Travel like the Thais

All the taxis are Toyota Corollas and almost all of them are
bright pink.

I’m a person who has what you might call “power issues.” Some will say I’m a bit neurotic, others will say it’s a control thing that seems to run in the family. Power issues are probably the more accurate term. I like to make sure I know how I’m getting somewhere, what I’m going to teach, what I'm commenting on, etc. I find a type of personal confidence in knowing I have the ability to do whatever needs to be done without assistance, especially if assistance is hard to come by. So getting acclimated to the public transportation system of Thailand has been stressful and strange. It’s not at as hard to move around Thailand as I first thought. I spent an hour studying the different maps and studying Wikitravel to find the major bus stations in Bangkok that will take you all over Thailand. I’ve spent enough time exploring central Bangkok that I feel as though I can recognize the names of all the stops on the subway and sky train. Getting to Bangkok and moving around there can be easy but getting anywhere else in Thailand can be problematic.

Last week Leah, Mia and I needed to get on a bus to take us to Bangkok. No one in Leah’s province spoke English well enough to understand we were saying. Finally we went to a scooter taxi stand and, not hoping for much, said “Krungtemp?” Krungtemp is the abbreviated Thai name for Bangkok.

There was a little chatter, then I pulled out my map of Bangkok and pointed to the place we need to get to.

Tuk Tuks are a lot of fun but the drivers are
not trust worthy. As a Farang, they will charge
me a lot more and they will always try and take
me anywhere except where I want to go.

“Ok. Sit.” One of them said. And so we popped down in the shanty that was the scooter taxi stand and the drivers walked to the road and started flagging vehicles down. He flagged down a few vans and then just stopped a bus and said “This.” He and his taxi buddies wouldn’t except money for their services but they kindly excepted cigarettes (Thais can get very strange about money so cigarettes have been a key factor in my negotiating skills or as a way to say thank you.) Unless you are at a bus station, flagging down the bus in the middle of the street is the normal way one gets on a bus in Thailand.

In almost any travelling I’ve been doing there has been a similar scenario. I have to ask a Thai person who doesn’t speak any English how to get here. They almost never understand me yet somehow, magically almost, they always get me there.

 All day long Thais are leading me, grabbing my arm, pushing me or waving me onto some bus or into some taxi or into a boat or onto a scooter taxi. All I can do is sit and hope that they are taking me to where I need to be. I believe this experience is called “faith.”  Faith and I do not have a good track record, both religiously and with people. It appears it will be the most challenging difficulty to overcome during my stay. I’m blaming all this in my power issues and I’m finding that these issues will quite literally get me nowhere in Thailand. There is no other choice but to trust the people here to get me moving. It’s one of the best qualities I’ve come across here; it’s a land filled with people who are always making sure you aren’t too lost. 

The Chao Phraya Express is the river taxi service. It's the
hardest way to travel but one of my favorites.

Recently I got lost finding the nearby squat hole. I encounter a barefoot homeless Thai on the corner who started yelling and banging on the corroded stand he was sitting on when he saw me wandering around wondering which stall to get into. I danced in and out of the bathroom because he was screaming at me every time I entered. I didn’t know if it was the men’s room or if it was broken or what. In the end, he walked over and flipped a switch I hadn’t even noticed. The homeless Thai just wanted to make sure I didn’t pee in the dark (he got two cigarettes.)