My train left at 10:50 p.m. and was to arrive at Chumpon at 5:55 a.m. the following day. Even though I had booked early, there were no second class sleeper cars available and I had to settle for a second class seated aircon car. I figured that it couldn't be that bad because the seats in the picture looked comfortable and it was only 7 hours - I'd done worse.
Unfortunately, not much worse.
I was in the first row facing the wall at the front of car #4 and while I had a foot rest, I had no seat in front of me to rest my knees on, which is how I usually manage to get comfortable in small spaces. I couldn't rest against the window because the space between the window and the seat was too large, so my only option was to sleep sitting up in a chair that didn't recline. While some people can manage this, simply letting their head flop to one side, I haven't quite been able to perfect it and so every time I fell a asleep, my head would jerk to the side and wake me up. I tried to curl up in the chair facing the window using my neighbor as a back rest (unintentionally, of course), but that only lasted for so long before he would shift and I would fall over and have to resume my ramrod strait position, settling for brief lapses into sleep, followed by a rude awakening and the realization that I was still in this uncomfortable seat and there was no reprieve at hand. I think in all, out of 7 hours, I got about 45 minutes of sleep.
Finally, my seat mate looked over at me and said, "Chumpon," as my cue to disembark and I gathered up my bags and blearily made my way off the train into the station.
From Chumpon, I had to get a bus to Ranong where I would catch a boat across to Myanmar/Burma, but before I even had time to get my bearings, I was approached by a motor-taxi driver asking me where I wanted to go. Before I could answer, he asked, "VISA?" I smiled and nodded and asked him if he could point me in the direction of the bus station. He told me that the bus wouldn't be leaving for a few hours, but that I could get a mini-bus leaving in 30 minutes. I thanked him and headed in the direction he indicated.
As I was walking along the road alongside the train tracks, I noticed that there was some sort of scuffle between a man near the tracks and someone lying on the ground. There was a cart near by blocking my view, so I couldn't tell if it were real or if it were two people playing around. I noticed that the people in the shops on the other side of the road were all standing at the edges of their shops watching the spectacle. As I continued along the road, I saw that it was a man, on top of a woman and he had her pinned to the rocky ground and appeared to be strangling her. I was shocked and didn't know what to do because no one else seemed to be doing anything. He then began smacking her in the face and punching her. When she finally got up, he gave her a flying kick to the head, almost knocking her down. I looked beseechingly at the men watching from afar, but they just stood by passively. Using my rudimentary Thai, I said, "mai dii, (not good)" to a man sitting near by, to which he just chuckled and shook his head. I looked around for anyone official looking, like a police man, but no one was around. Just then, the motor-taxi driver from the train station pulled up and bade me get in saying he would take me to the mini-bus stop. I turned back to look at the woman and looked at him motioning to the couple, but he simply took my hand and helped me into the back of the truck. Still in a bit of shock, I asked the other western woman in the back of the truck if she had seen the fight, to which she replied that she hadn't, and to my incredulity at the lack of intervention by the onlookers, she replied that recently in Holland, men had been killed for breaking up a fight like that. Paralyzed by my inability to do anything and ashamed that concern for my own personal safety over-rode my ability to help this woman, I sat back and let them drive me off.
When I arrived at the guest house/tour office, I told the man about what I had seen and asked him why no one would help her. He replied that the Thai's are a peaceful people. I accepted his answer because I had no other choice, but assuming that the man battering the woman, was most likely Thai and that peaceful doesn't simply equate to passivity towards violence, I don't think that that is an excuse. I want to talk to someone at CCS or HAT about this situation and see what they think I should have done.
The man at the tour office said that his mini-bus had left already, but that he would take me over to another operation with a van leaving at 7:00 a.m. I hoped on the back of his bike, feeling a little more confident since my first ride in Kanchanaburi and let him take me to another tour operator where I paid 100 baht for my ticket and headed across the street for a breakfast of chicken, green beans and chili over rice. Using my few Thai words, I asked the man, "Gin tee nun dai, mai? (Can I eat in there?) motioning to the tables inside. He replied affirmatively and I sat down to breakfast.
The ride to Ranong was a scenic drive through curving mountain roads. The van was packed with Thai's and I took the last seat, next to a young Thai man with a big cardboard box on his lap. Happy to be sitting in a relatively comfortable seat, I leaned back and soon found myself drifting off. A few seconds later, I awoke to the sound of my own skull cracking against the window. I was destined to continue the day on 45 minutes of sleep.
When we arrived in Ranong, the driver stopped and told me that I would need to take a taxi to Immigration. I thanked him and commandeered the nearest motor-taxi driver to take me the rest of the way.
At the immigration office, I simply walked in, handed my passport to the man behind the sign marked, "departures," who filled out a form, and stamped my passport with an exit stamp. As I waked out of the building, I was approached by yet another motor-taxi driver, who asked me if I needed a boat to Burma. I replied that I did and asked him how much it cost. He said that if I went then, just one person, it would cost 300 baht (about 8 USD). Thinking that I could do better by simply getting on a public boat, I told him that I would think about it, but that I wanted to see what the situation was like at the pier. As with most offers, when walked away from, his immediately was up for discussion. "How much you pay?" he asked me. Not knowing how much a boat ride was worth and not wanting this man to waste his time taking me over for whatever I was willing to pay when he could take a group for more, if I wanted, I told him that I had time to wait and could wait for him to find more people, but that I would wait for him at the pier. He agreed and motioned to another man with him, apparently for him to escort me to the pier. As we walked away, the new man said to me, "How much you pay? You pay 50 baht? 50 baht each way. 100 baht total?" Feeling that this was fair, I agreed and hopped on the back of yet another motor scooter, to a nearby pier.
The pier was packed with longtail boats awaiting their cargo, most likely foreigners making VISA runs to Myanmar/Burma. In order to get to my new guide's boat, we had to walk over four other boats, finally settling in his. It was an old wooden boat about three times the size of your average canoe (in width - about twice in length) with a small propeller at the end of a metal pole that served as the engine and the steering apparatus. We were joined by a boy about 12 whose job it was to drive the boat, and we were off.
This part of Thailand is quite mountainous, as is the opposite southeastern coast of Myanmar/Burma, giving me a backdrop of hazy green and blue mountain ranges on either side. Traditional Thai river houses on stilts lined the bank and a small army of longtail boats surrounded us on either leg of their journey, filling their air with the staccato sound of their grinding motors.
Our first stop was a Thai immigration point, where my guide (I asked his name , but have promptly forgotten it) asked for my passport, which he took from me and ran up the ladder out of sight. Not that it hadn't crossed my mind before, but again, the realization of just how much faith in strangers is involved in travel, was once again poignant. A few minutes later, he returned with a nod to me and another to the boy, handed me my passport and we were off.
About halfway to the other coast, we stopped again at a large wooden boat housing "the Army," where again, he asked for my passport, disappeared up the side of the boat and returned again with a nod and a smile.
The journey to the other side, took about 30 minutes, during which I sat back and took in the beauty of the surrounding mountains, the clear blue of the sky and the endless stream of longtail boats crossing back and forth between piers. We arrived at the Myanmar/Burmese immigration point, where I handed over $5 and my passport, which was granted an entry stamp and returned.
About 10 minutes later, we were at the pier, where I again clambered over various other longtail boats to the shore, where I was granted (having asked for) 30 minutes to wander around before getting my exit stamp and making the whole trip in reverse. Just seconds after stepping on the concrete pier, I was joined by an entourage of five Burmese boys ranging in age from 18 to about 10. One of the older boys told me that he would show me around to the market and I accepted his offer. For the next 30 minutes, I walked around, chatting with the boys about their lives and what they did all day (mostly leading tourists around, one admitting that he didn't go to school anymore because his mother was having money difficulties and then proceeding to tell me that he was bad because he smoked too much and drank too much whiskey). I would have like to purchase some gifts, especially some jade jewelry which Burma/Myanmar is known for, but I as I am on a budget and I had just packed up all of my things the previous day, realizing that I already need an extra bag to get home, I passed and simply tipped the boys, got my stamp and headed back to Thailand.
The trip back was uneventful after tipping my guide and the boy who drove the boat, I walked over to immigration, by passed the "VISA Run Tour Group" in the departure line and received my 30 day extension at the arrival counter, allowing me legal residence in Thailand until June 27th.
No comments:
Post a Comment