+ Bangkok | 8~10 Jul 05

Really excited about going to Thailand - the exotic land of smiles, as anyone may have heard from advertisements in magazines and brochures.

Finally got to go - not for leisure, but for our small, start-up "business" with my wife and son for her pushcart or kiosk business. So three of us got on Cathay Pacific Airlines at 1:30pm Terminal 1 Changi Airport, heading for Bangkok. A three hour flight in between, and stayed at a First Hotel - a 3-star hotel along Patunam area.

Reaching there, we had the misfortune of lining-up in a slow-moving line. Never seen such a massive number of arrivals in one airport before. Lines and lines of people queued to go through immigration. A bit strange with so many continuous influx of arrivals, but so few counters opened.

Our line was held-up quite badly as compared to the next. We were stuck there for one and a half hours. The complication can be anything, but a few people in front of us, there were groups of maybe Korean or Japanese who did not fill in the white immigration forms correctly or something to that effect that they had to fill them in again while the rest in the line waited.

What a nightmare, the inching line, babies crying and toddlers getting cranky due to waiting and standing in line, in a crowd of maybe more than a few hundred people.

We were supposed to be greeted by the Thai tour agent VV Victory at the airport, but could not locate him. After 20 minutes searching for the guy in an over-crowded and congested meeting area, we had to call back the Singapore tour agent - Pinnacle, whose Assistant Manager was not as helpful as she was the day we paid for our tickets.

Instead our second call to her, she asked us to call the Thai tour agent directly. After a "good word" from my wife, she helped to"emailed" the agent to pick us up. Never knew if she did anyway. The tour agent did not show up or even call our cell phone number we left with the Singapore agent either.

My wife, as resourceful enough as she is, asked for assistance from airport security, who in turn pointed us to the Ground Assistant. She helped contact the agent who told us to wait for five minutes. After ten minutes, the agent called back to tell us to take the taxi to the hotel ourselves, as they would take one and a half hours to reach the airport to pick us up.

They told us that they had to leave us there, since there were six other people who had waited for half hour before us before they complained they could not wait any longer. The tour agent had waited about an hour for them before they emerge from the immigration.

We did not blame them, we felt the immigration was very bad at handling large crowds that day. They were stuck for an hour there themselves, anyway.

Guess it should be alright for many travelers, but for us being first timers in Thailand, we were nervous as we were told by friend who ever visited Thailand about bad incidences that could happen there.

Unfortunate, but we took the taxi anyway. True to the warnings given that the roads would have traffic jams. It was a forty minutes journey but seemed a long and quiet ride to the hotel.

Now I for some Thai hospitality.

Not being biased, but objectively, it was nothing special. Nothing as described in the brochures, advertisements, or even on some travel programs.

The hotel staff were cold - no smiles, no famous "Sawadeeka" greetings, nothing! Just a check-in formality, paying a security deposit of 1000 Bhat for the room key and off to our room without even telling us which wing of the hotel lift we should take.

We had to take our own luggage up without even a hint of assistance by the two bellhops stood not 2 meters away, and had to ask one of them which lift to use to get to our room. It was on the 12th floor room 1204.

Strange! Where they hell, did all those great propaganda came from?

Everything is so, so over-rated there.

Maybe the Caucasians get to experience the much talked-about Thai hospitality. We did not get any, maybe we were Asians. It would not be a surprise for them to be selective to whom they wish to extend their "hospitality package".

Guess the Caucasians have better spending power because of the money exchange rate and would give better tips than the Asians. I may not be totally right either, as Thais are known to like Japanese tourists too. Evident are the brochures in Thai, English and Japanese.

The room was nice, befitting a 3-star hotel. Though generally run-down with old furnishings - broken lamp shades and a dark-taped hose to the shower head, no qualms here, just glad we are settled.

We headed straight for the shopping lanes without wasting more precious time we have there, than we had spent at the airport. Wow! Were there shopping lanes or what!

Wherever you could find a small space on the footpath, you would find a makeshift pushcart. The pushcarts lined alongside the pavements on both sides. Maybe there was some kind of unspoken "system" they have here. Some vendors would set-up it pushcart on a certain spot at a certain number of hours there. And by the next maybe 6 hours or so, another vendor would take-over the spot selling other stuffs. Like clock-work, they rotated amongst themselves.

At one point, we were at Selom, Patpong, if I spelled correctly; we saw droves and droves of puschart vendors coming out from between "cracks of buildings", crossing the busy streets towards their unmarked spot on the pavement. What an exhilarating site to see them rush for the space with such zest to conquer a good spot!

My wife bought lots of stuffs for the pushcart there. Seen a lot of "scenes" too. Lining on both sides of the street in Patpong were bars with sleazy counter-top dancing girls in bikinis, gyrating to the loud music in colorful flashing lights.

Caucasian men were everywhere, drinking and having a good time. Also got to witness a fight between a Thai and a Thai-speaking Caucasian men. Kicking and punching and swearing words I presumed. My son was shocked at the sight as it happened right in front of us.

Too tired from all that walking and the experiences for me the girls, live-in-person; for my son the brutality he saw that normally you would see on TV, and my wife with the thousands of shopping opportunities, not to mentioned one incident.

We passed a massage shop with the ladies, the messeuses, I presumed, called onto me for a message. I replied "no thanks" and she replied "then you massage me". I did not know how my wife felt at the time. She did not say anything, we just walked on quietly back to our hotel to retire for the night.