VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 03:03:07 02/26/03 Wed
Author: Sarah
Subject: long messege about Thailand and toilets

Hi everyone, Nomi and I are in Bangkok now! We havn't explored it much yet because we just got here, but it seems to be a very very big city! It's also a very popular tourist destination. The area we are staying in is full of cheap guest houses(some as cheap as 3-4$ a night), cafes, shops and restaurants. It seems like at least half the people walking around here are tourists. I'm surprised things here are still so cheap, usually prices go way up in tourist areas because rich tourists can afford to pay more.
We were actually rather worried we wouldn't be able to get here for some time yet because when we tried to take train from Penang to Bankok, it turned out to be booked full for the next week! Then we tried to figure out how to get here by bus, but that turned out be very confusing, and after much frustruation and missed buses, we decided just to give in and take a cab to the Malaysian-Thailand border. This involved spending a little extra money, but I think the trouble it saved us was worth the extra expense. We expected we would have to bus all the way from the border to Bangkok(which would have been a very very long bus ride) but we decided to check the trains at the border just in case. It turned out that we were just in time to catch the next train directly to Bangkok, and I think we must have gotten two of the very last tickets! We were very happy about that because the train was a sleeper train(the seats turned into bunk beds during the night) so we could also save on accomodation. Me and Naomi got stuck with the windowless top bunks, so we didn't get much of a view or any fresh air. Also these tiny little black flies kept landing on me and my bed, I didn't want to move at all because I was afriad of getting squished little black flies all over myself. I also think I got sick in the night(possibly food poisoning) because although it was a warm night, I kept waking up feeling extremely cold, and I felt quiet sick to my stomach. I feel fine now though, so it couldn't have been too serious.
I was also quite surprised to discover that the train had squat toilets, which were actually just holes that went directly from the train floor onto the tracks. I wouldn't want to be in charge of maintaining train tracks in Thailand! It was also very awkward to use because the train was shaking and rocking quite a bit, and I was a little afriad of falling right through the hole and under the train. Were getting used to the squat toilets in general though, it's pretty much all they have here in Malaysia and Thailand. We have to carry our own paper around with us though because people here just clean themselves off with a hose or bucket of water that can be found next to the toilets.
It's amazing how cheap everything here is! We're paying $7 for our room (that's $3.50 each!), and meals can be bought for under a dollar. Naomi just bought a nice pair of pants for $3. The money here takes a little getting used to though, a thousand baht(Thai currency) is only about $32. I feel like i'm super rich carrying aroung my hundred and thousand dollar bills, but it's really not very much money,
Oh, another thing about this hot and humid part of the world is its rather nasty and cruel effect on mine and Nomi's respective skin conditions. Naomi's skin condition(the rash on her hands) is acting up a fair bit, and i'm suffering from a severe and persistant case of acne. It's worth it though, still i'm not liking this acne too much.
I guess I'll go now, it almost six here and my stomach is starting to grumble a bit. We havn't experieced an authentic Thai meal yet, but the authentic Thai snack we had earlier was very very good! No idea what it was, but I certainly enjoyed it. We found a a restaurant near our place that plays movies on a big screen tv all day. Were going to go back there around 8pm to have something to drink and watch "The fifth Element." Hope everything is going well back home, talk to you soon!
Oh Erin, I am enjoying your cd very much, although I actually havn't finished listening to it yet. I've been listening to just one song a night, but I may listen to a little more tonight because I have very little patience. Me and Nomi miss you!!! and Liam!!! LOVE LOVE!!! We keep seeing cute baby things and wanting to buy them for Liam, but I don't think it would all fit in our bags. OK, we're going to go have dinner now, BYE!

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Replies:

[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.