them for not honouring their word.

A ride in the tuktuk...

There's also the motorcycle taxi. They can be identified by the orange vest on the driver. Smart idea, but so dangerous. The passengers don't wear helmets! Some sit like how they do on a bicycle. tsktsk...

FOOD & BEVERAGE

If you think you've seen Thailand because you've been to Bangkok, you haven't seen the real Thailand. Bangkok is wayyy too commercialised. It seems like there's more Japanese food than Thai food there. The sushi is cheap but the Thai food sucks. To get a taste of some authentic Thai food, travel out of Bangkok and you'll get it almost anywhere along the road. They have kuay teow (pronounce kuay1 teow2), which is often cooked with bean sprouts, pig's blood and pork. They eat SO MUCH pig's blood there. Eww. Put the pig's blood aside and it becomes a really delicious and healthy meal. Sometimes it comes with meat balls or chicken, but it's pork for most places.

Alternatively, try their zi char over there. Everything tastes good. They cook a lot of veggies and very little fish (which is so the opposite of my diet) but I love it so much. Usually, the only source of meat is pork, but the veggies taste so good, you really wouldn't mind being a vegetarian there. I told my aunt that I don't even like to eat veggies, but here, I'll eat whatever veggies they cook for me because it's THAT good.

Once on the route to Chiang Rai, we stopped along the road for some kuay teow. Pei Shan, my 10-year old cousin put some sugar in her bowl. I said,"Don't put the sugar in, that's for the coffee." Later on, I saw my aunt doing the same and I realised that that's actually how they eat it. -_-" Oh right. Thais don't really drink coffee anyway. Pardon my ignorance. =X

But one thing remains the same throughout the country. That is, Thais don't have a habit of ordering drinks. They drink plain mineral water instead. Their mineral water is so cheap there! No one bothers to boil water. They always have bottles of mineral water on the table. You need to pay to drink it, but they'll serve you cups and ice for that. Oh, and they like to cut straws into half to save cost. =X

mineral water nia... still serve cups? o_O

On a side note, Kh and I felt cheated several times. We would order fruit juice, but what we get is syrup instead. The fruits are only displayed there for decoration. T_T Seems like it's like that throughout the country though of course there are exceptions.

Also, isn't mango glutinous rice a very popular Thai dessert? Strange, cuz it's rare to see any stalls selling it at all. For 10 days, Kh had been looking for stalls selling it. We only found 2 which were just right next to each other at Mah Boon Krong. We asked around but nowhere else seemed to sell it. Not in any other shopping centres, or the roadside stalls, or the night markets. How strange.

THE CULTURE

Seriously, where are the garbage bins??? So hard to find one. Argh. It's amazing how they still manage to keep the place clean. Dad said Thailand's probably like Japan. The Japs were trained not to litter from young. Whenever they have junk, they'd hold on to it and throw it in their own garbage bins when they reach home. I think there's really some truth in this. Else, how is it possible that the streets are so clean when there are no garbage bins??? I take my hat off the Thais and Japs really. In Singapore, I think the only reason why we have clean streets is cuz we have hardworking cleaners. I still see people, even young singaporeans littering everywhere. So much for a clean and green nation. =/

Bangkok, however, is a different story altogether. Like I said earlier, it's so commercialised. The food, the culture... it's all very different. It's really a lot dirtier than the other parts of Thailand I've been to, although still clean enough to make me happy. =/

I must also mention the toilet culture. Seriously! I can't believe how clean the toilets are! I can honestly say that I've not been to a single dirty toilet for my entire time in Thailand. Even the toilets in the rural areas are cleaner than those in Malaysia's cities. Although most do not have an automatic flush system, or any flush system at all, they all meet my standards of hygiene. Toilets in the rural areas and along the highway do not have a flush system. You have to scoop water from a pool of water and manually flush it yourself. Still, they're surprisingly clean.

One more thing. Their tissues are so expensive and hard to find! Well, not surprising too since they have free tissue provided everywhere. Most restaurants provide free tissue. Even those in the rural areas! Those that don't, too bad then. Wipe with our hands lor. T_T

Also, my aunt told us that Thais don't like people to touch their heads. It's kind of disrespectful to them. That's something that we should be mindful of.

THE WEATHER

Bangkok is hot hot hot! Not as humid as Singapore but still hot like Singapore. Guess everyone should know that already. It's strange though. I don't know if it's because it's december or what, but Bangkok is sooo cloudy! For 3 days we didn't see the sun. The sky was grey all day, and it didn't even rain!

Chiang Mai, on the other hand, is really cold in the mornings. Cold? Or should I say it's FREEZING? We arrived at Chiang Mai at 6am in the morning on the 3rd day. We weren't really expecting it to be so cold. I got down from the van in a t-shirt, 3/4 jeans and slippers. Then, I had to go back to the van to put 2 jackets on.

It isn't as cold for the rest of the day and night though. Not cold, but cooling. Something like aircon temperature. Like Genting. Very low levels of humidity. Our laundry dried so fast!

Unlike Bangkok, the skies in Chiang Mai are soooo blue. Haven't seen such clear, blue sky in ages! Sometimes it gets so hot during the afternoon because there are no clouds to provide you with shade! My aunt was smart though. She brought her umbrella along and enjoyed a cool, shady afternoon while the rest of us suffered. T_T

The weather in Udon Thani is very similiar to that in Chiang Mai, so I shan't touch on that.

THE SCENERY

Bangkok is in a huge mess. There isn't much to see other than the shopping centres. Hehe ^__^... Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Udon on the other hand, are very very beautiful states. The northen region is quite mountainous, but the eastern region is low lying.

There isn't much to see in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. It's just mountains, mountains, and more mountains. Not so much mountain ranges, but a mountain on it's own (which always makes me wonder if it's a volcano =/).

In Udon, however, it's jungles and open fields and padi fields.

Some really nice pictures. Notice the clear blue skies...

The roadside stalls in Chiang Rai

The scenery in Chiang Rai

my aunt's padi field in Udon... huge huh?

THE LANGUAGE

I've learnt some new words, common, but there's actually a twist to it. Ok, so everyone knows sawatdii kha. Sawatdii means hello. Sawatdii kha is a more formal way of saying hello. For girls that is. Guys should say sawatdii khrap. Seems like many people aren't aware of that.

Same for thank you. Thank you is khwap khun in Thai. Girls should say khwap khun kha, and guys should say khwap khun khrap. Interesting huh?

I wonder why guys and girls should speak differently though. What about trans huh? How'd they gonna speak? I saw quite a number of trans in Bangkok. Even bought some stuff from 2 of them. 1 of them scared the hell out of me when he (oops I meant SHE) started speaking. There was this really deep and rough voice that didn't really suit her image. She was the first trans I saw on my first day in Bangkok. I've learnt to be more indifferent towards them after that.