Numion
First Post
Hi
A little over two weeks in Thailand. Bangkok - Koh Chang - Bangkok - Pattaya - Bangkok. If you know Thailand, you'll know that there's little sense in going from Chang to Bangkok instead of straight to Pattaya. We had a bit of bad luck - on an internal flight check-in my friends passports picture page fell off. So, we had to travel to Bangkok to order a new one from Finnish embassy, and then pickup before leaving. It doesn't help that the place is open for only 3 hours in the morning. Anyway, it's a known issue with early finnish EU passports, and there's a compensation program so my friend can charge them for the inconveniences.
Otherwise it was a great trip. I was with three other friends who have been there 4-7 times, while this was my first. Locals are very nice, a bit greedy though, but I guess that goes for any country where the minimum wage for a day is what you or I make in about 12 minutes. And that is for an 11 hour day with two off days a month, not that wussy western 9-5
I sometimes noticed after being there for a week that we were haggling over 40 cents with a taxi driver - is that really worth it?
Koh Chang is quickly developing into a tourist hell, but it still has very nice opportunities to see the wildlife and unspoiled nature. It's a relatively large island with a single road circling it, with untrespassable jungle mountains in the middle. Nice beaches and opportunities for snorkling and diving further out.
As for Pattaya .. well. It's a circus for tourists. A nice one, but still makes you wonder when you see the beach with polluted water, around 50 muscle boats waiting for tourists, a dozen boat hauled parachutes in the air, countless jetskis. Thousands of scooters and motorbikes for rent, people constantly selling you all kinds of crap.
You can even go to a shooting range and let loose a few belts with an M-60 machine gun or shoot a bazooka. For extra fee, they'll put a cow up there for you to shoot :\
And then there's the stuff Erics grandma wouldn't approve of. And lots of it. You can't walk the streets without hearing "Welcoom welcoom sexy maan" every few meters. While many think it's wrong, daaaamn it feels good to be treated well once in a while, and that beatiful girls actually want to spend time with you
One of my friends stayed behind, he had already applied for a one year visa and had decided to stay with his thai lady (from a previous trip) for some time. He sold most of his worldly possessions and let go of his rental house before the trip, stayed the two weeks with us and when we left for Bangkok he left for the rural Thailand. When he first visited the village a year ago he was the first white man most of the villagers had seen. We'll see how that goes
One of things he did haul along was a coffee maker
I'm feeling a bit sad myself. You know, I'm happy to be back in Finland, but there's something about the country. And Ni, Ann and Lina too
I'll go back, of course 
A little over two weeks in Thailand. Bangkok - Koh Chang - Bangkok - Pattaya - Bangkok. If you know Thailand, you'll know that there's little sense in going from Chang to Bangkok instead of straight to Pattaya. We had a bit of bad luck - on an internal flight check-in my friends passports picture page fell off. So, we had to travel to Bangkok to order a new one from Finnish embassy, and then pickup before leaving. It doesn't help that the place is open for only 3 hours in the morning. Anyway, it's a known issue with early finnish EU passports, and there's a compensation program so my friend can charge them for the inconveniences.
Otherwise it was a great trip. I was with three other friends who have been there 4-7 times, while this was my first. Locals are very nice, a bit greedy though, but I guess that goes for any country where the minimum wage for a day is what you or I make in about 12 minutes. And that is for an 11 hour day with two off days a month, not that wussy western 9-5
I sometimes noticed after being there for a week that we were haggling over 40 cents with a taxi driver - is that really worth it?Koh Chang is quickly developing into a tourist hell, but it still has very nice opportunities to see the wildlife and unspoiled nature. It's a relatively large island with a single road circling it, with untrespassable jungle mountains in the middle. Nice beaches and opportunities for snorkling and diving further out.
As for Pattaya .. well. It's a circus for tourists. A nice one, but still makes you wonder when you see the beach with polluted water, around 50 muscle boats waiting for tourists, a dozen boat hauled parachutes in the air, countless jetskis. Thousands of scooters and motorbikes for rent, people constantly selling you all kinds of crap.
You can even go to a shooting range and let loose a few belts with an M-60 machine gun or shoot a bazooka. For extra fee, they'll put a cow up there for you to shoot :\
And then there's the stuff Erics grandma wouldn't approve of. And lots of it. You can't walk the streets without hearing "Welcoom welcoom sexy maan" every few meters. While many think it's wrong, daaaamn it feels good to be treated well once in a while, and that beatiful girls actually want to spend time with you
One of my friends stayed behind, he had already applied for a one year visa and had decided to stay with his thai lady (from a previous trip) for some time. He sold most of his worldly possessions and let go of his rental house before the trip, stayed the two weeks with us and when we left for Bangkok he left for the rural Thailand. When he first visited the village a year ago he was the first white man most of the villagers had seen. We'll see how that goes
One of things he did haul along was a coffee maker
I'm feeling a bit sad myself. You know, I'm happy to be back in Finland, but there's something about the country. And Ni, Ann and Lina too
I'll go back, of course 
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
Trust me, you get more than just the bed.
