Me + Thailand

[mr toodly]

I will visit Thailand soon. A doctor has cleared our itinerary for malaria/avian flu hot spots, with a caveat: to avoid poultry and wear close-soled shoes. I would appreciate it if some of you would provide ideas for my stay in Bangkok. I am already interested in the Arab market and the gigantic plant stalls. What is a must see/must try, within the limits of the law?

[Andy the Great Something]

Well, needless to say hopefully, but don't forget to attempt to obtain a large supply of Kratom. (Though illegal in Thailand, but not neccisarily so....... specially across the border into other territories.) I mean, really if one were to get ahold of larger quantities of kratom foilage, they could practically pay for their whole trip. The stuff is going for around 200-300+ or so per kilo U.$.

[Torsten]

..... and may also earn you 20 years jail in thailand.

[jasemateau]

if you want the easy way out become a lawyer and be come part of the organized crime syndicate, dont bother with silly adolecent ideas like smuggling.

chut tu chaak (weekend market in bangkok")

goes off for all sorts of bargins.

for clothing there is a market from memory called

prat tu naam visit here on you way to the airport(home that is), coz you wont leave with out a suitcase full of great clothing.

pat pong for girls and women looking boys, there is also plenty of shopping but inflated prices.

oh and pat pong is thailands home for strip shows with ping pong balls and other sorts of tricks you may have heard of.

for nicer more friendly locals, hang out a bit in chaing mai, lovley place, bit cooler up there too.

and everythings cheaper.

dont miss the opportunaty to try fresh soy milk while in thailand, it shits on what we call soy milk, very safe nutritious drink.

if buying softdrinks make sure you get them poured in to a little baggy thing,

[Leo^]

Well if your into it maybe some authentic muai thai gym might be worth a look ;) that would be a highlight for a lot of ppl

[mr toodly]

Do any of you know where I might find wooden crafts like gates? I'm also interested in metal work. I need to buy some door knobs.

Someone slob my knob.

[jasemateau]

i think it the west side of the old chaing mai square, in chang mai, here is a street which is too long to walk down in the heat,

there is a street where all shops are silver smiths, tapping away all day, you can walk it to some of the work shops (if you ask politely) cool thing really too much silver jewelery to choose from and can bargin down to really amazing prices, remember its not polite to not bargin with thai's

you will find heaps of wood carvings in most markets, chat tu chaak (bangkok's weekend market) has 8000 stalls and can take a week to see everything if you must, probly the best place for wood carvings, and please do get some information about how to inspect a carving, can have a beautiful carving and have customs destroy it for you.

it's not had really, its common sense, make sure it not hollow, and has no residue that appears to be of insect kind, no holes unless they are deliberatly carved in, and always declare wood obects of any ind when coming in, they will be frank if your honest at worst, but if you dony declare anything, they can find something if they want to. dig'

sorry blabing on again.

i miss traveling

[Rev]

If i was going to thailand id be up to my usual travelling tricks of botanising, seed and spore collection

Being the merry biopirate i enjoy being id be making a beeline for the countries medicinal plant collections to see whats in fruit...

http://www.forest.go.th/Botany/Gardens/Botanics&arboreta.htm

But then if you dont live in at least a subtropical environment then the value of this is limited

but if you are it pays also to check out the fruit markets and watch for unusual fruits or varaities amd medicianl herbs. Even in australia you are allowed to bring in most tropical fruit tree seeds no problems if they are clean and labelled

In the US id assume they arent even as strict

[mr toodly]

Thanks, guys. You've hit it on the head. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

I intend to keep a photojournal during my stay. I'll provide a link in about a week.

love. r.

[genki]

if your are going to the weekend market id advise going early, it gets packed quickly and on a hot day it can be very overwhelming wandering around the many covered twists and turns. depending on where your staying you can get the subway there and save the hassle of trying to bater a reasonable fare with a tuk tuk/taxi driver. of course if you dont mind making a stop and pretending to be interested in suits/gems just long enough for your tuk tuk driver to collect the free gas coupon 20 baht will get you there from anywhere in the city. what part of bangkok are you planning on staying in?

go to the golden mountain temple (i think thats what its called, ill check tomorrow) for good views of the city. if your checking out some of the hundreds of wats then the big reclining buddha is pretty cool too.

if you like your food spicy check out some of the dishes from the north east. eat some grasshoppers and other assorted bugs from a street vendor, have lots of banana pancakes and fruit shakes.

[Greeny]

Well, needless to say hopefully, but don't forget to attempt to obtain a large supply of Kratom. (Though illegal in Thailand, but not neccisarily so....... specially across the border into other territories.) I mean, really if one were to get ahold of larger quantities of kratom foilage, they could practically pay for their whole trip. The stuff is going for around 200-300+ or so per kilo U.$.

I know this topic is a bit dated but I visited one of my older electrician friends lot so long ago and he had not long been back in Aus from an indonesian prison where he was contracted to do electrical maintanence. He "liberated" the list of prisoner rules hung on the wall which he himself had to abide by or be shoot. The rules of which their was 200 somthing are all punishable by death and go to the extremes of "Not allowed to look anywhere but the ground infront of your feet when moving from cells to work area's", "No talking, singing, humming or in anyway producing noise whilst inline", "Walk in time and beat with everyone else in the line", "do not stray off the marked travel lines at all when in line" "Only look a guard in the face when told to do so" "Profanity or slandering of any kind is punishable by death" and so on but here is my personal fav and i quote "All orders issued by guards must be completed immediatly reguardless of difficulty, degredation or inhumanity of the issued order"

This is all permitting that if you are caught you are not sentenced to death. So everybody thinking of smuggling from an asian country heed this warning. Remember not every country signed the geneva convention

[Rev]

Too true

If you want 'drug' tourism then Europe or Australia seem like great destinations

Round nthn nsw in particular seems like a fun place if you like to smoke the cheeba

and theres all sorts of other fun things about in the right places

pros

- No death penalty

- even 'Life' is rarely life

- Our prisons are not perfect by by asian standards its a 5 star hotel. If you keep your head down and avoid the ubiquitous hazard of getting butt fucked youll probably do just fine inside

- Relatively light penalties for simple posession

- high per capita drug consumption and acceptance of responsible 'soft' drug use

- quite friendly population, often moreso to travellers than to each other!

- localised but substantial hallucinogen subcultures and related festival events

- areas of strange 'autonomy' prob due to distance from the political capitals and local public support such as nimbin where law enforcemnet is sporadic and usually modulated by political agendas

cons

- exchange rate good but not excellent

- accomodation and chartered transport at first world prices

- Public transport third world standard

- Cops are hard or at least much much more expensive to bribe than in asia

just dont try and smuggle shit in...

[-YT-]

Excellant Rev, Supporting the local Tourist trade keep it local

[mr toodly]

Too true

If you want 'drug' tourism then Europe or Australia seem like great destinations

Thanks, but no one said anything about drug tourism, though I would like to try betel nut.

[Darklight]

What is a must see/must try, within the limits of the law?

Well if it were me ( and I know its not, you lucky lucky man ) I would go and find a Mitragyna speciosa tree, preferably the one that's the mother of my children, and just smile at it. I don't think smiling at a tree is illegal. I've always wanted to see an M speciosa in the wild too.

And then I'd take a pic, and then I'd email it to me

A long time ago a mate did some kinda raft trip. I'm pretty sure it was Thailand but I don't know where. She loved it

[mr toodly]

M. speciosa is legal here. A friend gave me some leaf from Indonesia. I do not find it pleasurable.

[mr toodly]

I'd like some criteria for identifying the psychoactive galangal. Thanks.

[mr toodly]

I'm leaving early tomorrow. The photoblog can be found here.

Take care

[-bijanto-]

Hi Jackson,

You'd be very lucky if you could find there some tubers of Pueraria mirifica.

These plants are commonly found in abundant in the forests in the north, the west and the northeast of Thailand at the altitude of 300-800 meters above sea level, its one of the most valuable plant in Thailand, sought frequently by Japanese. The locals call this plant "Kreu Khao".

The kreu khao bulb doesn't look like ginger or turmeric, it's more fat and round like yam or potato. An SAB mate went there to get some bulbs but the locals cheated him, instead of kreu khao, they sold him some other plant's bulbs.

Active principles in this plant are found in the tuberous root, which looks like a chain of round-shaped bulbs of various sizes connected to the next one via small root throughout the entire length of the root. The shape and size of the tuberous root are diverse depending on the environment in which it exists. Please check out this link:

SAB Past Discussions on Pueraria mirifica

if you can send me some kreu khao bulbs, I'd be happy to pay or trade.

Good luck!