Days 3 and 4: The Sword of Danocles – Thailand

So my title is intentionally incorrect. I’m aware that the actual statement is The Sword of Damocles. I just thought I’d integrate my name to indicate my paranoia. Of the 6 guys who came here, over the days 5 have gone down with stomach upset and general unpleasantness to varying extents. There can be only one survivor. As much as I’d love to hope that I can avoid whatever bug has struck but I’m not sure of my chances.

As a result the past two days have been fairly muted. Mostly just going to a couple of different beaches, doing shopping at different markets and bartering, using the hotel pool and bar and going out a bit where we can.

We’ve made changes to our itinerary, leaving out activities we were going to do such as attending some Muay Thai fights and using some ATVs. Still has been a decent trip but it has been tainted by the illness.

This post can be used to reflect on the first key issue. Safety. As I mentioned previously, OHS is not exactly a number one priority. See the picture below for evidence of the top notch wiring. The buzzing emitted it truly mind boggling.

The second issue is an offshoot of the first. Road Safety. I actually think that Thailand has been on par with, if not slightly better, than places such as Italy. The drivers fly along and zoom and weave through traffic as in Italy and it’s definitely not as bad as places such as Naples. The difference is that the vehicles here such as the tuk-tuks are open air and generally have dashboards that don’t function or clearly have more than 500,000 km on them. Some of them are pretty banging and fun though.

I actually don’t have too many more issues other than the hygiene and the smell with it. Anywhere along a road an open drain can provide a pretty unique scent. It’s not the greatest.

I’m making Thailand sound terrible, and I think I’m doing it an injustice. I just want to give an honest and open account of the trip. I think it’s also in large part due to this being my first visit to a non first world country. The contrast is really stark from having been in Japan three weeks ago. Thailand has been a lot of fun. Wandering around the markets and bartering and joining in with mates bartering has been pretty fun. Whether or not good deals have been made is largely unknown. An Aussie tourist let us in on a hint today that if a shop puts your purchase in a Black bag you’ve done well, A blue bag you’ve done okay and a Red bag means you’ve been taken. It seems like they use it as a signal to other shop keepers and markets to identify what to expect in a buyer. I don’t know exactly how accurate this is but it seemed to show through the more we shopped.

The beaches, depending on which you go to, can also be quite nice. Patong Beach itself is pretty dirty, but ones further down such as Kata and Karon were decent and the water is the perfect temperature. In better physical conditions I could see us spending some time at the beach relaxing and getting some food and drinks from nearby carts.

It is also blindly apparent that with Australians being the number one tourists to Thailand that the market has shifted that way. From Thai and Indian touts using Aussie slang in Aussie accents (some pretty well done too) to the huge number of Aussie themed bars, it’s clear that Aussie tourism is a massive contributor to the local economy. “G’day mate – have a gander, come on cobber, cheap cheap, Eddie Macguire (that’s my favourite one)”. Some touts use slightly less savoury language when you walk past. I’ve found that using “Mai Aow Kup/Kah” (male/female) has worked at getting rid of most touts I don’t want to deal with. It’s not always effective but a decent way to let them know politely that you’re not interested. The worst are the creepers who keep following you even once you’ve passed and told them no.

I’ll reserve my final judgement on Phuket tomorrow or the day after depending on how I go. I do think it is a good, inexpensive place depending on what you’re looking for and there are seemingly some good variety in the types of accommodation you can go for, from backpackers to upmarket resorts. It’s not really my type of place and I don’t know that I’d come back, it’s something I might reassess down the track. I’ve had a pretty good time (despite my seeming negativity) but it’s been impacted by the illness that’s struck the group. Bring on tomorrow and the trip home.

Night 2/Day 2: Thai(ger)land

The second night continued in the same vein as the night before, though overall was a lot less intense (in most ways, more intense in some) and didn’t quite last as long. It also didn’t start as late. The real highlight is one I don’t have a photo of which was the most decked out tuk-tuk replete with LED lights all over and a sound system which left us deaf upon our arrival at the destination. The picture below is alas not of the decked out tuk-tuk. Random fireworks have just started going off from the beach. I’m sure it’s legit (not).

Today we decided to book a tuk-tuk for the whole day and explore a few different locations. The first stop was Tiger Kingdom. Look, to be honest, I haven’t looked into the potential ethical issues of Tiger Kingdom and I don’t know if I’ve contributed to a potential problem. The presentation of the venue was that it was done up quite nicely and the tigers had decent sized grassed spaces to move around in, it wasn’t concrete floors and tiny enclosures. I also couldn’t pass up tigers. That said, being in an enclosed environment with essentially deadly animals was pretty intimidating. Sitting at the end of one and feeling it breathe, then having it change its breathing pattern and turn around was pretty freaky. Made for a cool moment and experience.

We then went to a shooting range. I won’t upload many pictures of it to avoid a Nick D’Arcy/Kendrick Monk controversy, but it was a) an awesome experience and b) an exercise in demonstrating the rather lax OHS regulations here compared to what I’m used to. The whole thing was fairly safe but I don’t know if going to a gun range with firstly no ID required and secondly having anyone handle any weapons and literally point them at people to get cool photos would cut it back home. It was nuts. Safe overall because we’re not crazy, but nuts all the same.

The tuk-tuk journey continued around Phuket with a long trip up to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Centre and nearby Waterfall. The walk to the waterfall was pretty humid to say the least. Even having just come back from Japan and it’s huge number of hills and humidity still wasn’t able to prepare me for the stickiness. It was reminiscing of walking up to the Arashiyama Monkey park, though less of a walk, but a bit more treacherous in the slipperiness of the walking surface.

Hearing about the way the Gibbons had been treated in the past was interesting, but sad. I love animals as much as the next person, and I also see how they can be good and fun for entertainment, but hearing about the way in which a lot that appear in the cities have been obtained is pretty crushing. The project at the Rehabilitation Centre hoped to start improving the situation and things may be on a better path, but I sadly can’t see it changing altogether.

From here we went to our last proper stop at Chalong Temple. I’d thought I’d be all templed out after Japan, but it was great to see a different take on the Buddhist temple design. It’s interesting how the same religion has such a different approach to buildings across different cultures. In Catholicism churches seem to follow the same basic pattern, just the ones in Europe have more history and generally, masterpieces of art in them. The Siamese/Thai take on temple design is fantastic and from the one I saw today, the focus is different from Japan. In Japan the focus seems to be on fitting temples (Buddhist or Shinto) into the surrounding environment, even a huge pagoda will try to blend into the natural surroundings. Chalong temple is about bright colours and standing out. Both are beautiful to behold.

We returned on our tuk-tuk via a couple of more scenic beaches than the rubbish laden Patong Beach and got back to our accommodation where some use of the Hotel Pool and Bar was in order. Delhi Belly has hit a couple of the guys so a quieter evening may be in order

Night/Day 1: Thailand Thaime. Terrible pun, I’m sorry.

I don’t know how regular these updates will be, partly because I don’t know exactly what to talk about and also because I haven’t quite got the pictures to back it up. We arrived in Phuket pretty late last night, our flight had been delayed by an hour. The flight itself was uneventful, going through Customs at Sydney was also an experience because of the ‘odd shape’ in my wonky luggage that cause a number of searches. I don’t know what the odd shape was, only that it stressed me out. Arriving in Phuket it also took us about an hour or so to get through Immigration. The queue not being quite as organised as in other locations. Customs though, well, there was no one there, so that was a breeze. We took a taxi from the Airport to our hotel, and started our somewhat successful though insignificant bartering. You know it’s a good sign when you’re going down the street to your hotel and the taxi driver points outside, goes ‘look, ladyboys’ and then the whole group share knowing laughs.

Our initial plan was to go around the hotel and just have a couple of drinks. We ended up finding Bangla Road and spending a little bit more time out than initially planned. The drinks were not as cheap as I’d initially anticipated, being pretty much on par with Japan prices. Those prices still beat the costs back home, but it wasn’t as inexpensive as I’d thought it would be.

The biggest thing I’ve noted here is how much we have been (perhaps literally) manhandled. Walking down some of the side streets, or even the main streets, ladies (?) will actually grab you and try to drag you places. They’ll converge on you and have 2 or 3 grab you at a time. They may actually attempt to grab where it would be normally deemed unacceptable. Travelling with a group we were able to shrug this stuff off and not feel too concerned, but it’s a much more full on approach of touting than other places I’ve been like King’s Cross in Sydney or Kabuchiko in Tokyo. It’s…an experience.

Today (which started late, we missed our included breakfast) has been pretty laid back, spent the day wandering around a little bit, having lunch and then hitting up the hotel pool. Let’s see where the night and other days take us. Thailand, it’s not like anywhere else I’ve been.