On the Move
We have returned to Bangkok and moved on to Ayuthaya since I last wrote. Ayuthaya was the capital of Thailand until it was sacked by the Burmese army in 1767. Tomorrow Melissa and I will tour around the ruins of the old city before catching a night train to Chang Mai.
|
|
|
||
IMG_1114
Date: 06/24/2005Views: 582
We left Bangkok for the last time just as I was starting to feel very comfortable with the place. We had started to take the local buses around town instead of hassling with Tuk-Tuk drivers. The bus system here is quite different than back home. Instead of one bus per street, travelling more or less in a straight line, they have several routes along each road that then veer off in all sorts of directions. This means you can pretty much catch a bus directly from anywhere to anywhere without having to transfer. I am having a lot of fun learning about them, despite the fact that I get on the wrong bus about half the time and have to work through my butchered Thai pronounciation to find the right route.
I find myself oscillating between feelings of exasperation and affection towards the Thai people. Within one day you will (and we did) have Tuk-Tuk drivers repeatedly not drive you where you ask them, or after having agreed on a fare say that you must make 2 stops at tailors or jewellers or some such. But then you will get on the wrong bus and a local person will help you translate with the conductor, find the right route for you, get off and wait with you until the right bus comes and then pay your fare for you and refuse to take any money for it. It’s up and down, but on balance it is definately positive.
|
|
|
||
IMG_1100
Date: 06/23/2005Views: 533
This morning we went to the Floating Market in Damnoen Saduak (pictures in the gallery). As the guidebook warned, the place had lost much of its authenticity and is now mainly a tourist attraction selling cheap knick-knacks. Their equivalent of the mounties and polar bear crap we have back home seems to be buddhas and elephants. But I guess it would be hypocritical to complain about it being over touristy. Every traveller wants their own piece of paradise unspoilt by foreign hands, but that’s just an impossible romance at this point. The funny thing about the Floating Market was that unlike a lot of other places we have been, there were a lot of Thai tourists. And we seemed to be part of the attraction for them. I think they were just as happy to see white people as the market, or maybe it was white people in the market. We had our picture taken about 4 or 5 times.
June 25th, 2005 at 2:48 pm
Hi Adam,
I think that the reason the Tuk Tuk drivers are not so nice is that they make their living off travelors and see you as prey. The locals on the bus earn their living from something else, so their interaction with you does not affect their income.
What’s the traffic like in Bangkok? When I was there in 1976, the pollution and traffic was horrendous ? Has it improved ?
I think the Thai’s are very clever hard working and disaplined people. There must also be a strong sense of tolerance there ? How else can one explain how they have surged ahead of all the other groups around them and have such peace in the country. What about the South where there was a Muslim insurgency a few months ago ? Is there harmony there now or was this a no go zone ?
Love,
Mom
June 26th, 2005 at 7:04 pm
Hey Adam!
Q: Was there a bus route map? Does it look like a spider’s web? That’s the sort of think I’m imagining, but very un-linear. Difficult to navigate.
I’m leaving for Serbia and Croatia this Tuesday, and will be posting at tabulas, in hopes that i can keep a similar travelogue.