First Arrival
Hi everyone,
Well you can hold the ransom I have been released.
It has been quite an adventure so far. This is the first I have been
able to get to a computer so I am trying to write to everyone at once.
There is absolutely nothing that could prepare one for this trip. If I had not
done all the research before this trip I would really be totally lost, instead
of mostly lost. It is really a strange and know how to do absolutely nothing.
Even the phones operate differently. The television stations that I have found
speak only Thai, so I am completely out of touch.
Whoever said most Thai’s speak English lied totally. The flight from hell got me
here in 23 hrs total flying time. I was met in Bangkok at about 11:00PM on the
1st by my friend, Pam. She is the person I have referred to as my Travel Agent.
She is a travel agent but not really mine. Without her this week I don't know
how I would have learned half of what I did. She is in her early thirties but
looks like a girl of about 19. She is not an Asian beauty but is as helpful as
one could hope for. She looks like what you picture as a Asian orphan.
We went from the airport back to her apartment. It is one room plus a bathroom.
You can't complain when it is free and a great home base. Yes, Pam and I spent
six months communicating and laying the ground rules before my arrival. She is a
great friend but we agreed on no romantic interests even though we are living in
very close quarters. Believe it or not, no further explanation offered.
The first day she went to work and I slept in a little. I had caught a cold just
before I left and the plane trip just made it worse. My first venture out on my
own was to find a drug store. The area around her apartments is what we picture
when we think of China or Viet Nam I believe.
The main road is totally jammed
with cars going every imaginable speed and direction and literally hundreds of
motorcycles or probably better described as scooters.
All along the roads are lines and lines of people selling food and other goods.
It looks like what we could only describe as slums and looks extremely poor. You
wind through endless alley ways or Soi's. But this is the norm all around. There
are a plethora of dogs and cats wandering freely through the streets.
The amazing thing is that the streets and sidewalks are spotless. You will not see a scrap of paper or refuse anywhere. Each street vendor is constantly sweeping their areas with a home made straw broom or washing the walks with a hose. I have been "upcountry" through some of the poorest and most remote areas and you do not see one bit of litter. Pam says if you are caught littering your picture is put on the TV and you are disgraced.
I have walked through areas
alone that we would not dream of entering at home but here you never feel
threatened. As a "farang" (non-Asian) I receive many stares but only friendly
greeting and responses. I have only been approached by one beggar and that was a
young Lahsu native girl with a child on the Myanmar (Burma) border.
I found a drug store, but you cannot picture a store here. The streets are lined
with what look like multiple attached single car garages with accordion type
doors that open into the roof. Above the ground level stores are usually
apartments of some type of dwelling absolutely weathered and charred by the heat
and air pollution. My drug store was about 14' wide with one small counter.
The lady showed me what was good for colds and I bought prescription Clariton for about $3.00 over the counter. A small overdose of these and my cold was gone in two days.
The first night Pam took me to a shopping center. This country is a country of extremes. Everything runs from one end of your imagination to the other . When you feel you know what to expect you find something completely opposite. We took a rapid transit train to the shopping center and although it was tightly packed in the middle of the mass congestion it was as modern and complete as anything in the US. In fact Detroit has nothing to compare. So we found a pizza hut and I thought this would be easy. Well you haven't lived until you have eaten fish topping on pizza.
Since that day I have eaten things that I can not describe. Noodle soup is a standard breakfast. I have ate things with legs, I have ate things that look like sushi and turn out to be a sweet dessert. I have had my senses singed with the spices and treated to some fantastic flavors. Most of the first week I could not even tell you what I was eating.
The Thai people eat constantly. Every where, and I mean every where, the thousands (no exaggeration) of street vendors are present.
On day three we took a plane at 7:30AM to Chiang Rai. My river Kwai trip was cancelled because of this. Pam had to scout and prepare a trip for her company so we were the advance party. I spent four days truly living as a Thai.
I won't go into everything I had planned to tell you about or this would be a novel. Chiang Rai is the north of Thailand near the Laos border. There we hooked up with Pam's mother, Aunt, a colleague and our driver Loi.. Loi had a Toyota van, diesel, that could go anywhere I found out.
The rules of driving here are very easy. The person with the least fear of death has the right of way, usually if you are the larger vehicle that helps also. Blowing of the horn is constant on upcountry roads. It is a greeting, a warning, and life threatening. No one gets angry, and they usually wave. If there are speed limits I do not know what they are. You go as fast as your vehicle will allow while at the same time weaving through scooters, tuk-tuks, trucks, cows, water buffalo and whatever else you may find.
If you are passing and you see oncoming vehicles everyone just moves over onto the shoulder a little and three abreast is fine. While climbing a mountain single lane road, a steam shovel was digging up debris from a rock slide. The operator, at the toot of the horn, stops for a few seconds, we drive under, between the treads and the extended shovel. No problem.
Anyway I wound up, after
traveling through many villages of hill tribe people and other very poor areas,
at a resort that resembling Boyne Mountain. 5 star service, I can get used to
this.
The next night we are on the Laos border high in the mountains. We pull into an
area of grass and bamboo shacks, corrugated rusted metal roofs and a few tables
under metal roofs with dirt floors. Yup, this is the residence for the evening.
It was cold by their standards, probably in the low 40's. Of course there is no
heat. We slept on elevated bamboo platforms with straw mats and a few blankets
that felt like they were made from bullet proof vests.
The bathrooms were as I had
read, a toilet with a bucket of water next to it. You scoop the water from the
bucket and put it in the toilet to flush. Next to this is a shower hose that
runs through a water heater (warmer) on the wall. Showers are quick but
refreshing.
Loi, my driver points out Laos just over the hills and across the Mekong River.
He also shows me where there is a hill tribe village still making amphetamines.
For the next three days I wind up climbing 1.5 miles up a mountain path that
over looks Lao villages in the mist and fog. The drop off from our vantage point
is probably a good 1,000ft straight down. Railings and steps are unheard of. I
guess they figure if you fall you wind up in Laos so what's the difference. At
4;30AM we climb the mountain again as it is a tradition to watch the sun rise.
About a hundred locals join us on this trek.
We traveled probably about 500
miles around the countryside on this venture. I have seen things too numerous to
elaborate now. I know I have been places that very few Americans get to on their
own or with any tour group for that matter. I was very fortunate to be able to
join them for this "expedition".
Oh yes, I read in my books, that who pays for dinner is based on the status of
the people eating. As I have the highest status of this group the bill is mine.
A dinner for five consisting of "stuff and things" on the Mekong River
overlooking the Golden Triangle (Myranmar, Laos and Thailand) cost me about
$7.00 total.
The food we ate while at the
mountain village we purchased from an open market area in Mae Son and took with
us. I know some of it was cooked chicken, tangerines and very strange vegetables
purchased by the bag. about $3.00. And I cannot forget the three bottles of
roadside strawberry wine for $2.00. You would be surprised how conversant you
can be with a Thai driver who does not speak English after a bottle of home made
strawberry wine under a bamboo hut on the side of a mountain.
So, thus far I have stayed with Muang hill tribesmen, I have followed the Mekon
River into and through the Golden Triangle, I have toured the fantastic Royal
Palace in Bangkok, I have somewhat mastered the money system, and I have located
the KFC and McDonald's.
I have taken a "long tailed
boat' through the Bangkok canals. I have shot a couple hundred
pictures to bore you with, and have endless stories to tell. Not bad for a week.
Today I will move into a hotel room in Bangkok. I want to see how I do on my
own. Pam takes her tour groups on our scouted route this weekend. I am planning
on heading south for the Andaman Sea and the tropic islands.
By the way, I brought my motion sickness bands because I could just imagine the
puddle jumpers I would have to fly on. The 300 mile hop from Bangkok to Chiang
Rai was on Thai airways and cost me about $110 round trip each. No way I was
taking the 12 hour bus ride Pam had planned.
We went to the airport and boarded a brand new DC10, Thai airways
flight. Have you ever been on a plane with a "New Car Smell"? Fantastic.
So I will leave my internet shop, located all around BKK, and see if I can find
my way back. I am in a district now of very modern buildings and high rises. Of
course surrounded by food vendors and endless traffic and air pollution. The
words to remember before stepping off a curb are "Look right". Oh and driving
down a sidewalk for a short cut is also apparently permitted.
Until my next update I hope all are well. To my daughter and family, I am fine,
I have not done anything too dangerous (well maybe a little), I have not found
any "wife" material as you feared and I miss you guys.
Bye for now.