Thailand

I had a three hour wait in Kuala Lumpur as I changed planes. Since the flight was early, I was hungry, and I had hoped to get a bite to eat at the airport. I didn't have enough money on me to purchase more than a soda, though, and none of the places would take credit cards. With the long lay-over and a growling stomach, I opted to cash one of the small ($20) travelers' checks, and eat some nasi lemak as a brunch. With the leftover funds, I bought some chocolates at the duty free; as it turned out, this was my only duty free purchase of the trip.

The three hours crawled by, but finally we were airborne again. I did meet a couple from Freemantle (West Australia) and a gentleman from Melbourne, who were commenting on the costs of flights from Australia to Southeast Asia. Perth is so much closer that there are real savings from there, as opposed to Australia's east coast. The gentleman from Melbourne (I didn't get their names) also mentioned the sex clubs in Phuket. One of Thailand's biggest industries is tourism, and 33% of the tourists come for the sex business. Being single, and male, I suspect I fit the stereotype of the sex tourist, but that was not my intention in going. Still, it was something that was present in many places.

The flight to Phuket was smooth, the storms were confined to southern Malaysia. Coming in over the Andaman Sea, you could see some of the many islands that dot Thailand's west coast. White sand, jungle, and deep blue water, it is definitely a beautiful sight from the air.

I was amazed at how quickly I cleared customs in Phuket, I was out of the airport and on my way to the hotel before the plane had fully disembarked. This, I like! The ride to the hotel was about 45 minutes, first driving down the backbone of the island, then cutting west to Patong. Patong is a resort town, and is surrounded on all sides by either the Andaman Sea or some steep mountains. We had to cross a range, and then descended into town. On the billboards were ads for their strip clubs.

I was staying at the Vises Patong Hotel. This was a short way off the beach, and was definitely a four star accommodation. When I made my plans, I asked for accommodations in the $60/night range, as that's what I spend when I take my nature trips in the US. That's usually a Best Western or Holiday Inn type of place. (Basketball trips and business trips demand a higher level of accommodation!) In Patong, this was the best suite in the hotel. I had a king-sized bed, two separate sitting rooms, and a hot tub/whirlpool bath. It is good to be the king.

I spent the afternoon exploring Patong. This place is definitely a tourist trap; quite sleazy in places and in others just a bit, well, tacky. There were several strip clubs prominent, including the "Rock Hard Cafe." These were all closed until 9PM. A lot of places were selling souvenirs, and others were selling jewelry. There were also a fair number of restaurants with Chinese, German, French, and American food. The number of places with Thai food was small, which really surprised me. Because I couldn't find a place that seemed to offer a decent Thai meal, I went back to the hotel. I couldn't even find street hawkers with food, much to my dismay.

The hotel was swarming with Germans. I remembered not to mention the war. The hotel had a massive menu, so I ordered a dinner with a soup, main course, and a side dish, plus rice. They had only one of the four items. I tried again, and this time, got one other item, before finally getting a list of dishes which they actually had available. I ended up with Himmler noodles, Ribbentrop cups, and Goering rice. I may have mentioned the war once, but I think I got away with it.

Service was appallingly slow. I think I ended up spending two hours in the restaurant, when the time to finally order items on the menu, and get them out to me, was taken into account. The food was OK, but clearly toned down for Western palates. Thai City in Palo Alto serves hotter Thai food even before I ask to make it "Thai hot." I slept well that night.

Breakfast the next morning was an American buffet, about on par with Taman Negara. The only Thai item available was noodles.

I had wanted to go to the Similian Islands. The Lonely Planet guide mentioned a day trip via hovercraft that ran during the dry season, "November to May." Guess again! The first trip was scheduled for December 6. This left Phi Phi Island, which has a reputation for being a bit of a touristy destination.

Before catching the minibus, I decided to visit Patong in the morning. It was a bit cooler, and I walked down to the beach. Two large ships were floating off-shore, I was later to learn they were USS Essex out of San Diego and a Russian "fishing" vessel. Yes, the US Navy was in town, and there were signs put up welcoming the navy. (These were the only Americans I was to see on Phuket Island, for that matter, they're the only ones I spoke with in Thailand.) I'll bet they've been using those signs for 30 years...

I also went by an ATM machine, which was able to accept my ATM card. It is definitely cheaper to use this method than even travelers' checks, particularly if your bank has no ATM fee. You get the bank exchange rate, which is better than even the travelers' check rate, and you don't get hit with a conversion fee.

It was about an hour via minibus to the dock, where we boarded a boat for Phi Phi Island. The tour was to cost 950 Baht, about US$38. It took two and a half hours to sail to the island; the boat was really more of a ferry, with a large area available for gear. The boat itself was fairly old, but well maintained. Phi Phi Island did not have docking facilities for a boat this size, so we transfered to a glass-bottom boat for our reef tour. This lasted all of five minutes. Wow.

Then, the boat dumped us on shore. The beach was a lovely white sand beach lined with umbrellas and deck chairs. Definitely my type of place... NOT! I started exploring behind the beach, and found that the island was about a quarter mile across at this point. Slipping though to the other side, I found a completely deserted beach, with black sand and rocks. This beach was inhabited by crabs, and had birds and privacy. I spent a couple hours here before heading back to the white sand beach and lunch. This was a buffet, bland, and geared towards Western tourists. Finally, the boat came for us, and we headed over to another tourist cave, where they mine the birds nests for birds nest soup. This was fairly non-descript.

The boat ride back was also about two and a half hours, followed by a minibus back to the hotel. Phi Phi Island was OK, not spectacular, and is clearly already aimed at the beach-tourist as opposed to the nature lover.

For dinner, I wandered back into town. It would appear that my initial impressions of the place may have been a bit harsher than reality required. There were hawkers, but they didn't open until 7PM. The place really doesn't come alive until then, but with the fleet in town, they were open 24 hours. I went to the Royal Kitchen Chinese restaurant, which was on the 25th floor of another hotel. I went all-out, and ordered shark's fin soup and Beijing duck. The shark's fin soup was excellent, perhaps even better than when I cook it myself! The Beijing duck was good, and was served correctly.

The cook arrived with the roast duck, and proceeded to carve off all the skin. This was served with poping, hoisin sauce, and greens. (I use scallions, they used leeks.) The meat was taken away; they offered to cook it however I liked, but I had enough food as it was, so let them keep it themselves. The skin was a bit greasier than when I cook it, but that was my only complaint. The meal cost about US$40, which is a lot for Thailand, but comparable to the price of an equivalent meal here in the United States.

I was a bit surprised to find my room had not been cleaned when I returned from Phi Phi Island. I was having some minor language problems with the Thai staff, but these were resolved by the Thai phrase book. I took the book to the front desk, and pointed to the relevant phrase, and voila, they sent someone to clean my room.

The television was interesting. They picked up two channels in English, broadcast via satellite from India. They were the Star network and Star Sports. The Star network was about half Hindi and half English. One of the shows were X Files, but the others were either foreign or very very old. They had on their schedule Australian soap operas, Lost in Space, Quincy, and Barnaby Jones. They did report on having CNN, but I never saw it on Star.

Star sports was more interesting. They had football, cricket, basketball, and badminton as the primary sports; they also carried sports news. It was this day that they lead off with the headline, "A fox invades the pitch as Rangers regain the lead in Scotland." Highlights included the fox.

Other channels I saw on the trip included CNN International, which is superior to normal CNN, and an Australian television station. Sky news was occasionally broadcast on local stations, but not continuously.

The next morning I skipped breakfast and went back to walking. This time, I hiked past the school, which was in session. This school had uniforms, and an outdoor assembly. I also took some pictures of town in the early morning, before the businesses opened. Lastly, I found a Thai restaurant that I decided I'd try for dinner that night.

The day's big expedition was an elephant safari. This was a bit closer to town, and I was again met by a minibus to take me to the location. It turns out that getting there was not easy, the dirt road had apparently been washed out several times during the rainy season, and was basically a gully. I was introduced to Noi, a female Indian elephant, 12 years old, who was to be my ride. You climb up a platform, then cross onto the elephant. The chair is strapped to the shoulders. A young boy directed the elephant while sitting on her head. Also on safari at the same time were a couple from Manchester who were City fans. I didn't think there were any left.

Riding an elephant is definitely interesting. Being so far forward on the animal gave me a sense of instability as we went downhill. Uphill, however, was not a problem, but the ground did look like it was a long way down. There was no problem with odor from the elephant, or anything like that, although Noi did stop quite frequently to rip up some vines for a snack. We went along a path over a hill, then to a beach (where a couple were ignoring the Thai custom of not bathing topless) and back to the elephant camp. On the ride, I saw a reddish-brown egret.

The other couple fell off their elephant! The ropes holding the chair apparently became lose, and it slid off the side of their ride. No one was hurt, and they worked to put the chair back on the elephant, but it was definitely amusing to watch.

After the ride, they took the elephants into the sea to clean off, and allowed some of the swimmers to pose in the water on the elephant. They served us lunch at the elephant camp, too, which was squid, shrimp curry, chicken & cashews, and sweet pork. I asked for a hot sauce; they served me some fish sauce with peppers. They called it "elephants crying" sauce, which only goes to prove they tone it down for westerners. The sauce is the standard sauce served with Thai food, and the heat was no problem at all for my palate.

While waiting for lunch, I met a Brazilian film-maker, Pablo Reyes, who had just finished filming a documentary for the UN on the condition of children in Rio de Janeiro, Beirut, and Bangkok. Like every Brazilian I've met, he's a big football fan, and was certainly impressed with the American team that played Brazil back in 1994.

After lunch, I took a ride back to the hotel, and then went to explore the city some more. I did my gift shopping here, getting my sister her Buddha, and getting my father a carved elephant. The town was swarming with sailors, and with them came the MP's. Dinner was at the seafood restaurant I found that morning, where I had shrimp curry and shrimp patties, all liberally covered with fish sauce and bird peppers. Still not as hot as I like, but warmer.

The next day, I had to arrange my own transportation to Phuket airport for my flight to Bangkok. This cost 400 baht, and I had time to get more gifts. The flight was smooth, and the ride to the Amari was slow. There's a lot of traffic in Bangkok, and the air is thick with smog. I arrived mid-afternoon, so I just explored around the hotel before dinner. The Amari is a nice hotel, but the neighborhood was, well, slum-like. The streets were filthy and the people poor. The hotel was by a canal that looked like you did not want to get the water on your person. The facilities, like the overpasses, were falling apart.

The Amari Atrium hotel stood out as a contrast to the neighborhood. This is clearly a four or five star hotel, and the service was up to that level. In my journal, I use the word obsequious to describe the experience. The lobby is marble, and many amenities are provided. I'd definitely return to this hotel on a future trip, despite the neighborhood.

After checking the neighborhood, I ventured out to dinner at Cabbages and Condoms. This is one of Bangkok's more famous restaurants, the proprietor is a Buddhist monk who strongly believes in practicing safe sex. The walls are decorated with condoms from around the world, and charts on population control. The food was also excellent! This was the first Thai restaurant that did not tone it down for Western tastes. I had pad thai, sausage, sweet pork and rice, and spicy beef. I ladled fish sauce and bird peppers on it. The sausage came with whole bird peppers; you've not lived until you've crunched three bird peppers in your mouth at the same time. A very hot, and very enjoyable, experience, that. The pad thai is served differently than here, the noodles were wrapped like an omelet, but not mixed into the egg. More like the egg is beaten and fried into a very thin sheet, and is wrapped around the pad thai. Also, sugar is served with the pad thai.

I had a lime shake as a drink; this is frozen lime juice, and was excellent. The whole meal cost about 300 baht, or US $12.

After dinner, I had to re-pack. I decided to skip Khao Yai and instead visit Kanchanaburi. I needed to reduce my luggage to a single bag to make the trip, and to leave two bags at the Amari for my return. This meant packing clothes for three days, toiletries, and the camera and film. I opted to bring three lenses, the 50mm, the 28-80 zoom, and the 75-300 zoom, plus the tripod and the neutral density filters. While not light as a feather, this was light enough to be carried on a third class train.

At 6AM, I was met by a taxi to take me to the Thonburi train station to catch the train to Kanchanaburi. The only service was third class, which is basically hard wood seats. Not a problem; this is also the best way to see how the normal Thai people live. At the train station while waiting for the train, I was "adopted" by several other English speakers who were also traveling to Kanchanaburi. Two were from England, two were from Australia, and one was from New Zealand. Foolishly, I forgot to write down all their names, and the one thing I have trouble remembering is names... They'd just come down from Chiang Mai on an overnight train. I don't know how long they'd been traveling, but Keith had become quite jaded about the scams in Thailand.

Thailand is definitely a land for scams. Most Thais are innocent, but enough of them try to rip you off that it is hard not look jaded at the society. The worst, by far, are the taxi and tuk-tuk drivers. They will say anything to cheat a passenger; the most common scam is to claim that a temple (or other building) is closed, and to take the passenger to a market, where they get a kickback. They also over charge, so they come out well from both sides of the deal. They'll even try to claim a place is closed at the entrance, where people are walking in and paying admission. Another scam is to try to negotiate fares; I always insisted on having the meter run, if a taxi driver refused to run the meter, I refused the ride. One hack tried to get me to pay 200 baht for a ride from Siam Square to my hotel, another demanded 500. When I found a cabbie who would run the meter, the fare was 51 baht, and he got a generous tip.

The trip by train was interesting. There were a lot of interesting birds to see as we passed rice fields, and approached the mountains. Bangkok is built on the delta of a river, and most of the land surrounding the place is very flat. It is prone to flooding, as we saw in several locations during the train ride. Since third class is not exactly luxury, the only food was that provided by hawkers who were wandering the aisles. I did not eat at this time, as it was still early, but kept it in mind for the trip back. Also, since we were all third class, we were frequently held at stations or on shunts to allow higher class trains to pass.

On arrival, we were greeted by the ubiquitous taxi drivers, with their standard claims that all the hostels were "too dirty" or "closed" or "too far away." I had already made a booking at the River Kwai hotel, so I walked there; it was maybe a mile. My new friends walked down to the river, where there were a number of bed and breakfast type places. We agreed to meet up at Isaan for dinner, having selected the place from "The Bible." (Lonely Planet guide to Thailand.)

I spent the day first heading down to the river to visit the JEATH museum, and the businesses along that road. JEATH stands for "Japanese- English-American-Thai-Holland" and is a museum dedicated to the prisoners of war who lived and died building the railroad for the Japanese during World War II. Kanchanaburi was the main camp on the Thai end of the railroad, and is the location for the infamous Bridge over the River Kwai. Many thousands of allied prisoners died at the hands of the Japanese due to brutality or neglect. Disease and infection were rampant. In addition to the prisoners who died, many natives were impressed into service to build the railroad, too.

The railroad is called the Death railroad, for the many people who died to build it. The tracks I rode were among those laid by the prisoners. The railroad did connect Bangkok with Rangoon, but in the years since, the connection was broken, and the tracks used for other purposes.

The JEATH museum is run by a Buddhist monk, and is dedicated to peace. It details some of the atrocities and the heroism of the captives. It was quite a moving experience to see, and to realize just how inhumane humans can be. (I was to experience that feeling with even more strength within the week when I visited Cambodia.)

After the visit to JEATH, I checked out the Kanchanaburi Allied War Cemetery. As many of the dead as could be found from the building of the railroad are buried here, with the exception of the American war dead. We have the tradition of bringing home our dead, whereas the British bury them where they fall. A lot of tombstones.

After that, I took a rickshaw to the bridge. It looks nothing like the bridge from the movie, instead it is a steel bridge that was originally built by the Dutch in Indonesia, and was moved to the current location by the Japanese. No impressive towers. Just a series of cement towers and the single line of track across them.

The story is an interesting conflict between truth and fiction. The movie was based on a book by a Frenchman who had never been to Thailand. The movie was filmed in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The real bridge is steel, the movie bridge is wood. The real bridge is longer, and crosses the river at a wide point. In the movie, the bridge was built at a crossing point in a gorge. In the movie, the bridge was bombed by commandos, in real life, the bridge remained untouched until December, 1944, when the Allies bombed it. In the movie, the first train was a troop train. In real life, the most urgent cargo for the Japanese was a brothel train with "comfort girls." In the movie, the camp was isolated. In real life, the bridge is just outside the city of Kanchanaburi.

One interesting coincidence, the prisoner commander at Kanchanaburi was Colonel Nicholson, but undoubtedly he bore little resemblance to Sir Alec Guiness.

To celebrate the bombing of the bridge, they have an annual light and fireworks show, and since that is in late November, I was there for the preparations. This meant the bridge was covered with cables and wires for the show. It was also covered with tourists.

One interesting recent controversy is the offer by a Japanese firm to rebuild the railroad connecting Thailand and Burma. As one might expect, this drew a very strong reaction from surviving prisoners, and the locals who remembered the war. The Japanese were denied permission.

I bought a few souvenirs for my family, and then headed back to my hotel. Isaan was supposed to be near there, so I dropped off my stuff and went looking for it. I couldn't find it, and so I asked around. Apparently, Isaan had gone out of business in the previous year; the bible was wrong. The gang met up with me shortly thereafter, and I passed the bad news. We decided we'd look for another place. We stopped at a bar, and watched Jumanji, but decided we did not want to eat there. We tried a couple other places, but they were either closed, or out of food, before we ended up at the Jolly Frog, where they were staying. The food was good, and inexpensive, and the company was excellent. I had a lemon shake, shrimp patties, fried squid, and rice with pork. Since i had to wake to get the bus to Erewan the next day, I left at 10PM.

I was awakened after a good night's sleep by the 6AM train, rumbling past the hotel. Just as well, as I needed a shower before catching the first bus to Erewan. Erewan is a national park located in the mountains of Kanchanaburi province, and is most famous for the seven step water fall. This was a four mile hike, to climb beside the creek as it passed over the seven steps. The waterfall was not a long drop in the classic Yosemite sense, but was more of a series of cascades, each no more than ten or twenty feet. It was a photographer's dream, as the many different falls presented different angles for interesting photographs, and I do enjoy long shots on moving water.

Since I got there early, the hike up was not very busy, but in coming back down, there were starting to be throngs of people. I couldn't make it to the seventh step, since the trail was covered with water, and I didn't want to risk shorting out the photo equipment. Still, it was a vigorous and exciting hike. One of the photographs has been enlarged to 12x18, and will be framed to hang on the wall.

After the hike, I went to the hawker stands for food. I had some fried noodles, which were good, and some salt beef, which was pretty bad. Awful, actually. I've also developed a taste for Sprite, since it is not as sugary as coke. Well, it doesn't taste as sugary, I should say, and diet sodas are rare.

I then took the bus back to Kanchanaburi. I explored some more around the center of town, and found the residence of the provincial governor, before heading over to the Jolly Frog to see if my friends wanted dinner. We stayed there again, because the food was good, and I got people's addresses before heading back to my hotel. They were going up to Erewan the next day, and I was returning to Bangkok. There was a bit of misting rain that day, but that was the last rain I'd see on my trip, and it wasn't much. Overall, the weather was very co-operative, and better than one would expect for that time of year.

The train left at 7:30AM, so I checked out and walked down to the station. This time, the train took three hours to get back to Thonburi station, with us spending an hour at a siding as all the express trains passed us. I had breakfast on the train, chicken with red peppers wrapped in a banana leaf and three sticks of sweet BBQ pork. On this train trip, I saw many egrets, kingfishers, and bulbuls. Some species were a pink-necked pigeon (treron vernans), black drongo (dicrurus macrocercus), crow-billed drongo (dicrurus annectans), and a stork-billed kingfisher (pelargopsis capensis). I'm sure I saw a cattle egret (bulbulcus ibis) as well. I took a cab from the station back to the Amari Atrium, where I recovered by bags and checked back in to the hotel. The taxi driver took a circuitous path back to the hotel that added about 15 baht to the fare; needless to say, he got no tip. My next destination was the Queen Savahbe snake farm, in Bangkok. This is a place where they milk snakes for venom, to produce anti-venom. We saw banded kraits, Siam cobra, king cobra, Malaysian vipers, green vipers, and white-lipped vipers. These snakes were impressive. They milked some Siam vipers, and fed a python some chicken.

Since the snake farm is near Patong, and Patong is infamous, I decided I should take a look. Since it is daylight, and Patong is a night spot, I figured it wouldn't be too crowded. It wasn't, but that didn't prevent me from being solicited.

Patong is the center of the sex trade in Bangkok, and was the destination for American GI's during WWII. The street is about 500 feet long, and is packed with strip clubs with such subtle names as "Pussy Galore." There weren't that many people there at 5 in the afternoon, so I guess a single, western male is an obvious target. The typical solicitation was, "You want girl?" to which I invariably responded, "Thank you, no," without slowing down a step. "You come back later?" "I think not." One of the pimps offered a boy when I declined the girl. The usual approach has the pimp showing a picture of several girls involved in some form of sexual activity, or scantily dressed. Girls is the real operative term, the one I glanced at actually looked to be a picture of a girl about 14 years old.

Even if I were so inclined, I would not consider Thailand a destination for sexual activity. For a start, I personally am more attracted to Western women, anyway, so the Thai women did not look that sexy to me. I also believe it would be more enjoyable with a woman who wants to be with me, as opposed to some poor girl who was kidnaped or sold, and forced into prostitution. Lastly, in case you've lived in a cave, there's this virus going about that causes a disease called AIDS, and it has some terminal consequences that I'd rather not have to face. Those are all my personal reasons.

In a broader perspective, while I don't think prostitution should be illegal, the whole tawdry atmosphere bothered me. It just isn't my idea of a good time.

So, why did I walk past there? I don't really know. I would not have gone out of my way to go there, so if I hadn't gone to the snake farm, I'd never have seen the place. I guess there's something about the place that is famous, and to criticize it, I should know of what I speak. I don't think I've been to any place as sleazy as Patong in my life, and I don't want to go to any place like that again. I felt like I needed a shower when I got back to the hotel.

I took a taxi back, this was a mistake. I wanted to go to Siam Square for dinner, but I could not find a taxi driver willing to run with a meter. I ended up walking five miles to Ploenjit Plaza before deciding to turn back and go to the hotel. I did find an Internet cafe in Ploenjit Plaza, but it could not connect to any sites outside Thailand. I'm not certain it wasn't a scam, but I couldn't prove anything, so I paid my money and left.

I had eaten many consecutive Thai meals. I love Thai food, but I needed a break. I wanted to try some Chinese food, but that option wasn't available. I eventually opted for Italian food (in Thailand?!?) and was not surprised. It was no where near the level one would expect in North Beach, but it was perfectly adequate. I had a sausage pizza and some soup. It was expensive.

I developed a sore throat while hiking in Bangkok, much to my dismay. I guess with all the smog, I shouldn't have been surprised, so I picked up some fisherman's friend throat lozenges. I still have a couple in the Blue Box of Debt. I slept well that night.

I wanted to do some laundry the next day, then visit the temples. It took a while, as I searched for a Laundromat or some place that did laundry. I was frustrated, as all the laundries refused to provide same day service, instead indicating it would take 3-5 days to clean my clothes! (I'd be in Cambodia by then.) Only the hotel could provide same day service, but that would be expensive. So, I planned to try to clean the clothes myself. This would prove to be a mistake.

I dropped my laundry back at the hotel and took a cab to the center of the city. In the middle of each town, there is a monument that has significance for Buddhists. I visited there, then ambled over to Wat Pho. This is one of the larger temples in Bangkok, and is the site of the reclining Buddha. There were many towers and statues, and at least 200 Buddhas. The reclining Buddha is located in its own temple, and is huge. It is at least 150 feet long, and 30 feet high, and is covered in gold leaf. The statuary is magnificent, and the temples are certainly well maintained, even if the taxi drivers all say they're closed.

The next stop was to cross the river to Thonburi and visit Wat Arun. This temple is of Khmer design, as opposed to Siamese. It is more conical, with more stone and less color. Alas, this temple was entirely off limits, as it is being reconstructed. So, it was back across the Chao Praya to visit the Royal Palace. This was the most expensive temple, costing 125 baht to enter, and came with a scam. You could not buy a ticket just for the palace, you had to buy a ticket to two other destinations, too.

The wat in the royal palace encloses the emerald Buddha. This is the most magnificent Buddha in Thailand and is considered representative of the nation. Alas, photography in the temple is illegal, as it is in many of the buildings. So, after visiting the Buddha (which is raised high on a platform, and is barely visible anyway) there wasn't much else to do except wander the grounds. The palace is impressive, but by the end of the day, I was tired of looking at temples, so I went back to the hotel to recover.

For dinner, I headed over to Siam Square, for Chinese food. I had sharks' fin soup with crab meat, and chicken with cashews. The food was excellent. I also visited Siam Square itself, which is a shopping mall. They had a basketball court inside, and I watched some people play. If anyone could shoot from the outside, they'd win, since the players would really lay off someone on the perimeter. It was after this that I ran into the biggest thieving taxi drivers, as described above. 500 baht? Ludicrous. I'm glad I was patient, and found an honest driver. Some of these hacks could teach the New York City taxi drivers about cheating passengers.

That night I rented a movie, Primal Fear, and tried to wash my clothes. While the washing was easy, the drying was not. It ended up that I had soaking wet clothes the next morning, so I decided to spring for the laundry in the hotel, despite the cost. After the movie, I slept.

The last full day in Bangkok was spent visiting Dusit Zoo and the Vinmanek House. The zoo was interesting, but not as well cared for as many other zoos. It did have shady walks, though, and a few interesting animals. One of the things they do is sell stale bread you can toss to the animals. Watching the hippos beg for bread was disheartening, though, so I left quickly.

Vinmanek Mansion is a teak house, with 84 rooms. It is made entirely of wood, and is quite impressive. It was the imperial palace for a while, and is currently used for visiting heads of state. Bill and Hillary Clinton stayed there a few days after I visited. After the tour, there was an exhibition of Thai dance and boxing.

After this, I walked into the center of town (about three miles) and photographed the democracy monument. By this time, I had exhausted my film for the day, and took a taxi back to the hotel. The driver first took me to the wrong hotel, despite my giving him a card written in Thai that directed any driver to the hotel. So... He got no tip. On my return, I got the laundry bill, 1177 baht, about US$48. Ouch.

For my last dinner in Thailand, I returned to Cabbages and Condoms, where I had squid over rice, shrimp cups, tom yum gung, and spiced shrimp with basil. Excellent. With a morning flight to Phnom Penh, I went to bed after packing and slept like a log.

Thailand was a very interesting place. By and large I enjoyed myself, despite the irritations of the corrupt taxi drivers and the evidence of the sex trade. The former I could work around and the latter I could avoid. Thailand is a big place, though, and there are many sites that I missed. I'll need to return some day to visit the northern areas, like Chiang Mai, and I'd like to see Co Samui and the Similians. That's enough cause for another trip. Thailand was much less expensive than I expected, too, so if I could get the air fare, the rest would be easy. It wouldn't surprise me if I returned within a few years to visit those areas I missed.

The next stop is Phnom Penh, and Cambodia. The airport in Bangkok was passable, and I left luggage at the Amari Airport for my return, so I avoided excess luggage fees. Only problem was a lack of seats at the airport, so I ended up sitting on the floor. No big deal, really.

Time for a Holiday in Cambodia.