Southern Thailand, Chiang Mai, and Vientiane

After experiencing the intensity of Bangkok for a week, I was more than ready for a week on the beach in Phuket. The island is incredibly beautiful and the sight of the numerous limestone islands that burst forth from the ocean is indescribable, the force of nature that created them millions of years ago is incomprehensible.

I really thought I was going to enjoy Phuket, but I ended up being let down. Finding a legitimate Thai experience in Phuket is not possible. It is a place created entirely for tourists and farang outnumber Thais easily 3 to 1. Most of the visitors are from Europe and Australia, some families on holiday and the rest are best compared to frat boys out looking to get drunk and laid. I did not find many single travelers while in Phuket. The prices are overinflated and the whole island makes Bangkok seem wholesome. I stayed near the infamous Banghla road which was basically a red-light district. Anyone looking to pay for sex would definitely not have a difficult time finding it.

The beach is indeed beautiful and the water is perfect, but my beach experience was limited to one day as I got one hell of a sunburn that kept me from laying out in the sun for the rest of the week. The beach is overcrowded and it is impossible to keep from being pestered by the scores of touters walking up and down looking to sell little trinkets or to convince you to overpay for jetski. After my second day in Phuket I quickly booked a ferry ticket to Koh Phi Phi island, which was sold as a beautiful get away from the tourist-infested Phuket.

Phi Phi is most definitely an incredibly beautiful island, and the lack of motorized vehicles makes it much quieter than Phuket, but it's hardly a get away from tourists as I imagine 90% of the islands inhabitants are from England, Ireland, Australia, or Northern Europe. I would definitely recommend visiting Phi Phi, but as a single traveler it can be very lonely at times. Most of the people there are traveling in large groups and are inbetween 18-21 years old looking to be drunk through as much of the day as possible. The bars are lively and going to a bar on the beach is fun, but the people there are hardly warm and inviting like they are in a city like Bangkok, which most of these tourists avoid because they are too intimidated by it. On my last night on Phi Phi, I met two friendly Berkeley grads and we had a great time drinking on the beach and watching the World Cup final between Holland and Spain. Most on the island were supporting Holland, due to the large number of Dutch visiting, but they all left disappointed as Spain proved why it was the favorite from day 1.

After two more days in Phuket, it was time to go to Chiang Mai, a portion of the trip I was highly anticipating. I took the night train from Bangkok, which was a great experience. I sat across from a 75 year old Red Shirt who barely spoke english but tried his best to teach me helpful Thai expressions and phrases while buying me Heineken after Heineken. I found sleeping on the night train to be very difficult and only got two hours of sleep, if that. My first night in the city, I walked around the famous Night Bazaar and decided that I was going to call it an early night. As luck would have it, while walking back to my room, I ran into an Australian named Sandy who insisted I join him that night while he went bar hopping. I ended up having a great night and ended up meeting a nice Thai girl named Pukie, an ex-bar girl who quit her job because she refused to act like she liked the disgusting old men who routinely visit Thai bars, who has since helped make my time in Chiang Mai a great one. (Side note: all farang looking for a normal Thai girl, be ready to buy their food and drinks as it's expected that the male shows them a good time, but rest assured they'll make sure to return the favor.) I was able to check out early from my guest house as she invited me to stay at her apartment, which was a nice experience.

My week flew in Chiang Mai flew by and it was time for my visa run to Vientiane. The trip included a ride on a "VIP Bus" which was nothing more than a packed van with overpowering A/C. Sleep aboard this vessel was literally impossible for more than 10-20 minutes at a time. One time I was incredibly excited because I had dosed off for an entire 50 minutes! To say the least it was a miserable experience. Unfortunately, the worst had yet to come. We arrived in Nong Khai at 6am where I learned I had to pay an extra 200 baht to be able to continue across the border into Laos. We were served free breakfast, toast and jam with tea, but that was hardly worthwhile as no one could finish their toast before their plate was swarmed by bees after the jelly. I had to abandon mine a few bites in. From there we hoped onto one bus that took us through Thai immigration across the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge to Laos Immigration. There I learned I had to pay 1,540 baht to apply for an entrance Visa to their country which included an overtime charge because we arrived before 8am, which is funny seeing as all bus services take tourists to Laos immigration before 8, not the last time I would be ripped off in Laos. There they made the British and American tourists wait for over an hour to get approved, while letting everyone else go through after 20-30 minutes, again not the last time I would encounter anti-farang sentiment while in Laos. Again, the worst was yet to come.

After finally crossing the border, it was time to get dropped off at the Thai Embassy to get my 3 month visa, but as I got off the bus, the driver closed the door and drove away before I could grab my bag. Great, there goes all my clothes, somewhere into Vientiane. No time to track the bus down, I only had an hour to get my visa application in, couldn't let the trip become a complete waste. After filling in my application and getting to the counter, I learned that the paper work I had, which was supposed to be enough to get my 3 month visa, was not acceptable. I could only get a tourist visa. Shit, what a disaster this trip was becoming. No time to linger on the visa rejection, I had to find my suitcase. I found a tuk-tuk driver and asked him to take me to a guest house near by. He overcharged me to take me to an overpriced guest house with an unfriendly staff. I was able to call my travel agent who tracked down the bus and told me they would deliver the bag where they dropped me off, the Thai Embassy, at 5:30pm. I had time to kill so I decided to walk around Vientiane, which is an underwhelming city. The city is strewn with half-constructed buildings with no sign of anyone working on them or anyone working on them in a while. The other buildings look old and dilapidated and every other building is the Ministry of something or other with a giant Laos crest on the front. Every building flies both the Laos flag and the well-known sickle and hammer flag. On every street corner are police in their Communist uniforms sitting around doing nothing. Homeless people urinating on walls are a common site while walking the broken sidewalks of Vientiane. Laos claims to be The Land of Smiles and of Wholehearted People, but I didn't find many on my excursion. I was commonly glared at and on one occasion a man stared at me, yelled something in Laotian, stomped the ground, and positioned himself so his back was to me as I walked by. At this point, I was incredibly homesick for Thailand.

Next, it was time to get my bag back. I got a tuk-tuk to take me to the Embassy only to find that it was closed and that my bag was not there. Great, my travel agent was wrong. I had to find out where that bus was going to be. Luckily my tuk-tuk driver was willing to help me. We drove to one bus station, nope wrong one, across the city to the other bus station, nope not here. My hope was dimming and I started to think I was going to have to replace all my clothes, but my tuk-tuk driver wasn't going to give up. He went to a business run by one of his friends and asked him if he knew where that bus would be, and thank God, he knew. We went to that bus stop and that bus hadn't arrived yet. We waited for over an hour and then the bus showed up with my bag. As with all my experiences in Laos, it didn't come without an overly steep price as the bus driver extorted me for 40,000 kip, about 160 baht, to get my bag. The guy was a rotten bastard but I was relieved to get my clothes back. I gave the tuk-tuk driver 100,000 kip for taking 3 hours of his day to run me around Vientiane to help me find my bag, he was a good man. That night I drank many BeerLao, the only beer you can buy in Vientiane outside of Heineken and Carlsburg, and sang Karaoke at a bar with only Laotians beside the Mekong River.

The next day I got my passport back from the embassy and endured another fee, this time for exiting Laos, and a long van trip to Chiang Mai. I got back at 6am and couldn't be happier to be out of Laos.

My First Week in the Land of Smiles

The flight over was a long one, sitting 14 hours in a middle seat of China Air, which doesn't put nearly enough leg room for us large Americans. The whole flight over I experienced a range of emotions I didn't think was possible, ranging from intense excitement to overwhelming fear. Traveling on one's own is a very intimidating process. Questions of whom will I meet, how will I manage without a single friend for support, and am I cut out for this are just a few of the thoughts I considered during those long hours on my plane. Looking around it is very obvious that I will be in a world I am nowhere near accustomed to. I am one of the few Americans on that flight; for the first time ever I will be a minority.

As we neared Taipei I became increasingly anxious to get off the plane and to finally get my boots on the ground of The Far East. Even though I only spent 12 hours in Taipei, I found the Tiawanese to be a very friendly people. Sitting outside of my hotel, I was approached numerous times by the women who worked there who all seemed very interested in talking to a young American male. I could tell this was going to be a good trip.

The flight to Bangkok was much more comfortable as it only had about 40% of the seats filled. It is obvious that the world is still wary of traveling to Thailand after the protests that occurred earlier in the year. My taxi driver was a very friendly fellow, a common trait amongst the Thai people. I had heard stories about how the taxi drivers like to take Westerners for a much longer spin than necessary, but this man was not one of them. He filled me in on as much Thai history and culture as he could. I found out that most Thais do not support the Red Shirts and they find the idea of civil war as an incredibly unattractive option. Violence and conflict is just not in the blood of the average Thai person. I also came to realize how much the Thai people love their king and queen, or Rama. Listening to him talk about Rama Taksin was very similar to listening to Sean Hannity speak about a Conservative or Kieth Olbermann talking about Obama.

The hostel I stayed in, Lub*d, was very clean and the staff was very friendly, even though their English knowledge is very basic. After setting up my bed and locker, I decided it was time to explore the hectic city that is Bangkok. I made a mistake and hopped into one of the notorious tuk-tuks that race around the city. The driver proceeded to take me to a cell phone store, where I'm sure I overpaid for my Nokia phone, and then he took me to a tailor shop, even though I repeatedly told him "No." There I was hassled by the shop owner to buy a suit to "make me look smart" until I left. I made the mistake of telling the driver I needed to get a ticket to Chiang Mai and Phuket and he proceeded to take me to what I am sure was an overpriced travel agent. Naively I booked a roundtrip flight to Phuket, which included accommodation, and my ticket aboard the night train to Chiang Mai.

After returning to my hostel I figured it was time to start talking to the other travelers in the hostel. I met some very friendly British guys, Patrick and Damian, who took me under their wing and gave me the low down on traveling in Bangkok. I am very grateful I met these two as they gave me priceless knowledge. After meeting some British lads and "birds," there are a lot of British travelers in South East Asia, we all took a trip to Koh Sahn Road, a notorious bar district in downtown Bangkok. There I encountered the night scene that attracts many a pervert to Thailand. Hookers, bar girls, and the infamous "lady-boys" strolled the street groping and flirting with me every chance they got. For a much lonelier and weaker man, the temptation would be impossible to refuse, many of these girls are just drop-dead gorgeous, except for the lady-boys who have an a rather deep voice. (For all who wish to travel to Thailand and indulge in its seedier aspects, that is the tell-tale sign you're talking to a "post-op.")

The next morning, I woke up with quite the hangover and decided to keep my sightseeing to the immediate area surrounding the hostel. That night we met some more British guys, two Canadians, and three Scottish lasses and spent the night drinking at the hostel. It was not a very noteworthy night.

The next day, I got up finally recovered from my jet lag and determined to go do some sightseeing. I spent the day at the Grand Palace, traveling there by the public river transit, which I definitely recommend. The Grand Palace was quite the sight, incredibly ornate architecture that may even put the Vatican to shame. The trip got tiring after a few hours and the humidity was shocking. Going to the Grand Palace one must wear pants, which was torturous in that heat and I sweat like I never thought I would just standing around. The locals all seemed to get a kick out of seeing a sweating farang, they wear long pants and shirts all day and they never seem to break a sweat. That night me and the crew decided to go to another seedy bar district called Patpong, which was just a 10 minute walk from the hostel. There the streets are lined with Thai men trying to get you to go to a "ping pong show," which is a show where women shoot ping pong balls and smoke cigarettes out of their pussies. Gratefully, the croud I hung with was not interested in seeing these shows, as they tend to be a place where farangs get hassled and threatened by mafia types to pay exorbitant amounts upwards of 5,000 baht per beer they had at the show. Along the street are also many "lady bars" or strip clubs which are full of gorgeous Thai women who use them as a front for prostitution. We also avoided these as none of us were interested in paying for sex.

The next morning I was rudely awaken by "Tourist Sickness" which led me to regret I forgot to pack myself Immodium. That day I did nothing and booked a private room in a hotel down the road to avoid getting any of my roommates sick with whatever I may have gotten.

On sunday I woke up feeling much better. The two Brits I met initially and I took a trip on the Sky Train to MBK, one of the most insane and confusing malls I had ever been to. Each stall was packed with the same merchandise all of which use beautiful Thai girls to try and reel in the suckers. That night we took a trip to the Sukhimvit, another one of Bangkok's seedy night districts. The streets were relatively quite, which was a little disappointing. One street outside a hotel was lined with more hookers than I had ever seen. Probably a hundred stood with their backs to the street, a sign they are prostitutes, each groping at us as we walked by. It was quite the sight.

On monday, I took a tour out to Kanchanaburi where I got to go visit the Bridge over the River Kwai, built by prisoners captured by the Japanese during WWII. It's a bridge and railroad that took the lives of thousands of men who were forced to work in horrible conditions by the Japanese. After that somber site, I headed out to go Elephant trekking with two other Americans, the first Americans I had met on the trip, a Hungarian girl, a Lebanese man who had moved to America to find himself a better life, and a South African man who had been suckered into overpaying for the tour while being taken for a ride by a tuk-tuk driver a few days before. It was a very interesting group of people whom I had a great time with. When you travel alone through a foreign country you get the chance to meet people that you would never get to meet while sitting in the comfort of your home. After Elephant trekking, which was fun but incredibly uncomfortable, we went and had lunch on a floating restaurant. It was such a beautiful and tranquil experience and afterwards I realized why the Thais are such a peaceful people. They live a simple life out in the country unconcerned about the newest technologies and problems of the world. They appreciate what they have and do not ask for more. For these people, less is more. After lunch, we took a river raft trip on a raft built with bamboo. We got to stick out feet in the water as we slowly drifted down the river, one of my most favorite experiences so far in Thailand. From there we took a bus to the Tiger Temple, which was the experience of a lifetime. Never before had I been so close to tigers and I can't lie, even though they are all asleep, it was one of the most intimidating moments of my life. Getting so close to the creatures I saw just how big and powerful these animals are. If they were to wake up angry, it would take the smallest effort to rip off my face. I would not want to stumble across one of these beasts in the wild.

My week in Bangkok was one of highs and lows. There were moments where I loved it and times where I couldn't wait to leave. In the end, I was sad to leave. It is a hectic and seedy city, but there are many good people who live there. There are some bad Thais who are looking to rip you off, but the majority are good and honest. Even if you are to get ripped off, in reality you are only getting ripped off by 2-3 USD. Most Thais who have some English knowledge love to approach Westerners to just talk. They love to have little conversations with farangs. Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers will never say they won't take you to a location, it seems that "No" is not part of their vocabulary. After one day in Thailand it is very apparent why it is known as the Land of Smiles. Walking around if you happen to catch the eye of a Thai give them a smile and they will most definitely smile back, especially the women. The week raced by and it made me very excited for what is ahead. I can already tell that by the time my volunteering commitment is over, this all will feel like it went by in the blink of an eye.