Blog Date (Oct 23, 2007)

We have been travelling quite a bit. We first started with Thailand & we have now reached Calcutta, India. We have been missing Monterey & let me tell you it is still better over there even with the apple moth spray planes. In Thailand we visited Bangkok and Phuket. So basically here are the salient points about Thailand.

1) If you are an US citizen you can go straight to the immigration counter and they will process your entry formalities.

2) If you have an Indian passport and live in the US, it would be wise to get the visa from the Thai consulate in LA, as the ground staff at the airport in Thailand are very unprofessional.

3) There is quite a bit of corruption in Thailand so avoid the private taxis (also known as Tuk-Tuks). The hospitality staffs are sometimes very robotic in fashion (even the smiles), so you will not get your point across, and pray that no misfortune hits you (May the blessings of Ganeesha be with you). So this is definitely NOT the land of a 1000 smiles.


4) Avoid the street side souvenir stores, they are outright rip-offs. They will quote ridiculous prices, instead go to the nicer malls and pay their prices and also bargain a bit, you will be satisfied overall.


5) In general we did not like Thailand much. Their treatment of Indians left much to be desired. It is even more sad as they have gotten so much from India in terms of culture, foods, music, spirituality and religion. Our worst treatment was at the newly built Bangkok Suvarna Bhumi (Sanskrit for "Land of Gold", Suvarna - Gold & Bhumi - Land) airport.


6) Internet speeds are best in the US so far, Thailand has been much slower. The hotels in US offer much faster wireless and wired net access. Overall hospitality standards in the US are higher for the price paid.


7) Falling American Dollar, this has hurt us quite a bit as we were charging everything on our credit cards during our Thailand trip and we had to settle for the lower conversion rates, basically more dollars were needed to buy the local Thai Bhat (currency).

We have attached pictures of our Phuket Service Apartment (Sunset Beach Resort). Sangita did some cooking and we did eat our Bengali delicacies. We had our Bengali spice supplies and some of the cooking implements.