Getting ready for my first Thailand trip

The travel bug bit me when I first went to Rajasthan in 2005. Since then, I’ve been to Rajasthan once more, Goa twice, Pondicherry twice, New Delhi, Agra, Mysore (I lost count), Kerala (a bunch), Coorg twice and few other places from where Bangalore isn’t too far.

All there is left for me to explore in India is the North-Eastern stretch — from Kashmir all the way through Nepal or Darjeeling.  But I need to plan a heck lot for that given the logistics and the weather conditions. So when it came to thinking about traveling abroad, South-East Asia seemed like a logical first choice. After all, budget flights were aplenty and it wasn’t too far. The places I was initially planning on going were Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

After much research, I scratched Singapore of my list. I realized how well marketed that place was. If you have never seen a world-class city before, I can see the appeal to some Indians but to me, it really didn’t offer me anything compelling. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure its an awesome place to live, but as a tourist destination, I wasn’t impressed.

Now, Hong Kong is yet another ‘city’ destination (like Singapore) but what a city it is!

I would go just for that view at night.

Then, there is Malaysia. Interesting mix of races, a nice city in Kuala Lampur and coastal destinations like Langkawi.  Then there is Thailand, which was a ‘must-go’ after watching ‘The Beach‘ (mediocre movie, awesome soundtrack!).  Of course, if I had the money, there isn’t a place on earth I wouldn’t want to visit (okay, maybe not Saudi Arabia and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa).

Back in the South-East of Asia, the other destinations I’d love to visit are Vietnam (all thanks to the Top Gear special from 2008), Bali and Cambodia. But the problem with destinations such as those are the cost of flights to get there.  Because there are so many Indians visiting Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, flights are aplenty and the competition keeps prices reasonable.  But no so for the other countries.

Anyway, back to my trip. My initial plan was to go on holiday for 2 weeks since I had 11 days of leave I had to use up before year end. I decided not to go to Hong Kong right now as it isn’t a cheap destination (read: getting there and hotel room rates) so I just thought I’d do Malaysia and Thailand first.

Then, something came up in Goa. I wasn’t really keen on Sunburn 2009 … until they announced Armin Van Buuren was going to be there! I LOVE AVB’s music. So I thought I’d keep a few leaves for that because I knew some friends who were interested in going for that as well.

I then cut my trip down to 10 days and started budgeting the cost of flights to Malaysia and Thailand. I started off with Tiger Airways as Air Asia had no direct flights from Bangalore. There was a flight from Bangalore to Kuala Lampur via Singapore (6 hour stop over) available for Rs. 13k (return, incl. taxes). I thought it was a good deal since I felt I could use the stop over time to use the Singapore Airport bus tour to see Singapore city instead of simply wasting time at Changi. But I later learnt that, even though that tour is free, regular Indian passport holders need to have a transit visa just to enter Singapore airport.  So when I factored in the cost of Singapore visa, Malaysian Visa, the flight to KL and then from there to Thailand, it was coming to a bit much for just 10 days (the Thai Visa-on-arrival is free).

So instead, I decided I’d just focus on Thailand for now.

I went to all the popular online ticketing sites but ended up with a good deal from Yatra.com. A return ticket from Thai Airways for the dates I picked cost me around Rs. 17k. But at the time of booking, I saw a field for ‘Yatra Promotion Code’. So, I googled for ‘Yatra coupon codes’ and found a few sites that listed them. Some worked, most didn’t — but I eventually got one that saved me a good 5-10% off the ticket price. The final cost was Rs. 15,740 (incl. taxes).  There was a cheaper flight from Sri Lankan Airlines but that included a very long stop over at Colombo airport which made the total duration of the flight 9 hours. The Thai Airways flight is a direct flight from Bangalore to Bangkok and back (3 hr 45 mins journey time).

The places I wanted to visit in Thailand were Krabi, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Kanchaburi and then Bangkok. I decided not to got to Koh Samui because the Full Moon party for December had already gotten over on Dec 2nd and I really didn’t want to stay for the one on Dec 25th & the New Year party. Plus, it can be dangerous if one is alone, which I was going to be. So I decided to keep Koh Phangan and Koh Tao for next time.

I paid for my Canon 7D on Nov 25th and booked my flight for Dec 13th, thinking 2 and 1/2 weeks was a long enough time for it come and for me to get the hang of it. I wanted to spend a few days in Krabi province — mostly Railay and Ao Nang.  In Krabi I wanted see the Tiger Cave Temple, which 1200 stairs up on a hill is where, they say one can see the Andaman sea.  Railay was pretty much a backpacker’s haven, also popular for rock climbing. Ao Nang is the sea side tourist town of Krabi and a base from where I would take the tours to Phi Phi island and the many other islands (like ‘James Bond’ island) . After spending at least 3 to 4 days in Krabi, I would head to Phuket, which was 2 hrs by road. After spending a day there, I would head to Chiang Mai (for the temples, the ‘Long Neck’ tribe) and then Kanchanaburi (for the Tiger Temple) and then finally back to Bangkok (for the Weekend market, the Grand Palace, Wat Pho and then shopping).

Well, that was the plan. But as you’ll see in the next few posts, things didn’t really go according to plan. And that sucked.


Other Thailand posts in this series:

The day I left for Thailand

Day 1 – Suvarnabhumi, Pantip Plaza, Fotofile & MBK

Day 2 – Bridge over the River Kwai and Tiger Temple (Wat Pa Luangta Bua) in Kanchanaburi

Taking the bus to Chiang Mai from Bangkok

Day 3 – Maesa elephant camp, ‘long-neck’ tribe village near Chiang Mai

Day 3 (Part 2) – Chiang Mai Night Market

Day 4 – Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai… and back in town

Day 5 – Leaving Chiang Mai for Phuket

Day 5 (Part 2) – One night in Phuket

Day 6 – Leaving Phuket for Ao Nang by bus (via Phang Nga)

Day 7 – Touring Koh Phi Phi (Maya Bay, Monkey Island & Bamboo Island)

Day 7 (Part 2) – Exploring Railay, Krabi

Day 8 – Flying from Phuket to Bangkok

Day 8 (Part 2) – Chatuchak Weekend Market, Bangkok

Day 9 – MBK, Siam Paragon… and ‘little Arabia’?

Day 10 – Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha

Day 10 – Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and finally leaving Thailand

Figures, lessons learned, and things I couldn’t do

Why I set up my own website

So, I’m finally back to blogging.

My last attempt at keeping a blog was with 1Up.com (now dead). I started writing over there back in 2005, with posts mostly related to gaming and the few posts I made that weren’t always gaming related.

And then I stopped in early 2008.

I don’t know why, but user activity on 1UP was kinda going down — plus I found it hard to be regular at blogging. I’m not the only one. I know several people who got into blogging but never kept at it. Sometimes they quit out of boredom or they just never felt like sharing their thoughts anymore. Or they were just too busy. And it’s funny because despite this, people still come up with tools which make it easier for you to share with everyone what you are up to. And these new means somehow get people interested again.

I have a Twitter profile and a Facebook profile — so why did I buy 6 domains (2 personal and the other 4, well, I won’t talk about them right now) and pay $71 for hosting at JustHost?

Firstly, I’ve always wanted to get back to blogging. Secondly, I’ve traveled quite a lot in the last 5 years; taken a lot of photos and always felt like sharing my experiences with everyone (or at least whoever was interested in knowing about them). Given how often I Facebook-share my personal take on something or post some link I discovered online, I felt I had enough to post regularly on a personal blog again.

And I’ve always wanted my own domain.  Unfortunately, mithun.com is owned by some architecture firm based in Seattle so I just registered mithundivakaran.com and the domain you see above. Trust me, I tried every other good combination I could involving my name.

But why start a website now?

That has to do with work. As in, where I work. For the past 12 months, one of my biggest ambitions was to buy a house. Everything was focused on finding a good investment and then wondering about the finances. The pressures from family were annoying and the amount of work I was loaded with wasn’t helping ease my mind — but I had to live with it. I had a few job offers where I had to consider career longevity and funding for all the things I needed to procure as I reach 30 (I’m currently 27). But I was reluctant in moving to an organization where I knew I wouldn’t be happy. If there is one thing I’ve learned in the past 6 years is that, with a good job – money isn’t everything.

And then in October end, I finally had an good option to consider. It looked good and the prospects seemed fine. But it came with a catch. I had to give them a ‘yes’ immediately — which I couldn’t because I was asked to wait by the guys I currently worked for. The company was going through a pivotal moment in its history as well. New CEO (a promising CEO) but still, no firm strategy. And having spent my whole career life with this company, I was myself curious to know where the company was headed. It was disappointing to let go of what could have been something better but there was another reason. I was only 3 months away from completing 7 years with what is essentially, my first job.

A week after I let it go, things then got worse. News of layoffs, even worse news that what I’m working on would eventually get shut down. Worried faces everywhere, senior leaders themselves bailing out. It all got a bit too much. Nobody had any clue as to what would happen but then one day in mid-November — I just stopped caring.

The built-up collective frustration of losing out on a lot of opportunities (not just work, some personal too) finally hit its peak. I just wanted to get away from it all. Work, some people, e-mails, office politics, expectations, etc. I’ve wanted to travel abroad again, I wanted to click photos and instead hoping for some chance it would happen, I decided to make it happen. I had saved up enough anyway.

I was also contemplating buying a good camera for a long time. This year, first it was the Panasonic GH1. Then it became the Canon 7D. The reviews looked good and I had a chance to get it cheap(er) through someone I got to know via someone a friend at work knew. I paid for it, booked my tickets to get out of the country, bought my domains and paid for my hosting. All in the span of a few days. I spent a lot of money and since it was all on the card, never really felt the pinch of it all.

And voila. I’m back in the country and here is my website. I’ll be talking about what happened in between all the buying last month and now in the next few posts — and trust me, I do have a lot to talk about!

I hope this site grows. I hope people like it. But more importantly, I hope this site gets me somewhere. I’ll do my best to keep my readers entertained but please note:

This is my website. I will write about whatever I want and however I want. You may offer your feedback — but don’t expect me to change much. If you don’t like what you see, you may simple leave.

Peace.