Random memories from Asia...

Some more random small memories from travelling in Asia which I probably didn't mention first time around...

• The 50-something American guy in Amman talking proudly about how much his diet has improved since his heart attack - talking while chuffing away on a cigarette at least every 10 minutes
• Asking at reception how much the Amman hostel charged for wi-fi access, hearing the American guy behind me complain that he'd been charged twice as much, and the Jordanian receptionist shoot straight back that because he was American he must be able to afford it!
• My Couchsurfing hosts in Tel Aviv being amazed that Queer As Folk wasn't originally American
• Locals in Petra shouting offers of "air conditioned taxis"... meaning camel rides
• The barber in Chiang Mai who after cutting my hair (in a domestic garage) insisted that I take a swig of mouthwash
• Being beckoned over then groped by a 'woman' on the street at night in Kuala Lumpur who I realised only too late was a ladyboy and a prostitute

Health and safety greatest hits:

• A minibus driver in Jordan smoking a cigarette while operating a petrol pump on the forecourt
• Pedestrians in India ducking under the level crossing gates which had just come down
• A family of six, including one small child, riding on one ordinary-looking motorbike in India

The delights of budget backpacking:

• The little old lady on the hostel reception in Hong Kong who spoke virtually no English but seemed to think if she talked long and loudly enough in Cantonese I'd understand... And finally generating enough understanding with her by pointing
• The hostel in Chiang Mai with signs in toilets instructing you not to flush toilet paper down the bowl because the pipes are too narrow, but to put it in bins instead - bins which were tiny and usually overflowing. You imagine the rest...
• The hostel in baking, steaming Singapore which told me flatly they won't switch on air conditioning in dorms before 10pm, and that if I wanted it during the day I'd have to pay for a single room
• ...and then that if I left my big rucksack at the hostel on the morning of my departure without being there at exactly 10am to tell them, they might throw it away
• The hostel in Tokyo that charges for use of the showers

...All the sorts of things which make the trip! :-)

A couple of things about Thai people...

A couple of brief points I forgot to write last time about Thai people:

• I had a couple of minor slips and bumps witnessed by local people... who laughed at me! Thankfully I'd already read in the Traveller's Bible, sorry I mean Lonely Planet, that this is not in any way mocking or uncharitable behaviour. In Thai society the concept of "saving face" is extremely important; when you embarrass yourself in public like this, making levity out of it, laughing 'with you', is considered the best way to help you save face.

• Thai people consider pale skin more attractive than tanned skin, and they find it very odd that Westerners believe the opposite. For this reason (i.e. forget any moral/religious considerations), they will tend to stay more covered up than we would expect in sunny weather. I was also astounded to see in a local Superdrug-style store that the vast majority of the men's skincare products, including the Nivea and Loreal, supposedly had a 'lightening' or 'whitening' effect...

Elephant kisses and monk chat in Northern Thailand

Many people head from Bangkok straight to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city and travellers' magnet, directly by plane or overnight sleeper service, but I decided to break the journey with an overnight stop and morning in Sukhothai. The attraction there is the historical park encompassing the ruins of the capital of the Sukhothai kingdom in the 13th and 14th Centuries. There is a large number of temples there, all ruined to a greater or lesser extent, but assorted impressive tall spires remain in tact. Covering quite a wide area (you need to hire a bike and give yourself a couple of days to cover the entire park, but you can do the centre in a couple of hours) and quite tranquil thanks to the space and relative lack of visitors, it's a stop-over I'd recommend if you have time. 

 Sukhothai

Everybody, but everybody, who's been to Thailand told me that Chiang Mai is amazing. I figure there are three reasons for this:

• the assortment of temples (which are beautiful, but in truth there's nothing much to add to my comments from Bangkok); 
• the amazing range of things to do outside the city - in particular the area seems to be one of the best backpacker playgrounds on the planet, with almost every outdoorsy activity you could possibly think of available (e.g. whitewater rafting, skylining, trekking, rock climbing etc etc);
• the shopping - all sorts of high-quality artisan shops and a remarkable weekend night market.

At the risk of being slightly heretical, I couldn't really work out what there was about the city itself other than the temples and the shopping which was very appealing, but maybe all the hype I'd heard had just lifted my expectations a little too high. Also, counter-intuitively there seemed to be more hassle here, primarily from tuk-tuk drivers, than in Bangkok - perhaps because tourists are a much higher proportion of the population on the streets.


While I'm not the outdoorsy adventurer type to take up all the exciting activities I listed, I did have a lot of fun on several ventures out of town:

• to a hill tribe village, albeit not a terribly 'untouched' or 'authentic' one, where I bought some nice hand-crafted knick-knacks, got a photo taken with 'locals' in traditional dress (inverted commas because I'm unsure of the authenticity!), and admired some spectacular rain-forested hill scenery; and then to the famous and rather beautiful Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple up in the mountains (after climbing some 306 steps), also offering some impressive views which countered the risk of becoming a little templed-out! 

 

At the hill tribe village - not necessarily 100% authentic, but pretty cool nonetheless

• to Chiang Mai Night Safari - the concept of "night safari" appears quite common in this part of the world. In this case at least this is basically a zoo, but a drive-through one rather than a walk-through one, which (as far as I could tell) means the animals are kept in much less confined and more open/natural conditions. The collection of animals I saw was exceptional... highlights included [deep breath] lions, cheetahs, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, elephants, zebras, hyenas, antelopes, buffalo, wolves, bears, tigers (including Bengal whites) and pumas!
• to the Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary set in national parkland for over 30 elephants (aged from 1 to over 80) who have been rescued from assorted forms of mistreatment. Just in case you were in any doubt: elephants are amazing and utterly adorable! A day trip there offers the opportunity to feed elephants, help to bathe them in the river, get up close and personal with babies, and, er, get kissed by one! The amount they eat is incredible - the size of the basket that each one of them gets through in just one mealtime is enormous, and they put it away at an incredible speed. And other than the youngsters, they eat their bananas unpeeled - yum! It is possible to volunteer at the park for a longer period and get to do much more with them, something I kind of wish I'd had time to do as the day was a real highlight of my trip.

 

Being kissed by an elephant!

The day at the elephant park also included being made well aware of why its existence is necessary. A century ago there were 100,000 elephants in Thailand; now it is no more than 5,000. This is due to habitat loss for wild elephants as rampant deforestation has occurred; and when this practice was finally banned, many working elephants used in logging became redundant and were abandoned with no means of survival. Among the population that survives, there are a number of elephants made to walk the streets of Thai cities (including Bangkok and Chiang Mai) to beg for money from tourists; this is quite incredibly cruel to the elephants because it is so far away from their natural habitat and lifestyle. In particular, the traffic noise and vibrations put tremendous stress on them, since their feet detect every slight tremour - necessary for their self-defence in the wild, but unbearable in the concrete jungle. We saw footage of one street elephant rocking back and forth as a stress response. They are also often not fed enough by their owners.

One of the female elephants at the park is profoundly blind in both eyes. She used to be a working elephant; she was carrying a baby which she miscarried. Grieving for her loss, she started refusing to work; her owners therefore fired slingshots from point-blank range into first one eye then the other to try to cajole her into getting back to work. And having blinded her, they continued to force her to work on the grounds she was still young and otherwise fit. The sanctuary managed to buy her from the owners, as it has had to do with many of its other elephants. 


It is apparently very little known, even in Thailand, how elephants are 'tamed' and 'domesticated' in order to be put to work in the first place. Well, at a young age, while still naturally totally dependent on its mother, the elephant is driven into a tiny pen where it is locked up for at least three days, up to a week if 'necessary'. It then has ropes tied round it, and a load placed on its back for the first time, and is pulled as if being led by a human owner. When of course the elephant refuses, or tries to shake off its load, it is constantly beaten day and night by a large team of villagers, poked with sticks with sharp nails on the end (resulting in horrid wounds), and deprived of food and sleep. At great length, after fighting and roaring defiantly against the brutality and enslavement, its spirit is finally totally broken; it submits to being pulled around without resisting and 'learns' that it has no option but to become submissive to human enslavement. This is considered entirely normal in outlying Thai villages and public concern is minimal. The footage was shocking and heartbreaking to watch.


Also in Chiang Mai I took up the opportunity to have a chat with a Buddhist monk - offered by a number of temples to spread understanding while allowing monks to practise their English. As well as discussing the worrying political situation with him, I learned that he gets up at 4am every day for chanting and only ever gets five hours sleep, but doesn't feel tired (I guess while the typical Westerner spend much more time in bed than this, the clutter in their mind compared to a Buddhist monk means that the quality of sleep is much lower...). If I understood correctly, they have to go knocking door-to-door every day to essentially beg for food, but this is an accepted practice in Thailand that ordinary people feel obliged to respond to. Having been a monk since the age of 10, he expects to need to give up soon to care for his elderly parents (no welfare state in Thailand to do any of it for you), and his only apparent regret about being a monk is that he doesn't have any money to travel the world! 


And to end this post on a thoroughly low tone, is it just me or is the low-slung way Buddhist monks wear their orange robes, leaving bare one shoulder and a fair amount of chest, strangely sexy? Ahem...

Temples, tat and terrorism in Thailand

I've been decidedly fortunate that Northern Europe hasn't featured in my region-hopping of late. En route by plane from Hong Kong to Bangkok, I met two separate travellers who were completely screwed by the aftermath of the Icelandic volcano. One needed to get from Hong Kong home to Germany, but was now flying via Sydney (Sydney!) in the hope that a flight to Europe would be available a little sooner from there; while the second had had her flight from Bangkok to Switzerland that day, 20th April, cancelled and been advised that the earliest flight she could be rebooked onto would be on... 15th May. Her German friend had called the German Embassy and been told matter-of-factly that they could offer no assistance whatsoever.

Anyway, Bangkok seems to be a place with a remarkably poor reputation. The advice I got from fellow tour group members in India was that I'd pretty much just want to pass through it, while when I told the traveller who was stranded in Bangkok that I planned to stay at least three nights but maybe more, she looked at me as if I was a little mad and said, "In Bangkok?" disbelievingly. Even the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand, astoundingly, gives the distinct impression of not really being very fond of it, with various snide comments. But actually, I kind of liked it and I ended up staying four nights; if it hadn't been for the security situation (more on that later) it might have been more.


I figure a lot of the negative reputation stems from the notoriously steamy climate. It's hot and very humid all year round; while I was there at one of the less desirable times of year climactically I believe the seasonal differences are relatively minor. It does make you physically tired for sure after walking around for a while. However, two things you have to say in its defence: (a) they do air conditioning exceptionally well just about everywhere (from branches of 7-Eleven upwards), so you pretty much just have to step inside to get some relief, and (b) just when the humidity was starting to become a really serious problem while I was there, there was a short thunderstorm which freshened things up substantially. And it was a lot more bearable than northern India in April, when it doesn't rain at all.


What I really hadn't realised is that large parts of Bangkok feel like a distinctly modern, Westernised metropolis; in addition to all the air conditioning, you have lots of gleaming towers, shiny shopping malls, and some very 21st Century public transport in the form of the Metro and Skytrain (albeit they're limited in geographical reach) and abundant cheap and relatively trustworthy modern taxis. This supplements the traditional but useful and pleasant boat services up and down the river. Road traffic also seems calm and sensible if heavy. Oh, and fans of 7-Eleven take note - they're absolutely everywhere. :)

However, there are a few basics that the authorities don't ever seem to have thought about. Perversely, despite the apparent safeness of the way people drive, I felt more endangered crossing the roads in Bangkok than anywhere else I've been. Why? Because main roads commonly have five lanes in each direction and - unbelievably - crossing lights for pedestrians are virtually never provided. So you just have to take your life in your hands whenever you guess that the traffic flow is at its most favourable. At major intersections it's not fun at all. I also didn't see a public litter bin anywhere in the city, nor anything like a bench. These are hardly insoluble problems, so maybe by the time anyone reading this plans a visit some of them might have been resolved (assuming there continues to be any functioning government in Thailand that is of course).

The main conventional sightseeing attraction in the city is its Buddhist temples, the best known of which is Wat Phra Kaew, also the site of a major royal palace. I'm happy to say that I've found Buddhist temples probably the most beautiful religious buildings I've seen, as well as the most peaceful and calming. (I will declare a bias there; while I'm an atheist I have practised a little bit of Buddhist meditation as a relaxation aid, and was very happy to have the opportunity to meditate just a little bit in the temples I visited; I'm also pretty sympathetic to Buddhism as a philosophy if not as a faith as such.) The prominent colour, amongst variegated precious stones, is usually gold. I am usually someone who finds gold vulgar in the extreme, and I would sooner die than wear it or allow it to furnish my home - but somehow in the temples that I visited it usually just seems to work and create an overall effect which is remarkably tasteful, even beautiful, as well as striking. Wat Phra Kaew itself, the most sacred site in Thailand, was probably a little overwhelming - there are an extraordinary number of monuments in a really very small space - at the same time as it was breathtaking. I was therefore pleased to also explore the much lesser visited (and much cheaper to get into) Wat Pho with its enormous and rather extraordinary Reclining Buddha, some 46m long and 15m high.

 Wat Phra Kaew

The other real must-see, if you are in the city at the weekend, is Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the biggest markets in the world. It's definitely one of the best markets I've seen anywhere, selling just about everything you can possibly think of (from designer T-shirts and quality home decorations through to fish in plastic bags and er, used trainers). It's popular with tourists but not touristy, and also popular with locals. It was great to just wander round; I could only really stay a couple of hours but I'm certain I would have stayed amused all day if I'd had it to spare.


There is some hassle around the city from people who want to sell you things, but thankfully it doesn't seem to be in the (seemingly slightly reserved) Thai temperament to persist once you've said no once. What has stuck in my head is the call of "Thai massaaaaaaage!" whenever you walked past most of the many massage parlours, which often carried a rather comical (to a native English speaker) lingering high-pitched stress on the second 'a' of "massage" - no doubt because Thai is a tonal language whereas English is not. There are several well known cons tried on tourists too, but provided you're forewarned about them (just read the section in Lonely Planet) they seem easy enough to spot and avoid.

It almost goes without saying that there is plenty of sleaze as well. This is most notably in the form of go-go bars, as I understand it, basically a slightly sanitised access point for escorts and prostitutes, female or male (around the gay scene there were an entertaining number of balding, fat 50-something men parading young, lithe Thai boys). In addition to that on the infamous Khaosan Road amongst other places there are also plentiful stalls selling obviously pirated CDs and DVDs, and fake driving licences, degree certificates and so on (some of the ones on display were laughably poor quality fakes), as well as bars advertising their "very strong" cocktails (the tourist equivalent of a plastic bottle of cider from Asda?). Even amongst all of that though you can still find the odd tasteful chill-out bar, and great street food such as fresh mango with sticky rice and coconut milk which may, without exaggeration, have been the best dessert I've ever had. (Possibly the highlight of a very happy culinary time in Thailand - lots of lovely food, all very cheap too... And thankfully not a hint of a stomach upset either!)

I couldn't spend time sweltering in Bangkok without submitting myself to one of the aforementioned Thai massages. It was, er... a memorable experience. During a one-hour session which cost about £7, a typically small Thai lady yanked and shoved me in deeply unnatural directions, and gouged into areas of skin and muscle I barely knew existed, kneading them like dough. It was really pretty painful at times, and I was in not inconsiderable fear that some vital part of my body was going to be broken, ripped or dislocated. However, at the end of the session, I did feel remarkably fresh and relaxed! But to be honest, I think I'm going to stick to Swedish-style massages once back home! It could have been worse - I didn't have the appetite for the widely available "fish massage", which involves sticking your foot in a fishtank for the fish to literally eat the dead skin off between your toes and on the soles of your feet...


I've mentioned the gay scene which is reasonably extensive and impressive, albeit not quite as large or in-your-face as I'd imagined it could be. It's difficult not to observe the difference between this country whose principal religion, Buddhism, doesn't preach on sexual morals much beyond (if I've learnt correctly) 'treat people with respect', and other Asian countries where much more socially conservative religions hold sway. Bangkok's leading gay club DJ Station, set over three levels, mixes a mostly Western soundtrack with a distinctly Thai (and maybe slightly shy by Western standards) nightly drag show - quite good fun, and I can personally vouch for the fact that there are at least some genuine Thai guppies (gay professionals) who are neither go-go boys nor 'moneyboys'! 


It may not have escaped your attention, dear reader, that there has been some political instability in Bangkok of late. I'd had fairly limited time to research and fix where in the city I was going to stay, and I consequently managed unwittingly to pick the edge of the district, Silom, where the trouble is centred. Furthermore, the vast majority of Bangkok's gay scene is located pretty much just round the corner from Lumphini Park where the 'red shirts' were camped out. However, certainly for the majority of my stay, the atmosphere seemed really pretty normal, and the advice from the FCO (British Foreign & Commonwealth Office) at the time was just to avoid the immediate area around Lumphini Park which I tried to do. Yes, there was the small matter of large numbers of armed soldiers and riot police all around, and the odd barbed wire barricade to navigate round. I also saw a small counter-demonstration, clearly being encouraged by soldiers, of people waving yellow - not the greatest of signs for future stability. However, people were going about their business and trading of every kind (to locals and tourists) appeared to be continuing normally. Normality is a relative concept after all (something that travelling around Asia definitely heightens your awareness of), and there's been regular unrest in Bangkok to a greater or lesser extent for some years now, so it would be more surprising really if people weren't getting on with their lives.

 Red shirt demonstrations at a major traffic intersection, which closed down two major shopping malls

However, a series of bombings occurred during my stay - grenades launched from Lumphini Park, some of which landed substantially further away on Th Silom than I (or I think the FCO judging by its advice at that point) would have anticipated. If I'd been out on the gay scene that night, which I wasn't, I would have been walking through the area where it happened. 

Because I was in fact nowhere near the area at the time, I didn't actually realise till the following afternoon exactly what had happened. The morning after I'd blithely hopped into a taxi and asked to be taken to Sala Daeng, the nearest pronouncable landmark to where I wanted to go next, but (I didn't yet realise) the exact focal point of the bombings - I didn't really understand why my taxi driver who spoke minimal English was getting quite so agitated in response! Oops. Suffice to say where I eventually got turfed out was a little distance away! Train stations in the area were closed in the aftermath as were most of the gay venues in the affected area the following night. (In hindsight I possibly shouldn't have gone looking, but it's harder than you might realise to assess these things when you're caught up in the middle of them... and I did have a good night at one of the few places that was open.) Also the FCO promptly changed its advice to warn against all non-essential travel to Bangkok. I took all of those as pretty good signs I was right to plan to leave the following morning. It did take me several slightly panic-stricken seconds to realise (from the comfort of my hostel lobby) that the start of a thunderstorm that morning wasn't something much worse!

A fellow traveller I met in Chiang Mai who had been in Thailand for seven months predicted that within a year the country will be in civil war. The Bangkok-born-and-bred friend I made said that it was freaking him out and making him wish he lived somewhere else. I've no idea how much credence should be given to either of those comments - let's hope againt hope they're both worrying needlessly - but just maybe from a travelling point of view (for however little that should actually matter in the grand scheme of things) I got to see this intriguing city just in time.