Posts
I tried at least 35 times to upload photos......and could upload only a few....very difficult to upload photos here....
:(
Monday, April 23, 2007
Photos
Finally I got some photos….What that guy did was, he took some prints, scanned it, enlarged the photo (thus lost all the quality, most of the prints I am having is of high quality), and removed the upper part……..hence it might look off frame ........anyway, at least I have a couple of photos….Thanks to HIM
I am editing the blog and inserting them.....here we go!!
I am editing the blog and inserting them.....here we go!!
Saturday, April 21, 2007
I had four rolls of film to process, that contained ‘almost one’ role other than Thailand visit….That means more than 100 tour photos…….
I gave it to the studio and when I went to collect the print he said “Sorry sir, all your four rolls are gone, something is wrong with your camera, and I suspect its shutter is not opening fully” and he showed me four rolls of washed films, top of every photo is gone, though the other part is very good……but I told him try to get at least a couple of them which he thinks OK…..and he said he will try……
And my mother got admitted in a hospital at my native place…..she reached there unconscious and in fatal condition….
So, what that temple prediction told me wasn’t junk, though I laughed at it, tore it and put it in the dust bin……there was some bad news awaiting me……
I gave it to the studio and when I went to collect the print he said “Sorry sir, all your four rolls are gone, something is wrong with your camera, and I suspect its shutter is not opening fully” and he showed me four rolls of washed films, top of every photo is gone, though the other part is very good……but I told him try to get at least a couple of them which he thinks OK…..and he said he will try……
And my mother got admitted in a hospital at my native place…..she reached there unconscious and in fatal condition….
So, what that temple prediction told me wasn’t junk, though I laughed at it, tore it and put it in the dust bin……there was some bad news awaiting me……
An Explanation
Many of my friends, relatives and acquaintances read my blog. Thanks……but none of them left any comment L …. instead, mailed me directly…..but thanks again ….two mails needs a lil more attention/explanation……. And I am giving it here and not as individual mail…..it can be useful to others too
First one was a disagreement about me telling Bangkok is not the ultimate shopping place
Second was a question ‘then who rules the kingdom, the king? The Army? Or a democratic parliament?
Well, the second one first….thats a good start
Yup, I mentioned Prime Minister, Thailand, King, Kingdom, Coup etc….but I don’t know much about Thailand’s history and I never was interested till I got befriended with a Thai person…..I read something that time….and brushed up a lil after visiting Thailand. …..The End……….So, what I can tell is,
The King is not the ruler since 1932. then may be there was some democracy period….but whatever it is, there was an elected government lead by Thaksin Shinawatra and he got overthrew by a (bloodless) military coup. Some politicians believe that the King also is part of the conspiracy. Unlike Pakistan, the Army chief did not become the dictator but ruling was done by junta. It happened last year, 19 September 2006 . The present ruling body is neither military nor any democratic body but a governing body appointed by the junta, including the Prime Minister. So, you know how it will look like. From what I read from the local news papers, the Prime Minister is not ruling the country like a dictator. There also came a comment that he, these days, talks ‘like a monk’, but other politicians are not happy and they want some’ immediate action’ …..…..I know only that much, as of now.
Shopping paradise. I was looking from an Indian perspective. Of course cloths are cheap here. What I still feel is if you are a brand freak, there is not ‘much’ to save, that too when we buy items with proper bill. I personally visited a brand showroom to convince myself (he sells brands like Arrow) and bought a St. Andrews T-shirt (never heard about such a brand) for Bt.375, that is about INR 495. There wasn’t any bargain but just a festival discount. Almost similar quality T-shirts are available in Bangalore for same price or at a lesser price. Whatever I bought at bargain prices are not up to this T-shirt’s quality. Not only that, many of them shrunk after wash. Also I remember another story. There is another person (my wife’s colleague) who bought some less expensive/unbranded T-shirts and when she gave it to her husband who is in the textile industry and that too a quality expert, he asked ‘what is this?
For one Thai ‘buck’ an Indian need to pay 1.33 ‘bucks’ so, 100 Thai bucks are 133 Indian bucks. But if you are a USD/Pound tourist, things are entirely different.
Before visiting Thailand, I had the impression that we get everything (mainly cloth and Electronic items) at ‘rock bottom price’ (some sites and people told me). But my personal experience was bit different, may be because of high expectation.
I wanted to say only that much and my blog is about my personal experience (no offence meant to anybody) and I did not arrive into a blind a conclusion…..I am still open….new experience, new opinion….
I am NOT at all telling that Thailand is expensive; you can buy lots of things at reasonable price if you know where to go and do a bargain. And this includes cloths, electronic items, leather items, computer and its accessories….more you buy more you gain.
First one was a disagreement about me telling Bangkok is not the ultimate shopping place
Second was a question ‘then who rules the kingdom, the king? The Army? Or a democratic parliament?
Well, the second one first….thats a good start
Yup, I mentioned Prime Minister, Thailand, King, Kingdom, Coup etc….but I don’t know much about Thailand’s history and I never was interested till I got befriended with a Thai person…..I read something that time….and brushed up a lil after visiting Thailand. …..The End……….So, what I can tell is,
The King is not the ruler since 1932. then may be there was some democracy period….but whatever it is, there was an elected government lead by Thaksin Shinawatra and he got overthrew by a (bloodless) military coup. Some politicians believe that the King also is part of the conspiracy. Unlike Pakistan, the Army chief did not become the dictator but ruling was done by junta. It happened last year, 19 September 2006 . The present ruling body is neither military nor any democratic body but a governing body appointed by the junta, including the Prime Minister. So, you know how it will look like. From what I read from the local news papers, the Prime Minister is not ruling the country like a dictator. There also came a comment that he, these days, talks ‘like a monk’, but other politicians are not happy and they want some’ immediate action’ …..…..I know only that much, as of now.
Shopping paradise. I was looking from an Indian perspective. Of course cloths are cheap here. What I still feel is if you are a brand freak, there is not ‘much’ to save, that too when we buy items with proper bill. I personally visited a brand showroom to convince myself (he sells brands like Arrow) and bought a St. Andrews T-shirt (never heard about such a brand) for Bt.375, that is about INR 495. There wasn’t any bargain but just a festival discount. Almost similar quality T-shirts are available in Bangalore for same price or at a lesser price. Whatever I bought at bargain prices are not up to this T-shirt’s quality. Not only that, many of them shrunk after wash. Also I remember another story. There is another person (my wife’s colleague) who bought some less expensive/unbranded T-shirts and when she gave it to her husband who is in the textile industry and that too a quality expert, he asked ‘what is this?
For one Thai ‘buck’ an Indian need to pay 1.33 ‘bucks’ so, 100 Thai bucks are 133 Indian bucks. But if you are a USD/Pound tourist, things are entirely different.
Before visiting Thailand, I had the impression that we get everything (mainly cloth and Electronic items) at ‘rock bottom price’ (some sites and people told me). But my personal experience was bit different, may be because of high expectation.
I wanted to say only that much and my blog is about my personal experience (no offence meant to anybody) and I did not arrive into a blind a conclusion…..I am still open….new experience, new opinion….
I am NOT at all telling that Thailand is expensive; you can buy lots of things at reasonable price if you know where to go and do a bargain. And this includes cloths, electronic items, leather items, computer and its accessories….more you buy more you gain.
Thailand - Thursday, April 19, 2007
Before visiting Thailand, I thought all people might look small and similar. But they are not…there are thin, there are fat, there are very fair, there are slightly tanned, there are (comparatively) tall pple too……..
Since I don’t want to take any risk, I went for a ‘last minute’ local purchase in the morning….by noon wife said it is sure that we are leaving since she rejected her manager’s request to stay longer (she had her reasons which is beyond my blog’s scope)…Thus we started packing in the afternoon…I felt really sad to leave Bangkok….but it became a reality soon and we checked out by 6 pm.
The taxi driver was a kind looking man and he put meter.
Most of the roads in Bangkok are one way. There are Highways where you can travel above 100-120 within the city, but you have to pay toll. Vehicles here don’t honk, unless it is really needed.
One thing I observed is here the drives usually keep a safe distance while driving and stopping. Hence it was scratch less cars on the road, mostly…this is exactly opposite in Bangalore, one can hardly see a car without any scratch.
One thing I forgot to write. One can see ‘Beware of pick pocketers and thieves’ in many places around Bangkok. And there are lots of people to con you. Many of them are self styled guides. They speak English and offer Taxi, sight seeing etc ….when I said to a Taxi offer, one guy asked “ why walking? No money?”
Any suggestion after spending more than 10 days in Thailand? At least a couple like:
Checkout with hotel whether thy arrange any free pick and drop to hot spots, they may not tell you in advance, but many hotels do offer this, including the one I stayed.
Have patience and don’t buy all you need from a single shop or place…especially in the cloth market, do bargain and check out different shops…
To the extend possible don’t call tuk tuk but hire a taxi and ask him to put meter…if he hesitates, try another taxi
If your hotel has a set up to call taxis, use it liberally. ( in our hotel, there stands a guy near the road and from the hotel they call him using walkie talkie and he calls a Taxi). Those guys usually put meter.
We reached the airport bit early so, watched ‘Eragon’ in my laptop. This time also we asked for one window seat and they obliged. And thus I got exactly the same seat the one just above the wing…..thus there wasn’t any quarrel between me and my son to sit there…
We reached Bangalore airport by 11.45 pm. There was slight rain and even inside the airport, it was wet…it took some time to get the baggage and the queue to catch a prepaid taxi was really looooong
Back to bad roads….. honk honk honk…..
We reached home by 1.35 am…
Since I don’t want to take any risk, I went for a ‘last minute’ local purchase in the morning….by noon wife said it is sure that we are leaving since she rejected her manager’s request to stay longer (she had her reasons which is beyond my blog’s scope)…Thus we started packing in the afternoon…I felt really sad to leave Bangkok….but it became a reality soon and we checked out by 6 pm.
The taxi driver was a kind looking man and he put meter.
Most of the roads in Bangkok are one way. There are Highways where you can travel above 100-120 within the city, but you have to pay toll. Vehicles here don’t honk, unless it is really needed.
One thing I observed is here the drives usually keep a safe distance while driving and stopping. Hence it was scratch less cars on the road, mostly…this is exactly opposite in Bangalore, one can hardly see a car without any scratch.
One thing I forgot to write. One can see ‘Beware of pick pocketers and thieves’ in many places around Bangkok. And there are lots of people to con you. Many of them are self styled guides. They speak English and offer Taxi, sight seeing etc ….when I said to a Taxi offer, one guy asked “ why walking? No money?”
Any suggestion after spending more than 10 days in Thailand? At least a couple like:
Checkout with hotel whether thy arrange any free pick and drop to hot spots, they may not tell you in advance, but many hotels do offer this, including the one I stayed.
Have patience and don’t buy all you need from a single shop or place…especially in the cloth market, do bargain and check out different shops…
To the extend possible don’t call tuk tuk but hire a taxi and ask him to put meter…if he hesitates, try another taxi
If your hotel has a set up to call taxis, use it liberally. ( in our hotel, there stands a guy near the road and from the hotel they call him using walkie talkie and he calls a Taxi). Those guys usually put meter.
We reached the airport bit early so, watched ‘Eragon’ in my laptop. This time also we asked for one window seat and they obliged. And thus I got exactly the same seat the one just above the wing…..thus there wasn’t any quarrel between me and my son to sit there…
We reached Bangalore airport by 11.45 pm. There was slight rain and even inside the airport, it was wet…it took some time to get the baggage and the queue to catch a prepaid taxi was really looooong
Back to bad roads….. honk honk honk…..
We reached home by 1.35 am…
Thailand- Wednesday April 18, 2007
From the beginning, it doesn’t looked great, my day today……..
Stayed in the hotel till noon….i was supposed to go down and meet my guide at 12.30 pm…..i wasn’t hungry so, had a piece of bread as lunch….but I be came late or that was what I thought when it became 12.30. so, I ran out and when I reached the lobby, I realized the trip reservation slip is missing. But I was sure that I took it…so one more rushing up and there it is on the floor…..and a few feet away stands the housekeeping lady……luckily she did not take it….otherwise it would have been a lil difficult job to make her understand what exactly I am looking for…but the guide did not turn up…..and my agent made a couple of calls…..usually, his service is prompt……so, I sat in the lobby for 20 minutes or so and then came a van…….there wasn’t any guide but just a driver and he don’t know English ….so, he had a talk with one of the hotel staff….i was watching all these and I thought he is not looking for me….then comes a man with a placard ‘JAYARAM’ …..so I boarded into the van….he did not speak anything and we were (me and son) the only passengers……he drove for about 20 minutes and I thought it is better I ask him…but that time he entered another hotel and stopped….after 10 minutes, there comes three people.
One was our guide, a Thai lady who was carrying an umbrella and a foldable fan and a couple in their 50s, they looked very much south Indian……and they were from Bangalore….but I did not show much interest and did not even ask his name……I saw enough Indians in Bangkok by now and it is a normal thing.
We first went to the Wat Traimit Temple or Temple of the Golden Buddha (Wat means Temple)…..comes after the China Town, the largest Chinese settlement in Bangkok. This is the largest golden Buddha in the world weighing about five and a half ton……here I found some future telling machines…..its all printed and kept ready based on number 1 to 12 (it seems) when we put a coin (Bt 5 or 10 ) the LED in the circular dial ‘starts moving’ and it ends at some number ……mine ended at 3 and it predicted that it can not find any good luck in the near future..............
Beer was sold outside the temple!!!
Then to the Wat Pho or Temple of the Reclining Budha……The entrance fee was Bt.20 ………….oh man, this is a BIG (loooooooong) Buddha idle……It is 46 metres long….feet had ‘mother of Perl’ illustrations and there was a request to not to touch the feet….
Here we get a genuine traditional Thai massage at a reasonable rate (below Bt.500)….They have a school that teach Thai massage……Our guide took rest and told me I can look around and meet her at a particular point (near entrance, where many tourists and cats were sitting together!!)…. reclining Buddha is the largest temple in Bangkok and I lost my way inside the temple…..after doing some circles, I met the other Indian guy……then we moved as a group and when reached the meeting point, our guide was missing!
Then we started looking for the guide and finally found out…she was looking for us, since we took long time than expected……She looked unhappy with our escapade act and told us she walked all around……the other guy was a smart guy and he dared to tell her ‘once in a while its good even for you to have a look around the temple’
When we sat inside the van, she said there ends our tour! We were told that we will be visiting three temples …..so, the other guy reminded her of it and she said ‘you want to visit one more temple? I don’t know whether it is closed or not’ …..but her face told me that she is not telling the truth…but we all said we will check it out and she said ‘OK’…and started telling something in Thai to the driver…..that was an animated talk and from that I understood that she was talking about her long walk inside the temple….
The third one was Wat Benchamabophit or The Marble Temple……by this time we were tired….
The greatest mistake I did was not taking an umbrella or cap or even my sun glasses…it was terribly hot outside….sun was at his best…..my water bottle got emptied just like that……..
I saw some small ceremony going on and my guide told me that one boy is becoming a monk…….in this temple there is a place where there are 52 idols of Buddha are kept….they are from different provinces and had different significance…..I did not note down anything, but my son was a curious visitor here and I saw him standing in front of all the 52 idols….
There was a long drum. Longer than what we think when I say long……then there was one guy selling Nestle ice cream and guide said she is going to have one….so me and son joined her. I paid for all but she tried to give her share…..
Then started the City tour….we passed parliament and she said that is parliament….we all nodded our head. ..then the palace where the King lives……we passed that too and reached at an interesting place, The Gems Gallery. There were lots of Indians and I heard some talk Malayalam, my mother tongue….let them talk and let us go inside….
Thailand is world’s largest producer of Gems, and this is the world’s largest gems showroom. There were armed security guards…..hospitality was great…they gave welcome drink (soft drinks)….then I was taken to the presentation room and shown a video about what is happening in there factory…..from mining till polishing….then I was taken through the factory where men actually work……then I was individually attended by a sales executive to show the ornaments….there is no need to buy, if you are not interested…..did I buy? It’s a secret
Then each visitor will be dropped by them to their respective hotels free of charge!! We can see lots of vehicles (they said abt 300, including Benz for business clients) for this purpose. Mostly it was Toyota Van. I think if there is enough number, they might even pick us from our hotel, free of charge (I did not confirm this since I wasn’t interested)…
I was dropped back in my hotel in a Van, and we (me and son) were the only one to this hotel.
At night we went to our old Thai restaurant….We informed the lady who used to attend us, regularly, that we are leaving……she gave a smile which wasn’t false and said ‘God bless’…..
We are suppose to leave tmrw but wife told me that we may have to extend our stay and I could not help saying ‘Oh, not again’,……..
Stayed in the hotel till noon….i was supposed to go down and meet my guide at 12.30 pm…..i wasn’t hungry so, had a piece of bread as lunch….but I be came late or that was what I thought when it became 12.30. so, I ran out and when I reached the lobby, I realized the trip reservation slip is missing. But I was sure that I took it…so one more rushing up and there it is on the floor…..and a few feet away stands the housekeeping lady……luckily she did not take it….otherwise it would have been a lil difficult job to make her understand what exactly I am looking for…but the guide did not turn up…..and my agent made a couple of calls…..usually, his service is prompt……so, I sat in the lobby for 20 minutes or so and then came a van…….there wasn’t any guide but just a driver and he don’t know English ….so, he had a talk with one of the hotel staff….i was watching all these and I thought he is not looking for me….then comes a man with a placard ‘JAYARAM’ …..so I boarded into the van….he did not speak anything and we were (me and son) the only passengers……he drove for about 20 minutes and I thought it is better I ask him…but that time he entered another hotel and stopped….after 10 minutes, there comes three people.
One was our guide, a Thai lady who was carrying an umbrella and a foldable fan and a couple in their 50s, they looked very much south Indian……and they were from Bangalore….but I did not show much interest and did not even ask his name……I saw enough Indians in Bangkok by now and it is a normal thing.
We first went to the Wat Traimit Temple or Temple of the Golden Buddha (Wat means Temple)…..comes after the China Town, the largest Chinese settlement in Bangkok. This is the largest golden Buddha in the world weighing about five and a half ton……here I found some future telling machines…..its all printed and kept ready based on number 1 to 12 (it seems) when we put a coin (Bt 5 or 10 ) the LED in the circular dial ‘starts moving’ and it ends at some number ……mine ended at 3 and it predicted that it can not find any good luck in the near future..............
Beer was sold outside the temple!!!
Then to the Wat Pho or Temple of the Reclining Budha……The entrance fee was Bt.20 ………….oh man, this is a BIG (loooooooong) Buddha idle……It is 46 metres long….feet had ‘mother of Perl’ illustrations and there was a request to not to touch the feet….
Here we get a genuine traditional Thai massage at a reasonable rate (below Bt.500)….They have a school that teach Thai massage……Our guide took rest and told me I can look around and meet her at a particular point (near entrance, where many tourists and cats were sitting together!!)…. reclining Buddha is the largest temple in Bangkok and I lost my way inside the temple…..after doing some circles, I met the other Indian guy……then we moved as a group and when reached the meeting point, our guide was missing!
Then we started looking for the guide and finally found out…she was looking for us, since we took long time than expected……She looked unhappy with our escapade act and told us she walked all around……the other guy was a smart guy and he dared to tell her ‘once in a while its good even for you to have a look around the temple’
When we sat inside the van, she said there ends our tour! We were told that we will be visiting three temples …..so, the other guy reminded her of it and she said ‘you want to visit one more temple? I don’t know whether it is closed or not’ …..but her face told me that she is not telling the truth…but we all said we will check it out and she said ‘OK’…and started telling something in Thai to the driver…..that was an animated talk and from that I understood that she was talking about her long walk inside the temple….
The third one was Wat Benchamabophit or The Marble Temple……by this time we were tired….
The greatest mistake I did was not taking an umbrella or cap or even my sun glasses…it was terribly hot outside….sun was at his best…..my water bottle got emptied just like that……..
I saw some small ceremony going on and my guide told me that one boy is becoming a monk…….in this temple there is a place where there are 52 idols of Buddha are kept….they are from different provinces and had different significance…..I did not note down anything, but my son was a curious visitor here and I saw him standing in front of all the 52 idols….
There was a long drum. Longer than what we think when I say long……then there was one guy selling Nestle ice cream and guide said she is going to have one….so me and son joined her. I paid for all but she tried to give her share…..
Then started the City tour….we passed parliament and she said that is parliament….we all nodded our head. ..then the palace where the King lives……we passed that too and reached at an interesting place, The Gems Gallery. There were lots of Indians and I heard some talk Malayalam, my mother tongue….let them talk and let us go inside….
Thailand is world’s largest producer of Gems, and this is the world’s largest gems showroom. There were armed security guards…..hospitality was great…they gave welcome drink (soft drinks)….then I was taken to the presentation room and shown a video about what is happening in there factory…..from mining till polishing….then I was taken through the factory where men actually work……then I was individually attended by a sales executive to show the ornaments….there is no need to buy, if you are not interested…..did I buy? It’s a secret
Then each visitor will be dropped by them to their respective hotels free of charge!! We can see lots of vehicles (they said abt 300, including Benz for business clients) for this purpose. Mostly it was Toyota Van. I think if there is enough number, they might even pick us from our hotel, free of charge (I did not confirm this since I wasn’t interested)…
I was dropped back in my hotel in a Van, and we (me and son) were the only one to this hotel.
At night we went to our old Thai restaurant….We informed the lady who used to attend us, regularly, that we are leaving……she gave a smile which wasn’t false and said ‘God bless’…..
We are suppose to leave tmrw but wife told me that we may have to extend our stay and I could not help saying ‘Oh, not again’,……..
Thailand - Tuesday April 17, 2007
I woke up with headache and thus did not go out…..There are lots and lots of places to see….and this gave a disappointment.
Which is the tallest building in Bangkok? It is Bayoke Sky Hotel with 88 storeys. It is a four star hotel. Even if we are not staying here we can take an admission ticket and go inside. They have an observation floor on 77th and one revolving open air deck at 84th floor. It will cost abt Bt200 or more, I am not sure and I did not go inside, though I passed it.
Buddhist monks and supporters marched to parliament building demanding Buddhism be declared as the national religion. I had the impression that this is a Buddhist country, if not, I too support the Buddhist demand. It is far better than being a pseudo-secular nation like India, which even don’t have a common civil code.
A civic group rallied in front of the parliament against the interim constitution ….they were all wearing red T shirt…Lots of discussion is happening over this issue these days….I hope the people of Thailand will get a good constitution.….
Another arguments going on here is against the censorship of films. Should I comment on it? May be later coz, it’s culture related topic and I read some strange views in the news paper.
Women in Thailand are hard working, or it seemed in that way to me…in every street, you can see women selling food items….in almost all shopping complex, it was women dominated….that too young…….in the street also, it was mostly young people….women in Bangkok travel alone even at night…..this place is much much safer compared to Bangalore, my city, or may be India. I used to take a seat facing the bus stop/road when I dine…..I never saw a man teasing a woman waiting there…..this is not the case in India…
There is a car washing garage next to our hotel, it works 24 hours and even women work here. There is one used cars showroom too. I saw even BMW there
Between April 11 – 16, total death 361….. injured 4805, in road accidents….here, 7 days, starting from the day of holidays, are considered as ‘dangerous’ and are accident prone. Alcohol is the culprit (and not the one who consumes it?)
Since I don’t want to conclude the day as ‘waste’, I started packing and finished almost 80% of it. And booked a ‘City and Temples’ trip for the next day.
Which is the tallest building in Bangkok? It is Bayoke Sky Hotel with 88 storeys. It is a four star hotel. Even if we are not staying here we can take an admission ticket and go inside. They have an observation floor on 77th and one revolving open air deck at 84th floor. It will cost abt Bt200 or more, I am not sure and I did not go inside, though I passed it.
Buddhist monks and supporters marched to parliament building demanding Buddhism be declared as the national religion. I had the impression that this is a Buddhist country, if not, I too support the Buddhist demand. It is far better than being a pseudo-secular nation like India, which even don’t have a common civil code.
A civic group rallied in front of the parliament against the interim constitution ….they were all wearing red T shirt…Lots of discussion is happening over this issue these days….I hope the people of Thailand will get a good constitution.….
Another arguments going on here is against the censorship of films. Should I comment on it? May be later coz, it’s culture related topic and I read some strange views in the news paper.
Women in Thailand are hard working, or it seemed in that way to me…in every street, you can see women selling food items….in almost all shopping complex, it was women dominated….that too young…….in the street also, it was mostly young people….women in Bangkok travel alone even at night…..this place is much much safer compared to Bangalore, my city, or may be India. I used to take a seat facing the bus stop/road when I dine…..I never saw a man teasing a woman waiting there…..this is not the case in India…
There is a car washing garage next to our hotel, it works 24 hours and even women work here. There is one used cars showroom too. I saw even BMW there
Between April 11 – 16, total death 361….. injured 4805, in road accidents….here, 7 days, starting from the day of holidays, are considered as ‘dangerous’ and are accident prone. Alcohol is the culprit (and not the one who consumes it?)
Since I don’t want to conclude the day as ‘waste’, I started packing and finished almost 80% of it. And booked a ‘City and Temples’ trip for the next day.
Thailand - Monday April 16, 2007
Thailand’s old name was Siam and now many people want to change the name back to Siam. This was started by country’s one of the senior and prominent historian Dr. Charvit Kasetsiri of Thammasat University. Country’s first constitution in 1932 had the name Siam and then Prime Minister Field Marshal Plaek took an arbitrary decision and changed it into Thailand, in 1939.
Today I paid a visit to Pratunam Shopping area, which is Bangkok’s biggest cloth market area. Since I don’t have any plan to buy any cloths, I did not walk around much. But it really was worth a visit. For men, there isn’t much variety but for women and girls (of any age) the choice is unlimited…prices are reasonable and one need to bargain a lot. This is a wholesale and retail market. I have never seen such variety of cloths in Bangalore, or better say in my life. It was the biggest mistake that I already bought some T-shirts before coming here. A must visit place in Bangkok from tourist point of view.
For lunch, it was sandwich.
The market leader in car is Toyota. I saw the following brands or cars too:
Honda
Sunny
Chevrolet
Benz
Opal
Mitsubishi
Isuzu
Ford - very few
Suzuki - very few
Hmmm, don’t remember others……Two wheeler market is dominated by Honda.
It is the Thai language that named a cat in the most appropriate way. In Thai, cat is ‘Mieaw’.
Luckily the ‘India Gate’ opened today and had dinner from there….Thai fried rice and sweet lassi.
Today I paid a visit to Pratunam Shopping area, which is Bangkok’s biggest cloth market area. Since I don’t have any plan to buy any cloths, I did not walk around much. But it really was worth a visit. For men, there isn’t much variety but for women and girls (of any age) the choice is unlimited…prices are reasonable and one need to bargain a lot. This is a wholesale and retail market. I have never seen such variety of cloths in Bangalore, or better say in my life. It was the biggest mistake that I already bought some T-shirts before coming here. A must visit place in Bangkok from tourist point of view.
For lunch, it was sandwich.
The market leader in car is Toyota. I saw the following brands or cars too:
Honda
Sunny
Chevrolet
Benz
Opal
Mitsubishi
Isuzu
Ford - very few
Suzuki - very few
Hmmm, don’t remember others……Two wheeler market is dominated by Honda.
It is the Thai language that named a cat in the most appropriate way. In Thai, cat is ‘Mieaw’.
Luckily the ‘India Gate’ opened today and had dinner from there….Thai fried rice and sweet lassi.
Thailand - Sunday April 15, 2007
A Swiss man called Oliver Jufer sprayed black paint on King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s photo and got an imprisonment for 10 years…. But now the king pardoned him and he left to swiss.
A US national got kidnapped for a ransom of Bt.28 million. And finally got rescued by a special police team, yesterday. Some Thai Americans and police are involved in the kidnap act.
Thailand has a population of about 63 million. And out of that, about 95% are Buddhists. 3% are Muslims and remaining Christians, Hindus and others….Muslim dominated areas started giving trouble to the government as many separationist groups started coming up.
There are about 400 Buddhist temples in Bangkok and 4000 in Thailand. Some temples even provide Authentic Thai Massage.
We decided to give up our bread life and took a taxi and went to an Indian vegetarian restaurant Called ‘Komala’ in Sukhumvit road, for lunch and dinner….In Sukhumvit, there were many Indian restaurants….. This place was a gathering of Indians, mainly local Indians. For a moment it was a slight shock since I felt like I am back in India, all of a sudden. Only the restaurant people were Thai. Most of them came in their own cars…I saw one Indian guy coming in ‘lungi’ (a striped ‘dhothi’, which is not worn in public places by educated and civilized people) and I felt like he made us all ashamed…I don’t understand how such uncivilized people managed to come to this place. There is no need to wear a suit or tie but at least follow a decent dress code. If you are an Indian and want to wear a ‘dhothi’ wear a white one (like some others, present there).
A US national got kidnapped for a ransom of Bt.28 million. And finally got rescued by a special police team, yesterday. Some Thai Americans and police are involved in the kidnap act.
Thailand has a population of about 63 million. And out of that, about 95% are Buddhists. 3% are Muslims and remaining Christians, Hindus and others….Muslim dominated areas started giving trouble to the government as many separationist groups started coming up.
There are about 400 Buddhist temples in Bangkok and 4000 in Thailand. Some temples even provide Authentic Thai Massage.
We decided to give up our bread life and took a taxi and went to an Indian vegetarian restaurant Called ‘Komala’ in Sukhumvit road, for lunch and dinner….In Sukhumvit, there were many Indian restaurants….. This place was a gathering of Indians, mainly local Indians. For a moment it was a slight shock since I felt like I am back in India, all of a sudden. Only the restaurant people were Thai. Most of them came in their own cars…I saw one Indian guy coming in ‘lungi’ (a striped ‘dhothi’, which is not worn in public places by educated and civilized people) and I felt like he made us all ashamed…I don’t understand how such uncivilized people managed to come to this place. There is no need to wear a suit or tie but at least follow a decent dress code. If you are an Indian and want to wear a ‘dhothi’ wear a white one (like some others, present there).
Thailand - Saturday April 14, 2007
I could not sleep well for the first time since my stay here. Main reason was my unsatisfied dinner and I felt hungry at midnight. Finally it ended up in acidity and head ache. And this again troubled my sleep.
So, I had a couple of tabs for headache and acidity and slept for an hour after breakfast. We booked a River cruise trip for the afternoon in the ‘Chao Phraya’ River.
By afternoon I felt OK and we were picked up by our English speaking guide in a Toyota 12 seater Van. There were another two pickups and one was an Egyptian family who made us wait for some time and they didn’t even bother to say a sorry. Two guys spoke German and rest spoke English.
We reached the Pier half an hour early and thus got a chance to look around. There too was a shopping area which mainly sold antiques and paintings, which were obviously expensive.
We started our journey in a small boat. There were lots of buildings on both sides and our guide started telling what is what. He spoke in ‘OK’ English and thus it was understandable. There were lots of middle class people living on the banks of this river….there were many hotels, including a Hilton one….There were two ‘fully Teak wood’ houses owned by two rich. One was from print media. I don’t remember the other one…..there were many temples……a palace……the china town…..one very expensive condominium……and a floating market ……..
At a particular point, the boat stopped and they announced that we can buy bread for Bt.20 for a loaf and feed the Cat Fish. The belief is that your wish will be granted….so our guide asked us to have a wish and feed the fish. I too bought a loaf and no wish came into my head, it was just blank and happy. There were lots of fish and fishing is banned in this part. If we catch a fish or kill one, the fine is Bt.2000.
So many speed boats passed us splashing water….and real fun till now was the ‘songkran’ aspect. There were so many people on the banks with water guns, hose etc and poured water heavily on us. Nobody could escape and it really was fun. My son enjoyed this very much …..we both got wet from head to toe. ….passing boats also were equipped to pump water…..our guide managed to get one vessel and he too did his job well……
Then we stopped at one place and moved into a bigger boat. Here we were welcomed with all sorts of seasonal fruits like…jack fruit, pineapple, mango, orange, watermelon, dragon’s feet, lychee, guava and many others…..first they gave us a thai special juice and then the drink is as per our choice….they had coke, vodka, thai whisky, and some other juice……drinks were served mainly by a Thai Beauty. …and then started the water pouring again….they did not pour water on us, but the boat crews and guides and all those guys started pouring water at each other and one even placed ice cubes inside the T-shirt of somebody!!! It really was a fun time.
When the boat reached back, we became a lil disappointed coz, it wasn’t enough!!!
And the worst was, my wife slipped and fell down while stepping out from the boat!! Luckily, noting went wrong…. This is her second ‘trip’ after songkran started…
There is another funny thing that happened. I was wearing a colorful shirt which I bought from here at a bargain price. Many people wear variants of this type especially during weekends and during songkran. When I stepped out of the hotel, one of the hostesses told me it’s a nice shirt and I was happy about it. But after me getting wet, the shirt started shrinking on the spot and changed to next size….may be it’s a three in one….before wash its for me, after first wash its for my wife and after second wash it might fit my son!!!!
Today also we ended up in bread and buns, for dinner……..
So, I had a couple of tabs for headache and acidity and slept for an hour after breakfast. We booked a River cruise trip for the afternoon in the ‘Chao Phraya’ River.
By afternoon I felt OK and we were picked up by our English speaking guide in a Toyota 12 seater Van. There were another two pickups and one was an Egyptian family who made us wait for some time and they didn’t even bother to say a sorry. Two guys spoke German and rest spoke English.
We reached the Pier half an hour early and thus got a chance to look around. There too was a shopping area which mainly sold antiques and paintings, which were obviously expensive.
We started our journey in a small boat. There were lots of buildings on both sides and our guide started telling what is what. He spoke in ‘OK’ English and thus it was understandable. There were lots of middle class people living on the banks of this river….there were many hotels, including a Hilton one….There were two ‘fully Teak wood’ houses owned by two rich. One was from print media. I don’t remember the other one…..there were many temples……a palace……the china town…..one very expensive condominium……and a floating market ……..
At a particular point, the boat stopped and they announced that we can buy bread for Bt.20 for a loaf and feed the Cat Fish. The belief is that your wish will be granted….so our guide asked us to have a wish and feed the fish. I too bought a loaf and no wish came into my head, it was just blank and happy. There were lots of fish and fishing is banned in this part. If we catch a fish or kill one, the fine is Bt.2000.
So many speed boats passed us splashing water….and real fun till now was the ‘songkran’ aspect. There were so many people on the banks with water guns, hose etc and poured water heavily on us. Nobody could escape and it really was fun. My son enjoyed this very much …..we both got wet from head to toe. ….passing boats also were equipped to pump water…..our guide managed to get one vessel and he too did his job well……
Then we stopped at one place and moved into a bigger boat. Here we were welcomed with all sorts of seasonal fruits like…jack fruit, pineapple, mango, orange, watermelon, dragon’s feet, lychee, guava and many others…..first they gave us a thai special juice and then the drink is as per our choice….they had coke, vodka, thai whisky, and some other juice……drinks were served mainly by a Thai Beauty. …and then started the water pouring again….they did not pour water on us, but the boat crews and guides and all those guys started pouring water at each other and one even placed ice cubes inside the T-shirt of somebody!!! It really was a fun time.
When the boat reached back, we became a lil disappointed coz, it wasn’t enough!!!
And the worst was, my wife slipped and fell down while stepping out from the boat!! Luckily, noting went wrong…. This is her second ‘trip’ after songkran started…
There is another funny thing that happened. I was wearing a colorful shirt which I bought from here at a bargain price. Many people wear variants of this type especially during weekends and during songkran. When I stepped out of the hotel, one of the hostesses told me it’s a nice shirt and I was happy about it. But after me getting wet, the shirt started shrinking on the spot and changed to next size….may be it’s a three in one….before wash its for me, after first wash its for my wife and after second wash it might fit my son!!!!
Today also we ended up in bread and buns, for dinner……..
Thailand - Friday April 13, 2007
The Songkran, Thai New Year (festival) officially begins today. It is holiday time and most of the shopping places are partly closed. Other problem I am facing is that Thai restaurant, where I used to dine, will be closed till 17th. Thus next 4-5 days are not good for purchase, wherever we go about 40-50 percent of the shops are closed.
Songkran started with the death of 41 and another 514 got injured in road accidents. Mainly coz of drunken driving. Police are a lil more alert during this period. There are so many check points for vehicles. The first day itself, police checked about two million vehicles in Thailand and 33,719 people got booked (no drivers license or helmet or seat belt …such petty things).
The main ‘happening’ during Songkran is spraying water. If you go out, you will get wet for sure. In every street people will be waiting with water guns, buckets, hose etc. and they will pour water. Some others travel in open vehicles fully equipped. They will ‘attack’ the people on the street with their water gun. They use some powder too. Tourists also participate in this action, mainly in Khao San Road. Authorities advised women tourists, well in advance, to not to wear cloths which are ‘not suitable’ during these days, to avoid misuse.
Chiang Mai is one of the major tourist attractions during this period and they are expecting revenue of about Bt100 million during these period.
There is other side of the story too, which are ‘unheard’ by many. Northern provinces of Thailand are facing draught conditions. But During Songkran period billions of litres of water is used (wasted?) and many activists are raising this issue in vain.
Today I visited the ‘Siam Ocean World’, an aquarium. It is just amazing. Three things attracted me the most:
Giant Spider Crab
Walking ‘through the water’ and getting a ‘feel’ of the Ray and Sharks going above our head.
Penguin
It was my long cherished dream to see a penguin and I never expected one here till I saw it. It was a big surprise, though the penguins were small.
This place is worth a visit, when you visit Bangkok, if you have not seen such things. This is South Asia’s biggest Aquarium. There are different shows at different timings like feeding the Penguin, feeding the fish by an underwater diver etc.
This building also includes Siam Paragon a shopping mall which is mainly for elite class and here we can get the idea that for quality things, even in Bangkok, one need to ‘pay’.
This was the first time I used train for transport, in Bangkok. From my place (Petchburi Station), we have to take the subway train and then catch the Sky Train which is like a ‘flyover train’, to reach Siam. This is a planned construction so that one can directly enter into the Paragon building from the station.
I liked the overall train experience. I better don’t compare it with Indian Railways to avoid an embarrassment. From what my wife told, its just like trains in Germany and France (she had been there and wasn’t a ‘Google’ act).
There is one seat (per compartment it seems) reserved for monks in the Sky Train. Of course we can use it if there isn’t any monk.
The Indian restaurant too was closed and thus our lunch and dinner ended up in bread and jam. One additional meal we enjoyed during the day is a burger from Burger King, at Siam. They do have Veg Burgers.
Songkran started with the death of 41 and another 514 got injured in road accidents. Mainly coz of drunken driving. Police are a lil more alert during this period. There are so many check points for vehicles. The first day itself, police checked about two million vehicles in Thailand and 33,719 people got booked (no drivers license or helmet or seat belt …such petty things).
The main ‘happening’ during Songkran is spraying water. If you go out, you will get wet for sure. In every street people will be waiting with water guns, buckets, hose etc. and they will pour water. Some others travel in open vehicles fully equipped. They will ‘attack’ the people on the street with their water gun. They use some powder too. Tourists also participate in this action, mainly in Khao San Road. Authorities advised women tourists, well in advance, to not to wear cloths which are ‘not suitable’ during these days, to avoid misuse.
Chiang Mai is one of the major tourist attractions during this period and they are expecting revenue of about Bt100 million during these period.
There is other side of the story too, which are ‘unheard’ by many. Northern provinces of Thailand are facing draught conditions. But During Songkran period billions of litres of water is used (wasted?) and many activists are raising this issue in vain.
Today I visited the ‘Siam Ocean World’, an aquarium. It is just amazing. Three things attracted me the most:
Giant Spider Crab
Walking ‘through the water’ and getting a ‘feel’ of the Ray and Sharks going above our head.
Penguin
It was my long cherished dream to see a penguin and I never expected one here till I saw it. It was a big surprise, though the penguins were small.
This place is worth a visit, when you visit Bangkok, if you have not seen such things. This is South Asia’s biggest Aquarium. There are different shows at different timings like feeding the Penguin, feeding the fish by an underwater diver etc.
This building also includes Siam Paragon a shopping mall which is mainly for elite class and here we can get the idea that for quality things, even in Bangkok, one need to ‘pay’.
This was the first time I used train for transport, in Bangkok. From my place (Petchburi Station), we have to take the subway train and then catch the Sky Train which is like a ‘flyover train’, to reach Siam. This is a planned construction so that one can directly enter into the Paragon building from the station.
I liked the overall train experience. I better don’t compare it with Indian Railways to avoid an embarrassment. From what my wife told, its just like trains in Germany and France (she had been there and wasn’t a ‘Google’ act).
There is one seat (per compartment it seems) reserved for monks in the Sky Train. Of course we can use it if there isn’t any monk.
The Indian restaurant too was closed and thus our lunch and dinner ended up in bread and jam. One additional meal we enjoyed during the day is a burger from Burger King, at Siam. They do have Veg Burgers.
Thailand - Thursday April 12, 2007
A bomb exploded the other day and police are still in the look out of the culprit.
Just like India, here also the English news paper has a space for ‘Sudoku’. But I did not see anybody doing one in canteens. They just relaxed. Here people takes lots of seasonal fruits as snacks.
Today I visited the exclusive electronic mall called ‘Pantip Plaza’ and then the exclusive cloth mall called Platinum Fashion Mall. Now I can comment on ‘is Bangkok the ultimate shopping destination?’. My answer is NO, if you are an Indian, that too from Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc
Here we get lots of goods at cheap rates, it is true. Most of the shoes are ‘fake’. For quality items, you need to pay ‘quality’ price. Take the case of pirated DVDs. Here we need to pay Bt.100 per DVD and that means it is about Rs.133. But one can get it for Rs.80 in India. Same with T-shirts, Camera, Cell Phones and all other items…. Most of these shops are like ‘National Market’ and ‘Burma Bazar’ in Bangalore (which sell smuggled and pirated things at cheap rates). If you are buying electronic items from a proper dealer with bill and ‘VAT refund certificate’, there is no huge difference. But if you buy lots of things or the total purchase goes to a big amount, there is some difference. Laptops looked like a good buy. But if you are a ‘Shoppers Stop’ and Branded item guy from India, there is not much to ‘save’. But it is true that there are lots and lots of thing to buy…………
Just like India, here also the English news paper has a space for ‘Sudoku’. But I did not see anybody doing one in canteens. They just relaxed. Here people takes lots of seasonal fruits as snacks.
Today I visited the exclusive electronic mall called ‘Pantip Plaza’ and then the exclusive cloth mall called Platinum Fashion Mall. Now I can comment on ‘is Bangkok the ultimate shopping destination?’. My answer is NO, if you are an Indian, that too from Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai etc
Here we get lots of goods at cheap rates, it is true. Most of the shoes are ‘fake’. For quality items, you need to pay ‘quality’ price. Take the case of pirated DVDs. Here we need to pay Bt.100 per DVD and that means it is about Rs.133. But one can get it for Rs.80 in India. Same with T-shirts, Camera, Cell Phones and all other items…. Most of these shops are like ‘National Market’ and ‘Burma Bazar’ in Bangalore (which sell smuggled and pirated things at cheap rates). If you are buying electronic items from a proper dealer with bill and ‘VAT refund certificate’, there is no huge difference. But if you buy lots of things or the total purchase goes to a big amount, there is some difference. Laptops looked like a good buy. But if you are a ‘Shoppers Stop’ and Branded item guy from India, there is not much to ‘save’. But it is true that there are lots and lots of thing to buy…………
Thailand - Wednesday April 11, 2007
Through the window of my room, I can see a Buddhist Temple. I tried to find out the way the other day but could not.. Bangkok is not ‘walker’ friendly. One can see many billboards but reaching them on foot is difficult if one is new to this place. I can see the board ‘Tesco’ from my hotel but I tried to reach there on foot in vain.
But today I made it. I found out a way to reach that temple. I did not see any tourists. It was fully occupied with Thai people and some even started staring me. so to avoid confusion I approached a monk and requested his permission and he said I can go inside. This is a beautiful temple, which is spread over a ‘decent’ area. Some roads pass through this monastery/temple.
Here we go!! How many cats I want? Here they have so many cats. I saw a couple of kittens also. One of them came to me too. One allowed me even to touch. A bunch of dogs came to me (frightening my son) wagging their tails but there weren’t any food with me to offer.
This place also had many peacocks, rabbits, hens (two-three types), frogs and tortoise. Cats were freely allowed to move around.
One building looked like a cemetery. I saw the pictures of people kept on the compound walls and here I saw some trees with very strange shaped roots, which looked like animals. There weren’t anybody in this place. But outside, there were so many ‘unwanted’ people, sleeping here and there ……smoking here and there….and staring at me.
There was another area were they had some animal statues of zebra, lion, bullock etc. I don’t know what it is and no information was written there. Also, there wasn’t any person there to ask.
But today I made it. I found out a way to reach that temple. I did not see any tourists. It was fully occupied with Thai people and some even started staring me. so to avoid confusion I approached a monk and requested his permission and he said I can go inside. This is a beautiful temple, which is spread over a ‘decent’ area. Some roads pass through this monastery/temple.
Here we go!! How many cats I want? Here they have so many cats. I saw a couple of kittens also. One of them came to me too. One allowed me even to touch. A bunch of dogs came to me (frightening my son) wagging their tails but there weren’t any food with me to offer.
This place also had many peacocks, rabbits, hens (two-three types), frogs and tortoise. Cats were freely allowed to move around.
One building looked like a cemetery. I saw the pictures of people kept on the compound walls and here I saw some trees with very strange shaped roots, which looked like animals. There weren’t anybody in this place. But outside, there were so many ‘unwanted’ people, sleeping here and there ……smoking here and there….and staring at me.
There was another area were they had some animal statues of zebra, lion, bullock etc. I don’t know what it is and no information was written there. Also, there wasn’t any person there to ask.
Thailand - Tuesday April 10, 2007
There are lots of street dogs, but I did not see even a single cat so far. And that is disappointing. Cat is considered lucky here in Thailand. There are lots of cat idols available for sale and they said it would bring good luck. I am yet to buy one.
Here also many people believe in charms and talismans, like Indians. There was a sale of ‘special edition’ amulet in one place and people waited from midnight to get one. Finally, it resulted in a stampede and one 51 year old woman died. This resulted in protests and many came out with the opinion that Buddhist Temples should not be used to sell such things. And this was the opinion of the editor of ‘The Nation’.
Today I paid my second visit to Tesco Lotus and bought some stationary for my son and a pair of Jeans for me, since I was badly in need of one. The personal advantage of me buying it from Thailand is that I don’t have to alter the length I can get the exact waist size.
Lunch was the same and for dinner I decided to visit a Thai restaurant. This was better priced than that Indian restaurant and thus provided some health to my wallet. Eating was the major item that ate most of my money.
Pork is part of most of the Thai items. (Even in egg omelet, they put small pork pieces (without this also available). Though I saw some Indians in these restaurants, I did not see any Indian Muslim. Even for them, there are restaurants which use only halal meat, like some Egyptian restaurants, so they can also survive here). But they had so many veg items. Here the restaurants are a lil smelly. Road side ones are more smelly. In some areas, the whole street smells. This ‘smelly’ aspect is relative. So I better say they are smelly for me. But still I was comfortable with the veg stuffs I got. And I ended it with one ice cream, which tasted just like ice cream….ha ha ha
Here also many people believe in charms and talismans, like Indians. There was a sale of ‘special edition’ amulet in one place and people waited from midnight to get one. Finally, it resulted in a stampede and one 51 year old woman died. This resulted in protests and many came out with the opinion that Buddhist Temples should not be used to sell such things. And this was the opinion of the editor of ‘The Nation’.
Today I paid my second visit to Tesco Lotus and bought some stationary for my son and a pair of Jeans for me, since I was badly in need of one. The personal advantage of me buying it from Thailand is that I don’t have to alter the length I can get the exact waist size.
Lunch was the same and for dinner I decided to visit a Thai restaurant. This was better priced than that Indian restaurant and thus provided some health to my wallet. Eating was the major item that ate most of my money.
Pork is part of most of the Thai items. (Even in egg omelet, they put small pork pieces (without this also available). Though I saw some Indians in these restaurants, I did not see any Indian Muslim. Even for them, there are restaurants which use only halal meat, like some Egyptian restaurants, so they can also survive here). But they had so many veg items. Here the restaurants are a lil smelly. Road side ones are more smelly. In some areas, the whole street smells. This ‘smelly’ aspect is relative. So I better say they are smelly for me. But still I was comfortable with the veg stuffs I got. And I ended it with one ice cream, which tasted just like ice cream….ha ha ha
Thailand - Monday April 9, 2007
Thailand is the only southeast Asian country never been taken over by any European country.
The Kingdom of Thailand is presently governed by an interim government lead by Prime Minister General (Ret) Surayud Chulanont. The military coup during last September aborted even the constitution and a proper one is yet to be announced. There were/are so many theories about why that coup occurred during September 2006. But these days, leading politicians and activists expressed disappointment with the interim government and some even asked PM’s resignation. Anyway, as a person, many of these critics are of the opinion that the PM is an honest man. What they want is some ‘immediate action’ as he did not deliver what he promised. News papers reported of the rumours of a fresh coup.
Thai language is a Tonal language just like Chinese and believed to be originated in southern china. But its scripts are Indic and hence looked a lil familiar to me coz of its Sanskrit connection.
Learning Thai will be easy for those who are already familiar with any other Tonal and Anlytical language. For people like me, its bit difficult and still cant say ‘Sawatdee Khrap’ in the same way like native Thai people do. Pronunciation has different length patterns for every word. They wont understand it if spoken in a different length. For example ‘Taxi’ is ‘Taxeee.’ ; Plaza is ‘plazaaa’…. Even English words are spoken in Thai way with tone. English is the language of the elite here and hence English education is expensive. But read somewhere that many schools started teaching English.
Today I just went for a 45 minutes walk around my hotel area in the morning and had a ‘South Indian meal’ as lunch. It tasted just like the food at home.
If anybody has the opinion that Bangkok is not for vegetarians, they are absolutely wrong. There are even exclusive vegetarian restaurants, though run by Thai people. And Thai food also includes some vegetarian dish.
Here in Thailand, people wear Yellow shirts/T-shirts on Monday. This is to honour the King. Some people wear it on other days too.
Looking at the roads and other facilities in the malls, I thought the government is doing an excellent job compared to India. But there came a news in The Nation that some politicians accepted Bt500 million as bribe in purchasing fire fighting trucks (for Bangkok) from Singapore.
I had dinner from the next door Indian restaurant called ‘India Gate’, but I chose the Thai style fried rice.
The Kingdom of Thailand is presently governed by an interim government lead by Prime Minister General (Ret) Surayud Chulanont. The military coup during last September aborted even the constitution and a proper one is yet to be announced. There were/are so many theories about why that coup occurred during September 2006. But these days, leading politicians and activists expressed disappointment with the interim government and some even asked PM’s resignation. Anyway, as a person, many of these critics are of the opinion that the PM is an honest man. What they want is some ‘immediate action’ as he did not deliver what he promised. News papers reported of the rumours of a fresh coup.
Thai language is a Tonal language just like Chinese and believed to be originated in southern china. But its scripts are Indic and hence looked a lil familiar to me coz of its Sanskrit connection.
Learning Thai will be easy for those who are already familiar with any other Tonal and Anlytical language. For people like me, its bit difficult and still cant say ‘Sawatdee Khrap’ in the same way like native Thai people do. Pronunciation has different length patterns for every word. They wont understand it if spoken in a different length. For example ‘Taxi’ is ‘Taxeee.’ ; Plaza is ‘plazaaa’…. Even English words are spoken in Thai way with tone. English is the language of the elite here and hence English education is expensive. But read somewhere that many schools started teaching English.
Today I just went for a 45 minutes walk around my hotel area in the morning and had a ‘South Indian meal’ as lunch. It tasted just like the food at home.
If anybody has the opinion that Bangkok is not for vegetarians, they are absolutely wrong. There are even exclusive vegetarian restaurants, though run by Thai people. And Thai food also includes some vegetarian dish.
Here in Thailand, people wear Yellow shirts/T-shirts on Monday. This is to honour the King. Some people wear it on other days too.
Looking at the roads and other facilities in the malls, I thought the government is doing an excellent job compared to India. But there came a news in The Nation that some politicians accepted Bt500 million as bribe in purchasing fire fighting trucks (for Bangkok) from Singapore.
I had dinner from the next door Indian restaurant called ‘India Gate’, but I chose the Thai style fried rice.
Thailand - Sunday, April 8 2007
From today we can have breakfast from the in-house restaurant itself, without paying. Today we made it in time and I want to call it as ‘breakfeast’. There is more than enough vegetarian food, including Indian ‘roti’ and ‘dal’. Thank you God, you are taking good care of me. But I did not take that since I am not here to taste roti and dal.
This place has so many ‘Thai Massage’ centers. Some do exclusive foot massage. They display the picture of typical feet and the points affecting the organs. This hotel’s health club division also offers one, but I don’t know the rates. Just outside they charge Bt.250 per hour. I don’t believe that all these mushroom massage centers have got professional masseurs. My wife’s one of the colleagues visited a massage center very happily to de-stress and walked out with severe head ache!! But I personally believe in massage therapy.
I was wondering why this many colors of Taxis here. Ha ha, coz, they are operated by different agencies and each one has got there own color. So, if we want to remember a taxi for any reason, we need to remember the number as well as color. This makes it easy to identify the car.
The King of Thailand is still highly respected and loved by the people. Somebody posted a video mocking the king and thus ‘YouTube’ got banned in Thailand. Government’s intervention into internet is quite often in this country. They already blocked abt 45,000 sites!, mostly porn. Sites linked to ousted prime minister also got axed.
So many Lampoo trees got cut during these days in Amphawa. This is near the famous floating market. The reason? Locals are fed up of ‘firefly tourists’!!!. According to them, trees attract fireflies and fireflies attract tourists. Obviously these tourists come only at night and make lots of noise. I don’t agree with cutting the trees but I strongly support the locals. We don’t have any right to trouble these locals in the name of tourism.
Floating market in Amphawa has become a too much crowded place, especially the weekends. Mainly coz, this is the ‘Songkran’ festival season, the Thai New Year. This festival attracts many tourists (but Bangkok takes a breath of relief during these holiday period. Locals go to their native place. Most of them get about 5 days of holidays). The main problem is this area is not prepared to handle this much or tourists and waste.
Yoga is becoming popular in Thailand and today there came ‘big’ article in ‘Nation’
Today I visited a department store called Tesco Lotus, which is quite famous for shopping. Here we get goods at reasonable price, or it is what it is known for. Visitors were mostly locals and not tourists. But it took some time to make the driver understand which place I am talking about when I said ‘Tesco’ to him in my accent. This incident told me that I should try to understand more about Thai language.
This place has so many ‘Thai Massage’ centers. Some do exclusive foot massage. They display the picture of typical feet and the points affecting the organs. This hotel’s health club division also offers one, but I don’t know the rates. Just outside they charge Bt.250 per hour. I don’t believe that all these mushroom massage centers have got professional masseurs. My wife’s one of the colleagues visited a massage center very happily to de-stress and walked out with severe head ache!! But I personally believe in massage therapy.
I was wondering why this many colors of Taxis here. Ha ha, coz, they are operated by different agencies and each one has got there own color. So, if we want to remember a taxi for any reason, we need to remember the number as well as color. This makes it easy to identify the car.
The King of Thailand is still highly respected and loved by the people. Somebody posted a video mocking the king and thus ‘YouTube’ got banned in Thailand. Government’s intervention into internet is quite often in this country. They already blocked abt 45,000 sites!, mostly porn. Sites linked to ousted prime minister also got axed.
So many Lampoo trees got cut during these days in Amphawa. This is near the famous floating market. The reason? Locals are fed up of ‘firefly tourists’!!!. According to them, trees attract fireflies and fireflies attract tourists. Obviously these tourists come only at night and make lots of noise. I don’t agree with cutting the trees but I strongly support the locals. We don’t have any right to trouble these locals in the name of tourism.
Floating market in Amphawa has become a too much crowded place, especially the weekends. Mainly coz, this is the ‘Songkran’ festival season, the Thai New Year. This festival attracts many tourists (but Bangkok takes a breath of relief during these holiday period. Locals go to their native place. Most of them get about 5 days of holidays). The main problem is this area is not prepared to handle this much or tourists and waste.
Yoga is becoming popular in Thailand and today there came ‘big’ article in ‘Nation’
Today I visited a department store called Tesco Lotus, which is quite famous for shopping. Here we get goods at reasonable price, or it is what it is known for. Visitors were mostly locals and not tourists. But it took some time to make the driver understand which place I am talking about when I said ‘Tesco’ to him in my accent. This incident told me that I should try to understand more about Thai language.
Thailand - Saturday April 7, 2007
We reached the Suvarnabhumi Airport by 3.15 am, local time. It was bigger than the Bangalore airport…. clean, beautiful, and organized. There wasn’t much room for confusion, though most of the staff here doesn’t understand English. There wasn’t any difficulty in getting the Visa, though the officer looked a lil rough. ‘Sleep’ can be one factor.
It took some time to find out the pre-paid taxi stand. They charged 400 baht to drop us at Amari Atrium Hotel ( http://www.amari.com/atrium ) located in New Petchburi Road.
The very first thing I got attracted is the Taxis in Bangkok. They were in different colors and that too bright. Taxis are more compared to own vehicles, which were mostly lightly colored. Taxis are THE attraction on the road. And they all are Toyota Corolla with A/C switched on all the time.
The roads were good and the drivers follow the lane system. It looked safe driving in Bangkok. Our taxi touched 120 km/hr and here people drive very fast. I was impressed with that aspect.
This hotel is good but certain others things were tricky and funny. You can use only two bottles of water per day, free of cost, though they provide three bottles (third one would attract 80 bt, for 500 ml). These bottles are kept far and there is another bottle kept next to your bed. In urgency, you may not re-think but use it. The catch is, they will charge you 120 baht for this bottle of 500 ml of mineral water (just outside, in the 7-eleven stores, you get one ltr for 14 baht!! Excellent marketing strategy.
There were so many other things in the room which are for sale at three times (or so) the MRP. May be this is how luxury hotels functions, I don’t know…..this is my first stay in such a hotel.
This hotel has a decent gym and pool. Food served in their restaurant is expensive but good. Breakfast was included in the rent but coz of technical problem with our check-in time, we were asked to pay. We overslept and missed the buffet!!! So, we had toast and tea.
Since it was Saturday (working days are ‘working days’ for wife, since she is on official visit) , we decided to pay a visit to one of the much talked about shopping mall/complex called MBK
Here we get all sort of ‘shopping’ items like, cloths, mementos, Electronic items (though there is another mall almost exclusively for it), pirated DVDs and stuffs like that. MBK is Bangkok’s one of the hot spot tourist area. Many hotels arrange bus to this place for their guests. I also bought a couple of T-shirts, like many other tourists did.
We came back at an odd time and the buffet lunch was over. So, we had Coffee and toast (but it was expensive and I decided not to have anything more from this restaurant since it would damage my budget).
There is an Indian restaurant next to our hotel and we had dinner from there and the rate was ‘OK’ compared to our in-house restaurant.
Is Bangkok a shopping paradise as projected? I might need a day or two more to comment on that.
It took some time to find out the pre-paid taxi stand. They charged 400 baht to drop us at Amari Atrium Hotel ( http://www.amari.com/atrium ) located in New Petchburi Road.
The very first thing I got attracted is the Taxis in Bangkok. They were in different colors and that too bright. Taxis are more compared to own vehicles, which were mostly lightly colored. Taxis are THE attraction on the road. And they all are Toyota Corolla with A/C switched on all the time.
The roads were good and the drivers follow the lane system. It looked safe driving in Bangkok. Our taxi touched 120 km/hr and here people drive very fast. I was impressed with that aspect.
This hotel is good but certain others things were tricky and funny. You can use only two bottles of water per day, free of cost, though they provide three bottles (third one would attract 80 bt, for 500 ml). These bottles are kept far and there is another bottle kept next to your bed. In urgency, you may not re-think but use it. The catch is, they will charge you 120 baht for this bottle of 500 ml of mineral water (just outside, in the 7-eleven stores, you get one ltr for 14 baht!! Excellent marketing strategy.
There were so many other things in the room which are for sale at three times (or so) the MRP. May be this is how luxury hotels functions, I don’t know…..this is my first stay in such a hotel.
This hotel has a decent gym and pool. Food served in their restaurant is expensive but good. Breakfast was included in the rent but coz of technical problem with our check-in time, we were asked to pay. We overslept and missed the buffet!!! So, we had toast and tea.
Since it was Saturday (working days are ‘working days’ for wife, since she is on official visit) , we decided to pay a visit to one of the much talked about shopping mall/complex called MBK
Here we get all sort of ‘shopping’ items like, cloths, mementos, Electronic items (though there is another mall almost exclusively for it), pirated DVDs and stuffs like that. MBK is Bangkok’s one of the hot spot tourist area. Many hotels arrange bus to this place for their guests. I also bought a couple of T-shirts, like many other tourists did.
We came back at an odd time and the buffet lunch was over. So, we had Coffee and toast (but it was expensive and I decided not to have anything more from this restaurant since it would damage my budget).
There is an Indian restaurant next to our hotel and we had dinner from there and the rate was ‘OK’ compared to our in-house restaurant.
Is Bangkok a shopping paradise as projected? I might need a day or two more to comment on that.
Thailand -Friday, April 6, 2007
Since things looked more real in the morning I looked for a suitcase and found that we need one more….I needed a couple of pants/jeans….we needed everything we need for a small trip…and we were about to leave .
There comes a call from wife’s manager and I thought that is the end of the trip because it was our experience….. I heard her asking ‘is the trip cancelled?’ …..No, the trip is still alive…
So, after breakfast, I went for shopping…..It was very hot and I did not drink enough water and thus I became very tired. So, I decided to cut on shopping and return to home to avoid a Migraine attack.
We packed some and decided to buy the rest from Thailand. We left our home by 7.15 pm and there wasn’t much traffic. The departure time was 10.45 pm. We reached the airport on time. After security check we proceeded to collect our boarding pass….There it is !!!!
Looking at my son’s passport the Thai Airways staff said ‘your son needs immigration clearance’ ….’So, what should we do’ – we asked. “ you have to go to the passport office and get it done”…..”you mean to say we can not travel today?” my wife asked the man. “Yes” came the answer……..
I was thinking about the loss of money if we cancel the tickets….then that guy said ‘ you do one thing, go and ask the Airport immigration officer, if he permits, you can go’
The seal on the passport clearly reads as follows:
“Emigration Check required except for ……, ….., ……and Thailand “
The last word itself is Thailand…..the Emigration officer did not even look at the passport and said ‘your son can go’…..
oh! What a relief !!!! Thank you God, you are wonderful….and you also like pranks!!
I might lodge a complaint with the Thai Airways when I reach there. A person sitting at the airport counter can not be such an ignoramus. Cant he even understand such a silly thing? What I thought was the rule might have changed and we were ignorant
When we asked for window seat, that gentleman obliged and gave us seats just above the wing so that we can not see anything through the window. Nice guy!!
They did not allow the passengers to enter the aircraft till 30 minutes ago, which is unusual and thus the flight took off only by 11 and then I came to reality……..till that time I did not believe that we are going to Bangkok……..I even expected an announcement requesting my wife to not to board the plane…..coz, that is the way the planning going on.
When the drinks came, the hostess asked me which juice I want, not beer or whisky and I still don’t understand why (though I don’t drink)…..nothing special during the three and a half hours journey.
The Aircraft was a lil old I think……it was noisy and I could not sleep………..
There comes a call from wife’s manager and I thought that is the end of the trip because it was our experience….. I heard her asking ‘is the trip cancelled?’ …..No, the trip is still alive…
So, after breakfast, I went for shopping…..It was very hot and I did not drink enough water and thus I became very tired. So, I decided to cut on shopping and return to home to avoid a Migraine attack.
We packed some and decided to buy the rest from Thailand. We left our home by 7.15 pm and there wasn’t much traffic. The departure time was 10.45 pm. We reached the airport on time. After security check we proceeded to collect our boarding pass….There it is !!!!
Looking at my son’s passport the Thai Airways staff said ‘your son needs immigration clearance’ ….’So, what should we do’ – we asked. “ you have to go to the passport office and get it done”…..”you mean to say we can not travel today?” my wife asked the man. “Yes” came the answer……..
I was thinking about the loss of money if we cancel the tickets….then that guy said ‘ you do one thing, go and ask the Airport immigration officer, if he permits, you can go’
The seal on the passport clearly reads as follows:
“Emigration Check required except for ……, ….., ……and Thailand “
The last word itself is Thailand…..the Emigration officer did not even look at the passport and said ‘your son can go’…..
oh! What a relief !!!! Thank you God, you are wonderful….and you also like pranks!!
I might lodge a complaint with the Thai Airways when I reach there. A person sitting at the airport counter can not be such an ignoramus. Cant he even understand such a silly thing? What I thought was the rule might have changed and we were ignorant
When we asked for window seat, that gentleman obliged and gave us seats just above the wing so that we can not see anything through the window. Nice guy!!
They did not allow the passengers to enter the aircraft till 30 minutes ago, which is unusual and thus the flight took off only by 11 and then I came to reality……..till that time I did not believe that we are going to Bangkok……..I even expected an announcement requesting my wife to not to board the plane…..coz, that is the way the planning going on.
When the drinks came, the hostess asked me which juice I want, not beer or whisky and I still don’t understand why (though I don’t drink)…..nothing special during the three and a half hours journey.
The Aircraft was a lil old I think……it was noisy and I could not sleep………..
Thursday, April 5, 2007
I was very happy in the morning, after coming out from the gym coz, I enrolled myself and my son for a ‘Swimming Camp’ organized by our in-house club. I paid the money too through a cheque. When I was about to call my wife and tell this, I got a call from her saying she is going to Thailand next day and she want us to travel with her. This made me angry coz, to join a swimming course was like my long cherished dream coming true. So, after a fight, I cancelled my camp. But I did not prepare for the trip, though this is supposed to be my first international trip. There was one fear, I knew that till we board the plane, this trip can get cancelled and if that happens, we might lose part of our hard earned money (Air tickets). Her company planning gives us a lesson on ‘how not to plan trips’.
At night, she came with confirmed tickets and other trip details. But I did not show any interest and did not read any. Coz, the first thing that came into my mind was our ‘New Delhi’ Trip that got cancelled a few hours before the trip.
Usually, I have this habit of getting exited and losing my sleep. But this time it did not happen……. It did not add any extra fuel to my already worst sleeping fire.
At night, she came with confirmed tickets and other trip details. But I did not show any interest and did not read any. Coz, the first thing that came into my mind was our ‘New Delhi’ Trip that got cancelled a few hours before the trip.
Usually, I have this habit of getting exited and losing my sleep. But this time it did not happen……. It did not add any extra fuel to my already worst sleeping fire.
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