When you arrived in Thailand for the First Time.

[NoshowJones]

The very first thing that surprised you the very first day you arrived in Thailand, what was it?

After you tell us, what other things surprised you that you would not think twice about today?

With me, it was in a taxi from the airport to my hotel in Bangkok, the taxi overtook a small motorbike

with four people on it, no crash helmets, this was on a very busy main road, now you would not think twice about it.

What about you?

[StreetCowboy]

Not the first day, but seeing an elephant walking down the street.

Then, years or months later, seeing an elephant begging round a suburban lower-middle-class neighbourhood.

 Then, years later, seeing an elephant walking down Bangna-Trad; that's a long commute...

[Ulysses G.]

The natural beauty and the pleasant nature of most Thais. I fell in love with the place as I was landing in Phuket and the trip to Patong Beach reinforced the feeling. Of course, Phuket was a much more pleasant place 25 years ago.

[Freakin Musashi]

2 hours ago, StreetCowboy said:

Not the first day, but seeing an elephant walking down the street.

Then, years or months later, seeing an elephant begging round a suburban lower-middle-class neighbourhood.

 Then, years later, seeing an elephant walking down Bangna-Trad; that's a long commute...

Quite possibly not the same elephant.

[Ulysses G.]

I used to love getting out of the plane in Bangkok after traveling from San Francisco. The tropical heat and a smell unique to Thailand would always greet you. The first thing I would do is high-tale it to Patpong. Back then, that was the place to go. I have never had so much fun in my life.

[sipi]

My first encounter with Bangkok in 1985 was the air pollution and the noise. I am not sure if it is any better or worse now, but coming from the Australian outback I couldn't get out of there soon enough.

[JAFO]

My first back time back in 2005. I was greeted by a super nice van driver for the company. As we drove to my hotel it was 2am and yet as we cruised along there were restaurants open and they were packed with people. Driver asked me if I was hungry. I said Yes, he stopped at a packed noodle place. 

 

Now I do not give it a second thought because I live and work here but I enjoy those places at 2am just the same as I did when I landed..

 

10+ years later I still love it here and the adventure in it still remains. Never ceases to amaze me at having to avoid elephants on mountain roads or having to watch for 6 ft monitor lizards as I fish along the rivers. I enjoy all the road side places to stop and see some of the craftsmanship of many.

 

 

[dick dasterdly]

The heat and humidity were the first things to 'hit' me.  Then the torrential rain for the first week of the holiday in Cha Am - which didn't help on the humidity front!

 

We hired a car, so managed to get 'out and about' - only to then be shocked by the number of dead dogs on the road.

 

I spent the first week desperately regretting the 'adventure to the far East', and wanting nothing more than to go home....

 

Fortunately the sun came out in the second week so we were able to (mainly) hang around the local area and lovely beach i.e. not having to frequently see the numerous dead dogs on the road.....

 

Other things that 'stuck out' from that first holiday were the tangle of electrical cables (surely everyone has taken a 'photo of these on their first holiday!) and being an obvious novelty to the locals.  Visiting the old Kings' Palace in Hua Hin, a group of school children asked if they could have a 'photo taken with us!

[nuakmuaynina]

The heat and the smell, just so different..

 

[NoshowJones]

Sorry about having difficulties replying to this topic.My internet has been off all day yesterday and today, I am using my tablet, and TV is having some problems with the new system still settling in.

Will be answering posts when my internet is fixed.

[Estrada]

The plan flew into Don Muang in 1982, over empty rice fields, with only one shack to be seen. The airplane doors opened and I was immediately soaked due to the humidity. We had to walk to the terminal in those days. Traffic on the route from the airport into town was horrendous, not a lot better today.

[DoctorG]

Early 1968, and I remember little of it

[kokesaat]

Going to my hootch (barracks) in Nakhon Phanom (NKP) for the first time......and catching a blast of smoke from what a large group of GIs were smoking in front of the barracks.  

[laislica]

1969 and durians were in season.

When the door of the plane opened the heat, humidity and smell were amazing.

 

[ChangMaiSausage]

Seeing the biggest rat I've ever seen scamper past us in the gutter on Sukhumvit.

 

Going for a happy foot massage (only went for the feet part)

 

Seeing an elephant walk down the street towards us wearing white socks (looked like white socks from a distance)

 

Seeing balloons popped by a lady firing darts form her ............. (fill in the blank)

 

All of the above took place in the first night of arriving (great memories)

 

[jeffandgop]

I too share that first blast of hot air and humidity exiting the aircraft in 1998 as my first luxurious welcome to my new home. Came for work with the RTAF and now retired with my love I met at work almost 30 years on now

[NoshowJones]

On 8/3/2016 at 1:36 AM, Freakin Musashi said:

Quite possibly not the same elephant.

In the two weeks of the first time I arrived in Thailand, I saw an elephant with a red light attached to it's tail

when being led by a guy one night in Bangkok.

[NoshowJones]

11 minutes ago, ChangMaiSausage said:

Seeing the biggest rat I've ever seen scamper past us in the gutter on Sukhumvit.

 

Going for a happy foot massage (only went for the feet part)

 

Seeing an elephant walk down the street towards us wearing white socks (looked like white socks from a distance)

 

Seeing balloons popped by a lady firing darts form her mouth............. (fill in the blank)

 

All of the above took place in the first night of arriving (great memories)

 

 

[NoshowJones]

Just now, possum1931 said:

 

Yes mouth.

[themerg]

I landed at U-Tapao Royal Thai Naval Airfield on 5 October, 1972 with US Air Force, on a stretch DC-8, from Texas, USA.

My job was to do maintenance work on airplanes going to bomb Vietnam. The heat and humidity was tough to take. I handled it, I was 18 years and almost 8 months old. 

It was 1:30PM, Thai time. It was about 35 Celsius and 90% humidity. It was hot, humid, and a new adventure.

[manfredtillmann]

came to thailand the first time in 2010 to attend the funeral of my best friend, who, married to a thai girl from up here and having had a daughter with her, died in a bike accident on some bridge in vietnam.

his widow's step father picked me up from nakhon phanom airport after a helter - skelter ride on a little nok prop plane...

he did not speak a word of english and i did not know one word of thai!

50km in silence - just absorbing the rice fields, the truck -tyre made rubbish bins (still think they are ingenious!) and his awkward driving.

when i arrived at the funeral the widow's very drunk brother, shirtless and dirty, scooped out a handful of ice from somewhere into a glass from somewhere else, poured in some 'leo' (i still can't stand the stuff) and offered me my first thai beer... i drank it, discarding everything i knew about food hygiene and the beer purity law of 1516.

 

...and still ended up falling in love with this place.

 

[GreasyFingers]

Arrived in Lamai about 11pm and friends took me to the bars. Could not believe it and felt like a kid in a lolly shop. 6am next morning while walking the deserted streets a lady boy flashing its tits at me.

Could not care less now.

[tolsti]

On 8/3/2016 at 1:36 AM, Freakin Musashi said:

Quite possibly not the same elephant.

 

 

No.... you don't say?.....Sherlock

[Familyonthemove]

Arrived on my first long-haul holiday in the 1980's.  Sliding doors at Don Muang opened to reveal a herd of tuk-tuks and motorbike taxis touting for business.  The noise, the energy, the colours. 

 

Went to the Grand Palace the next day .... told it was shut and ended up in a jewelry workshop, then a tailors shop. 

 

I never did get to visit the Grand Palace.  Still haven't. Is it open yet? 

 

[joebrown]

First visit March 2004. Sitting in my window seat I was shocked to see people playing golf under the wing (it seemed) of the airplane as we taxied after landing at Don Muang. The manic driving on the road into Ratchadapisek frightened me. Walking from my hotel to Robinson store in the searing heat and humidity being deafened by the noise of the traffic. I spent a week in Bangkok seeing most of the sights, the most moving of which was Wat Trimit (Golden Buddha). Admit to being a visitor to a couple of 'soapies', one of which was Mona Lisa, I think. I took a bus from Morchit to Lom Sak and I was sat alongside a saffron robed man who inexplicably laughed out loud at the on-board TV. I was amazed by his strange sense of humour because the TV was showing horrific/macabre pictures taken of bodies found after the then recent tsunami!? 3 large bottles of ice-cold Chang could be downed for only 100bht in 2004, which was shockingly good VFM.  LOS, the place to expect the unexpected, as I've found out many times since. I love being  here, and try not to take life too seriously.  

[Crossy]

Oddly enough, the thing that surprised me on my first visit, back in the late 90's, was that Phuket had a Tesco.

 

I became even more surprised when introduced to Bangla Road and soi Crocodile (is the Star Bar still there?).

[Deepinthailand]

1972 6 days R&R  first thing I liked was the ease of getting from one bar to another and the girls of course l. After that I don't remember the full 6 days

[Merylhighground]

1987: Getting smacked full in the face by the 'Bangkok Blast' of pollution, noise, heat, humidity, vehicle drivers (of every description), possibly even a hint of incense (though that may have added itself over the years) as I left Don Muang and the way my driver just dragged me to the car...

 

Then looking down over BKK impressed by the then blooming cityscape and at multiple lanes of solid traffic inching it's way home in the evening rush hour from the calm comfort of my hotel room as I prepared for my first ever night out in BKK, thinking 'Well here you are in chaosland my lad.....' 

 

Even then I had a voice at the back of my mind saying 'turn around lad, go back,  if you walk forward you won't be able to fight against it...that'll be it for life as soon as you step out of those doors....'' 

Thankfully, the several G and T's I'd had booted that voice to the oblivion.....

[tifino]

 

first landing was in Phuket 1981, and survived the first road experience - in a minibus from the Airport to Patong Beach (to the old Phuket Cabanas resort)

 

The 'resort' was a dozen or less 4 man thatched bungalows set along the palm tree line, against the fringe of the sand

 

Eating, was by the means of wandering along the beach, sampling the open air restaurants, that flowed out onto the sand.

Wild hermits crabs were scuttling amonsgt your seated-feet, and were probably escaped convicts from the live seafood display cases at the front door ( ha ha what door? )

 

Your selection of menu: was a massive 48-96 pages School Scribbling Exercise book. (hand written, and had some photos glued within)

Every type of available meat, had an endless variety of additions, and style of cooking method.

We early, in the piece, focused on the Number 4 restaurant, and in the week and a bit there, we ate most meals at that same place,

and didn't even make a scratch on the number of consumed pages out of that book (We tried to have a different meal each sitting)

 

Had my first and only direct conflict with the then motorcycle rentals mafia, which set me back 600 baht for a cracked rear indicator light...

(Cracking of it, is a story for another time)

 

There was back then a deep farmer's dam, right on the corner of where the downhill approach road meets Patong Rd.

In the dam was a water buffalo, and after that the only empty headed water buffaloes were the 2 legged variety, that made the roads, and still do dangerous for all other road users

 

That condoms were never commonly used back then - is a story also for yet another time, and place...

 

Mamasan at the first bar I ever entered, being the Lucky Star Bar, the little round thatched roof one, just a little south of the Phuket Cabanas, give one his first taste of real Thai delicacies

Oh the mamasan - she was I now am quite sure a Katoey, who laughed later when (s)he declared, after the fact, that little then-young me was now a man after doing the deed with her

(oh dear - yet another story to maybe not bring up again at another time, and place...

 

On the Rental bike - I was aghast at how many gold temples there were - more in sight as you sweep the horizon - than there were Memorials in France from WW1.

 

We did the James Bond Island Long Boat trip to the Island.

Not happy that we never found - nor even a fake!! of the James Bond Arch Enemy's Golden Gun...

... No Caverns , nor Rear Escape passage

 

... but oh so many Trinket souvenir tables

 

The Long Boat had the Driver yes, BUT there was also the man up front - who was armed with a shotgun!!!

He was watching for pirates

    (what the heck had we gotten ourselves into here???? )

 

thankfully - it was never going to be the Last time in LOS

 

 

Edited August 4, 2016 by tifino

[NoshowJones]

1 hour ago, GreasyFingers said:

Arrived in Lamai about 11pm and friends took me to the bars. Could not believe it and felt like a kid in a lolly shop. 6am next morning while walking the deserted streets a lady boy flashing its tits at me.

Could not care less now.

Well at least he wasn't trying to rob you, er I don't think.