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| | [The Country] [Phuket]
[Bangkok] [Chiang Mai] [Thai
Culture] [Grand Tour] Mar 2002
- Jan 2003  [
Thailand has the friendliest
people that we have met in our 10 years of cruising, and Phuket is a delightful
area - the frustrating Immigration and Customs practices are a major downside to
this cruising paradise.
Here is our view of Thailand, or go straight
to photos from a grand tour of
the country that we made when Judi's sister and her friend visited in July 2002.
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Thailand is a Kingdom, with a string of kings dating
back to the 13th century AD. The capital has moved around over the years
and finally settled in Bangkok in the 18th century. Although
influenced by outsiders such as Chinese, Khmer, and Western countries,
Thailand has maintained its independence over the years, and avoided
being colonized like many of its neighbors. Most of its 60M people live
in rural areas with rice as the most important crop.
They revere the Royal family, and no one is allowed to speak ill of the
king or his family. Recently the borders with Myanmar (Burma) were
closed over insensitive comments about past kings.
We found the cost of living quite reasonable, and many Westerners settle
in Thailand because their retirement income stretches twice as far as in
the US or Europe. Medical care costs 25-50% of US prices,
and seems reasonable for routine care. In fact Thai hospitals are
advertising package tours in The New York Times that include a
week on the beach and full physical exam, for the same price as the exam
in NY.
Immigration and Customs are quite bizarre: tourists may only stay
28 days and then we must exit (1 minute is enough) but it usually takes
a whole day to get to a border and back and a cottage industry has grown
up ferrying tourists to and from the borders. Customs allows
yachts to stay 6 months (or maybe 12 months) and extend the stay if
you're having work done on the boat (or if the weather is too bad to
sail, or it is Thursday, or...). Import duties range from 30% to
200%, and all cruisers avoid shipping items into Thailand if at all
possible. |
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Phuket is a resort island on the southwest coast facing the
sunny Andaman Sea. Visited by tourists from around the world, it abounds
in attractions - beaches, snorkeling, hang-gliding, elephant rides, and cultural
shows. It also encloses a large bay that offers protected waters for
sailing, canoeing, and other water sports. During the 'high' season
busloads of Asian tourists and mini-vans of backpackers race from hotel to
beaches to tour boat terminals to souvenir shops taking advantage of sunshine
and reasonable prices. For the cruisers it has 2 marinas (see the Phuket
Destination page), many anchorages, and a wide array of yacht
services. For photos, we
took lots while were there. In the bay there are many islands, some
secluded and laid back, others chock full of attractions - Phi
Phi Don is one of the latter, with crooked streets packed with funky
restaurants, dive shops, vendors selling all manner of souvenirs, Thai massage
parlors galore, and internet cafes on every corner.
The capital is the big city with high-rise buildings,
maddening traffic jams, and smothering smog. Among the modern shopping
centers are many temples and wats that provide fascinating history lessons as
well as beautiful photo opportunities. The Royal family lives there, and
tours of the Grand Palace show levels of artistry and expense matched few places
in the world. Taxi drivers are often mad, and on one of our trips to
airport we could see the hereafter as he rode the bumper of the van in front of
us at 80 mph! Near to Bangkok is Ayuthaya, capital during the
1500-1700's and a small preview of the grandeur of Angkor
Wat in Cambodia. For more photos, check
out ours. Nearby beaches such at Pattaya, tours on the Thonburi
canal system, and visits to the floating markets at Damnoen Saduak
in the Rathchaburi province round out the many attractions of this cosmopolitan
city.
The northern part of Thailand is higher, cooler, and more
rural than industrial Bangkok.
As a tourist destination, Chiang Mai has lots to offer: we took elephant rides,
visited hill-tribe villages, took cooking lessons, and left with many
attractions unvisited. Chiang Mai is a delightful destination, a compact
town with a moated wall reminiscent of X'ian , lots of funky restaurants, and
night markets that sell everything under the sun. One specialty is wood
carvings, and they have them from 6" crude tourist pieces for $2 to 10'
wall hangings for $thousands! We bought a typical one from an artist at a
wat, and immediately shipped it home. Nearby Mae Hong Son is a
quaint town, at one time a drug producing center, now a tourist destination
(with perhaps still a little drug growing on the side) near the Myanmar
border. We took lots of photos
of this area also.
Thais, in our experience, are very hard-working and quite
honest. We feel we have been treated fairly by all (but one) of the
companies and workers at Boat lagoon, and feel quite safe on the streets of
Phuket and Bangkok. There appears to be a lot of graft at high levels, and
every week there is a scandal in the newspaper, but so far it has not touched
us.
Thailand is primarily Buddhist, thus they are very tolerant of anything and
anyone and believe each of us will get our just reward
(good or bad) in the next life as we strive to achieve Nirvana. The many
Muslims and Christians are tolerated and there appears to be little religious
antagonism. The press is free to criticize the government (and often does)
but the Royal family is off-limits. The military seems to have significant
power, and in the recent yelling match with Myanmar, it came out that the Army
has over 125 radio stations that it was using in villages to criticize the
Burmese - seemed strange to us.
All in all, it is very easy to live in Thailand, and to get along with the Thais
- and many cruisers find it impossible to move on. It took will power, but
we finally broke free and set off across the Indian Ocean with
Sri Lanka as our next destination.
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