Thailand, Day Two

I landed in Thailand day before yesterday and spent the night in Bangkok near the infamous Khao San road. Many tails to tell about this place, I have. Speak like Yoda, I do. You want to avoid tuk-tuks, as a general rule, or really you should use them with careful bargaining in advance. They are these little three wheeled vehicles somewhere between a motorcycle and a tiny truck. They burn some kind of really noxious diesel and weave crazily across lanes. Oncoming traffic is not that daunting to these tuk-tuk drivers and several times we headed right for it. I'm travelling with a group of 5 JETs, by the way, Ben, Mike (not Dobkin - he headed south on his own yesterday), Dan and Richelle. So far. We pack two and three to a tuk-tuk and get lost around the city and the tuk-tuk drivers try to scam us. This is what you do. They love to bring you to suit stores and gem stores that you didn't for because they get a comission for every tourist they bring in. When there's little chance of you going there, there's little chance of getting a tuk-tuk.

We decided to head to Chiang Mai and experience elephant rides, trekking through the jungle and river rafting before heading down to the beaches. Chiang Mai is in the North, the beaches are in the south - which means there will be a long day of travel in between when we decide to head down there. We decided to take the overnight train to Chiang Mai, somewhat more expensive than the bus but it affords a sleeping berth. We all went to this office we had seen on the tourist map from the airport called the Tourist Authority of Thailand (TAT). Lonely Planet recommended it as more reliable than tour places on Khao San road. We arranged the trek and train tickets around noon and were told to come back to the TAT at 4:30 to pick up our train tickets for the 7:40 train. He gave us a business card and said "Don't lose this card" a number of times. We didn't know why but found out later. After shopping along Khao San road for a while - I bought a giant backpack for a great price; now I don't have to lug around that gym bag anymore - we decided to head back to the TAT. We tried getting tuk-tuks but they didn't know where the TAT was or they wanted to charge 20 times their usual fare (no chance of a diversionary side-trip with comission). So we found a couple of taxis that would take us there and went off. I got in the cab with Ben and Richelle, which proved fortuitous as Ben was carrying the TAT card. We didn't recognize the cab driver's route, and our nervousness increased when he stopped at an office that said TAT on the sign but was completely unfamiliar to us. "No no! Not this TAT. Other TAT" we told the driver. Luckily Ben remembered he had the card and we got there, but Mike and Dan were not so lucky. They ended up cruising around the city in tuk-tuks and taxis, getting more desperate all the time. The drivers would pretend to know where they were going, then stop in the middle of a random intersection and let them out. Eventually the cab driver asked a random stranger where the TAT is, and he happened to be an employee of the very one they were looking for. Ben, Richelle and I were sweating about their fate in the meantime, and we went ahead to the train station, hoping they'd arrive. Which they did.

Now we know to have backup meeting places if the group gets seperated. Simple lesson which we might have realized beforehand. Today I plan on exploring Chiang Mai in a relaxed way for a while. Richelle will probably take a Thai cooking lesson and the other three are thinking of drinking. Always thinking of drinking. (We downed a couple of bottles of rum and a litre of coke on the train over last night). Oh yes, quick train story. We offered the conductor a drink of our rum to placate him, in case it wasn't allowed. He didn't want it, but he did accept some shrimp chips. Thereafter, every time he walked by our group he would simply reach over and grab very generous handfuls of whatever food we were eating while staring one of us directly in the eyes, kind of surly-like. Then he'd say thank you in a sarcastic way. We are noticing some biiiiig differences between the Thai and the Japanese.

I'll keep you posted as to further developments. Right now we're having a blast.