Planning and Frustrations in Bangkok

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Planning and Frustrations in Bangkok

A Trip Planning Day

1/24/2007 - Yesterday was a pretty slow day for us. We woke up at around 9am and spent almost the whole day in the house. Our goal for the day was to plan the South East Asian leg of this trip. Since we had arrived a few days earlier it was time to figure out where else we were going.

When it comes to SE Asia Kel and I both know very little which makes planning more than a month of time as a block very difficult. As a person who needs information to feel comfortable, I was feeling pretty worried about what Asia had to offer and how I was going to handle the culture shock.

After a full day of research (mostly done by Kel, we have a deal…I write most of the blogs and she does most of the trip planning) we had both moved from apprehensive to excited. We have planned two full trips from Bangkok through surrounding countries and back again.

The first trip will take us north through Thailand, over to Laos, further east to Vietnam and then south to Cambodia and then back to Bangkok. The second leg will take us south through Thailand, into Malaysia and down to Singapore and finally over to Bali (yes Rebecca R. we will be going where you suggested!) and then back to Bangkok. We return this time to take a week long trip with Jack and Diane hopefully into Myanmar (Burma) and then back to Bangkok. Finally we fly to Australia for some weeks in Australia and New Zealand.

We will be seeing some of the major cities in the area as well as some fantastic jungle and beaches. It really should be something to remember and we are both incredibly excited about all of it.

Care Package Woes

When planning this trip we figured that instead of bringing everything we needed for the whole year, we would have some stuff brought over to us throughout the journey. With my parents visiting us at least once we figured that it would be convenient to have them bring some stuff. On this leg of the trip we were really looking forwards to a package that my parents had sent to Jack and Diane so that we could get some really needed stuff that is tough to get abroad.

My parents shipped the package in early January with everything we had asked for included. It wasn’t a cheap shipment but some of the stuff they were sending would have been difficult to pick up on the way. After paying a huge fee to get it to Bangkok we assumed that it would be in Bangkok when we arrived.

Before we left Dubai, Diane informed us that the Thai government had levied a huge import tax on the box that we had to pay. My parents complained to UPS to no avail so we decided that we would pay the fee and write it off to a learning experience.

When we arrived we were told that the fee was a couple of hundred dollars which was painfully steep. Jack and Diane weren’t sure if we could pay via credit card, so we had to start pulling cash from the ATM. Since it was more than we could pull out in one day it took us two days to get the money.

Then we found out that the money had to be transferred directly from a Thai checking account into the government account. Thus Jack and Diane had to figure out a way to get the money into their account and then transfer the money so that the package would be released.

Finally, after all of the challenges, frustrations and difficulties, Jack and Diane paid the fee for us, took our cash and arranged for the package to be delivered today. At exactly 10:30am this morning we took delivery of the package that we had been waiting for since Sunday.

The package contained some medicine for Kel, cornstarch & Crystal Light mix (for her GSD drinks), a pair of summer Merrell shoes for Kel, and most importantly for me a new Nikon camera. There was other stuff in the box, but of course I couldn’t wait to get my hands on my new toy. I will spare you the details but hopefully over the next few weeks/months you will see an improvement in my pictures.

Vietnam Visa...Very Difficult

After washing clothes and taking delivery of the package we decided that we best start thinking about getting our visa for entry into Vietnam. In Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore one can get a visa when one lands at the airport or crosses the border but Vietnam has to be different. This means that one needs to acquire a visa at a foreign Embassy before one gets to the border.

In order to get the passport we have to take some specific stuff with us to the Embassy. We needed our passports, forms filled out for each of us and two passport pictures each. The passports are easy, we carry them with us wherever we go every day. The forms were easy as well. We printed them from Diane’s computer and filled them out upstairs at her desk. Thus we only needed one more thing…passport pictures.

Once again this turned out to be a fairly easy accomplishment. We walked up the road from Jack and Diane’s neighborhood to a photo shop and had our passport shots taken. Kel was wearing a dress that we bought in Bangkok a few days earlier which didn’t have sleeves. She needed to have her shoulders covered, thus I took off my t-shirt and she wore it for her shots. Strange to stand around half naked in a Thai photo shop. Then I donned the shirt again and had my shots taken. A half hour later we walked out with 24 shots per person (we needed a bunch of shots for each country we will be entering).

Now it was off to the Vietnam Embassy. Faux Pas Number 1: The Vietnam Embassy is open till 4:30pm Monday thru Friday. Thinking this would be an easy journey (we found out later it should have been…but not today) so we didn’t think twice about leaving at 2:00pm. This turned out to be an issue as you will see…

The cab we found didn’t know what we were talking about when we said the Vietnamese Embassy. Thankfully Kel had printed the address. Faux Pas Number 2: We had printed the address in English and rare is the soul in Thailand that can read English. Thus we decided that we would at least get downtown by going to a place that we knew. Thus it was off to Khao San Road where we figured taxi drivers would have less problem understanding us and would be closer to the Embassy. Faux Pas Number 3: Khao San Road, we found out later in the evening, is way across the city from Embassy and it is much easier to get there from where we are staying than from Khao San Road.

The taxi took us on a roundabout route to get to the city to avoid the tolls on the expressway. This scared us a bit as we had no idea where we were and took a much longer period of time to get downtown. Thus we arrived at Khao San Road at about 3pm.

Now we needed to find someone who could get us where we needed to go. We started with Tuk Tuks figuring, erroneously, that the Embassy was close by. The first Tuk Tuk driver bargained a price with us and then obviously had no idea where the location was. We jumped out and ran to the next one who didn’t even bargain with us, he just said “Don’t Know.” On to taxis, the first taxi driver didn’t know where it was either. The second taxi wanted an exorbitant price so we moved on to a third one. By this point Kel was very frustrated and was getting a little bit snarly so she asked me to handle it. Faux Pas Number Four: Go with the guy who knows where your location is even if it is a steep price…at least you get there. The third guy says, “Embassy Vietnam,” in a confident voice. We get in and he takes off. As we move away from Khao San Road he keeps saying, “Vietnam Embassy,” over and over to himself but is getting less confident each time. We hand over our address paper. He stops, jumps out and runs to a restaurant and starts asking people for directions. No one can help him, thus; we move on to the next restaurant. At this point we are laughing because its all very ludicrous. Now he gets back in and we pay him for the short distance we have traveled and jump out.

By this point Kl and I are both on the edge of going nuts and yelling. We are not mad at any individual, and thus are smart enough to only take it out on each other, but are really frustrated with a situation that should be easy.

We now get the bright idea to stop in an internet café and print out the address in Thai. Kel found the address and asked the lady working there about how far it was away. She said an hour due to traffic as it was the other side of town. It was presently 3:35pm and the Embassy closed at 4:30pm, thus we were up the creek without a paddle so to speak.

We found a taxi and headed home. As we cooled off on the 45 minute drive home (shorter this time because we took the expressway) I told Kel that I was frustrated but that I still had a real respect for the Thai people. Throughout this journey of frustration and hysteria, everyone was nice and polite. People really tried to help in any way they could. Think about the fact that the cab driver (the third one) stopped and talked to at least ten people to try and accomplish his task. The people in the internet café were incredibly nice and helpful. The problem wasn’t their problem, it was ours. Imagine driving a taxi in the states and having a couple hand you a paper written in Thai trying to get you to go some place. I would have shooed these hypothetical people out of my car in a second but this guy actually tried. Pretty nice of him in my book. Kel mentioned that these sorts of things don’t happen if you take a tour of some place with a tour agency to which I responded, “you also don’t get to have adventures like this either!” HAHAHA!

Turns out that we could have gotten to the Embassy easy if we had gotten the address in Thai and that all the Embassies are in the same place. Tomorrow we will be more successful!

Love the Thai Food

Tonight Jack and Diane took us out to one of their favorite restaurants which is across the street from the neighborhood. We had a smorgasbord of Thai food: Shrimp with Noodles, garlic morning glory (a green similar to spinach), blue mussels, curried crab, fried soft shell crabs and calamari. Along with a few glasses of beer, the whole meal came to 1200 baht, $35. Wildly cheap considering the quantity and quality of the food.

Well that’s enough from here for now. A heads up to all of our readers. We will probably be in Bangkok for at least a few more nights as we wait for our Vietnamese Visa but after we head out it may be less common that we post our blogs. Given the fact that some of the towns we will be staying in are less developed we assume that internet may be harder to get so don’t worry if it takes a while to hear from us.

Hope you are all well. We will write again in a few days!

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Comments

[Bruce / Daddy]

Mike and Kel, It should be very interesting to be a part of all that is ahead on this next leg of your journey. I've been impressed with the fact that even though this has been 'run, jump, and play time' for you guys, you've been diligent in the use of your time and have planned wisely.