Sawadee Kha (Hello) from Thailand!

At an overlook on Phi Phi island

Well here we are, having been in Thailand for ten days now.  Traveling from Auckland, New Zealand to Phuket, Thailand, took some time, starting with a 6am flight to Melbourne.  After a two hour layover there, we were on the plane heading for Phuket ( an eight hour flight).  We flew with V Australia, an arm of Virgin Airlines, and I would highly recommend them for any long flight.  Each seat had its own little touch screen that you could use to select various new release movies, TV shows, music videos, etc, for free for the duration of the flight.  I watched three movies and wished I had time for more (it was a good chance to catch up on all the new releases we've missed)!  During the flight we were fed a hot lunch with complimentary wine, as well as a sandwich snack a few hours later (and the food was fairly decent).  All of this helped to make the time go by - before we knew it, we had arrived in Phuket!  It was 5pm there, which was a nice time to arrive, not being too late.  Customs was a breeze, we collected our bags, and worked up the courage to exit the airport into the gauntlet of taxi drivers.  We survived the onslaught, and before I knew it we were on our way to our hotel in Phuket City. 

First impressions so far….

Poor elephant!

ROOM RATES

Room rates make no sense.  This one has been interesting to learn.  We paid 1200 baht ($40 USD) for our first night’s stay in Phuket City, booked through a gal at the Phuket airport, who received part of the 1200 baht as commission for booking it (very common here).  When we asked at the hotel how much it would be to stay a second night, we figured it would be cheaper since we took out the middleman and no commission was being paid.  Wrong!  The rate for the second night would be 1500 baht.  At the time I remember thinking, this is crazy and makes no sense (like a lot of things here!).  We decided to check out of the hotel instead and went to find a guesthouse (basically a small hotel) at the beach.  We looked at a few guesthouses, then went back to our favorite and said we’d take the room she showed us for the price she quoted, 1200 baht.  That’s all great, except the room is now suddenly 1400 baht!  She told us it was her last room (all the others had suddenly and mysteriously been booked while we were looking at other guesthouses!).  Daron got her back down to 1200 baht, by booking for two days.  In the morning we noticed that there were at least seven empty rooms in the hotel (they leave the doors open, all made up, if they’re not booked).  These two events bothered me for a while – I felt we had been lied to, but now I realize it is how things work around here.  Basically anything for a buck (or baht!). 

Cheap beer and a beach...a little slice of heaven on Phi Phi!

FOOD

The food has been amazing!  We haven’t had a bad meal yet.  We’ve been thoroughly enjoying the food after living on peanut butter and jelly in Australia and New Zealand.  The local food is cheap and delicious.  Thankfully in the tourist areas many of the menus are in English and a lot of them also have pictures so you can see how the dish looks, which is helpful.  My favorite is the little street stands that sell what they call “banana pancakes.”  It’s not a pancake at all (and not traditional Thai food either)– it’s basically a crepe they will make you with the fillings of your choice.  My favorite is banana nutella.  YUM!  They only cost about 1.50 USD – I had one every day for my first three days here.

SMELLS

There are three distinct smells in the air:  incense (love it), cooking spices (mostly love it), and rotting rubbish/rancid water (yuck!).  Whenever we’re walking around, one or two or all three smells are wafting through the air.

Maya Bay

THE PEOPLE

The Thai people are mostly very sweet and nice – they smile all the time and are quick to laugh.  They are very good natured overall.  In the tourist areas, most speak good English, which has been helpful.  The language barrier makes it tough to have any meaningful interactions with them though.  That and the fact that they see us as walking ATM machines (sometimes I swear it must be printed on my forehead!).  We are constantly approached by people wanting to sell us something:  a taxi ride, a tuk tuk ride, a tour, a tshirt, a meal, a tailored suit, a massage, you name it!  I can appreciate that they are trying to make a living, no problem there – it’s just a little much sometimes. 

SCAMS

Our guidebook warned us about the various scams here – they are hard to avoid.  In our first hour here, our taxi driver from the airport stopped suddenly while taking us to our hotel and went inside a building, leaving us in the car. Right away a nicely dressed woman came out and opened up the car door to try to sell us a room, then a tour, then tickets to a show.  Lots of places pay commission to get the tourists to their place and everyone seems to be a part of it.  The constant bombardment of sales is annoying.  We hired a tuk tuk driver to take us on a tour of Phuket island, and most (but not all) of the places he took us to gave him a commission to bring us there:  gem shops, a cobra show (which we declined to purchase), and an elephant ride (which we did- it’s something Daron’s been wanting to do).  The tuk tuk driver was so personable and friendly when making the sale of his tour to us, then once we booked he pretty much stopped talking to us.  At one point he picked up his wife and brought her along too – she didn’t talk to us either!

My favorite longboat pic

TRAVEL INFO

We interact a lot with other tourists, which has been our best source of information.  It’s been a great way to get recommendations, etc.  We have yet to find an official visitor center – each one we’ve seen that claims to be one is actually a travel agency (again, commissions!).  It is hard to find information on what’s in the area without getting a hard core sales pitch.  We were able to trade our New Zealand guidebook for a Thailand one at a bookstore here.  Our guidebooks have been invaluable.

PRICES

The prices here are not as cheap as we heard they would be.  We’ve been mostly in the touristy areas, so that’s probably part of it.  Food is a great deal by far, but rooms and transportation can get pricey.  Perhaps as we travel to different areas of the country the prices will change – I’ll have to get back to you on this one…

Street market

OVERALL

So far Thailand seems to be a dichotomy of good and bad, beautiful and ugly - definitely a land of contrasts.  In our first ten days here we traveled from Phuket City (pronounced poo-ket), to Patong Beach, then to the island of Phi Phi (pronounced pee-pee), then to Ao Nang (near Krabi).  The beaches of Phuket are beautiful, as are the beaches on the island of Phi Phi.  We rented a longboat while on Phi Phi so we could spend some time at Maya Bay where they filmed the movie “The Beach” with Leonardo Dicaprio.  It is drop dead gorgeous!  We also spent a day at a mainland beach in the Krabi area called Railay Beach that had lots of limestone cliffs – such dramatic and beautiful scenery!  So much natural beauty, and yet when you look a little closer you will find garbage strewn about, piles of it in some places just rotting away.  There are beautiful fancy resorts just down the street from locals living in shanty-town conditions. 

There you have it, our first ten days in Thailand.  Our plan is to head to Bangkok next and check out the big city.  More to come….