Thailand....Adventure And Gaining Wisdom...Part 1 of 2

   When I arrived in Thailand I had no clue that it would be the first of 3 visits to that Asian country. Now that I've searched for details in my journal, and recollected my experiences I fully realize the lack of experience I had when I first landed in Bangkok.

   The relaxing, care free arrival in Bangkok from Hawaii was hampered by sleep deprivation; after being awake all day and transferring flights in Tokyo we arrived at about 1am and had to hang around the airport until travel agencies opened. Our backpacks and contents were soaked from sitting out in the open luggage cart at the Tokyo airport during a tropical storm, everything was wet and we were pretty stinky.

   Our plan was to catch a flight from Bangkok to Delhi, India to visit my friend Chamkaur who would only be in his village (200 kms from Delhi) for another 10 days. Once the ticket agents opened then I started calling around for prices. At the airport the Thai Airlines attendant quoted 8,000 Baht ($325 US) each for one a way flight, when the Lonely Planet book listed the price as 4,500 Baht ($200 US). I called the local travel agents and started bartering; prices dropped each call until I found a place with flights for 4,400 Baht. We left our bags at the airport storage and headed out to the busy street to catch the bus. Rather than wait for an infrequent 15 Baht air condition bus my companion and I took the 2 Baht open air, get choked out with exhaust bus.

                             



After almost an hour of riding through the overpopulated rat race; and with the help of some very friendly passengers, we disembarked from the bus right by the NC Travel. When we went in (with cash) to buy the tickets for that night the woman said "Oh sorry after you called Air India was sold out but I can try to get you a ticket for next Tuesday". This lady knew that we had to go on that Sunday and she had said "yes sir,no problem."; we had to abandon that plan. Off we went back to the airport, it was so hot while we waited 30 minutes for a bus.

  We hit the airport discouraged and disoriented from lack of sleep then caught a taxi from out front back downtown (180 Baht). We checked into the Chart Guest House for 100 Baht; it was the gecko's (small lizard), cockroaches, ants, and us. Somehow we managed to sleep with a fan circulating the hot air. The next day we pretty much settled in to the Bangkok life, we went by many temples and took a lot of photo's.

                                       

                            


The Golden Mount Temple (Wat Saket) was tremendous; from the top of the mount one can see at least 20 of the 400 temples that exist in Bangkok. The day finished (Sunday) with sitting in this large field watching people fly kites; this is very popular in Thailand, especially between Feb-Apr.

                         

   The next morning I was awoken by noise at 5am and couldn't get back to sleep so I hit the pavement. I went about a kilometre away from our backpacker area where there were just locals; hundreds of monks walked around with their offering bowls as people waited to give them either Baht or food. When I watched the monks I come to the conclusion that if a person give enough (however much that was) that the monk would stand and let the person complete her/his worshiping, if it was too little then the monk barely stopped. That day was spent walking around viewing the sites and then finished with some shopping at the open market....that is entertaining in itself.



   We did well by getting out of Bangkok the next day but it was not without error. I bought 2 bus tickets for the 11 hour trip, it cost 170 Baht each. A bit later I met Russel, an Aussie, who had been to Chiang Mai 10 times and he said "hey man do not take the bus...it is so dangerous". Russel said: that drivers constantly go off the road, they pass trucks near the top of a blind hill, there are ten military checks; probably because there are so many bandits that stop the buses for robberies. Anyway, that was enough of a scare so I went back to the bus agent (who said they are insured so my family will get money if I die) and argued our refund back (long story).

   We met an Irish guy (Steve) who came with us on the tricycle to the train station; we were very happy to get a ticket for 8:30 pm but we had very little time to go collect our bags and get back to the station.

                           

When we got back we asked at the Chiang Mai window where to go (what platform) and the guy said the train left at 7:30 and our tickets were no good. When I got mad the ticket agent just sat at his desk and ignored me so Steve took over and for 40 baht more we got on the 10pm train. I could not sleep much but the train ride was good. About 5am it became light enough to view out the window; at that time there were primarily rice fields until we got into the hills then there was so much smoke from the farmers burning their fields. After a couple of hours the smoke cleared and the scenery was great; the train pulled in just after 12 noon. We made our way (with the help of Steve) to the Golden Riverside Guest House, we were very happy there.

  In Chiang Mai there was time for me to reflect on how our plan did not work.....we did not really have a plan B per se . There was thought of trying to venture to other countries besides India but once we explored it a little further, that extra travel was either too dangerous with the heroin trade of the "Golden Triangle"(Burma, Laos and Northern Thailand) or too expensive. This was  01/1990 so the drug problem was very serious in that area; rebels and government soldiers were in a constant battle.

    We spent a couple of days checking out what Chiang Mai had to offer and then made a plan to get to Bangkok and try to fly from there to Australia; I got some bench seat tickets for the next day (Sunday) because there were no sleeper beds available until the Friday. In the afternoon we were throwing around a nerf football and we caught the attention of the children who lived beside the Golden Riverside AND an old guy who also lived there. I threw it to him a couple of times and then he wanted to continue; I told him that I would come back the next morning.

   That next morning I went to play with this old guy and when I threw it up very high it got caught in his large tree. He had a long piece of bamboo but it would not reach. I climbed up the tree in my bare feet to get it and noticed big bull ants on the way up. Once I got as far up as possible I still could not reach it so I shook the branch to break the football free; what a naive mistake. At least 100 of these ants landed all over me and of course they started biting me fiercely. I came down from high in the tree so quickly; scraping my arms and legs in the process. Once I got down I ripped my shirt and shorts off frantically while this guy and his wife helped me swipe the ants off of my body.

    The continuation of my first trip to Thailand will be in my part 2 blog........destiny really changes when one travels on a whim.