Friday night I make dinner for Sean and Henning. Since I'm cleaning out the fridge before our trip to Thailand, we don't have too much in the way of ingredients. I wind up making three dishes, all variations on the same theme. I take all the vegetables we have in the house, stir-fry them and split them into three portions. One I serve over rice with a soy-ginger-garlic type of sauce. Another goes over rice with a yogurt garlic type of sauce. The third goes over noodles with a peanut-orange sauce. Sybil likes the last one the best.
Sean has just completed a very successful trip to Nepal and Thailand. He seems much calmer and happier since we saw him on the way out. His mind is more peaceful. He shows us some photos from his trip; some of them are from Chiang Mai, where we are soon headed. He will soon be off to San Francisco to look for work.
Henning shows up with wine in a celebratory mood. He has just been offered some contract work and is elated. One of the things I really like about Henning is his optimism. Instead of thinking negatively that this is only contract work instead of permanent, or that the salary is less than what he asked, he is thinking about how great it is for him to be starting a new job. He is generally optimistic and pleasant to be around.
Saturday, we need to clean the house and get ready for our trip. Unfortunately I get bad flu-like symptoms and have to spend time in bed.
I'm still feeling bad on Sunday so we get out the door about 10 minutes late. Then we wait at the wrong bus stop for about 12 minutes. I know this is amazingly stupid for two people who have lived here for 8 months, but Sybil thought this was the right spot and she asked one bus driver who confirmed that it was the right spot.
It's the wrong spot. So now we are 22 minutes behind schedule and Sybil and I never add in much buffer time to our travel plans. We usually wind up catching flights at the last minute but we can see that this one is going to be close.
After waiting at the correct stop for about 8 minutes we flag down a cab. Wait a sec, we don't have enough money to get to the airport and this cabbie refuses to take our NETS card. We later agree that he shouldn't be able to refuse it but we have no time for arguing with cab drivers.
We decide to take the MRT part way and then cab it from there. Just as we cross busy Orchard Road we see the airport bus coming by on the opposite side! Sybil makes a mad dash across the street and bangs on the door but the s.o.b. won't stop for us. She is very upset but I convince her that we have no time for curses. We head down to the MRT station.
We wait an interminable 14 minutes. Since it is a Sunday the trains don't run as frequently as they do on the weekends and we must have just missed one. We have another, shorter wait at another station when we transfer to the east line.
By this time we know we are in serious trouble. Sybil and I both have amazingly long histories of miraculously catching last minute flights. In fact, neither of us has ever missed a flight, despite our lack of planning adequate lead time.
We're not giving up. We fly out of the MRT station and bully our way into a cab ahead of a woman who hailed it at the same time we did. Sybil does an excellent job of nagging the cab driver to go as fast and as efficiently as possible.
The cabbie can't get his car into gear! He has trouble shifting and accelerating around vehicles. After he grinds his gears a few times Sybil offers to help him work the stick shift. We're moving though and still have a prayer.
Then comes the coup de grace. He asks us what terminal we want. We don't know. There are two choices. I say to go to whatever one is closest, which is Terminal Two. Sybil also thinks we should go to Terminal Two because she thought saw a sign for Singapore Airlines there. However, the cabbie thinks we should go to Terminal One. Since we don't know, we trust his judgement.
I rush out of the cab at Terminal One while Sybil waits with the car in case it's wrong. It's wrong. The board says our flight is at 'Last Call' for boarding. We zip over to Terminal Two and frantically sprint to the Singapore Airlines counter, asking for the gate number. The woman there won't tell us. She says we are too late. She says that they close the boarding 30 minutes before the flight, as people have to go through immigration, etc. Sybil does her best to argue with her. She says that we're both marathon runners (well, half true, although I haven't done any running in a while) and that we can make it; just tell us the gate number and let us try!
She won't let us try. She's sticking to the rules. They tend to do that here in Singapore. Sybil is fuming but we're clearly at fault. The Singapore Airlines agent says that maybe we can use our ticket on Thai Airlines. She's just passing us along though because we discover they don't have anything. We talk to another Singapore Airlines ticketing woman and she says the 1:30 and 4:00 flights to BKK are booked solid. We reserve for 6:50pm but wait to pay the S$50 charge because we want to see if we can fly stand by on the earlier flights. Then we talk with a very smooth Singapore Airlines duty manager named Ben Tan. He says he will do his best to get us on the earlier flights but nothing can be promised. 'That guy has had some customer service training,' says a now somewhat pacified Sybil. We're both impressed by his ability to seem helpful without really doing anything.
OK, so now we get to spend the day at Changi Airport! What fun! Actually, if you have to be stuck at an airport this is probably the one to do your time in. They have waterfalls, aquariums, many shops, bookstores, MTV, plenty of pretty good food at not so outrageous prices. Yes, you could do a lot worse. We can recommend the hot and sour soup at the sit-down restaurant upstairs.
At 1:00pm we have a go at the 1:30pm flight. 'Little chance,' says the ticket guy as he pecks at the keyboard. He looks at the screen and then goes and talks to another guy. It seems there are two seats open on this flight. They wait 6 minutes and then let us in. Probably someone else was late and got bumped; it's probably a continuing cycle with Singapore Airlines. At least they're consistent though. Take heed, when they say to arrive early -- they mean it!
However, once you're aboard Singapore Airlines you know you will have a pleasant flight. The service and the food are always good. Even in our economy seats we get an in-flight entertainment screen and remote control. You can watch the flight path, play video games, get travel information, or view movies. We choose the films, even though you don't have quite enough time to see an entire film. Actually, you should have enough time but they stop the movie for all announcements, however banal, and they collect the headsets a bit early. These are small complaints though; overall they are great to fly with.
Bangkok's airport is easy to escape from. We have the option of train or bus. Originally I was going to take the bus but Sean recommended the train. Since it's Sunday I guess that the infamous Bangkok traffic will not be so bad and opt for the bus since it will take us closer to where we want to go. Turns out to be a good guess because traffic is not a problem and we're quickly on our way to a hotel Henning recommended, The New Siam, just northwest of the tourist popular Kao San Road area. New Siam info: 2824554, fax (66) (02) 2817461, Phar-Athit Road.
New Siam is full but they have an overflow house down the street where we get a serviceable room for B200. This will turn out to be our worst value for money during our stay in Thailand, but this is a good price for Bangkok. We have dinner along the riverside and are very happy to be on our way.
Monday, in the middle of breakfast at New Siam, I suddenly get antsy about booking our train tickets to Chiang Mai. I jump up (surprising Sybil with my hurry) and run down the street to a tourist agent. The agent tries continually to call the train station but can't get through. Finally she connects and discovers there are no seats during the time I want, but 4 seats are left on the last train out tomorrow. I reserve 2 seats and the agent says she will have them by 1:00pm the next day. Her commission is only about 20-40 baht, so I thought it was well worth the price to have the tickets on hand instead of going all the way over to the train station to see if anything was left. There are a few agents near Kao San Road who charge much higher commissions, so it does pay to shop around a bit.
After breakfast we take a walk over to the Grand Palace. It's hot and crossing the wide streets in this traffic is hazardous. We wind up on the wrong side of the Palace and are barred by the walls from entry. So instead of walking to the other side, we opt to go into Wat Pho instead. This is the one that has the famous reclining Buddha with the mother-of-pearl inlay on his soles. Overall, it's an outstanding wat, full of statues and 96 stupas. One series of statues demonstrates techniques of Thai massage. Outside of the reclining Buddha building the place is practically deserted.
We meander back along side streets, cutting through markets. At 1:00pm we return to the ticket agent and find a different woman there. I take a look at the walls and see they are different from what I remembered. Oops, wrong place. I walk out and then in again. It is the right place. Workers seem to be demolishing one of the walls so they removed all the decorations. A crazy French guy with a large scar on his chest is mumbling angry nonsense to a perplexed young Thai woman. He doesn't seem to be there for any particular purpose, just some crazy guy who wandered in off the street and she doesn't know how to get rid of him. Eventually he leaves on his own and the woman I dealt with earlier walks in directly after with our tickets.
We take a ferry boat ride over to Chinatown. Now this is the way to get around Bangkok! Cool, wet
The heat is terrible though, so we head over to the station early to sit and replenish our precious bodily fluids. First we split a Red Bull and a White Shark. These are those vitamin drinks that are popular in SE Asia, especially in Thailand where they are primarily drunk by males wanting to increase their virility. Sometimes they are mixed with alcohol, which may negate any virility affects. There are about 4 main brands but the Red Bull is the best. Then we drink some yogurt and a lot of water.
The train ride starts out with some fascinating views of shanty town life along the tracks: children playing soccer and riding bicycles, women watering gardens, people just hanging around. One old man sits on a chair under an overpass with nothing else around him for 100 meters. He just sits and stares blankly at the train passing by. You can see a lot of life from an open train window and I'm mesmerized by the show.
The heat makes sleeping difficult. I drench the sheet with sweat and then place the blanket under me. During the night I can smell the smoke from many fires, probably from slash and burn farming. Eventually, I fall into an uneasy sleep and wake up cold! I can't believe I'm actually feeling cold as it has been too hot for me for such a long time. I gratefully put the blanket over me and watch the dawn emerge as the train winds through misty mountains.
Arriving in Chiang Mai, we walk over to the river and head north to check out the guesthouses there. First one is full. The next one, Mee's, has large double rooms with private bathrooms for only 80B. Unfortunately, it also has the manager staggeringly drunk and drinking Johnny Walker Black whiskey with two shady characters at 7:30am. The place also reeks of Thai marijuana, so we take a pass. Next we check out Cowboy and J'Taime Guesthouses. Both are passable but not great. Finally we come to Phun Phun and decide to go with it. Turns out to work out fine for us; the rooms are large with private bathrooms. |
