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***START
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7/20/01
FIRST CLASS, BABY!
Mark Swanson and I were able to talk my friend Cheryl out of
employee passes (she works for Northwest Airlines). We ended up
with first class seats all the way to Bangkok and back! Nothing
like fresh shrimp cocktails, movies, Dove ice cream bars, and all you
can drink for free!
We left about 3pm on Friday the 20th,
connected through Narita airport in Tokyo, Japan and finally arrived at
Bangkok at 11pm SATURDAY the 21st. The flights add up to about 18
hours...
Bangkok from the
airplane
We hit Customs and Immigration in
Thailand, and off we went. We changed some money into Baht (45
Baht to 1 US Dollar) and grabbed a cab. We showed the cab driver
where we wanted to stay on a map, but he took us to some other hotel he
probably gets a kick back from. It was named Washington Square
Hotel or something like that. We looked at a room, it was bad,
and left. The cab driver was still outside and Mark told him to
take us to the Tai-Pan hotel, a
hotel his cousin had told him about. We were hoping for a better
deal, but who wants to screw around? The Tai-Pan was 2200 Baht per
night ($49) so we went for it, as it looked nice enough. We
changed, and starting walking into the city looked for someplace to
eat. We ate Thai rice entrée's at a place for about $7 each,
including seafood/shrimp salads and drinks. We walked though Soi
Cowboy (adults only link) and waved at all the sex workers yelling
"Hello!". We bought some bottled water at 7-11 near our
hotel and headed home.
Soi Cowboy
Soi Cowboy from
Skytrain
Tai-Pan Business Card
7/22/01
Chatachuk Market
We had free breakfast at our hotel and headed for the Chatachuk
market, which is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's
biggest market. It was huge, selling everything and
anything. I bought shorts, pants, underwear, t-shirts, 2 bags all
for less than $40. We used the Bangkok Sky Train to get there for
less than $1. The temp this day was 35 Celsius, which is about 95
Fahrenheit I think. HOT HOT HOT!
Chatachuk Market Map
Chatachuk Market
Duane buying ice
cream at Chatachuk
Foot Massage, $4
Mark and I got foot massages for $4 US. It was a full hour in
an air conditioned store at Chatachuk. It was so damn hot there I
would have paid $5 just to sit in the air conditioning.
Emporium Shopping
We went to a shopping mall called "Emporium Shopping" that
night, and had pizza at a place called Pomodoro's. Nothing special
about this place but now ya know! I did get a full body massage
for about $13 that night (2 hours!)
Tai-Pan Hotel, 2nd room
This night, around 11:30pm, something was wrong with the
clock/control thing in our hotel room. When you walked in, you had
to put your hotel key chain on this thing on the wall so your lights and
air conditioning would work. The clock/control thing controlled
the lights and it didn't work unless the key chain was on the
wall. Well, for whatever reason, the air was on, the light at the
front door was on, but we couldn't turn any lights on or off. Mark
called the front desk and they sent these guys who didn't seem to know
what they were doing and we ended up being told about 12:30 am to pack
up our stuff as we're headed for another room. I had stuff all
over from Chatachuk, plus everything else. We got all packed and
found out they only wanted us to move one room down. Well, there
was only one bed there but they said they were full. I said that
was OK for a discount, but all of a sudden there was another room for us
on another floor. So off we go. End of story is the next
room wasn't as nice, didn't have a safe, and it wasted about 2 hours of
our time.
Tai-Pan Hotel
7/23/01
Mail stuff at the Embassy!
Mark's cousin (who is in the Marines I think) told us to mail stuff
home from the US Embassy as it has a Zip Code and is really cheap, fast,
etc. We had bought enough junk that we headed for the Embassy to
do this. Well, they gave us passes to get to the post office at
the Embassy, but they were acting confused when we asked to go
there. It ends up that you can't mail from there unless you are Military
or a US Government employee. A guy there packaged our stuff
really nice and we headed for a Thailand Post Office. $20 later,
and the package should arrive in the US within 2 months!
HOT!
Another scorcher, over 95 degrees. Hot as hell, and
sweaty! We checked out an Internet cafe that had air conditioning
near the post office ($1.35 per hour) and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe at
Siam Square.
Scams, scams, scams
We had read in the Lonely Planet about scams in Thailand, especially
Gem scams, where locals act like they know a place for you to get a good
deal, etc, but really they are just suckering you into buying bad gems
for a high price. We didn't fall for it, but we did let 2 women
who acted like well-to-do business women take us to one of these.
We left right away laughing we let it get so far. Here's a guy
trying to scam us at MBK shopping.
Outside MBK Shopping
Center, with a scammer trying to tell us where to shop (get scammed?)
Venus
Jewelry
We visited a store Mark's cousin told us to go to. Mark had a
shopping list of jewelry for friends so we went there. Apparently
this guy who owns it deals with mostly military. Mark was thinking
we might have to be military to get the deals so before we decided we
would say we are in the Marines like his cousin.
Where in Okinawa?
So the owner right away asks if we're military, and Mark says, yep
Marines. He asks where we are stationed and Mark replied Okinawa
(like his cousin is). We shop; Mark picks out stuff; I bought a
pewter flask for a gift and the lady asks (in a broken English, sort of)
where at Okinawa I'm stationed. LIKE I HAVE ANY IDEA! I
acted like I couldn't understand her so maybe she would give up, but she
persisted. Finally, she said again, you're at Okinawa, right, and
I said no, I'm just visiting from the USA, and MARK is from
Okinawa. She then asked him but gave him two choices: Forrester or
something else. Mark answered Forrester and that was over!
We didn't need to be military there but you hate to look like an ass
after lying. There were photos all over the place with the owner
and different military guys when they were in the store. I was
hoping we wouldn't have to do a photo... If we did I wanted to be
Major Healey and Mark could be Major Nelson (like the characters in I
Dream of Jeanie) |
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Time for a
new hotel room, again
I asked at the front desk of the Tai-Pan if we could get a third bed
or cot in our room, as Scott Davis
was flying in tonight and would be staying with us. The guy said,
no, we would need to change rooms, also the price went up to 2850 Baht
($63). Ok, fine. We met Scott in this back-packer area where
tons of Americans and Europeans were hanging out called "Khao San
Road". Lots of cheap guest houses there, etc. We sat
and had drinks with Scott at the Sidewalk cafe and exchanged stories,
etc before heading back to the Tai-Pan.
Mark and Scott buying
a map, Khoa San Road (backpacker area)
Duane and Scott on
Khoa San Road
7/24/01
Let's move yet again!
Mark and I decided we would go to Koh Samui, an island with beaches
and stuff in the Gulf of Thailand. We visited the travel agent in
our hotel, who did a good job booking us flights and a hotel
there. We asked if she could find us something cheaper for the
next couple night instead of staying at Tai-Pan, yet similar quality.
She booked us at the Ambassador a few blocks down for 1500 Baht per
night ($34) and off we went. We took a taxi from there to the
"Shangri La" hotel to take the canal tour Mark's cousin had
recommended to us. The taxi driver (Nippon ChitChop) knew pretty
good English and said he was recently laid off in Seattle from
Seagate. And no, he didn't know Dave Bremer.
Ambassador Hotel
Business Card
Nippon ChitChop
Business Card
How about a little dirty water?
The canal was filthy, and you were scared that when water splashed
in your face, it would get in your mouth. The canal tour uses
these "long boats" which were weird boats that had huge
engines on the back that looked like you just pulled a truck engine out
of a Ford F150. It sounded like that too, as there was no muffler
on it. Along the way this old lady was waiting in her boat to sell
us junk, and tried to talk us into buying a beer for the boat
driver. You can't scam a scammer, lady!
Long Boat - Canal
Tour
Duane on Long Boat
Scammer lady on canal
tour
Canal Tour Again
Snake Farm
The boat stopped at a snake farm, which we didn't go in, but Mark
and Scott got pictures with snakes around their necks for 20 Baht (45
cents).
Scott at Snake Farm
Mark at Snake Farm
Scott at Snake Farm
Wat Arun (Temple of Dawn)
Next canal tour stop was this temple. It was hot as hell there, but
we climbed around on it and took pictures. Scott realized he left
his sunglasses at the snake farm.
Wat Arun
Buddha in Wat Arun
Scott, Duane, Mark at
Wat ARun
I left my sunglasses at the snake
farm, go real fast, 5 minutes...
We got dropped at this Chang Pier, but Scott stayed in the boat,
trying to tell our non-English speaking boat driver, that he needed to
go back to the snake farm for his sunglasses. Words can't explain
how funny this was, as Scott was using his hands to show snakes,
sunglasses and go fast. He kept doing it over and over and the guy
finally figured it out and said 300 Baht (we paid 550 for all 3 of us on
this tour). Scott said no and got off at the pier. At the
pier you can also hire boats to do similar canal tours (why you would
ever want to do this is beyond me... avoid the canal if ever in
Bangkok). So Scott is doing the same stuff (snake farm, sunglasses, go
fast there and back) but can't get anyone to do it for less then 350
Baht. Finally he finds a guy to take him for 300, but he had to pay 320,
and 2 other girls were with him. They did go straight to the snake
farm but Scott jumped ship when they didn't come straight back. He
took a motorcycle taxi to get back to the pier to meet Mark and I.
Another Scam
Mark and I were going to check out "Wat Pho", home of the
reclining Buddha. This student told us it was closed (which Lonely
Planet says is a common scam, telling you stuff is closed). This
guy never tried to get us to go look at gems or anything, but we told
him we were waiting for Scott, he left his sunglasses, at the snake
farm, ...
Lumpinee Muay Thai
This night, we took a cab from our hotel to see Thai kickboxing at
Lumpinee Stadium. Pretty cool. They try to scam you into
1000 Baht ringside seats, when the 200 Baht were just as good. I
didn't feel well and was really tired so I left Scott and Mark there via
motorcycle taxi, which was crazy!
Muay Thai
Muay Thai
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7/25/01
Shopping
We went shopping at MBK and Patpong Market. Scott ran into
fellow backpackers from the Netherlands. We ate in Chinatown and
finally made it to Wat Pho.
Mark on Motorcycle
Taxi
MBK Shopping
Chinatown fountain
Wat Pho - Reclining
Buddha
Scott, Duane, Mark at
Wat Pho
7/26/01
Koh
Samui
Mark and I took a flight on Bangkok Airlines to Koh Samui at
8am. Koh Samui is a very nice island with a lot of little resorts
that have "bungalows" on the beach. We stayed in a hotel
room at "Samui Park Resort". It was obvious we could
have found a better deal and had the hotel on a better beach, but oh
well, free breakfast, a pool, etc. It was very close to
"Grandmother and Grandfather Rock".
Samui Park Resort
Business Card
Samui Park Resort
Pool
Grandfather Rock
Henna, foot scrub
After checking in, we swam in the pool a little, then walked toward
a nicer beach. We had pizza at "Pizza Hat" and swam at
Lanai beach. These two girls were bugging me to get a fake tattoo
painted on. I ended up doing it and getting a foot scrub (feet
washed and calluses removed) for 400 Baht total ($9). Not a bad
deal.
Hat Lamai
Henna Tattoo
Wrong side of the Road?
We rented a Suzuki truck (basically a Suzuki Samurai but it wasn't
labeled that and it was obviously a lot newer). In Thailand they
drive on the left hand side of the road and the cars are right hand
drive, so it was pretty crazy. The stick shift, signals, mirrors,
are all on the wrong side of you, plus you need to stay in your
lane. Not an easy drive... I ate spaghetti outside at
Chawang Beach, and we had a few beers at a couple bars. It was a
lot easier to drive in the wrong lane after a few beers for some
reason! One funny thing about renting this was they never asked
for ID, I just filled out a form and signed it. The cost was 800
Baht ($18) and the lady said they have insurance. Also, shouldn't
I have an International Driver's license? (I don't)
Duane in
right-hand-drive Suzuki
7/27/01
NaMuang Waterfalls
We checked out two waterfalls, and swam in the pool at the bottom of
one. The water was a lot colder than the ocean or our hotel
swimming pool. Since it was still so hot this was very
refreshing. Just a relaxing day at a beach resort. Koh Samui
is very close to Thailand's Ang Thong National Marine Park. where the
film "The Beach" was filmed. In the movie they go to Ko
Phan-Ngan, which is an island we could have visited by one hour ferry.
Mark at Waterfall
Duane at Waterfall
Mark jumping in
7/28/01
Mr. Pornchai
Mr. Pornchai was our taxi driver from the airport to our hotel on
Samui. He had offered to do a 8 hour taxi tour of the
island. We took him up on a half day then a ride to the
airport. He took us to a couple temples, showed us a
Buddhist ritual, a coconut farm, and a fishery area.
Mark working at
coconut farm
Duane and Mark do
Buddhist Ritual
Big Buddha, Koh Samui
Mr Pornchai and Duane
at Mummified Buddha
Koh Samui Fishermen
Working
Abby is back!
We met Scott and Abby in the Khao San Road area after we got back
from Bangkok. We stayed at the "Asia Airport Hotel"
which had a free 4am shuttle to the airport. By noon on 7/29 we
were home! US Customs didn't care about my pirate software, music,
and movies I had bought in Bangkok, but they did take away my Chinese
throwing star.
Duane, Scott, Mark,
Abby at Scott and Abby's "hotel"
Stealing a tuk-tuk |
