Day Ten: Welcome to Thailand

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The hotel that we stayed in for our first night in Thailand was really nice. At least Matthew and I thought that it was really nice, clean, pretty. Thu and Micah were less impressed, although I have no idea why.

True, the hot water function didn’t seem to work well (water was either frigid or boiling with little in-between and no warning of whether it would be one or the other), but to have a clean and well-appointed room in Southeast Asia seemed a bit of a luxury at this point. Too bad we were just there for a few brief hours before we hopped on the bus for our first full day in Thailand: a trip from Bangkok to Pattaya.

Getting out of the parking lot at the hotel was a bit of a challenge. Our tour was on a double-decker bus, which means that the vehicle was rather tall. And Thailand is, after all, still Southeast Asia, however much it has modernized and Westernized. That means that power and telephone lines are an issue.
One telephone line in particular was causing problems because it hung down low enough that a teenager could jump up and touch it. We waited for a few minutes while a hotel employee came out with a giant pole to lift the line and allow the bus out so we could be on our way. (Side note: when we returned to Bangkok and this hotel we noticed that someone had cut that particular line. We presume it was the only way to get a repairman out in a timely manner.)

The trip between Bangkok and Pattaya was a long one, about 180 kilometers. Thankfully, our guides (one Vietnamese, Thuong, and one Thai, “Jay”) had planned a number of stops for the trip over to make the journey less arduous. Of course, silly tourists that we are, we assumed that the stops would be of cultural significance to Thailand. Instead, it seems that Thailand has embraced the tourist market and has built sites specifically designed for large groups of tour busses.

Our first stop of the day was at Safari World. We drove through the “safari” part, looking at all the various animals outside. The predatory animals, such as lions, tigers, and bears, are kept separately and when driving through that section of the safari one notices the signs that say “Dangerous! Do not leave your vehicle! If your car breaks down, sound the horn and someone will bring help.”

After driving through the safari part of Safari World, we arrived at what is essentially a zoo. There were about five hundred bazillion tour busses, all with large tour groups, here, in addition to what seemed like a never-ending supply of primary school field trip groups. So crowded! Our guides herded us to the “Orangutan Show” without giving us the option of looking around. Let me tell you, I know that the kindergarteners in the audience were fascinated by furry mammals playing drums and boxing, but it was less than thrilling for the adults who wanted to see something interesting. We snuck out just before it ended and waited for the group.

As we waited, I noticed someone petting a marmoset through the bars of the cage. How cute is that? This marmoset loved having his back scratched and his belly rubbed. Needless to say, that’s where I stayed until the guides pushed us to the next thing: lunch. The buffet lunch was okay and plentiful. We ate and then realized that the only other thing the guides had planned for Safari World was taking everyone to the “cowboy show.” We told the guides we’d be elsewhere and would meet back at the exit – we wanted to explore! It was worth it: we saw animals, fish, got ice cream, and discovered that as white people on a Vietnamese tour, we were features – a family wanted us to be in their picture.
Siracha Tiger World was the next stop of the day. Here the exhibits and shows were smaller, but still incredibly crowded. It was clear that we were on the tourist circle. Like before, we watched part of one show – the crocodile show – and then left and walked around on our own. I had no need to see pig racing. After all, we’re in Thailand; shouldn’t we be doing something more culturally significant? Like holding a baby tiger! Yes, they got money out of me because I paid to get a picture holding a baby tiger, feeding a baby tiger, and later, at a different location, a picture with an adult tiger. I do love big kitty cats! They are much more interesting than the Scorpion Queen, a woman who walks around covered in scorpions. That was just creepy.

We arrived at Pattaya, a city on the coast of Thailand that is known for its nightlife and for staying up later than Bangkok, and checked into the Royal Palace Hotel. While we were supposed to have three star hotels for this trip, I have no idea what the Royal Palace was. Perhaps in its heyday in the 1960s it was three stars, but now it was faded, filthy, and a little scary (the bathrooms especially). We (quickly) showered and then decided to head out to see what was around our hotel.

Thailand is obsessed with 7-11, McDonald’s and KFC. They were everywhere – sometimes there were two 7-11s right across the street from each other. Our thought was that it was because 7-11 supplies prophylactics, making the “nightlife” for which Thailand is known a bit safer…theoretically. We found a Starbucks (there are many, although a much smaller number exist than McDonald’s or KFC), so I could buy my Starbucks mug (the one thing that I collect). I was surprised to see three options of mugs – Thailand, Bangkok, and Pattaya. I bought the Thailand mug, we all got coffee, and then we walked upstairs to the outside balcony to watch the busy main street.

Of course the street was busy with one of Thailand’s main industries. That provided quite the show and we sat there for at least an hour, fascinated by what we saw, amazed that it’s just so blatantly out in the open. (And it is very out-in-the-open, judging from the sign in our hotel lobby.)

From Starbucks we went to McDonald’s and had fries that tasted so good. After several days of being sick and unable to eat more than about five bites of food, it was nice to have fries because for whatever reason they did not aggravate my stomach. We walked around a bit more after McDonald’s, but it was late (around 11PM) and we had had a long day, so we eventually made it back to the hotel to sleep for a few hours before another early morning.

Some random notes about Thailand:

The traffic in Bangkok is atrocious. According to the guide, Bangkok has 10 million people, so it’s a huge city. I believe it; as we were landing, the lights of the city stretched as far the eye could see in every direction. There are millions of cars in the city, but public transportation is also available in the form of city busses (free), subway (120 baht -- $4 – for a day pass), and sky train (sadly also 120 baht, even though it would make sense to have it on the same car system as the subway). Like New York, the public transportation can get very crowded, but it’s still faster and easier than driving.

The King is 85, and if memory serves me correctly he is either the longest-ruling monarch or pretty close to it, since he’s been on the throne for many decades. Thailand has a government that is supposed to take care of things, but occasionally the king has to step in and make everyone place nicely. At least everyone looks to him to do that, like last year when there were massive anti-government protests and the government responded with brutal force. Everyone looked to the king. That is not surprising, at least once one realizes the massive cult of personality built behind this leader. There are pictures of the king everywhere, connected to everything. It was a little reminiscent of Orwell’s Big Brother, and considering that the people are only allowed to see the king once a year, on his birthday, I would not be surprised if this was actually all a figment of collective imagination. But I suppose that’s just an American who is not used to royalty speaking.

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