[The Practical Nomad Newsletter] The Amazing Race 14, Episode 8

Tue Apr 21 13:05:23 PDT 2009

Yes, I'm still behind on "The Amazing Race", but I hope to catch up this 
week. I've been dealing with events in the real world, from my own travels 
and oral surgery to this (hardly less painful than a dental drill) news:

New developments in government control of travelers in the USA
(TSA asserts new authority while implementing "Secure Flight"):

http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001670.html

=====

This column with links:
http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001667.html

Phuket (Thailand) - Bangkok (Thailand)

Since Thailand isn't one of my favorite countries, nor Bangkok one of my 
favorite cities, and I've been in both only briefly, I thought it would be 
better to give you a chance to hear from people who know and like these 
places better than I do, and have spent more time there.  This week's 
guest commentary is from another of my former colleagues, Matt Radack:  

-----

First of all, thanks to Edward for letting me share thoughts on this 
episode of "The Amazing Race 14".  Set entirely in Thailand, it brought up 
two of the more interesting elements of travel there; transport and 
trannies.  Let's focus on transportation first.

The racers' first task was to travel from the southern resort island of 
Phuket to Bangkok, a distance of about 690 km (430 miles).  That's roughly 
the distance from San Francisco to Los Angeles, or Boston to Washington 
DC.  Depending on your budget and timing, there are several options for 
domestic travel within Thailand, including air, rail and bus, all of which 
are quite comfortable and affordable

As all flights within Thailand are under 1-2 hours, air is generally the 
choice of those with limited time.  The same distances by bus or train 
could easily take 15-20 hours, depending on whether or not your 
destination can be reached in a straight shot, or (as is more often the 
case) you'll need to take some kind of combination of train, bus, taxi 
and/or ferry.  For those people who truly believe that getting there is 
half the fun, ground transportation is arguably worth the adventure (and 
might be worth the time for the sightseeing, at least in one direction).  
Several companies operate "VIP" buses which, as is normal in many more 
developed parts of  the developing world, are rather luxurious compared to 
most buses in the USA.  And the best Thai long-distance trains are as 
comfortable as Amtrak. However, for travellers on short vacations who 
won't be in Thailand for more than 1-2 weeks, flights may be the way to 
go.

Although Bangkok is the primary arrival and departure airport for most 
international travellers, both Chiang Mai and Phuket are accessible with 
one-stop connections from the USA via Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, or Tokyo.  
Even the tiny island of Ko Samui offers nonstop international flights to 
and from Hong Kong and Singapore.

All flights between Thailand and North America currently require at least 
one transit/refueling stop.  Thai Airways' nonstop service LAX-Bangkok was 
discontinued last year, and the airline is once again operating one-stop 
service to and form the USA via Osaka, stopping to refuel and let 
passengers on and off, but continuing on the same plane.  Usually you have 
to get off the plane while it refuels anyway, so there isn't much 
practical difference between a one-stop same-plane "direct" or "through" 
flight and a single change of planes. Nor does it much matter where you 
change planes, unless you want to stop over and spend some time there.

Simply getting to Southeast Asia is an entire day's worth of travel from 
most of North America.  Flights from major West Coast gateways such as San 
Francisco and Los Angeles take anywhere from 18-20 hours in each 
direction, plus the loss of 1-2 calendar days when crossing the 
International Date Line (something I'll leave to Edward to explain some 
other time). If you leave the USA on day 1, you'll arrive in S.E. Asia on 
day 2 or 3 , local time, depending on where in the USA and what time of 
day you started.

Unfortunately fares to secondary destinations can sometimes be 
considerably higher than fares to Bangkok, but often it's only a 
difference of about US$100 round-trip, which is more than what you'd pay 
for a round-trip ticket from Bangkok to either Chiang Mai (about US$135) 
or Phuket (about US$150).  Taiwanese carrier China Airlines (which offers 
1-stop service via its hub in Taipei to Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket) 
frequently features some good Web-only fares in the Promotion section on 
its website.  These are often extremely competitive fares, especially to 
secondary Southeast Asian destinations, that the airline does an 
unbelievably poor job of marketing itself, as they're not distributed 
through most metasearch sites (such as Kayak.com) or online travel 
agencies (such as Expedia.com, Travelocity.com, or Orbitz.com).  As 
always, it pays to shop around.  Using other Web sites, I've found 
advertised fares recently from LAX and SFO to Bangkok for as low as US$700 
total (including taxes and fees), whereas most advertised fares to Phuket 
were over US$1000 total.  Whether or not it's worth spending the extra 
money to save time depends completely on your own schedule and budget.

As much as I do recommend flying in or out of other cities for those with 
specific plans, that's not to say that I don't recommend Bangkok.  On the 
contrary, I find it to be one of the world's most fascinating cities.  And 
as the racers discovered this week, it's also a busy metropolis where 
getting around can be challenging.

The teams got around Thailand's capital this week using taxis and long-
tail boats.  Any Bangkok local or frequent international business 
traveller would advise you (especially if you were in a race for a million 
dollars) that the fastest way to get around the city is by Bangkok's 
modern and efficient Skytrain.

Ironically, many travellers from the USA who never set foot on public 
transportation in their own cities, are eager to ride on it as soon as 
they venture abroad.  That may partly be due to the fact that people form 
the USA who can afford to travel abroad are likely to be middle-to-upper-
class, whereas ridership on most public transportation in the USA tends to 
be lower or working-to-middle-class.

In Thailand, the opposite is true. Although Bangkok's Skytrain is an 
affordable option for international travellers with fares ranging from 
THB15-40 (Thai Baht) (about US$.42-US$1.13), that's a considerable sum to 
most locals in a country where the annual per capita GDP is US$4155.  
Simply put, that means that it costs an average Thai 3.6%-10% of their 
average daily income just to take one trip on the Skytrain.  While this is 
an option for the city's economic elite, it's not for most ordinary 
citizens, who have to rely on cheaper, slower forms of public transit 
(i.e. buses), or bicycles – or walk.

This is unfortunately becoming standard in many parts of the developing 
world.  Similar economics can be found in Delhi, India, which also 
recently opened a new Metro system.  Fares range from INR6-22 (Indian 
Rupees), which is only US$.12-US$.44.  That may seem like a bargain 
compared to Bangkok, but the annual per capita GDP in India is only 
US$941.  That means that a single ride on the Delhi metro costs the 
average Indian an astonishing 4.6%-17% of their daily wages.  As in 
Thailand, there is a widening gap in India between the rich and poor, 
however in India it's even more pronounced.

To the south of Thailand, in Singapore, fares on the MRT subway cost about 
the same as what they do on the Bangkok Skytrain.  Prices vary from SGD1-2 
(Singapore Dollars), or about US$.66-US$1.24, but Singapore's annual per 
capita GDP is US$36,000 – nearly 9 times what it is in Thailand.  That 
means that a single subway ride for the average Singaporean only 
represents 0.06%-1.2% of their daily wages.  As a result, it's a much more 
popular form of transportation.  The Singapore MRT carries 1.5 million 
passengers daily, which is 31% of the city-state's population of 4.8 
million people.  Contrast that with just 5% (400K daily riders out of 8 
million people) in Bangkok, and just 6.7% (800K daily riders out of 12 
million people) in Delhi.

One of the best examples of a world-class public transportation that is 
within the grasp of most average citizens, even in a "developing" country, 
can be found just south of our own border.  The Mexico City Metro is the 
6th-busiest metro rail system in the world, trailing only Tokyo, Moscow, 
Mumbai, Seoul and New York. It is also arguably more impressive than 
anything found in most cities in the USA, even those with respectable 
public transit systems such as Chicago or Boston.

The Mexico City Metro features 11 lines and 185 stations, with daily 
ridership of almost 4 million passengers, or about 44% of the city's 9 
million people (and still an impressive 15% of the metro area's 28 million 
population).  Rubber tires (like those found in Paris and Santiago) mean 
that trains are quiet.  The entire system escaped completely unscathed 
from the massive 8.1 earthquake that struck Mexico City in 1985.  Each 
stop features a unique pictographic icon in addition to a name, making 
navigation much easier for travellers.  At every stop, train doors open 
and then close in about 8-10 seconds total, in which time you need to 
either get on, get off, or get the hell out of the way!  Thus one drawback 
of the Mexico City Metro is that it's not exactly user-friendly for the 
elderly or disabled, although both are allowed to ride for free.

But what makes the Mexico City Metro most impressive is its fare, which is 
just MXN20 ("Mexican New Pesos"),  or about US$0.15, to any destination.  
In a country where the annual per capita GDP is US$10,747, that means that 
a single subway fare can be had for just 0.5% of an average day's wages.  
That provides working class citizens with both an affordable as well as an 
environmentally-friendly alternative way to get around this sprawling 
metropolis.

Finally, I couldn't pass on the opportunity to guest-blog this week and 
not mention the karaoke-singing transvestites who accompanied the racers 
in their "party taxis". It's pretty hard to go to any bar in Bangkok (as 
well as most big cities in Southeast Asia) without looking around and 
thinking to one's self "Wow, there sure are a whole lot of transvestites 
here." On this week's episode of "The Amazing Race", that clearly left 
quite an impression on Jen, who didn't seem so much disturbed by the 
situation as she was simply shocked. It's not that transvestites are 
everywhere in Southeast Asia, but you are far more likely to see them in 
public places with much greater frequency than you are pretty much 
anywhere else in the world.

Commonly referred to as "ladyboys" in English or "kathoey" in Thai, 
transvestites are arguably more accepted in many Southeast Asian countries 
than they are in the West.  The notable difference is that while 
transvestites are often considered to be a part of the gay community in 
the West, they're seen as an independent "third sex" in Southeast
Asia. As recently as 2003, the Thailand Department of Mental Health 
considered homosexuality to be a psychiatric disease, however "kathoey" 
have long been accepted.

A similar phenomenon is found elsewhere in Southeast Asia in Indonesia, 
the world's largest Muslim country.  While homosexuality is not openly 
embraced by much of the Islamic world, transvestites (or "waria" as 
they're known) in Indonesia are generally considered to be a female soul 
born into a male body, and are reasonably tolerated in Indonesia.  Thus 
the idea of two men being together as lovers or sex partners may still be 
considered offensive to conservative Indonesians, while the idea of a man 
identifying as a man being with a man identifying as a woman is not.

===

Thanks to Matt Radack for this coverage of "The Amazing Race".  I'll 
resume my commentary this week, as the race goes to China again.

----------------
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/>