Starbucks Abroad

Mar 192013
 

Picture of Starbucks in China

I thoroughly enjoy coffee, but it does terrible things to my body. In fact, the only coffee I can drink that doesn’t leave me feeling utterly sick for the rest of the day is Starbucks. Does that make me a coffee snob? But you also have to take into consideration the atmosphere, and my wife and I both revel in the idea of hanging out at a coffee shop and using somebody else’s Wi-Fi for an hour or so. It’s no different when we’re traveling overseas. Starbucks is always a haven to us.

The prices don’t change much from country to country, though. My wife’s favorite drink (a green tea latte) costs about $5 in the US, China, and Thailand. For Thailand in particular, that’s an expensive drink. You can catch someone on the street selling iced coffee and Thai tea for as little as 50 cents a cup. Even the brand name shops like Coffee World and Amazon Cafe don’t mark up their prices that much. But my wife wasn’t able to find another shop that made a good green tea latte, so that’s still worth something.

However, all of the Starbucks we went to in Thailand didn’t have free Wi-Fi. Thailand is funny about its wireless Internet. That kind of service is surprisingly hard to come by, and apparently you can’t even rely on global establishments like Starbucks for it. Luckily, China doesn’t suffer from the same problem, but then the Internet in China sucks, anyway. I could never get a good connection at a Chinese Starbucks.

I know there’s this need/want to support and try out local shops while you’re abroad. Hey, I’m all for authentic food. But when it comes to drinks in between meals, I’m kind of complacent. While I did try a lot of coffee shops in Thailand, I gotta be honest… most of them were not very good. The best drinks are out on the streets, but where are you going to sit down to fiddle with your phone? As for China, most sit-down shops are also smoking shops. Starbucks is one of the few places in China that enforces its no smoking rules. I’ll pay $5 for a cup of coffee just for that.

China Hotel Chain: Home Inn

Mar 062013
 

Picture of Home Inn

I’ve done a lot of traveling in China and have stayed in several hostels and hotels across the country. After a few bad experiences, however, I’ve sworn off hostels completely and have become much more leery about the kind of hotels I book. True, I could just pay for a five-star pampering, but when do English teachers or unemployed travelers ever spoil themselves? While Ctrip and Agoda both have some standards with the hotels they list on their sites, you can’t always trust them. A couple of genuine stinkers have come out of Ctrip. There’s really only one name I feel like I can trust regarding budget hotels in China, and that’s Home Inn. In fact, I depend on Home Inn so much, I never know what to do if there’s not one in the area I’m going to be visiting. Seriously, for what you pay, they’re good hotels, and they’ve been pretty consistent from city to city. So if you’re wanting to do China on the cheap, but you don’t want to live in squalor, keep them in mind.

An Authentic Chinese New Year

Feb 102013
 

This isn’t the first time I’ve spent Chinese New Year in China, but it is the first time the holiday has actually meant something to me. Before, Chinese New Year either gave me an excuse to go travel or an excuse to stay at home and do nothing. Outside of the major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, it’s not like there are any huge parades or shows to attend. The real meaning of Chinese New Year is spending time with one’s family. During the first week of the new year, it’s very important to visit all of your relatives and come bearing gifts. Kids will ask grown-ups for red envelopes containing money. And don’t forget about the food and alcohol! I don’t need a red envelope; just give me red wine!

Last night for New Year’s Eve, we ate dinner with Sarah’s parents, grandparents, and aunt and uncle. I’m told that, in the past, this meal has been epically huge, but this year was a little more toned down. Truth be told… I didn’t even notice. It was still too much food for me. At 8:00, everyone went their separate ways to watch the national TV special in the comfort of their own beds. The importance of this TV special is probably similar to the importance of watching the ball drop in New York:

Picture of Chinese New Year TV special

The closer we got to 12:00, though, the more fireworks we could hear outside. In fact, fireworks have been going off all day today and will most likely continue for the rest of the week. I remember the very first time I came to China, we caught the tail end of Chinese New Year, and the sound of firecrackers in the daytime made me feel like we had just landed in a war zone. Plenty of vendors were out on the streets yesterday, selling boxes of fireworks. Today, they’ve been replaced by people selling fruit baskets to bring to your relatives. I don’t think those explode, though.

That’s it for Thailand

Feb 022013
 

Picture of sunset in Charoen Sin

Unable to get a visa extension, we were forced to leave Thailand and return to China five weeks ahead of schedule. On the bright side, we’ll get to celebrate Chinese New Year with Sarah’s relatives, but I was not prepared to deal with winter this year. Our hotel room in Changzhou is freezing!

The past two weeks have been very stressful and exhausting, so I’m relieved we no longer have to run all over Asia. On the other hand, I’m pretty disappointed and let down that we didn’t get that last month of closure in Charoen Sin. We were finally making progress as teachers, finding fun things to do around town, and meeting new friends, and then suddenly we barely even had time to say goodbye to everyone. We were out the door and off to Shanghai just like that.

So I’m feeling a bit robbed. The Thai government really put a damper on this whole experience. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still glad we went, and I still plan on writing a book about it. I don’t know if I have enough material for a paperback release, but there will definitely be an e-book on the way. In the meantime… I’m not sure how often I’ll be updating the blog. I won’t officially “close” it like I did last time, but don’t expect to hear from me on a regular basis, either.

Later, dudes.

Work Permits and Visa Extensions… or Not

Jan 282013
 

In my last blog post, I mentioned things were looking grim as far as our visas were concerned. Well… it got a little worse before it got better… and then it got worse again. Man, this has been an incredibly frustrating experience. Where do I even start?

The day after our failed trip to Laos, my friend took us to another province so we could talk to their local immigration office. Half the officers there didn’t have a clue what to do, though, and those that did said we would need to go to Sakon Nakhon (the closest authority to Charoen Sin) for a work permit and visa extension. We already knew that, of course, but we were so short on time, that wasn’t really an option anymore.

One of the (many) reasons why a work permit was out of reach was that our school needed to submit an application on our behalf to the education bureau in Bangkok. Needless to say, it was too late for that. The director of the school was actually scrambling to go to Bangkok the same day we talked to the immigration office. I hope you have a jet pack, good Sir! I had little faith in his plan… until we got a call that we needed to go to Bangkok ourselves to submit the application in person. Then I had no faith.

With only two days left on our visas, we flew to Bangkok, stayed the night, and approached the education bureau first thing in the morning. They looked over our paperwork and said, “This says you were hired as instructors, not teachers. If you’re an instructor, you don’t need anything from us. Just go to Sakon Nakhon and apply for the work permit as an instructor.”

Um… what’s the difference? Much like our Laos visit, then, we turned right around and went back. Another wasted trip. We arrived at Sakon Nakhon’s labor department in the afternoon and, as instructors this time, were finally able to convince them to process our work permits. It took several hours for them to do the paperwork, though, and the immigration office across town wasn’t going to stay open for us. But wait! Our visas expired on Saturday, the next day!

Fortunately, the immigration office said the weekend didn’t count, and we could come back on Monday and do the extension. Relieved, we returned to Charoen Sin with our new work permits and slept a little better. At this point, I started telling everyone we were staying. I mean, the worst was over, right? … Right?!

Today, Monday, we went to Sakon Nakhon again, but the immigration office didn’t want to play nice anymore. They said they could only do visa extensions for teachers, not instructors. Seriously, what the %@$# is the difference?! No amount of papers or phone calls would get them to change their mind. The most they would offer us was the standard 7-day extension that anyone with a semi-valid reason can get.

So there you have it, folks. After all that trouble, all we got was seven extra days. The 7-day extension was our last resort to buy everyone more time, but I don’t even know what good it does us now. We’ve exhausted every possible angle here. I’m also extremely tired of being jerked around by government officials and really don’t trust any other avenues the school might come up with. Fly to Malaysia? No thank you. Just send us back to China, already.

The Laos Visa Run, Fumbled

Jan 232013
 

So… we went to Laos today… for, like, two hours. I only took one picture, and it wasn’t even in Laos. This is Laos as viewed from Thailand across the river:

Picture of Laos from Thailand

We really have nothing to show for this trip. No photographs. No souvenirs. No visas. Um… oops on that last one. The reason we went there in the first place was to get a new visa, since our current one expires in three days. Yep, our school waited this long to do something about our work permits, and now it’s too late. So there went all the hard work we did in the US, securing the correct “non-immigrant B” visa. Our only option now was to enter Laos and come back again with, ideally, a new B visa or, at the very least, a two-month tourist visa.

Well, after being passed around like a football from one agency representative to another, we finally wound up at the Thai embassy in Laos, along with several other foreigners doing the exact same pilgrimage. We dutifully paid our fees, filled out the paperwork, and endured the ridiculous amount of mosquitoes, only to be told no by the embassy. They flat out refused to do anything with Sarah’s Chinese passport, and because I didn’t have the right documents, would only give me a 30-day tourist visa.

The embassy did tell Sarah she could go back to the border and get a 15-day visa on arrival. They said I could do this, too, if I so desired. Not wanting (or needing, really) any disparity between our passports, I opted to go this route with her. I’m not sure why the embassy wouldn’t help a Chinese citizen, though. Oddly, even the shady guy out on the street, offering to draft up fake visas for a whopping 15,000 baht, would only do it for US passports, not Chinese passports.

The original plan was to have us stay overnight in a hotel while our visas were being processed, then do a little sightseeing the next day before heading back to Thailand. Plans changed, of course, and we found ourselves at the border again not much later. Alas, here we ran into another problem: they didn’t want to give us a visa on arrival, after all. I think the overlap with our visa that hadn’t expired yet (but would in three days) was causing them grief, even though leaving Thailand should have voided it. But whatever. The only way we could enter Thailand was to suck it up and take the three days we already had.

So we’ve got three days, then. It’s… looking very likely that we’ll be going back to China in January instead of March. Tomorrow will be another rush to try to extend our visa for seven days at an immigration office closer to home, which should hopefully give the school enough time to finish the work permit. But I’m not holding my breath on that one. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done for. Somebody dropped the ball here, and, boy, does it suck when you’re the ball.

The Five Biggest Culture Shocks of Rural Thailand

Jan 122013
 

Picture of a parade in Thailand

We’ve been in Thailand for over two months now. It’s time to accept that the honeymoon phase is over and fire up the bellyaching. Actually, I’ve been pretty good about staying optimistic and trying to make the most of it. We live in rural Thailand. It’s not like there’s a lot going on. If anything, the number one “culture shock” is probably the smallness of the area. But I’ll play fair, leave that one off the list, and give you five other nuggets to chew on:

1. Toilets
I’m no stranger to “the squatter.” I’ve got it figured out. Butt Thailand has found a way to make an already awkward toilet worse: you have to manually flush it. So there’s a big bucket of water and plastic pot next to the toilet, and when you’re done, you scoop fresh water into the hole. It doesn’t always work, though, and it is absolutely disgusting to see “it” still floating about after five or six “flushes.” Can you imagine? You’re welcome!

2. Parties
Who doesn’t love a party, especially when it’ll get you out of teaching for a day? There’s always at least one celebration going on every week around here. However, a party in Thailand means wheeling out the karaoke machine and pumping up the volume. As I am typing this, our neighbors are singing karaoke and have been doing so for the past five hours. Right before they started, our other neighbor was singing karaoke, too. My head is going to explode.

3. Carefree attitudes
While it may sound great to be surrounded by people who relish in saying, “Don’t worry!” it has its drawbacks. For one, the concept of “Thai time,” or being late for everything, is very real. As teachers, it’s particularly frustrating to have students go unpunished for cheating or skipping class. God knows if anyone is taking our visa status seriously. Even the immigration office advised us to do things the illegal way, because… you know… whatever.

4. Lady boys
This one isn’t so much a complaint as it is just an interesting observation that continues to take me by surprise. I mean, in the US, if a high school boy wanted to wear make up and prance around like a girl, he’d get his ass kicked. But “lady boys,” as they are called, are actually some of the more popular kids in our school. They’re a hit at every parade and assembly and frequently out-girl the girls. It’s cool for them to be that accepting; I’m just not used to seeing it.

5. Bugs
At first, I was okay with all of the bugs and lizards. Then one day, I came across the most terrifying, most gigantic spider I’ve ever seen (in the bathroom, no less), and now even the thought of a spider scares me. Just tonight, we almost ran over a grasshopper the size of a Subway sandwich. I hate grasshoppers! After we passed it, I heard a dog bark, and my skin crawled, thinking that maybe it was the grasshopper barking at us. Good god, there are some freaky bugs out here…

Thoughts on Bangkok

Jan 072013
 

Our first taste of Thailand was a night’s stay in Bangkok, where we wandered around a few malls before retiring to our hotel. For New Years, we decided to give the capital another go… and ended up wandering around a few malls before retiring to our hotel. Yep, there’s no shortage of gigantic shopping malls in Bangkok. In fact, the city reminded me a lot of Shanghai: it’s a big, modern, Asian melting pot.

Picture of Bangkok Sky Train

The funny thing is, most of the memoirs I’ve read about Thailand (and in particular, Bangkok) have focused mostly on one thing: sex. It must be really easy to get laid in this city. If the atmosphere of Soi Cowboy Road is any indication (as seen below; we only went there, because “the Internet” said it was a top attraction), this is certainly true. All of the bars were full of Thai women wearing next to nothing. Some were holding up signs that said, “We have many beautiful girls, some ugly ones, and even a few fat ones!” So… there you go.

Picture of Soi Cowboy street

But I understand there’s a cultural side to Bangkok, as well. We did visit the Art and Culture Museum, the Grand Palace, and Wat Pho. The architecture of Thai temples is a refreshing change of pace from the numerous temples I’ve seen in China. My friend here tells me all Thai temples look the same, but so far I’m impressed. Grand Palace was a bit overcrowded and overpriced, though, and it was damn near impossible to find a bottle of water once we were inside. The community spout and cup didn’t appeal to me at all.

Picture of Grand Palace in Bangkok

Not far from the Grand Palace, however, is Wat Pho. This is a quieter (and cheaper, woohoo!) temple that boasts a large, reclining Buddha and many “chedis” (the tall spires in the following picture) scattered throughout the grounds. Wat Pho is probably the coolest temple I’ve seen in Thailand and was the highlight of our trip. For me, anyway. I think Sarah enjoyed the malls more.

Picture of Wat Pho in Bangkok

So would I do Bangkok again? Well, it’s a big city, and there’s a lot we didn’t see. Plus, domestic flights in Thailand are pretty cheap. It only cost us $80/person to fly from Udon Thani to Bangkok, and this was on a holiday weekend. Why wouldn’t you go?! But if you’ve been to any other Asian country before, and you’re only coming to Thailand to see Bangkok, you may be disappointed. Unless, of course, you’re single. Then go nuts, Cowboy.

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