I am not a tourist, but a traveler...

…However, the nature of a group tour organized by travel agency means that I doesn’t get to be that much of the latter. But for all the secondary school principals in the district to on a trip together, this is basically the only way to do it. And since Chris and I decided to tag along, so what the heck, we decided to make the most out of it and enjoy ourselves with our parents.

After we arrived at the airport, we hopped straight on to the bus provided by the local tour agency which came along with a local tour guide, who turned out to be very very shitty; and an assistant tour guide, which is a very very nice person. 

As we were traveling along the outskirts of Bangkok through the motorway to Pattaya, the first impression that this country gives me is that it is a very religious country and their respect to the royal and their patriotism is of the level that I never thought existed. Along the way I’ve lost count of how many flags I’ve seen displayed – from nicely built shoplots to stalls by the street, and to private residents. I’m sure if they can find a way attach all three flags to their vehicles, they would have been driving those around proudly. Before I stepped foot on Thailand, I have no idea how their King looked like, and now, his face in my head and I can easily recall it whenever I want. Because everywhere I turn, I see a picture of the King. From the airport terminal to the small shops in the narrow alley of Pratunam market. You can tell that they display it not because the law requires them to, or because that if they don’t do so, they will get into troubles with the authority, but simply because they love their King – a small shop in Pratunam market having 5 or 6 pictures of various sizes of the King from calendar, newspaper cuttings and some posters up the wall. And every direction I turn, I’ll see an altar of some sort. Amidst all the development that this country is going through, particularly Pattaya into a total tourism city and Bangkok into a modern city, they have not lost touch with their religion. Buddhism is practiced in literally every corner of the street. Monks collecting alms early in the morning in their orange robes and the happiness and shine in the eyes of the people who offer them food creates such a harmonious picture – they consider it a blessing to have been given a chance to offer the monks something, this particular mental picture which I took outside a shop near Pratunam market, is something that I will never forget. And where else in the world will you see a big altar in front of a commercial building or a shopping complex or inside a tattoo parlor? And people who pass by these altars outside the commercial buildings, no matter how fast they are walking, they will stop, and put their hands together and say some short prayers, and then continue walking, in their uniforms or working suits. That amazes me. I always know Thailand is a religious country, but those few days in Pattaya and Bangkok gave me a picture of how genuine it is and recognizing and then acknowledging this aspect in crazy traffic and hustle bustle of the city especially in Bangkok, and just to see how these 2 aspects which doesn’t seem parallel at all come together perfectly and coexist harmoniously, is enough to make me fall in love with Bangkok.

But my love literally came to a halt when I’m thrown right smack into the flow of being a tourist. One of the biggest cons about traveling in this kind of tour group is that the tour guide will bring us to all these supposedly cheap factories for us to shop and he will get commissions from all the purchases we made. Our 2 days in Pattaya, we have been brought to 2, a gem factory the first thing after we left the airport on the way to Pattaya and another shop which sells local junk food when we are heading out from Pattaya to Bangkok. What’s the point exactly? The stuffs are so expensive and most of the time nobody buys it anyway. But, it comes with the package, so yeah. But since there is nothing much to do in Pattaya besides being a tourist, so I’m ok with it as long as we were also brought to do all the touristy thing like watching the world famous Alcazar show and playing water sports in Coral Island. Chris and I did this apparently new sport called seawalker, and it is one of the most amazing things I’ve done. And since Chris will probably blog about it, I shall let him tell the story.

Things took a bad turn on our second day in Bangkok. That was going to be our only full day in Bangkok so I initially expect us to be covering a lot of the mist-go spots in Bangkok like Wat Pho, Wat Arun, the Royal Palace and etc. We left the hotel early in the morning, and did this river cruise along the Chao Phraya River which is a bit too commercialized for my liking. We made a stop at Wat Arun, and which under normal circumstances, the tour guide should bring us to the place and explain to the group about the history and architecture and etc of the Wat – our tour guide did not even do that. As if that is not bad enough, he said there is no point purchasing the tickets to climb the Pagoda and suggested that we only take pictures from afar. Chris and I decided to screw what he said and bought the tickets anyway. The view from the tower, is mesmerizing, even though I did not make it to the top because I’m afraid of height you see. Anyway, we were only given half an hour at Wat Arun before we had to meet up with the group to make our way to the Royal Palace. Our beloved tour guide, did not do any explanation just as usual. Wandering around on our own and trying to understand the place from the very little information that I read from the net and Lonely Planet, and looking at how the other tour guides are telling their respective groups interesting stories and all, pissed me up to the max. That was the moment I decided for sure that, our guide is useless, or which his assistant would love to call him – stupid. Believe me, he is no less than that, not only because of his omissions, but the things he do as well. Oh such luck.

We came out from the Royal Palace around 11am and we had to travel a full 45 minutes to the suburb to eat at a Halal restaurant. We have been doing this for full 3 days now and to find a Halal restaurant in Bangkok is not easy. But we have no choice since most of my dad’s colleagues are Malays and we have to respect their religion. I was trying to come to terms with the fact that we have been eating only Tom Yam, omelets, mixed vege, chicken/fish for every meal in different Halal restaurants, and the fact that because of this, I haven’t got a chance to try any genuine Thai food after being in Thailand for 3 days, but I gave up that afternoon itself. This frustration is something that only the Malaysian One Lovers will understand I’m afraid. Ok, fine, we have to respect your religion, but don’t you think it’s a bit too much that we sacrifice our time and travel this far just so you can eat and yet when you are served with the food, you are still afraid to eat them because you think they are not really Halal even though the restaurant is certified by the World Halal Council to be so? Then what’s the point of we wasting all our time where we can just eat in city center and continue with our journey instead on spending 2 freaking hours in the traffic for lunch – you are not going to eat either way. I am not saying that the Malays or Muslims in this context of Malaysia are bad people. And truth is, their religion itself is a great religion, but when the government starts to use religion as a tool to control the Malay population, when religion and politics are not separated, problems like this occurs. And I can’t say it’s all their fault, because ever since they day they were born, they always get their way in this country. But this is a story for another day.

The last straw came after lunch where we were not brought to any historical site, but to a honey factory, and then a leather factory. Comes with presentation and all in a conference room where those people from the factory try to con us into buying their stuff. And after the leather factory, we were brought to a shopping complex. That was when Chris and I decided to ditch the group and ditch another dinner at a Halal restaurant and more shopping at a more commercialized night market after.

We found a phone booth and I called Mathew – a fellow Couchsurfing member which we had planned to meet up later that night and told him we decided to head over to Khao San Road earlier than planned.

That 3 hours or so at Khao San makes me fall in love with the city all over again, and deeper than before. And so, that experience deserves another post. 

Mayyie xxx