The irresponsible action on my colleague who left for a short course in
Japan when he is supposed to be finalising the details for his students'
trip to Bangkok, left the students high and dry. With RM4800 paid upfront
for fares and accomodation, no approval applied yet from the Ministry of
High Education and less than a month before the departure date, the
outlook look very dim indeed. To salvage the situation, I volunteered to
make the necessary arrangement. Unfortunately for me, my head of
department insisted that I accompany them at my own cost. Somebody else
created the mess and I had to pay for it. Memang sial betul.

Despite chasing after everybody's signature and approval, I only got
verbal approval of the trip on the last working day before the departure
date. That gave me very little time indeed for personal preparation. The
first thing I did was to stop by a book store and bought the
"Globetrotter Travel Map of Bangkok and Surrounding Area" and
"Globetrotter Travel Book of Thailand". Those were the only decent items
of Bangkok/Thailand that I could find in that shop and I didn't have the
time to shop around. The first line that caught my eye when I skimmed
through the book was that "Thailand have one of the world highest murder
rates.....". Whoa!!!!! And I'm supposed to keep 4 girls and 3 guys safe
throughout the trip! Man, no wonder the other lecturer ran off to Japan
instead, a much safer country.

For my PDA, I only managed to install MetrO and the Bangkok network of
skytrain/MRT. I did install HandMap and the Bangkok map from
http://www.geocities.com/maps2mlap/bangkok.htm . Unfortunately the map
was not GPS-enabled, therefore it was better to rely on the paper map
that I bought earlier. I did try the Atlas map of Bangkok from
http://www.geocities.com/maps2mlap/downloads/Bangkok_Atlas.zip , but it
was really useless.

I wish that I had my brother's PPC, which has Pocket Map Viewer installed,
then I could've made use of the excellent maps from
http://mapcenter.cgpsmapper.com/maplist.php?cnt=210&rgn=&cat=3 . These
maps of Bangkok by William Camelon would've made my life very happy
indeed in Bangkok. If I have money to spend, I could've bought Map King 5
map of Bangkok from http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=15681
, but this also requires a PPC.

GPS Navigation is not a strongpoint of PalmOS PDAs, which is why I
sometimes long for a PPC.

Instead I had to make do with my paper map, my eTrex GPS receiver and
compass..............Jadila

Day 1

We landed at Dan Muang airport (N13o55.238',E100o36.136') at 10 am Bangkok
time (+7 GMT). I find WorldMate Pro on my Treo 600 very useful for
checking the local time and the currency rate. Unfortunately the rate
cannot be updated while in Thailand since I do not have GPRS access. I do
have roaming though via Maxis & Thailand Telecom. So do users of Celcom
postpaid (connection ok an hour later, Maxis almost immediately upon
landing). Unfortunately no roaming access for prepaids and postpaid Digi.
So only 2 out of 8 people whose handphones are working. It cost us RM140
for two airport limosines for 20+ km trip to the First Hotel
(N13o45.140',E100o32.089') on Thanom Petchaburi (Thanom = Road).

After checking in, we walked to the nearby Makyah Muslim Restaurant
(N13o45.228',E100o31.323') near Soi 7 (Soi = Lorong) for lunch. It opens
from 8am till 9pm. The proprieter is a Patthaani Muslim who can speak
Malay very well. She even serves teh tarik (RM3) and roti canai! We feel
very much at home here that we ended up taking all our meals here. The
only downside is her price is double of what we used to pay for at home.
At least we can sure that the food is halal.

If you do go there, make sure that you get their business card. Very few
Thais can understand the English alphabet, therefore it is very hard to
communicate with them. They can't even read the address if it is written
in English alphabet. Since Makyah business card is written in both
languages, we just show the Tuktuk (beca bermotor) or the taxi driver the
card, and they can drive you there. From there, you can easily walk back
to the hotel, after eating your fill.

After lunch, we tried taking taxis to the Mahidol University to meet with
the Dean of the Faculty of Tropical Medicine but all of them refused.
Just like the KL taxi drivers. So we ended up walking to Phraya Thai
Skyway station (like our PUTRA) and took a short trip to the Victory
Monument station. Cost RM1 per person. Then we walked to the faculty
(N13o45.934',E100o32.006'). After meeting with the Dean, we were brought
around the research facilities by Asst. Prof. Chotechuang Panasoponkul
(Deputy Dean for Student Affairs and Special Activities). The young
students decided to walk back to the hotel, a distance of about 3km from
the faculty. One thing we noticed about the streets in Bangkok is that
they are very clean. The people of Bangkok are very civic minded and they
don't throw rubbish anywhere, a trait very much lacking amongst Malaysian.
Even the back streets are free of rubbish.

That night the students ended up walking around the Sukhumvit Business and
Hotel area, just for window shopping, a distance of 3km, ending at the
Makyah Restaurant. I had to accompany them since I vouched for their
safety, a decision that I was beginning to regret :-p since my old skinny
legs were beginning to buckle from all that walking.

I slept soundly that night despite being in a strange bed since I was
soooooo tired!

Day 2

After breakfast the students and I took the Skyway train from Retcha Thewi
station to the Victory Monument station. Cost RM1.50 per person. We
visited the clinical research facilities area of the Faculty of Tropical
Medicine. Although it is only a 250 bed hospital; the ward, laboratory
and data management facilities are top of the line. Which is not
surprising since they conduct clinical trials of drugs and vaccines over
here.

Later in the afternoon, we were brought to see Dr Orratai at the Bangkok
Municipal Authorithy AIDS Control Division (N13o43.232',E100o30.043') at
the Klongsan area. We were briefed about the AIDS/HIV problem of Bangkok.
According to her, there are 2000 sex establishments in Bangkok alone and
we have yet to find one! Maybe we were not looking hard enough :-D

Getting back to the hotel was a problem since we were on the south west
side of town and more than 2 km from the nearest skyway station. After a
few missteps, we finally boarded the right bus to the Surasak station. I
didn't refer to the MetrO programme on my PDA and we ended up coming out
too early at Sala Daeng station, a stone throw away from the notorious
Patphong area. The girls utilised my mistake to go shopping in the area.
The guys didn't realise that we were nearby Patphong area, else we
could've checked it out >:-)

After dinner, I turned in early while the single girls and one guy took in
the night sights of Bangkok on a tuktuk.

Day 3

We were brought to the Bangkok Metropolitan Authorithy Public Health
Department (N13o46.294',E100o33.325') the next morning and were briefed
on their activities and programmes. After lunch, we were brought to the
Bang Sue district to observe the hygienic practices at a private market
in Donsir (N13o48.399',E100o31.976') and visit a health and exercise
promotion programme amongst the elderly in the community in Bang Sue
(N13o48.527',E100o31.710'). On the way back, they drop us at Saphan Khwai
station and we took the skytrain to Ratcha Thewi station.

That evening the girls & guys went shopping along Thanom Racthaprarop.
This is the best place to buy souvenirs and there were plenty of choices.
I ran out of money and ended up borrowing from a student. At Chit Lom
station, we took the skytrain back to Ratcha Thewi for dinner.

Day 4

The group wanted to go to Royal Grand Palace for sightseeing. Instead we
got conned by the taxi driver who claims that it will only open at 11am (
in fact in opens at 8.30am and close at 11.30am for morning). Instead he
brought us to Rama VI Bridge Ferry Pier (N13o46.058',E100o29.854'). We
were further conned of RM320 for a lousy boat trip along the dirty
klongs. Apparently the driver receive kickbacks from the ferry operator.
My advise to future tourists of Bangkok, avoid the boat trip. You wont
miss anything. These rip-offs artists should be drowned in the dirty
klongs.

Since we arrive late at the Grand National Palace
(N13o45.121',E100o29.474'), there seems little point in paying RM25 each
to visit for less than an hour. Instead we visited the National Museum
(N13o45.455',E100o29.555') for RM4 each. Just visit the Gallery of Thai
History if you are pressed for time since only these are worthwhile to
browse.

From there we walked to the nearby Banglamphoo shopping area near Thanom
Phra Sumen. The prices are more expensive here since they cater to the
Westerners. We prayed at a mosque here (N13o45.706',E100o29.807') and
went back by tuktuk to the Makyah restaurant, utilising their business
card for directions. At 4 pm we took a van from the hotel to the airport
(fare RM70), a journey of only 20 minutes, giving us plenty of times to
twiddle our thumbs at the airport. This was my fault since the book says
the trip will take more than 45 minutes. After checking in, we paid the
airport tax of RM50 and waited at gate 41. The plane was late but we
reached KLIA by midnight and I reached home by 2 am.

Conclusion

I ended up forking out almost RM900 (the most painful were paying RM311
for the air ticket and RM150 lodging) for the trip, which wont be
reimbursed by the department. At least the students weren't disappointed
and we didn't lose face with Mahidol University.

Bangkok is not really a tourism destination since there are not many
interesting places to visit. There are better places in Thailand for a
family holiday. As stated earlier, there are about 2000 sex
establishments in Bangkok, which is the real main attraction of Bangkok.
But they are discreetly sited so you have to really look for them if
you're interested. Otherwise Bangkok looks and feels like any other
metropolitan cities in South-East Asia.

If you're visiting Bangkok, try to utilise the skytrain and the MRT for
transportation as much as possible. For speedy transportation in the
city, consider the tuktuk. Forget about the taxis.

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