Thailand

I visited Bangkok, Ayutaha and Kanchanaburi and the foothills aorund the Kwai river. I had few days (4 in total) which made for a challenging optimization of activity flow. I proudly drew on PoM conclusions to make this trip a very interesting one.

I was lucky enough to travel with an American/Thai friend who could speak the local language. This gave us a notable advantage in most tuk-tuk negotiations:

- 200 Baht please
- (in Thai), we think that 50 looks more realistic
- (in Thai) Oh My Buddha, did he just speak Thai to me? Yes, I think that he just spoke Thai to me - he must have spoken Thai to me.
- (in Thai) Sir, how would 50 sound for a beautiful ride across our marvellous capital city?

In fact rates varied greatly: we paid 50 Bahts for a 2 hr tour around the main temples in Bangkok and 30 Baht to go from the train station to a small hotel across the river in Ayutaha.

The main highlight

You must try a Thai ice tea, or ice coffee but avoid highly touristy places. Do not go for a Pad Thai anywhere where there aren't any tourist in sight (in Thailand this means only underground) - since apparently it means Cook Thai and could refer to any mystery food.

The Royal Palace and inside temples in Bangkok were absolutely stunning. The main temples (reclining buddha, sitting buddha, emerald buddha, standing buddha etc...are also well worth it). There is no way you can visit all of them. The capital counts over 4,000 temples. The Democracy Monument is impressive but, in my opinion, by no means beautiful.
Small shops and food courts are a lot of fun. We managed to eat SO well for less than a buck for two.
Thai massages can be a little painful if you don't like roughness. I actually went for an oil massage which I much preferred. I did not go to a Thai boxing match since the "it is fine, you might just end up with someone's tooth on your lap" description turned me off.
Temperatures are high in Bangkok (about 47 degrees according to the weather forecast when we were in town), which makes walking aorund a little tricky in the middle of the day.

We saw a Thai wedding as our hotel was hosting a reception. Interestingly, the bride was not wearing white - and not wearing red (color of happiness in China).

We had some of the most exquisite curries and desserts (imagine sweet sticky rice in fried banana leaves, etc...)

There is an entire area full of tourists. Most hotel have a travel agency, Internet access, ATMs around the corner, loads of cheap places to eat, loud blasting TV sets. They are full of backpackers and have no sound insulation whatsoever between rooms. If someone turns the page of their book next door, it wakes you up. It can be fun but some quieter hotels, just as close to the Royal Palace and the main attractions might be just a little bit more expensive but oh so much more enjoyable! - and they have a pool AND affordable 24hr massage facilities.

I believe that nominal GDP per capita in Thailand is similar to Brazil. The country was never occupied and enjoys a fairly stable democratic government. It is a constitutional monarchy. The city was modern, buzzing with life, the airport was well organized, hotels well run, taxi dependable, tuk tuk fun. Shopping was concentrated in shopping malls and in a very western area (with Starbucks, etc...) with large flat plasma screen with MTV video clips and other flashy gadgets. Food's cheap, expats live VERY well - jobs are appearing left, right and center, and you are one hour away from some of the best beaches in the world. Thailand was definitely a country that was functioning well - certainly compared to poor neighboring Cambodia at first sight,

I was disappointed by Ayutaha but honestly by then, I had seen Angkor Vat and was averaging 125 temples in 4.5 days. Ayutaha is the capital of the Ancient Thai before it moved to Bangkok. It has a lovely river, a palace for the Queen, a beautiful old Royal Temples, Elephant rides in the middle of the city and fun little hotels. I took a train to get there. It was pretty slow but left and arrived on time. Only 3rd class tickets were available for this ride and there was no air conditioning on the train which meant that most people arrived dripping wet.

Kanchanaburi is on the Kwai river. About 60,000 POWs died building a railway into Burma during WW II. This is nothing compared to the hundreds of thousands of Thai and Burmese who contributed their lives to the effort.
Now it is a lovely place.
It offers interesting war museum and various tours. It is extremely well organized for tourists. I tried an elephant ride again - this time, we dipped into the river - my elephant just wouldn't get out of the water! It lasted for about an hour and was a lot of fun. Temperatures dropped a little since we were in the foothills which made the experience all the more pleasant.
Next on my list of activities was a long ride on a raft down the river. I hitched a ride on the back of a truck to go upstream, then slowly flowed down the river for about 1 hour before being picked up downstream with two German girls and hoisted back to the entrance of the Erawan Waterfalls National Park.
The waterfalls have 7 levels, scattered along a steep hill which anyone can ascend. It takes a couple of hours to climb up. Each step of the way you see a beautiful waterfall. On the way down, you can take a swim in most of the small lakes that they are forming. The water is exquisite, the bugs bother you only at level 6 and 7 and small fish bite only at level 1 and 2. The sun dries you up in 30 seconds and you can then rest in the shade.
The Death Railway, the Hellfire Pass and the Bridge Over the Kwai River were not only tourist attractions since a lot of locals were taking the train. It is a commuter train for a lot of school pupils back to Kanchanaburi. The old bridge was destroyed - if you have seen the movie, you know that it was during an Allied Raid - and reconstructed using more modern techniques. Still, it is an important piece of history.

My friend was telling me that Thai was a funny language: instead of having genders for nouns that would depend on the noun itself, or on the subject - it depends only on who's talking. For example, a man and a woman would say Thank You differently. Interestingly, we met a gay man who talked like a woman would. Funny...