JYTKY!

Finally a sort of a conclusion to the problem that was the main subject of discussion last spring when I moved to Thailand. Today was the day (FINALLY!) of the general election in Thailand, and as expected, the red-shirts won a landslide. Pheu Thai Party secured more than 50% of the Parliament seats. Good Luck to Thailand and Pheu Thai! And Long Live the King!

http://samaw.com/yingluck-as-thailands-first-woman-pm/5862

Finland 2011

This is not really about my trip to Thailand but what can I do?

Perkele!

And of course this too… A bit of an old joke but still works!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9aOSFf98wg

Bye bye Buriram…

Well it’s the last day of March, so this is my last day at my apartment here. I’m very sad to leave the room that has been my home for the last ten months. Almost all of my stuff is packed, now I’m just waiting for some laundry to dry and cleaning up the place before leaving. I’ll sleep at least one more night in Buriram, tomorrow I should get back the deposit for the room (two months’ rent, 7000 baht) and then I’ll be ready to go.

I still have two weeks in Thailand, I’m not sure yet where I will spend the remaining time. It’s been fun here in Buriram but I think it’s time to go and see some other places now. Maybe I’ll check out Pattaya since I’ve never stayed there before even though I’ve been coming to Thailand for the past 14 years. Also met a Finnish guy in Krasang, about 30km east of Buriram, so might go and visit there this weekend. But no specific plans yet…

The weather is a bit crazy right now, very cold here in the Northeast with almost no rain, and way too much rain in the South of Thailand. This morning, like for almost two weeks already, the temperature was only about +20 degrees and it doesn’t get much higher during the day.

The return flight to Finland is on the 13th of April so I’ll try to do another update then.

Oops I did it again!

I got to thinking about having to return to Finland before everyone else here, and not to anyone’s surprise decided to change my return flight again. Luckily AGAIN I managed to change the return date for only 110€, from 9-Feb-2011 to 13-Apr-2011.

I did not actually change my flight until the last of January, and since my visa expired on the second of February I only had two days to figure out yet another visa run. I had already been to Cambodia twice and there was the problem between Cambodia and Thailand over the Preah Vihear Temple, so I decided to go to Laos instead, to Vientiane.

So, on the morning of the second of February, I took buses northwards, Buriram-KhonKaen-UdonThani-NongKhai. It only took two days to get a new 60-day visa to Thailand, but because of the date of my return flight I had to stay in Laos until the 13th of February. No problem there, just hang out for a time and check out Vientiane. Since I’m coming up on a full year of staying in Thailand on tourist visas, I got a surprising stamp added to my visa…

No more visas for me?

Then on the morning of the 13th started to come back to Thailand and would have returned straight to Buriram, but just missed the last bus from KhonKaen to Buriram so had to spend some time in KhonKaen then. Finally returned to Buriram on the 15th. No big problems on the trip, except that my mobile phone was stolen. No biggie, only about 25€ so I did nothing about it except bought another one. And besides, my traveller’s insurance has expired too so no reason to report the theft to the police, it would be more trouble than the phone was worth.

The weather here in Buriram has changed, the local “Winter” seems to be over. Daytime temperatures are somewhere close to +40 and nights are not cold anymore. Not having used the aircon in my room, now suddenly I need it again daily.

As for Laos itself, having only visited once, for 3 days in Paxse in 2009, I was of the opinion that it is not as much fun as Thailand. Vientiane however proved me wrong, and I will definitely go to Laos again some day. The people are very much like Thais, and almost everyone understands the Thai language too. Next time however I will have to see a bit more of Laos than just a few blocks of central Vientiane.

The first two nights I spent in a hotel close to the Thai Consulate, but then changed to a cheaper place closer to the river. At only 10USD a night, the Bouasy Guest House close to the Black Stupa (That Dam) was withing walking distance of the riverfront where most of the bars were (what did you think I did in Vientiane for the 11 days then?) A very basic guesthouse, just a fan and no TV or refrigerator, but clean and quiet and with warm water.

That Dam, the Black Stupa

Like in Cambodia, most of the products on sale are imported from Thailand, and are therefore usually slightly more expensive than in Thailand. And like in Cambodia, the locals seem to like Thai TV and music more than local entertainment, at least judging by the people in bars and restaurants, might be different in the countryside or in smaller cities. Food was surprisingly expensive, even in local eateries a meal was 12000-15000Kip, about 1,5-2USD (1USD was a bit over 8000Kip), but luckily beer was no more expensive than in Thailand and cigarettes were slightly cheaper. Of the four countries I’ve visited in the last nine months, I’d say that Vietnam was the cheapest, Cambodia was just about the same as Vietnam, and surprisingly Laos probably the most expensive. Of course in Thailand I’m using Buriram as comparison, Bangkok is price-wise a different thing altogether of course…

Laos is supposedly the poorest country of these four, but it’s not apparent in Vientiane at least. The income differences in all these countries are huge, with some (most) people being very poor and a lucky few being VERY rich. So in closing, I’ll just post a nice pic I took in a small car shop in Vientiane…

Aston Martin Vantage in Vientiane

The lazy blogger…

Hiya! Should have updated the blog when I got back from Cambodia but I just couldn’t be bothered. And then my Internet connection was not working for about a month since the middle of December. Better late than never though?

The trip to Cambodia went well. No problems with the roads as I originally feared. My brother took me to the border in his car. No problem there but I really did not like the scam at the Cambodian border, where they would not accept 20 US Dollars for the visa even though that is the official rate, but instead wanted 1000 THB which is more than 30 USD. Clearly a scam where the officials pocket the difference. Not very good publicity for Cambodian tourism in my opinion. From there found a taxi to Siem Reap, which was another 1000 THB. Spent a couple of days in Siem Reap, and never even got to check out Angkor Wat. Then to Phnom Penh to get a Thai visa, and after that spent the rest of the time in Sihanoukville. Finally took a flight back to Thailand.

Road from Thai Border to Siem Reap

The big news in Cambodia was the major accident at the bridge to Koh Pich on the eve of the Water Festival. 351 people were crushed to death when people panicked on a walkbridge.

http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010112244892/National-news/hundreds-die-in-tragic-end-to-water-festival.html

Luckily I was not on the bridge but I was in town when that happened. A big big accident, and a sad one. The festival itself would have been a beautiful one except for the accident. Supposedly about half a million people would have been on the riverfront at any one time. I can believe that from the crowds that I saw…

Racing boats on Phnom Penh riverside.

Lighted boat on Tonle River

Christmas in Thailand, here in Buriram, was otherwise OK except I lost my glasses AND my camera. Not a huge loss as such (maybe about 300 EUR put together) but it means that I did not get any photos on New Year.

Right now my return flight to Finland is only about three weeks away, and I am not liking the idea of returning one bit. I guess I don’t have a choice though, unless I win the lottery soon…

A Change of Plans

I changed my return flight. I was sure that KLM would not let me do that since normally you have to purchase a special ticket if you want to change any flight details, and my ticket was just a normal one. So it was a big surprise that KLM let me change anything. Of course there was a fee for the change but it was surprisingly small.  So, for a fee of €110 I changed the return date from 29-Dec-2010 to 09-Feb-2011. Nice!

Also, I will not be flying to Malaysia after all, but instead I will take a bus to Cambodia and spend about three weeks there. Sadly AirAsia will not allow any changes to the ticket I bought already, but that was as expected. The plan in Cambodia is to go by bus to Siem Reap and check out Angkor Wat, then travel to Phnom Penh and get a new tourist visa for Thailand, and then head off to Sihanoukville on the coast. I don’t yet know how I will return to Thailand. Flying from Phnom Penh would be easiest but also most expensive. It’s also apparently possible to take a boat from Sihanoukville to Thailand. Might be interesting. And of course I could return the same way I came.

Travelling in Cambodia should be very interesting because apparently the roads are not in good condition even at the best of times, and it being the rainy season now it’s possible that some roads are impassable due to flooding or landslides. At least it will not be boring…

Saigon Vietnam

Back at last, to the blog I mean…

Note to readers; at the time of my visit, the exchange rate was about 19400 VND to one US Dollar. Going to an ATM I usually withdrew 2 million VND, just about 100 USD.

Anyway, finished my second visa-run last Saturday. Spent 12 days in Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City as it is officially known, but everyone still seems to call it Saigon. This was my first ever visit to Vietnam, but hopefully not the last. But the next time I really must have more money to spend…

The flights went well again, except that the return flight to Bangkok was two hours late. The reason for this was “operational changes” so I have no idea what actually happened. Well no matter since I did not have a connecting flight from Bangkok. Just some time lost.

Arriving in Vietnam I was immediately the victim of a taxi scam. I was tired and hung over and made the mistake of accepting an offer from a guy to get  a taxi. He seemed nice and official-looking  and I guess I just forgot that you should always CHOOSE a taxi and not let them choose you. At least nothing very bad happened, I got to my hotel without any problems, I just paid WAY too much for the trip (700000 VND, the return taxi ride when going to the airport was 110000VND.)

I had booked my hotel from http://www.hostelbookers.com/ and since there was no problem with the booking, I can recommend that service. I booked six nights in Ngoc Linh Hotel (http://www.ngoclinhhotel.com/) mainly because it was the cheapest (15USD) I could find, and it turned out to be OK. It is situated in a small side-alley which was crammed full of hotels on both sides of the alley. The location seemed a bit dodgy at first, but turned out to be excellent because traffic noise is kept to a minimum because you’re not on a bigger street, and believe me; traffic noise is a BIG problem in Saigon. The staff was very friendly too. I did change hotels after six days, but that was just to save some money (saving 5 USD a day…) Ngoc Linh was definitely a better hotel than the one I changed to, even though I do not have any complaints about the second hotel either. I just need a bed and a working shower and maybe a TV.

The first impression from Saigon was the absolutely hellish traffic. I used to think that Bangkok had a lot of motorcycles but it’s nothing compared to Saigon. A busy intersection in Bangkok might have 40-50 motorcycles waiting for the light to change, but in Saigon the number is 200-300. Absolute chaos. And EVERYONE is honking their horns constantly. I don’t know if they just like the sound but I sure as hell did not. Crossing the streets is understandably not very relaxing…

Roundabout in Saigon

The second thing I noticed was maybe even more scary. The drugs. I have never seen any drug use in Thailand and I have never been offered any drugs here. In Cambodia I was offered once but never saw anyone actually smoke. But in Saigon you are asked literally every two minutes if you might like to buy some marihuana (some even offered heroin or opium), and you see people rolling joints quite openly in bars. You’d think that it’s not illegal in Vietnam but it is, apparently it’s just that nobody cares… Very scary! (And no, I did NOT try any!)

Cheap thrill?

Since I was trying to spend less than on my last visa-run to Cambodia, I did not do much in Saigon at all. Mainly stayed around the block where my hotel was at, walking around and checking out different restaurants. So I did not really see a lot of Saigon. I took one cyclo-trip to a post office (another ripoff but not too expensive, not the post office but the cyclo.) Drank a lot of beer and ate a lot of food. Beer is very cheap even comparing to Thailand (ranging from 11000 to 36000 VND per half a litre), the food in tourist-oriented restaurants is still cheaper than in Bangkok but comparable to here in Buriram (about 40000-80000 VND.) I am sure that the food in local eateries would have been a lot cheaper still. Overall about the same prices as Cambodia. Except that Coke Zero was cheaper.

My new best friend in Vietnam

As I usually do, I quite quickly chose one restaurant as my favorite and went there every day, about a five-minute walk from my hotel. This turned out to be a favorite hangout for a number of local expats, but it was still a local and not a tourist-oriented place. Here a bottle of Green Saigon Beer was 15000 VND (in tourist-haunts a bottle is in the 25000-35000 range) and the food was good. And since I cannot speak any Vietnamese, there were a lot of english-speaking people to talk with. I did later find an even cheaper place with Beer Saigon at 11000VND a bottle but I did not have time to go there more than maybe three times before it was time to leave Saigon, and it was frequented by *ahem* coloured people which was a bit disconcerting at first, but they too turned out to be a fun bunch. A big guy from Nigeria was a part-owner of the place, apparently he had been a professional football player who had played in both Thailand and Vietnam. A nice guy in the end, although a bit scary at first (190cm and well muscled and a loud voice…)

Friendly staff at "my place"

SIX of my best friends!

I only took one tourist tour, which was a half-day trip to Cu Chi Tunnels a couple of hours outside Saigon. Had to wake up early and endure a boring bus-ride, but the tunnels were as interesting as I had hoped. Considering the resistance that the Vietnamese put against the USA, I now feel more than ever that Finland and Vietnam have at least that in common.

I was expecting a lot from Vietnam so that might be one reason why I was just a bit disappointed, but I’m sure that a bigger reason was that I just did not have enough money to spend. There is very little fun to be had anywhere in SE Asia if you don’t have money.

So, a very surprising conclusion from me, one that I thought I would never come to; if you’re planning on coming to SE Asia in the near future, go to either Cambodia or Vietnam, and not to Thailand. Thailand is actually quite expensive now compared to either of those countries, and unless you speak Thai there is no reason whatsoever to choose Thailand now. Sad as it is to admit, that’s just the way it is now.

Back from Cambodia

Finished my first visa run, returned to Thailand on July 11th. Just missed the night train from Bangkok to Buriram so had to stay one night in Bangkok, and finally was back to Buriram at about 05:20 on the morning of the 13th of July. Both flights were just under an hour, no problems either way.

Cambodia is not an expensive country, but I still managed to blow 1600 USD in two weeks.  Stayed in Nordic House hotel for the entire time for 13 dollars a night. Did not do much, just checked out a lot of bars and just generally chilled out. Of course I had to go and see the two biggest tourist attractions, the Killing Fields about 15kms outside Phnom Penh, and the Tuol Sleng prison in the city. Not very cheerful places to visit.

The weather was just about the same as Thailand with daytime temperatures somewhere just above +30, and some rain almost every day. Only had heavy rain once.

Raining in Phnom Penh

Also went to see the home of a local friend, I forget the name of the province but it was about 2-3 hours’ drive East of Phnom Penh. Farming country, very basic standard of living. But it was a welcome change from the city.

Farmhouse in the country

All the local ATMs give out US Dollars which are used as currency all over the country. The local money Riel is used as change instead of US cents, with about 4000 Riels to a Dollar. So if you buy a 50-cent can of beer and pay with a one-dollar bill, you will get 2000 Riel as change. I do not know if there are any coins in use at all, but at least I never saw any.

All in all a good trip, but way too expensive for my budget. Before I went I read a lot of warnings about Cambodia being very dangerous, but I never had any problems and also the few expats I talked to said that it is no more dangerous than Thailand. Beer was very cheap at 50-80 USD cents a small can, as was the local tobacco at 40 cents a pack. Coffee was expensive as was Coke, comparing to Thailand that is. Hotels and food were about the same price as Thailand.

EDIT: Let’s try to see what happens when linking some YouTube videos here… It’s a video from just a block from my hotel after a day of heavy raining…

Holy crap it’s a bat, man!

Went out on the balcony for a smoke a couple of hours ago and almost stepped on a small (maybe 20cm from wingtip to wingtip) bat! Didn’t realize what it was until it skittered over my foot and into the bathroom…

A not-at-all-well bat on my bathroom floor...

I have no idea how it got into my balcony but obviously it was not well at all. I have always thought that bats do not fly into windows as birds do so there must have been something else wrong with this. It was quite lively for the first five minutes, but kept getting more lethargig by the minute, until after maybe ten or fifteen minutes it died. I did get it to smile though…

Going out with a smile?

I don’t think that it had time to bite me as it went over my leg, but I guess I will have to go to the hospital tomorrow to get a rabies booster shot anyway. Just in case. As you know, rabies is always fatal.

I know I haven’t updated this post for a long time, but that’s just because there’s not much happening. My car got sold a week ago so that is good news. And my first visa-run is only ten days away. Maybe some more updates then.

UPDATE: So no booster for me then. The doctor at the local private hospital (Ekachon Buriram) prescribed the full five-shot program for me. It seems that the rabies vaccination is only good for one year. Oh well I guess I have to go through with the full program then…

Vaccination program. Five shots...

Surprisingly expensive too at 500 baht per shot. And I will be in Cambodia for the fourth shot, but the very lovely nurse at the hospital told me that it is OK to get the shot later. Oh well…

Moving day!

I finally got the keys to my very own room in the new apartment building. Actually only the top three floors are done (well, almost done), the first two are still under construction. I expect I will wake up every morning at six to the sweet sound of drilling and general banging. I was not the only one to move in today, lots of students and other locals moved in as well.

The room itself is very nice of course because it is brand new. A funny detail is that the bathroom is not accessible from in the room, but rather from the balcony. I don’t really get the point of that. Not a problem at all, just a bit funny.

My room is on the fifth floor, and there’s no elevator so I guess I will get some exercise every day. The stairs don’t have handrails yet so if somebody gets home drunk it is very likely that there will be an accident. I hope the rails get installed soon. At least the central hole has rails around it.