Bangkok

[Jim]

I leave for Bangkok tomorrow I’ll mention a few things about my tourist status in the Philippines and what I had to do to leave. I think compared to some other places it may be a little easier and a little more expensive to stay here as a permanent tourist.

When you enter the Phils, you must have a departure ticket even if you don’t plan on departing. We refer to this as a “throw away ticket”. There is a flight in Air Asia from Clark [near Angeles] to Kota Kinabula in Malasia. I just purchase my second one way ticket there [$30] and doubt seriously if I ever will see the place.

You get a 21 day visa upon entry and you renew it for 39 days, then for 60 days at a time up to 16 months. My sixteen month anniversary is October 7th and I leave for Bangkok on October 6th. Philippines citizens can travel to Thailand [and about 9 other countries] without a visa but we’re still getting Mitch’s passport so she can’t go. Before I could go I needed to purchase a departure visa because I plan to return.

This is my 27th foreign trip in ten years and only the second one where I actually planned tourist things to do [Amsterdam was the other one…Van Gogh Museum, Ann Frank Haus]. Every other trip my emphasis was on women but not this place.

I really am looking forward to seeing complete Asia for the first time. The Phils is “Asia light”, It’s half like Asia and half like LA. If was a Spanish colony from 1565-1898 and a US colony or virtual colony until about 1970.

Thais are fiercely independent and the only country in Asia who was never conquered by a foreign power [they were briefly pccupied by the Japanese in WWII]. The Phils is mostly Catholic, the only country in Asia that is. Thailand is mostly Buddhist.

The Manila AP is over 4 hours away and congested but I get to fly from Clark Field, near Angeles, which was the USAF based until 1991. They don’t have many flights but Cebu Pacific flies direct to Bangkok several times a week. The AP is about 70 minutes from my door and no parking problem [Cost $1/day] or traffic.

[Sailover]

Hey, you spelled Bangcock wrong.

[Jim]

I'll have to check that out.

[Jim]

Well my trip started inauspiciously and in a manner so typical of the Philippines. I am allowed to stay 16 months and get renewals every two months and get an exit clearance, all of which I had done. So when I had checked in, the man told me I needed to pay a "departure tax" since I had stayed over twelve months. I was certain he was wrong but you have to travel every twelve months to avoid a "departure tax" although you are "allowed" to stay sixteen months. So I paid my $36 penalty and boarded the plane,

I shared a jeepnay from the Angeles mall to the airport with an interesting fellow named Lou. He's 45 and used to be a six figure financial analyst in San Francisco. He hated his job and after a trip to the Phils decided to retire at age 40, He tells me he lives on $1000 a month from his investments. He seems to be enjoying his life quite nicely.

First impressions of Thailand. They drive on the left and the steering wheel is on the right like in England. If you are crossing a street and look left as you step off the curb, you'll get run over. It is also a colorful city. The predominant color of taxis is a bright fuchsia...not while like Manila or yellow like the US. Some taxis are baby blue or red. Buddhist temples are very colorful and you can't see Bangkok without seeing several Buddhist "wat". Comparing the Philippines and Thailand. You would expect huge differences since The Phils is Catholic and was under colonial rule and domination for four hundred years ending about 40 years ago. Thailand is Buddhist and never been a colony of anyone. Still the people are very calm. Getting upset or yelling is a major cultural violation. Thailand is known as the land of smiles but so is the Philippines.

Also Thai script is completely weird. It appears to have an alphabet with letters making words rather than characters like Chinese or Japanese. Even though Thai is only spoken in Thailand, bookstores are full of books published in Thai. There is very little written in Tagalog here. Even though English is considered the second language here, most Pinoys are not that good in it and it surely limits their access to information.

Thailand has a higher level of prosperity as evidenced by better roads, more expressways, nice and more varied shopping. My first day in Bangkok, I took a two hour walk along the major street from my hotel [$36/night] to the Grand Temple in the center of town. I had to borrow long pants and a shirt with sleeves to enter. They have a process set up to facilitate this, Buddhist monks wear orange sheets as their uniform and the temple is incredibly colorful and ornate. They have Buddha’s everywhere. They also have lots of souvenirs and household ornaments to sell which are much nicer than most of the stuff you see in the Phils. The prices are also much higher in Thailand. People try to overcharge tourists in both places.

Also no one speaks English. I realize some of you went to Colombia with no Spanish and were able to choose a life partner, well. I almost wet my pants at Starbucks because no one understood me when I asked where the bathroom was. [No it wasn't in the store]. Everyone speaks some English in the Phils. Also HS education is through twelfth grade here. It's eleventh in Costa Rica and Colombia and tenth in the Philippines. So to summarize, Thailand nicer shopping and infrastructure, more education....Phils English is spoken and lower prices.

Surprisingly [for me] I wasn't really interested in the night life as a participant but I did want to go to a few bars as an observer. One of the three major tourist night spots [and the only one I went to] was Nana Plaza which is sorta and open mall for night clubs. It has an atrium with a bar and bars around its perimeter and it goes up three stories with bars all around. Beers cost about $4.40 so it wasn't a place to do a lot of drinking. That was Tuesday and Wednesday. By Thursday I was Bangkoked out and headed for Pattaya. Pattaya is to Thailand what Angeles City is to The Philippines [known as a sex destination]. I was bored with Bangkok and wanted to see Pattaya plus I had read about an Elephant Village in my tour book and wanted to go.

This was an incredible experience and well worth the $60, in the three hour tour, we used four means of transportation. We started with a one hour elephant ride through the jungle and this was followed by a hike. We then came to a clearing where some silk weavers lived and we learned about the life of a silk worm and how silk was made. Up until 200 years ago, it was only made in China because they were able to protect their secret and no one else knew how to make silk so they had a monopoly. Then we took a rafting trip across a lake and returned to the starting point by ox cart. There we were served a lavish buffet dinner and entertained with Thai dancers and a few guys who did a fire dance.

Some interesting elephant facts. They eat 440 pounds of food a day and spend 16-18 hours walking and eating. The male elephant can only keep an eruption for 17 seconds. I guess that sets a new standard for a quicky.

My fellow group members were fairly interesting. I was the only American. By the way, no one speaks much English and they don't say you're from the United States because no one understands that. You must say you're American. I always considered it culturally insensitive to identify myself as an American in LA since they are also Americans but here it is all they understand. My elephant mate was Matt from Australia who was a diesel truck mechanic on extended holiday. His contract was up so instead of looking for a new job he took and long vacation…Three men were from Gibraltar which is an English colony at the tip of Spain. As they rattled on in Castilian Spanish I didn't even recognize the language until they told me where they were from. Then we talked for awhile in Spanish. They thought my LA accent was funny and I struggled to understand them at times. I guess a foreigner who lived in the US would have the same trouble understanding an Englishman. One couple [and the only woman] was from Taiwan. She was the only one who didn't speak English but she smiled and giggled fluently. Two guys were from Germany, three from Saudi Arabia and one from Libya. I had seen Mummer Kadhaft on Larry King live a few weeks ago and he speaks almost no English so I told my new friend that maybe he should be president or at least his press secretary. Very nice guys. He passed on the pork dish at the buffet however.

I did want to sample the nightlife, again only was an observer. I think if you had a group of ten Thai women and ten Filipina women standing in different parts of the same room, it would be hard to tell which was which. I didn’t have much conversation with anybody [since no one speaks much English] so I can’t make broad generalizations about the Thai personality. One oddity was that a lot of families go to Pattaya…I saw lots more western women than you see here. Thai women are beautiful. I can see why many men want to retire here. I’m sure the Thai language would be much harder to learn that Tagalog since it has a different

[Ciza29]

Good report Jim.
I don't know how long eruptions usually last, but a 17 second eruption seems pretty good.

I did not realize someone could be fluent in smiling and gigling.

There is so much to do in Bangkok and around Bangkok, but yet you managed to go to Nana Plaza which is basically an area for prostitution and then to Pattaya, which is a whole city of prostitution. Don't you think it is disrespectful of Mitch to go to those places whether you engaged in any activities or not?

Thai is a tonal language and difficult to learn. But speaking it is a whole lot easier than reading it. By the way, if you know a local you quickly learn that the prices that are listed in Thai are much cheaper than what are listed in English. The gringo tax is everywhere.

[JMitch1959]

Nice report Jim,
I'm glad you didn't piss your pants. That was funny to read. I guess knowing how to say bathroom is a prerequisite to visiting a country. I'll try to remember that.

Interesting freudian slip; how you substituted, I think, eruption, for erection. I wonder if you were fantasizing about a 17 second eruption; that would be impressive. Sometimes travel makes me a little crazier than usual; maybe you're just giddy from all the new adventures.

Thanks for the interesting trip report.

[Jim]

JMitch,

The reason I used the word eruption was carelessness. I was running spell check and it didn't give me the correct spelling of erection. I was going to change it later but I forgot. There's a bar in Angeles called Eruption.

I'm in Starbucks thinking $2 for a plain cup of coffee in a nice store in a nice area and hey don't even have a bathroom. The clerk was oblivious but a female customer came to the rescue.

I was thinking of you meeting your wife without much common language. It really is ironic that it is probably easier to fall in love without a much verbal communication than to find a bathroom. The language of love trumps the language of bodily functions.

Ciza,

I would think it might be pretty hard and incomplete to try and learn a language without understanding the script which of course would make it extremely hard to learn Thai.

I went on a two hour walk the first day, saw several temples and some of the world class shopping [Siam Center]. I went to Pattaya for the elephant village as well as to see the bars. I really missed Mitch and wished she were with me. If so, she would have gone to the bars with me.

Pattaya was really surprising compared to Angeles. Lots of foreign women were there, a magnificent seven story mall with the best food court I have ever seem. They had about ten cafeteria type square where they prepared food. Sushi, Thai Food, French food, roast duck...an incredible selection. The food was gourmet quality but because of the cafeteria set up wasn't at gourmet prices.

Pattaya was very surprising. It was described as a small fishing village in 1960 and it definitely grew up around the bar scene. But it had lots of water sports, incredible shopping and it attracts female tourists which I can't say about Angeles.

[JMitch1959]

Jim,
Don't worry about it. I'm sure we've all had a wet dream about a 17 second orgasm at one time or another.

Next time your in Starbucks and aren't having any luck asking for a bathroom; start pissing in an empty cup, and that will usually get their attention.

[ringothegringo]

Thanks for the excellent report Jim.

Any other thoughts regarding Pattaya vs Angeles City?

[Jim]

I have a friend who has been to both places and here's his summary of Thailand versus the Phils.

Thailand is a richer country with better infrastructure but more expensive. I think the food is better in Thailand, more variety and better quality. Thai food is healthier than most asian cuisine and seems to have influences from China and India. I prefer PH because of the language. Graft and ripping off foreigners seems to be the favorite past time in both locations. Girls seem to be equally available in both places.

Culturely, I think the Thais are a prouder people, or maybe more accurately put by saying the PH are more humble. I got the sense in Thailand that they look down on foreigners or "forang" (sp?).

I also noticed a lot of foreign women in Pattaya. Not sure why. It could be that Pattaya is a centrally located stop over location, or women may be satisfying some deep seeded curiosity.