Trains, boats? planes to Chiang Mai Thailand
1st August 2006
After breakfast the first priority for Sheila and I was to get to a bank with Sheila’s replacement credit card and withdraw some money. Adam gave us a lift to Suan Plu and we started to wander along looking for a bank. On the way I called into a photo shop asking for a price for passport photographs that we would need later in the morning. The quoted price was 400 baht for the eight photos that is about 14 Australian dollars which I thought was very reasonable. A little further down the street we noticed a bank, which was of course, on the other side of the road. We did the chicken run across the road which was made all the more perilous by the rain that was increasing. Last week a young European couple were killed on a pedestrian crossing when they stepped out onto the crossing waving little flags that had been given to them as part of a pedestrian awareness campaign. Sadly the driver of the large excavator had not heard about the campaign and the flags were no defence. From our experience pedestrian crossings should be viewed as targets, step onto one and you are in the cross-hairs of the many lethal weapons that Thais shoot down the road in.
Back to the bank it looked promising as it had Visa card stickers on the window indicating that it was accepted there. However when we asked “can we withdraw some money here from our Visa card”, we received the ubiquitous “sorry no can do”, and the instruction “you have to go to other bank”.
We walked further through all the roadside stalls that were cooking up a storm for the lunch-time crowd. Sheila was feeling slightly seedy from the mixture of the charcoal brazier’s fumes and the odour of offerings that were in various stages of being burnt. I think it was Sheila’s ambition to walk the length of Suan Plu without breathing, an ambition that was not realised, much to the irritation of her olfactory senses.
The bank at which I had changed some currency was our next attempt and I was confident that we would succeed this time. Each time of course we had to join a queue of customers waiting for teller service and ach time when we got to the head of the queue we were told “sorry no can do”, “you have to go to other bank”.
Near the end of Suan Plu we wearily climbed a couple of flights of steep stairs to a bank that appeared to specialise in electronic banking and joined the back of a queue waiting for the services of a teller who specialised in ‘one transaction only’.
We reached the front of the queue and explained our request, after asking us to write the amount we wanted on a piece of brown paper he said, “you wait over there” and indicated that we should stand in the ‘no-mans land’ between the counter and the head of the queue of people who had more than one transaction.
We felt very much like ‘shags on a rock’ until a lady beckoned for us to come forward, asked for Sheila’s card and passport and then waved us back to our station. Waiting waiting and the hard marble floor was causing my feet and legs to ache while Sheila was hoping that there was a ladies toilet nearby, nah it was cross your legs time.
After about fifteen minutes we were waved forward by another lady at the multiple transactions counter and received our requested funds in exchange for a signature. The emergency credit cards may be used in shops and for getting money from an ‘appropriate’ bank but will not function at an ATM.
Money carefully counted and stowed we walked back to the photo shops getting one quote for 600 baht for the eight photos which we declined settling on a quote for 440 baht, not the cheapest but one that saved us a few hundred metres walk. The photos were taken quickly but were about twenty minutes being processed. Sheila was still in need of a ‘ladies’.
The next port of call was the Department of Immigration where we needed to get our visas extended or we could be deported in two days time as or initial visas were about to expire. Relief was quickly obtained by Sheila as she located the ladies while I got a queuing number from an officer at the information desk. While we waited for our number to flash up on the screen to proceed to window number two we started to finalise our application forms. We had different ideas about what information was needed where and in a couple of spots I decided to leave them blank and ask at the counter when we were called. I glanced up and noticed that a number flashed on the screen that was one number more than ours. “Perhaps they had an easier or different transaction” than ours I ventured.
“I am not sure perhaps we just missed seeing it” was Sheila’s conclusion.
Sheila was correct as the numbers being processed climbed higher and higher than ours. When there was a gap at window number two I cringed at the desk and enquired at the desk, “have we missed our turn?” “Yes you have, please return to your seat”, “bugger” I muttered, retreating to our seats wondering what to do next. Within a few seconds our number flashed up on the screen and we jumped up to the desk very relieved!
We slid our passports, eight photos, application forms and the photocopies of the insides of our passports to the lady behind the counter. I had made the photocopies our passports at home and to save paper I had made two copies of the B4 pages on each A4 page. No! Wrong each B4 page had to appear as a separate copy on an A4 page. “You take across road and get proper copies”, I was directed as all f our documents were slid back across the counter. Another chicken run across the road and we got the photo copies very quickly for just a few baht and when we asked for additional copies, that we thought were required, the photo copy girl told us in no uncertain terms how many were needed for immigration. We conceded that as she was doing it all day every day she probably knew what she was doing. Chicken dance back across the road and back into immigration, with more hope than optimism I walked straight up to window two and pushed my documents across to the lady behind the desk asking, “I have not filled in some of the sections, what should I put there?” “Don’t worry it is now all ok” she replied. Yes ok except Sheila had decided to get a new application form and fill it in form the beginning. I stood by window two feeling exasperated and embarrassed as I waited for Sheila’s forms, but mai pen rai.
Eventually I was able to provide all the documents to their satisfaction plus 3,800 baht, and we were given a tag with a number that should correspond to a number flashed up on another screen next to another window, when our passports were ready with the extended visas. Within five minutes our number came up we retrieved our passports checked that they were stamped with an ‘extended’ stamp and walked back to the apartment.
After lunch Sheila announced that she would appreciate my company while she went to Siam Leather where she hoped to get a handbag (lady bag) to replace the one that was stolen. Rosalind had a Pilates appointment at the gym and said that Khun Boon Chauy would drop us off at the shop after delivering Rosalind to the gym. We were pleased with the offer as it was raining and the traffic can get even more chaotic. Khun Boon Chuay dropped us at a spot where he thought the shop was and consistent with guidance provided by the shop owner when Khun boon Chuay telephoned for instructions. Not quite correct but Sheila has great retail instinct and can sniff out a shop in no time. This was no exception and we arrived at their front door in a few seconds.
I lapsed into my usual retail complex coma trying to remember when to nod and be enthusiastic. A bag design was selected a colour agreed and a deposit paid for a custom made ‘lady’ bag.
I awoke and suggested that we could quickly get to the railway station and purchase our tickets for the trip to Chiang Mai. Sheila was not convinced as the rain had increased and she did not want to spend a couple of hours in the traffic getting no-where. However to humour me Sheila went along for the ride and we got to the railway station in about fifteen minutes.
Just as we entered the concourse a pleasant Thai lady approached us, “how may I help you”, she enquired.
“We would like to buy tickets for Chiang Mai” I replied feeling a little uneasy.
“When you want to go to Chiang Mai” she responded with her smile evaporating.
“On Friday ok” I stated with a slight feeling of unease.
“Friday ok no problems” with a slight smile appearing.
I started moving towards the ticket window with a purposeful stride.
Sheila’s intuition kicked in and she stood in front of the young lady.
“Why is Friday ok and not today?”
“Trains cancelled today, much flooding.”
“Bugger” I thought, “still never mind we’ll be right by Friday” I ventured.
Sheila persisted, “please ask the man at the desk if the trains will be running on Friday.”
The young lady acquiesced and enquired in Thai if the trains would be running on Friday.
“Friday could be possible”, was the answer.
“I am not going to be trapped on a train by floods for days in the wilderness of Thailand”, was Sheila’s posture and she stepped out of the line.
Well we were at an impasse I saw it as a heightened opportunity for further adventures, but Sheila saw it as a risk that she was not prepared to take as she conjured up views of blocked toilets on trains trapped in raging flood waters. Discretion is often the best part of valour when faced by a resolute female of the species, and I conceded that we would change our plans and fly up and back to Chiang Mai; at least Sheila did not appear concerned about the possibility of floods and land slides in hilly Chiang Mai. I was not about to disabuse her understanding.
We had a quick trip back home and in fact arrived before Rosalind had returned from the gym. Rosalind helped Sheila to book our flights to Chiang Mai for Friday and Sheila helped with some more checking for the Bangkok Guide. Dinner was salmon steaks with crispy skin accompanied by green stuff and rice.
Wednesday 2nd August 2006
I decided that I should rest my sore paw some more and not go for a walk, while Sheila responded to a telephone call from her lady bag maker and Rosalind and Sheila went to discuss some issues about length of zips and rigidity. I thought that they should have been able to sort it out over the telephone, but hey what do blokes know. Rosalind and Sheila returned after a couple of hours reporting that the trip to the lady bag maker was necessary and very productive and after a quick lunch ventured forth in search of sun glasses that would be suitable for prescription lenses. They returned much later, happy that Rosalind had been successful in her search and would get her prescription sunglasses next week. The three of us worked on research for the Bangkok Guide as Rosalind was concerned about a fast approaching deadline.
Dinner was roast pork with rice and green things flavoured by Thai basil that gives it a very subtle aniseed flavour. Very pleasant!
Adam had a late appointment with his gym trainer and did not get home until well after nine, it makes for a very long day for him.
After breakfast the first priority for Sheila and I was to get to a bank with Sheila’s replacement credit card and withdraw some money. Adam gave us a lift to Suan Plu and we started to wander along looking for a bank. On the way I called into a photo shop asking for a price for passport photographs that we would need later in the morning. The quoted price was 400 baht for the eight photos that is about 14 Australian dollars which I thought was very reasonable. A little further down the street we noticed a bank, which was of course, on the other side of the road. We did the chicken run across the road which was made all the more perilous by the rain that was increasing. Last week a young European couple were killed on a pedestrian crossing when they stepped out onto the crossing waving little flags that had been given to them as part of a pedestrian awareness campaign. Sadly the driver of the large excavator had not heard about the campaign and the flags were no defence. From our experience pedestrian crossings should be viewed as targets, step onto one and you are in the cross-hairs of the many lethal weapons that Thais shoot down the road in.
Back to the bank it looked promising as it had Visa card stickers on the window indicating that it was accepted there. However when we asked “can we withdraw some money here from our Visa card”, we received the ubiquitous “sorry no can do”, and the instruction “you have to go to other bank”.
We walked further through all the roadside stalls that were cooking up a storm for the lunch-time crowd. Sheila was feeling slightly seedy from the mixture of the charcoal brazier’s fumes and the odour of offerings that were in various stages of being burnt. I think it was Sheila’s ambition to walk the length of Suan Plu without breathing, an ambition that was not realised, much to the irritation of her olfactory senses.
The bank at which I had changed some currency was our next attempt and I was confident that we would succeed this time. Each time of course we had to join a queue of customers waiting for teller service and ach time when we got to the head of the queue we were told “sorry no can do”, “you have to go to other bank”.
Near the end of Suan Plu we wearily climbed a couple of flights of steep stairs to a bank that appeared to specialise in electronic banking and joined the back of a queue waiting for the services of a teller who specialised in ‘one transaction only’.
We reached the front of the queue and explained our request, after asking us to write the amount we wanted on a piece of brown paper he said, “you wait over there” and indicated that we should stand in the ‘no-mans land’ between the counter and the head of the queue of people who had more than one transaction.
We felt very much like ‘shags on a rock’ until a lady beckoned for us to come forward, asked for Sheila’s card and passport and then waved us back to our station. Waiting waiting and the hard marble floor was causing my feet and legs to ache while Sheila was hoping that there was a ladies toilet nearby, nah it was cross your legs time.
After about fifteen minutes we were waved forward by another lady at the multiple transactions counter and received our requested funds in exchange for a signature. The emergency credit cards may be used in shops and for getting money from an ‘appropriate’ bank but will not function at an ATM.
Money carefully counted and stowed we walked back to the photo shops getting one quote for 600 baht for the eight photos which we declined settling on a quote for 440 baht, not the cheapest but one that saved us a few hundred metres walk. The photos were taken quickly but were about twenty minutes being processed. Sheila was still in need of a ‘ladies’.
The next port of call was the Department of Immigration where we needed to get our visas extended or we could be deported in two days time as or initial visas were about to expire. Relief was quickly obtained by Sheila as she located the ladies while I got a queuing number from an officer at the information desk. While we waited for our number to flash up on the screen to proceed to window number two we started to finalise our application forms. We had different ideas about what information was needed where and in a couple of spots I decided to leave them blank and ask at the counter when we were called. I glanced up and noticed that a number flashed on the screen that was one number more than ours. “Perhaps they had an easier or different transaction” than ours I ventured.
“I am not sure perhaps we just missed seeing it” was Sheila’s conclusion.
Sheila was correct as the numbers being processed climbed higher and higher than ours. When there was a gap at window number two I cringed at the desk and enquired at the desk, “have we missed our turn?” “Yes you have, please return to your seat”, “bugger” I muttered, retreating to our seats wondering what to do next. Within a few seconds our number flashed up on the screen and we jumped up to the desk very relieved!
We slid our passports, eight photos, application forms and the photocopies of the insides of our passports to the lady behind the counter. I had made the photocopies our passports at home and to save paper I had made two copies of the B4 pages on each A4 page. No! Wrong each B4 page had to appear as a separate copy on an A4 page. “You take across road and get proper copies”, I was directed as all f our documents were slid back across the counter. Another chicken run across the road and we got the photo copies very quickly for just a few baht and when we asked for additional copies, that we thought were required, the photo copy girl told us in no uncertain terms how many were needed for immigration. We conceded that as she was doing it all day every day she probably knew what she was doing. Chicken dance back across the road and back into immigration, with more hope than optimism I walked straight up to window two and pushed my documents across to the lady behind the desk asking, “I have not filled in some of the sections, what should I put there?” “Don’t worry it is now all ok” she replied. Yes ok except Sheila had decided to get a new application form and fill it in form the beginning. I stood by window two feeling exasperated and embarrassed as I waited for Sheila’s forms, but mai pen rai.
Eventually I was able to provide all the documents to their satisfaction plus 3,800 baht, and we were given a tag with a number that should correspond to a number flashed up on another screen next to another window, when our passports were ready with the extended visas. Within five minutes our number came up we retrieved our passports checked that they were stamped with an ‘extended’ stamp and walked back to the apartment.
After lunch Sheila announced that she would appreciate my company while she went to Siam Leather where she hoped to get a handbag (lady bag) to replace the one that was stolen. Rosalind had a Pilates appointment at the gym and said that Khun Boon Chauy would drop us off at the shop after delivering Rosalind to the gym. We were pleased with the offer as it was raining and the traffic can get even more chaotic. Khun Boon Chuay dropped us at a spot where he thought the shop was and consistent with guidance provided by the shop owner when Khun boon Chuay telephoned for instructions. Not quite correct but Sheila has great retail instinct and can sniff out a shop in no time. This was no exception and we arrived at their front door in a few seconds.
I lapsed into my usual retail complex coma trying to remember when to nod and be enthusiastic. A bag design was selected a colour agreed and a deposit paid for a custom made ‘lady’ bag.
I awoke and suggested that we could quickly get to the railway station and purchase our tickets for the trip to Chiang Mai. Sheila was not convinced as the rain had increased and she did not want to spend a couple of hours in the traffic getting no-where. However to humour me Sheila went along for the ride and we got to the railway station in about fifteen minutes.
Just as we entered the concourse a pleasant Thai lady approached us, “how may I help you”, she enquired.
“We would like to buy tickets for Chiang Mai” I replied feeling a little uneasy.
“When you want to go to Chiang Mai” she responded with her smile evaporating.
“On Friday ok” I stated with a slight feeling of unease.
“Friday ok no problems” with a slight smile appearing.
I started moving towards the ticket window with a purposeful stride.
Sheila’s intuition kicked in and she stood in front of the young lady.
“Why is Friday ok and not today?”
“Trains cancelled today, much flooding.”
“Bugger” I thought, “still never mind we’ll be right by Friday” I ventured.
Sheila persisted, “please ask the man at the desk if the trains will be running on Friday.”
The young lady acquiesced and enquired in Thai if the trains would be running on Friday.
“Friday could be possible”, was the answer.
“I am not going to be trapped on a train by floods for days in the wilderness of Thailand”, was Sheila’s posture and she stepped out of the line.
Well we were at an impasse I saw it as a heightened opportunity for further adventures, but Sheila saw it as a risk that she was not prepared to take as she conjured up views of blocked toilets on trains trapped in raging flood waters. Discretion is often the best part of valour when faced by a resolute female of the species, and I conceded that we would change our plans and fly up and back to Chiang Mai; at least Sheila did not appear concerned about the possibility of floods and land slides in hilly Chiang Mai. I was not about to disabuse her understanding.
We had a quick trip back home and in fact arrived before Rosalind had returned from the gym. Rosalind helped Sheila to book our flights to Chiang Mai for Friday and Sheila helped with some more checking for the Bangkok Guide. Dinner was salmon steaks with crispy skin accompanied by green stuff and rice.
Wednesday 2nd August 2006
I decided that I should rest my sore paw some more and not go for a walk, while Sheila responded to a telephone call from her lady bag maker and Rosalind and Sheila went to discuss some issues about length of zips and rigidity. I thought that they should have been able to sort it out over the telephone, but hey what do blokes know. Rosalind and Sheila returned after a couple of hours reporting that the trip to the lady bag maker was necessary and very productive and after a quick lunch ventured forth in search of sun glasses that would be suitable for prescription lenses. They returned much later, happy that Rosalind had been successful in her search and would get her prescription sunglasses next week. The three of us worked on research for the Bangkok Guide as Rosalind was concerned about a fast approaching deadline.
Dinner was roast pork with rice and green things flavoured by Thai basil that gives it a very subtle aniseed flavour. Very pleasant!
Adam had a late appointment with his gym trainer and did not get home until well after nine, it makes for a very long day for him.
posted by John Lunn at 7:09 AM
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