Thai Getaway: Bangkok slice

He he he :D

These were the first words of my cousin, Biki [Bishan, but 'Biss-H(n)aan' in Thai English!], after we came out of the Immigration counters, there.

Buying a non-refundable pair of tickets has an advantage - you are double charged up to make your trip a success, or at least the flights. March 27-April 1 was our plan. Bangkok and Pattaya. Thanks to the corporate holiday package Biki gets from his employer where he is allowed to bring one guest from immediate family (mathematically, someone who has the same surname).

The first "aw" moment was when we stepped inside the Suvarnabhumi International Ariport at Bangkok. Man! what a port it is for air. Arrays of high domes of spherical sections connected to each other gives you a feel of being inside a gigantic air baloon which is still in process of being inflated. It plays with you psycologically.

In a tourist special mini-van (driven by Mr.Tuk), we were taken to our hotel at a place called Pratunam [Patu-N(n)aam]. The hotel had everything good except the narrow lane where it was located. Being a Kolkatan, street food is always like a part of the outings (only the growing waist size make you think twice!). But the food stall on the carts on both the sides of the street, there, wohhohh!! Total aroma therapy [In the Nazi spa of the early 40s for Jews customers]. I personally had no major problem, but Biki :)

Well, the first night in Thailand had to be about something that the country is well known for. The Thai massage. The hotel itself had a spa. They make you change to 'hostipal clothing' and for sharp one hour in the midst of aroma candles, the real ones, and very dim light, your body gets a treatment worth the making it to the appointment on time.

The next day was our Bangkok city tour. After a pure veg breakfast we sat out. Our guide was Cho. After his various explanations on different city buildings (where "Rama" became "Lama" in his best English and we had a little confusion if the person in question was from India or Tibet), he showed us various signs of Thai culture being influenced by that of India. prominent of them were Rama, Asoka and the respectful word of "Nana". 

In the Wat Traimit, we saw the biggest gold Buddha in the world. Solid 5 tonnes of gold. About 7-8 feet high. The appearance was very very peaceful. People were praying in front of the statue. 

Although, these places fill you with an overwhelming feeling of detachment and (AND) peace, but I remember having a thought of "plucking one finger nail would suffice for quite some time."
Just outside was the Aryavalokitesvara Bodhisatva Temple. A Chinese temple where, more than worships, I found people coming and putting down their wishes to the huge standing Buddha. 
A girl named Miyo, an exchange student, even explained the process of knowing a result of something beforehand there. You shake a little quiver filled with thin short bamboo sticks and the whatever is written on the one stick that falls out of the quiver is what is most likely to happen. (I think this is what she explained to me)

After visiting the Bodhisatva temple, we remembered what was advised by Biki's friends about spending (read wasting) time in knowing the names of various buildings in the city. Its better to go for the Siam Ocean World and, later, to Siam Niramit show. Thankfully Cho was more than happy to make the arrangements.

The sun went higher up in the sky and we went to the basement of a glamorous shopping mall. This is where is the Siam Ocean World, one of the biggest aquariums in South East Asia. The lighting was florescent and was the worst for pictures in a simple digital camera.

You have seen them in those "Nature channels" but when you actually see them then only you believe that they exist on this planet as easily as you do. I myself am such a channel watcher and even to a regular like me, it took a trip to an insanely huge aquarium to believe that these things exist, live, move and respond. You feel one truth coming at you from every direction: Humans are just another species living on this earth.

You are not able to see the faces of people around you and the only hue present is of the blue. The color of the water kingdom. Walking inside a glass tube with water in all three directions, when you see a 5 feet long shark swimming with its teeth exposed just outside the glass only inches away from you, you know that it is sheer appreciation that comes out for mother nature and her unmatched engineering to create such marvelous creatures. There were like hundreds of more kind of sea creatures. But so also were the swamp and desert dwellers...

Most of my friends have gone "eeks!" and "yukk" on this yellow coiled beauty. But for me it looked like the Don basking in his office wearing his albino suit. And in total contrast, meddling with his thoughts is his pray sporting  a clown costume below. 



Vito knows that no matter how jolly and indifferent the clown pretends to be, it is as cautious as he himself is. Also it is definitely something that the Don isn't - Poisonous. No muscle, but something equally, may be more deadly, poison. Any attempt and the result is clear - the clown gets eaten but as the last lunch.
Huh! Coming out of some cheap copy of the classics, here is someone sitting on the dry rock, I liked very much. The sound of a banjo and the slow boot steps of the wooden floor on a rickety Texas saloon came flowing into my ears.

I don't remember the section of the "Ocean" world where this tough guy was kept, but I remember that for sometime I could not help but think that he was only a dummy. But when it moved its head away from, then again towards my camera, I was not left with any doubt. An armored tail and the wrinkled shirt - totally ready to take on the duel with the desert.


After the breath taking Ocean world, we found a McD and helped ourselves. At 5:30 pm, we were to get a pickup from the Siam Niramit people.

Although, the show starts at 8pm (with strictly no cameras allowed inside), people start to gather at the theater premises from 6pm. Once you are inside and walking around, you know that this much of time is needed before the real show begins. Inside the premises, they have set up a prototype of a traditional Thai neighborhood with real people and house and equipment and food on display for the tourists.

As I had already said in the very beginning, the Thai culture is a lot influenced by the Indian culture, it was no surprise for me to see a scene from Ramayana being depicted in the puppet show while moving around the traditional neighborhood. Also, seen only in television, it was nice to actually see the signature Thai way of making the flat puppets move and tell the story.


Already impressed with the little village I was roaming in, which was frankly not very much  different from how people in India have chosen to live, we gathered in the wide open space in front of the theater to witness open air traditional Thai dance performances. 

That one hour had such an effect on me that I would not hesitate to say that movements of the dancers with the enchanted music of the traditional instruments were by far the most elegant I have ever seen. But the thing that takes you more inside the performance is the smile the dancers give you while making very prominent eye contacts. Its only your body that is left behind in the crowd, rest is taken in.


Then, it was 8pm and the time to submit my camera and enter the real theater. I was actually happy that the cameras were not allowed inside the Siam Niramit show. The battery of my camera was going down quite fast (it is servicing my little camera since 2008). If I would not able to click anything, nobody else should.


But all these stupid jealous triumph was forgotten when that world record holding show began. A stage with 30 feet high wings, unfathomable number and kind of background accommodating depth and even a human deep canal of water in it. The 80 minute show is on the Siam culture. The  powerful kingdom, the lifestyle of people, the turning points of history, the trades, the folk and religious beliefs. And all these are shown with a magnanimous style with not only humans but highly trained animals elephants and cattle being a part of the show. The technologies, the play with the light and shadows, the music, the compactness, the mind blowing art and above all the grandeur of the whole show with all these put in is something worth a visit to Bangkok. It is my personal recommendation - If in Bangkok, no better way to spend one of your evenings than being at the Siam Niramit.


Thanks to the dinner and hospitality of Mumbai's Great Punjab Hotel on both of our nights at Bangkok, home never felt too far away. Next day we sat off for Pattaya.

Thai Getaway: Pattaya Slice

We had to be picked up from our Bangkok hotel at 12:30 pm and be dropped at the bus stand from where a bus would be taking us to Pattaya. The delay of our cab was not very much. When both Biki and me went in it, we found it to be already packed with Indian tourists, save two seats for us. I didn't know then why I was disappointed at this. Later on I found it. Once we have thrown in our money to someone for a service, we act as if we have become their masters and they are the worst kind of slaves we ever had.

Constant complains that too in a high voice and with occasional disgusting racial comments. Making fun in a healthy manner is a different thing. I know this because I myself am no saint. But, taking the advantage of the fact that a person is a only driver and is not in a position to protest your complains just for the sake of his job is something that made me feel ashamed. Thank God they were not going to the bus stand with us.

Anyway, the distance to Pattaya was covered in not more than 90 minutes. The sun was letting out its last heat before it prepared to go all orange. From the very first air we inhaled in the town, we got its casual scent. Not at all crowded with high rise buildings, normal traffic and almost everyone in nothing more than shorts and short sleeve T-shirts and sandals.  Nothing here is in a hurry. It was a town to relax. And unfortunately, that is what we did most of time.

The fist evening had pure relaxation. We met our tour co-ordinator Lek at the hotel. Quite a pretty  and funny lady. She was generous enough to give us "first timers in Pattaya" a detailed feel of the kind of tourism the place offers. Pao was our cab driver in Pattaya. They call the cabs Song-Taew. Small trucks with four people sitting in the drivers cabin and many more on the carrier at the back. Covered on the top and open on the sides. We bought beers for Pao too and asked him to drive to a beach. The time was close to 9pm. The breeze and the sound of the little crashing waves with a can of beer in the most casual sea town of a foreign land is something of a fact to stay submerged in till the can lasts (or may be some minutes after that too)

Next day was our fully sponsored trip to the Pattaya beach. Our guide, Dolly, marked the back of our wrists with something in Thai using permanent marker. Probably as a mark of 'you are tourists of my group'. It kind of looked like a tattoo - a symbol of which no one has any idea about.

Before we had reached the Pattaya beach, our speed boat gave us a stop on a floating jetty. For para-sailing. Okay, here, please do not ask me any question. The answer is No, we didn't and we regret it from every corner of our hearts. And the answer to your next question will be "Its not that we were scared, but..." Rest I leave to your own imagination and your right to be judgmental. 

A boat took us from that jetty and finally sat us cruising towards the beach. The boat had people from Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and of course, Bengal. We had our little fun with some of them, made acquaintanceship with some of them  and also experienced some of the old loud constantly irritating chuckles from some of them. But I had decided not let anything ruin my day. Finally we reached the beach.

And when we reached there, we had a very honest realization that the place is probably over hyped. I have not yet been to Goa or the Andamans, but the photographs of these places which my friends have shown to me do testify the fact that the beaches of our own country deserve a lot more publicity than what it currently does. But, anyway, as I said, I was not willing to lose what I had in hand.

Biki was in the front, then was Ramya's mom, then Ramya and then I. We took a speedy ride on the Banana boat. It is a long  cylindrical balloon that is pulled by a water scooter. four or five people can sit on it at he same time and the only thing to hold on to are plastic ropes in front of every rider. Cool one but the ride was not long enough to suffice the money we paid. Bro and Ramya went into the water and I stayed ashore with my camera. [And also I got labelled as a 'kind of boring' due to this by our new acquaintance who and her mother were the ones from Pune, Maharashtra]. I didn't make any effort to show that I already was having my own fun :)

We turned back at noon. Walking a good thigh deep into the semi clear semi sandy water, we got back on our boat and sped back to the main land. Dolly's little daughter was noticing me clicking the passing land pieces, waves etc. It was she who pointed out a far-away-barely-visible land mass where there was a lighthouse or something. Thank you girl. Just like everybody on the boat, I also would have missed it.

We came back and met Pao and Lek at an Indian restaurant. But the wound on Biki's finger was taking a bad shape. We had to hurry to get the gold ring cut out from the finger and get some medicine applied on the wound.

And what a place to get the ring cut out - The Gems Factory, Pattaya. Pao took us there. The best in business of gemstones production in South East Asia. Although, I am sure the goldsmith there had never thought of doing the job that ideally should be of a first aid personnel if not of a surgeon. There is a chain shop called "7 Eleven" on every street of the town. We packed our fuel for the night and went back to our hotel.

This officially marked the end of our planned tour and we still had a day in our hands. The tiger zoo was making itself prominent in our list. But to be fully honest, the thing that we silently agreed as the best thing to do was the to have the beach in a can.

After the lunch next day, we sat out on our feet to do a little exploration of our own. And fortunately, we were able to find a shore, although muddy, to sit and enjoy. The sky was getting a bit sad and was making noise. The wind was higher than it usually used to be. For the first time, the Pattaya I was scheduled to stay in, was showing a different side of its mood. It was not the pleasant sunny place anymore. It was agreeing with my momentary thoughts. Till then, it was Biki's initiative to come to the beach and hang out. Now I decided to come there again after sun down.

And so I did. We walked up to the beach once more in the evening. The streets at this time are at their best on a different kind of sight seeing. Don't use your camera here. The city glittered far away. We finished off the last can and I personally went till the waters to thank it for those few compassionate minutes in the afternoon.

In all the hype,  publicity and anti publicity the town gets, it is a fantastic place for tourists who love the sun and also the moon. The place treats you well even though you are a stranger and the only bond is of money. In the midst of the apparent madness, it does ask you your name and gives its name in return. The place actually rocks and does every bit to make you feel that you are alive. All you need is the right spirit.

Come April 1st, we sat out for home. 6 am Pattaya, 9 am Bangkok, 1 pm Kolkata. Along with me has come some souvenirs, some photographs and a little bit of Thai accent of speaking English. And frankly, I am enjoying showing off all of them :)

Till nest time,

Cheers :)