Day 2 in Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore trip

The second day was full of activities lined up. There was a trip to coral islands, lunch, gem factory, zoo, mini sayam and finally the Tiffany.
Leaving all anxiety behind, we got up and were ready in the hotel lobby waiting for the day’s surprise. The day’s surprise was that a van-driver came to us asking if the number on the piece of paper he is holding is our rooms’. It was!! So he asked us to sit in the van. Having not much knowledge of Thai language, we skipped any dialogue with him and boarded the van. The van was good, spacious and only for us. The joy did not last much and after a couple of minutes drive, the van dropped us at the footpath. On the other side of the road was the sea. We tried to ask the driver what next and he pointed us to a small lady standing on the she shore. Assuming that the van will be there when we return, we rushed to the little lady. The lady wrote something on our hands and asked us to wait. Later a few more people joined. She did same on their hands and we concluded that it was some identification mark for the group.
Few minutes later, a motor boat anchored itself some meters away from us. And the lady told us to wade to the boat. There were photographers near the boat who shot our photos while climbing in the boat.
Once the entire group was in the boat, a man with his Thai accent started outlining the trip that we were to experience. The boat then started and as we were told, we stopped at a floating platform built a few kilometers away from shore. Here there was a provision for paragliding ( or whatever it is called.) you are first tied to a parachute and one end of a rope whose other end is tied to a small motor boat. Then the motor boat sails too fast on the water and you hang below the parachute and above sea. Some of us opted to venture. I did not.
After everyone willing was done with the paragliding, we climbed in the boat again to go to coral islands. The islands have green dense forests on them and white sand and crystal clear water at the shore. There are provisions where you can go underwater and see the rich variety of underwater world. Numerous plants and animals and fishes. They put a heavy helmet on your head which has a pipe attached to it. The pipe allows fresh air in the helmet. You descend down the stairs into the water and the experts below in the water catch hold of you. There you form chains of 4-5 people holding each other’s hands. Every chain gets one expert and then they show us different fishes and plants and animals. It was a very good experience. There were even photographers down there and they shot photos. After around half an hour of life time experience we emerged out of the water. Later we allowed ourselves to some rest on the beach, under umbrella, eating roasted corn and sipping coconut water. Coconut water in Thailand has a distinct sweet taste which differs from Indian variety. Even the shape and appearance of the coconut is little different. Now don’t think that it was a different fruit altogether!!
Our motor boat was not in sight when the lady asked us to proceed to main land. She guided us to sit in a small boat and we seated ourselves on two sides of the boat. The boat sailed into somewhat deep waters and then the guide asked us to remove the wooden planks in the middle of the boat. We moved it and to amusement of all those who had not dived into the waters, there was the spectacular view of what we had seen from under water. The boat had glass bottom and we would see the plants and animals and fish.
The boat took us to the motor boat and then we returned to the shore where the driver had dropped us in the morning. It was around 1.30pm and a cloudy humid climate.
The photographers who had taken our photos while we boarded the boat were selling photos, 100Baht per photo.
The van driver was nowhere in sight and the lady was not able to understand that our driver was not there. We realized for the second time that for our trip, there is no single dedicated driver and for every piece of commute, there will be different vehicle. The lady took us to a open taxi. We shard it with few more from the group and the lady told us that the driver knows where to drop us.
The taxi sped past other vehicle and thru the lanes of Pattaya. Suddenly couple of men from the group asked the driver to stop since they had seen a hotel where they were to have lunch. They left the taxi there. Since we did not know about our lunch arrangements we remained seated in the taxi. The driver started taxi again and took us some distance ahead. After that he refused to take us any further. He did not even understand English. Finally with help of a security guard of nearby building we hailed a taxi and brought ourselves into our hotel. That cost us 100Baht.
Having nothing in stomach, in humid and hot climate we were almost angry about the travel arrangements. We called up the agent again. She explained that she has been waiting for us at an Indian restaurant. When we told her that we were not informed about the lunch venue, she declared that we had been with a wrong group since morning!!! We were spellbound. We were angry, but at the same time relieved that we were safe in the unknown country.
Now that we had to catch three more sites before Tiffany show at 8.30pm, we had to be satisfied on whatever eatables we had in our baggage. No lunch finally that day and the agent agreed to pay for our dinner in lieu of lunch.
So in a new van we left for Gems Gallery. This is one of the largest show room of gems in Asia. Everywhere only glittering and shining stones. Various color, sizes and shapes. First there is a small toy train on which you ride into a dark cave like structure where you see how in ancient period humans used to get precious stones and metals from within earth. From there you see various stages of improvement in techniques and finally come to today’s up to date workshop of Gems Gallery. And then of course the showroom where every price tag has at least three zeros before the decimal. Before we spent any Baht there an assistant came to us telling that the driver is waiting for us and if we stayed in the gallery for long, we might miss the cultural show at another site. We rushed out. It was good to see the same driver waiting for us who had dropped us at entrance around 20 minutes ago.
He took us to ______ I forgot the name… it was a place where various kinds of trees were planted and trimmed in various shapes including animals like elephants and camels. And there were cultural shows and elephant shows. It was good. Elephants played football, basket ball, dart and even painted. They sold T-shirts painted by elephants at 350 Baht per T-shirt. We clicked photos with elephants and tigers and birds here and then rushed to a place called Mini Siam at 5.30pm.
Mini Siam is a place where famous buildings from the world are recreated in miniature form. It has been a fine place for us to relax after the hectic day. The miniature forms were intricately created, showing every possible detail. The majority were from in and around east Asia, mainly temples from Thailand and Cambodia. For the first time we could sit in a café and had a tea. We had time till 7.30pm, and we spent half an hour of it simply sitting in the café.
From this place we moved on to Tiffany. Now the streets were lit and a mild drizzle made the surroundings really enjoyable. Both the places we had seen were away from the city heart. But Tiffany is in the city. As promised, the guide was present at Tiffany. She greeted us with a aah-at-least-today-was-better-than-yesterday smile and handed us the tickets of 9.30pm show. She then took us to an Indian hotel where we had good dinner. A full meal for the first time in the day. Spending the 100 Baht that the guide has given us for the taxi back to Tiffany’s we reached there in time.
Tiffany was a good show. They danced on various songs of various languages. Most of the east-asian songs were traditional or involving king, queen and gods. Some must have been funny too, because few people laughed. There was even dance on ‘dil dolaa dil dolaa re’. It was fun. Finally, exhausted with a hectic day, but happy that later part of the day was organized we returned to hotel.
Next day we were to go to Bangkok, a zoo there and few more attractions.

Day 1 in Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore trip

Mumbai to Bangkok – By plane. Very good journey. Its only that the plane was at such a timing that one has to be awake all the night. Hustle and bustle of the airport does not let u think of sleeping, you don’t even get a feel of it being night outside. That apart, we boarded the plane. It being very night, could not hold Kapil awake for much long and only once seeing an airplane, he fell asleep on my shoulders.
We landed in Bangkok at around 10.30 am local time. Did all the immigration and baggage claim activities. And as expected there was a man standing holding my name’s board. I was happy. Waved at him, and joined him on the way he lead. He took us to a waiting area and showed us to a lady who he said will board us into a bus taking us to our hotel in Pattaya.
Our plane was an hour late. So our scheduled bus had gone and next was to come after 2 hours. We waited. Finally a bus arrived. The lady showed us to the bus and the porter shoved our luggage in the trunk of the bus.
This was the first time we were out of the A/C of the airport and the heat of the Sun was felt. It was so bright and hot. Thankfully the bus was A/C and it takes two hours to Pattaya. So we could first have a comfortable view of Bangkok, and later some good sleep. We did not know we may not get this comfortable sleep late in Thailand.
The bus dropped us in front of something that could not be a hotel and could not be a transit station too. The driver of the bus said something in his own version of English and three people outside the bus who were seemingly waiting for our bus too tried their versions of English. Finally we understood that we need to sit in a van available there. The van travelled thru the roads, narrow lanes and rows of vehicles parked on both sides of road. Finally at 4 we were in the lobby of our hotel.
The hotel receptionist had to fetch his manager to understand that we had a booking and after some forms filling, handed over keys to us. The ‘Bell’ ( I understood this work in Thailand ) carried our luggage to our rooms.
The rooms were good, nice big window and small balcony on the East. We were hungry, no lunch that day. The hotel manager advised us to go to a nearby Indian restaurant. We followed the road he showed, but there was no such restaurant in sight. And it was not possible to search for it in the heat with empty somach. So we searched for a Madrasi hotel and asked for food. It was a nice food. At 700 Baht ( 700*1.3 rupees ), it might be costly, but at that time we had no option. Had a good bath and a good sleep. After all we were scheduled to be picked up by our agent for the famous Tiffany Cabaret show. It was 6.30 in eve and no call for agent. We were restless. We came to lobby, anticipating that the agent wont know our room numbers and the receptionist wont understand our names. It was 6.50 now and still no one asked for us. Tourists were all hurrying in and our of the hotel, lights were on and we were just sitting. Finally we asked receptionist to make a call to the agent’s number we had. The operator wrote on a paper that it will be 48 Baht for 3 minute call. Having no option, we agreed and she put a call thru. The agent was surprised to know that we were scheduled to have the show today and said it was only dinner that was planned for the day. He immediately sent a lady to meet us in the lobby. It was around 8 when she arrived and told us that it was not possible to have the tickets today. So we had to settle for the agent’s plan of Indian food in the hotel’s dining room. The lady handed over us the program for next two days. Her diary already was full of lines for next day, at the bottom of it she somehow squeezed the words ‘Tiffany Cabaret show’. After getting assurance that she will appear next morning without any call, we had that not-so-Indian Indian food with some curses to the agent and some silence. After the dinner we planned for a walk around the hotel.
The walk was pleasant. City full of tourists. Too many bars. And scarcely clad females. Market full of cloths, household items and edibles. Edibles include grasshoppers and cockroaches, fishes and few more insects which could not be recognized in their fried form. Doesn’t smell good. After a brief try to purchase a few things, we returned to hotel wondering how its going to be tomorrow.