Asia98 Chapter 6

The final chapter

Back home my guest house was a great place to come back to at each return to Bangkok. A clean, but real basic room is well under $5US. The shower stalls and Asian toilets are below on the main level. But Thai style is not for everybody. Most rooms are not air-conditioned, and on most days the ceiling fan in the room only cools you after you have take one of the many daily cool-off showers. The house sells beverages and there is a small refrigerator, sink and utensils. But, as they explained, there is no need for Rex-Inn to have a restaurant. Actually Greg, the Host/Most is quoted as saying, You can't swing a dead rat without hitting someplace to eat! I love this city! I love this country.

I think more toilet paper used here than anywhere else in the world. It is mostly used as paper towels at the foodstalls. Tables have plastic dispensers (to match the plastic stools). In the single city block with alleys going in each of four directions, there are a few dozen food vendors, some of which are open at any hour! Most of the time we get food wrapped, like fried noodle or rice with meat or veggies, and bring it home to consume.

My plan is to stay close to Bangkok, but maybe go to the nearest islands (to the south east) to work on my tan before going back to my (real) home. Almost everything has gone as planned, and the few mishaps are so small they are laughable (a value in itself). The Thai baht has strengthened to a low for the trip of 38/1. Thailand's Lunar New Year is coming up.

My travel agent here suggested I get back from Vietnam in time for this, but a few friends I know here said they get out of the country to avoid the four days. A Harley driving friend was going to Phuket for 'Bike Week'. The Songkran Festival is a water splashing event. Sometimes a smiling Thai comes towards you and sprinkles a few drops of water like a priest. Also white power (either talc or if you're lucky, Prickly Heat) might be smeared on your cheek, like war paint.

But the rest of the population (it seams) is walking around with large squirt guns, bowls, buckets, hoses, and pipe waterguns that you pump. They soak you and themselves. Trucks drive around with a half dozen kids in the back with assorted weapons, and a couple of 55 gallon (I know there is a metric equivalent) drums of water. Someone in a third floor balcony poured a large bucket on a commando below (who deserved it), and everyone laughed. When you dress for it (to go play water as Deng says), the event can be fun, but you better be in the mood (for four days), or stay home.

I am happy to (now) have YouTube to show you other traveler's videos

I took a bus that went SE toward Pattaya, and stopped in Sri Racha. I read later this was the cleanest city in Thailand. What I noticed first was the Tuk-tuks were new and larger. I have grown to dislike the little polluting, unregulated vehicles, and their hustling tout drivers who usually sleep in their vehicle. But out of the big city, they are not so bad, and they never have far to go, so fares are predictable. I found a room on a concrete peer, looking out at fishing boats and a few islands where I was headed.

The next day I took the ferry to Koh Si Chang. The ferry ride went past fishing boats and then cargo boats that were anchored. Eventually there was an oil rig and the tankers that you would expect in the crude oil business. It was not as pretty a sight as the mainland or the coast of Koh Si Chang. The pier was filled with awaiting tuk-tuks, also new, but even bigger. Soviet looking choppers. Some had car engines with radiators. I read they were banned in big cities years ago.

The water celebration was more prevalent on the island than in Sri Racha. I found a room and rented a cycle. The island did not appear to have any bungalows near the beach. Some people camped there (it was allowed even though signs put up by the hotels said you couldn't). But if you had a room with a bed, you had to ride to the beach. There were only a few sandy beaches. Like many islands, the coast is rocks for miles and miles.

The next day I took the ferry back to Sri Racha, and eventually took the bus back to Bangkok. After taking a taxi to visit someone north of town, I headed downtown, but I took a chance with a city bus that I was sure was going somewhere familiar. The water brigades were on every corner. I sat there watching the action, assuming I was as safe in an open bus as I was earlier in a air conditioned taxicab. Sitting there with my backpack and midget electric guitar, the first of many pails of water came through the open door, hitting us.

I eventually got to Siam Square, dried off, and saw the movie, "As Good As It Gets" before I continued home to the guest house. Movie theaters were a great experience in Bangkok. This concept may be coming to a theater near you, but in the large Bangkok multi-screen theaters, you pick from the available seats on a computer screen at the ticket booth. More than a few formally dressed ushers are there to help you find your comfortable seats.

I needed to get my airline ticket changed, but a seat on a flight April 28th had my name on it. I had mixed feelings about the journey coming to an end, but it had to, I really was ready, but I would be back. I had a few things to buy but I bought so much already, and now it was 25% more (because of the exchange rate). A good encouragement for me to take it easy. When visiting this part of the world one must treat oneself to a the luxury of a traditional massage (just the thing after a few days of hiking). I got one more than once a week.

Wednesday evening we walked to Khao San Road, and into the frontlines of this final evening of water celebration. April in Thailand is hot. A little of the celebration is truly welcome. I wore shorts and a tank top. It was kind of a Thai Mardi Gras. Along with the regular street vendors (a little thin, because of the flying water), were tables selling water bottles for pennies. It wasn't drinking water, but splashing water. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Khao San Road is a long one-block street that is the backpacker center. I personally don't go to the other side of the globe to see people who look like kids I know back home, but it is a good place to book flights. It has also become a competitive center for getting on the internet to send Email home. I've witnessed how cybercafes have developed in the the world. There are more places here offering the internet than I have ever seen in one place.

The next day I walked to Old Siam Square, dropped off some film, had lunch and bought a few trinkets. I remember leaving the center and walking towards the corner. The next thing I recall I was awaking while having my upper lip stitched. I was in Bangkok General Hospital, with an IV, a few bruises, and a split upper lip. They said I had been hit by a bus! The two front teeth (behind the split lip) were loose. To this day, I don't remember how it happened, or exactly where; I only remember walking towards the street corner.

I did, instantly, know who I was, the name and number of my guest house and that the nurse was pretty.

I spent three days with an IV drip in a large dorm type hospital room, hobbling to the bathroom. The bus company brought me flowers and packages of milk and juice. The owner and guests of Rex-Inn came to visit me. After I was released I went to the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital, a state of the art facility, for a supplementary diagnosis.

The bone above the front teeth may not be fractured (it was cushioned by my lip) but dental work will be extensive and time consuming. Of course I am glad I was hit rather than run over, glad it happened at the end of my long journey, glad it happened in Bangkok and not anywhere else I had visited, and of course, glad I could still see, smell, taste and hear. I know what is important.

I had been in Asia over five months on a dream vacation. One can wish it never ends but I had things to get back to, and parents that miss me even more than I missed them. I booked my flight back home. By the time Mom & Dad saw me in May, the bruises had cleared up. I have since got some new teeth.

Click to view some maps of South Asia

It was three years later when I took my third trip to Thailand and then Northeast to Laos. Click Asia 2000 to begin.