The Thai Experience

This post is to describe my first ever trip abroad – the 1 week official visit to Bangkok. I should start off by saying that how “ignorance is bliss” turned true in this case. I had thought Thailand, and Bangkok in particular would be just like any other Indian city. Since I wasn’t expecting much, what met me was totally unexpected - a very pleasant surprise. The whole experience was really good, to say the least.

While you are reading this travelog, do check out the snaps here

The First Impressions:

We landed at the Suvarnabhoomi International Airport in Bangkok around 5:30 a.m on Sunday (24^th March, 07). The airport is H-U-G-E. So is the terminal building. No wonder, for I learnt later that it is the largest airport in the world! As soon as we exited the terminal building, another surprise awaited me – the infrastructure. Bangkok is a city of Expressways, fly-overs and sky-trains. Our cab (an Isuzu MU-7 SUV) took hardly 20-25 minutes to cover the 30+ km distance from airport to hotel. By this time I had also observed that the cars in Bangkok are far better than our cars. Just imagine - they use Toyota Corollas as taxis (the movie "Zinda" wasnt exaggerating on that count)! The other observation was the skyline. Bangkok has a skyline which any photographer would kill for! Skyscrapers are everywhere.

Sight Seeing:

The very first thing we did in Bangkok after freshening up was to take a boat ride through the “old city”. The ride is almost 2 hours long, and at 1800 Baht (1 Baht = 1.3 Rs. Approx), it did seem very expensive when we later reflected on it. The ride takes you through the Chao Phraya river. This is the “main river”. After a while, you start navigating through the narrow canals. This is where one gets a real taste of the old city. Life along the rivers and canals proceeds at a totally different pace than the rest of the hustling-and-bustling Bangkok city.

During the course of the 2 hour ride, we must have passed hundreds of temples. Most of the temples are located along the river. The temples (Wat is the local name for temples) all look very similar – the Buddhist architecture being the dominant feature.

We also came across a “floating market” in the river. A very sweet girl of about 12 came rowing across to our boat, decked in a wide hat. She had quite a variety of goods to sell. I was impressed by her vending skills. However, we did not find anything interesting enough to buy, and just bought a small hand-made photo album; just for the memories :)

We also had a brief stop at a “crocodile and snake farm”. I did not like this place because of the cruelty to animals for one; and the “snake show” where the snake charmers were doing dangerous stunts with the snakes.

Anyway, we were glad when the boat ride came to an end, mainly because we were beginning to get a headache due to the boat’s very loud engine. The other reason was that the world-famous landmark of Thailand beckoned us – The Grand Palace. It was noon by now, and the sun was mercilessly beating down on us.

Entry fee to the Grand Palace complex is 250 Baht. And it is well justified I would say. The fee also includes entry to a couple of “coin and jeweler museums”. But what really takes your breath away is the Grand Palace itself. The architecture, and all that glitter! No words would do justice to the beauty of this “monument”. So I guess I’l let the pics do the talking ;)

Another major attraction inside the Grand Palace complex is the Emerald Buddha. This is another masterpiece. Unfortunately, photography is not allowed inside the temple. Provision has been made to click snaps of the Emerald Buddha from outside, but the lighting is inadequate for this.

Well, we spent a couple of hours here; and that was it. That’s all the “sight-seeing” that we did. We were too tired to visit the Reclining Buddha and thought we would visit it some other day. The rest of the days were spent in work.

People and Culture:

What one simply cannot help but notice about Thai people is their politeness. The culture is such that even a traffic cop, after signaling for traffic to stop, will bow or salute to the drivers in respect! Almost everyone we came across – from taxi drivers to shop-owners, right up to executives – they were all extremely respectful and respectable.

I personally found Thai people (atleast the residents of Bangkok) to be “pretty modern”. I hardly found any women wearing traditional clothes to work – its either a skirt-and-top or pants-and-shirt combination. The only places where I saw traditional Thai attire were the hotel (where the escorts and the “welcoming ladies” all wear traditional dresses) and aboard the Thai Airways flights (where only the air-hostesses wear traditional dress - the males wear coat-and-tie). Another observation was the apparent "liberation" of women. A large percentage of the workforce seemed to consist of women; this percentage is far greater than any I have seen in India.

It seemed that people in Bangkok are pretty well-to-do. I saw hundreds of what would be ultra-premium cars in India – Mercedes S class, BMW 7 Series, Audi A6 and the like (I even sat in a colleague’s Audi A6 :D). The cost-of-living seems comparable to that in the big cities in India. Taxi and sky-train fares are more or less similar to ours. The other ‘rates’ that we came across were fruits, Pizza, cinema tickets etc, all of which seemed similar to those back here. I also noticed a huge advertisement hoarding, which stated that there are some apartments “ready to occupy”; at 50,000 Baht per Sq. Meter – that means that even real-estate rates are at identical to Indian rates.

Thai people are extremely loyal to His Majesty, the King of Thailand. His Majesty was crowned when he was 19. Last year was the 60^th anniversary of coronation, and this year is His 80^th birthday. Every Monday, everyone wears a yellow shirt with the royal emblem, to show their love for The King. Apparently, His Majesty has done a lot for development of Thailand. He enjoys the unconditional love and support of his countrymen. It is unbelievable – the unity that you see all around you. Almost 90% of the people were wearing yellow shirts/tops on Monday!

One problem that we faced was communication with the locals. People who speak, or even understand, English are very rare to find on the streets of Bangkok. We had a tough time getting our point through, especially in shops and taxis. One reason I could think of for this is that Thailand enjoys the distinction of being more or less the only country in this part of the world that was never colonized. That is a great achievement by any standards!

Getting Around:

Although the infrastructure is good at some places, Bangkok is plagued by traffic jams in other places. The quickest and most hassle-free way to get around is to use the sky-train if it is available in the route you want to visit. The taxi ride to from hotel to office would take us 30 to 45 minutes; the same would be covered in 15 minutes by sky train! Bangkok also has “tuk-tuk” which is a slightly larger version of our auto-rickshaw. But since its not metered, you are left to the mercy of the drivers, and they demand crazy fares (how very similar to the case back home).

Cuisine:

Since both me and my colleague are Vegetarians, we were a bit worried that food might be a problem. That was not the case. We found an Indian restaurant at walking distance from our hotel. That took care of our daily dinner, although it was expensive. For breakfast we’d have noodles, or fruit. Tropical fruit in Thailand are simply delicious. Oranges, pineapple, bananas, golden longan – it was all just too good.

Near our office, we found a Thai Veg restaurant. Although this was not the authentic Thai cuisine, it took care of our lunch needs. This place was reasonable as far as price is concerned. We simply never tried the traditional Thai food – this can be attributed to the awesome food we got at the Indian restaurant.

Things to Do:

During the course of the week, I took a few massages in Bangkok – a foot massage, a traditional Thai massage. These are all very relaxing and soothing experiences. But, the situation in which I visited was kind of far from ideal. Ideally, one would spontaneously decide to take a massage, like when one is very exhausted etc. Instead, I would decide one evening that I should take a massage the next day! Anyways, the total money I spent on massaging was less than 2000 Baht, which is way less than what I would have to spend here in India.

We spent half of our last day (Saturday 31st March) in Bangkok looking for souvenirs. We first went to a mall – Siam Paragon mall. This mall is enormous. But it dint have any souvenir shops worth mention. We caught a 4-D movie (250 Baht for a 25-minute movie). Then we found a few showrooms of some of the most desirable car brands in the world. I was delighted when I found out that we could enter these showrooms and take photographs of the cars. The automobile enthusiast in me took over as for the next 20 minutes, I drooled over the cars. I took snaps of, and standing next to, Bentley Continental, Ferraris, Lamborghinis (Gallardo et al), Jaguar S-Type, Maseratis, Porsche – you name it.

Our last stop in Bangkok before we headed for the airport was MBK shopping mall. Here, we finally found some souvenir shops. But try as I might, I couldn’t find anything that would be decisively Thai. I settled for a wood-and-resin replica of Erawan (the four-faced Buddha), and another handcrafted candle stand. I also purchased the yellow T-shirt with the royal emblem.

The Farewell:

The absolutely amazing airport terminal ensured that our last few hours at Bangkok were also well spent. After checking in the baggage and entering, one finds a large statue of the “Samudra Manthana” scene from Hindu mythology. We clicked a few snaps here and then again started hunting for souvenir shops. We found a few, but again, these did not sell any authentic Thai stuff. We finally bought some chocolates at the duty-free shop. I have only one sore experience – I did not find a phone booth at the waiting area :( - this is a serious flaw in the facilities planning.

All in all, I would definitely like to visit Thailand again. Nice place, very hospitable people, familiar weather conditions. Swatdee-Kha!

Dilli Dally - Part 6

Hmm..another largely boring week.. EXCEPT.. except for the weekend party :-) :-). More about that below.

Most of the week has been spent in work... this week i've even been working late nights, but from my room; thankfully not from office. Much of the week has also been spent in trying to decide if I should go home for diwali.. but i've more or less made up my mind that i will not go.

Now for the juicy part :D

Where's the Party Tonight??

On Saturday evening, a team party had been arranged at an open-air "Garden" kind of venue. Had a great time. Dont be fooled when I say "team party'. This is a huge team..with hundreds of members, and the party was for family too. .so many people had come with their families.

The event actually started early like around 4:30. But we reached around 7. I guess before that most of the events were for kids. That gets us to the topic of kids. They were everywhere. And they were having just as good a time as we adults. There was a magic show arranged for them. There were also the various cartoon characters around. It feels so good to so many kids enjoying :)

Well, when we reached the crowds had not yet started coming in. There were some games going on for ladies - like catwalking competition. This was followed by a paper-dance competition and a limbo dance. The limbo was real good and the guy who won it had an awesome technique.

After these competitions, the band took the stage. I think i'l refrain from being cruel to the band and just say that they were not good (although they deserve more negatives than that). We took to the dance floor but were immediately put off by the kind of songs they were playing. I took some rest and had my fill of eye-candy ;-). But my friend kept dancing and soon, the band was replaced by a DJ. Immediately, he started playing dance numbers and Punjabi songs. This time, I did some serious and furious steps.

That famished me and I decided that i'm gnna have dinner and leave. But just as I had finished dinner, they started playing awesome dance numbers and we just couldnt resist. Added to that, my whole team had gathered on the (rather crowded, I must add) dance floor. They just pulled me into the group. And I showed them that I'm not the quite guy I seem to be :D.

Well by 11 pm I was just dead tired. We just flopped into the car. By the time I reached home I realised that my whole body was aching :(. Of course that was excuse enough to sleep till 11 am this morning :)

Sunday - Laze around Day

Thats exactly what I did whole day today. Caught the cricket match in afternoon. What a shame. Indians almost once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! Anyway, this must be the first Sunday since I came here that I spent indoors. Dint go out anywhere the whole day.

Rounding off the day by writing this blog. Hopefully next week i'l hv more to write home about.

Dilli Dally - Part 5

Hmm.. posting this one after a looong time. This is attributable in major part to my laziness, and in minor part to my home trip last weekend. Actually, there's not been too much to blog about too. So expect this edition to be a short one.

hmm..over past 3 weeks, there hasnt been too much of activity or sight seeing or anything here in Gurgaon. Its only been office during the weekdays and malls during weekends. Movies, ice creams and shopping, especially books. I found this amazing book store called OM Book Store in a mall in Gurgaon. Its not very big but the collection they have is amazing. We spent alomst 2 hours there and were still not satisfied.. planning to return and do more book-hunting.

The only hectic period was when I was home during the month-end. Had a great time. Spent quality time with family. Also spent quality time with friends. Mom pointed out one little trvia: This was the first time I had been away from my brother for such a long period of time. Right since childhood, we have spent most of our time together. Even when we were away from parents (when we were staying in hostel for 2 years), we were still with each other.

Anyway, now that I'm back in Delhi, its back to the same old schedule. The only exception is the extra caution I am forced to excercise because of this dengue menace. Chalo thats it for now. Visit back for more next weekend.

Dilli Dally - Part 4

Hmm.. finally I've had a pretty much eventless week. Except for the 2 movies that i watched, i've done almost nothing (outside of work that is), this entire week. So i thought i'l do some other analysis of Gurgaon :D

Getting around

Surprise Surprise!. There are no autorickshaws in Gurgaon. Nor proper city bus service. So how do you get around? Simple. Take the cycle-rickshaw. These are actually more expensive than autos. Remember, autos in Delhi are CNG, so they're really cheap - only 4Rs/Km. But they hardly use the meter. But thats a different story altogether. They are so slow, you feel you could get down and push the auto.

Back to the cycle-rickshaw, they charge some 25-30 rs for a 10 minute ride. I was at first kind-of scared to climb one. But then got used to it and its not so bad. Whats better; everyone uses it in Gurgaon so no problems :)

Pet Pooja

Well, there's not been too much of eating outside this week either. While looking for my favorite food joints, I noticed that out here, the concept of "local chains" is yet to catch up; and i'm not talkng only about food joints. I mean the big names do have their chain outlets - PVR, Barista, Coffe Day etc. But I dint find any equivalent to Namma Bengalooru's Corner House or Sweet Chariot or G.K.Vale or Shanti Sagar. Not that its a big deal.. just an observation.

Congestion

This guest house is very close to the highway where the expressway construction is taking place. Whats so bad about that? Of course all the dust. I dont even wanna think about it :(

Also, the traffic jams are getting worse. With the deadline for the expressway being extended by 6 months, i dread to think of the consequences. It sometimes takes me more than half an hour for a 3 km drive to one of the offices. Thats because its on the other side of the highway. U have to travel a long way to even get to a U-turn. On the other hand, another office which is 8-10 kms away, but for which I dont have to cross the highway, is only 15 mins drive!

Its Weekend

As I mentioned already, I watched 2 movies this weekend. I watched Lage Raho on Saturday morning and Pyar Ke Side Effects on Sunday evening. You can read the blogs at the above links. And what better way to finish off a weekend than play half an hour of TT and after strugging a bit, hitting he smashes spot-on ;)

Dilli Dally - Part 3

Well well well.. every week seems to be more eventful that the last. Thats good isnt it :).

Well, after last weekend's heavy rain pounding Delhi, the roads have only worsened. Potholes forming everywhere.. and the potholes here are the size of a swimming pool. However, the weather has been a let down. The rains had brought down the temperature but only temporarily. Now its back to the hot days and hot nights.

Zaika:

Well, this week also has thrown up a few interesting eat-outs. One was dinner at a road-side dhaba along the MG Road (uhmm.. Delhi must be the only city in the world where MG road does not mean Mahatma Gandhi road - its Mehrauli-Gurgaon road). The dhaba is called "Sip-n-Byte". The food was ultimate, or maybe we felt that way because we were really hungry. Its reasonably hygienic and reasonably priced too. Nothing like a good dinner after a hard days work.

I had lunch twice at a Haldiram's. Nice place. Self-service. Good food. Today i FINALLY had the legendary "Matka Kulfi". Really loved it.

Then there was this team dinner at a restaurant called "The Fox". This place is extremely expensive. The food was okie-dokie kinda. But what I liked about this place was the atmosphere. There was a band playing for about an hour - a guy and 2 girls. They sang quite a few popular songs - Words, I have a Dream, Hotel California etc. Their performance set me thinking. They seemed really talented, the guy had an amazing voice. But what were they doing singing at a hotel? I personally feel they belong somewhere higher at a stage where they'l be noticed. They also seemed well-to-do. Maybe they just sang for passion, not to make a living. I also heard that most of the bands that play in Delhi hotels are comprised of Philipinos. Anyway the band has left a question mark for me.

Moving on, yesterday at Connaught Place, I wanted to cool out but dint want to go to the usual Coffee Days or Baristas. I found a place called Wimpy's. It was a reasonably good place. Just had finger fries with some dessert.

Weekend Time-Pass:

Yesterday evening, I had my first trip in Delhi Metro. Was quite impressed with it too. Read all about it here.

Today, I shifted to the Gurgaon guest house. I spent last week commuting between Kalkaji and Gurgaon everyday and spending almost 3 hours per day on that. So decided to shift here. The new Guest House is really cool. Its in an apartment complex which has 5-6 buildings of 20 floors each. The complex has a swimming pool and all. In the evening, I saw some kind of mini-program where there was a mike and an Emcee who was organizing games and the children from the colony were having a great time, singing and dancing and playing musical chairs. Only thing is the room is much smaller than the previous guest house.

Soon after shifting into this room, I went to what is called the "Mall Mile" in Gurgaon. There are half-a-dozen malls within 10 minutes walk of each other. I initially thought I'd catch Lage Raho Munnabhai; but as expected its all sold out. So i just thought i'd shop for formal shirts. After 2+ hours of walking in and out of shops and malls, i realised that I just wont get the right size for me. Most shops had a minimum of size 39 and even those who had 38, I wasnt completely convinced its the right size for me. The only way out for me is to have the shirts tailored :(. I was really frustrated, disappointed, disillusioned.... well, thats all that my vocabulary allows me.. but you get the idea. Not even a Choc-a-Vloc at the Coffee Day could cheer me up. I desperately need to put on weight. Else, i'l never be able to wear the John Players and the Park Avenues and the Arrows etc etc.

Looking Forward:

Well, next week promises to be less strenuous since my travel time will be like 30 minutes per day instead of 3 hours. I also hope to catch that movie probably next weekend. Also in the pipeline is a longer Metro ride, more shopping and that ever-elusive Taj trip. Read all about it next weekend. Ciao.