An 11-Day Thailand Rendezvous

My usual traveling buddies, Andy and Jeremy texted me one day in December 2005 about ‘attacking’ Thailand for the mentioned duration! Since I am running low in my pocket, I texted back that I would have to think first. But they persisted on since they were already live online with Air Asia’s site and what they saw as a steal price - Air Asia offering free seats for the price of one way flight! Wow great. RM177 after tax and ex-Kota Kinabalu direct to Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport! So texted back, “Go ahead, count me in!”

Until 1939, Thailand was Siam and has never been colonized by a foreign power, unlike its South and South-East Asian neighbours. Thais are often depicted as fun-loving and happy-go-lucky folk, they are proud and strong-minded, and have struggled for centuries to preserve their independence of spirit. Thai culture has remained dominant, even in modern city life. The end result is that Thailand has much to interest the traveler, from trekking in the north’s picturesque mountains to chilling out on one of the many exotic islands in the south.
Thailand has an area of 517,000 sq. km. and its shape on the map has been likened to the head of an elephant, with its trunk extending down the Malay peninsula.

Lonely Planet Thailand 9th Edition

Thailand Day 1 - Arriving Bangkok (18th July 2006)

The D-day has finally came and off we went: Me, Jeremy, Andy, Neal and Thien after 6 anxious months of waiting ! Except for Jeremy, all of us are deaf. It goes to show that deaf people can travel too unaccompanied. Eventhough Jeremy is a hearing individual, it was of no use as he later found out when we all went to Northern Thailand. Everyone of us communicated with the Thais in rugged sign language, including Jeremy because English is not widely used and understood compared to Bangkok!

There was this funny incident in the plane to Bangkok! The stewards and stewardesses were all Thais because their name tags carried Thai-like spellings! When one of the stewards found out 4 of us are deaf, he immediately asked each one of us to be paired with hearing strangers! Reason: In case of emergency, the hearing buddy will help the deaf! Duh...I think this steward must have been born from another planet for how else he thought the deaf could not take care of themselves! As it was, I was paired with Jeremy, Andy with somebody, Neal with somebody else up front and Thien also with some unknown jerk somewhere. As a result, the deaf sat silently and in boredom throughout the flight since they are deprived of communication with their peers! But when they have the urge to convey messages, they just stood-up and signed to the other far away in front...Hmmmm...such is the beauty of Sign Language!



Backpacking to Thailand! Note the mattresses we brought along!



Andy configuring his new camera, Neal our industrious videoboy and an excited Jeremy, craning into the picture frame!





Don with his perpetual companion, Lonely Planet Thailand and a smiling Thien.




Yahoooo.... The signboard said it all!




Fascinating wood sculpture depicting elephants in various positions! As I later found out, elephants are revered in Thai society and among the most powerful symbols in Thai culture. Elephant symbolizes wisdom, strength and good fortune.




Nataporn (not sure of the spelling though) who is also deaf and and his friend greeted us at the airport. Thien is an avid user of Camfrog webcam and that was where Thien met and befriended Nataporn! After a short formal introduction, we were soon taken in a Toyota Vigo double-cabin pickup to a cheap hotel to put up for the first night. At B500 per night double room, Rajdamnoen Hotel is reasonable cheap and we shared that cost at B100 per each of us. That meant RM10.00 (Exchange rate: B10 = RM1.00)


















Once inside our hotel, we all went into “The Art of War” session at 1.00 AM just to devise strategic plans for the next 10 days! Andy is clearly seen making enquiries with Nataporn!

Feeling hungry as we haven’t had our dinner since leaving Kota Kinabalu late evening, Nataporn led us to nearby Thanon Khao San, (or Khao San Road) being the nearest to our hotel, on foot. I have read so much about Thanon Khao San being a ‘Backpacker’s Paradise’. And indeed it was after an hour of exploring along that strip. Thanon Khao San is the main travellers center for low budget travellers and both sides of the road are littered with cheap guesthouses, some as low as B80 for single room (B120 for doubles) but these rooms might be hard to get due to high demands! Even at 2.00 am, local Thais, Asians and farangs (Westerners, ‘white people’) mingled about with gay abandon drinking the night away! Wow…no wonder Bangkok never sleeps! We would revisit this place again to see what make this place ticks all day long towards the end of our Thailand sojourn!



This is the famous Thanon Khao San strip! The constant pedestrian traffic as shown above at 2 AM presents a carnival-like atmosphere!



These aunties are quite enterprising lot offering their highly concentrated concoction coffee for those with heavy eyes. Ice or no ice, still el cheapo at B10!



Whoaaa...Night Bazaar from late evening till day break the next morning! This is a 5.30 am snapshot by Andy!



Motorised saamlaw, meaning ‘three wheels’. They are also called Tuk-Tuk because of the throaty cough their two-stroke engines make!




Taxis jamming the touristy strip in the wee hours of the morning. That being so tells how popular Thanon Khao San is. Same case with popular thanons and soi(s) in other parts of Bangkok!




















At last, we had our dinner-cum-supper at an unholy hour of 3.00 AM! Roadside food stalls are pretty common in Thailand and offer various local fares. As expected, the food we ate were very hot and spicy and yet so damn delicious. What the heck with the price at B30, some of us went for second servings!


These were some of the myriad variety of Thai dishes we had. Looked very much like what we have in Sabah, but taste-wise, they are quite different really!

Thai Cuisine
Thai cuisines are pungent and spicy with lot of garlic and chillies – not the usual big mild chilly, rather the like of ‘chili padi’ or ‘bird eye’ chilly! Thai food is always cooked with fresh ingredients, especially herbs. Lime juice, lemon grass and coriander leaf are added to give the taste the characteristic tang! Other common seasonings in Thai food are galangal, black pepper, basil, peanuts, tamarind juice, ginger, grounded chillies and to a little degree coconut milk. Fish sauce (‘nam pla ‘ usually made from fermented anchovies) and shrimp paste (‘ka-pi) are also added in place of salt and soy sauce.

TO BE CONTINUED…