Bosses blogg

Wednesday, March 1st

I was starting to feel a bit sad for leaving soon, so I didn’t feel in the mood for doing much at all this day, but I ended up at Silom Complex reading the Bangkok Post thouroughly and having several cups of jasmine tea, before I met Pim for the last time, walking about the weekend market at Lumpini Park and shopping for some gifts for home. It’s always sad to leave a good friend, especially when there’s no way of knowing when we’ll meet again. It might be one year, it might be five years, and it might be never.

Tuesday, February 28th

Boring day. I didn’t care for taking a daily excursion to Ayutthaya as I originally planned, so I have just been walking around. I’m going to the Emporium later on, and perhaps I’ll go for a stroll in Lumpini Park again later.

Yesterday, I went to see the Siam Ocean World at Siam Paragon, and went through the whole thing in about an hour. It was some impressive creatures there, like huge sharks passing by 20 centimetres over my head, but in general my impression was only a mild dissatisfaction. It was OK, but I’ve seen much better aquarium concepts before. Being a concept in the Siam Paragon I would expect more excellence.

Today I guess I’ll go see a movie at the Discovery, or I’ll follow up on Sanpron’s invitation to give him a call on the 28th, when he would come to Bangkok. (It’s the owner of the resort on Koh Jum, who lives in Bangkok.)

Monday, February 27th

I’m starting to see the end of the vacation now, with my plane leaving for Amsterdam on thursday at 23:30 in the evening. I will seriously miss my old and new friends, as well as the country itself and its sometimes mind-boggling ways. I’m trying to not think too much about this.

So far, I have spent the day on the 7th floor of the MBK centre, writing articles on my blog about the last few days. I have no plans for the day, and I guess I won’t be doing much, perhaps a movie later on. Pim is busy, so I’ll have to go by myself.

One funny thing happened to me when I got into the MBK centre, though. A guy came walking along next to me, and then he chuckled and asked me how tall I was. Around 190 centimetres, I said, and then he started comparing our foot sizes. European 45, I said with a smile, and we exchanged pleasantries when we walked down the mall. I was already having my warning light strobes up, and they were flashing quite intensely. No worries, I thought, I’ll just see where this goes. Without being asked, I said that I was soon going home to the snow, and then I would be skiing. I was waiting for him to ask me where I was from, but then I just said “I’m from Norway, by the way”. Wow, my sister is going to Norway, he said, and warning lights were flashing in my head almost to the extent that I wanted to laugh really loud about the whole thing. Good, I said, and then I said that I was going this way to the elevator, and wishing him a nice day. He asked if I wanted to meet his sister, and I asked if she wasn’t still in Norway. No, he said, she was still here, but she was going to go there. He started to look at the watch and asked me when we should meet, he would bring his sister. No thanks, but good luck anyways, I said and walked away. When I got up to the 7th floor, I was thinking along the lines of “fool me once, shame on you – fool me twice, shame on me”.

I wonder how good the business is for these sorts of scams. Damn it, I should have asked him about that before walking away.

Sunday, February 26th

Pim had a little hangover today, even though she didn’t drink much the day before. After breakfast, we thought about going to an underwater world, but as it did cost quite a lot of money for foreigner, Pim suggested that I visit the Underwater world in Siam Paragon instead. We ended up taking a walk to the bus station before giving up to the heat and taking a 10 baht songthaew the rest of the way.

After a sleepy bus ride back to Bangkok, we went with the Skytrain to National Stadium and MBK centre, and had dinner at Bar-B-Q or something – you get some japanese dishes and fry or boil them yourself on a plate on the table. It was 290 baht for a big plate of stuff, and I really got full without managing to eat it all. It was really great food, and a nice experience, as I don’t think we have anything like that at home. Perhaps a business oppertunity for when I get tired of working with computers?

Pim felt sick, so she went home, and I went to my A-One hotel closeby to rest the rest of the day.

Saturday, February 25th

After arriving to my hotel at 04:00 in the morning, I enquired about storing my big bag in the box storage, and booked a room from sunday to monday. I had quite a few hours to kill before Pim would be calling, so I went to 7-eleven to buy Bangkok Post and something to drink.

Eventually Pim called, and we agreed to meet on Ekkamai skytrain station next to the Eastern Bus Terminal in 30 minutes. She was delayed by the typical Bangkok traffic and was 90 minutes late. We went on to the bus station and grabbed an air-con bus to Pattaya, for 117 baht per person. The ride was two hours and comfortable enough. From the bus station we took a songthaew to the Green Park Resort.

The place was swarming with old, fat and bald men with bargirls, and some of them even winked and whispered on Pim while we were walking down the promenade. This was a meat market, but I sort of knew this already, and didn’t get too fussed up about it. We met some young school girls further down on the promenade, practicing English by talking to foreigners. It seemed like this was the action of a foreign guy who tutored these girls in English for free. Some of the girls came up to me and Pim while we were taking a rest on a bench and asked if we would help them with their English. While we were making easy converstaion in English, Pim started correcting them in their tones (when asking a question, for example) while I was just chatting away, getting reprimanded by Pim several times for talking too fast.

Later on, we went out for a drink and a cabaret show at Tiffany’s Show, a ladyboy ensemble with extravaganza and glam. It turned out to be only so-so, with some good dance performances, but I didn’t like the concept as everything was playback. The artists were just miming the songs and the words, and there was no orchestra. It really made the whole thing boring for me, and I was very happy when it was over and we could leave. But it did get me a kiss from a ladyboy and a photo of me, Pim and two ladyboys, costing me 190 baht in total. (They really wanted 300 baht, but I didn’t have change for that.)

After this, we took a 10 baht songthaew to the infamous Walking Street and had dinner with live band performance (rock cover artists and even an Elvis inpersonator). We had a seafood/lemon sauce dish which was absolutely delicious. Afterwords we took a little sightseeing stroll on Walking Street before we went back to the resort.

Friday, February 24th

I was actually thinking of leaving the day before, on thursday, but I had to stay another day (and that was fine with me, I was really enjoying it on Koh Jum) due to the fact that all planes and express VIP-buses were full. I was due to meet Pim in Bangkok on saturday morning for a one-day trip to Pattaya. To get to Bangkok in time, I would need to take the bus from Krabi bus terminal on friday at 17:00.

Due to the low tide, the Bonhomie longtail was stranded, and I was to be shuttled to the Krabi ferry (passing by at 14:00) by someone from another resort. Fate would play tricks with me, as someone died on Koh Jum the day before, and muslims will bury the dead within 24 hours. The funeral made it impossible for me to get to the Krabi ferry in time, and I was stranded. This was something I just had to accept for what it was, so I embraced myself for an early departure the next day and a very expensive plane ticket in order to get to Bangkok that day.

To my surprise, the owner of the resort, Sanpron, offered to drive me to Krabi, and all I had to pay him was what I would have paid for the ferry to Krabi and taxi to the bus station, around 350 baht. I was very grateful for his offer, but would not hear anything of his attempts to take responsibility for the situation – he claimed that he said everything would be allright with the ferry, and when it was not he felt guilty. I was very clear that my vacation is my own responsibility and things like this happen. I gladly accepted his offer to transport me to Krabi, but with at least a more proper compensation than 350 baht (a taxi would cost 600 baht)

We took the jeep along the bumpy Koh Jum roads, and I even got to see a monkey on a very close range during the ride. They seem to be more afraid of people than of cars. We got to the pier, and would cross over to the mainland in a longtail full of children who had attended the funeral of the beforementioned person. During the ride, I had a pleasant conversation with Sanpron, generating some laughs and smiles. This must have eased up the young boys, as they started to gather around me and play with my backpack next to my feet. Suddenly, one of them broke out in a big grin and asked me proudly where I was from, in English. Sanpron told me that these kids learn English in school, but never gets around to practice it with foreigners, so this was very exiting for them. Eventually, I was talking very slow English with 15 muslim schoolboys from Krabi. When we got to the mainland pier, one of the boys asked me something that I didn’t understand, so I had to get them all to repeat the question. After a few attempts, I grasped that they were asking me about what my favourite football team was. I am not interested in football, but to avoid long explainations about this, I told them my favourite team was Manchester United. What I didn’t tell them was that this is my father’s favourite team.

On the mainland, Sanpron went to get his mainland car. On the resort, he said that it was not a car. What is it, then, I asked him, quite curious to what kind of veichle this was. It’s not a car, he said again, and showed me his car keys with “It’s not a car, it’s a Volkswagen” on the keyring. I almost fell out of the chair laughing.

The car was a very old, white Beetle Bus, but it did the trick. We got to the bus terminal in time, and I could get my bus ticket (920 baht). I had some sandwhiches for lunch with Sanpron at the closeby restaurant before we parted ways. I thought it would be proper to pay for gasoline, expenses and time, so I gave him 800 baht. He said it was too much, but I insisted and then we parted ways. I got into the 24-seat VIP bus for Bangkok (24 seats in what would ordinarily be 50 seats, mind you – I had plenty of legroom) and off we went at exactly 17:00. At 19:30 we stopped at a roadside restaurant to have dinner (included in the fare), and even though there was no information in English, I followed Sanpron’s suggestion that I just follow the Thais, and this worked out fine. We were ushered into a big dining room where there was plates, cutlery and cups on the table, together with bowls of rice and some Thai dishes. When I finished the meal, I went to a department store nearby to buy a fill-up card for my mobile phone, and ended up buying a 300 baht card even though I didn’t need that much.

The ride was nice, but the roads to Bangkok was very bumpy, and several times I woke up with a shock, as the bus “flew through the air” after hitting one enourmous tarmac bump. The bus went along the way from Krabi, passing Surat Thani, Chumphon and Phetchaburi on the way to Bangkok, passing very close to the Burmese border. I didn’t see much as I was drifting in and out of sleep all the time.

When we arrived at Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal in Thonburi the next day at 03:30, I was immediately hawked by people wanting to offer me their taxi services. I was trying to find a ride on the meter, but most of the taxi drivers declined, as they wanted a fixed price of 150 baht for the effort. Eventually I found someone who would accept my demand for a metered ride to Siam, but he looked like he was about to fall asleep. As I stuffed my backpack into the car, I noticed some of his colleagues saying “baht, baht” to him, not happy with the fact that I declined their offer of a fixed price. I was sure that the ride was not worth a baht over 100, as Siam would be a nice ride straight east from the bus terminal, passing through Banglamphou and Democracy Monument.

On the ride, I offered the taxi driver a Red Bull energy drink that I had tucked away in my daypack, so that he perhaps would wake up. He was no good in English (even though the window had a big sticker saying “I love farang (foreigner), we speak english”) and started to talk about alternative routes. I told him to go through Banglamphou and drive me to Siam, but he said something about problem and go through Silom instead. I thought that Silom was further down the bank and quite some detour, but he insisted that this would be the best ride. I was not one to argue, so I said OK and off we went down the bank off Chang Phraya on the Thonburi side, before we passed the Chang Phraya and got close to Silom. The taxi driver then started to gaggle about girls and pointing to Patpong which was close by. Not interested, I said, but he still seemed like a sexual deviator, pointing to girls in school uniforms passing in front of the car on a red light, making drool sounds and clearly indicating that he wouldn’t mind having his way with them. I found the whole experience to be outright disturbing, and eventually I just ignored him.

Well, I arrived at my hotel in Siam, and the meter said 155 baht, so I would have been better off taking the offer off the meter. This guy had been taking me for a joyride in Bangkok, and even though it was on the meter he made a good profit. I was too tired bothering about demanding change back from the 160 baht I gave him (that is not an automatic affair with Bangkok taxis) and just wanted to get rid of him.

Thursday, February 23rd

Today I got to drive the longtailboat on a little cruise down to the southern part of the island. Tchum didn’t want me to give it so much speed, as this boat is quite difficult to steer. The thing is really just a 300kg diesel engine mounted on the boat by a oiled junction, and a propella mounted on the far end of a 3-4 metre pipe. This design is typical for South East Asia, and is quite ingenious for navigating through shallow waters and where there are plenty of fishing nets floating around. I read somewhere that this design allegedly stems from a time when there was a lot of old diesel truck engines for sale in Europe, and a clever Hong Kong businessman figured out what they could be used for, implementing them on Asian longtailboats for effective propulsion through rivers and canals.

Sarah and Tchum invited me to go with Tchum to Coconut Island on the most northern part of the island, where their dream was to buy land and build a resort of their own. Tchum and myself went out there with a MTX cross motorbike, at least as far as we got before the thing ran out of fuel. We passed some rubber plantations and eventually made the way to Cocunut Beach, and it was quite beautiful. They would need to do a lot of work with the place, with the road and with setting up the resort, but it was doable, at least if they got the funds together. I think they talked about needing about one million baht to get everything up, and they would go to Sarahs hometown of Bordeaux in May, possibly to work up money. I hope their dream comes true.

I also went for a walk along the rocky seaside further north, but I decided to not go very far, as the weather was starting to turn, and I could see that it was raining heavily out in the Andaman Ocean.

Wednesday, February 22nd

I spent the day reading my book almost from cover to cover, only interrupted by quite a lot of daydreaming while looking at the sea, the waves and listening to the jungle sounds. The night before, the monkeys had a lot of fun throwing stuff at the roof of my bungalow, so this night I would use the MP3 player to block them out with music instead. Haha, I win, you stupid monkeys!

This was good stuff. I have never been so relaxed. Ever!

Tuesday, February 21st

I seemed to have forgotten to smother one particular part of my body in sunblock yesterday. My head. As I’m now officially old and already have started to lose my hair, it won’t block out as much sunrays as before. So while I was enjoying the ride from Phuket to Lanta yesterday, the sun went berserk on my scalp, and now it hurts like hell! It’s not the best location to smother with sun lotion or aftersun, but I’m trying. So now I’m lobster in my head too. Fortunately, the red color in my face is almost gone.

I’m leaving the resort for the pier at noon, and will go with the boat to Koh Jum. If I have internet access where I’m going, I’ll update this article from there. If not, I might be away for a while. Bye.

On the ferry to Koh Jum (pronounced Kootsjum) I got into a chat with Niel, Peter and a czech girl that I forgot the name of. They were staying at a resort close to mine, and I would meet them again later.

From the ferry, I called my resort without getting a response. I tried again a few times before I gave up, but suddenly someone called me back. I was assured that there would be a longtailboat there to pick me up, and that I should disembark the Krabi ferry at the second stop outside Koh Jum (the northern part of the island, near Mount Pu). When we got there, several longtailboats came out to meet us, and one of the drivers yelled Bonhomie, which was my place. When we got ashore, I met with the owner Sanpron and his helper, a french girl named Sarah. She had a six week old baby in her arms, which she had with Tchum, the wonderfully pleasant chef and longtailboat-captain.

The bungalow was great, and the day was spent taking walks along the beach, relaxing with good meals and reading books. You know, I never imagined that the jungle made so much noise. All day, all night, small little critters were flapping their wings up in the trees, making waves of sounds from the trees all day long. I saw a lot of monkeys jumping here and there up in the trees, but didn’t manage to get a good photograph of them.

Monday, February 20

The day started by me waking up at 06:30, having a refreshing shower, strapping on my backpack and going outside to wait for my ride to the Phuket pier. After a long conversation with my neighbourhood travel agent the night before, I decided to take the boat from Phuket to Koh Lanta via Koh Phi Phi instead of taking the 3 hour bus ride from Phuket Town to Krabi, and I can’t say that I regret that decision. The boat ride was very comfortable.

My ride came (on time) at 07:10, and I was the first one in the minivan. It was going to pick up several others who also were going to the Koh Lanta ferry. We stopped by a guest house further down the street in Hat Kamala to pick up three swedes, and drove down to Ao Patong to pick up four British guys at some posh hotel with perimeter security and everything. (The security guard went around the car with a mirror to scan the car below, but did not check the car itself – my backpack could be full of cluster bombs without him ever knowing.) After picking them up, we went to the pier, about 30 minutes away. Upon arrival at the pier, my booking was immediately handled by a representative for the ferry company, and I was given a sticker to wear on my shirt to indicate that I was destined for the Phi Phi islands. I was given an extra ticket for the next leg of my journey, Phi Phi to Lanta.

The ride was absolutely refreshing. I had adhered to the warnings and smothered myself in sunblock, as the sun is really harsh midday, and when you’re in a boat you will not notice that you’re getting grilled before it’s too late. When we got to Phi Phi, I offloaded my backpack to the ferry for Lanta, and stayed on board even though the ferry wouldn’t leave for another hour. I just wanted to relax, and didn’t really feel that I would be able to see shit of Phi Phi in that hour, other than getting harassed by touts in town. I had a lot of fun on the boat, though. The ferry crew threw out pieces of bread to the fish, and thousands of goldfish immediately rushed to eat the bread. It was almost like pirahnas, but with fish you’d usually have in you aquarium. I took some photos and even a video of this, and will upload it when I am able to (but not now, I’m writing this on a satellite connection.)

After fencing off some touts trying to get me to sleep at their accomodation (they get hefty commissions for this) I sat down on the front deck and read some more of my book “The Broker” by Robert Ludlum or something like that. I also have a book by Joseph Stieglitz (former head of economic advisory board for president Clinton) that’s keeping me somewhat occupied, but for the time being I’m sticking to the fiction. The ride was quite comfortable, and when I got to Koh Lanta I was looking for my ride. There was supposed to be someone from my reserved resort there to pick me up, but I didn’t find anyone.

I arrived at Koh Lanta at 13:00, and sat until 13:15 (only me and a few others were now left behind, waiting for our ride) before I called my accomodation for the night, “Clean Beach Resort”. They said that their ride was on their way, and I walked around the area trying to keep busy until 13:30 – then I had to get out of the sun. I sat down at a convinience store next to the pier and called my resort again. They didn’t seem to understand fully, so I spoke very slowly that I was sitting at the Princess Lanta pier and were waiting at the Lanta Center store. He understood this quite perfectly, but time would show that I had to wait until 15:00 before they showed up. It turned out that they had been waiting at the wrong pier.

I was not angry at them for screwing up, I was just happy that I didn’t have to take an expensive tuk-tuk, or even walk to the resort. We had to wait for a little while, as a new boat from Phi Phi came very soon, and I had no problem with that – they were really nice people, and while we were waiting for the next boat on the pier, we had a nice chat. Eventually, the boat came in, and some party animals from the boat were going to my resort. We had to sit on the back of a pickup truck, and I was feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the speed and the turns of this veichle in heavy island traffic. At the end of the ride I was feeling quite numb in my hands from holding tight, but the other guys, especially a moron from Australia, didn’t hold on at all. Actually, to my horror the jerk started “surfing” on the back of the pickup truck – we were going in 80 km/h, and that idiot was trying to be cool for his girlfriends. If he fell down he could have knocked any of us out of the car with him. Fortunately, a Paris Hilton lookalike (in body and head, meaning posh looking and incredibly weird) surprised me by telling him to sit down and stop being a jerk. The whole bunch was a mix of Canadian, Australian and American teenagers or early-20’s on a party spree of Thailand – every cliche from American teenage party movies (American Pie with friends) did actually materialise in this bunch. Not exactly my type of friends – I really miss my Thai friends in Bangkok, but will meet them on Friday, when I take the 12 hour bus from Krabi to Bangkok Southern Bus Terminal.

I’m leaving from Koh Lanta to Koh Jum tomorrow at 13:00, and hope to be arriving there somewhere around 14:00.