Madone59

Off to a great start - I'm looking forward to following along ^^

Braniff

Hope you did not forget to pack your underwear and socks - not on the list ;-)

RoamingGeek

Chiang Mai
City of Terror
Frogger Difficulty 7/10

We deplaned and got reacquainted with our luggage. It feels like CNX is a small airport that is really trying hard to be a large airport. We acquired a taxi took an amusing route to the hotel starting on roads then through a maze of different alleys in which I would not expect a car to fit. I found it amusing that when our driver encountered someone walking in the middle of the road, he did not honk or get disgusted or yell but rather just sighed and waited. There is absolutely no way my Toyota Tundra would function in this country.

We arrived to the alleyway entrance to the Raming Lodge Hotel and checked in whilst given a fruity drink. I was taken to my room and was impressed by the lack of acceleration and deceleration feeling of the tiny elevator, then again I am easily impressed. I was still feeling rather terrible and decided to visit the pool then back to the room for rest. Being the middle of Yi Peng, I decided to pick myself up and go walk and see the parade.


view from hotel balcony

The parade turned out to be a crazy mass of people surrounding stationary floats with everything lit by bright lights. As I was walking, I noticed many great smells then some very distinct terrible ones but you just had to walk a few feet for them to disappear again. I weaved through the crowd marveling at everything and overheard another tourist say from his vantage that watching people move through the crowd was like play of cholesterol and blockage. Something interesting I discovered is that the alleys were mostly vacant so it was a nice reprieve from the crowd to get most of the way back to my hotel. Finally I stumbled back to the hotel Jet lagged and not feeling well, but not before knocking over someone's candles placed on the sidewalk and getting berated by a vendor (probably thinking I was drunk). This is where I discovered that my limited Thai came in handy and did my best to say sorry and wai. Amazingly I got a completely different reaction from the vendor as she smiled and said "it’s ok just be careful".




The sounds of artillery fire filled my ear drums when I woke frantically at 2 am. The percussions coupled by the fact the lights weren't working seemed to lead credence to the notion my hotel was under siege. I was starting to worry that I was about to live through the movie "No Escape" (the 2015 one with Owen Wilson (interestingly enough filmed in Chiang Mai) not the one with Ray Liotta) It was then I realized three things: I am an idiot, Thais take their love of fireworks very seriously, and the key holder by the door is not just for your convenience, it serves as a master switch for the lights in the room. I went to the window to see a batch of floating lanterns though the barrage stopped just in time for me to actually see any firework display. I marveled at my stupidy and arrogance before zombying back to bed.


Lights don't work unless the keycard is in holder.

The next morning after breakfast, AKDan and I took a long walk through old city where I learned a few lessons. Vehicles in Thailand stop for no pedestrian, and sometimes not even the police and their whistles. Crossing the street means truly taking your life in your own hands and I find that near death experiences are more fun when made into a game so I have decided to rate each city on my trip based on frogger difficulty.
I quickly discovered there are two different methods of success when crossing a street in Thailand.
1. Sprint across each lane individually pausing to not get run over. This method works especially well when following someone that looks Thai.
2. Congregate into a blob of people massive enough that any vehicles would be dissuaded in hitting the people blob due to the possible damage to the vehicle.

Fruit juice from street vendors have real fruit which tastes potently like fruit, unlike fruit shipped to Alaska which is meant to ripen along the journey and hopefully with love, care, planetary bodies aligning, all of the dragon balls being reunited, actually may resemble a percentage of what fruit tastes like. Also poor craftsman blame their tools… well this one I knew but was on a sign by a temple so I felt a sense of being a Master of something for already have been granted that knowledge.

AKDan was trying for find an umbrella for one of his family members but alas no umbrellas were to be found. I was hot, and tired so I decided we should take a Tuk Tuk back for the novelty which was pretty fun.

Having had one massage in my entire life I decided to use the coupon at the hotel massage parlor for a 2 hour massage. That was an interesting experience as you change into clothes one would expect to learn a new form of fighting then contorted into various positions like you are on the losing end of a 90s era wrestling match. Though instead of Rick Flair, Hulk Hogan, or Randy Savage this is being done to you by a tiny Asian woman. I decided the best course of action after that trauma was to sleep. When I woke up my body felt great but my head seemed to disagree with the ever persistent sore throat. I decided to take up drinking again and find a close bar. I decided to try Thai whisky which tastes about as good as what I remember the $1 wells drinks on Wednesdays at the Alamo bar in Colorado when I was in College. The bartender noticed I was sweating and gave me a prepackaged frozen towel (I offered him money which he refused). The answer to the question "do I suck at pool on the other side of the world" was answered with a resounding yes. (Now I just need to find a bar with an air hockey table to get my man card back)

RoamingGeek

AKDan was very pleased at breakfast noting that our flight now had a 747 taking us on the short trip to Bangkok. This would also be the first time I would experience airport entrance security as you had to have your bags scanned before gaining admittance to the building in which my luggage was marked with a yellow CNX checked bag sticker no doubt because of my shaving razor as expected.

We deposited our checked bags and went through the normal security I am used to in the US though friendlier and faster. Before venturing to Thailand I was determined to learn some thai, which learning numbers came in mildly useful when listening to airport announcements. Yay, I know they are talking about my flight but still don’t know what they are saying 30 seconds before the english announcement. It turns out due to the number of flights, we were delayed for about 40 minutes.

The 747 was interesting, first of all there was ample legroom even in the non-monocle section of the aircraft. Secondly takeoff was a lot smoother as I was accustom to the angry whine of 2 engines and mechanical relief as they are throttled down at altitude. Instead the 747 takes off with purpose and poise. It not so much fights the air for lift but channels the air to do its bidding. Arrival into BKK was smooth and we were once greeted by the complex of shiny glass and metal.


First 747

roadwarrier

Hahaha - enjoying this so far.

RoamingGeek

The city of contrast
Frogger level EXTREME

Our luggage came off quickly and we found our hotel transfer rep had taken initiative and met us at the domestic baggage exit rather than the meeting point in the email which was farther away. He escorted us to the curb and had the car come around. He was friendly and personable without being annoying unlike the driver. The driver however tried WAYYYY too hard and took to calling us "my boss" after every statement or question even after subtly encouraging him to use our names or just about anything else. Hell I think Emperor of Mankind and savior of the 41st millennia would have gotten less annoying. The car itself was very nice and the water with wet towels (which I still am pretty sure I don’t have enough suave class to use correctly) were great. I admired the skyline hoping for a quiet drive while we were given unsolicited tips on how to get a massage without extra 'services' by the driver that seemed to need to fill up 100% of time and space with words. Apparently the hotel has an agreement to allow shortcutting traffic by going through a cigarette factory.
We arrived at the hotel not before hopping an unexpected curb next to the hotel parking security (from now on I will be referring to them as whistle musicians).
I checked in downstairs as I wanted a corner room but didn't care about the club. AKDan was not allowed to check in with a simple non-club peasant like myself and was ushered upstairs. For me there was still a lot of wow factor as I am not used to this level of fancy. I was instructed where to find my room as they were slightly confused and the bags went to AKDan's room but then my bag was expediently delivered to my room. AKDan and I met at the bar where I got a fruit serving in alcohol form.

Later that evening we arranged to meet up with a fellow flyer talker for dinner and walking around terminal 21. We decided to walk there rather than take the BTS the as I wanted to get at least a minor amount of exercise.
When you enter Terminal 21 you get saluted by security and I found myself wondering how much the guard's arm must hurt after doing that for hours on end. We met up with the flyertalk member and his wife and had an excellent dinner and conversation.


We took the BTS on the way back to the hotel. There are 2 different ways you can pay for your trip on the BTS. Either use a day pass or stare at the map for 15 minutes like an idiot trying to figure how much it costs to get to the desired station while arguing with the machine about why it won't take your 20 baht note. You can try and buy a single ticket at the counter, but I came to regret that as I was looked at with disdain.

The next day I wanted to get some clothes that were not Thai size and the best lead we had was MBK. This time we opted to get day passes on the BTS rather than so BTS pricing calculations. We spent a decent amount of time at MBK. I easily found clothes in my size thanks to advice I had received the night before. Later that evening we checked out Octave rooftop bar. The views are incredible and the prices were not too expensive (at least compared to Alaska bars). I love the modern look, glass railings and blue lights. Without a doubt this is my new favorite bar.




Octave rooftop bar

The last full day in Bangkok AKDan had to work and I wanted to do some exploring so after breakfast I hopped on the BTS and headed to the river by way of Siam to Saphan Taksin. It is interesting that some BTS stations have walls so one does not fall off the platform and some do not. I am guessing that this is due to the amount of people stations like Siam have to contend with and there must be a very real risk of the platform getting crowded enough that people could fall off.



At Saphan Taksin I found an office where I could by a day boat pass for 200 Baht. Each stop was explained over the intercom but started to feel a little too tourist bus like and I felt the need to get off at Wat Arun. You have to pay a fee of 50 baht to enter Wat Arun and there are signs around warning of pickpockets. Lucky for me I was wearing my special pants but being a naive traveler of rural upbringing, I took it upon myself to be suspicious of anyone entering a bubble 15ft around me. The top or Wat Arun was roped off so you couldn't take the very steep stairs all the way up. To me the grounds around Wat Arun were more interesting than the main structure itself.



After wandering about Wat Arun for an hour, I took the boat across the river to a building that was partially flooded so you had to walk across wooden planks. I made my way to the labyrinth that is Wat Pho but not before encountering some of the most annoying high pressure salesmen I had on the entire trip. I (stupidly) stopped to look at what I thought was a cool piece of art on some fabric that a vendor was selling. Ok, you have to realize that my taste in art would not be described as sophisticated at all and I would immediately be ousted from any pretentious art gathering. Basically if it has a dragon, castles, swords, ships (ocean or space), mountains, or water I am probably interested. Just as I am completing my transaction and the salesman is convincing me he created this piece of art, a woman comes over and shoves her art with exactly zero of the things listed above. I try saying I am not interested with no avail and don't know enough Thai and am pretty sure she doesn't know enough English to explain my poor taste in detail. She starts selling this for 2000 baht and by the time I am walking away she is down to 100 baht. I have always been terrible at bartering as my method is look the item up online and research what goes into making it vs fair market price then coming up with what it should cost and finding a retailer with that price. This works great when shopping for computer components, but with anything else it seems to fail dramatically. With this new information I think I may finally understand bartering:

1. Look at item
2. Continue to look at item but seem disinterested
3. Walk away and maybe turn around if you hear the price you want.

Either way the price is still 0 for something I didn't want in the first place and managed to enter Wat Pho with only 3 more people trying to sell me things in which I had no interest. One person was offering his service as a guide and it resonated a bit with me when he asked how will I be able to tell what the meaning was of the history I would be viewing. While a sensible point, I loathe being led around so I passed on his services. Inside Wat Pho I was treated to a very serene and calm environment despite the number of tourists. There is no good way to show the true size of the Reclining Buddha.


I wondered around the Maze that is Wat Pho for an hour and a half then had a lot of indecision on how to return to the hotel. Either way I knew from my research that the worst choice would be to get a taxi or tuk tuk from my current location so I decided to wander south by foot. Interestingly enough the further away I got from Wat Pho, the more friendly and genuine people were. I conquered my indecision and opted to go back to the BTS by boat and visited on pier where a Thai person told me that longtail boats were expensive and to go down one block for the ferry. I found the pier with minimal effort and waited for the boat at a flooded dock with a bunch of local high school students. This is where I learned that the blue flag boat is for suckers and you can take the orange flag for 15 baht. The caveat is that you have to be fully aware of where you are going as they don't announce the stops.
For dinner I met back up with AKDan who had to fly back in a few hours and we had dinner at the hotel where they had advertisements "probably the best steak in Bangkok" and I was not disappointed.


View from the hotel

RoamingGeek

The next morning I checked out of the Landmark and headed to DMK but not before forgetting to ask for meter again…. Crap 1500 baht mistake. I feel embarrassed about this mistake considering my pretrip research told me over and over to always ark for meter, something not ever specified is how good the drivers are at getting you in the cab and moving before you remember to ask. Then again this was my 4th cab ride I had ever taken in my life (not counting the safe ride program in Colorado). I feel it necessary to admit to my mistakes for accountability purposes as well as being helpful to others.
DMK did not impress me the way BKK did. While BKK is open and vibrant, DMK is long and enclosed and has an odd smell in certain locations. This was my first experience waiting for my checked baggage to go through the sensors. With a bit of luck I was able to find a quiet location to play some games on my tablet while I waited for my Thai Air Asia flight. At 10 minutes till boarding, I went to the gate to discover that it had been delayed. About an hour later we finally boarded the shuttle to the aircraft. I have to say The comfort level was actually higher than what I was expecting and the food was pretty good as well though saying that in Thailand is like saying it is cold in Alaska in the winter.


For the price of this flight, I was expecting my seatmate to be an actual chicken.


This is the first time I have ever witnessed visible mist on an aircraft.


HKT domestic terminal was under construction and it took me awhile to find the bathroom before getting my luggage. I met the hotel private transfer and was on my way to Patong. When we reached the top of the hill going into Patong I noticed that everyone honked 2 or 3 times including my driver. I later learned that was for good luck. The Bliss hotel whistle musician cleared us a parking spot and I checked in to the hotel.

Jaimito Cartero

Well lots of first timer mistakes in BKK, but at least you didn't end up with a katoey in your bed.

camsean

No, that happened it Phuket.

RoamingGeek

The island of surprisingly crazy traffic
Frogger difficulty 7/10

The next day I spent relaxing by the pool, beach and balcony watching people para-glide up and down the beach. There were also a variety of beach games played. I ventured out looking for laundry and opted for Big Laundry. They had good reviews and charged 50B/kg.




After relaxing the previous day, I hired a driver and roamed around the south part of the island going to Kata View Point, Promthep Cape, Big Buddha, and another temple I unfortunately forget the name of near Phuket town. Later that evening I went to Tiger Disco and met a few very jubilant Russians.

RoamingGeek

I arranged a private transfer from my hotel to Rassada Pier which arrived a bit early. The roads in Phuket seem unplanned and chaotic. Where most areas have some resemblance of a grid, Phuket seems like they went to the nearest child and asked them to draw 200 random lines and then called it a road system. I got to the Pier and checked in and received a Sticker to keep on my shirt. There are some interesting signs with contradictory rules that I was chatting about with 2 British tourists in their early thirties.

1. Wear your lifejacket (no one did)
2. Don't drink (I am pretty sure some people were)
3. If you do drink don’t swim because you won't float (huh?)

We also discussed our distain for monkeys in which one of the British tourists described as toddlers and "why would I want to stay on a beach filled with toddlers for a day?"



Rainstorm incoming at Rassada Pier


Under way and still getting 24 mbit on cellular data


Entering Tonsai bay

RoamingGeek

The island of drunk 20 year olds and cats
Frogger Difficulty 1/10


When you arrive in Koh Phi Phi you have to pay a 20Baht fee to get off the pier to keep the island clean. I figured I would have to track down my hotel but to my surprise Ibiza House had a person to greet the ferries and haul luggage in a cart. I found it thoroughly amusing walking down the 'streets' (basically over sized masonry tile sidewalks) of Phi Phi following the hotel staff while he was saying 'Beep Beep' to people in front. The arrival night on Phi Phi, I went to the pool party that my hotel hosted which was incredibly fun especially with a bucket of whiskey and redbull. Though as the evening progressed and a half eaten lime wedge floated past me, a terrible realization came to my mind. What happens in a pool when someone has too much to drink? I go to use the restroom and there is a guy in his early 20s muttering about his eye staring in the mirror in a drunken haze. He then seems to assume I have medical expertise, and asks me to examine his eye. After looking at his eye, I realized that my many years healing people in Battlefield games didn't actually qualify me to be a practicing optometrist. I tried explaining this to him but he just went back to staring at himself in the mirror muttering "my eye!" Having to be up at 6:00 AM for an excursion to Phi Phi Ley, I decided to close my practice and go to sleep.



The next morning I headed out to the southern island via speedboat and was dropped off at Maya bay. At first it was very pleasant being one of the few boatloads dropped but within 45 minutes that drastically changed.


The Beach


Random Tip: When you are dropped off by a boat rather than memorizing the exact hull design, just memorize the color, size, and quantity of outboards.

I was happy to be back in the boat and served fresh pineapple. We then went to the north side of the island where we were given masks and snorkels. This is where I met an aggressive parrot fish that felt I was encroaching on his turf and tried to attack me multiple times though using my Contour as a shield proved to be an effective strategy. On the way back, we stopped by monkey beach where the tour operator gave us a few warnings: "monkey steal, only take camera out of boat, monkey bite, don’t get too close, monkey crazy"

After we returned to port, I spent the remainder of the day walking around checking out shops and noting the abundance of cats. Ibiza has hotel rooms in one area then the hostel in the other. I was staying in the hotel and had my own Cabin like building. The shower here was the least impressive I have encountered so far with the hot water valve being burning hot on the exterior. Though the A/C was great and the staff were friendly.









I am more of a dog person than a cat person but had to start taking pictures of cats due to the sheer volume of them.


A road on koh Phi Phi


Nope.







Don't touch the pipes in the wrong spot.

RoamingGeek

As I took my seat on the ferry, there were two typical backpackers in their 20s with their legs over the side of the boat that narrowly missed getting their legs impacted between the boat and the pier. I was a bit concerned about getting to my hotel in Koh Lanta at first but on the boat there is a guy that checks everyone to see if they have hotel transport.

RoamingGeek

A relaxing peaceful Island
Frogger Difficulty 2/10



While Koh Phi Phi is full of parties and 20 year old tourists, Koh Lanta is mellow and laid back. I took a walk down the street and opted to have my laundry done at a tour shop that also provided laundry services near the hotel. This one felt more like a gamble as they did not have any online presence though I wound up not having any issues. Sri Lanta Resort was nicer than I was expecting from the online pictures though several buildings were under construction. On this island removing your shoes when going into a building or restaurant was the norm.







Sri Lanta Grounds

I decided to take a day excursion to Koh Rok to do some more snorkeling. En route 2 Japanese tourists got sea sick and had to be marooned on the beach while the rest of us snorkeled this time the parrot fish didn't have any attitude. The water is some of the most clear beautiful blue water I have seen in my life. Lunch was simple but delicious and I was amazed to find functional bathrooms on the tiny island. After lunch there was more snorkeling to be had but I made a terrible mistake and didn’t get sunscreen applied to the center of my back.









I spent the next few days mentally berating myself and lounging by the pool watching lizards the size of small dogs chase each other. Koh Lanta has top notch sunsets and I desperately need a new camera though the pictures aren't too terrible for a 4 year old phone.

offerendum

I Need urgently a nice ocean...... Thanks for this feelings