Thailand has a number of modes of transportation, many of which you are familiar with, and others which are truly unique.  I will briefly cover air transportation.  Thai Airlines is excellent.  They still provide a meal — even on relatively short flights.  There are also a number of other legitimate (read: safe) airlines out in this neck of the woods (like Air Asia, which we fly on our leg to Bali), including some of the best (like Singapore Airways.. which we will not be flying at all on this trip 🙁 ).

Ground transportation is where it gets a bit interesting.  As we drove through Chiang Mai, we saw two modes of transportation that were unfamiliar.  The first is the “red truck”.  These are fairly ubiquitous around city centers, and provide cheap shared transportation.  It works thusly:

Like a cab in NYC there are a few defining features of the Red Truck.  It is, of course, mostly red.  Or at least the cab will be.  And it will have started life as a pickup truck.  Then a cap is added – a tall one.  And two benches for seating – like an older military transport.  Much like that NYC cab, the first step is to flag one down – one going in the right direction that is.  It is more critical out here, as they will not take you if they are pointed the wrong way [and have passengers on board already].  Always flag a red truck with your palm down [so as not to offend the driver].  He will then pull over, and you have to communicate your destination, and hopefully negotiate a price.  Then hop in the back, and you are off.

Slightly more expensive, and seemingly ever present, the Tuk Tuk is a more personal way to be chauffeured around town.  Though clearly a descendant of the rickshaw, it is also genetically related to the motorcycle and automobile.  Most of the moving parts on a Tuk Tuk are from motorcycles.  And they are all mechanically different, through physically similar.  Shifters, clutches, brakes, and gauge locations differ wildly, though the throttle is always on the right hand, and the steering is always with a yoke as opposed to a wheel.

The Tuk Tuk is – as far as we can tell – named for its noise.  Part of the official Tuk Tuk modifications apparently include setting up the engine so that it will no longer idle properly, requiring the driver to constantly blip the throttle to keep it from dying .  And at full song (and full speed) it seems to misfire a good bit.  Hence, no matter the speed, it constantly makes a tuk tuk noise, kinda like a Harley, but a bit less throaty.

Some Tuk Tuks are really decked out nicely.  We have attached a few pictures from one of the more interesting ones we rode in.

Water transportation is interesting in Thailand as well.  The long boat is both the name of a vessel type, as well an apt description.  It is in fact, a long slender boat with a shallow draft.  They are all powered by lightly modified Chevy small block engines.  The water pump remains, but the rest of the cooling system is replaced with a couple of hoses that run down to the ocean water.  Beyond the flywheel is a gearing system that I have not seen before, run by a double chain drive.  The sound was oddly familiar to us: tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk.  I guess the name was already taken.

Here are a few longboat pics to gander at.  Note the “green” longboat with the solar cell on the roof.

…and then you visit one.

You might remember the last post had us planning to set out the check out another hotel across the beach.  But despite a gut call to check out the other location, we needed some other information.  Do they have rooms?  Hotels.com said yes (agoda said no, odd?).  How do we get there?  Get on road, walk until it ends.. we can handle that.  What is the backup plan?  Stick around at the Impiana.  It was not what we had in mind.  But a tent won’t cut it either.  And the game plan?  Head over to The Shore and check out a room.  If it is great, book it, then cancel at Impiana.

And so we set off.  It took a good 1/2 hour to walk there, and we checked out the tiny town of Kata Noi at the same time.  A couple of restaurants, a handful of shops, a taxi stand, and not much more.

Upon arrival we were greeted by security guards who did not want to let us go in to see a room.  After some convincing, the language barrier was surpassed, and we followed signs to the lobby.  There we met Austin.  We were pretty sure he understood what we were asking, but he was sure he was not ready to help then.  He asked us to wait 40 minutes or so.  And so we headed down to the outdoor lounge.. and.. well.. lounged.

After some time they sent down an electric cart for us.  We went up to the lobby and found Austin still busy.  But a new gal, Sylvia was available.  After describing the situation, she handed us off to Ya (a common name here in Thailand), and he took us to the room.

I think it was about 10 seconds after we walked in that I said “This will work”.  Janine and I were all smiles.  The view was great.  And no dodgy maintenance issues.  Sold.

So back to the office we went.  Upon arrival we were told we could not have a room for the dates we needed (really?!).  We protested, and ultimately decided to book on Hotels.com — if they say there is room (exactly one left), then there must be.  Great.  Booked.  Now what.

They had no information on the booking.  But Sylvia wanted to help out.  So she worked out a two day rack rate temporary stay, and with a “Welcome Ashore”.. we were all set.  She called a taxi for us to get our bags.

While we were waiting, a call came through from her reservations desk.  They did have a room.  In fact, they were giving us the exact one they showed us (yay).  “Welcome Ashore” [again].  We never could get the information from Sylvia as to where the room that did not exist came from, or why it was not there a few minutes before.  But we would rather have the room than understand why it was unavailable before.

And with that we set off to check out of the first hotel and retrieve our bags.  This was the part I was least looking forward to.  Janine volunteered to play emissary on this mission.  We figured the pregnancy woman mojo would help out.

And perhaps it did, as the Impiana folks were nice as pie.  Yeah. they tried to give us a free upgrade.  But really, we just wanted out.  And they got that.  It remains to be seen if we will get a refund or have to protest the charge.  But the manager Janine spoke to understood why we were leaving, and was very professional in offering to make sure the refund goes through.

See.. happy ending.  Speaking of which, here are a few photos of The Short at Katathani, where we actually stayed in Phuket.

No doubt you remember what a great hotel we chose for Chiang Mai.  You might also remember my concern/hope that the next hotel would be up to the same high standards.. or at least someplace nice.

Our flight to Phuket was pleasant.  Thai Air runs a very nice operation, efficiently got everyone on board with no waiting around in the jetway.  This may have partially been because our plane (an Airbus A300-600 — a twin engine, twin aisle plane similar to a Boeing 767) was only about half full.  An uneventful two hours later has us in Phuket.

On arrival we ran into an interesting conundrum.. there was no “official” taxi service.  Odd.  And there were a half dozen or so purveyors of car and mini-bus services.  After a few minutes of research, we found that the prices varied only by about 50 Baht (about $1.65).  So we took one of two that offered the lowest rates, and followed their instructions to get to the car.

Once out the door, there was another taxi purveyor.. the official one.  My heart sunk thinking I was ripped off.  But that the front of a long line for taxis were the rates.. exactly what we paid.  And we had no line.  A few seconds later we got to the section where the car services depart from, and we were off in our decked out Camry.

50 minutes later the driver pulled into a nondescript looking hotel entryway, waved to the bellman, and said “Impiana.. you are here”.  I looked around.  This was not what I had seen in the pictures.  Despite it clearly being a nice hotel, we just were not close enough to the water for it to be our place.  Further inspection found the name of the hotel, and we insisted that he call our place to get directions (since he was resistant to taking them from us).

A few minutes later we arrived at the Impiana Private Villas.  There was only one small sign to direct you to the right place, which I decided was fine for a 12 room hotel.  First impressions were pretty nice.  Perched on a cliff overlooking the Adaman Sea, the views were breathtaking.  And we expected they would be just as nice in our room, which included an infinity pool and a completely unobstructed view.

And now, a brief interlude:  Janine and I figure that our Honeymoon is a once in a lifetime experience.  And while we might normally book a nice hotels, we decided we wanted to try to book some unique and special venues for the trip.  If we failed, no harm no fowl — it is impossible to know what you are getting, even with the TripAdvisor reviews.

We were directed into the lobby area which was very nice, although not as picturesque as the one at 137 Pillars House.  We filled out some paperwork and were given welcome towels and drinks.  Meanwhile, our bags were sent to our room.  It was all down hill from there.  In more way then one.

Our room was several flights of stairs down the cliff.  As we walked the indoor/outdoor hallways to get to the room, we started noticing some maintenance issues.  Water damage was apparent in a few places, and parts of the ceiling were removed for unknown reasons.  Whatever, as long as the room was nice, that would be fine.

Upon entering the door to the room, there was a mixture of odors — some of which I did not recognize.  Janine immediately knew what was up.  “This place smells like mold.”  Urg.. that’s not good.  As they are showing us around the room, Janine continued to look apprehensive.  And that made me nervous.

After we looked around, the issues were obvious.  There was water damage all over the place.  And the salt air had been doing a lot of damage (and maintenance was not being kept up).  The thing that concerned us was the mold.  We just did not want to take any chances with baby.

But the view was awesome, so we decided to ask if there was another room available, perhaps without mold.  The front desk staff was extremely helpful, although there were some problems getting our point across due to language differences.  And before long we were off to another room.

Along the way, we saw more of the same type of issues.  We arrived at the new room, and it did not have the same odors.  But it also did not have the air conditioning running.  Again they showed us around.  And again we took a moment to see if we were ready to settle in.  But we were left with more concerns.

The ceiling fan was covered in a combination of rust and dust.  And there were active ant trails in several places.  Insects are the norm out here, but active ant trails just shouldn’t be around — at least not in quantity. And then I noticed that there was a huge stream of water running from a crack in the neighbor’s pool.  Gallons per minute, just streaming overboard.

Ants!!

Rusty, Dusty Fan

Streaming Leak

Oh, and the view was not nearly as good from this villa.  But we could see across the beach to The Shore at Katathani.  We decided against booking it due to costs. But right now that was looking like the wrong decision.

So we decided to go for a nice walk to the other side of the beach…

Thai food in Thailand is a lot of what you would think, and some of what you would not.

Thai Breakfast

At many restaurants, the most difficult thing is ordering.  And not because we do not know what we want — or even what a dish is.  Rather it is because the description is too vague.  Consider the following:

<< bunch of text in Thai characters >> — Stir-fried Noodles: Delicious stir fried noodles with Thai seasonings.

Really?  Which one of twenty some odd Thai dishes is that supposed to represent?  Now imagine it if that description was related to a curry dish.  The possibilities are limitless.

Then there is the inevitable negotiation as to the actual dish.  Eager to please, the waiter will often ask what we want the dish to be rather than telling us what it is.  All this to determine that we are talking about Pad Thai.

So if anyone has any influence over here in Thailand, please try to convince the local restaurants that many tourists do in fact know many Thai dishes, and to produce proper menus with that in mind.

The food is delicious, we just want to know what it is called — by Thais.

Many of you know I have a mild obsession with religion.  So both Janine and I knew that Thailand is mostly Buddhist before we arrived here. And we were not surprised when we were told that the most important thing to see in Chiang Mai was a temple.

But I was very surprised at what I saw there.  We were walking along, and instead of just Buddha, there was Ganesh.  What the heck was a Hindu diety doing smack dab in the middle of a Buddhist temple?

As we all know religion is one of a small number of things that has an influence on pretty much all others — like politics, relationships, etc.  And I guess it works the other way as well.   Politics — in the form of influence from Burma — injected some Hindu influence into their flavor of Buddhism.  As a result, they do not follow the Dalai Lama, but rather a group of high level monks from Thailand.

This Hindu influence makes for some pretty dramatic departures.  For example, in addition to meditating, they also wish (pray) for things, and leave small “sacrifices” for the gods.  And it is steeped in local tradition.

Ringing in wishes

So while they are still “aiming for nirvana”, as Buddhists are apt to do, they ring bells, use holy water, and all sorts of other not very Buddhist things along the way.  Whatever it is, it must be working.  People in Thailand all seem pretty durned happy.

And religion is clearly a part of their happiness.  90+% of males in Chiang Mai become monks (although most “wash out” after some time).  And there are well over 1000 temples in the city with each person fiercely loyal to their local one (hrm.. seems familiar).  And households and businesses have little mini shrines as well.  In fact, every hotel we have seen has a small strategically located shrine for offerings.

After seeing how happy the people were, Janine and I decided we were taking no chances, and partook in a local tradition.  We purchased a tiny bell, and wrote “baby Dillman” on the ringer, and then hung it up above the Tuesday shrine (yep, one for each day of the week, except Wednesday.. which has two?!?) since that was the day of our visit.  In a few weeks our beel will be melted down along with a few thousand others, and made into a larger bell.  And then in a few months, that bell will be made into a huge bell, and that bell will in turn be hung up for other to ring when they have a wish.

Dillman Family/Dillman Baby bell

It is kind of nice to leave a tiny part of the happiness we have gotten from out visit there in Chiang Mai.  And especially nice to think that countless others will be wishing with the bell in the future.  Maybe the happy Thai people are on to something.

Long trips are never completely stress free.  There are always details to work out.  Who to fly, where to go, what to do, etc.  One of those make or break decisions is where to stay.  I was thankful that all of those decisions were being handled by the travel agent.. and Janine — our real agent, as she did most of the hard work.

But as the time of the trip drew close, things went wonky with the travel agent provided hotel reservations.  So Janine took over and picked places in Bali, and she asked me to handle Thailand.  All along I have been offering to help out with the planning as needed, and Janine had been kind enough to allow me to be along for the ride.

Did she realize that I was just being nice when I offered to help?  I did not need that kind of responsibility — or pressure.  Oh well.. I don’t want us staying in tents so I had better get to it.

Where would we be without the Internet?  Well, certainly not our hotel.  There are hundreds of hotels in Chiang Mai and Phuket.  I cannot fathom leaving a decision like this to a travel agent.. but people used to do that.  There was really no choice.  Now the likes of TripAdvisor and Yelp make it all a lot easier.  But still.. there are no second chances picking the right location.  Neither of us have been been to Thailand.  And there are always some negative reviews for any facility.

I decided to go after small boutique hotels.  And I banked on picking new ones, as I expected they would be immune to upkeep issues.  I figured any lapses in service would be made up for by the low occupancy (it is the off season).

The hotel I chose for Chiang Mai is 137 Pillars.  And from the moment we arrived, I was feeling pretty good about my choice.  I will let some pictures do the talking:

Hrm.. Looking back, those pictures are pretty bad.  It was at night, with a basic camera, and the dog ate my homework.  You can check out some good ones here: http://137pillarshouse.com/accommodation/  We are in an East Borneo suite.

137 Pillars House is the little hotel that could.  Incredible rooms, attentive service, beautiful grounds, and probably the best hotel food have ever had.  Over the years I have stayed at a number of top hotels on business.  137 Pillars is keeping up with, and in many cases outdoing the Four Seasons, Peninsula, etc.

A few highlights:  Amazing outdoor reception facility.  Huge staff (perhaps a 3:1 ratio) that all know your name, remember your preferences, and generally work silently to take care of you.  The bathroom is epic:  Large claw foot soaking tub, outdoor shower, indoor shower, rain shower (yep, three of them, in two different locations in the bathroom), all TOTO fixtures, dressing room, top quality linens, frameless glass doors on all of the showers, sliding windows to allow the soaking tub to open to the secondary private deck (there is another one up front off the bedroom) and more.  Oh there is a toilet too (in case you were wondering).  The facilities are beautiful, including a large infinity edged pool, indoor/outdoor dining, water features all around, several outdoor lounges, and the historic 137 Pillars House (which has been reinforced to about 198 pillars now) which now serves as an entertainment/bar/lounge facility.

Of course, if they continue this level of service, the rates will end up so high I will never visit again.  I guess that is the price of success.

We are looking forward to the hotel in Phuket — in my case with trepidation.  It is going to be hard to top this place.

And sometimes it is.  But a 12 hour haul is a long flight no matter how you look at it.  This was my first time in United’s upgraded (for two years now) 747-400 Business First Class.  And I must say, it is a huge improvement over their previous business class.

Unfortunately it has a 2-4-2 layout.  The four folks in the center still have a bit of that sardine thing going on.  With that in mind, I wanted to get Janine and I seats on the outside [or up stairs where the layout is 2-2].  But with the late upgrade, the pickis’ were thin.  So I took 8k (for Janine) and 10A for me.

After we settled in, my seatmate, Leo, was chatting me up about our trip.  End result:  He insisted that Janine and he switch so we could sit together.  What?  Really?

Things were really looking up.  It was almost like home.. only smaller, and with a divider splitting our bed.  The latter was good practice for Thailand though, as PDAs of any kind are frowned upon.

10A/B from behind

For those that are interested, I saw Red Tails (big thumbs up), The Iron Lady (excellent portrayal, but somewhat depressing angle to the story).  Of course, they were both interrupted by food and snoozing.

We stopped in Incheon, set up the transfer to Korean Air, added frequent flyer information (love that travel agent.. not), and had some bi me bop (Korean food).  We really wanted Johp Che.. but it was no where to be found.

A couple hours later we hopped onto KE667 to Chiang Mai (CNX).  I remember the ride out the the plane (we climbed an airstair to get on), and I remember settling in.  And then I remember waking up when we hit some light chop on departure.  Only slightly disturbing to have the whole “why am I in the air, and turning” run through your mind as you wake up.  Clearly I got over it, as I don’t remember much more of that flight.

Oh.. but I do remember the approach.  Really shallow, and not such a great landing.  Oh and I remember the food too.. not good.  The food on United was pretty good BTW.. but I guess I expected that from business class.  So after the strap-hanger landing, it was time to do the customs shuffle.

Normally that is a non-affair, but we never really got a clear picture on the visa requirements for Thailand.  So we headed to the shortest line, and waited our turn in the queue.

Meanwhile we noticed another line for “immediate visa”.  I walked over and checked it out.  Forms we did not have were needed.. and photos.. and well.. I decided to get back to the line with Janine, because I was not ready to go through the litany of requirements over there.

So we stood in line.. for an agonizingly long time.. we picked the very slowest inspector.  Lucky us.  But the news was good.  One at a time Janine and I made it through the line with nary a question from our masked inspector (most of the inspectors wore masks.. presumably for their safety).

OK.. just pick up our bags and go.. right?  Well not really.  More small hurdles.. for example, they X-rayed our bags.. on the way out of the airport?!?!  I guess they figure if you got this far with your drugs or weapons, it will just take one more scan to ferret out the bad folks.  Or something like that.

Next was the airport transfer.. something to note:  It costs about $6US for the ride from the airport to the hotel  (or any hotel.. it is a little less for places inside the city).  The hotel will give you the same ride for about six times the price.. but the car will have the hotel name on the side.. and there is no wait.  We waited perhaps 5-10 minutes.

The ride was uneventful.  It was very interesting to get our first views of Thailand at night.  Parts of the city were really alive, despite the late hour (about 11:30pm).

Hrm.. so this reads as a really boring post.  But.. perhaps that answers the original point.. Getting there is not always half the fun.  Sometimes it is just the ticket to admission.

The dateline should be 10:59am PST8PDT, Woodland, CA.

The first real honeymoon task is to check in for our flights.  This would normally be a non-event, but Janine and I were to be flying United.

If you have ever flown long-haul international flights on United, you know that Economy plus is a scary place (and I won’t even mention regular economy).  We are talking space no bigger than domestic flights, three times the passengers, small screen entertainment that hangs from the roof, etc, etc.  I can fly SQ (Singapore Airlines) economy all day long, but United economy — to Asia — them’s fighting words.

In years past this would not have been an issue:  I have plenty of United Miles, and I just handed over a bajillion or so of them to ensure I flew business class on those long haul flights.  But as a result of the merger, the rules have all changed, and so has Mileage Plus.  And for some reason it meant that despite handing over 60,000 miles, and $1,200 we were still sitting on a wait list when there were still a handful of seats in Business First.

Back to 10:59: I checked in on the United App on my Andriod phone.  And we did not clear the waitlist.  Why not?  I have status with United, I gave them miles and money.  What gives?  So I logged into the “real” web site on my computer.  Hrm.. I don’t think it actually checked us in!?!  Oh.. now it wants out passport information.. again.  Shouldn’t our travel agent entered that.  Ugh.

Janine to the rescue:  She was working (yep, they day before our honeymoon was to start) at the annual Davis Picnic Day and I called her with a panicked (her words) or focused (my words) tone.  Do you have the passport information?  Why yes, she does.  Yet again I am reminded how lucky I am to have married her.

Do I need any help?  No (same focused tone — really).  After all, it is feeding a computer data to make it go.  If I can’t make that happen, that would be pretty embarrassing.  Ok.. gotta go…

So I filled in all of the data.  And it didn’t take it.  What happened?  No useful info.  Timeout assumed.  Logout.  Log in.  Reenter data.  Success.  Or.. wait.. no.  Not cleared.  And not on the waitlist.  Sh*t.  Try checking in again.. uh oh.. it lets me.  Hrm.. what shall I try differently this time?  I will have it email the boarding passes.  OK.. that worked.  But our upgrade still didn’t happen.. and we are not on the waitlist.  And worse.. other people are starting to show up on the list.

By this time, I was also on the phone, trying to reach an operator at United who can fix the issue.  Now if you have called United lately, you know that a long wait is par for the course (due to the merger).  So I wait.  And I wait.  And it hangs up on me.  I call back.  And I wait.  And I wait.  And it hangs up on me.  This was starting to feel like a bad Monty Python skit.. only it was our honeymoon sinking into the mud.

But the next time I called, I reached someone [after a mere 5 minute wait].  Someone very ssslllloooooww.  But there was no way I was letting him go.  Slow or not, he was they key to the start of a great vacation, and there was no way he was going to hang up.  Hrm.. first problem, he cannot find our reservation.  Ah.. well Yankee as in ‘Y’.. not yunke (scary, right) spelled out.  Don’t these guys know the ICAO alphabet?!?

We have a reservation.  From the US to Se-You-All.  No.  We are going to Incheon.  South Korea.  He disagreed.  Where does he think we are going?  Hrm.. spell it please.  Oh.. ok  Seoul.  We have a winner.  So I explain the situation to him.  He puts me on hold for about 5 minutes.  At this point I decide to head home for a land line and better connectivity.  When he picks back up he has good news.  We have already been upgraded.

To Economy Plus.  Aaargh!  I explain the situation again.  He puts me on hold again.  He promises I have been upgraded.  I see no evidence of that.  Back on hold.

More than 10 minutes go by.  He comes back and says he cannot help.  There is a long pause (because he speaks 10WPM).  But he knows who can.  On hold again.

This time I reach a gal in the rewards department.  She has already been briefed on the situation.  She cannot help.  What?!?  Why?  Ah.. well lost in translation.  No surprise.  I reprise the situation for her.  Oh…

Apparently this has been happening all morning on lots of flights.  And she cannot fathom why we did not clear two weeks prior.  She asks if it is OK if she manually upgrades us.  Um… YES!!!

And after only an hour of focused time, including three minutes of validation (Trust, but verify), and two minutes of heartfelt thank yous, I could breath a sign of relief.  This was going to be a great Honeymoon.

PS:  It is worth mentioning that United is as good as, and in most cases better than, other American carriers when it comes to comfort on domestic flights.