I figured that the best place to get a visa for India would be in Bangkok and then it would be fairly cheap and easy to fly to India from there as well. So it was that a return to Bangkok was in the cards. I decided to try and get to Bangkok on Friday, so that I could get the application in before the weekend. I had read that getting the Indian visa would take five working days. By being able to get the application in before the weekend, I wouldn't have to stay in Bangkok through an extra weekend before moving on to India.
I arrived in Bangkok and got myself to a hotel around noon. I was close to the Indian embassy so I immediately headed over to the visa application center. Apparently you can't apply for the visa directly to the embassy. It is necessary therefore to go through the intermediary of the application center, which is fairly annoying because it involves a fairly hefty processing fee for the center on top of an already fairly pricey fee for the visa itself. Altogether it cost about 80 dollars to get the Indian visa. Plus aggravation. The Indian embassy no longer accepts hand-written application forms, so it was necessary to go and fill in the required information on the visa application form at an internet cafe. I couldn't do it with my laptop as the website expressly said that wifi connections were not to be used. Why? I don't know. There was no explanation. In the application center, they have computers that can be used for the process, but I was told it was quite expensive to do it that way and that going to an internet cafe would be cheaper. Okay. Thank you.
They showed me a sample application and off I went. When I got to the fairly expensive internet cafe, I started to fill out the application, but then came a bunch of questions for which I did not have the information, and which I hadn't been warned about at the application center. Things like the address of the hotel where I was staying, and addresses of places in India where I would be staying. They wanted to know my parents' names and a bunch of things that didn't seem to have any earthly connection to wanting to go and visit India. And I hadn't been warned about any of it. In addition, the application form had to filled out in the space of 30 minutes or the session would be cancelled. This all got me rather annoyed as I had now spent quite a bit of time and energy, and money, to open this session at an internet cafe instead of on my computer so that I could fill out the form that was required with all these surprise questions about which I hadn't been warned and in a time crunch to get it done quickly enough to meet the deadline of 2 o'clock, after which submissions would no longer be taken.
I was annoyed enough that I stormed back into the application center and tore a strip off them, telling them that they really ought to be publishing some kind of information sheet to tell people applying for visas what information is required to complete the form before they open a 30 minute application completion session online that they end up not being able to complete because they haven't the proper information. I find that kind of lack to be extremely annoying. It was much easier to get into China, and I found that to be quite enlightening. If a country doesn't want people to come, they should just say so and go on from there. But if they do want visitors, they shouldn't just put up billboards all over the world with catchy slogans (like “Incredible India”), they should make the process actually simpler.
In the end I got back to my hotel, got all the information I needed, filled out the form and returned to the application center in time to meet the deadline so the visa could be processed by late the next week. Whew!
But then I had to figure out what to do with myself for a week in Bangkok. I guess most people would not have much difficulty with this. Bangkok is supposed to be this wonderful vibrant city with lots of charm. I have never found it so. There are lots of temples and signs of culture and all that sort of thing. But I still find it kind of boring. And the people are very good at scamming money out of the visitors. It's not really my kind of city for some reason, even though I have been to other cities that, in truth, are quite similar. So I really don't know what it is. But I've never been particularly impressed with Bangkok (although this time around, I did find more charm to the place).
The wife of one my friends from Korea is Thai, and she was currently in Bangkok. I got her number from my friend and hoped to be able to get together with her a couple of times. It also happened that another friend from my days in Korea, but who now lives in Japan, was going to be in Bangkok for a few days for a vacation. That would be good for a couple of days as well. It turned out that I would probably have a good few things to occupy myself during this week of idleness, waiting for the wheels of Indian bureaucracy to turn. Yea!!!
I just did a bunch of walking about for the weekend without any particular aim in mind. I wanted to go back to the travel agent who got me sorted around with the bus to Cambodia. I wanted to go and see if she knew what happens at the Cambodian border. I went there on the Sunday, but they were closed for whatever reason. And then I just never could be bothered to go back again. I suppose that was apathy and the dulled sense of annoyance that comes with the passage of time, and I imagine that that is what the scammers depend upon from travellers who are taken in by the scam.
I was walking by a shopping center afterward and I passed by what seemed to be a famous boy band from somewhere. It seemed they could speak Thai, so they were probably Thai, but they looked a bit Japanese, so I couldn't really tell. But I took a photo for posterity.
On the Monday, I met my friend Geoff's wife. Her name is Yuphin. We went to the hospital together. I went to get a booster shot for one of my immunizations, Hepatitis A, and Yuphin went for a bit of a checkup. Later we met her cousin, the wife of another friend from Korea, and we all had dinner together.
My friend Sean had come to town in the meantime and on Tuesday we connected and went for a walk and just generally hung out together. We walked along some train tracks, that didn't seem to be in use by trains, but were a small community. Sean and I had a good couple of days catching up and messing around, then he left on Thursday to go back to Japan and his wife and baby. In the past he had liked Bangkok a lot, but this time he left jaded and with a sense of the depravity of it all. I guess becoming a family has changed him. I was back to my own devices again, and needed to find something to do. I got my visa on Thursday, but still didn't have a ticket to anywhere. The visa was only a single entry visa for 3 months. I would like to visit Nepal since I am in the area, but going to India and taking side trip to Nepal isn't going to work. It had to be either go to Nepal first and then to India, or go to India and at the end of India head into Nepal. I thought it would be easiest to visit Nepal first, so I tried to find an airline that had reasonable tickets for Nepal. Thai Airways was way too expensive, but I had read on the internet that Royal Nepal Airlines flies from Bangkok to Kathmandu for about 250 dollars. I spent Friday trying to find a travel that deals with them. Without success. I also tried to go to the Royal Nepal Airlines office directly in Bangkok. I finally found the building after searching for an hour. I went up and couldn't get to the office because of security doors. I finally just gave up the idea. I decided that India would come first.
I bought a ticket to Kolkata (which used to be known as Calcutta) for the following Monday (to give me time to get together with Yuphin one more time). On Saturday I headed to the house of a famous Thai resident, named Jim Thompson. He was an American architect who came to Thailand and fell in love with the country. He went out and got hold of six traditional Thai houses and had them moved to Bangkok. He cobbled them together into a big house where he lived. He collected all kinds of Buddhist statues, most broken, and other pieces of art. He also set up a traditional silk factory somewhere nearby and began exporting the silk. One day in 1967, he was vacationing in the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. He went out for a hike and disappeared. He was never heard from again, and nobody has ever found any sign of what happened to him. His house in Bangkok has been turned into a museum and there is a foundation in his name for the preservation of Thai culture. It was an interesting way to spend an afternoon.
While I was wandering around I saw this interesting try to get people to walk more, albeit up five rather small steps. As it turned out Yuphin was unable to meet me again, and so I spent Sunday with a bit of aimlessness. Another friend had told me about a big building made of teak, the biggest in the world, and it seemed interesting. I went to visit the place on Sunday, but if you were wearing shorts, or sandals, or even three quarter length pants, you couldn't enter. I didn't try to find out if there was any way around that, since I was violating two of the rules. Nearby there was a zoo, so I went there instead. It was a small zoo and they some extra shows they put on, all of which cost extra. When I entered the zoo, I thought I might go to one of the shows, but as I walked around, I found the zoo to be poorly organized and there were really not many animals. It really wasn't a very good zoo. I wasn't impressed and I decided not to give them any more money for the lack of experience. I wouldn't recommend the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok.
Even so, there were a couple of cool things that I saw in the zoo. One was this monkey. He seemed very relaxed.
And there was an anaconda doing a good exploration of his enclosure. If this snake can climb up glass like this, then I guess they do well in trees.
And where I have seen many signs showing the way to a bathroom, I have never seen one make the point quite like this.
After visiting the zoo, I headed back to my hotel and got packed up. The next morning, I headed to the airport and flew off for a grand adventure in India.
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