FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE DREADFUL

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September 11, 2010.

A WAT, SUMMER PALACE AND A TRAIN

Our final day of the cruise started early, Army woke us up at 6:30 as breakfast was at 8 and our tour began at 9. We showered and head up to the deck. Breakfast was again, fruit and pastries, actually a perfect start to the day. The of course would have cooked anything we wanted but we were satisfied with the fruit.

At 9 our guide, Q, met as at the boat and we took a quick tour of Wat Niwet Thammaprawat. I have lost count of how many Wats we have now seen. The interesting thing about this Wat is not the Buddha image; but that the temple is built in gothic style. Yes it looks like a small cathedral that you would expect to see in Europe not Thailand.

After the Wat we took a short van ride to Bang Pa In the summer palace of the king. Bang Pa is the area of the palace and In is the name of the concubine of a former king, who was to become the mother of the king who built the palace. It is a compound, with a canal built from the river to make assess by the king easier. The grounds have canals through out and there are 28 separate structures in various styles. The main palace is of Italian design and only the King and Queen and men are allowed to stay there. Another structure that is Chinese in style where the number one wife and other women stay. There are many more buildings plus a tower, which was built solely for the view no other purpose such as guard tower etc. We spent about an hour walking the grounds. The grounds are large enough that they have golf carts available for rent for those who need them. While the palace is grand, it is not on the scale of Versailles, not even close.

After that we were driven about 30 minutes to the Bang Sai Royal Folk Arts & Crafts Center. This is a center that brings all of the arts and crafts from around Thailand in to one central place. There are many things to see, we only visited the Thai style houses, mainly to see what a Kitchen looked like. We were scheduled to spend another 30 minutes there, but my left heel was in to much pain, and the prices of the arts & crafts was really too high. This is not on my recommend list. You can see the same things in any market in Bangkok or what ever city you may be visiting, and the prices will be lower and haggling can get them down even further.

We then returned to the boat for a return trip home. The rain the night before had caused the river to rise so they were concerned that they would not be able to make it under some bridges. As I write this, we have just passed under the lowest bridge, so we should be fine the rest of the way. If not, they will pick us up in the van and drive us the rest of the way.

A lesson in Tipping

The guide books all say that tipping is not in the Thai tradition or culture. And for the most part they are correct. However, almost all restaurants (that are not street food) include a 10%!s(MISSING)ervice charge as to all major tourist services such as this cruise or the dinner cruise from a few nights ago. Beyond that it is typically adequate to just leave the change from your bill as a courtesy to the server. We learned today, that in the service industry, food, hotels, etc. tipping is expected and in fact seems to be excessive. For example, during our cruise we had a driver, hired by the guide, for some of the sight seeing. Since we really didn’t know what to tip, we gave him 40 bahts each day. Keep in mind the average wage is 180 bahts a day, so we thought that was adequate. When it came time to leave Q and return to the boat, we just asked her about tipping and what was expected. She informed us that the typical expected tip for the driver was 100 bahts per day per person. In other words we would tip him over more than his daily wage. That does not seem right to us, and we are comfortable with the 40 bahts that we gave him. When it comes to the guide herself, she did not really say what the tip should be, just left it to us with the common Thai phrase, never mind no worries. She did tell us that she was paid 1400 bahts per day, regardless if it was a half day or full day. Based upon this information we tipped 500 bahts. We really have no idea if we insulted her or what, but she even admitted that the Thai’s would most likely not tip at all as it is not in their culture. I say when in Thailand do as the Thais.

We returned to the boat and set sail for Bangkok. Lunch was served an hour later. We packed in the meantime. Lunch was truly light, started with spicy prawn glass noodle salad, followed by flat crab omelets and sweet and sour vegetables with deep fried sea bass. Dessert was yes fruit.

Lunch is now over and I am writing this in the present tense. We have made it under most bridges and it appears we will be fine the rest of the way back to the Marriott pier. There is one final meal and that is tea time. The only hurdle to get over now is what to tip the crew. Keep in mind 10% has already been added when I booked and paid for the cruise several months ago. We are thinking 1000 bahts is appropriate, do you agree?

After we arrive back to Bangkok, it is one more fitting at the tailor and then to the train station for our overnight trip to Phuket.

The Overnight Train

So we arrived at the Marriot pier and disembarked. I needed to pay my storage bill back home so we asked if there was a wire less connection. Of course there was, and we went to the lobby. I was unable to connect so they moved us to the business center. It then took three people to figure out how to get me connected. We finally did and I took care of the business I needed to. Thank God or Buddha for the internet. I don’t think it would be possible for me to take a long vacation with out it. I have already done some work for clients while I have been here, since I can connect to my computer back home via technology I will never understand.

From the Marriott, they put us in a very nice Mercedes Benz and drove us across town to our tailor for the final fitting. We first made a brief stop at the ATM, the very first one we have used, so I could get some more bahts, we were almost out of our initial supply. I was a little nervous that at 5:15 pm on a Saturday that we would make it to the tailor and the train station before our train left. The driver assured me that it was Saturday and there was no traffic. He was right, we got to the tailor in plenty of time for the quick fitting and the to the train station. The driver said that if it would have been a weekday, then the trip from the Marriott to the Tailor would take 2 hours, it took 20 today.

I quickly tried on the pants and they fit fine. We made arrangements to pick them up on our way home a week from today. They then drove us to the train station which was very close. Oh the train adventure was about to begin.

We arrived at the station and walked in. We were immediately approached by a woman who look official and asked where we were going. Now, based upon our previous experience with helpful people I was somewhat skeptical. However, she looked at our ticket and said track 4 be there at 7. She didn’t say it was closed, rerouted or anything, just the simple truth. We had about 45 minutes to kill before boarding the train, so we went outside so Jerry could get some smoking in.

The train station was packed with students and backpackers all heading somewhere there were about 8 trains leaving in the next hour all to some place in Thailand. We were headed south on Express train 85 overnight to Suri Thani. There we would transfer to a bus.

We found out car easily and out room. I hard purchased first class sleeping accommodations before we left home, if for no other reason to assure we got air conditioning. They were more expensive but I was not sure of the language. We now know that you can save money by purchasing them here, and the typically speak English or have someone near by who does.

About 10 minutes after we board a woman comes by to take our dinner and breakfast order, we comply and point to what we want. She also offers beer, well not really offers but just say three beers (for each of us) I don’t really drink beer, but it didn’t seem like we had the choice. The food came, not horrible but not great. The beer cam in a bucket of ice. Then the bill came; now the food is actually included in the ticket, but not the beer. HUGE TIP do not buy beer on the train. $9 a bottle and I don’t even like beer, but trust me I will drink it if it kills me. To top it off, the woman then stands there and says tip tip tip, like we are going to tip after paying $9 a beer. Jerry told her the tip was the two beers we didn’t drink.

While I have some time on this train, let me tell you about train travel in Thailand. If you have traveled in Europe, you know that by and far the train service is excellent and the trains pretty comfortable. In Thailand, they run on time, but they are very old trains, no hi speed yet (they are working on it) The bathrooms, well lets say that is an experience you only want to have once. Good news for smokers, unlike European trains, you can smoke between the cars, that is where Jerry is right now. There is also an electric plug or I would not be typing this. In any event the train is still a good deal, its gets you to where you want to go for less than a plane and saves you on one night of a hotel. This train is more comfortable than the overnight train from Rome to Palermo and is private, just the two of us, no insane Sicilian to argue with us in Italian and air conditioned, which will make sleeping much easier. So tomorrow we wake up in Surat Thani and the Island portion of vacation will soon begin.

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