Raj's Round The World Trip

I arrived at Bangkok airport at 6:30am. Once I picked up my unwieldy suitcase I headed for the exit. I haven't booked a room, so seek out the tourist information centre at the airport. People dressed smartly in suits vie for my attention and want to take me to a taxi. I tell one of them I'm looking for the tourist information centre. "Yes, yes," he says and leads me outside where his taxi driver friend tries to usher me into his car. I walk back into the airport. I find the tourist information centre and I'm told where I can get a bus for 150 bhat (about 2pounds 40p).

Feeling quite pleased with myself, that I didn't have to pay double for a taxi, I wait for the bus. The bus drops me off in Bangkok town centre, I think. I decide to head for the nearest tourist information centre, which happens to be accross the road, but unfortunately it's closed. A 'helpful' tuk-tuk driver says he can take me to another one and it will only cost me 20 bhat. Unfortunately for me, anyone can say that they are a tourist information centre, so I end up at a travel agent who starts drawing up an itnerary for me. I say I only want a hotel for 4 days. She finds one for me and I have to pay her for the hotel now. A tuk-tuk then takes me to the hotel for 50 bhat. Later, I find out that I was only about a hundred yards from Khaosan Road (famous high street where backpackers go) in the first place, the tuk-tuk driver told me it was 2 km away and the hotel is costing me 100 bhat more a night than if I had walked in off the street and booked it myself. In the space of 15 minutes I had been ripped-off by three people.

I relax at the hotel, falling asleep on my bed. I awake at about 10pm feeling hungry I decide to head for Khaosan Road. When I leave the front door of my hotel I find that there are quite a few girls waiting outside, dressed as though they are about to enter a night club, presumably waiting for a taxi. As I walk down the street, it seems there are a few of them; some of them have quite big feet I notice. Over the next few days I am there, I see the same girls there - they must go out quite a lot.

There are a lot of cafe's and pubs and people selling food from a cart on Khaosan and ajoining roads. I get some food - phat thai - which is about three different type of noodle mixed with scrambled egg and stuff, and some bbq sticks of meat. Tastes good. I head back to my hotel. Would you believe it, some of the girls are still waiting for their taxi's. It's a good job it's warm outside.

It's my last day in Sri Lanka and I go for a walk in Colombo. It rains a little. I make a visit to KFC - for research purposes. I wonder what it tastes like compared to back home. Well, the answer is, it's subtly different but just as unhealthy and the chips aren't up to much.

There are a lot of checkpoints around Colombo and soldiers standing on street corners. And I see loads of vehicles being randomly stopped, the drivers asked for their i.d.

Everywhere you go tuk-tuk drivers try and get your attention and want your fare. They don't like to see foreigners walking it seems. I persuade one of them to pick me up form the hotel at about 6pm, when I have to book out, and take me to the airport. It's almost half the cost of a taxi and will take about forty minutes. I don't have to be at the airport until about 10:30pm, so there will be a lot of hanging around.

At 5:50pm the tuk-tuk driver comes to pick me up. I'm glad he came early because after a few minutes of setting off on our journey at 6:15pm we are under the most heavy thunder, lightening and rainstorm I've ever seen. I'm sure he wouldn't have bothered coming out to me if this had started earlier. I was mightily relieved to get to the airport.

Yesterday, I had a chance to pick up some turtles. Today I'm going to be Elephant Riding (that's me being carried by the elephant not the other way around, that would be silly).

I'm picked up by a driver at 6:30am. First we go to an 'art museum.' Where there is a big sell to buy pictures or prints from a 'famous' artist. A waste of time.

About three hours later, we are at the elephant sanctuary. And a pretty hefty entrance fee let's you in and have a ride on an elephant. See below: I'm the one in the red t-shirt and the elephant is in grey:

Riding an elephant is like... well, not really much to compare it with, but I wouldn't want to travel to the shops like this. Whilst I'm trying desperately to keep hold of a rope around his neck, the mahout (the elephant's trainer/handler) calls up to me and suggests he would like some money at the end of it. I'm in no position to talk at the moment. It's a relief to get off in the end and I'm walking a little widely for a while. The elephant didn't look too tired after the event. He didn't look unhappy when I got off either. Next, I'm shown elephants being bathed in a stream and how the mahouts use coconut shells to scrub the elephants skin. I'm invited to join in with the bathing, but I decline as I don't particularly want to be soaked by an elephant shower, which is what 'normally' happens, I have seen from published photos.

Then its off to a different sanctuary to see a mass herd of elephants making there way to the river. This was quite spectacular. Everyday at the same time they are led to the river along streets. Some free advice - It's best you give them right of way.

I could quite easily watch this all day. However, we have plans to go to Kandy. On the way there's a stop off at a tea producing factory and the obligatory pitch to buy something from the shop.

Kandy has a big Buddhist temple to look at and I go in hoping to look around. Straight away a guy latches on to me and starts talking about the site. I told him I don't want a guide, but he insists he just works there an official guide. It's a quite an impressive temple as are most that I've seen. It seems you have to have a lot of splendour around you to be holy. After the tour I'm charged to pick up my shoes and the guide wants money too - cheers mate - what happened to your 'official guide status ?' When I get to a mirror I'm going to check I haven't got a stamp on my forehead saying, 'Tourist, take money off me' or the like.

We head back to the hotel it's the end of another day.

Yesterday, I booked two excursions, one to see a turtle sanctuary and the other for the following day to visit an elephant sanctuary. Today is turtle sanctuary day. I ask the driver to take me to any interesting places he knows about along the route and back. The lesson here (in hindsight) is: know what you want to see because they (drivers and guides) only take you to places where they get a cut of the takings.

The hour long drive takes us to a small turtle sanctuary called, 'Bentota Turtle Project.' I was really surprised that they allowed visitors to handle the turtles. I'm shown a water tank of about a hundred one day old hatched turtles. I'm allowed to pick them out of the water. I hold three of them in my hand and have a photo taken:

Amazing.

I'm then allowed to pick up a big turtle out of the tank. I was a little apprehensive about it, but did it anyway. And I'm shown an Albino turtle, which is quite rare. Apparently, it has no chance of surviving at sea as it would be seen by predators from miles. There's a little pressure from the 'keeper' to donate money or buy something, even though there is an entrance fee to visit the place. I'm pleased it wasn't a waste of time coming here, as you can always visit a zoo to see animals, but I got caught off guard when I was asked to handle them. I'm looking forward to the next place we visit.

It's a spice farm ? Ok, this might be interesting, keep an open mind. First a guy shows me around, pointing out various plants. To be honest after the first or second one, I lost interest. He talks very quickly, and interspersed between descriptions, pop out a few questions, where are you from ? What do you do ? What hotel are you staying at ? Etc, etc. He then leads me into a hut and asks me to take my top off. Then another guy comes in. The first guy explains that I would be given a shoulder, back and arm massage with some of the oils produced by plants from the herb garden. Fifteen minutes later, after not a particularly pleasant massage, the first guy returns and asks me for a money 'donation' for the masseur. He has the cheek to suggest I wasn't giving him much when I didn't ask for the massage in the first place. This irritated me and I was soon to find out that there's a fair bit of 'squeezing money out of the tourists' that goes on in Sri Lanka. When anyone talks to you they always ask where you're from ? What hotel are you staying at ? They sound like they're just being friendly but what, for example, does it matter which hotel you are staying at. It's to gauge how much they think you have. I know that now; I wish somebody had told me earlier.

I'm put off going to the other suggested places and end up going to Bentota beach. This is quite a nice beach really. But it is a really hot day. It's probably about 34 deg and bright sunshine. It's back to the hotel after a few hours.

I need to be at the airport by 6:45am and my taxi has failed to arrive. Luckily, I have the mobile number of the driver from yesterday, so I give him a call. 'I've got a flat tyre', he says. He's forgotten I hadn't paid him in full yesterday and he can't be bothered. I ask a tuk-tuk driver to take me to the airport and he does it for half the price the taxi would cost. Maybe I'm not too unlucky.

The flight was less than and hour and pretty uneventful.

It was a last minute booking of a hotel on the internet in Colombo. I made a mistake and booked an 'expensive' hotel. Oops ! The hotel is nice, but I should have found a place when I arrived. The taxi from the airport is expensive too. This is ominous. At the hotel I book an excursion for the next day.