Although I had heard so much about Panthip Plaza, the so-called electronics mecca in Bangkok, I was totally disappointed after my first (and my last) visit there. First of all, Panthip is one of the ugliest shopping emporiums that I have ever been to. In this multilevel technozoo (I believe there are at least 8 floors), there are countless shops and makeshift stalls selling a wide variety of electronic goods - digital cameras, computer parts and components, software, memory cards and chips, cell phones, and it seemed that every store was selling virtually the same merchandise, all at prices seemingly 25% higher than the United States. I went to Panthip specifically to buy a 512MB Sandisk ultra secured digital card for my camera; after checking numerous stores, I found that only one place carried it albeit for about $90 USD, which was about $35 more than what I paid in the states. To add to my disenchantment, like the Emporium, there’s some loud disco and trashy pop music blaring inside the place. I left Panthip without buying anything and the schlocky ambiance of totally drained me. I ended up going back to the Emporium and purchased my digital film at an electronics store there for the same inflated price albeit with a lot better ambiance. I guess you could say, that my Panthip adventure was a good experience, in the sense that I could say that I was there.

Bottom line, I wasted almost an entire afternoon on this shopping ordeal between the Emporium and Panthip Plaza, when I could have been getting a full body massage and shampoo at Sazankas instead, and reading a sexy novel by the poolside afterwards. Oh well…

While I don’t consider myself accident prone, I have been involved in a number of somewhat freakish accidents during many years of traveling. Although I’m not a hardcore adventure traveler, I am definitely not your “conventional couch potato recreational traveler” either. I like to run, swim and participate in nature hikes and sometimes I go off the beaten track. All told during my 30 years in traveling around the world, I have been involved in four mishaps that necessitated a visit to the doctor or to a local medical clinic.

In my last post, I told the story of my Crash course in riding a motorbike in Thailand. From what I gather, there are quite a few tourists in Thailand who have been involved in a motorbike accident, either as the driver or as the passenger. Fortunately most of these accident victims were able to escape serious injury but I have I have heard of instances where somebody was seriously hurt - breaking a leg or two, suffering internal injuries or a concussion. By all means, if you’re on a motorcycle, you definitely take your life into your own hands if you don’t wear a safety helmet. My educated guess is that the #1 tourist related accident in Thailand involves riding a motorcycle.

My first mishap took place in the late 1980s in Montego Bay, Jamaica. While swimming at the famous Dr. Cave’s Beach, I inadvertently rubbed up against some fire coral. Minutes later, It felt as if my whole left side and my abdomen were on fire. I was in excruciating pain; with nerves of steel I managed to swim back to the shore, whereupon a friend of mine took me to the local clinic. After waiting in the lobby for what seemed like an eternity, a doctor finally examined me and prescribed some painkillers. The pain and discomfort miraculously abated by early evening.

My next accident took place in Barva Volcano National Park in Costa Rica in 1990 - While hiking up a muddy trail to the mirador (lookout point), I lost my balance and upon falling, struck my head just above my left eye socket on a protruding branch. The fall opened up a large gash and blood starting pouring out; if I had not been wearing glasses, I could have lost my left eye as the glasses diverted the blow. Hiking back to the ranger station at the entrance, I washed the wound with soap and water and I was given some linen cloth to wrap around my head and the wound. With the bleeding more or less stopped, I proceeded to walk back to the highway and tried to flag a ride back to my hotel, a good 10 miles away, As it was dark already and there was very little traffic, I was not very successful in getting a ride, so I gutted it out and walked in the darkness. Finally about 2 miles away from the hotel, some local picked me up and drove me the rest of the way. The next day, after flying to the popular beach resort of Tamarindo on the Pacific Coast, I went to a local clinic and received medical attention - they washed out the wound thoroughly, gave me some oral antibiotics and a tetanus shot.

While at Playa Grande Beach in 1999 near the resort town of Tamarindo on Costa Rica’s Pacific Coast, I was running on the beach late in the afternoon towards sunset and soon thereafter it got quite dark. After I finished my exercise, I tried to navigate back to my hotel. As it was pitch dark and there was very little lighting, I admittedly lost my bearings and I had to guess where the entrance to the hotel was. Apparently my guess was wrong, as I stumbled into a barb wired fence and slashed open my left shin. Ouch. It seems that I missed the entrance of the hotel by a good 50 yards or so. After getting the wound cleaned up by a member of the hotel staff, later that night I hobbled around on a turtle watching expedition. Next day, I went to a medical clinic, where they cleaned out the wound for possible infection, gave me some oral antibiotics and a tetanus shot.

Call me crazy, but reminiscing about these little mishaps of mine sometimes makes me want to laugh. Maybe it’s because I have been so lucky as to avoid serious injury.

In a small rural country like Thailand, a motorbike is a relatively efficient and cost effective way to get around. Especially in the countryside and in the resort areas, I see many Thai people -young mothers with their small children in tow, middle aged and elderly ladies and adolescent boys(and girls) - riding motorbikes to go to the market, run their errands, etc. Now, I am not talking about a big and powerful motorcycle like a Harley Davidson, but a smaller, relatively less powerful vehicle about the size of a bicycle. It’s kind of disturbing to see some of the local people riding without a helmet; as we all know that can be very dangerous. After all, look what happened to Ben Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh Steelers’s starting quarterback. Many farangs in the tourist areas like Phuket, Koh Chang and Koh Samui also get around by motorbike.. Let’s face it - it is a lot faster than a bicycle and cheaper than hiring taxis over 3-4 day interval.

As someone who has never been behind the wheels of a motorbike, I admit to being very apprehensive of learning how to ride one. In Thailand, I have hired motorcycle taxis to take me around both in Bangkok and in the resort areas; even as a passenger it is somewhat precarious, given the frequency of accidents involving motorbikes especially in Bangkok. We all know however, there is a big difference between being a passenger and the driver

About 1 ½ years ago while I was in Thailand, I decided it was time for me get “wet behind the ears”, so to speak. I remember my anxiety about learning how to drive a car or how to swim; however I was much younger then. Of course, I mastered driving a car (albeit I do not drive a stick) and I consider myself a relatively proficient swimmer. However, the older you get, it seems that there is considerably more resistance in learning something new, hence my trepidation of learning to ride a motorbike. I remember telling myself - if all these middle-aged ladies and children could ride the motorbike so effortlessly, then why couldn’t I? To be honest with you, I was quite envious of these little old ladies….

While I was in Soppong, a small village cum resort in the mountains of Mae Hong Son Province, I decided to take action. I told the owner of the guesthouse where I was staying that I wanted to learn how to ride a motorbike. He volunteered to show me the ropes, telling me how easy it was to ride a motorcycle. The owner, a middle age transplanted Californian, proceeded to give ‘a crash course in riding a motorbike’ ( call it Motorbike 101) on the hotel driveway. He demonstrated to me how to handle the controls - the clutch, the brakes and the accelerator. As I got on one of the smaller bikes, I felt there was something was amiss - I wasn’t wearing any shoes. This troubling thought circulated in my mind, but I didn’t act upon it and neither did ‘my instructor” say anything to me, as he was barefoot as well. Oh well…

About 10 minutes into my training session, my bare feet slipped off the brakes and the small machine propelled forward against the barb wired fence. In addition to some minor bumps and bruises, some abrasions on the soles of my feet, I opened up a pretty nasty gash near my left elbow and blood was pouring out like a running faucet. I was a real bloody mess
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After the accident, the owner’s wife washed and cleaned up the wound and applied some antiseptic to it. Later in the afternoon, despite the fact that my feet were scraped up a bit, I jogged to the nearby Medical clinic about 1-½ miles away. Waiting for about 15 minutes or so, a nurse examined me and I was given a temporary tetanus shot, received some oral antibiotics and the wound was stitched up. Upon being discharged, I was on my merry way and ran back to my guesthouse. Call me a crazy guy, but I’m a runner….

After this little incident, I decided it to play it safe and stay with something I was more comfortable with - like riding a bicycle. A week later, after getting the stitches removed, there was a prominent little scar. Upon meeting other tourists and new Thai friends, I would show them my scar and joke about how I got a permanent souvenir from the Land of Smiles. Often, they would turn around and show me their motorbike scars and we would then trade accident stories.

Fast forward to the present, the scar is now barely visible.

When I go to Thailand, I tend to do a lot more drinking and cavorting than I do at home. After all I am on vacation (or at least I’m on a working vacation). Truth be told when I’m at home, I’m a virtual teetotaler. In Bangkok, sometimes after having a dinner, I like to stop at one of the outdoor bars along the Sukhumvit or near Washington Square and have a drink or two before I head back to my hotel. I’m not much of a beer drinker, although I do admit that Singha beer is pretty good as far as beers go, Leo goes down smooth and Chang has somewhat of malty taste, and with it’s higher alcoholic content has quite a kick. In fact if I want to go to sleep, drinking one large bottle of Chang definitely will knock me out. More effective than a sleeping pill, that’s for sure.

Like I said, as I’m not really a beer drinker, I usually will opt for something simple like a ‘rum and coke’ as my nightcap. Sometimes it can get very frustrating going to a Thai bar and trying to order this traditional mixed drink as most of the bartendresses have difficulty understanding what I’m talking about. On many occasions, the cocktail waitress will bring me just a bottle of coke and glass with ice and I will end up shaking my head in frustration, looking into the puzzled girl’s face and asking her ‘but where’s the rum?” Obviously, there’s language barrier at work here as rum and coke does not compute in their language. Now, if I were to say Ba Car Dee coke with the emphasis on the 2nd syllable in Bacardi, that usually does the trick; then the bartendress or cocktail waitress knows exactly what I want. If push comes to shove, I point to the bottle of Bacardi behind the bar. This little scenario usually results in laughs and smiles on both sides.

Now, rum and coke at a decent outdoor bar along the Sukhumvit will cost about 100 baht (2.50USD). I remember on one occasion, I went out for drinks (and to sample some local color) on a hot sweltering night in Bangkok at about 12 midnight. Stopping at an outdoor bar along the Sukhumvit, I was immediately greeted by a bevy of lovely young Isaan bargirls smiling at me. Taking a seat at one of the tables, I looked up at the chalkboard behind the bar and saw that they were running a special for Mekong Cola for only 40 baht. For those of don’t know, Mekong is a very powerful local Thai whiskey. Doing some quick arithmetic in my head - the Mekong cola at 40 baht was 6o baht cheaper than rum and coke, so I said to myself why not play the role of frugal tourist tonite? One of the gals proceeded to join me at the table plopping herself on my lap and I proceeded to order a Mekong cola for me and my newfound friend. Drinking a Mekong cola with Morlam music blaring in the background and a beautiful Thai lady on my lap, I was having a wonderful time. I was thinking to myself, the Mekong Cola did not taste that much different than rum and coke (must be the coke). Finishing my cocktail, I ordered another round. After downing my second dose , as it was getting past the witching hour, I decided to head back to my hotel to get some shuteye much to the chagrin of the young bargirl who obviously liked my company.

Next morning, I woke you with a headache that wouldn’t quit. It felt like someone had kicked me in the head. It wasn’t until later in the day after I ran my customary 5 miles and worked out in the gym, did the headache go away. Well, I definitely learned my lesson from the prior night’s escapade. No more Mekong Cola for me!. Local Thai whiskey is some toxic stuff! From now on, I would pay an extra 60 baht to have my customary rum and coke, excuse me Ba Car Dee coke. One night in Bangkok, will definitely make a poor man humble especially if you’ve been drinking Mekong Cola!

Like I stated earlier, meeting fellow American tourists in Southeast Asia was indeed a rare event. The following are some stories of my encounters with some very interesting foriegners (exotics).

While I was ordering some ice cream in a stylish cafe in Siem Reap, Cambodia, a very attractive young Asian lady who was working on her laptop computer caught my very discriminating eye. With a very stylish short haircut, a lovely complexion and dressed casually elegant, I found her extremely attractive. Moving forward, I introduced myself and inquired about her background; she was from Singapore and had relocated to Cambodia to get away from the more westernized society and lifestyle of her homeland. As she indicated that she was quite busy with her work, I decided not to ‘pursue her” any further, so I left the café with unrequited passion.
Oh well…