Hectic city

Some days are just more remarkable than others. Generally I've been living a quite steady and ordinary day-to-day life here, but occationally there is something worth mentioning and I believe last monday was such a day. I was doing my first explorations of the Bangkok bus network as I needed to go to Khao San Road and withdraw some money as the yellow ATMs that charge only 15 baht instead of 150 baht extra are a bit scarce. And yes, two and a half euros is not that big of a deal but when it equals four lunches, it magically seems a lot more.

Anyway, the way there was fine and the air-conditioned bus cost 16 baht (cab would have been 70-100 baht). Originally I intended to go and take one of the famous Bangkokian canal boats to the Sukhumvit area, which is a bit more posh neigbourhood of Bangkok and also one of the two "party areas" (RCA Plaza being the another one). To my surprise the canal boats weren't operating after sundown so I had to eventually take a cab, though. But at least I managed to find a pair of shoes that fit me so the extra walk was not totally in vain.

My original plan was to go there and get tickets for tomorrows Benny Benassi gig at the über posh Bed Supperclub. Yes, unordinary of me as I am not exactly the clubbing person but I reasoned that if a world class DJ (whose music I kind of like) in a world class club doesn't float my boat then I can honestly say that the whole clubbing scene is just not meant for me.

After that I went to MBK and managed to find a new shirt and a nice bag that I was needing. And since I had my shopping hat on, I decided to finally get the Snow Leopard upgrade in the same bankruptcy. So I headed back to another shopping centre where the local Apple Store had just closed its doors as hour was quite late already. Luckily on the another side of the road there was an even larger and even more posh shopping centre (Siam Paragon, the one where you can buy Lamborghinis or Porsches in) and they were still open and I managed to get the small white box. When packing my bag though, I noticed that the bracelet - worth 1000 baht - was missing and going through my steps I reasoned that it had to have dropped in front of one particular shop at MBK where I had unpacked my bag a little bit.

So in an orderly panic I rush to the skytrain but decide to walk instead as it would take about the same time anyways but just standing around and waiting didn't feel like a nice option at that point. So I rush in the moist and hot night, in long jeans and a t-shirt, with a box of shoes and a paper bag with my new clothes and accessories in them plus my messenger bag with my laptop in it for weight on my shoulder. I rush towards the MBK Shopping centre, where I have to climb once again to the fifth floor in a maze of escalators and find the corner booth if they would have noticed it and picked it up or something...

When I finally get there, they are closed, all the tables cleaned and the floor is empty on the spot where I was unloading my bag. Damn. I rolled my head around for a few moments and thought what should I do. Go back to the club and explain what happened? Come back tomorrow and see if they would have picked it up and spared it? Just swallow my stupidity and pay for it again? Not really appealing options but there was really nothing more to do at that moment. So I started walking away but was still hopefully eyeing the floor and actually after 5 meters I notice something that very well might be the lost plastic bracelet, I lean in closer and YES! It was exactly what I was looking for, almost exactly where I dropped it, just count in some random kicks and people stepping over it a few times and it was there. I felt so relieved.

Walking happily away from the shopping centre I took the skytrain to the end station and gladly paid for the 60 baht taxi fare straight to my front door. At that point I really didn't care that there might have been a bus connection from Sala Daeng skytrain station to the Phet Kasem road. I just wanted to get home quick.

But I will master the Bangkok public transportation one day! Taxis are just so damn cheap that especially if you are going somewhere together, buses, metros or skytrains just aren't a good option financially. But Skytrain gets from one side of the city to the other in 20 minutes whereas a cab would probably take an hour, depending on the traffic. :)

Culture shock

I have mostly been quite well adjusted and prepared for the gap between the west and the east in terms of poverty and level of comfort. But as with my return from India last year, the readjustment from east to west seems to be more shocking. Seeing land mine victims, witnessing the happiness of people who don't have anything and all that suddenly has turned in to a city where you can go to a mall and - should you have the purchasing power - contemplate between the Lamborghini Murchielago or the Audi R8. After all, you are on the "life-style" floor so it is just natural to have those in there for display and for sale.

The more I spend time away from the squeaky-clean environment western capitalism, the less I feel like belonging there. True happiness is somewhere else.

People here are happy for what they have got. People back home are unhappy for what they don't have. Gives you something to think about.

How much it costs?

I have looked at my bank balance done some maths... The two months in South-East Asia have cost me a total of 1900€ and that includes my one-way flight here. That results in about 31 euros per day that I have spent. Granted, I haven't really been on any specific budget and thusly splurged on whatever I feel like without any remorse. And add to that the 6 flights I have flown during the travels and you can understand that it is a major contributor to the overall expenses. Also I have been staying in a bit more upscale accommodation most of the time and not always gone after the absolutely cheapest price. And shopped for some electronics in KL that is also included in there.

Accommodation would be something where it is easy to save some 10-20% and cutting down on the beer and eating more street food instead of sitting in restaurants would probably easily save me 50% on the nutrition budget. And not flying would have saved a lot as well: If I would have spent time instead of money I could have probably saved another 200e or so.

So it would be easy to live for under 20, under 15 euros a day and still be comfortable. Especially in Indonesia - Sumatra to be precise - which has been by far the cheapest area so far.

In Bangkok I am paying 6500 baht (≈135e) a month for my 30 square meter studio, the meals are one fifth of what you get in restaurants and beer comes from 7-Eleven so huge savings are coming from there as well. Actually, the financial student aid from the Finnish state is quite plentiful here and if I live sparingly, I guess I could travel a couple more months after february...

Well fed

It is remarkably easy to get good and inexpensive street food in my neigbourhood. There is one street packed with vendors a few blocks away from me and conveniently on the way to school. Even my home street has a few more established kitchens and there is also my current favourite - a guy with some real charcoals, grilling different sausages, seafood, meatballs and whatnot a la minute. Then finally he tops it off with a hefty spoonful of insanely good home-made chili sauce and the whole bagful of goodness is served with some diced cucumber. And one sausage costs only 10 baht so it is easy and tempting to have a snack as you go ... pretty much anywhere.

The school restaurants also offer a cornucopia of different authentic thai foods, mostly around 20-30 baht. I am starting to really believe that I won't be purchasing much of cooking equipment during my stay here...

5pm is beer time

Okay, did some mandatory shopping for the new apartment at local 7-Eleven: 6l of water, hand soap, detergeant, a cleaning cloth and some toilet paper (130 baht or 2,5 euros total) but shopping for some cleaning beverages wasn't as succesful. For some reason there is a ban of selling alcoholic drinks during the afternoon hours so I guess I have to wait 45 minutes and go back for some Chang because the purchase of cleaning supplies without any beer has already severely damaged my masculinity! Totally unacceptable. What are the neighbours thinking?

***

Well, two hours later the matter has been settled and now there is also something else than water in the fridge. (yeah, no light so can't even use that one). I also ate at my near at hand restaurant. Well, a small gas burner with some plastic seats next to it would be more describing but it serves its purpose. The person running the joint didn't speak any english and as they didn't have pad thai (only thing I can order in Thai so far) I just showed my mouth and sat down. She got the idea and I got something similar from the ingredients she had and the end result was a good mix of fried noodle-type thingies, pork meat and fresh vegetables. Nothing spectacular but for 25 baht I can't complain. And 50 meters isn't that far away so I would pay that amount just for the convenience. :)

The alcohol selling hours are 11.00-14.00 and 17.00-24.00 it turns out. And I thought that the Finnish system was weird...

Finally, scammed by a taxi driver

Well, it took me over two months so I guess I'm all right. And even though he was asking for 500 baht for a ≈100 baht journey, I managed to get out of it with 150. Partially because some of the fault might have been put on me by one specific logic. And mostly because I didn't really want to fight. Want to hear how it got to that? Well, I'll tell you anyway.

I took the cab from the worst possible spot - Khao San Road. Well, not exactly, at least I waved a passing cab instead of climbing onboard one of the touts but still it turned out to be a time-consuming and somewhat costly journey. I told the exact address of Siam University, and stressed the Phet kasem road. Thanon Phetkasem, Okay? Phet Kasem 245. Okay? Phet Ka-sem.... All was clear and he curved on to the traffic. First we headed towards a larger highway than I had anticipated but as I had only done the journey twice - both via different routes - I guessed that it might be just one more way to the rather large and long road. Well, when the meter started to close in to the 100 baht marker and we were still driving away from the city on a road furthering from the Phetkasem (there is no standard spelling in English but that's the way it's most often written) I said "Wrong way, Thanon Phetkasem!" and I'm quite sure that the driver understood what I meant even though his vocabulary was limited to maybe five words in English. He offered to make a U-turn but I just repeated the road name which he at least understood. Then he showed forward and to the left and I just grunted angrily at him. I was thinking he is trying to make an extra long route to get some more bahts from a stupid falang. But after the meter was showing 30 km and two hundred something, it occurred to me that he might not actually know where we are going. And shortly afterwards we pulled over and he asked if I had a map. Well, being more prepared to drive a taxi in Bangkok than he was I dug up my Lonely Planet pull-out map of Bangkok and showed him exactly where we left and the road we were supposed to be on. They wondered it for a while and didn't reach any conclusion. So he drove forward to some elephant park to see if there would be someone who spoke English there. By my standards, there wasn't. But they still managed to reach a consensus that he was way off (whoop-de-do, give them a fucking medal) and we headed back. And after another 20 km of driving and 47 minutes of waiting in traffic or reading map and navigating with locals (with the meter running) we were on the right road at least. And eventually when the km meter hit low sixties and over two hours had passed from the beginning, we finally reached our destination, albeit if I hadn't been here before I might have missed that as well. Then the driver started to point at the meter and I almost shout-laughed at him. I was a bit sympathetic for him because he probably just misunderstood me. Thought that I wanted to go to Thanon Phetkasem SOI 245 instead of Thanon Phetkasem 245. (Sois being the side streets of major roads, but there is no soi 245 probably on any street, at least not on this one - something a cab driver might want to know). And in Thailand you most often mean the particular soi as direct addresses are not really popular around here. So there was a faint basis for his misconception although I had given him the exact address and never mentioned anything about any soi.

Eventually I had to call out one professor of ours to translate our obviously different views about the fare and after some arguing he still wanted to get the full fare on the meter (503 baht). The professor suggested just giving him some amount of money and mentioned 200 baht, but I had already in my stubborn Finnish way decided that I won't pay more than 150 for the uncalled-for sight seeing. So I took out a 100 baht note and said "Normal price" and in an inexplicable gesture of compassion drew out a 50 baht note and said "extra". He refused it so I just bluntly started walking away with the money in my hand as I had already arrived in my destination and couldn't really care any less if he accepted the money or not (and because that generally works because some money is better than no money). In my mind I offered to pay him 50% extra for the rather short trip made long by him. Finally he submitted and took the money after my back was just going farther and farther away from him and he realized that it is all he is going to get from me. So generally I just wasted two hours and some energy plus the equivalent of 1 euro in cash. Not too bad I think and the memory of it is well worth the extra money.