Just to be clear, when Sam says “THE hottest time of the year”, this means hot (which it always is, compared to where she’s coming from) and DRY* and lots of vile mosquitoes that don’t even have the courtesy to take the day off, will climb elevator shafts and elude other obstacles, all in the faint hope of making a nice luncheon of you.
*Dry in this case means that it doesn’t rain and knock the heat out of the air. This is NOT to be confused with a lack of humidity. There WILL be plenty of humidity.
As for their 30 day Visas (which is probably plenty): you can and will reset these by leaving the country… at which point you’ll get to pay another 15-20 quid to come back in.
Ah, but remember, Thailand is waiving visa fees for tourists until June. I don’t think it’s only one time per person, but actally you never know what sort of clueless Immigration official you’re going to meet when coming here overland, from Cambodia say.
Oh, and on that elephant-polo tournament, they may not want to stay all week, but I’d definitely catch the first couple of days. There’s an elephant parade in town at the start, and I’ve seen them grab the random tourist or two and let them ride on an elephant during it. We’re familiar with a decent place in town called the Chiang Saen River Hill Hotel, but it may be a little pricey. About 1200 baht a night (US$33), I think.
Yes no worries we have both been to Thailand and Laos around this time of year before. The year after I spent May-July in India (pre monsoon season) and it was 50 degrees plus-I have strong memories of leaving bum prints behind wherever we sat down.
Excerpt: **"A British man holidaying in Thailand claimed he was beaten, handcuffed and jailed after Foreign Office diplomats mistakenly told Phuket immigration officials he was travelling on a false passport.
"Simon Burrowes, 44, also claimed that officials from the British embassy in Bangkok acknowledged their error only after he had spent 11 days in a cramped cell with 126 inmates.
“Burrowes, from Wembley, north London, has been barred from leaving Thailand and is on £2,000 bail after being charged with insulting the immigration officials during the initial altercation over the passport.”**
Ironically it was over my visa. I had been in Zimbabwe and then Tanzania. When crossed back from Tanzania to Zambia the immigration officials questioned the visa I had been given when I went from Zimbabwe to Zambia. I had been issued a 90day visa when apparently you were only allowed a 30day visa in Zambia. They didn’t believe I had been given this visa legitimately.
I sorted it out eventually-they fined me the equivalent of about £250 and gave me 3days to leave the country. In the same week I was mugged and caught malaria…it wasn’t a great week!
Excerpt: "‘The scariest part about Bangkok was not the taxi driver getting me a hooker,’ said Luke. ‘It was how drunk this other guy got me in the bar, and me jumping out of the tuk-tuk on the way back to his apartment’.”
A quick update on the highs and lows of my sister’s travels…
They arrived in Bangkok on the 17th March and my sister had bad gastric flu which she had caught two days before they left. That night they were searched by the police apparently because of their dreadlocks (?!). They thought the police were rather disappointed not to find anything on them.
The next day they caught a boat straight to Ko Tao and have been there since then. On Sunday they hired a quadbike which they crashed and it flipped on top of them. My sister had the skin ripped off her back and her boyfriend had a head injury. They are okay, just very broke because they have to pay for a new quadbike and the medical bills. They are going back to the hospital today for more treatment. I didn’t realise there is a hospital on Ko Tao?! Their bank accounts were then frozen for some reason so Dad had to go down to the banks to sort that out.
My sister rang this morning to say they may have to come home early because of money problems and so will probably only go on to Laos after Thailand. She seems happy though, they just have to avoid the sun and sea and sand because of their injuries.
Hmmm. They can consider themselves at least a little lucky. For one, it is not too unusual for police to plant drugs on a suspect being searched. The search was made almost certainly because of their dreadlocks; that’s one reason it often pays to appear rather conservative in Thailand. Finding drugs on someone is a prime bribe opportunity, so that would explain the disappointment.
I’ve not been to Koh Tao, but I do not believe what is there could be a very modern facility. No doubt it’s some sort of health center, but I would assume they’re using the term “hospital” loosely. I would advise them to check with a quality hospital in Bangkok, such as BNH or Smaitivej. Bumrungrad Hospital gets a lot of publicity, but I have had bad experiences there, and so have others; I would never go there. Alternatively, I believe Phuket in the south has good facilities, including a local branch of Samitivej if I’m not mistaken.
Ah yes, I am looking at my Lonely Planet guide now, and it is as I suspected. It says about Koh Tao (and this is almost two years old, but almost certainly still valid): “Badalveda [facility’s name; website at www.badalveda.com], on the the main road in Mae Hat, has a hyperbaric chamber. There are also clinics throughout the island to treat minor ailments.” And that’s about it.
I suspect their bank accounts were frozen as a precaution against fraud. There is SO much fraud out of here that it’s always a good idea to contact your bank and credit-card companies ahead of time and let them know you’ll be travelling here. The bank’s computer probably flagged that someone was suddenly trying to access your sister’s account from Thailand.
Sorry they had some bad experiences. But Thailand is definitely never boring. (See? They should have headed up North for the elephant-polo tournament going on this week. ;))
Saw your father’s thread, too. Just realized NineToTheSky was your dad!
For those hospitals mentioned above, BNH and Samitivej, those are the websites. I’d mentioned, too, that Samitivej had a branch in Phuket, but I see now it’s actually a branch of Bangkok Hospital, also a good one from what I hear, but I’ve never used it. It is affiliated with Samitivej. In Phuket, it’s called Bangkok Hospital Phuket. I would still probably prefer a hospital in Bangkok, though. BNH and Samitivej are the only two I can give a personal recommendation for.
That’s Thailand for you. Disaster one day, everything sunny the next. (Unless you’re a farang jilted by a bargirl in Pattaya, in which case the farang high-dive off a balcony is par for the course.)
