My Bangkok sojourn - 3

In the few moments when I struggled to keep my eyes open during the drive to the hotel, I tried to assimilate as much of Bangkok as could be managed. Surely, the city view did bring back memories - of Melbourne. Green signposts on the roads displaying distances between places, accurately positioned yellow alert boards, picturesque landscaping on the road sides, massive flyovers criss-crossing each other, perfectly spaced speed breakers, tollways, freeways and highways, and lastly, the disciplined traffic. Building roads must be an art anywhere else in the world, other than India. So much of planning, teamwork and hard work must be going into creating such state of the art roadways. The roads definitely seemed to proclaim about the international standards of Bangkok. I was not ready to be taken in by the roads merely (probably due to the airhostess- policeman hypothesis) and deliberately suspended myself from forming prognoses, opinions and verdicts.

A huge billboard of a dragon put an end to my comparisons between Bangkok- Melbourne- Hyderabad. The dragon brought me back to Asia, to Bangkok and to the cab. A large majority of the population of Thailand is originally Chinese, as our travel guide told us later during the day. They had arrived there for trade and business a century or so ago; and then decided to settle in Thailand for good. The native Thai call the immigrants Thainese. The cultures are interlinked and so is the architecture. Thai buildings bear Chinese signatures - the horned slating roofs, open courtyards, massive gateways guarded by lions, dragons or gate keepers of some mystical kind. The doors, windows, gates and roofs -all heavily ornamented with intricate sculpting, carpentry and scripting. The architecture uses a lot of colour - I found all the buildings quite colourful - gold, red and green stood out prominently on the roofs and doors! The smooth one hour drive from the airport was interjected by my musings and our catnaps, not potholes or bumps. Hotel Ramada is modern, chic, classy and sophisticated. The interiors were ultra glam - all surfaces polished to shine like new, impeccably clean dust-free carpets, fresh flowers in vases all over - spick and span (i am a neatness freak and Ashwin thinks I could be a borderline OCD - obsessive compulsive disorder- case). The hotel stood up for its star rated reputation complete with high speed lifts, crystals and chandeliers, soft background music, trickling fountains, swimming pools, multiple restaurants serving cuisines from all over the globe. I was happy, Ashwin was happy, anybody would be happy, Achu was sleeping. We paid our taxi driver - charge + tip - and walked into opulence.

The Thai receptionist said hello - not a friendly one as per Indian standards, they don't smile much ! Ashwin, my dear tired hubby, got on to the necessary formalities of checking in and I had a look around. I was in the midst of self examination ( there was a mirror close by that seemed to run from roof to floor) when a racket caught my attention. Two white people - a lady and a man - were complaining to the hotel staff about how shocked they were to find their room's door wide open (which they had locked securely) upon returning from an outing. The lady was apparently more distressed - she was doing most of the talking. Her words came out fast and furious. The man was more at peace with himself, as though he had just had a good sumptuous lunch - ever noticed how food seems to act as a tranquilizer in most situations? The lady was trying to be patient and explaining her concerns to the staff about how nervous she felt and how unreliable the whole system seemed to be! It was the expression of the staff that left us nonplussed. They did not offer an explanation of any sort - not even a word of reassurance or an apology. They drew a blank. A few minutes more and the lady was quiet. She was tired, perplexed and disappointed. I was feeling sorry for them, but found this whole situation hilarious. Then it dawned on me - the staff simply did not speak English! Most of the Asian countries do not have an English speaking population. Annoying! , works as a boon for India though. Indians are good at English and hence the rest of the world prefers to do business with us (Be aware dearies, the day is not far when they would catch up with us. I hear China is making good progress!). And then when one sits back and thinks about it, there could be another reason as well. One needs a free spirit to tell words such as "sorry, please and thank you". The extremely patriarchal society of majority of Asia leaves its men too egoistic to own up their mistakes and its women too submissive to speak up. You, the metro sexual, cosmopolitan you, may refute.I hold my point though. This is the social incompetence that prevails in Indian towns and villages. I have seen it in India, I have seen it in Thailand!

On our way to the lift and to our room, we walked passed the lady and the man. She sat there looking down, as though over burdened by the unfamiliar nonchalance shown by the hotel staff. My heart went out to her. How I wished to reassure her, tell her its not all that bad as nothing had gone missing and the door must have been opened for routine service! I looked around desperately, hoping to find a magic potion. That was when I spotted the bell boy accompanying us. He was doing his job of pushing the baggage trolley and leading the way. I caught his attention and he slightly raised his eyebrows as though saying "what?". I pounced upon the chance, pointed at my watch and mimed "how much" with my hands. He smiled and said " 9:30", heavily accented, but 9:30 it was, Bangkok local time. My disappointed lady friend saw our conversation and looked at me. I nodded at her, she nodded back and smiled as though my little spoof had made sense. My message was conveyed - it is better to use more of your hands and less of your tongue when you are in an alien land where your native language is not spoken. I was happy that she was smiling and she seemed happy about the "bell boy - me" talk ( if you can call it that).

The lift was card driven. Cards - this piece of plastic- has revolutionised the way we operate. From billing counters at departmental stores where they ask you "Paper or plastic" (meaning whether the payment will be done in cash or credit- explanation for the uninitiated), to insurance cards in hospitals where they swipe the thing and say "All your angioplasty bills are cleared, you are discharged. You can go home", cards are a way of life. Hotel Ramada runs on cards. We were given a card to our room (not a key!) while checking in. The bell boy plugged it into the little slot in the lift and pressed 9. Like Aladin's carpet, the high speed elevator zoomed past floors and in seconds quietly opened its doors to the ninth floor, waited till we all got out and then slowly closed its doors and went on to some other floor - no sound, no noise, no brakes, no jerks - very lady like. 10 years ago, this would have been science fiction! Ashwin and me exchanged a "WOW" with our eyes. The bell boy took us ( baggage and personal) to our room, opened the door with the card and plugged the card again into a slot in the room. Viola, lights on. Not new, we are all used to remote controls and sonic controls, still I say Viola! Just so that we remind ourselves how lucky we are - there is magic in our lives!

The room was comfortable and fully equipped - the moment I stepped in, a sense of relief flooded over me. I felt at home - the room seemed to be offering warmth, shelter,friendliness- and I took it all in. We thanked the bell boy and I finally put our sleeping Achu down on one of the beds - the room had 2 beds - one single and one double (one for the dad; and one for mom and baby - that would have been the idea). Ah! the soft velvety feel of the mattress and the quilt ! Achu had been sleeping since the time we boarded - straight 7 hours, that was a good sign - they say babies do not sleep if they are even slightly uncomfortable. That done, I glanced around the room, flipped through the brochures, peeped into the fridge/ mini bar and headed straight for the shower. One look at the plush bathroom and I had to have a shower. It looked so clean and smelt so good. And I have always loved the little bottles of body soap, shampoo and conditioners that these hotels provide. I had to try them out! I yelled out to Ashwin about me getting into the shower and spent a good 15 minutes in there. Very relaxing, very refreshing. Then I came out and it was Ashwin's turn. We both showered and then decided to try and have some rest. We had a quick nap - not deep slumber- the thought of the complimentary continental breakfast waiting for us was lingering in our minds. At around 10:30, Achu woke up and as always, he promptly woke us up as well. He gave me a look as if to say "where am I" and then looked around and was happy. This was our happy room! Kids fit in so easily. I took him to the shower and he had a swell time in the bathtub. I had trouble dragging him out of there to get him dressed. Finally, we went down for breakfast.

My Bangkok sojourn - 2

The staff on the plane were extremely cordial. They did their best to make life easier for us - gave us the front seat which had lots of leg room (not that it made any difference to me, as my legs are not all that long!) , left two seats next to us vacant - so we got 4 seats to use though we were only 2 adults and one infant (any kid below 2 years is an infant as per airline standards), gave us extra pillows and blankets; and came running to us every now and then to see if we needed anything. All that because we had Achu with us - babies are always precious and you get to see that statement put into action when you are on a plane! So far so good.

The flight took off at 11:30 PM IST. Travel time was approximately 3 and half hours. So it would be about 3:00 AM IST when we would reach Bangkok. But Bangkok is 2 and half hours ahead of us in time. So that would be 5:30 AM their time when we land. Ashwin and me did the Math . We settled down on our seats. Few minutes later, Achu fell asleep on Ashwin. We reclined our seats to the maximum trying to find a comfortable position. And then throughout the night flight, we took turns carrying our little fellow. Ashwin managed to doze off in between. Me on the other hand was a bit hassled. Reason - I cant sleep on airplanes. Let alone airplanes, I cant sleep on any mode of transport. Its as though my brain switches to a travel mode, triggers alert signals at regular intervals and fails to go on auto-pilot! I didnt care much though! Having been through baby sitting 24x7, sleeplessness was not new to me. Also, I knew I would not be alone and most passengers would not have slept well on a short night flight. It goes like this, by the time one convinces oneself and decides to switch off, the pilot says " wakey wakey sunshine", which makes one jump out of the seat (possibly tearing the seat covers and the seat belt). Achu was still asleep on my shoulder when we landed. The sun was just rising. ON Time - 5:30 AM Bangkok Time.

The first thing we did after exiting the plane was getting back our pram. It doubled up as a bed for our Achu. And then, we had to get our tourist Visa stamped. For odd reasons, countries come up with wierd rules - the visa was not already stamped on our passports before we left India. Short visit visas have to be stamped on arrival and yes, they call it "Visa on Arrival". Some other interesting facts are :

1.Citizens from most of Europe, UK, Australia and US are exempted from this ordeal. 2.Chromatically white is a shade fairer than Black. 3.Monetarily Euro and Dollar are valuable than the rest.

Visa stamping turned out to be an unpleasant, long procedure. There was an endless queue, forms to be filled and arrogant, ill-mannered Thai policemen to tackle. A word of caution dearies - 'An airhostess is not a microcosm of her native culture, a policeman is. Airhostesses are trained and groomed to put their best face forward. A policeman deals with raw life of his country day after day. So wherever you travel, do not be taken in by the airhostess's smile. Look out for the policeman'. The Thai policemen taught me what to expect in the couple of days to come. The truth was bare before my eyes. Bangkok is a land in South East Asia, hugely dependent on Farming for revenue. And as a result, you will find people always in a race to make ends meet - in the process they scream, they shout blatantly. Much like Indians, they too are a noisy crowd. The difference -Indians smile a lot. A smile is mostly returned in India, not so in Thailand, they do not smile much. This was new to me. I had been to Australia and was sort of used to the extremely polite and frank disposition. Australia had taught me to say 'Please, Thank you and Sorry' a lot, to shed my Indian inhibitions, to break all chains that restrain, to be passionate, to take it easy, to let go, to lay back and watch the world go by, to say what you mean and to do what you say, to live life to the fullest! That's another story! I wondered what Thailand had in store for me.

Ashwin stood in the queue while me after waiting for a while, took a seat in the nearby line of chairs. Slowly but steadily, the queue moved forward. Achu had woken up in the midst of this menagerie and after taking a look at all the choas, fell asleep again (as though he had realised sleeping is the best resort to keep this mad world at bay). I took him out of the pram and sat there carrying him, taking in all the confusion. I could see people running around to get forms and fill them up, people at the end of the queue trying to get a peak at what was happening in front, people in the front eagerly waiting for their token number to be called, people from lucky countries (which are exempted from Visa stamping) being reassured that they do not have to get this done, the Thai passport officers verifying documents and speaking in broken English. The most amusing part of it was the Thai policeman (ah, here he comes again) screaming and trying to control a queue of exhausted, weary tourists waiting for the permission to see his country. At one point he even threatened to suspend the process if anyone stepped away from the straight line which had been marked out. Lines, demarcation, boundaries, walls, limits,territory, trespassing, invasion, war, death, hope, rebuild, discuss, decide, draft, agree, redraw, line - It all starts from a line, a simple directionless scalar segment that connects two points- sickening, isin't it?

It took us two hours to get out of the Airport after landing. Visa on arrival was definitely a bugbear. We did not wait (could wait no more) for the rest of the group to join us, collected our baggage which had been checked in, got the immigration clearance, and took a taxi. I had dropped the baggage buggy over the travelator while rushing to get there and then a Thai airport officer helped me with it. That is when I saw a Thai smile for the first time (disregarding the airhostess)! Its not as open and prolonged as the Indian smile, its a twitch of the lips for a split second. You have to be there at the moment to catch it. I caught one! Once into the taxi, I tried asking the driver about the distance to the hotel. The poor guy knew no English and did not get what I was trying to say at all. I even tried acting it out. He gave me a wierd look and Ashwin asked me to give up. I gave up, kissed Achu who was blissfully asleep on my shoulders, closed one eye to catch sleep, kept the other eye open to draw in as much scenery as possible and relaxed. The roads were world class (not bumpy like our Indian ones), the driving was good, the air-con in the cab was on and I finally had a nap! All of us slept, apart from the driver of course till we reached our destination - Hotel Ramada!

My Bangkok sojourn - 1

This was the trip that we had been looking forward to for a long time. We had been wanting to go away for a while and were badly in need of a detour from our routine. Though when the day of travel finally arrived, I was not feeling as delighted as I should have been, rather was apprehensive, skeptical. Call it maternal instinct, call it fear of the unknown. Bottom line is I was scared. This was the first time we were travelling abroad with Achu and by any standards Achu was still a baby who had to be fed and looked after all through the day. And another thing that was nagging me was I knew this trip would be a mad race! That said, it was as if my worst fears were confirmed when Achu decided to throw up all the milk in his tummy an hour or so before takeoff. My face automatically assumed a quizzical expression and I looked at Ashwin, my hubby. I could see he was as tensed as I was. He knew that we had to make a call - whether to check out the luggage and go home or to get on the plane and fly away. He was the man and he decided- "Lets face the music, we are flying come what may". I kept humming - "aaall izzz well".


The airport staff were good; asked us not to bother and assured they would clean up the mess! We thanked them (from the bottom of our heart). I picked up Achu; Ashwin picked up the hand baggage and we marched forward! ( I say "marched" to reflect the state of our minds - we were prepared to overcome any hurdle to make this trip - even a possibly sick toddler!) . Miraculously, the further we walked towards the boarding gate, the situation seemed more and more light. We could see ourselves smiling at each other and every one else. And all of them were smiling back too, giving each other friendly nodes, uttering little hellos, thank-yous and the like ... Looked like the hand baggage buggy which Ashwin was pushing was acting like some magical tool capable of cutting through the fog of doubt and letting the sun shine through.

And so, with smiley faces and unburdened minds, we went over to greet and meet our fellow tourists. We were travelling as a group - a group of fortunate people upon whom lady luck had showered her blessings. Its not everyday that one wins a lottery and that too something as exciting as a foreign tour. Ashwin and me could not believe it at first. Yet it did happen - for the first time in our lives! We were ecstatic! and thats how all this came about. Going back to our group - they were all warm and friendly; and I was very much relieved to meet an older lady (from Kerala). I instantly poured out all my worries about taking Achu along to her. She turned out to be a keen listener and a dependable companion. My faith in humanity returned!

All our group mates were married couples - just married, been married for a while, married for long or married for too long! Only one of them , other than us had brought their child with them. The rest had kids who were either too grown up or had been put into temporary custody of grandparents! So our little bundle of joy (rather bundle of energy) was left to bond with the only other child- a 10 year old girl. It often amazes me -how uninhibited children are - never restrianed by the adulterations of adulthood! The girl and the boy got along from the moment they said hello. It was fun to see a 10 year old girl chasing a 1 and half year old boy all over Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad. I had to step in a couple of times to avoid "Dennis the menace" situations. I feel that we all are born as fully bloomed flowers and close into buds as we age, not the other way around. Oh yes, there are people who remain as open flowers throughout their lives - its purely a matter of choice, whether you want to close out and pass away as a bud or be a flower. Oops! sorry for wandering away from my narration! Lets get back to the point. So we were a group of of about 14 adults laughing and sharing anecdotes, experiences and concerns; and two kids running around them. Pretty picture!

After chatting for about half an hour or so, we moved to the boarding gate - gate no 32 B, if I remember it right. Took photos of our little group, laughed more at few little jokes someone cracked while we waited for the announcement. Achu hates queues and waiting. So he decided to amuse himself by playing with straws from a coffee bar next to us. One senior person in the group was elected our informal leader. He was a nice and funny man- someone with lot of soft spots caused by dents and weathering due to age and experience. And then they announced - "All passengers flying to Bangkok please be ready to board flight no abcd (cant remember the no) of Thai Airways". I believe some people in our group were flying for the first time and the special twinkle in their eyes (that I had noticed) sparkled even more. I smiled.

At the end of the aerobridge, we had to give up Achu's pram ( i was happy that prams are allowed till the door of the aircraft) to check in as extra luggage. We were greeted by a Thai airhostess at the door. As expected, she was all smiles,tall, slim, pretty in the Thai way, wore traditional Thai costume (a long ankle length pencil skirt or sarong, a waist long blouse with three-fourth sleeves and a narrow strip of cloth pinned across the chest from left shoulder to right hip). Also, she wore a brooch made of the typical white and violet orchids of Thailand. And she greeted us with hands folded in the namaste manner and said "Sawaadika" or so in an extremely nasal voice. Ashwin reckons it sounds like a crow crying! We smiled, said hello and walked in.