Monday, July 31, 2006
Sunday, July 30, 2006
SEA06: Note about the pictures in the blog
In some cybercafes it is not possible to upload the pictures of the trip, so you might find that the blog is updated sometimes in two "stages". First the text, and later all the pictures are added to some of the entries, or any other way.... Please be patient, and keep revisiting the blog often for new updates!!
;-)
Have fun!! (we are sure having lots!!) :-D
SEA06: First Day in Bangkok
Our hotel *is* really ritzy, not exactly what we expected from this trip, but is has been a perfect place to *land* in Bangkpok, and to recover a bit from the trip. Swimming pool in the top floor, huge fridge packed with beer in the room, sleepers, air/con. But, as said, a bit steep.
Anyway, after a short rest and a shower, off we go to explore this exciting city. With the help of the map we got from the airport, we manage to find our way to the station of one of the high-tech public transport systems of the city. This is a metro in the style of the one in Singapore. Fully automated, air-conditioned, ultra clean (forbidden to eat or drink in the premises, you are even supplied with plastic bags for your dripping umbrellas when it rains). Instead of tickets, you use a small plastic token you get from the ticket machine. That black plastic chip is electronically read at the entry of the metro, and swallowed again at the end, so it can be reused and no waste paper in the form of tickets is produced.
Once we get to the main train station, the situation changes. We enter into the chaotic, hot and humid, and agressive environtment of Bangkok's traffic. Cars, buses, millions of motorcycles, and Tuk-tuks all fight for road space, and the main strategy is to over-run any other moving vehicle, and dodge any obstacle in your way. As you can imagine, that makes is rather unfriendly for unsuspecting and somewhat jet-lagged tourists. May be we should include an entry some time on road ettiquette...
In any case, first thing as we get closer to the main train station to ask for some information, we are approached by this woman, who identifies herself as a registered tourism information agent, and who literally drags us to a tourist information office (more like a private-ish travel agency) *beside* (not into) the train station. Once there, we are seated, ofered a (sealed) glass of ice-cold mineral water, and given information and a quote for an organised version of our trip at a *very* interesting price (about 320E for 3weeks).
We thank them, and say that we have to think about it, take the tourism agent's card, and run politely away. It was an interesting proposition, and an excellent price, but not the kind of trip we had planned, we prefer to organise it ourselves, and have the freedom to change at our own will. A few more of these offers will arrive in coming days, but now we know what they are, and how to ignore them.
With just a couple of life-threatening experiences at the times of crossing the streets, we start towards the heart of Chinatown. We pass by the Chinatown Arch, visit the premises of the Temple of the Golden Buddha, and walk even deeper into the real Chinatown. Temperature and humidity are suffocating, and the traffic and the polution do not make it any better.
Streets are narrow, and organised by trade. We pass some areas devoted to mechanical repairs of all sort of machinery, traditional medicine, jewels, sacks, metal in different forms and shapes, food stands, some more markets that remind me of the zouks in Morocco (but selling mostly Chinese and Thai products), a few more Buddhist Temples, in one of which we saw the monk-students going to the Temple. It's just another world to what we knew from Europe.
Finally we decide we are tired, and we have already done a good job for the first day in Thailand, and we head back to the hotel. Swimming pool, shower, and dinner in the restaurant of the hotel. I thought I was doing a good job getting used to spicy food... mistake... I never thought that a *salad* could be that corrosive when put in contact with my tongue!!. Fortunately steamed rice and yellow curry were (almost) non-spicy (or may be I had already lost all sensibility in my tongue).
Time to plan the activities for tomorrow and rest a few hours.
Anyway, after a short rest and a shower, off we go to explore this exciting city. With the help of the map we got from the airport, we manage to find our way to the station of one of the high-tech public transport systems of the city. This is a metro in the style of the one in Singapore. Fully automated, air-conditioned, ultra clean (forbidden to eat or drink in the premises, you are even supplied with plastic bags for your dripping umbrellas when it rains). Instead of tickets, you use a small plastic token you get from the ticket machine. That black plastic chip is electronically read at the entry of the metro, and swallowed again at the end, so it can be reused and no waste paper in the form of tickets is produced.
Once we get to the main train station, the situation changes. We enter into the chaotic, hot and humid, and agressive environtment of Bangkok's traffic. Cars, buses, millions of motorcycles, and Tuk-tuks all fight for road space, and the main strategy is to over-run any other moving vehicle, and dodge any obstacle in your way. As you can imagine, that makes is rather unfriendly for unsuspecting and somewhat jet-lagged tourists. May be we should include an entry some time on road ettiquette...
In any case, first thing as we get closer to the main train station to ask for some information, we are approached by this woman, who identifies herself as a registered tourism information agent, and who literally drags us to a tourist information office (more like a private-ish travel agency) *beside* (not into) the train station. Once there, we are seated, ofered a (sealed) glass of ice-cold mineral water, and given information and a quote for an organised version of our trip at a *very* interesting price (about 320E for 3weeks).
We thank them, and say that we have to think about it, take the tourism agent's card, and run politely away. It was an interesting proposition, and an excellent price, but not the kind of trip we had planned, we prefer to organise it ourselves, and have the freedom to change at our own will. A few more of these offers will arrive in coming days, but now we know what they are, and how to ignore them.
With just a couple of life-threatening experiences at the times of crossing the streets, we start towards the heart of Chinatown. We pass by the Chinatown Arch, visit the premises of the Temple of the Golden Buddha, and walk even deeper into the real Chinatown. Temperature and humidity are suffocating, and the traffic and the polution do not make it any better.
Streets are narrow, and organised by trade. We pass some areas devoted to mechanical repairs of all sort of machinery, traditional medicine, jewels, sacks, metal in different forms and shapes, food stands, some more markets that remind me of the zouks in Morocco (but selling mostly Chinese and Thai products), a few more Buddhist Temples, in one of which we saw the monk-students going to the Temple. It's just another world to what we knew from Europe.
Finally we decide we are tired, and we have already done a good job for the first day in Thailand, and we head back to the hotel. Swimming pool, shower, and dinner in the restaurant of the hotel. I thought I was doing a good job getting used to spicy food... mistake... I never thought that a *salad* could be that corrosive when put in contact with my tongue!!. Fortunately steamed rice and yellow curry were (almost) non-spicy (or may be I had already lost all sensibility in my tongue).
Time to plan the activities for tomorrow and rest a few hours.
SEA06: First day: getting there
To follow the good traditions, the journey started by going to bed late doing the last arrangements in for the trip, and having to get up painfully early to get to the CDG airport.
Usual queue for the check in, but with a very colorful and cosmopolitan melange of people. Tourists, families going back home for their holidays, and businessmen. Just in front of us, there was a French girl, that looked exactly like Marie Charion, from the concert we went in Paris last Friday!! (No, unfortunately it wasn't her... :-/ ).
Take off on time, and off we go, crossing Europe, then flying across Turkey, the Bosporus, Iraq, with its traditional fireworks in the 'banlieue' of Baghdad, and the view of the Tigris river; Kuwait, the Persian Gulf, and finally we landed in Bahrain for our transit.
In Bahrain, we could see important differences in commertial and cultural practices with respect toEurope. Some two hours later, we took our second flight of the day, and after watching Ice Age II on board and sleeping a few hours, we arrived to Bangkok and got a taxi to a beautiful and rather ritzy hotel in the center of the city.
Usual queue for the check in, but with a very colorful and cosmopolitan melange of people. Tourists, families going back home for their holidays, and businessmen. Just in front of us, there was a French girl, that looked exactly like Marie Charion, from the concert we went in Paris last Friday!! (No, unfortunately it wasn't her... :-/ ).
Take off on time, and off we go, crossing Europe, then flying across Turkey, the Bosporus, Iraq, with its traditional fireworks in the 'banlieue' of Baghdad, and the view of the Tigris river; Kuwait, the Persian Gulf, and finally we landed in Bahrain for our transit.
In Bahrain, we could see important differences in commertial and cultural practices with respect toEurope. Some two hours later, we took our second flight of the day, and after watching Ice Age II on board and sleeping a few hours, we arrived to Bangkok and got a taxi to a beautiful and rather ritzy hotel in the center of the city.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
SEA06: 24h, or the nightmare solved, sort of...
After a few calls, finally I've found an insurance that would give me repatriation and hospitalisation cover for he trip, (but not luggage theft or loss) even buying it the day before leaving. Not the cheapest one, but convenient, as I could even contract it over the net (only after someone from that company guided me through all the labyrinth of their web site to the 'buy online' section, which was not that obvious to find.
Now we've bought the last items we needed, and we can just go to central Paris to spend our last hours in Europe!!
Now we've bought the last items we needed, and we can just go to central Paris to spend our last hours in Europe!!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
SEA06: Only 48h, or the insurance nightmare
Everything is (almost) ready. My luggage mostly fits in my roller/backpack, after a bit of persuasion. Only some easy but vital details need to be sorted out. And one of those is the insurance. No sweat, I can get that one online, from one of the partners of Lonely Planet, WorldNomads, who specialises in adventurous travel. Mhhh.... I'm not living in the UK anymore (neither in Australia or New Zealand, obviously), and I'm not planning to travel to Australia during this trip, therefore it seems that the insurance I wanted to take would not cover me. Cold sweat. In a world where travel insurance is usually sold included in your travel package, and in a country where the length of bureaucratic procedures is measured in geological time-scales, realising that you do not have travel insurance barely two days before departure is a sure way to get stressed.
The people at WorldNomads swiftly and kindly tell me that they might (or might not) start offering the insurance I need from the 1st of August (or around, that date). That would be one week into my journey already. On the other hand, most French insurers either offer me yearly insurances, or tell me that I cannot pretend to get an insurance less than a couple of weeks/months before departure or that I could get one at three times the price of the normal premium, but only granting me half the cover. On top of that, no way to get the insurance done over the internet. Got to do it on the phone or find an insurance dealer.
Mhhhh....
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Thursday, July 20, 2006
SEA06: Less than a week
Finally we are getting there... a bit of stress, but...
All vaccinations are taken, all types of mosquito repellants bought, together with all the rest of pharmacy stuff, from a very basic first aid kit; passing by water purification tablets (silver ones, not clorine, for water that tastes like water, instead of tasting like a public swimming pool); sun protection, shampoo, shaving stuff, toothpaste and other toiletries; toilet paper, as most public toilets over there might not supply it; the complete lot. Actually, given the climate and the recommendation on our travel guides about waiting to get there to buy everything else, our suitcases will be mostly empty, filled only with pharmacy stuff and electronics (i.e. mobile phone, MP3-player, digital camera and the chargers for all of them).
Boots, long sleeve shirts, long/short technical trousers, towel (as good Hitchhiker), swiss knife, camera, music, some reading, sunglasses, an old harmonica I never quite managed to play, a touareg-style headscarf instead of a hat, sandals, sewing kit, day backpack, passport, credit cards, plane reservations...
So, we are more or less ready to go.
All vaccinations are taken, all types of mosquito repellants bought, together with all the rest of pharmacy stuff, from a very basic first aid kit; passing by water purification tablets (silver ones, not clorine, for water that tastes like water, instead of tasting like a public swimming pool); sun protection, shampoo, shaving stuff, toothpaste and other toiletries; toilet paper, as most public toilets over there might not supply it; the complete lot. Actually, given the climate and the recommendation on our travel guides about waiting to get there to buy everything else, our suitcases will be mostly empty, filled only with pharmacy stuff and electronics (i.e. mobile phone, MP3-player, digital camera and the chargers for all of them).
Boots, long sleeve shirts, long/short technical trousers, towel (as good Hitchhiker), swiss knife, camera, music, some reading, sunglasses, an old harmonica I never quite managed to play, a touareg-style headscarf instead of a hat, sandals, sewing kit, day backpack, passport, credit cards, plane reservations...
So, we are more or less ready to go.
Friday, July 14, 2006
SEA06 Two weeks and counting down
So, here we are, less than two weeks from the time to take the plane to Bangkok and start the expedition. Of course, there are still so many things to prepare, guides and books to read about the region, entries into this blog to write... and so little time!! I should also find time to pack of course, get my last vaccinations, insurance, hotel for the first days, list of addresses to send postcards to...
Well, let's not panic and start from the beginning. How will we get there? By plane of course. To choose the tickets we checked on various large internet travel agencies (travelocity, expedia, ...), and then checked about the quality of the various budget air companies on internet forums like airlinequality
. To choose the route first we saw that the cheapest destination was Bangkok (obviously, as it is the most tourist-friendly, or may be just the other way around), and the best origin airport was Charles de Gaulle in Paris (some other airports had also interesting connections). To get to Paris we are using other low-budget companies, not the connexions suggested by the large national companies (I actually live in Paris, on the RER (suburban metro) line to the airport, so that my place has become a convenient stop-over).
Much useful information and advice has come from guides like Lonely Planet and others, and from sites on the internet but most specially from the experiences of friends that have done some journey like this one (or much more adventurous) before. Thanks everyone!!
Well, let's not panic and start from the beginning. How will we get there? By plane of course. To choose the tickets we checked on various large internet travel agencies (travelocity, expedia, ...), and then checked about the quality of the various budget air companies on internet forums like airlinequality
. To choose the route first we saw that the cheapest destination was Bangkok (obviously, as it is the most tourist-friendly, or may be just the other way around), and the best origin airport was Charles de Gaulle in Paris (some other airports had also interesting connections). To get to Paris we are using other low-budget companies, not the connexions suggested by the large national companies (I actually live in Paris, on the RER (suburban metro) line to the airport, so that my place has become a convenient stop-over).
Much useful information and advice has come from guides like Lonely Planet and others, and from sites on the internet but most specially from the experiences of friends that have done some journey like this one (or much more adventurous) before. Thanks everyone!!
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