The worst thing about living in Thailand is definitely the immigration laws and visa policies. They’re complex and constantly being changed, and it’s hard to know which rules are obsolete, and which ones are actually being enforced. Some are technically legal, but they’re seen more as guidelines, and enforced at an immigration officer’s discretion. To be on the safe side, it’s always smart to comply with each and every policy, but sometimes that can mean completely changing your travel plans, or incurring unnecessary costs. One of the most frustrating rules is “proof of onward travel”, so for anyone confused about what this is and if they need to abide by it, I’ll share my own experiences. (more…)
Author: Jay
Visa Run: Chiang Mai to Penang
For this latest Visa run, Carey and I decided to get a 60-day Tourist Visa, as opposed to the 30 day visa exempts + extensions that we’d been using thus far. Unfortunately, we left planning to the last minute, and when it came time to look at flights, all of the options were pretty damn pricey. I keep hearing that the best places to get a Thai visa are Penang and Vientiane, but flights from Chiang Mai to both these cities were at least $200 US. We looked at bus and train options, but neither of us loved the idea of spending 12 hours in a minivan to get to Vientiane, and a 2-day train ride down to Penang seemed equally unappealing. Instead, we decided to fly to Hat Yai, a Southern Thai city near the Malaysian border, as Air Asia was offering affordable $49 tickets for a one-way flight. I did some research and found that we could either take a minivan, train, or bus to make the 3-4 hour trip from Hat Yai to Penang, so we decided to take the plunge and do a second trip to Malaysia. Here’s how this visa run went down.
Catharsis: Feeling Blue on White Sandy Beaches
It’s almost the 6 month anniversary of when I quit my life and decided to start a new one. Almost 182 days since I left home to travel. 4,368 non-stop hours that I’ve spent with my best friend and fiancé. As I lay in bed, doing the mental math (ok, I cheated and used my phone calculator to help), I find myself unable to doze off.
Sometimes when I try to shut my brain off, it tells me, “no thank you, I choose this moment to broadcast vivid recollections of mundane details that you previously gave no fucks about – enjoy!” On this particular night, I am thinking about my old dating profile. I don’t know why it popped into my head (it was several years ago), but I can’t seem to shake it. It’s this one section – my response to a default question that has given me insomnia tonight. I keep rolling my 4-year old words in my mouth, like a hard candy, and I’m left with a dull, metallic taste. I know it doesn’t matter now, but I really hate what I wrote. It bothers me more than I am comfortable with, so I allow myself to reflect.
These last couple of weeks have been hard. For the most part, I am in love with my life right now. 90% of the time I want to pinch myself, because it feels like I’ll wake up from this beautiful dream and realize that I’m late for work and that my cable bill is overdue. But that 10% can be the death of me if I let it. That 10% is all of the stuff that I wanted to leave behind – the crap that I got fed up with carrying, so I tried to leave it in Toronto. Turns out, it may have followed me on to my AirEva flight and through the customs gate at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Having no support system; no security; no stability – it’s been rough on me. Even worse, not having to worry about mundane things like work deadlines and my best friend’s latest Tinder drama, has given my mind a lot of time to roam and wander. And occasionally, despite my best efforts, it finds its way through a labyrinth of hallways that lead into a secret room with no windows. I thought I threw away the key years ago, but turns out that my brain is an excellent lock-pick. In this room is a single filing cabinet, locked and chained, and hidden within its drawers are carefully labelled manila folders that contain all of my Bad Thoughts (in alphabetical order, of course). On the train, on the plane, in a tuk-tuk – even sitting in a restaurant waiting for our food to come, occasionally my sadistic brain decides that it would like to open one of those files and do an audit. Yes, even paradise can be a bummer.
And now I realize why I’m so fixated on something as seemingly unimportant as my old dating profile – it’s a warning.
Don Draper says, “if you don’t like what someone’s saying about you, change the conversation”. Well, I don’t like what I said about myself back then, so I’m changing my internal monologue and saying something different now. This is for myself; a reminder that it’s ok to be a little lost.
In Transit: The Train from Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan
From Bangkok, we wanted to slowly make our way south, so that we’d eventually end up in Krabi. As we had plenty of time, and no fixed itinerary, we decided to forego the straight route from Bangkok to Krabi, and instead opted for trains and buses along Thailand’s East Coast. Our first stop, was the sleepy seaside town of Prachuap Khiri Khan. Here’s a look at how we got there.
In Transit: Planning an Itinerary
Thailand is a pretty big country, and it’s geographically and culturally diverse. The North has beautiful mountains, hill tribe villages, and natural waterfalls in the middle of the jungle, and the south has pristine beaches, full moon parties, and is generally a lot livelier. Given the range of options, how does one decide on their Thailand travel itinerary?
When we got to Thailand, we had no plans. We arrived in Bangkok without deciding what our next move would be; we just knew we had to get to Krabi by the end of the month, to catch our flight from Krabi Town to Siem Reap. Our travel plans were wide open, and we were a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities. Though I knew that I wanted to see Koh Lanta, we really had no set course to get there. Being an analy-retentive planner, this freaked me out to no end, but ultimately I’m glad that we decided to meander.
Some of our Thailand highlights have been in the ‘in-between’ cities that we visited on our route to somewhere else. Yes, you can just take a direct route to get to your destination, but then you’d be missing out on the small, lesser-known cities and towns that often get overlooked by tourists. In Thailand especially, there can be some really great hidden gems!
Khao San Road: It’s Not Like The Movies
I remember eight or nine years ago, I was hanging out with a group of acquaintances who were several years older than me, and they were talking about their time in Bangkok. They talked endlessly about “Khao San Road”, this mystical place where sinners go to sin and pretty much anything goes. “Honestly, I can’t even tell you how crazy it was” one of the girls said, before leaning in and giving me a knowing look. Um ok, so did you like, kill someone or something?
It’s been described as ‘grungy’, ‘dirty’, and ‘dangerous’. A kind of , ‘Vegas meets Amsterdam’ where you can drink snake blood, play a genuine game of Russian roulette, or hire prostitutes to act out any fetish or fantasy you like.
In reality, it’s far less sensational. To start, Khao San Road is backpacker mecca. I’m not talking about the stereotypical backpackers of the 80’s and 90’s, who were mostly strung- out addicts, wandering weirdos, or perverts looking for cheap sex. I’m talking about the college grads who used grandma’s graduation money to pay for a ticket to Thailand, or the couple who are here on their honeymoon. Fresh-faced, clean, normal, and I guess by my standards, a little boring. This isn’t where they congregate to engage in debauchery or illegal acts – this is where they come to get ‘white girl wasted’ and sing bad karaoke, or to buy cheap sarongs and bus tickets to Pattaya.
Travel Prep: Vaccines for Southeast Asia
Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional (though I have seen almost every episode of ER, and I almost always win at ‘Operation’). My opinions come from my own travel experience, talking to other travelers and expats, and asking the locals. I’m not qualified to be giving medical advice, but I will give you a realistic, unbiased overview of vaccines and antibiotics without any hidden agenda. Take it or leave it, here’s my advice on what vaccines you need for traveling throughout Southeast Asia.
You’ll probably read all about vaccines, anti-malaria pills, and rabies shots for travel in South East Asia, and you’ll probably hear from your doctor that you should be fully inoculated before you leave for your travels. More than likely, you’ll have to go to a special travel clinic to get your shots and antibiotics, and you’ll have to pay a pretty penny. On average, it seems like the general fee for getting the basic recommended vaccines (not counting all of the fancy ones!) is around $1,000 US that you pay out of pocket (I’m not sure if some countries subsidize this cost via national health plans).
I would argue that many travel clinics scare you into getting shots you don’t really need, just so they can bill you for them. They present the dangers as being more imminent than they really are (just because you technically can get Japanese encephalitis in Cambodia, doesn’t mean that you will!).
The uncool, not-so-sexy side of long-term travel
I was one of those people who sat in her cubicle and dreamed of a better life. A life on the other side of the world, where it didn’t matter how much money you made or how expensive your clothes were. Where paradise was only a short boat ride away, and every day was new and exciting.
When I spontaneously decided to quit my job to pursue my dream of travel, I never really thought about the hardships I might encounter. For those who dream of greener pastures, let me tell you – it’s not all sunshine and daisies.
Travel Prep: Packing Tips
When Carey and I decided to quit our jobs and move to Thailand, we initially wanted to leave that very night. When the sheer ridiculousness of that idea gave way to some degree of common sense, we instead gave ourselves a week to put our affairs in order. I was more than a little relieved, because if we had left that night, I would have shown up at the airport with the clothes on my back (given that I was coming straight from work, I’d be arriving in Bankgok wearing stiletto boots, a cocktail dress, and blazer – with only the contents of my purse as luggage). In the week that it took for us to get everything together, I agonized over what to bring with me.
I wouldn’t say I’m a typical girly-girl who packs a suitcase to go on a weekend camping trip, but I am sentimental and get overly attached to seemingly random things. So, when it was time to think about what to bring on our travels, it was less about wanting to stuff my entire closet into my backpack because I needed 4 different outfits to see Angkor Wat, as it was about letting go of all the crap I had developed such strong feelings for (yes, apparently you can become emotionally attached to a unicorn onesie).
Prologue: Running to, not from
It was Monday afternoon and I was at work, staring at a stain on my desk. It was nearing 5pm, so I could abandon all pretext of actually working. I had just broken up with my fiancé, Carey after a hellish weekend of drunken finger pointing and back-and-forth screaming matches. My inbox was full of emails demanding that I be productive, but I was overwhelmed. A week from now, I was expected to finish a pile of media submissions that had barely been started, and would require 18 hour work days from at least three people; but they were my responsibility. For the last four months I was running myself ragged at work, making up for our lack of resources by working long nights and weekends. I was also planning a wedding that was only six months away, and that I would be paying for myself. When I wasn’t worrying about deadlines, I was worrying about napkin rings and boutonnieres, and all of the other inane details that go into having that ‘perfect’ wedding. As I sat there staring at the stain, I felt the tears coming on. This isn’t what I wanted my life to be.