[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazing Race 14, Episode 7

[Edward Hasbrouck]

This column with links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001665.html

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Jaipur (India) - Phuket (Thailand)

I'm travelling (more on that next week) and I won't be able to watch  
this week's episode of "The Amazing Race" until I get home. I'm  
delighted, however, that one of my talented friends at Airtreks.com,  
"rate desk" expert David Derrick, was generous enough to accept my  
invitation to share his thoughts about a destination -- Thailand --  
that he knows much better than I do:

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Hi. I'm David Derrick making a guest appearance as commentator on the  
travel issues in The Amazing Race 14 .

There were a lot of questions raised in this week's episode, worthy of  
much discussion, such as using travel agents versus booking flights  
directly with airlines, differences in how animals are treated in  
different societies, the history of the rickshaw, and how "random"  
factors and events can dominate your experiences and impressions while  
travelling. Too much was going on to limit my comments to just one of  
these questions. So here are my thoughts on a few of the issues in  
this weeks episode.

Airline Routes:

I put together custom around-the-world airfares for a living, so I was  
hoping for some kind of challenge this week when it came to getting  
everyone to their next destination, Phuket. They all followed a pretty  
straightforward route, however, using a domestic flight ((Jaipur to  
Delhi) to a trunk route between capitals (Delhi to Bangkok) to another  
domestic flight (Bangkok to Phuket). All of th racers ended up on the  
same flights.

As Edward mentioned last week , air travel in India has changed  
dramatically over the past decade now that the government has  
liberalized its bilateral agreements with other airlines and  
countries. It used to be that nearly all flights into India had to  
come into Bombay or Delhi. Passengers going to other destinations in  
India were forced to connect at ungodly hours in these notorious  
airports. The only exceptions were a few flights from Singapore,  
Malaysia and Persian/Arabian Gulf states into Chennai/Madras,  
Kolkata/Calcutta, and, rarely, a few other cities.

Now you can get international flights into all kinds of places in  
India such as Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bodgaya, Cochin,  
Hyderabad, Kozhikode, Nagpur, and Trivandrum. Soe of these flights  
come directly from as far away as Europe, and from almost anywhere in  
the world you can now make connections through obvious places in the  
Gulf like Dubai (hub for Emirates and served by many other airlines),  
or less well-known ones like Doha (hub for Qatar Airways), Abu Dhabi  
(Etihad), Bahrain (Gulf Air), Muscat (Oman Air), Sharjah (Air Arabia,  
the largest "low-fare" airline based in the Gulf), and so forth. If  
you are flying into one of these cities, I would strongly advise  
taking a direct or connecting flights from somewhere outside of India  
-- that is, of course, unless you are interested in stopping over and  
spending time in Delhi or Bombay.

Communication:

There are a lot of things that can help you win "The Amazing Race":  
cunning, physical strength and endurance, critical thinking, good  
looks, etc... But I think the most important thing is communication.  
Most contestants trip up because of issues in communication both with  
locals and with fellow travellers (i.e. their partners in the teams in  
the race). They rush through reading the "roadblock" instructions and  
don't understand the tasks fully. Personal dynamics can lead to  
bickering and self destructive competition within the same team.  
Language and cultural barriers can hinder interaction with locals.  
These are all issues that affect not just the contestants in "The  
Amazing Race", but all travellers. I cannot emphasize enough the  
importance of trying to practice good communication skills when  
traveling.

Dealing with local people:

The best thing you can do to positively interact in a different  
country is to learn a few words of the local language. Yes, this would  
be hard for contestants on "The Amazing Race", since they don't know  
their destinations beforehand. But most travellers don't have this  
excuse. By just learning the words for "hello" and "thank you" you  
show people that you respect them and want to interact in a positive  
way, and can open doors into more meaningful experiences.

After learning a few words of the local language, you should also  
learn something about the culture and customs of the places you go.

I have a lot of experience with Thai culture since my wife is from  
Thailand, and we go back to visit the family every year or two.  
Thailand is known as the "land of smiles" for a reason. No matter what  
the situation, most Thais can't help smiling (even at funerals and  
political protests!). Public displays of negative emotions such as  
anger or sadness are rare. This doesn't mean that people don't get  
angry or sad: They just keep it inside.

This week in the race, it made me cringe to see Jaime barking at her  
poor taxi driver and the man in the medicine shop. A Thai person  
speaking like that -- visibly angry -- would be considered a low class  
thug. Mike and Mel, on the other hand were perhaps too "nice", or at  
least too willing to accept their driver's statements that he knew  
where he was going. They should have realized that their driver didn't  
actually know where he was going, but didn't wart to say, "No".

A lot of Thai people, being from the land of smiles, do not like to  
tell you bad news, especially to foreigners. Instead they will  
reassure you that everything is fine, or worse, even tell you a lie  
they think you will want to hear. The same thing can happen elsewhere,  
but it's more likely in Thailand than in many other countries. It's  
important that you try to recognize this when asking for directions  
from strangers. Otherwise you could end up on the wrong side of town!

Happy travels,

David

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Edward Hasbrouck
<edward at hasbrouck.org>
<http://hasbrouck.org>
+1-415-824-0214

"The Practical Nomad: How to Travel Around the World"
(4th edition 2007)
"The Practical Nomad Guide to the Online Travel Marketplace"
<http://www.practicalnomad.com>

Around-the-World and multi-stop international air tickets:
<http://hasbrouck.org/tickets/>