Moped postulation

While in Phuket town (Thailand) Greg and I decided to rent mopeds. We also rented mopeds when we traveled to Cuba a little over a year ago. In both countries we had something (s) go wrong. In Cuba we rode together, Greg driving, me… holding on and taking pictures.  In Phuket we decided it would be fun to each drive our own bike. I now feel like, having learned from our mistakes, we are moped renting pro’s we may someday be able to rent, and ride a moped without difficulty.

Here is a list of do’s and don’ts pertaining to renting mopeds outside of the motherland.

Do: … rent mopeds. Renting a moped is a fun, cheap, easy way to explore wherever it is you are traveling. You have ample opportunities to see things that you may not otherwise have found if you were walking, getting driven somewhere by taxi, or taking a subway/sky train. I highly recommend looking into renting when you are traveling if not only for the sake of exploration purposes (just make sure you have a map).

Don’t: … wait to fill up. Most times when you rent a moped it will have very little gas in it. You are usually expected to pay for your own gas. Chances are there will be enough gas in the tank to get you to the gas station, and that’s it. When we were in Phuket, Greg and I decided to test out our bikes and drive around a little bit before filling up. When we did finally decide to make our way to the gas station my bike had run out of juice, in the middle of an intersection. Which left me having to walk my bike to the gas station. Luckily the roads were not too busy, and we were very close. In Thailand and in Cuba gas was stupid cheap. Fill yourself right up.

Do: … shop around. Moped renting tends to be a popular tourist activity. And the locals are quite conscious of this. If you let them, the locals will rip you off. And, good for them if you aren’t smart enough to shop around. In Thailand (at least in Phuket) there is a stand renting out mopeds probably on every street. Even when you think you’ve found you’re ideal price bracket, haggle it down.
Don’t: … “forget” to wear a helmet. I’m not trying to sound like anyone’s mom. But, seriously, wear a freakin’ helmet. It has absolutely saved us from any potential brain injuries. I know it looks silly, and that neck strap is a pain. But, whatever. There is no good reason why you should not be wearing a helmet. Anything can happen (trust me).

Do: … observe traffic before getting on your bike and going. In Thailand people drive on the the left side of the road. Different from what we’re used to in Canada. It can be difficult to get used to, but as long as you are always thinking, you should be fine.

Don’t: …drive your moped if anything is not working properly. You would think that this is a given. I mean, duh, why would someone drive something that doesn’t completely work? Well. We are those genius’ who thought that we could magically make a broken bike run, we are just that special. In our defense, we didn’t realize that our Cuba bike was pretty much, crap, until we were on a very busy road. We did not realize that it would break down so far away from where we were staying. We also did not anticipate it sputtering, holding onto it’s final breath of existence all the way down a main road, in the rain. We just didn’t know OK?!

But, I guess I diddddd  know that the brakes of my Phuket bike weren’t working.  I mean, I supposeeeee  I found out within 15 minutes of our renting it. Why didn’t I go back and just make a quick exchange? Because I’m stubborn, OK! Though, I wish I had. It would have prevented various injuries. Do me a favor, and please please please do not drive a moped that is not in perfect working condition.

Do: … make a lot of stops. In both Phuket and Varadero we had a final destination in mind when we began our ride, but we also made sure to make a few stops on the way. In Varadero, we made a stop on our way to the downtown market in a run down area overrun with chickens, stray dogs and children. We watched a little bit of a local pick up baseball game. And we saw some of the biggest ocean waves I have ever seen. In Phuket our final destination was the aquarium (where we would meet Ryan and Dan), we made a stop at the marines camp harbor. We sat and looked out at the beautiful scenery in solitude.

Don’t: … get into an accident. Luckily (and I do mean “luckily”) we did not get into an accident in Cuba. I cannot say the same for Phuket. Within about 6 seconds of each other Greg and myself both got in an accident (that’s gotta be love, right?). Like I mentioned earlier, my brakes were just not reliable. They would work. And then, they wouldn’t work. But then, they would work. And…. then they wouldn’t. We were driving along happy as clams when we decided to turn around to check out a side street. All we had to do was turn around and make a right turn. I turned around. Check. But then noticed that the strap of my helmet was loose. I decided to pull over to the side of the road to fix it. Unfortunately here is where my brakes decide not to work. I was given the option to either drive straight into an oncoming car, or drive straight into a very large, very concrete pole. I chose the pole. My bike and me went head on into the pole, busting up my bike, scratching my leg, and hurting my knee. My head snapped sideways and hit the pole on the way through (thankful for that helmet!). At this point the bike is sideways on the ground getting caught in plants. I get it in an upright position, only to look up and see Greg collide with another moped. Greg wiped out huge and with his bike were sliding on their side across the pavement (go team helmet!). I don’t think I’ve ever been so nervous. I limpily ran over to see if Greg was OK. He was completely fine other than a few scratches and forming bruises. His bike also looked good as new (I was a little jealous about this actually). Turns out a local Thai kid (15 years old) was driving a little recklessly and smoked Greg. The kid with the help of a local Thai man tried to get Greg to pay for the damages of the kids bike (which were hefty– his tire also popped while we were standing there). Greg refused and we made the decision to flee. If the cops got involved we knew whose side they would take. I was pretty shaken by our dual accidents and just wanted to return the bikes. So, we did. And I paid 900 baht (about $30 CAD) for my damages, which honestly is not bad considering what I managed to do to the bike.

Do: … it all again (without the accidents). Like I said before, renting mopeds in a foreign land is a lot of fun and probably worth what you will be paying. The exploring and adventures that you will have from something so simple is well worth it.

Playing with cats

Our second day in Bangkok will be put down in my books as perhaps one of my favorite afternoons of travel in Thailand. That’s some big accolades. The day started off with Dan, Ryan. Greg and myself rushing around at a somewhat early hour trying to make sure our things were together for Phuket (we were flying out that night with Derek and Jeff), finish up paying for our hostel/making sure that while all of us will be gone for the day our things will be safe, and our regular morning routines. With no time for breakfast we were picked up, early, by our driver for the day named, Pon. The four of us piled into the back of his van and were ready to start the day. We requested one stop at McDonalds and then we started our day.

First stop, the war graves. This was our shortest and probably our most uninteresting stop of the day. We met up with our tour guide for the day. She gave us a quick education about the war graves, then we wandering the graves. Honestly I hardly remember what she said. The graveyard was full of graves honoring Australia, Dutch and English soldiers. From the graves we made our second stop, the death railway. This was very cool. We were at the Burma Thai Railway over the river Kwai. The history behind the railway was really interesting. We spent a little bit of time here walking along the railway looking out to the river Kwai. We ended the morning portion of tour by eating at a beautiful floating restaurant.

Now starts the real fun.

When Ryan told us that he had one, and only one thing that he wanted to do while in Thailand, I immediately thought “well, duh, we’ll have to do it”. It works out that his one thing, is also something that I was quite interested in. When Greg and I travel, usually to smaller towns, we like to incorporate animal interaction. So, when Ryan said “I need to walk a tiger”, Greg scoured the internet to find the best excursion for us. Insert, The Tiger Temple Tour (brought to us by Animal Planet).

We arrived at the temple after a long drive (about three hours away from Bangkok). The tigers are trained by monks at the Tiger Temple, so women need to be quite covered up. Unfortunately for me, on this scorching hot day I was covered wearing a flannel shirt and leggings. As soon as we walked in we were greeted by horses roaming, and a pit of water full of water buffalo-who would occasionally walk around. Various other animals were also roaming. We were instructed of rules and ways to keep safe while around the tigers. Our first stop was to an area full of tigers chained to the ground. Here we got to go up and pet the tigers, and have our pictures taken. It was somewhat bitter sweet. It was really cool that we got to be thatclose to the tigers (I think these tigers must have been teenagers), but it was also unnerving seeing them chained to the ground like that.

We paid a little bit extra to play with baby tigers. We took off our shoes and entered a room with baby tigers running around. We got to feed and play with them for about 45 mins. In this time we were all so smitten (and also bitten…). I would regularly forget that we weren’t just playing with kittens or dogs, these were baby tigers. Only after my first bite did I think “oy vey, this is a wild cat!” It was amazing, fun, and worth it.

After playing with the tiger cubs, we went onto walk a full grown tiger. We didn’t get to walk with it for long, but it was still so cool. And something I won’t forget. Before leaving for the day Ryan and I went to an area full of really big full grown tigers. The staff at the temple walks you around to different tigers (again, chained to the ground) and takes your picture. While kneeling down petting the biggest tiger I have ever been in contact with I could feel his inner growl tremble through his back and up through my hand. If this dude was hungry, I’d be dead. His tail whipped me in the back and it felt like a horse whip.

All in all it was a really reallly cool day. There isn’t too much I can say to describe the experience other, cool. It was definitely well worth it.
We had the chance to hang out with some other pretty rad animals. But, I’ll tell you about them another time.

24 hours of Bangkok

We only spent three full days in Bangkok, two at the beginning and one at the end of our trip. My expectations of Bangkok were not high. I thought of Bangkok as layover land. We would be here for the sole purpose and connecting flights to Phuket. I had imagined Bangkok either to be an industrial land crowded with business men, or you know, exactly how it is shown in The Hangover II. I was incorrect on both accounts.

While Bangkok is fairly industrial in comparison to the rest of Thailand, it also encompasses a different sort of modern laid back urban feel. Bangkok is a busy (understatement) metropolis. The city is full of beautiful Thai people (and an abundance of tourists), rushing streets with cars, and tuk tuks, lined with so many little shops and restaurants. It’s great.

Our first full day in Bangkok felt a little surreal. Stepping outside of our hostel to see what resembled remnants of jungle just outside our door was nice. Dogs were roaming the streets, lizards.. everywhere. We went for breakfast at this little outdoor place next to an auto shop. It was definitely apparent how laid back the culture is right from the start. I mean, how could you not be laid back living in Thailand? The atmosphere, and social interaction reminded me a lot of Cuba. We quickly learned that Thai food is ah-maze-ing. Everything is fresh and healthy and delicious.

Our first day was spent exploring. We took the sky train to the last stop Phaya Thai and just started roaming around with no agenda. I like the way we decided to tackle the day.

Markets & haggling: All throughout town there are markets, just everywhere. The weather is beautiful so everything is outdoors. Most of the markets we saw cater to females, so while it was great for me to buzz around from stand to stand, shop to shop, the boys were not having as much fun. The markets were certainly interesting though, and it’s fun just to haggle with people. We learned that heckling is a developed art form. Some people are good, and some people, just aren’t.  I consider myself to be a self proclaimed haggling pro. All six of us have very different approaches to haggling. Ranging from me who takes the overly friendlypatheticnicegirl approach, to Ryan and Dan who take the zerohagglingi’llacceptanypriceyougiveme approach to Derek who prefers the imgoingtotalkyourearoffevenifyoucantunderstandme approach to Greg’s approach where he just likes to see how low he can get a price… most times he isn’t even interested in buying anything. We all had moments of success, and moments where we were yelled at. All in fun.

Thai massage: Getting a Thai massage anywhere in Thailand is pretty hilarious. Women sit outside the parlors and will slowly drawl “Thai massaaaaaaageeee, want  Thai masaggeeeee”. The women yell at the guys in your group, and sometimes will get up and grab them. During the day the massage parlors are regular massage parlors, but at night they double at happy ending emporiums. We went in for an afternoon massage. It was a lot different from a Chinese massage. A lot more, painful. I’m sure when people think “massage” you think of a relaxing experience to loosen up your muscles. However, a Thai massage is a whole different experience. The job of a Thai masseuse is pretty much to ultimately pummel, prod and punch you. It’s a game of painful chicken. How much can the masseuse hurt you before you say “uh, no thanks”. It was an all around good experience, I think. But didn’t leave me feeling too wonderful.

Tuk tuk: A tuk tuk is pretty much a motorcycle covered in a big metal box type thing, and runs on three wheels. Our first experience with a tuck tuck was, interesting. I think tuk tuks are meant to fit only about 3 people. We were now at 6 people (Jeff met us in Thailand). We agreed on a price, and all just jumped in. Ryan, Greg and I were sitting on the main bench (actually Greg was hanging out the back). Derek and Jeff were squished on the floor. And, Dan sat in the front with the driver, on the battery… half falling out. It was pretty wild. If anyone hit us we’d be in trouble. I think it was a good first tuk tuk experience. The others may not agree though.

Muay Thai : Jeff, Derek, Ryan and myself decided to go to a Muay Thai match. I’m glad we got a chance to do be witness to such a cultural activity. In the crowds there was a lot of yelling and betting. Honestly I didn’t understand what was going on most of the time. And, I clearly do not understand the Muay Thai. I was usually wrong in my guessing of who was going to win. It was really cool.

 Another highlight of day one in Bangkok was getting my hands on some A&W! I never would have guessed A&W would be in Thailand. So happy.