Travels in Asia: 2005

Well... I'm still in Bangkok and still waiting.

Jordan tried, begging, pleading, lying and comign up with a variety of emergency stories that would enable him to get on a flight out of China on Sunday but it was all a futile attempt.  No moving of the Chinese authorities - those buggers.

So yeah - hopefully today in the afternoon or else tonight (past midnight) - once again I'll be waiting infront of the McDonalds in the middle of the night - I might actually withdraw into the safety of this highly stylish restaurant and freeze myself to death in its aircon.  But at least I won't be a standing target for all the drunks roaming Khao San Rd. by then.  On the other hand I might have Liz for company by that time since she's flying in tonight as well.

So yeah... nothing much to report.

I went on the Floating Market tour and Tiger Temple yesterday.  The market was increadibly touristy and I can see why many people don't like it.  However, I just ended up planting myself along the sides of the canal and taking pictures and it was definitively a very photogenic place.  So I enjoyed that.

The Tiger temple on the other hand... well, I did get to hug and pet a tiger - or rather numerous tigers, and stand about 1 meter away form the head of one while taking his photo.  However, the tigers looked increadibly sedated - drugged to such an extent that they barely had strength to lift themselves up and move.  One would just lie there on its back as hundreds of people slowly filed through posing with him.  The others would let themselves be shoved around and pushed to wherever they had to be.  I asked the people working there (Aussi girl and others) whether they were in fact sedated.  The answer was that they are nocturnal animals that normaly sleep during the day and have been hand raised since they were babies hence their behaviour.  However I do find that hard to believe.  Even the most tired dog or cat that has been raised since being a puppy won't act or move like that.  Plus you could see it in their groggy eyes.  So as nice as it was to see them it was equally sad and disappointing.

Other than that had a nasty fight with the travel agency when I got back to Bangkok - trying to get money back - which is an impossible thing in countries such as these.  Eventually after me turning away a couple other potential customers tellign them not to shop at this agency the guy said he'll give me 100B back just because I'm Polish and he has a lot of good Polish customers/friends and it would be bad for his business to have a bad reputation within the Polish community.  I had wanted 200B back but settled for this figuring it's better than nothing especially here.

So yeah... now I sit and wait again.  Maybe a day at the spa... - can't go wrong with a massage, sauna, scrub and some other stuff for a price tag of under $20 CAD - nearly 4 hours of treatment


Kasia