Riding The Gravy Train of Tourism: taxi drivers in Thailand

I chose the island of Phuket, not because I had read rave reviews about it, or had been wooed by its exquisite beauty …   In fact, I did not even look at a single travel brochure or webpage.  Rumour had it in China, amongst us foreign teachers, that Thailand was an ideal summer destination to while away the weeks of no work and no income.  Thailand was definitely cheaper, sunnier, freer …  and less polluted than China.  A breath of fresh air for suffocating lungs…

When asking Jack, a Thai national of Indian descent, which island he recommended, he definitely suggested Phuket.  J., an Australian sailing fanatic, who recently had to cancel a trip to Thailand due to work commitments, also spoke fondly of Phuket.  ‘But,’ he added, ‘it has changed and is no longer the paradise it used to be.  Still affordable, but no longer the backpackers’ nirwana of cheap and cheerful.’  With this advice in mind, I opted for Phuket, no further research required.  I booked my ticket, arranged hotels that looked reasonable and was ready to explore and experience…  with the advantage of having some insider information..

My first taxi journey from the airport to the hotel  in Bangkok was definitely made smoother through knowing how much I should expect to pay.  Although the initial quote was not exorbitant, I paid about 25% less after demanding a metered ride into town.  Once in Bangkok, I almost avoided taxis altogether as I made liberal use of the city’s excellent public transport system encompassing metro, sky train, river taxis and express boats connecting shopping centres and the touristy and historical sites.  I was impressed by the politeness of the Thai people, queuing patiently.  No mad scramble to be the first to board the train, even before people have had a chance to get off, as in China.  No need to elbow your way in through the narrow doors of buses and trains, disregarding passengers trying to disembark, as in India.  On the one occasion I used a motorcycle taxi, an orderly line was formed, which no one tried to breach…  And the courtesy even extended to people giving up their seats on the trains for the elderly, or the young or actually anyone who might need to sit down.  Not something I often witnessed in India or China..

And then I arrived in Phuket…  As the hotel blurb gave ample indication of the expected taxi fares from the airport, my metered taxi was spot on and actually turned out a little more economical,  but not cheap though…  I enjoyed my first couple of days sauntering between my hotel and the beach, taking in the sights and smells of Thai food with a Russian twist.  Fully anticipating English to be Phuket’s second language, I was amazed to find the unmistakable signs of a strong Russian presence on the island as many restaurants printed the names of dishes in Thai and Russian before adding the English touch.  And as for trying to ban the burkini on the Phuket beaches and tourist boats to the surrounding islands???  Surely, the Thai people would not want to antagonise the many Arab visitors who flock to their shores and tourist attractions..  And if I came to Thailand to have a break from the Chinese… they apparently also swarm in their droves to Thailand…

After a few days of local sea and sand therapy and calling in on Leonardo Di Caprio’s beach by speedboat, I decided to check out the ‘viewpoint’, a hill crest overlooking the three beaches near my hotel.  A glance at the map suggested a distance of just over 1.5 miles.  Before setting off, I enquired at the hotel reception about the cost of a taxi…  I balked at paying £14 (to the viewpoint and back) for a distance of barely  5km which I could easily walk, even the steep parts.  Map reading is not my forte, especially when it comes to interpreting scale, but the island of Phuket only has a few roads, so I felt pretty confident of my course of action.  To ensure I did not  add unnecessary miles to my hike – it was very hot that day – I consulted several taxi drivers on my way up…  ‘You can’t walk that far.  It is at least 7 km.  It will take you an hour to reach the viewpoint,’ they warned, smirking and shaking their head at the mere thought.  Really??  I showed them the map, pointing to the scale… But as they were unwilling to adjust their price to take into account I had already covered some tarmac or even admit their price was way too high in the first place, I stubbornly kept on following the trail of motorcycle tourists who were clearly heading in the same direction..   I admired the sights along the coast and arrived at the viewpoint in good time and glad I had not been fooled into an expensive taxi ride up the hill…

Two days later, I intended to explore Patong Beach, a very touristy stretch of coast, full of bars and restaurants and night ravers and famed for its ladyboys’ show…  But a ride to Patong Beach and back would cost me 900 Baht, the receptionist at my hotel and the local tour operators insisted..or £21 for a 20 minute trip..  And that was even before I paid for the show, or had a drink and food somewhere..  Travelling solo can be expensive, unless of course I embrace the freedom of two wheels and get to grips with riding a motorcycle…

On the other hand, the advantage of being a single traveller is you don’t travel on your own for long and handy tips are passed down from other travellers: a shared taxi to and from the airport saves you two thirds of the cost; hiring a taxi for half a day to tour the island is more cost effective than paying for single trips to touristy destinations; you find out what discounts other people manage to negotiate to visit Phi Phi and James Bond island ; hiring a motorbike for a week only costs 1000 Baht…

But as long as the rich Arabs, Chinese and Russians are all too willing to pull out their wallets to show off their cash, the taxi drivers and tour organisers will be all too happy to carry on riding the gravy train of tourism.  What did Jack call the non-Russian white tourists of today???  Cheapskates!!  ‘And,’  he carried on, ‘ tourists always end up paying a little more than locals…’  Maybe he is right, but even he agreed that  900 Baht for a return trip to Patong Beach was going a bit too far…

In China, there is no such thing as ‘Mutton Dressed As Lamb’.

I arrived in Hangzhou, mid February, when the winter chill still stubbornly clung  to the air.  March’s spring warmth provided short-lived respite before buckling under the scalding heat of the Shanghai summer.  How to fill a 20kg suitcase to cover all these weather eventualities??  Intense cold, intense heat…and rain, bucket loads of it!  At least, an umbrella seemed a good bet, useful come rain or shine…

I packed what I believed to be life’s essentials, and then had to abandon about half of that.. But why worry…  Surely, I would be able to stock up cheaply in China, the land where most of all our Western clothes are manufactured?  Or certainly used to be!  I soldiered on through the fresher weeks, covering oversized dresses and loose fitting skirt with even more generous jumpers.  Layers keep you warm and cosy in classrooms without heating and with open windows regardless of the plummeting temperatures outside.

With the onset of Spring and the summery weather, my wardrobe deficiencies became blatantly obvious.  My mid-season selection of clothes hardly got an airing as winter effortlessly morphed straight into summer. The three pairs of shoes that accompanied me to China were of the practical variety with gym visits and walking in mind, not open-toed sandals to ensure blister-free feet in a blistering summer.  So, I set off on my first shopping expedition, in search of suitable footwear and clothes that would keep me cool in the classroom and dry in the sudden downpours.

Chinese fashion left me rather uninspired and somehow did not really appeal to my dress sense.  Skirts, shirts, shorts and dresses barely covering knickers worn WITH colourful woolly tights may well be appropriate on chilly days, but the summer look of wearing skirts, shirts, shorts and dresses barely covering knickers WITH NO tights, or just “white-skin” ones under white-skin coloured shorts??

Maybe not…  although admittedly, my hemline has moved up almost in line with the local trend and I have on occasions needed to improvise during my lessons to avoid bending over too much and baring more than intended… Whereas in England this inconvenience mainly affects the younger generation, not so in China..  No matter what age, short shorts and miniskirts are de rigeur as Chinese legs retain their cellulite-free youthfulness forever, and slender Chinese bodies somehow avoid piling on the pounds.  Mutton can indeed get away with dressing as lamb!!  Maybe chewing collagen-rich chicken feet has its benefits after all…

A quick exploration of the local Chinese shops only resulted in me buying some canvas slip-on shoes.  Colourful and reminiscent of the American flag, but definitely pretty useless in the teeming rain.  Even my humble size 5 feet are considered a tad too large here, it seems!!  Unless of course I  follow the Chinese trend and raise myself a few inches off the floor on dizzying stilettos or height-defying platforms.  Not much choice in flats for me…

And what about covering the rest of my body, you may wonder…  I have resorted to look in all too familiar establishments such as Zara and H&M, although I actually also bought a pair of shorts in M&S in Shanghai. Not only are those clothes not quite what I would wear in England, they definitely come with a hefty Western price tag.   For a skirt that in M&S, Zara or H&M in the UK would retail for $15, I pay 150 Rmb in China… which is about £15…  Considering that the average wage of a Chinese worker (or so we are led to believe) is nowhere near Western salaries, this is not exactly cheap…  So, I have made do and only bought essentials when absolutely necessary, or in places such as Walmart, where I can pick up a basic t-shirt for a fiver.  When is Primark coming to China, that’s what I want to know…

Shopping starved and on my way back to the UK at the end of July,  I hit the shops at Hong Kong airport, but as my flight was delayed and I had to cross an entire airport the size of a small town to catch my connection, I merely managed a glimpse at the price tags… Same story, but then this is to be expected at an airport…

It looked like the only way I was going to get my wardrobe replenished was to tackle the shops at home, in the UK… So, I did, and a few ‘mother and daughter’ shopping trips later, I crammed my suitcase to the brim with flimsy beach & glam tops, short skirts, decent short shorts and  short dresses… just maybe about an inch longer than the ones for sale in China.  I think it will see me through the remainder of the balmy summer (without tights) and through  the coming bitter winter (with tights, woolly tight and a pair of boots)…

At times like this I think fondly of India, with its great simplicity in dress code: churidar and flip-flops at affordable prices ad infinitum!!!

G20 Jitters in Hangzhou

May 13th, Xixi Wetland in Hangzhou.

It’s been the buzz word since my very arrival in Hangzhou: G20, the meeting of the world’s financial big wigs discussing how to improve global financial stability and other important issues.  For months billboards announcing the prestigious event  have been cluttering every corner of the city, the airport, the metro and even the Xixi wetland park, so it’s hard to miss China’s and Hangzhou’s pride in hosting such an auspicious gathering.  And this being China, no stone is left unturned, no ID left unchecked, no tree left to wither and no factory left to pollute the air to ensure that when the world’s eyes are zoomed in on Hangzhou and China, everything will run smoothly, as clockwork, and the world will be greeted by an aura of perfection as no other country can achieve.

More G20 … Hangzhou airport…

G20 adverts on the Hangzhou metro..

Buildings shrouded for months by scaffolding and unsightly boards have been uncovered; Wulin Square has indeed become a square again.  And across the canal overlooking the Binjiang district, where the dignitaries will congregate,  an impressive new skyline has been drawn as opulent hotels and stylish flat- and office blocks have mushroomed in the vicinity to take full advantage of the expected influx of visitors, new businesses and residents in the wake of the event.   Hangzhou will present a pretty face, a delightful façade and the world will revel in China’s accomplishments.

With the responsibility of organising such an international get-together of the world’s most influential and highly regarded politicians comes the responsibility of keeping everyone safe.. and security in and around Hangzhou will be watertight, as expected.  But whereas in Western countries residents in afflicted areas would be given plenty of notice of what lies in wait, not so in China.  Reliable and official information has been sketchy, leaving plenty of room for speculation…

Wild rumours started circulating  as early as May when one agency advised its teachers that no foreigners would be allowed to enter Hangzhou between 15^th August and 12^th September…  Leaving between those dates would be at our own peril, with no entry back into Hangzhou guaranteed.  There would be no exceptions… Hello, what about schools starting on 1^st September??  Although this measure was later (read: sometime in mid July..) clarified to only apply to groups of tourists visiting the area, teachers were engulfed in a flurry of uncertainty about how to deal with the impending holiday break.

J. decided to escape Hangzhou and China altogether during the summit period, booking himself an extended return to the homeland.  ‘Do you really want to be around here, with all the additional security??  Having to conjure up your passport at the drop of a hat? Maybe tanks on every street corner…’  He is lucky, his school does not start until after the October National Holiday week, so no rush for him to be back.  Canadian A. opted for caution and squeezed all her planned trips – Bali and the Philippines – into the first weeks of the summer and would definitely return before the curfew date.    I implored my own agency to shed some light on the matter and maybe see if some trustworthy information could be garnered from the authorities.  But after several weeks of being promised an ‘official notice from the general manager’ regarding the arrangements for the G20, I was still none the wiser… Would they really shut down the whole city for a whole month, grounding planes and stopping trains whilst I was perfectly able to purchase flights in and out of Hangzhou throughout August and there appeared to be no restrictions on the sale of train tickets ??  Tighter security, yes, understandable… but total lockdown???

My agency remained on the sideline, advising on my ‘return to teaching duties’-date according to  the whims of the school and the requirements of the authorities.   Whereas in mid June, I was told all schools in Hangzhou, including mine, would not reopen until at least 7^th September and I saw my holiday period luxuriously expanded,  the powers at my school stubbornly insisted throughout July on a starting date for teachers of 25^th August with the intention of being ready for teaching on 1^st September…  So, maybe it would be in my interest to be around in Hangzhou from 25^th August, just In case the school required my attendance, the agency recommended.

I obediently planned my summer with this date in mind. Well, give or take a few days…  Surely a return late on Friday 26^th August, just before the weekend rest, counted as being back around the 25^th… and after all, we would not be paid for our days of work in August.   However, after touching tarmac in the UK on 28^th July and with my return flights to China booked (via a relaxing holiday in Thailand starting very soon), I finally got the official word via the global tentacles of WeChat: school will resume on 8^th September.  I am gutted, I could have had an extra week on the beach in Thailand… or will it still be possible to change my travel date…???

Now it may strike you as rather unkind of the school to make such an important decision at the eleventh hour, but I suspect they had little choice in the matter.  In an effort to keep Hangzhou  pollution and people free around the beginning of September, local officials have declared a week-long public holiday to coincide with the G20 summit.  Offices, factories and schools (?) have ‘given’ their staff extra time off, ex-pat forums whispered.  Reportedly, Hangzhou residents – Chinese ones anyway – have received generous incentives to leave town, such as free and discounted tickets to tourist destinations further afield in the province, in an operation aptly named ‘Zhejiang Tourism Carnival’. What is there not to enjoy about the G20…

When Maggie, a Chinese friend, was asked a little while ago whether she was excited about Hangzhou hosting the G20, she looked blankly.  ‘G20??? What is the G20 actually all about??’…

And just in case the blue skies should fail outside, one 5* hotel has not left anything to chance..