Thailand: its culture and practices

This is my concluding post in the Thailand series on Preparing for, Eating at and Touring Thailand.
Here I list some of my observations regarding Thailand culture and its practices. Hopefully, they will be of use to people who plan to travel there.

About Thailand Hotels:

1. The hospitality industry doesn’t pander to you as the ones back in India do. Even at a 4-starred hotel you’d rarely find bell boys to help carry your luggage … neither during check-in nor check-out times.
2. The best of the hotels doesn’t provide you with shampoo bottles or soap bars. You’d find these provided in different soap dispensers in liquid form.
3. For the coffee and tea preparation in your room, you are daily provided with just the required number of coffee, tea and sugar sachets, not one more.
4. The toothbrush kit, when available, is of superior quality, similar to what you buy for your regular use.
5. Many a time you find, close to the reception area, free snacks and sweets available throughout the day for you to dip into for your hunger pangs.
6. Along with all the usual stuff, we found, in two of the hotels we stayed in, clean beach towels and umbrellas for the sudden torrents.
7. All three hotels we stayed in provided us with pin-drop silence and a peaceful night’s sleep.
8. Thankfully, the hotels are strict about smoking and non-smoking rooms and therefore my room didn’t have the smell of smoke hanging in the air.
9. Bottled water, one for each person each day, was provided free of cost in the hotels.
10. All the hotels have the check-in time at 2 pm and check-out at 12 noon. They allow you to store your luggage with them even after you check-out.
11. The hotels aren't really costly there and compare with those in India.
12. Of the three hotels we stayed in, Ibis, Krabi was the best experience and The Mailka, Phuket the least.Holiday Inn Express, Bangkok was a pretty good experience too. 

Other practices

1. As in India, Thailand too charges its foreign tourists higher than the local ones for entry to various tourist spots. For visitors from the West, the cost is a fraction of their currency but for the Indian tourists, it is multiplied by two and a half ( at current currency conversion rate). 

   

   Entrance ticket to one of the tourist sites.

2. Tissues are used abundantly. Not only do you find it in the bathroom in the form of toilet paper, but you also find boxes of tissues in the bathroom, at the dressing mirror, at your bedside…in short, everywhere. Being an avid tissue user, I really didn’t mind. The quality of tissue is also amazingly soft and not abrasive like the ones we find here.
3. Some hotels provide you with shuttle services to the beach every hour.
4. What saddens you though is the abundant use of thin plastic carry bags. Every time we shopped, we politely turned them down.
5. English is spoken or understood by very few. We  approached some school kids on the street for directions, assuming that, like in India, English is spoken by almost every school kid. But , no, they didn't understand the language either. 
6. The different modes of transport are the abundant cabs found on the street, the tuk-tuks (like our autos) and the sky train in Bangkok. Like in India, you can negotiate with the cab and tuk-tuk drivers.
7. Most of the cab drivers are swift and smart with their phone use. You name the place and you are quickly driven there. But you can never see where they drive you because guess what…the Google maps are also in Thai.
8. Bangkok airport has a complicated wi-fi connection system and takes 20-30 minutes to connect.
9. Most of the temples are of Buddha and you need to take off your shoes to enter a temple. You also need to make sure you cover your knees and shoulders before you do.
10. Most of the restaurants run till late in the night, almost round the clock with no breaks between lunch and dinner times.
11. Water isn’t available for free anywhere. You’d need to buy it.
12. Forex exchange kiosks are found almost everywhere.
13. The roads are free of troughs and craters and are very beautifully maintained.

I hope you find this list useful in guiding your preparations when you visit Thailand.

Thailand: touring Bangkok, Phuket & Krabi

BANGKOK
We landed at Bangkok at 10. 30 pm and went for visa-on-arrival process. We filled out a form. Despite a long check-list of required documents, the only proof that they asked for was the to & fro tickets. After 15 minutes of waiting, we were beckoned and handed the stamped passports.
We headed out to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express) and reached at around 12.30. Hungry and tired, we checked in and asked for some food. We were told that there was no kitchen and suggested we go down to the Mc Donald’s attached to the hotel which had plenty of beef, pork and chicken options but nothing that we vegetarians could eat. We had booked ourselves into this hotel at Siam, in the centre of the city but found nothing to eat in its neighborhood. Walking around at 1 in the night, we were looking for something to eat when a kind tuktukwala (tuktuk: like the autos in India but bigger) stopped and asked, “India?” and promised to take us to an Indian restaurant. I normally avoid Indian food outside India but then having no other recourse, got into his tuktuk and visited the Indian restaurant, which, as imagined, served an absolutely bland fare. By the time we slipped under covers, it was 2 am!
The next day was a trip to Ayutthaya. We started at 10 am, took help of the hotel concierge and booked a cab for THB 2000 to Ayutthaya and back.  All along the way, we were taken to several temples which belonged to many centuries back and were mostly in ruins. Though history interests me, after a point of time I was pretty tired from seeing ruins after ruins. There was the palace thrown in as well, but at around 11.30 am, at the beginning of the tour, it was too hot for us to enjoy going around. In the process, I got severely sunburnt.
The next day was the flight to Phuket in the evening. Therefore, we went for shopping at Pratunam, the street shopping at Bangkok during the first half of the day. For me, it was very much like the Sultan bazaar of Hyderabad, with crowds jostling against each other. There was a great fear of pick-pocketing and we were very careful, clutching on to our wallets and phones. We bought some clothes suitable for beach. At Pratunam clothes were as cheap as THB 65 for a t shirt! We also shopped at the adjacent Indira market where you find stuff priced slightly higher comparatively but still cheap.
We ate some Thai food at the food courts there. When we emerged onto the main road from Indira market, we found, to our astonishment, a line of Indian restaurants, mostly vegetarian! So, for people who want to stick to a familiar cuisine, this is for you guys.
After shopping, we rushed back to the hotel, picked up our luggage and headed to the airport to Phuket.

AT PHUKET
At around 8 pm, we arrived at Phuket at a fairly better time than we did at Bangkok. We booked ourselves at Malika Hotel at Phuket Town. Phuket looks like a sleepy Kerala village. There is lots of greenery with long coconut trees swaying all along your route from Phuket airport to the town.
Even at 8 pm, we (again) found no food or kitchen in the hotel open at that time. Too tired to go out, we survived on some salvaged food from our bags.
We then held a discussion with the hotel receptionist for our next day’s plans. Don’t be fooled by the frail appearance of the receptionist. On travel review sites, people have mentioned about how this poor, frail thing carried your suitcases to the top floor in absence of a lift and the bell-boys. (She  actually sprinted upstairs with two 10 kg suitcases in each hand!
I would say definitely, in this case, appearances can be so deceptive!
She booked us to a Phi Phi island trip at THB 2000 each. Later, we found out that the people from other hotels had paid 900 to 1200 max for the same trip.
Though the hotel was set in a serene environment, it has no lift and no phone to call the receptionist! Just imagine trying to ask for something…
The next morning, we set out for a trip to Phi Phi islands and several other islands and beaches en route.
Organized by the APJR group, the whole trip experience was rather mediocre.
After Phi Phi islands, we returned in the evening at 5 and went out for a stroll and dinner in Phuket town. After knowing how much the hotel could overcharge us by, we decided to go to one of the several tourist centres to book a taxi for the next day to Krabi. By now, we knew better than to arrive late to a hotel and starve.
But we found our driver, Mr. Chai, through a car mechanic’s shop. We had strolled by to ask for a tourist centre who could book us a cab in Phuket Town and they called up this excellent driver who charged us cheaper than the tourist centres did . He was a thorough professional, arriving on dot the next day at our hotel, drove at optimum speed and with great care to Krabi. Mr. Chai can be reached at 081-6062485.
Phuket to Karbi is exactly 3 hours. Starting at 11. 30, we arrived at Krabi at 2.30 pm.

AT KRABI
Reaching our hotel IBIS, Krabi at 2.30 pm, just in time for lunch, was a vast improvement when compared to arrival times at Bangkok and Phuket.
Krabi, at 4,709 km² is the largest island in Thailand and, therefore, will have you puzzled about where to stay. Look no further…Ao Nang it is. It is closest to the beach and has a 2 km stretch of way-side shopping, stretching from our hotel to the beach. During our foray for lunch, we chanced upon a Thai- cum-Indian restaurant. We ordered Thai food sharing our requirements with its Indian owner and Thai chef.
The next day we went to a 4-island tour through the hotel @ 1000 THBs each. Where Phuket beaches are for those who swim, snorkel, dive etc. Krabi is more of pristine, clean beaches and fine sands. In sharp contrast to the APJR group we went with in Phuket, Krabi Mukandaman Travel, (phone: 075-695-591) was very professional. They had far superior boats, uniformed personnel and the jewel in the crown was the excellent tour guide who was so mindful of our needs, took great care and sprinkled his conversations with much witticism.

Mat, our cheerful tourist guide

To experience the feeling of being one with the nature, do visit Ao Nang beach in the evening. A quiet peace engulfs you as you walk away from the noise of the main road towards the beach.
The environment is electrifying with only the noise of waves splashing against the shores as you walk past many restaurants of various cuisines, massage parlours, live music, candle light dinners…the works!
Next time, it is straight Krabi for me!