3 days in Thailand - ClaudiAntics - BootsnAll Travelogues

November 30, 2003

3 days in Thailand

The biggest adjustment to Thailand has been accepting how different the country and culture is, compared to India.

It's clean. Not spotless, but spotless is overrated. Trash doesn't line every street; pollution (no more black boogies) is nonexistent compared to India.

We can eat meat with abandon! The restaurants are clean and quality; tonight, we even ate beef — for each of us, for the first time since leaving North America.

We have to learn more of the language. In India, just about everyone spoke at least some English — not so in Thailand. So far, I have "thank you" (khawp kun) and "Sang Som" (rum) down.

Infrastructure is excellent. India is improving in this regard; the train system was great there, for example, but public transportation in general needs work. Bangkok's infrastructure is like being in the U.S. or Europe.

The country is just smaller. A 21-hour train ride in India took us from Mumbai, on the west coast, to Jhansi — just in the interior. That’s a lot of ground covered, but in a place with still way more ground to cover. Every train and bus ride here, will be much shorter in comparison, so we have to adjust how we ponder our balance of transit and being in a place.

No leering. Claudia's been able to actually — whoa — uncover. She doesn't have to hide every square inch and yet still get leered at. If anything, she in her tank top is pretty tame compared to some of the farang (foreigner) girls we saw on the Khao San Road.

Those are just a few areas. We've been loving Bangkok, and tomorrow sort of ends the adjustment, and has us right back in the mix and mire and chaos of travel. I'm going to the Grand Palaca and Wat Po; we're also going to sort out visas for Cambodia, and train tickets for our next destination: Ayutthaya, 80km north. From there, we'll be heading to Surothani, and then Chiang Mai. (Tiffadactyl: I'll be emailing you — I can’t believe you’re in CM!) Er, maybe. Or we might go west to Kanchanaburi and Erawan Falls first.

Then again...

This weekend is also a holiday weekend: all of Thailand will be celebrating Constitution Day. Mel has been saying that travel will be difficult, accommodation hard to come by. She also says that Bangkok is a hella good place to be in during the holiday, for everything from people-watching to seeing the king take a parade boat up the Chao Praya River. And, in true Aussie-expat style, there's a piss-up from Thursday onwards.

Decisions, decisions.

Posted by Ant on November 30, 2003 10:02 PM
Category: Thailand

Comments

I definitely think that you should visit both Ayutthaya and Erwan Falls... those waterfalls are awesome. SO romantic- ask C about our photos....haha. :)

Just be careful- since Thailand's State Parks are filled with monkeys and 'unsafe' areas.

I never got to go to Chiang Mai.. and neither did Claud-so it will be new for both of you.

Posted by: Stephanie on December 1, 2003 12:01 PM