I apologize ahead of time this turned out to be a long post, with no pictures. Tommorrow I’ll have some more visuals for you.
Sunday morning, I woke up not feeling any better than the day before. Actually probably a little worse. As I was sitting in my hotel room trying to figure out what to do, for the day, my phone began to ring. I answered it, but got a dial tone….strange. Then it continued to ring. Now I’m completely confused. The phone was extremely basic (not your typical hotel phone with lots of buttons) and aside from the dialing buttons, only had a redial, flash, and one other button. So it didn’t appear I had multiple lines to chose from. I hung it up and picked it up again, still a dial tone…yet still ringing. Frustrated, I began pushing all the buttons, trying to answer it. I do believe this went on for several minutes. I no longer cared who was on the other end, I just wanted the noise to stop! I picked up the whole unit, (and was probably pretty close to hurling it across the room) and then realized it didn’t sound like the noise was coming from the phone. I placed it as far from the nightstand as I could, and sure enough, the ringing was still coming from the nightstand. Was it my laptop? That made no sense. I picked that up and moved it. Nope. My cell phone, I picked that up…Yes! Eureka. Suddenly I was awash in humiliation with myself, as I remembered I set my alarm clock on my cell phone to wake me up. Must be the delirium from being sick.
Anyway, I wandered out looking for the one thing that my stomach was very used to that I hoped would make it happy. Starbucks! I had noticed one earlier, way at the back of one of the corridors leading off Khao San Road, although it took me awhile to find it. I ordered myself a frapuccino and two muffins, as I was actually quite hungry, even though I didn’t feel good. I sat and enjoyed those, and then made it back to my hotel room to rest some more. At noon, I had to get up and check out, but I still had 3 hours before I had to leave for the airport. I wanted to do some shopping, so I began to wander the merchants on Khao San, but quickly began to get very fatigued, so I decided to find a place to take a nap. This may sound strange, if you haven’t been to Bangkok, but I wandered over to a temple, found a place to perch and slept for two and a half hours. In my wanderings the previous day, I found that many people use these as quiet rest areas. Some will even bring a blanket and sprawl out in front of a Buddha within the complexes (usually not in the main temple, just the complexes, from what I saw). I had called my taxi driver from the previous day to come pick me up, so I went back to the hotel to get my bags. He was running quite late, so the guys at the bag storage desk came over and asked if I needed a cab. (I must say in Thailand it is very difficult for English speakers to communicate-even in this hotel that caters to English speaking 20 somethings.) I told them I had one coming, they asked how much, and I said 1100 baht (about $33). They looked surprised and said they can get a cab for 500 baht (about $15). My cab was late, so I said “Yes”.
Once I got to Bangkok’s Suvabumari International airport, I quickly decided I hate it. It is brand new, completed just in the last couple years, however it is very large and laid out linearly. To check in and get to my gate I had to have walked 3 quarters of a mile, and there are very few conveyor belts. Then I got to my gate on one end of the airport to see that my flight was moved to another gate. I asked a security person where the new gate was, and she looks at me and says “ooohhhh” with a surprised and sympathetic look. Yes, the new gate was all the way on the other side of the airport. At a very brisk pace it took me about 25 minutes to get to the other gate. This will give you an idea of how huge the airport is. Once I got there, I noticed that the people that were supposed to be at this gate, were running into the same problem. The flight to Taipei and the flight to Muscat flipped the gates. So as I sat waiting to board, I watched several groups of asian people make their way down the ramp to the waiting area to have very confused looks when they saw a couple hundred arabs waiting for the flight. Then they’d check the sign and start running the other way.
Once I boarded the flight, I began talking to the gentleman next to me, Thamir. Very nice fellow in his late 30s I would say. He is from Oman, and talked a lot about what a great place it is, and really went into how I have nothing to worry about being a westerner. He said that it has actually been a popular spot for Europeans and Swedish for some time, but not as much Americans. He also told me some of the major cultural differences when working in Oman vs. the US. Most employees get 45 vacation days a year. In his prior job, he received 60 vacation days a year. Wow! He said the government also offers incentives to expatriate workers to come work there, if their skills are needed in the country. The first $100,000 (US$) of salary, tax free! I’m moving to Oman!!!
Apparently there is a hospital in Thailand with an excellent reputation for healthcare, so the Omani government pays for people to go to Thailand to get certain services done. (Thamir was with some of his family returning from their medical visit to Thailand.) This of course spun us into a discussion on socialized medicine. We also went into religion, and politics. Thamir decried the radicals which have smeared the name of Islam-that a few have made the entire religion look bad. He also complained about the current US president (and of course I needed to step in here a little bit!) but also said that most people in the middle east agree the worst thing the US could do now is pull out of Iraq, that that would be disastrous for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the other countries in the area due to the power vacuum it would create.
We also discussed driving in Oman, as I wanted to make sure there weren’t any obvious things that I didn’t know that would get me in trouble (Thamir spent some time in the US, and could compare). He said the key things are, don’t run red lights, don’t make U turns, and don’t pass on the shoulder for any reason. These are punishable by 48 hours in jail.
By the time I got out of the airport, it was about 10:30. I got my rental car, and made my way towards Muscat. On the expressway, at one point I ended up in the wrong lane, and ended up going in the wrong direction. I realized what had happened, and since I spent a lot of time planning for this trip, had a general idea of how to get back to the area I needed to. My hotel is in Ruwi, which is either a part of Muscat, or a suburb. I’m not sure what its actually considered, and its supposed to be right by the Ruwi roundabout. (Most major intersections here are roundabouts.) I found the Ruwi roundabout, but couldn’t find the hotel. I ended up getting off the main highway and wandering around the sidestreets and frontage road. As I traveled along the frontage road along side of the highway trying to figure out where I was, it suddenly appeared that the road I was on was leading directly back on to the highway, going the wrong direction! Uggggh! I quick did a U-turn (punishable by 48 hours in jail, mind you) and went back the other way. It took about 30 minutes of wandering around until I finally found my hotel at just about Midnight.
Sunday morning, I woke up not feeling any better than the day before. Actually probably a little worse. As I was sitting in my hotel room trying to figure out what to do, for the day, my phone began to ring. I answered it, but got a dial tone….strange. Then it continued to ring. Now I’m completely confused. The phone was extremely basic (not your typical hotel phone with lots of buttons) and aside from the dialing buttons, only had a redial, flash, and one other button. So it didn’t appear I had multiple lines to chose from. I hung it up and picked it up again, still a dial tone…yet still ringing. Frustrated, I began pushing all the buttons, trying to answer it. I do believe this went on for several minutes. I no longer cared who was on the other end, I just wanted the noise to stop! I picked up the whole unit, (and was probably pretty close to hurling it across the room) and then realized it didn’t sound like the noise was coming from the phone. I placed it as far from the nightstand as I could, and sure enough, the ringing was still coming from the nightstand. Was it my laptop? That made no sense. I picked that up and moved it. Nope. My cell phone, I picked that up…Yes! Eureka. Suddenly I was awash in humiliation with myself, as I remembered I set my alarm clock on my cell phone to wake me up. Must be the delirium from being sick.
Anyway, I wandered out looking for the one thing that my stomach was very used to that I hoped would make it happy. Starbucks! I had noticed one earlier, way at the back of one of the corridors leading off Khao San Road, although it took me awhile to find it. I ordered myself a frapuccino and two muffins, as I was actually quite hungry, even though I didn’t feel good. I sat and enjoyed those, and then made it back to my hotel room to rest some more. At noon, I had to get up and check out, but I still had 3 hours before I had to leave for the airport. I wanted to do some shopping, so I began to wander the merchants on Khao San, but quickly began to get very fatigued, so I decided to find a place to take a nap. This may sound strange, if you haven’t been to Bangkok, but I wandered over to a temple, found a place to perch and slept for two and a half hours. In my wanderings the previous day, I found that many people use these as quiet rest areas. Some will even bring a blanket and sprawl out in front of a Buddha within the complexes (usually not in the main temple, just the complexes, from what I saw). I had called my taxi driver from the previous day to come pick me up, so I went back to the hotel to get my bags. He was running quite late, so the guys at the bag storage desk came over and asked if I needed a cab. (I must say in Thailand it is very difficult for English speakers to communicate-even in this hotel that caters to English speaking 20 somethings.) I told them I had one coming, they asked how much, and I said 1100 baht (about $33). They looked surprised and said they can get a cab for 500 baht (about $15). My cab was late, so I said “Yes”.
Once I got to Bangkok’s Suvabumari International airport, I quickly decided I hate it. It is brand new, completed just in the last couple years, however it is very large and laid out linearly. To check in and get to my gate I had to have walked 3 quarters of a mile, and there are very few conveyor belts. Then I got to my gate on one end of the airport to see that my flight was moved to another gate. I asked a security person where the new gate was, and she looks at me and says “ooohhhh” with a surprised and sympathetic look. Yes, the new gate was all the way on the other side of the airport. At a very brisk pace it took me about 25 minutes to get to the other gate. This will give you an idea of how huge the airport is. Once I got there, I noticed that the people that were supposed to be at this gate, were running into the same problem. The flight to Taipei and the flight to Muscat flipped the gates. So as I sat waiting to board, I watched several groups of asian people make their way down the ramp to the waiting area to have very confused looks when they saw a couple hundred arabs waiting for the flight. Then they’d check the sign and start running the other way.
Once I boarded the flight, I began talking to the gentleman next to me, Thamir. Very nice fellow in his late 30s I would say. He is from Oman, and talked a lot about what a great place it is, and really went into how I have nothing to worry about being a westerner. He said that it has actually been a popular spot for Europeans and Swedish for some time, but not as much Americans. He also told me some of the major cultural differences when working in Oman vs. the US. Most employees get 45 vacation days a year. In his prior job, he received 60 vacation days a year. Wow! He said the government also offers incentives to expatriate workers to come work there, if their skills are needed in the country. The first $100,000 (US$) of salary, tax free! I’m moving to Oman!!!
Apparently there is a hospital in Thailand with an excellent reputation for healthcare, so the Omani government pays for people to go to Thailand to get certain services done. (Thamir was with some of his family returning from their medical visit to Thailand.) This of course spun us into a discussion on socialized medicine. We also went into religion, and politics. Thamir decried the radicals which have smeared the name of Islam-that a few have made the entire religion look bad. He also complained about the current US president (and of course I needed to step in here a little bit!) but also said that most people in the middle east agree the worst thing the US could do now is pull out of Iraq, that that would be disastrous for Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the other countries in the area due to the power vacuum it would create.
We also discussed driving in Oman, as I wanted to make sure there weren’t any obvious things that I didn’t know that would get me in trouble (Thamir spent some time in the US, and could compare). He said the key things are, don’t run red lights, don’t make U turns, and don’t pass on the shoulder for any reason. These are punishable by 48 hours in jail.
By the time I got out of the airport, it was about 10:30. I got my rental car, and made my way towards Muscat. On the expressway, at one point I ended up in the wrong lane, and ended up going in the wrong direction. I realized what had happened, and since I spent a lot of time planning for this trip, had a general idea of how to get back to the area I needed to. My hotel is in Ruwi, which is either a part of Muscat, or a suburb. I’m not sure what its actually considered, and its supposed to be right by the Ruwi roundabout. (Most major intersections here are roundabouts.) I found the Ruwi roundabout, but couldn’t find the hotel. I ended up getting off the main highway and wandering around the sidestreets and frontage road. As I traveled along the frontage road along side of the highway trying to figure out where I was, it suddenly appeared that the road I was on was leading directly back on to the highway, going the wrong direction! Uggggh! I quick did a U-turn (punishable by 48 hours in jail, mind you) and went back the other way. It took about 30 minutes of wandering around until I finally found my hotel at just about Midnight.
View from my Hotel Room
2 comments:
Mom wants to know why your monday blog is not up yet, she is visiting me in Arizona and is concerned you are too ill to write. Bring me home a monkey!
Man, you were a little cranky when you wrote this. It is a bummer to be in a foreign country and be sick. I hope you are better.
By the way, I can now personally attest that you saw the wealthy part of India.
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