Thailand: Bangkok: ~~Mi Mou in Thai means I am Drunk~~

When Traveled: I landed at Bangkok in April 2006 and stayed there for 4 and half months. It was raining when I reached there, it was raining while I stayed there and it was raining when I left Bangkok in August end. Rainy season is very long here, starting from April till November.
98% of the Thailand population is Buddha. Many Thai families are mixed, like Chinese and Thai couple, or Indian and Thai couple. Many localities in Bangkok are densely populated by Indians mostly Tamilians and Sikhs (especially white turban Sikhs – Namdharis). Although Muslims are in minority, but some areas in Thailand are overly populated with Muslims.
People in general are hard working and fun loving. They live western style having good weekends. On weekends they will have a good get-together, boozing and music, else the working boys and girls who stay alone in Bangkok will go to their native places (they call it upcountry) to meet their parents.
One unique thing is that every workplace, small or big, and every house will have a good number of Buddha’s statues and pictures (except non-Buddhists) but every house and workplace will be having the King’s and Queen’s pictures.
This year is being celebrated as 60th year of the present King in rule. He was studying in UK when at a very young age he had to return to take charge of the Kingdom. Recently the King had an operation for his backbone problem and everyone in the country was worried about his well being. To show their respect for the King, on every Monday all Thais will be wearing a yellow T-Shirt with king’s logo on it. Yellow is the color denoting gratitude towards the King and blue is the color for the Queen. The Queen is equally graceful and beautiful lady. She had her right eye operated recently for some problem in cornea. In last week of April there were general elections and none of the party having won the majority, the then Prime minister Thaksin was told to be the working Prime Minister till the elections are held again in October 2006 (on 23rd) but last week the Army Chief who is very close to the King took over the charge of the country by dissolving the whole cabinet from power including Thaksin. Although people respect Thaksin for being visionary and progressive as he is the key person behind the modernization of Thailand by providing highly structured Malls, Roads, Flyovers, and other infrastructure. But still people are more dedicated to the King and can do anything for their King and the Queen.

Gods places: You will find ample number of Buddha Temples, around quarter dozen of Gurudwaras, and quite a number of Mosques in and around Bangkok. The Buddha statue at home, office, workplace, temple is offered cold drinks (mostly fanta, coke), water, flowers. At many occasions people offer fish to Buddha which ultimately is consumed by the Monks. In first week of August they had a celebration for worshipping Chinese goddess where they offer meats, fish and liquor. Langars are a good point of attraction on weekends in Gurudwaras here.

Death: Death is taken as a normal and natural process of life in Thailand. I happened to attend one such occasion. No excessive mourning and crying happens on a death of any age. The dead body is kept in a temple for 3, 5 or 7 days depending on the status and capability of the family. For all these days prayers, music food and drinks will be happening.

Thinglish: Thai English is superb. There is no tense, verb, adverb, adjective. Most of the people don’t know English, and those who know, speak fantastic. Some examples:
No Have: it is not available, I don’t haveEvery Happy: all are happy, or everyone is happyMany cars: lot of cars on the roadMany traffic: lot of traffic on the roadListen: you speak, I want to listen to what you speakIndia many brains: in India, people are geniusMany money: big salaryAre you hot: are you feeling hot, do you want A/C or more airCome, I want you: come I want to meet you, talk to you, and want to discuss something with you
Thai: I learnt some words, listing below a few that I still remember.
Ontrong = go straightLeosai = go leftLeokwa = go rightSwasdikhrab = hello, good morning, namaste, hiMi Mou = I am drunk
Michai = noChai = yesTuk tuk = auto rickshawCounting 0 to 9: soon, nung, song, sam, cee, ha, hok, chet, peit, kaw
Cabs, Roads, Flyovers and Traffic: No small cars in Thailand – mostly Toyota cabs, Toyota and Honda cars and Isuzu pick ups. But you will find all other imported models of big cars in Bangkok. Roads are really butter coated and at no place I found a broken road. Very less accidents happen here (I remember only 3-4 accidents) as the traffic is much disciplined although there happen to be traffic jams. On a red light you will find the gap of 6-8 feet. A driver uses horn on an average once a month. The accidents happen mostly because of motorcycle-taxis who drive a little rash and zig-zag. The lane discipline is extremely admirable. In the night time most of the cab-drivers will start showing you the massage pamphlets and will ask if you want – massage, sexy girl, sex show, good lady, boom boom…

Beaches and Up-country: Thailand beaches are world famous, and equally famous are its golf courses. One of the reason for world class golf courses is that Tiger Woods has a relation with Thailand (one of his parents belong to Thailand, I heard). I visited a private beach which was adjacent to Police Headquarters of Thailand. It was marvelous, barren and beautiful. Mostly foreigners visit beaches to swim, massage, booze off, leisure and enjoyment. Bangkok is comparatively populated as compared to the outskirts since it offers lot of career and study opportunities.

Swarnabhoomi: It is the new international airport in Bangkok. Domestic flights have started, and international flights would be starting shortly, may be by next year.

Metros: There are two metros, one underground that is run by the government and the other is sky train that is run by a private agency.

The Ladyboy: An eunuch is known here as ladyboy. She will be so beautiful as long as you don’t listen to her voice. But they get equal respect and status.

The girl and the boy: The girls will have following status – single mother, single, married, divorced, live-in. and similar will be for boys. They prefer to live-in with each other for 2-3 years before going for marriage. Boys are outnumbered by girls in numbers as well as in smartness.

The Indian restaurants in Bangkok: The places like Sukhumvit has a number of Indian restaurants like Namuskar, Komala’s (South Indian), Ganesha (South Indian), Hot Curry, Red Chilly etc. At Silom also we found a couple of good Indian restaurants with live music in the evening.

Hot News: Fried Snakes, roasted sea shells being sold on the roadsides and frogs, toads sold in the vegetable markets.
RCA is the place where you will find world class pubs and discotheques.
Silom night bazaar is a market that starts at midnight and is open till the morning.
We lost 2 laptops in Bangkok (one snatched on road, one stolen from hotel)

Thailand: Hua Hin Beach: A Beach for Thai Royal Family, Localz & Foreignrz

General: This is the most popular beach amongst the Thais and equally important holiday resort for foreigners. The length of the beach is approximately 5 miles and this place has the highest density of world class golf courses anywhere in Thailand (Golf and Football are the two main games preferred in Thailand). This is the oldest (70 years old) of the beaches in Thailand as Phuket and Samui being the new discoveries. The place was unaffected by Tsunami. This place has an 18-hole golf course and a huge fishing port. Most of the Bangkok’s Upper class have their own beachfront summer houses towards the south and north of Hua Hin along the curvy sandy bay and usually they will come here on weekends with their families. This place definitely gives a different holidaying experience.

History:   This place was discovered by the King Rama VII in early 1920s. He established his Royal Resorts here and subsequently became popular in a short time. The place is connected to Bangkok via Road as well as Train. In 1928 King Rama VII built his Klai Kangwon (Klai in thai means “far from” and Kangwon means “worries”) Palace which is used by the current Royal family even today and is open to visitors. In 1923 State Railways working under the then kingdom built the Railway Hotel in a traditional old Thai architecture, which today is known as Sofitel Central Hua Hin Hotel.

Bangkok to Hua Hin: Taxi (120 Bahts) from my hotel reached to Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal in 40 minutes to get a bus for Hua Hin. At 7 I was in the bus that was going to Hua Hin. You will find government and private Air conditioned and Non-A/C buses going to Hua Hin from this terminal starting every half an hour. Ticket costs 130 Bahts per person. And the journey started. I adjusted my seat in a semi laying position and dropped my mobile from my back pocket in the bus. It was given to me by a young boy who had got into the bus to sell off cold drinks and snacks. We were amazed at his sincerity. We were half asleep when we reached at this place and the moment we got down one of us noticed that he had slipped out his wallet from his pocket in the bus. The bus was taking a slow turn about 50 metres away and was almost at a standstill and hence my friend could run and get into the bus. And he found his wallet back at the back of his seat. Great!.

We reached Hua Hin: It was around 11 when we reached there. We enquired and got to know that we can take bikes or taxi to go to the beach. Just tried to cross check with a foreigner and got to know that it is at a walking distance (around one plus kilometers) and we decided to go by walk. Near the beach we found an Indian Restaurant and decided that we will have our lunch here while coming back.

At the Beach: The Beachside On the beach side there were so many beachside snacks/beer shops having their shady tables and leisure chairs to relax. We sat on this chairs and immediately the shop owner came to us and told that for one hour sitting he will charge 20 Bahts per person, if for whole day 60 Bahts and if we order something to eat no extra charges for sitting. We negotiated with her that we will have beer and will not pay for it and not extra Bahts for sitting. Into the Sea We decided to swim in the sea for couple of hours and have some photo session with our 7 megapixels camera before we have beer and later lunch before going back to Bangkok. Got into the sea and had a good time. Then to go deeper we decided to take tubes @ 40/- Bahts. Enjoyed the swimming but there is a catch, there are big rocks inside the water, so you need to be careful. I wounded my feet slightly. Locales were busy in capturing sea food items.

Finally the Bikinis, the topless and the Men at the Beach The beach is full of foreigners from almost all parts of the world. Many topless and bikini beauties were spotted easily lying on beach chairs, applying oil on their body after swimming and enjoying sun bath and swimming in the beach. We had a great photo session

Thai English Thai English is different – saw a logo behind a car – “EVERY HAPPY”. They don’t know tenses, verbs etc. but convey the message beautifully. Important lines to catch – “INDIA MANY BRAINS” “MANY SALARY” “MANY CARS” “NO GO” “NO HAVE”

Bangkok: Land of Buddha, Beaches and Massages

What I have learnt in last one month of stay here – Khun stands for Mr. Mrs or Ms. I was wondering over a list of names where each name started with K. Name, and later I learnt K stands for Khun. Swasdeekha is equivalent to our Namaskar. When a lady speaks – her words will end with Kha and for gents it is Khab. For instance if a male has to wish he will say SWASDEEKHAB and if a female has to wish she will say SWASDEEKHA. This is because KHA ends with a sweet tone and a lady has to speak very polite and sweet and hence KHA A male has to speak with a stress in his strong voice and hence KHAB. At times it seems they are singing when they speak to each other. Language is quite melodious, gentle, and non-monotonous.

The Currency – Baht and Satang (corresponding to our Rupees and Paisa). Baht is costlier than our Rupee, 115 Rupees equal to approximately 100 Bahts

The Airport – One of the best Airports in the world, having 2 terminals handles almost all international flights. Another new airport project is in progress (the new Airport coming up is called Swarnabhoomi) connecting sky train to Airport. At the entry point of Sky train station going to this new Airport, you can check-in, leave your baggage that will directly go into your flight and you land up at Airport hassle free. The Roads and the Flyovers – Great infrastructure I have seen in any foreign country (although yet to see lot of world places). This city has countless number of flyovers, at places 4 or more going parallel. There are super express roads to save you from traffic but you have to pay 40 Bahts to use it. Minimum speed on these expressways is 120 Kms. But still traffic jams is a problem, although it is not jam, at times traffic crawls. 

The People – The local people are young, energetic, 8.30 to 5.30 type but depending on work do not mind staying late in the office. Thus place (or I think the whole Thailand is having more ratios of females than males). You have three type of people here – boys, girls and lady boys. In offices girls boys ratio will be 5:2 or higher. The dress code in office is short skirt (most popular), skirt or jeans and tops for girls. And pant, shirt and tie for boys. Casuals include formals to Yankee wears.

The Transport – Underground railways (owned by government), Skyways (as our metro trains in delhi) owned by private company, buses (normal and air conditioned) are very cheap – 5 bahts for normal bus and 10 bahts for and A/C local bus, taxis starting at 35 Bahts for first km and then increase of 2 bahts per km. Bangkok is a small place and you can travel in a taxi starting from one corner to another by paying just 150 Bahts. All taxis will have the correct metres, decent drivers, their ID Card displayed inside the taxi in front of front passenger seat. Government is very strict about any problems to tourists (as tourism being one of the major earning for this country). The Beaches – Hua Hun is a major beach for locales which is 3.5 Hrs travel by road from Bangkok. You will find lot of foreigners at this beach stretched to around 2-3 kms., Pattaya and Phuket are the major spots for foreigners and anytime there will be huge crowds at these beaches.

The Pubs, Bars and Night Clubs – RCI is the place where you have series of Pubs, Bars and Night Clubs. Life is at its fullest on weekends and the weekend starts here on Friday night. So every Friday, Saturday and Sunday Night this road (which is a private road and on working days to cross this road every private car has to pay 5 Bahts) is captured by the roadside Bars, Pubs and Night Clubs. Entry is strict for foreigners for entry in any of these. You have to have your passport with you. Language is a big barrier here inside. And ofcourse the liquor is costly.

The Malls, the markets and the chain of stores – 7 Eleven is an omnipresent superstore chain here. Tesco and MBK are supermalls. Jatojat market is a weekend, cheap, huge market for any type of purchases, and at Silom you will find a night market .

The Eating outlets – Bawarchi at Silom (with live vocals at dinner), Namuskar at Nana Road, India Gate  at Petchburi Road, Mrs Balbit at Sukumvit – Soi 11, Komala’s (South Indian) at Sukhumvit – Soi 20 and Red Chilly – Sukhumvit Soi 20 are Indian Restaurants which I could find by now. Sukhumvit has lot more Indian Restaurants and shops owned by Indians. Soi in Thai means Street.