Subscribe to this blog03 October 2008
Burn after travelling: Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Singapore and Darwin
Crossing the continents by going from Chang Mai and Bangkok in Thailand via Singapore to Darwin in Australia, was - well - very much uneventful. Chiang Mai is definitely a nice city. However, it does not measure up to other sites throughout China, Cambodia and Laos. Being somewhat at the end of my Southeast Asian journey, I found this place to be far from being special (or: important). The days of the "Golden Triangle" - a description for an Opium producing region that attracted crowds of tourists - are definitely over. The government of Thailand aggressively fights against all drug trafficking and has agricultural incentives for Thai farmers who grow legal crops.
Although tour operators will still highlight the terminology 'Golden Triangle' on their prospectus, it is nothing more than an empty shell these days. Therefore, what remains to be seen in Chiang Mai are temples. A bit outside there are fantastic places featuring waterfalls, canoeing, kayaking, hiking and - you guessed it: Elephant riding. All of which I had done in a much more rural setting back in Laos. However, for people on a tight schedule and with less interest in travelling to more authentic places (read: Cambodia and Laos), Chiang Mai might provide enough touristic entertainment for them to stay for a day or two. After leaving Chiang Mai on a night train I arrived in Bangkok, which was a perfect stop to do administrative tasks (back-up my photos on DVD's and mail them home, surf the Internet at relative low-cost, check out travel agencies for flight deals, etc.). Two days later I was ready to undertake the budget airline flight to Darwin - having a six hour stopover in Singapore.
After having travelled more than half a million miles on air crafts (I stopped counting about ten years ago), I have become very cynical about the sheep herding practices implemented by keen and eager government, airport and airline staff. It seems that their employees of the month invent every now and then a new method to annoy the crap out of the stoic flight passengers.
TigerAirways (as many other airlines) asks to be two hours early at the airport. But then, why do they open their check-in counter only one and a half hour before departure? And even more weird: Thailand customs at Bangkok airport takes a picture of all tourists - upon leaving. Why don't they take pictures of people when they enter? Weird...
Singapore on the other hand, asks arriving passengers to go through a security check, where hand-luggage is scanned and where I had to remove my shoes and belt. This happens actually before immigration and passport control. Even after strong reflection, I could not come to a conclusion as to why this security check is made. Maybe it's just a Singaporean way to show off that they didn't trust the security checks at the airport of origin. But even then - my plane had landed. So what should I blow up now? The customs desks? Throughout Asia, I did not prepare (with the exception of the 'Stans') much my journeys. I had a rough plan about what I really wanted to see and once you get to such places, exchanging travel stories with other backpackers give a pretty good idea, what to see next. Australia, however, is a different beast: For one, I did not meet anyone in the guest houses in Asia who would share a ride down-under - nor did I meet people coming back from Australia who could give me some hints and tips.
This was a contributing factor to plan and budget extensively my journey to and through down-under. Knowing that Australia would be the most expensive part of my round the world trip, I was looking for alternatives to bring down travel and lodging costs. Moreover, most of the sights in Western Australia (my itinerary) are less accessible and require a 4WD vehicle. Travelling by bus definitely would be the cheapest option, renting a camper van alone would be second cheapest and renting a 4WD would be out of the budget. Factoring in the costs for food and gasoline was not very easy, because prices in Australia fluctuate a lot. One liter of unleaded fuel costs about $A 1.67 in Darwin - but this may go up to $A 2.35 in a remote roadhouse.Being a true Swiss I made a compromise with myself (we love to do compromises in Switzerland). I'll be travelling through Australia by bus, but I'll be renting 4WD vehicles for the day, if needed. This still costs me an arm and a leg and burn a hole in my pockets. Therefore, although I do love Australia, I am secretly looking forward to travel onwards to New Zealand, where prices - especially lodging and transport - will be quite bit cheaper than here.
After one night (and a spectacular sunset) I left Darwin, eager to start visiting one of the last bits of Australia that I always wanted to see. The "Bungle Bungle Ranges" and the "Gibb River Road". Stay tuned and come back soon to read more about these adventures...
Labels: Australia, Singapore, Thailand
posted by Reto at
08:17
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02 September 2008
August in Review: More Pictures
By clicking on the respective album picture below, you should be taken to a small selection of exclusive pictures which I have taken during the month of August while staying one night in Bangkok and heading through Cambodia.
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| One night in Bangkok |
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| Cambodia |
posted by Reto at
10:52
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14 August 2008
Culture shock in Bangkok
What a culture shock! Arriving in Thailand for the first time after almost 15 years proved to be a mixed bag of feelings. This is not the Bangkok I knew. There is a new airport, actually with a highway connected to it. No more need to take the dreaded "Tuk-Tuk", as there is this new shiny new thingy - called "Skytrain" - which moves tourists (and locals) fast downtown. Speaking of the inner city. This has changed as well. During my stay in Bangkok, I kept looking for familiar places - such as temples and hotels I stayed in. Although I recognized some temples, they seemed to have been transported to a new location as the surrounding area looks just so different.
In my personal opinion, Bangkok was (is) growing faster than other cities like Shanghai or Hong-Kong. The transformation definitely seems to be for the better for the locals and this creates the well-known dilemma: I preferred the rough edges and the chaos of Bangkok 15 years ago. But I confess that the living conditions for people having to go to work everyday probably weren't as good as now. And to my surprise, I did enjoy some of this Western-style comfort a lot. Namely being able to withdraw money from an ATM at every corner. This is in contrast to Uzbekistan, from where I arrived, where either ATM's are frequently out of money or the banks doing manual cash-advances are at the other end of the city. Getting money in 3 minutes instead of 3 hours is definitely a travelers' relief.
The Soi1 Guesthouse, where I stayed, was smack down in the center of the city and the owner has a lot of travel advice for backpackers, such as a round-trip by foot, canal ferry, river boat and sky train. This round-trip starts right next to the hostel and totals out for all the transport vehicles at 80 Baht (US$ 2.50). During the tour I was walking up to the river boat ferry (17 Baht / 52 US Cents), where locals board. On the way there, some hawkers tried to persuade me to take the river boat cruise for 1000 Baht (31 US$) at the tourist landing pier. Needless to say that I wasn't really considering changing plans. And the local ferry brought me happily to all the major attractions along the Mekong river.
However, visiting Chinatown in Bangkok - after having visited China itself was kind of disappointing. And then, I am not the market guy. I like the photo-ops - but I am bored by all the stuff that people try to sell me. Yes, I have a knife, hat, flip-flops and a lighter. And no, I don't really want to carry a ventilator in my backpack. I even had an umbrella - hey it's wet season right now - that I borrowed at the guesthouse. And the food stalls in Chinatown didn't really appeal to me (read my China entries to know more about how much I like the food there). And since I really love Thai food, it would be blasphemy to eat Chinese food in Bangkok (Hamburgers and Pizza are exempt from my "blasphemy rule" for reasons yet to be defined).Since I'll return to Bangkok (and Thailand) in a couple of weeks, I wanted this stay to be short. So I left pretty quick for the Cambodian border near the Thai city of Trat. There, I slept near the border before going to cross it early next morning. A lot of friendly people try to ease the tourists' way into Cambodia. One guy wanted to carry my backpack across the border. Another one tried to fill in the customs form for me. And yet another one wanted to walk alongside with me for the 100m "no mans" land between border posts - pointing out the obvious ("you need to walk there for passport control"). All this against a fee, obviously. Being well prepared for this border is essential and I was successful in fending off all the hawkers - although it was 7am and my mind somehow still was back in the sleeping bag. It also pays to go online and check how much costs transportation to and from the border. However, the experience was quite funny and I found myself surprisingly relaxed in the midst of hawkers, tuk-tuk- and moto-drivers humming like a bee swarm prices for unneeded services at me.
Labels: Thailand
posted by Reto at
15:22
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