Sawasdee ja!
Well i have arrived in Bangkok, and although it’s only been the best part of three days, true to form it has certainly not been uneventful.
I left London on Wednesday night feeling pretty tired and mainly apprehensive as to the size of my bag. I knew it was going to be over the 20kg which i was allowed to take, but the question was... just how much over was it going to be! Answer... 34kg in all.... luckily it came down to one of those make or brake moments and the lady behind the check in counter for Gulf Air let me off which probable counts as ‘sweet deal’ number two for the day (the first being the magical appearance of my bank card on the day!).
So I boarded my flight, only to find I probably got the worst seat on the plane... right in the middle of a row of five sandwiched between a sweet Bahranian couple on one side, and on the other a Mongolian man with a bad back and a sick mother who I thought was going to just keel over at one point during the flight... doctors and everything. Luckily she seemed to pull through. All in all the flight wasn’t too bad... apart from the food, which lived up to its terrible reputation. I arrived in Bahrain at 7am local time (i think they are three hours ahead), although i was only there for two hours, i got the impression it was a pretty crazy place, i would have liked the chance to go exploring. Instead however, I made a B-line for the smoking room, opened the door and walked into a room no larger than three meters square full of Arabian Sheikhs smoking fat cigars. Of course, i did the only thing you can do in that situation; chain smoke a few cigarettes and make some small talk, this resulted in a few odd looks, which was probably more to do with the fact i was smoking cigarettes branded ‘American Spirit’, and wearing a pink shirt, than being a pasty white guy in an Arabic country.
By 9am, it was time to board my connection to Bangkok and to my surprise the plane was pretty empty which meant that I could stretch out and get the sleep i craved, this was of course bracketed by two more terrible in-flight meals... i think i am still recovering from that, it has kind of made me lose my appetite. I got to Bangkok at 2100 (local time), 1500 in the UK. A quick trip to the smoking room again, then through to collect my bag (involving a quick freak out when i couldn’t see it), and then through customs and into the real world again. Ahh the real world.... this is when i realised after trying to use the ATM to change some money for a taxi, that my card did not work in Thailand.... oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! How much cash did James Pappas have with him? £11.04... not so good... in fact this is probably enough for me to have gotten a taxi and a hotel for the night (at the moment I’m paying 420Baht a night – equal to £7 a night). However, after talking to various people at currency exchange outlets etc, and giving off some pretty bummed out looks, a chance encounter lead me to ‘sweet deal number three’, i got talking to a couple of Thai chicks, as you do, who have since made it their mission to sort me out. They took me by taxi to a cheap hotel, booked me in (which they still refuse to take any money for). We watched the Spain/Russia game and then they went off and i slept. At 9am my hotel phone rang and it was Es and Ta, the two Thai girls who had come to take me to get my bank card sorted! We had some breakfast; i used the internet via WIFI (which seems to be present and free everywhere in this city regardless) too look up what was going on with my bank card. I had to wait until 1400 before i could call the UK to unblock my card so i could use it here, it turns out it was a security measure which stopped it from working... big relief.
The next thing i needed to do was to organise some form of permanent residence for a month or so, and after half the afternoon of hardcore secretarial duties which involved Es scouring the internet and Ta making the phone calls, ‘we’ came up with a list of possibilities. The rest of the afternoon/evening was spent looking at the rooms and going from apartment block to apartment block to see if there was any room. In fact, apartment hunting in Bangkok has a pretty good system. There is of course the traditional research and cal method, however more conveniently, most apartment blocks here are serviced and include a security office and a reception which is pretty much manned 24/7. Because of this, once you get going, you can actually just cold-call on apartments to see if there is any space. Unfortunately, because of the time of the month, there is little in the way of empty apartments and so my choices have been limited – even if i went with the accommodation offered by the course, it would still have been touch and go as to whether i secured a place... and more importantly expensive. After an exhausting day, we ended up with three options, all of which required a minimum of a 4 month stay, but the rent is pretty god, around £70 a month, with a two month deposit. However, after a quick phone call, Es managed to sort me out a room with her supervisor (she works as a TV programmer in the master control room for one of the satellite TV companies). It turns out that her supervisor will be away for some months setting up a new station outside Bangkok, and for a monthly rent of about £60, i can have the spare room in $his apartment with no deposit! The only catch being that i cannot move in until Wednesday, but for the massive saving, it is pretty worth it! Sweet deal number 4! So, i am now checked into a different hotel costing the princely sum of £7.50 a night until then.
Saturday was pretty much my own day to look around, do a quick run through to see how long it takes by taxi to get to my place of study – 30 minutes in a cab, plus a toll fair costing a little over £3! It should be okay for the first few days of my course in terms of time, it just means that i will have to get up earlier, but it is a small sacrifice really. I went into town to scope out the location of the course and got myself affiliated with the transport systems – the BTS skytrain and the underground – both are fully air conditioned and even at rush hour not close to being as frustratingly frenetic as London. Despite these two transport systems being pretty limited in terms of the areas covered, they are cheap, direct and pretty comfortable, and if used in conjunction with the various other forms of road transport i.e. buses and taxis; it is actually pretty easy to get around this town. So far i think my favourite form of transportation has been the motorbike taxi. They are really cheap, but only really applicable for short journeys within the area which you are in, but the speed combined with the element of danger and wind in your hair provides a pretty good ride! I think it will not be long until i invest in one myself!
On Saturday evening i hooked up with Es and Ta again along with a couple of their friends, Da (who is actually fully mental) and Pao a Bangkok ladyboy, but without the dress... although she insists you refer to him as a her (if that makes sense!). They took me down to Sukhumvit Road, where we i thought the plan was to just have a quiet drink and a chat.... however... this road is pretty much the living embodiment of hell on earth. Comparable perhaps to La Ramblas in Barcelona and various other market/bar/club/tourist orientated areas in Europe, Sukhumvit Road is full of farang (westerners), pissed up, being loud, seemingly unrelenting chains of market stalls selling trinkets, open air bars and clubs, street artists, vendors, hawkers, beggars and quite frankly anything else you can think of that would give you a massive headache!
After walking around for a while, half in shock, half in terror, i think they realised i wasn’t really into this and thank Buddah, they got the message and we got a taxi out of there! We went across town and found somewhere much better, a place which they go to. To be honest I’m not really sure why we didn’t go there first – perhaps they thought that’s what i wanted to see. After we got out the taxi, we got some Dim Sum from a street vendor which we ate on the way to our destination – 10Baht a portion (about 20p!). This place was pretty cool actually, an open air bar/restaurant, with fans for each table. The drink of choice was Singha, but not by the pint or the can, you order 3 litres at a time to share, which comes in the form of what i can only describe as a self serving tap... but not in a barrel, just in a meter high tube with a tap at the bottom. It looks pretty impressive, but as with all alcohol it is more expensive than most other food and drinks, costing 400Baht for the five of us (by this time another guy, Jak joined us). We sat, talked, joked and exchanged language for the rest of the evening which was really nice... until i started seeing cockroaches... not such a fun sight! Big fuckers that fly... although i haven’t seen them leave the ground yet,, and with my fear of Moths, i don’t really want to! Luckily though they are pretty docile until they want to move and then they scuttle off into a dark corner. Unfortunately, this is something i will have to get used to... oh well, at least there is a good vermin control policy in action... these fat little bastards are considered a delicacy by some Thai’s, and although i haven’t come across it yet you can get your very own barbecued stick of cockroaches if you really wish... not for James Pappas, but perhaps a better and more natural way of control than using pesticides! This barbecue on a stick scenario reminds me.... when i was on Sukhumvit Road earlier that night, i say something which amused me for sale by one of the street vendors, barbecues eggs on sticks.... for some reason i found this pretty amusing, but i couldn’t help but think, how do you skewer two eggs without them breaking? Do you boil them first?
At around midnight the place closed and everyone wanted to go to a club and dance, but i was pretty tired, so i got a taxi back to my hotel with Es. On the way back (about a 25minute journey) we saw a protest going on, we hopped out and joined it to see what was going on. It was a political demonstration against the previous Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra who is currently on trial for corruption et al. It is a strange one as roughly half the population of Thailand are divided in their opinion, some believe that he brought financial and economical stability and are happy to turn a blind eye to his personal business gains, whilst the other pretty much detest him and want him lynched (including the military, who overthrew him in 2006). The demonstration was peaceful and we stayed for about half an hour, whilst we talked to some people to get some information and opinions on the situation. After that we got another taxi back to my hotel, Es went home, and i got another late night. Everyone in Bangkok seems to sleep about six hours a day, work twelve or more and eat, drink and socialise for the rest. It is rare that people our age will go back to their apartment after work, but instead meet up with friends, go out to eat, run errands etc.
Sunday, Woke up late, forgot to put the air-con on when i went to bed, felt horrible due to a combination of body sweat and hangover, went into town by subway and skytrain, got some iced coffee (they make coffee with condensed milk here, I’m not convinced yet!), and that just about takes me to this moment in time. I need to go slipper shopping for tomorrow as the course starts at 8:45am. I’m going by invite to check out ‘Hello Bangkok’ – the Satellite TV station where Es works a little later, and then i will go home early and put in a couple of hours study so i am fresh for tomorrow. It’s still pretty hot, and except for about a ten minute sprinkling of rain yesterday at about 1700, no rain! I have had my fun few days, now it is time for the hard work, we will see tomorrow if i am in the right gear for studying this course, let’s hope so!
I will check in with you next week probably, depending on how eventful things are. But for now i am going to continue my cursed hunt for slippers!
Roger that, over and out.
James
P.S. – i really just wanted to tell you this because it is a pretty funny observation (well to my easily entertained mind anyway) Traffic lights in Bangkok have a countdown system, so when it’s on red or green, you always know exactly how long it will take – pretty smart!
Oh yeah, and as soon as i get a camera sorted i will send some pictures of strange things which might bore or fascinate you... depending. Dave Jones, i have seen enough ugly toy dogs to last you a lifetime. You my friend would be on the floor paralysed with laughter if you were here!
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