Krabi, ThailandAugust 4, 2007
N 08ฐ03.753
E 098ฐ55.091
Two steamy nights in Bangkok, two freezing hours at the over-air-conditioned Indian Embassy applying for visas, and two more glorious hours making changes to our Around the World ticket with a United Airlines ticket agent, we finally boarded a plane bound for the beach.
We’ve been land-locked for a couple months and looking forward to beach days for quite awhile…
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now we just need the weather to cooperate. Our intent was to take a boat directly to Ko Phi Phi Don as soon as we arrived. However, since we missed the last boat to the island by 45 minutes we found a cheap (and I mean cheap) place to stay the night. No need to go into graphic detail about the flophouse, but Marc was able to negotiate a deal with the woman "managing" the dwelling for a free night since we booked tomorrow’s boat to the island and accommodations on the island through her. Even though it’s a free night’s lodging, I feel like we should be getting paid to stay here… anyway, we’ll be off to Ko Phi Phi tomorrow.----------------------
While we were on the plane today we discussed our time in Bangkok and how much the city has 
changed since our last visit in 2001. The city is still a madhouse, of heat, humidity, smog and 9 million people (thank goodness their small). However, it appears everyone driving a scooter or tuk-tuk back in 2001 traded them in for a brand new car. The days of scooters and tuk-tuks swarming through the streets like insane schools of fish are gone (they must have moved to Saigon!). The scooters that remain sometimes use the sidewalk to get out of the mess of cars clogging the streets, terrorizing the pedestrians who actually use the sidewalks to walk!
All the cars on the road are new and there are a lot of them! The traffic moving through downtown is some of the worse we have ever seen—complete and total gridlock. People sit in the luxury of their new air-conditioned automobiles… and sit and sit and sit. For example, when we arrived in Bangkok our bus from the airport sat through three light cycles without moving… it did not move an inch! We finally got out and walked the remaining 4 KM to our hotel. About 40 minutes later, as we walked through the front door of our hotel, we looked over our shoulders and our bus was only meters behind us.
changed since our last visit in 2001. The city is still a madhouse, of heat, humidity, smog and 9 million people (thank goodness their small). However, it appears everyone driving a scooter or tuk-tuk back in 2001 traded them in for a brand new car. The days of scooters and tuk-tuks swarming through the streets like insane schools of fish are gone (they must have moved to Saigon!). The scooters that remain sometimes use the sidewalk to get out of the mess of cars clogging the streets, terrorizing the pedestrians who actually use the sidewalks to walk!All the cars on the road are new and there are a lot of them! The traffic moving through downtown is some of the worse we have ever seen—complete and total gridlock. People sit in the luxury of their new air-conditioned automobiles… and sit and sit and sit. For example, when we arrived in Bangkok our bus from the airport sat through three light cycles without moving… it did not move an inch! We finally got out and walked the remaining 4 KM to our hotel. About 40 minutes later, as we walked through the front door of our hotel, we looked over our shoulders and our bus was only meters behind us.
No one seems to be smiling as their sit in their new cars; they just look forward or talk on their phones, not honking their horns or pounding their steering wheels in frustration, just sitting, staring – almost catatonic. We wondered if this is what they imagined their lives to be like when they bought their new cars. Are they happier now sitting in the solitude of their $25,000.00 cocoons? If so, it sure doesn’t look like it.
The increase in traffic might have been a negative, but Marc was pleased we could enjoy an icy cold Singha in near silence. It’s strange, since scooters are now an endangered species, the honking and beeping of horns is almost non-existent… almost eerily quiet as compared to our last visit.
Another added bonus is the sex trade seems to have simmered down. There are still young Thai women walking the streets and gathering in bars looking for work. However, their numbers have decreased and the remaining girls are not nearly as aggressive as in 2001. I can actually go to the restroom and leave Marc alone without him feeling like he’s going to be accosted by a team of women all promising him the best time of his life. This is probably the result of better financial times for all of Bangkok.
Bangkok has really grown up since our last visit. A huge construction and technology boom has brought large, high-end shopping malls (equipped with water slides and IMAX Theatres), office buildings, several swanky hotels, and restaurants touting top-end international cuisine. However, intermingled with every high-rise and shopping mall you still find shantytowns, and extreme poverty. For many it appears to be a better, brighter Bangkok, but for those who never caught the tail of this roaring tiger it remains the Bangkok of old and most likely a bleak future.
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