Corporate America Runaway

Photo: The beach…this is for all of you enjoying the winter back in NYC!

For all Thailand Photography - click here!

For all snapshots of Southern Thailand - click here!

My sister, Cyndi, and our friend Mary decided to come join me in Bangkok and Southern Thailand for some shopping and sunbathing. Thanks to my sister’s friends with connections this also marked the beginning of my 5 star travel through Thailand. Cyndi knew someone who could get a ’special deal’ at the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok (and we could split it 3 ways!). Once again I’m reminded - connections are everything! The special deal afforded us the opportunity to stay in the nicest hotel in Bangkok, one of the nicest hotels in all of Asia and hands down the best hotel that I’ve ever stayed at…it was an experience. It was fun to see the finely oiled machine they call Customer Service hum. It was such a change from my last 2 weeks of budget travel just praying for hot water and no big bugs - I felt like I was in a dream. I met Cyndi and Mary at the hotel and we settled into our suite. It was large and had an amazing view of the river, a HUGE bathroom and dressing room and more electrical gadgets and amenities than I’ve ever experienced. My highlight was the big tub in the bathroom…with a TV! I had visions of taking a bubble bath and watching the Patriots vs. Colts playoff game at the same time…who needs beer and peanuts when you have a bubble bath!

However - there was no time to sit around playing with all of the gadgets. Little did I know - but in addition to being the sex capital of Asia, Bangkok’s sweet spot was also shopping. We were headed to the famous Chatuchak weekend market in search of bargains. Cyndi also arranged to hire a driver for the day that would assist us with our every shopping need. I wasn’t really sure what my shopping needs were - but I liked the sounds of ‘having a diver’…definitely a special deal! Our driver, Nick, dropped us off in front of the Chatuchak market - but before he let us shop till we dropped, he had a few instructions for us. He gave us each a bottle of ice cold water (as you know it’s not good to be a dehydrated shopper!) and he gave a cell phone with his cell number programmed into it. He told us to call him when we had bags that we wanted him to take back to the car - he would meet us at the entrance. Yes…this was not shopping for rookies - this was Major League shopping. We set off…money belts and water in hand. It really was huge and the variety of items was boggling. We bargained for clothes, housewares, and antiques and Nick would come pick them up for us an bring us more water. He’s even have a marker with him so we could put our names on each bag in order to tell them apart in the trunk. We barely stopped for food and finally I had to break down and stop for a bathroom break. Let me tell you - there was nothing 5 Star about the public toilets at Chatuchak - all I can say is bring Purel!

In my travels to date I have gotten much better at bargaining at markets (thanks to some tutoring from my sister). As an American the idea of bargaining for goods is quite uncomfortable, it doesn’t really come naturally to us…especially to Midwesterners! You have to practice…just like learning a new dance-step - practice, practice, practice. Start with the cheap items though (I actually tried to bargain for water once in Bali)…then move on to the more expensive things. The bargaining shouldn’t just stop at the markets…you can bargain for hotel rooms, bus tickets, taxis, you name it - everything is a negotiation in Asia/Malaysia/Indonesia. It’s like a ballroom dance where you and your partner (the seller) knows all of the steps flawlessly - all you do is execute - hopefully without stepping on each others feet.

They state their initial price, you act shocked and say “Too Expensive!” Then they say,”We give you special discount today, How much you pay?” This normally includes them pushing a calculator into your hand so that you can punch in your price and show it to them. You take the calculator and display half of their original price and show them the calculator. They agitatedly say “No, No - I have to make money - you trying to kill me!” They take the calculator and say “I give you special deal - for you special deal.” They punch in a slightly lower number than their first one and hand you the calculator saying “Special deal…for you….you take?”. They even start to get out a bag and put the item in the bag at this point - just assuming you are going to agree. This next move is important - it’s the make/or break moment of the dance - the difference between getting rated a 2.5 or a 9.7 on your bargaining skills. You take the calculator and say “No, no, no, you give me best price.” Now they know that you aren’t completely gullible and the real bargaining begins…yeehaw! The calculator is exchanged many more times like a hot potato. In the middle of the hot potato game they normally make a statement “How can I feed my family - give me something - just a little.” Don’t let this pull at your heart strings…you have to be tough. If you are really giving them too low of price - they simply won’t sell it to you. Eventually you come to an agreement signified by you typing a number in the calculator and saying “This is the MOST I’ll pay.” At this point, you can’t be afraid to walk away…you may just have to move on and leave the item behind…don’t worry there are many more around the corner. Even though this may seem like a silly or uncomfortable process, this really can be a fun theatrical process - it doesn’t have to be intimidating. The funny thing is that you are normally negotiating over a difference of $3 US so be familiar and quick with your currency conversations! One of my favorite bargaining exchanges that day at Chatuchak was with a guy selling us shirts. We agreed on a price and then we threw in the curve ball - “Ok - better deal if we buy 3?” That sent him into a calculator frenzy! It was really hot and he would fan me with his hand fan as we worked on the calculator. We left with 3 shirts and all of us were laughing and enjoying ourselves - even the vendor! Sometimes I think that they should send all University business students to a big market and make them bargain for a day…it does teach you good negotiation skills!

Photo: Man made of birth control!

Finally the market was closing and Nick met us to take us to the car. When we got to the car he had more water and little, cold, wet washcloths for us to freshen up - brilliant! With our car full of purchases we had Nick take us straight to a restaurant for nourishment and a chance to get off our feet. We went to Cabbages and Condoms - a Thai restaurant well-known for it’s philanthropy and it’s goofy name. A portion of their proceeds go back into the community to support the food bank (Cabbages) and AIDS research (Condoms). The food was great - but I was most impressed with the decor. Everywhere they had life size figurines made of condoms! Instead of an after dinner mint, they handed you the bill and a condom for each person - what a fabulous idea! Now they just have to figure out how to give me a tall, cut boy to go with that!

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Photo: Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Note: The photos of the bar, Sirocco, in this post are not mine - they are from the bar’s website. I couldn’t take many pictures at night as the flash just doesn’t do it justice. In addition - the sex clubs of course would not allow a camera…so you will have to use your imagination!

For All snapshots of One Day in Bangkok - click here!

After two weeks of playing and eating all over Northern Thailand, I have arrived in the heart of Thailand - Bangkok - the city that screams SEX! There are about 9 million people living in the sprawling metropolis and no, not all of them are associated with the Sex Trade. However - Bangkok certainly has it’s seedy areas, like all cities, it’s just a little easier to find them than most cities.
This is also where Emily left me and returned sadly to NY. She was wonderful to travel with and extremely laid back/low-maintenance. So we had one day in Bangkok together - with an aggressive schedule of site seeing, massage, and nightlife. Like good New Yorkers, we first mastered the sky train system (basically their subway). It was a breeze (mainly because it only had two lines to keep track of) and they printed a little map on the back of every ticket…what a great idea! We took the sky train to the river and then took a river express taxi to the main tourist temple area. We wanted to go to Wat Pho. Sure - we wanted to see the Reclining Buddha along with the throngs of other tourists, but what we really wanted to find was the Wat Pho Massage School…home of the best massages in Thailand! It had come highly recommended to us - so the reclining Buddha was just a perk in our minds! We wandered around the reclining Buddha, taking our customary photos and once again realizing that we know very little about Buddhism. It was hot outside and we were hunting around the temple in search of the massage school - finally we stopped and asked a couple of young girls walking by. They said…follow us…so we did. We followed them off of the temple grounds and down the alley, sure enough…they lead us right to it…the holy grail of Thai massage! Obviously we must have done something right in the temple as we were rather lucky for randomly asking people for directions - they ended up working there! It really was the best massage I had in Thailand…it didn’t disappoint!

We next got back to our hotel to get cleaned up as we had signed up for a night walking tour of Bangkok. The night our was to show us Bangkok by night - the ritzy, the dive bars, the cultural and the sexy. I know what you are all thinking…isn’t there some song about one night in Bangkok…well, yes there is - it’s from the 80’s:

One night in Bangkok and the world’s your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain’t free
You’ll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can’t be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me

I think that pretty much sums it up! We were ready to go party in this town! The tour included dinner and drinks all night - and it went as late as you wanted it to…perfect! (for those of you interested - it was through Smiling Albino - www.smilingalbino.com) There were 6 other people in the group and our tour guide was a Canadian named Greg. He was a big, bald, white guy…I certainly felt safe with him. He had lived in Bangkok for 5 years now and loved it. We started by walking to a little dive bar by our hotel. It was an outdoor bar in a little circular alley. There really was no ‘inside’ to it as you sat on the street on a bar stool. When cars came down the alley, you had to pick up your stool and move out of the way until the car passed, then you moved back to sitting on the street. Thank God this was the 1st bar else one too many drinks and I would have been road kill! I wondered what kind of lease this bar paid considering the seating was in the street - I hope the owner got a good deal!

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