Aloha all,
this update has more pictures than my updates usually have. But Thailand is a very colorful country and this is really just a small selection of the way too many pictures we took. And just think of the alternative: If I were to write a thousand words in lieu of every picture in this update, even the most avid readers amongst you would loose interest.
Obviously, three weeks was not enough even just to see all the sights, let alone really experience Thailand. On Koh Phi Phi, a common question is "Are you traveling or are you just on holiday?". Traveling means you quit your job and you are traveling for at least a few months. Thailand is so cheap that most Westeners can afford to do that on a pretty small budget. We were "just on holiday", but even though everything is cheap, we still managed to spend as much as we did on our US road trips. Then again, on our road trips, we did not get a massage every day and we do not go scuba diving or elephant riding…
Here are some of our favorite things we did in Thailand:
- The scuba diving on Koh Phi Phi was just spectacular. We saw several scorpion fish on every one of our seven dives. On our night dive we saw 4 gorgeous lion fish. With the mix of hard & soft coral, the huge gorgonian fans and schools of fish everywhere, it felt like diving in an aquarium. The perfect water temperature and the top notch dive operation obviously helped, since it is hard to enjoy the beauty when you are cold or worried underwater.The island of Koh Phi Phi is a weird place. There are no roads on Phi Phi, no cars, no mopeds and no Tuk Tuks. Sound like a pretty idyllic place, doesn't it? I had no idea how busy and crowded an island without traffic could be. The one and only town is crammed on the narrow stretch between the two mountains. It is party central. So if you like to party or if you like to scuba dive, it's a wonderful place, otherwise I would not know what to do there.
- On the way in and out we had a few days in Bangkok. It would be honest to describe this city as: modern AND 3rd world, awesome AND awful, easy AND confusing. We like big cities, but this is definitely one I do not want to live in. But checking out the temples, riding the river taxis, sunset drinks in various roof top bars was all very fun for a few days.
- We spent almost half of our stay in Chiang Mai, a quieter city inland in the north of Thailand. Lots of things to do there. Our favorite was a one-day trekking trip that included an elephant ride, a hike to a waterfall, whitewater rafting and floating on a bamboo raft. We also did a fun zipline tour and a beginner's ATV tour that turn into quite the adventure when one of the ATVs and one of the other participants gave up and we ran out of gas, in the dark with the lights not working…
Here are some things I noticed about Thailand (and believe me, it was not always easy to hold back the German in me who wanted to tell them how they could run their country more efficiently. They seem to be doing just fine without my help.)
- Overall, Thailand is a very safe place. Even in Bangkok, at night, walking through some random neighborhood seemed as safe or safer than most European or American cities. I explain that with the fact that Thailand is the most buddhist country in the world and in general buddhists are not fond of violence. If that is indeed the reason, it would put Islam and Christianity to shame. However, the buddhist culture does not stop them from letting women be exploited or trying to scam tourist.
- Regardless which form of transportation you choose, it is always a bit chaotic. But we learned to go with the flow. You might not get to where you wanted when you wanted. But you always get somewhere sometime. Taxis are so cheap that the only problem is finding a taxi that is willing to take you at the metered rate. River taxis are fast and cheap and easy to take, but we did not always end up where we thought we'd be going. The same is true for busses. Tuk Tuks are cheap and fun, but can be a little scary if you are used to traffic that follows some kind of rules.
- To be honest, we were a little disappointed by the food. We love Thai food, so obviously we thought we'd love it even more in Thailand. Maybe we are spoiled by Thai Chef, our favorite restaurant here on Maui. Maybe our expectations were so high that we had to be disappointed. We tried everything from street food, to hole in the wall places and fancier restaurants. The food was always good, but never spectacular. And we found out that you actually have to specifically order even curry dishes spicy otherwise they assume that Westeners can not handle any spice at all.
- Reviews on TripAdvisor, Yelp or any other such web site are always personal opinion and as such will vary from one person to the next. We found this to be even more extreme in Thailand. It's just normal that one description of a restaurant says: I have lived in Thailand for a year now, this is the most authentic food, it's spectacular, fresh & cheap and the service is top notch." while the next one, supposedly about the same restaurant, warns "Tourist trap, no local would ever eat here, overpriced canned food and terrible service." The funny thing is that we never felt we got bad food or great food, it was always in the middle...
- Massages in Thailand are actually only $6-$9 for an hour like everybody told us. But of course I didn't really believe such silliness. The only day I did not get a massage I made up for on the next day with two. I never thought there could be a point where I would mind being asked whether I wanted to get an hour of massage for $6, but it happened. We were also told that the only problem with massages was to only get a massage and not more. Of course I would have refused, but should I be insulted that I was never even offered a 'happy ending'?
- Everybody in Thailand seems to speak English. They never expect any foreigner to speak any Thai. You don't even have to ask for an English tour, it is understood. Even signs in museums are always bilingual. But what surprised me that even though everybody speaks English, hardly anybody speaks it well. Signs are often comically bad translations and even though we had very nice tour guides, most of the tours stayed with the very basic information. I was longing for some in-depth information like you usually get from an American National Park ranger. The kind where you have more questions after the talk than before because he brought up so many interesting points. And he can answer slightly more complex questions in a language I understand. Of course you could say I should learn Thai if I want to learn more about Thailand. But judging by how long it took us to learn just the two words for hello and thank you, I don't think I could ever learn enough Thai for a meaningful conversation.
- From Bangkok we did a combined boat & bus tour to Ayutthaya which was surprisingly fun & informative. Ayutthaya is the former capital of Thailand. In fact, in 1700 it already had 1 million inhabitants, making it the largest city in the world at that time! The ruins still stand, but one of the towers gives the tower in Pisa some serious competition.
- One of the most surprising things about Thailand for me was the fact that there are basically no old cars there. By some standard, Thailand is still a 'third world' country. Yet, in three weeks all over Thailand I have seen fewer old cars than I usually do on my 7 minute commute through a fancy resort area of Maui…. I guess if a Thai family can not afford a new car, they don't buy an old car, they just buy a moped. Mopeds are routinely used to transport three or even four people, including babies or more cargo than we could fit in our car.
- On a one day trip from Chiang Mai to the Golden Triangle, we got to go to the border to Myanmar and spend a few minutes in Laos. This area is or was known as the foremost places for the opium trade. As far as we can tell, they have completely transitioned to the hand bag trade now.
- The number of temples, the elaborate structures, decorations and artwork sometimes made me wonder whether this is the best way to spend money in a country that clearly is still struggling with some basic infrastructure to improve the standard of living for it's people, such as potable water. I found that to be most extreme in the Anantasamakhom Throne Hall in Dusit Park in Bangkok. Here the king displays some of his finest artwork, including wood carved altars of huge dimensions that have such delicate artwork that it took dozens of artists several years to complete. Surprisingly, these were not historic artifacts like you would expect in Europe. Most of them were created in the past 7 years! Yet, despite this kind of lavish spending, the king seems to be loved by everybody. Thailand is deeply decided politically, in fact we drove by a demonstration against the controversial amnesty bill, but they all agree how wonderful the king is. He must be doing something right. He is has been king since 1946, which makes him the longest reigning living monarch in the world.
And that's the news from Lake Thailand, where all the dives were spectacular, where all the massages were cheap and everything is a little more colorful than average.
Aloha & Sawadee krab!
Chris & Sandra
