It is Sunday the 24th of February 2019 and I am supposed to be on the flight back to Toronto Canada. But this is not the case. I am in a hotel lobby somewhere in Sukhumvit Soi 26 Bangkok. Cathay Pacific refused to let me fly because I had an invalid visa for Hong Kong(HK-my transit country). I applied for multiple entry visa from the Chinese embassy in Ottawa but was given a single entry visa and assured that it was sufficient to get me back home as the HK immigration determines my visa based on my travel itinerary. I definitely had my doubts as my fellow travelers in Toronto received a different visa. But after waiting 6 weeks for the visa, dealing with communication barriers and barely 3 weeks to go for my long awaited vacation, I was ready to face this consequence.
My fellow vacationers are enroute to their various destinations. At this point I will like to introduce my fellow vacationers to you. Many of you must have seen various videos and photos on Instagram but giving you a glimpse of who they are will go a long way.
Damilola Onabiyi I call Dams Onabs is based in the UK. I met her on this trip for the first time. She is a sweet slender Nigerian Yoruba girl. I particularly fell in love with her slender physique. I continuously raved about her shoulder and neck bones. She was supposed to splurge on food with me but she was more interested in tasting all the variety of foreign meals and paying particular attention to the details of these meals in which I had no particular interest in. I would like to call her the typical European. She is all about hiking and relying heavily on direction maps which I hate.
Reme who I met on our group travel to Trinidad and Tobago in 2018 is the gentle man who was constantly tormented by the scotching heat. Reme is that sweet boy every woman wants. He is quick to apologize and helps you with anything. He is also a social media boy usually lost in the group paying so much attention to his business on the phone.
Tolu Akanni I popularly call JAGABAN- Jagaban is prominent title among political allies in Nigeria. The meaning of Jagaban Borgu is not a simple political rank. The Emir gave this title to Bola Tinubu for unconditional service and time – tested leadership.
He is an IT consultant by day and a passionate photographer otherwise – The chief orchestrator of all our travels. He has a gigamous personality that fills the room with so much jocularity. I have never seen him moody or mind full. He is the bad Yoruba demon that seems to lack the sweetness of Reme. Whilst infact Tolu is compassionate and ever-giving. He made us all great with his professional shots. Without Tolu there wouldn’t be a group vacation. PERIOD!!!
The last traveler Tiiese (pronounced however my brain deems fit at the time) meet us in Bangkok 2 days before the end of our vacation. I quickly realized in my brief time with her that she is a deep soul always interested in understanding new ideas and constantly typing on her phone diary. Each Time I peep into her phone I see sneak peeks of random thoughts and ideas that amaze me.
My first trip to Asia has been my best trip so far. It was filled with all highs and no lows. I splurged on the feeling of pleasure but had time to read and meditate on my goals and aspirations. In fact I was able to finish a biography book of my favorite technologist- Elon Musk by Ashlee Vancee.
Our first stop was Hong Kong. We arrived on February 14th @6am. A great way for singles like myself to stay away from valentine rendezvous. Since we couldn’t check into the Hilton hotel located in Mongkok we decided to hit the streets. It was winter in HK at about 20 degree. I called that a joke cause Canada has been experiencing between -10 and -25 degree the past weeks. As expected, the streets of Hong Kong was filled with all calibres of Asians.
We particularly found the fleets of luxury branded cars parked on the roadside of dirty looking streets in the hearts of Kowloon interesting. Mercedes brand seem to be leading this pack, then Tesla and finally Porshe. The owners of these cars seemed comfortable leaving them on these streets unattended. The boys went with noodles and some duck for their first meal and I stuck with rice and duck as I decided to play it safe. After our meal, we decide to explore tourist package but we found them so expensive. Tolu aka Jagaban found a guy on Airbnb experiences and he decided to take us on a tour for $100 USD. We went down through the peninsula hotel, the world longest escalator, the various high-rise and took a break at 8.00pm to watch the popular symphony of light.
Symphony of lights– Every night, 46 buildings across both sides of Victoria Harbour unite for 10 minutes in a powerful spectacular that synchronizes a myriad of lights, lasers and LED screens that merge into a single canvas.
This is one of the most beautiful art manifestation I have seen in any city (you should read more about it). The night ended at Victoria peak but we didn’t maximize this experience as it began to rain.
The following day we set sail to visit one of the temples Dami aka Dams found on the internet (unfortunately I don’t remember the temples name). We made an unnecessary walk because Dams thought the strangers we had encountered along the way had no clue on our destination but google map seemed to be accurate despite us being lost – lol. On arrival at this temple, a host of visitors were occupied burning incense and praying to various Tao god’s. While there was a bunch of fortune tellers and destiny forecasters doing what they know how to do best to vulnerable religious bigots. This interesting visit lead us to a banquet Asian restaurant where no one spoke English. We were fortunate or rather unfortunate to get one partial English speaking worker who assisted us in choosing the worse food ever.
It appeared as fried pork noodles but we received some noodles that looked and felt uncooked with miserly slices of pork. I want to forget this experience!!! The night made up for all this as we visited a club called Iron Fairies based on the recommendation of Dams friend. I loved the vibe from this club. The music and happy people. A lot of people seemed fascinated by me and I soon became a center of attention. These attention rather made me uncomfortable as I wasn’t sure how to respond.
On the 16th we arrived Bangkok. It was only a 3hrs flight but the cities were quite different. The weather alone was so hot and uncomfortable. My initial concern was getting a tailor as I had heard so much about Thailand bespoke suit. And I wanted 2 power suit. We had heard and watched all these videos on scams in Thailand but we almost fell for one.
I want to warn all my readers – When you visit Thailand ensure you use the meters in the taxi. These taxi folks hate it as it is way cheaper. It may require you to spend an extra 5 – 10 mins looking for a metered taxi but you will be saving a shit load of money. Always ask the driver if they will use their meter. You may be rejected and stared down with scorn by the first 3-10 taxi’s but don’t flinch.
We eventually found a tailor even though the tuc tuc was going to play a smart one. I will save this story as my write-up is getting too long. After we had a resolve with the tailors we set to visit all the famous temples in Bangkok – Grand Palace, WAT ARUN, WAT PHO etc.
The scotching hot weather and tourist crowd just didn’t make this fun at all. We all lost interest, went for food and went back to our Airbnb for some peace. We visited Octave rooftop at night for some soft chill (in Tolu’s voice) with a nice ambiance (in my ridicule voice)
The following day we set out for Pattaya to visit the famous sanctuary of truth and ride on elephants. We arrived this sanctuary pretty early as we had learnt very well from the previous day the need to stay away from the sun. This sanctuary embodied the various religion and reminds visitors that all religion converge to one truth. We returned to Bangkok the same day and ended the night at the popular KHAOSAN. This place wrecks of fornication and all its brothers. A street filled with tourist and vendors of all goods and service. It was almost impossible to identify lady boys from real females. The street was filled with travelers splurging in pleasure.
We flew out to Phuket on the 19th to enjoy some beach and sanity. But Tolu as usual found a replica of KHAOSAN in Phuket. This place was worse cause they were publicly selling drugs, sex and sex related activities. The level of trading going on here was insane. You do not need to go to a university to study marketing. Thailand will provide you sufficient education on all you need to know about selling.
We intended to participate in the popular full moon party but we mixed up the dates and location. This was inevitable as we tried to visit a lot of places and do a lot of things within such a short time. We spent a day on Pattaya beach taking great pictures and winded down with an amazing Thai massage and foot scrub for miserly prices.
We finally returned to Bangkok on the 21st , visited our last temple the – The marble temple (Emerald Buddha) , the Above11 rooftop, the Chatchuk weekend market and the tailors studio to receive all our custom suit.
This is just a summary of the trip and they say you discover yourself in travel. They also say you can easily become addicted to travelling and I think I may have become a victim. My long interactions with Tolu the photographer has created a new perspective for me with regards to photos and the subjects in photos. I also further explored my desire to make natural skin products especially my own signature scent. Most of all, this holiday has ignited a hunger for success and the burning desire to achieve my goals and reward myself with travel trips I deserve and can afford.
Foreign words learnt
As part of my trip I decide to learn atleast 2 words in Mandarin and Thai.
Warning: These are sign words and so I have spelt as pronounced
Hello – Joe Shen (Mandarin), Sawadeka(Thai)
Thank You – Torshei (Mandarin), Khobkhanka(Thai)
Water – Shooe (Mandarin)
One (1) – Yan (Mandarin)
Tips for your travel
- Make sure to have all your visa requirements fully sorted out before you embark on any journey
- Always drink bottled water for safety
- To avoid getting scammed in Thailand, use the meter in Taxi’s
- Google is your friend. Always confirm every information strangers provide on the internet
- Change enough cash for your trip to avoid ridiculous bank charges and the use of unsafe atm machines
Cost
Our estimated Cost for the trip to Hong Kong and Thailand from February 14th to February 24th
- Return flight to Toronto (Economy)- $1200-1400 CAD
- Return Flight Bangkok to Phuket-$80-$140 CAD
- Accommodation @ approximately 45-60$/person/night-$650-$700 CAD
- Feeding, Shopping, activities, internal transportation-$500-$1000 (depending on your budget)
TOTAL = $2800 – $3500 CAD
PS: TOLU AKA JAGABAN is yet to have our photos ready. In the meantime enjoy these HERE