Amazed in Thailand

CEBU, Philippines - When one visits a place for the first time, one is naturally curious about how locals go about their daily lives, what places should one visit and, of course, what one should eat.

I was fortunate that my first time in Thailand, the Land of Smiles, was with the company of people who are experts about the country – Dave de Jesus of the Tourism Authority of Thailand-Philippines (TAT-Phils), Viveca Singson of JG Summit, Michelle Eve de Guzman of Cebu Pacific Air and Charles Lim of Selrahco, as well as other media from the Visayas and Mindanao.

The trip was a familiarization tour of Bangkok, the capital city, which has been voted as the Best City in the World by Travel + Leisure Magazine for 2011. It was a good thing that my roommate for the duration of the trip, SunStar Davao’s Stella Estremera, was also a first timer in the country. I had someone to share my curiosity about the place with.

Thailand is promoted using the “Amazing Thailand” slogan. And indeed, one will truly be amazed with this wonderful country. Let me share to you some of the reasons for my amazement….

The Sights

You will know upon arrival at the Suvarnabhumi (pronounced “su-wan-na-poom”) International Airport that Bangkok, the capital, is a tourist favorite. TAT-Phils. records for last year reveal that there were approximately 261,000 arrivals from the Philippines alone. And the airport is more than capable to handle hundreds of thousands of arrivals and departures. What with its 130 passport control checkpoints for arrivals and 72 for departures; 22 baggage conveyor belts, 360 check-in counters and an additional 100 counters for passengers without luggage; 107 walkways; 102 elevators; and 83 escalators. There are even plans to expand to accommodate up to 100 million passengers!

One of our homes for the trip was the Baiyoke Sky Hotel, Thailand’s tallest building at 88 storeys high. The building’s floor area is 179,400 sq. meters or about the same size as 30 football fields. Despite its height, guests are assured that the building is safe because the piling for its foundation runs 65 meters underground, which is about the height of a 22-story building.

Streetside carenderias are a common sight for us Filipinos. But what amazed me with those in Bangkok was that they were clean, despite being exposed to the motor vehicles passing by. You will really notice how important cleanliness is for the Thais, especially when it comes to food, with the way they prepare it and present it to buyers. Even street food vendors and fruit vendors make it a point to clean their surroundings to entice people to buy.

Public transport in Bangkok is also interesting, specifically the tuk-tuk and the colorful taxis. While our taxis here in the country are white, and yellow for airport taxis, the taxis in Bangkok are in bright colors of hot pink, yellow, red, blue, violet, green and orange. They reminded me of Nips and M&M’s. The tuk tuk, meanwhile, or the auto rickshaw is very much like our tricycles but are shaped differently. 

The Food

Diets have no place when you are in amazing Thailand. I temporarily forgot mine during our stay there! Thai food, despite being spicy, really appeals to the palate and gives one an excuse to indulge.

We had our fill of seafood, tom yum goong (spicy lemongrass and shrimp soup), pad thai (stir-fried rice noodles), krathong thong (golden Thai pastry cups), and rice in four different colors and flavors (white – regular, green – pandan, yellow – saffron, and brown – unhusked) among others.

The fruits in Thailand are also a reason for amazement. Imagine atis as big as your head, starfruit (balingbing) the size if your two fists combined, rose apple (tambis) the size of your fist, mangoes, durian, lanzones, rambutan, longgan, mangosteen and a host of other fruits that are bigger in size than the ones we are used to seeing. And you will also be amazed with the prices. You can buy a big (as in really big) bunch of mangosteen for only 100 baht (roughly P150)!

The Shopping

Shopping in Bangkok is amazing.

Right across our second home for the tour, the Amari Watergate Hotel, was the Platinum Fashion Mall, six floors of women’s men’s and children’s clothing and accessories. I visited the mall twice during our stay and everytime, it was filled with tourists, to think this was just one of the many malls in Bangkok!

The Chatuchak Weekend Market is definitely shopaholic heaven. One of the world’s largest weekend markets, Chatuchak covers 27 acres divided into 27 sections, with 15,000 booths selling goods from every part of Thailand.

My poor shopping skills were validated during the Chatuchak visit because I couldn’t decide where to go first. My shopping buddies were Stella and Boboi Costas of Cebu Daily News. We vowed to stay together and explore the market together. But with our different interests and the varied choices of goods (name it, Chatuchak has it), we lost each other and got reunited hours after when our tired feet brought us to the group’s assigned meeting place.

The People

Thai people are very tourist-friendly and tourist-oriented. You will know from the enthusiastic way they greet tourists with “Sawadee ka” to the way they keep their tourist attractions clean and enticing to visitors, to their performances, to how they prepare food and their other products.

I was amazed at how each industry in the country contributes to tourism. I have learned from TAT’s Elaine Seah and sir Dave de Jesus that the Royal Family has initiated livelihood projects, especially in the rural areas, so that they too, can help in tourism.

“Home industry villages are part of our tourism programs all over Thailand, this gives jobs to Thais especially those in the provinces,” shared sir Dave.

The four days I spent in Thailand was too short to get to know the country better. In fact, I missed seeing the famous Patpong (which became all the more popular because of the movie Hangover 2) because I was already too tired to go around. But my amazement with Thailand will never stop and I will definitely be back! (FREEMAN)