The Good, the Bad and the Visa!

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We purposely crossed the border on the 15th of January as we were only permitted a 15 day visa if crossing a land border in Thailand. As I was flying out on the 30th it made sense to do that - 15+15=30 - only if you start the visa on the 16th. I hadn’t realised they would count the day of entry as the first day, which technically meant I had to leave the country on the 29th…bugger! After a bit of research, I found out that overstaying by a day was no drama and maybe a small fine would be incurred. I wasn’t too fussed.

We got to Bangkok early evening and I would love to say it was good to be back, but I really dislike the place - I think it’s a shit hole. It is such a major tourist hub, that every other face is a white one and it really doesn’t feel anything like Asia - just another big, polluted city, catering to western wants, which centre around drinking, partying and sleeping with underage girls/prostitutes/anything with a hole. Two out of the 3 are usually quite appealing, but Bangkok just does not inspire me to have a good time. My mate Bear was to join us that evening and we were supposed to go out and celebrate Daniels return to Germany on the 17th. Bear had been delayed and by 22:00 had still not shown up. We were both knackered and after a nice meal on the road adjacent to the Khoe San Road (the major street in Bangkok filled with guest houses, restaurants, bars, clubs, massage parlours etc etc…) before getting some shut eye. That was until an overly enthusiastic Bear started banging on the door just after midnight, keen to get us up and get out on the beers. Daniel and I held firm for once and relented his kind offer, rolled over and went back to sleep, with the sound of a very disgruntled Bear ringing in my ear! Was good to see him again though, I just wanted to wait until the morning to tell him.

We were all there pretty much to kill time, although I needed to visit the Indian Embassy to hopefully get a visa for the following week. I found the right building and after a laborious couple of hours of filling out forms, my passport was left with them and was told I could return in a week to pick it up…too easy! It was then back to the guest house to say goodbye to Daniel, the German, who I had been travelling with for the last 3 weeks after he returned to Vietnam to spend Christmas with me. I had met him 6 months earlier in Fiji and bumped into him at the airport in Singapore in early October. He is a great lad and we became firm friends during our time spent together. We are both very similar characters with similar backgrounds and am sure we will stay in touch for a long time to come. He has already promised me a few beers at the Oktoberfest Beer festival in September 2011...so I may just well take him up on that!

Bear and I wanted to get out of Bangkok asap and booked an overnight bus to Chang Mai, Thailand’s second largest city in the north of the country. Although the second largest, it is considerably smaller than Bangkok, considerably more chilled out and a hell of a lot nicer. It was actually a really relaxing place to stay for a week and I wish, if time had permitted that we could have seen some of the smaller, more remote villages of northern Thailand.

We boarded the bus expecting the seats to recline to a position that made sleep an option - they didn’t - and were glad we were armed with a bottle of whiskey (that had not been intended to get drunk on the journey, but WAS used, purely as medicinal purposes to get us off to sleep. The bottle of ‘True Manhood’, as it was called, also started conversation with a couple of Canadian girls - Jess and Jen - sat a couple of seats back and we ended up sharing the bottle with them and having a chat. Nice girls. The True Manhood certainly worked for me and I managed to get a few hours kip before arriving around 05:00 in Chang Mai. It felt as though all of the bus were taken to one hotel and were given the spiel about the place, how much it was to stay there and the tours on offer. We left as soon as the talk was over. In hindsight that wasn’t so smart as they place we ended up staying in was the same price, less attractive and without a pool.

The Canadian girls were staying there too and we arranged for a tuk tuk driver to take us around the following day, taking us to a snake farm, tiger sanctuary, elephant show and a tour of the town. After the snake show, I realised that these places had little regard for the animals and were there purely to provide entertainment for the paying public. This didn’t sit well with me! I wouldn’t say I was a massive animal activist, but I certainly don’t like to see animals out of their natural environment or being used purely for entertainment purposes. We all opted to forgo the other ‘animal sanctuaries’ and instead went to see some waterfalls, where we were able to swim in one of them. The water was bloody freezing and it took a while to go any deeper than my ankles. I eventually made it under the water and enjoyed the massage given by the tumbling waterfall. As refreshing as it was, it was good to get out to dry off in the sunshine and I spent the best part of the rest of the day trying to coax the little fella and his two mates from out of my stomach, where they had rapidly retreated to on first contact with the water. My God it was cold! We ate some delicious food at a local restaurant and then continued the tour around town.

We again hired motorbikes and went to see a temple perched on top of a hill, that had the weather been less hazy, would have provided a really impressive view over the city. The temple was just like any other I have been to and after a few minutes, the novelty wears off and the attraction loses its appeal. I’m such a good tourist! We then rode further out into the countryside, stopping at a tiny little restaurant for lunch before returning to town and heading out in the other direction towards some hot springs, which were nothing more than a couple of jets of water shooting out of the ground. The place stank of egg (sulphur) and didn’t justify the hours ride it took to get out there. The ride was certainly the best part of the trip - I love just riding around seeing what the countryside has to offer and stopping when and where I like.

Something I had wanted to do in Chang Mai was attend a cooking course, something that can easily be arranged when you are there. Unfortunately we had had a rather large night the previous night and when the alarm went off at 08:15 the last thing I really wanted to do was cook! After moaning at myself for a while, I jumped in the shower and along with Bear and Jen, headed off for the course. We started at a local market and were explained the local produce that we would be using that day, or what is typically used in a lot of Thai cooking. I was pretty interesting! Unfortunately Jen didn’t find it so interesting and had to return to the hotel - the previous night had taken more than its toll and she was in bad shape! We then went back to the kitchen and began to make an array of pre chosen dishes. The teacher demonstrated and we followed. In total I made 6 dishes, all of which were much simpler to make than the finished article suggests and I had enjoyed the course. It wasn’t as in depth or as difficult as I’d hoped it would be but it had been a fun few hours and had gotten to eat everything we had made! I didn’t require much dinner that night!

We hired bikes again and did some more looking around. Jess and Jen were a lot of fun and made for good company. I love meeting people who are just as happy and laid back as I am, which allowed Bear to do a bit more organising, something he enjoys doing. He planned, we followed! It had been a good week and a stark contrast to Bangkok. We took the overnight train from Chang Mai on the 26th and watched the world go by. I picked up my passport complete with Indian visa on the 27th and we then killed 2 days waiting for our flight to Delhi. We said goodbye to Thailand over a large Hawaiian pizza at Pizza Hut as we knew that for the next couple of months we wouldn’t be eating much more than curry, curry and curry. Shame really, I bloody love curry! Anyway, the next blog will be from India, which promises to be something special. Can’t wait!

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