It's Songkran here now, Thai New Year, when people throw water and smear powder on your cheeks for good luck. However, many people have gone back to their villages to be with their families, so the streets are empty and there are no traffic jams.
There are now 3 mobs of people protesting. The red shirts, supporters of Thaksin, are protesting the current government and succeeded in embarrassing Thailand and closing the ASEAN Summit. The government has declared a State of Emergency, and I got a notice from the Canadian Department of External Affairs (I registered with them) warning me to be cautious and to notify any other Canadians. The blue shirts are a new unknown group who attacked the red shirts with sticks and beat them. The yellow shirts support Sondhi who wants to change the parliamentary system to have half the seats appointed by government. They call themselves the People's Alliance for Democracy, but what they want is to kill democracy.
The red shirts are supporters of Thaksin's party, which handed out money to the poor provinces for infrastructure; Isaan and the NW (Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai) got a lot of money, which was far in excess of anything the government had done previously. Thaksin is from Chiang Mai. The poor provinces total 30 million people and make up almost half the Thai population, but the government would prefer they go away. Thaksin helped them, they voted his party into power, which upset the ruling class ... the royalty and the business people. This is why Sondhi, who is a rich business man, wants to kill half of parliament, to make sure it doesn't happen again.
But Thaksin did some stupid things, including setting up a dummy company in the Caribbean to avoid paying Thai taxes, and selling Shinawatra Corp, which he owned personally, to the Singapore government. Shinawatra owns Thailand's only satellite, and all Thai government communications, and military communications, as well as many private (business and personal) are funnelled trough that satellite. This upset the military, who did not want Singapore to be able to access their secret messages. All communications are encoded, of course, but with enough horsepower, anything can be broken.
The poor people are all over Bangkok, in the low-paying jobs: waiters and waitresses, taxi drivers, construction workers, etc. They are like Mexicans in the US, everywhere, invisible, and the country would fall apart if they are not there. The taxi drivers blocked major intersections a few days ago, in support of the red shirts, and Thaksin has been making videos which are played to huge crowds of red shirts.
I expect there will either be a coup or another military intervention or the resignation of the government in the next couple of weeks.
Such is life in Thailand.
Sphere: Related Content
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Yet Another Cambodia Visa Run
Although I swore I would never do it again, I made another visa run to Cambodia by bus. The one I use leaves from the coffee shop opposite Ekamai Bus Station at Sukhumvit Soi 31. It leaves at 9:30 AM, which is an OK time for me, and returns about 7PM the same day. It costs 2000 baht, and you need your passport (of course), 2 passport photos, plus a photocopy of the ID page of your passport.
It's one day, there and back by bus. It's a big tour bus, but no toilet, but they do play DVDs. It's 4.5 hours there, 1 hour at the border, 4.5 hours back, more or less depending on traffic.
It's hard on the bum. There is a toilet break half way both directions, and they feed you a free lunch. It costs 2000 baht which is about Cdn$72 currently. Half goes to the Cambodian government for a 30 day visa which is issued and then immediately cancelled. The bad news is that this visa takes up a whole page in your passport, it's not just a stamp.
Coming back into Thailand, they give you only a 14 day visa. It used to be 30 days and an unlimited number of entries; now it's 14 days and a max of 3 entries. While Thailand desperately needs tourists and the Tourist Association of Thailand is advertising worldwide, the Immigration Dept is making it more difficult. It's the Thai way.
Cambodia is dirt poor, literally.
The village at the border has no paved roads. There are always a dozen or more children begging for money. One of the little girls that I gave some money to a couple of years ago, when she was 7, is now about 9, I think.
Two years ago, when I gave her about $1, and some other kids lesser amounts, they all ran over to the local shop and bought potato chips and gum and candy, so I don't give them money any more.
The kids go to school (I asked) but learn only pissah khmen (Khmer), no Thai, no English, at least at that age. However, the kids understand and speak some Thai, which is what I use, and the 9 year old girl now understands and speaks some English, which she apparently taught herself in the few brief moments while trying to wheedle money out of the farangs. Poor, yes, stupid, no.
The kids call me "papa", which is the word they use for all old guys. The kids are downright cute, I can understand why people want to adopt them. I believe Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian boy after making Tomb Raider there.
Two years ago, when tanks rolled into BKK, the military closed all borders and people were stranded for a week. I was praying that would not happen again, and it didn't.
The worst part, other than the long sitting, and the often crappy movies, is the toilets at the highway rest stops (gasoline stations with an attached market), which are awful. First thing I do back in Bangkok is walk to the Landmark Hotel and use their toilet. Last night I also had dinner at the Landmark's Huntsman's Pub in the basement, something I rarely do because it charges Western prices. However, I needed real Western food, other than hamburgers and KFC, and so had an English meal: pork chop, baked potato, apple sauce, carrots and peas, and a Yorkshire pudding (not as good as my mother's, though). But the Coke Zero was 106 baht (more than $3) and the entire dinner cost 455 baht (an arm and a leg). I often eat from a street vendor for 40 baht, and did so tonight.
I hate this trip and each time vow never to do it again, but it's cheap, and I needed a delay until I get my new software product done. I have to leave Thailand again on the 26th.
Surprisingly, the day after the trip, I always suffer from "bus lag"; I am always exhausted, no energy, short attention span, sleep a lot. Sphere: Related Content
It's one day, there and back by bus. It's a big tour bus, but no toilet, but they do play DVDs. It's 4.5 hours there, 1 hour at the border, 4.5 hours back, more or less depending on traffic.
It's hard on the bum. There is a toilet break half way both directions, and they feed you a free lunch. It costs 2000 baht which is about Cdn$72 currently. Half goes to the Cambodian government for a 30 day visa which is issued and then immediately cancelled. The bad news is that this visa takes up a whole page in your passport, it's not just a stamp.
Coming back into Thailand, they give you only a 14 day visa. It used to be 30 days and an unlimited number of entries; now it's 14 days and a max of 3 entries. While Thailand desperately needs tourists and the Tourist Association of Thailand is advertising worldwide, the Immigration Dept is making it more difficult. It's the Thai way.
Cambodia is dirt poor, literally.
The village at the border has no paved roads. There are always a dozen or more children begging for money. One of the little girls that I gave some money to a couple of years ago, when she was 7, is now about 9, I think.
Two years ago, when I gave her about $1, and some other kids lesser amounts, they all ran over to the local shop and bought potato chips and gum and candy, so I don't give them money any more.
The kids go to school (I asked) but learn only pissah khmen (Khmer), no Thai, no English, at least at that age. However, the kids understand and speak some Thai, which is what I use, and the 9 year old girl now understands and speaks some English, which she apparently taught herself in the few brief moments while trying to wheedle money out of the farangs. Poor, yes, stupid, no.
The kids call me "papa", which is the word they use for all old guys. The kids are downright cute, I can understand why people want to adopt them. I believe Angelina Jolie adopted a Cambodian boy after making Tomb Raider there.
Two years ago, when tanks rolled into BKK, the military closed all borders and people were stranded for a week. I was praying that would not happen again, and it didn't.
The worst part, other than the long sitting, and the often crappy movies, is the toilets at the highway rest stops (gasoline stations with an attached market), which are awful. First thing I do back in Bangkok is walk to the Landmark Hotel and use their toilet. Last night I also had dinner at the Landmark's Huntsman's Pub in the basement, something I rarely do because it charges Western prices. However, I needed real Western food, other than hamburgers and KFC, and so had an English meal: pork chop, baked potato, apple sauce, carrots and peas, and a Yorkshire pudding (not as good as my mother's, though). But the Coke Zero was 106 baht (more than $3) and the entire dinner cost 455 baht (an arm and a leg). I often eat from a street vendor for 40 baht, and did so tonight.
I hate this trip and each time vow never to do it again, but it's cheap, and I needed a delay until I get my new software product done. I have to leave Thailand again on the 26th.
Surprisingly, the day after the trip, I always suffer from "bus lag"; I am always exhausted, no energy, short attention span, sleep a lot. Sphere: Related Content
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