Passage through Thailand

After a month of being out of Malaysia we find ourselves missing it quite a bit.  Maybe this is just rosy-coloured hindsight, maybe not.  But we left Malaysia with a bad taste in our mouth and I wish we hadn't.  This largely had to do with our departure process.  After we found out that there was not seats left on the train we tried taking the bus into Thailand.  The only place that went was a city called Hat Yai (which was right in the area that there had recently been a bombing of a hotel).  After debating this issue, buying a ticket, then attempting to cancel the ticket (no luck there), we hopped on a bus to Alor Setar (where supposedly another train went by).  To help us off to Thailand we talked to a guy at breakfast who had just gotten out of jail in Thailand (he had been there for a few years).  He told us that he had a Canadian friend who was still in jail in Thailand.  Great.

Alor Setar had a very small train station and the ticket booth did not open until 4, we arrived at 1.  Fortunately the baggage guys were very friendly and allowed us to store our big bag with them while we went to the bank and ate lunch.  The booth opened and again there were no tickets, for the next two days in fact.  We persisted though and there were tickets to the border and maybe we could buy tickets to Surat Thani (our thought of destination) beyond that.  We decided to risk it.

As we waited for the train another train passed by heading in the other direction.  It was green and spotless and looked like a hotel on tracks as it passed us.  We saw large beds in sleeper rooms and one restaurant car with what looked like a crystal chandelier hanging in it.  From the back of the train two very well dressed people saluted us with their champagne glasses as they passed.  This was the Eastern and Orient Express and I'm sure one ticket from Bangkok to Singapore would have cost our entire travel budget…  Still it would be nice to ride it, when we're rich.

Our own train did not look anywhere as fancy, but the seats were comfortable.  The ride to the border was uneventful.

We arrived at the border and, as Nancy noted, the Malaysian side said "service with a smile" and the Thai side said no such thing.  This proved to be true.  We went through the Malay side very fast.  On the Thai side things were slower.  We had to stand in a box on the floor while the border guard, in a box scanned our passport.  Apparently we aren't wanted for anything in Thailand so we got in.  Of course we only had train seats to the border so we had to buy a couple more tickets.  There were only two seats available we were informed, one was in first class.  We reluctantly bought them and figured we would explain to whoever got into the other seat that the second class was beside that we would trade for a first class ticket.  As it turned out we had sleeper berths in second class so there was actually room for four people during the day before the sleepers came out so we did not need to explain anything as we sat not crowding anyone.  Once the sleepers came out, we actually fit quite easily in the top bunk together.  Our bunk mate (in the lower bunk, but for most of the ride, sitting across from us) was an American named Emily who had been working in Australia in some capacity.  She was going to Surat Thani as well, which was lucky because she knew where to stay and was far better at negotiating the cab fare than we were.  The cab sped us to our hotel at a terrifying speed.  Our room was straight from the 70s and only really worthwhile by the fact that there were 3 of us staying (and we still ended up paying more than we had anywhere in Malaysia).  The room was huge though.  We only saw Surat Thani by night really, it looked alright.  In the morning we were informed where to catch the bus back to the train station by the counter people (one of them even wrote it out for us in Thai in case we got lost).  I don't think many farang (as Thai's call foreigners) take the bus in Surat Thani.  I had to ride up front as my legs were too long for any of the seats.  We did get a lot of smiles though and one sale offer of a song bird (which we declined).  And 10 hours after arriving in Surat Thani we hopped on the next train to Bangkok.

In the scary taxi

Our room in Surat Thani

The ride to Bangkok was about 10 hours and pleasant.  Pleasant, that is, until we got our first sights of Bangkok, at least half an hour before the train stopped at the central station.  We found ourselves a little unnerved by all of the people, the cars, the noise and the poverty that we could see and hear as we went past.  Bangkok did not really improve by us stepping into it.  As we walked to the hostel we had pick out a man asked us if we needed help finding it (we did not have a map).  After deciding that we did, he started leading us to the place; along the way he informed us we owed him a beer for his troubles.  We probably would have found the place on our own and not short a beer.

I should mention we did have a book for Thailand, but it was not a Lonely Planet (a mistake we will not make again).  It was instead a Fodor's which does seem to be a decent travel book, but only if you have more money to spend on accommodations and transportation than we did.  Its advice for our budget was not at all feasible.

The hostel we stayed in was 250 Baht (or 25RM) a bed which was the most we had paid for a bed in a dorm room since leaving Sabah.  One of our bunk mates was an large, older French man who moved around in his sleep all night (the bunks were very squeaky).  So we did not get much in the way of sleep in Bangkok.

The main proprietor of the hostel was a very friendly and pleasant woman who was happy to help us in anyway she could.  The next day when we were on our way she told us how to get around Bangkok by boat and Skytrain/MRT.  To get to Wat Po, Wat Arun and The Royal Palace we could take the sky train to the river and take the public boat up the river to them.  The boat up the river was pretty cool and gave us a good view of the Bangkok skyline.

Bangkok from the river

Wat Arun was our first destination and it was great.  In the middle of this massive noisy city it was a place of true tranquility.  We wandered the grounds for hours listening to the chimes and the chanting and wandering to the top of the massive stupa that looked out over the river.  The rain made it even better because it chased off many of the tourists.  The main temple area was very quiet, even though there were many people milling around it.  There was even someone telling everyone who passed (in a low voice) anything they wanted to know about the temple and the images inside.  We were reluctant to leave and extend our time there by eating some food made just outside the temple grounds.  We would not be in a place this tranquil again until we visited Wat Sisaket in Laos.

Wat Arun

It's Steep.

On the other side of the river was the royal palace.  It just so happened that we came on the right day because it was free to enter (usually its something like 200 Baht to enter) due to the upcoming coronation day (or some sort of holiday involving the monarch).  The only catch was we had to be wearing pants.  There were people renting loose and light Thai pants for men and women outside entrance and I rented a pair for 50 Baht with 100 Baht deposit.  I ended up liking them so much that when we got out I had them keep the deposit and I kept the pants.  The palace was pretty and photogenic.  A lot of soaring temples and stupas and more palatial structures.  A huge mural down one whole wall was particularly interesting.  There was also the emerald buddha, which was statue made of jade entirely and was also stolen from Laos in the 1820s when Thailand (then Siam) invaded.  Though the Siamese claimed Laos stole it from them first.  Who knows really.  We took a rest out of the sun in a little pavilion and while we sat there a Japanese woman sat next to us and her friend took a few pictures (not too subtly).  After the few pictures apparently did not come out as wanted the woman beside us asked if they could take pictures with us so that we might look directly at the camera.  After a few pictures with each of their cameras of each of them with us, they thanked us enthusiastically and wandered away.  It was a kind of funny way to end our visit to the palace.

My new pants

Nancy in a fancy door

Passage to the underworld?

Nancy and a bird person.

We never found out how to enter Wat Po and perhaps it was closed that day, I'm not sure.  But as we walked the streets of the area we did encounter a side of Bangkok that we would rather have not.  We found ourselves having bags of dry corn forced into our hands and put on our wrists with people telling us to "feed the birds" and "no money".  Being approached this way was not to our liking and we tried to refuse but they were very insistent.  We tossed the corn in the air and as the birds ate we were surrounded, with demands of "money!" and "150 baht!".  We were intimidated but we said no and that this was not fair or a good way to get money.  After our constant refusal they back off and one lady started crying, which is what broke us and we gave her 50 baht (which she snatched our of my hand so fast that her hand practically blurred).  In hindsight, we should have done no such thing as it only perpetuates this kind of behaviour, and likely there will be more people who fall for this sort of trap in the future too.  Its that 1 in every 10 or so that succumbs, that keeps it going.

Not feeling so good about this encounter we returned to the river and sky train to try and find some street food and call it a day.  We had no luck on the street pod front and just ate near our hostel.  As we ate we noticed how many older farang there were with young Thai girls wandering about and we found out later that we were relatively close to a red light district.  Yes, sex tourism is alive and well in Bangkok.  

We decided that we did not need to spend another day in Bangkok and after some checking of availability of rooms in Northern Thailand sites we decided we did not need to stay in Thailand either.  We decided to get a train directly to Laos.

This proved to be a not immediate solution as we could not get train tickets until the next day and the train itself did not leave until 6:30 PM.  We awoke early in the morning raced to the train station (just in case).  We bought 3rd class tickets as they were much cheaper than the second class sleepers (our total with 3rd class was 600 baht about and with the 2nd it was 1500 baht).  As we ate breakfast in the train station there was an announcement and every Thai person around us stood up.  The national anthem came on (I think it was 8AM); some people even sang along.

Back at the hostel we stored our bags for the day and decided that we did not need to do much by way of tourism.  We had coffee and read up on our destination and read our books.  Generally relaxed.  Nancy was reading Tiziano Terzani and I had just started The Honourable Schoolboy by John LeCarre.  We arrived at the train station around 5 and had our dinner and once again witnessed the national anthem.  Then we boarded our train.

At first though we stared a bit at it.  It was definitely 3rd class and we found ourselves on hard benches, not in row but facing the Thai couple in the seats opposite us.  We were the only farangs.  It was about a 13 hour train ride.  The couple in front of us managed to sleep a little though they kept waking each other up and grumbling about it (it was  kind of cute really).  Nancy also managed some sleep.  I did not.  I did manage to get a good portion of my book read though.  Some of the more clever people slept on the floor, which was definitely a lot more comfortable than our seats.  After what seemed like far more than 13 hours on the train we arrived in Nong Khai the Thai town bordering Laos near Vientiane.  In a daze we found the bus that took us to the border paid the $44 US each for our Visas (it all went very smoothly) and hopped on a Tuk-Tuk to Vientiane.

Our room in Vientiane was about the same price as one bed was in Bangkok.  We did not spend time marvelling at this.  We found our room, the big comfy bed in it and went to sleep.  We would try exploring later.