In the U.S. we call them vacations. The rest of the world uses the word holiday. While as a true American I refuse to step over the line into the world of metrics, I abandoned ‘vacation’ for ‘holiday’ the first trip I took where everyone else referred to their vacation that way. A vacation is time away from work or school. A holiday on the other hand is something to celebrate. A holiday just sounds more festive. Regardless of which word you use, having a good time is the whole point. But then a good time for some is not what would be considered a good time to others.

Sitting there reading this now, you have no idea how long I sat here while writing this post completely stumped. I was doing good. The intro was fine, it worked well for the intended subject. Until my little fingers flew over the keyboard and that last sentence appeared. My problem was not with knowing what should come next, but rather which should come next. It was like hitting a major intersection serviced by several cloverleaves. There were just way too many directions to take; post subjects, each appropriate to that intro, flooded my mind. And I wasn’t even stoned. What then must we do? (Which, to add a digression to a digression is one of my all time favorite movie quotes . . . bonus points to any of you who can name the movie. Without Googling it.)

As judgmental as I enjoy being, how someone else enjoys their holiday is fine with me. Even when it doesn’t sound like there is any joy in the trip. It’s their holiday, not mine. And if, for example, they have a good time bitching and moaning about the entire event, who am I to say that’s not the best way to pursue happiness? Yeah, I know. It’s not. But if you read the gay Thailand forums with any frequency you’d know that being unhappy is what makes a lot of punters happy. Which is a good post subject all on its own. As is why some enjoy their holiday best by complaining about how others enjoy their vacation. Then there are those whose holiday in Thailand is limited to the pursuit of male flesh and who can not understand why anyone would be in the least bit interested in all of the other wonders Thailand has to offer. See what I mean? There are three additional good article subject choices, some if not all which I could be a complete bitch about in writing, and I haven’t even started yet.

Lately the most popular threads on SGT have all been about tipping and/or the cost of things in Thailand. Needless to say, the tone of those threads have not been in praise of how inexpensive a holiday in Thailand can be. I’m not sure if the high number and active participation on these threads is due to the state of the current world-wide economic situation, or due to the current state of SGT, but the constant whining over amounts that add up to less than ten bucks does not reflect well on SGT’s gene pool. Granted, that most of SGT’s posters are now either Pattaya sexpats or Pattaya aficionados has a lot to do with that bitching, and that needs to be taken into account; Pattaya has always been just outside the borders of the Land of Smiles. That’s why so many of those happy-go-lucky folk try their hand at the flying farang trick. And articles about the strange way Pattaya fans pursue having a good time could be legion. I may have to write an entire week’s worth of posts that all start with the same paragraph.

Buried in among all that whining about pricing and the accompanying bitching over how little one should tip service personnel who spend the day busting their balls to make your holiday a pleasant one are numerous gems of the WTF? nature. I get that concentrating on having a good time while on holiday tends to narrow one’s focus, but I have to wonder just how myopic you are when after decades of visiting the Kingdom you just discovered how tips left in a check wallet at a bar or restaurant are handled. Is that from being such a self-centered jerk that anything that does not directly effect you is beyond your radar? Or is it just part of the blur thanks to your version of a good time involving copious amounts of gin? Another good possibility for a subject to post about, though I covered how to tip someone in Thailand quite a while a go (though that post was geared to newbies, not to someone who’d been visiting for years and years.)

So you can see my dilemma. And I haven’t yet touched on the differences between having a good time for those who are still young enough to do so and those whose age and/or physical condition seriously limits the amount of fun they can have. But then that’s a subject I need to further explore before posting about. Until recently, and again thanks to the crew at SGT, I never considered the joys of demanding an airline’s employee push you through the airport in a wheelchair. Or the good time you can have bitching that it wasn’t a motorized model. I have a lot left to learn about the pursuit of happiness. Knowing how others enjoy their holidays can enrich and expand your own version of what constitutes having a good time. I may incorporate many of these ideas during my next holiday and then post an article about how good of a time I had doing so.

Amazing. From a simple opening paragraph I’ve got close to a month’s worth of post subjects to write about. And each, of course, needs to be tweaked just enough to allow for the gratuitous inclusion of a picture of a hot, and hopefully naked, guy. The naked guy part is the easy choice. Whether I allow my mind to wander off on further tangents, or practice a bit of discipline (something I do not practice often) and stick to my original thought is the real question. Not that it was all that earth shattering of a subject.

Holiday travel economics isn’t a bad topic to write about. And if that meant a primer on how to do your holiday on the cheap, I’d probably gain some fans from Pattaya (kidding). But economics to me isn’t about being economical as much as it is about getting value for the money you spend. That can mean – and Pattaya folk please sit down before reading further – dropping a few hundred bucks for a night out at a gogo bar. In the grand financial scheme of things, that’s money well spent if it brings you an enjoyable night filled with memories that will last a life time. Or at least until you visit Thailand and relive that night again.

Travel economics means choosing a hundred night hotel over a thirty-five dollar a night hotel because of the level of comfort you will receive in return. That can also be financially economical because the cheap hotels nickel and dime you to death in their attempt to make a profit out of your stay. And you really can’t put a price on the difference in attitude you’ll experience from locals depending on whether you went with the dump or upgraded to a decent hotel. Trying to save money when on holiday often ends up costing you more.

Backpackers flock to Khaosan because that’s what backpackers are supposed to do. Most are travelling on the cheap. And thanks to staying in Khaosan, they’ll pay more for food, souvenirs, their nightlife, and transportation around town. The locals hold them in little esteem, and gouge them at every turn. For no better reason than they settled the cheap-ass mantle around their shoulders by choosing to stay in Khaosan. That’s an obvious example, but don’t think that you’ll fare any better when you’ve decided to check into a cheap hotel on Sukhumvit, one of those that can’t afford to offer you breakfast as part of your stay or whose breakfast is limited to a single cup of coffee, an egg, two pieces of bacon, and a slice of toast.

The value over cost equation is not always an obvious one. But if your holiday pursuit is in enjoying yourself, if you want to have a good time, it is one that you need to think about. The part of that equation that is utmost in my mind when on holiday centers on time. Whether my trip is a week long or will last over a month, my time is far more limited than the breadth of my wallet is. When saving a buck means costing me time, it’s a no-brainer.

Selecting from the transpo options at the airport to get into town and your hotel is a good example of where you can either save on money or on time. The priciest option is to have arranged a car and driver to meet you, preferably from the hotel you are staying at. I’d agree with those who claim this is the best use of your time, but the airport came up with an official meeting place in lieu of the spot a mass of drivers holding placards used to gather as soon as you walked out of immigration, and if that is where your driver will be waiting, it’s just as quick to head down to the first floor and grab a taxi.

AOT’s ‘limousine’ service also would appear to be less time consuming but in truth, unless the taxi queue is real long, the only difference is your ride will be silver instead of neon pink, and it’ll cost you thrice the price. You save nothing on time. Those who decide to save money by using a shuttle get to spend the first few hours of their holiday seeing the sites of Bangkok (if you consider downscale hotels worthy sights). And unless you are familiar with the BTS system and don’t mind changing trains a few times and then still walking to your hotel, saving money by using the Airport Link is not the way to go, and it seldom saves you on time.

That time is money is not an original thought. That those who seem to have their best time by saving money seldom consider the cost in time is not unusual either. Which is where I was originally headed with this post. Before all those other stray thoughts cropped up.

And that (the muddled mind, not the original intent) is thanks to my having fallen off my chair, and then having spent several minutes laying on the floor wondering if the end of the world was near, or that possibly hell had finally frozen over (the pigs flying thingy was satisfied years ago with the first farang balcony leap) from reading a recent post on SGT. The thread, which of course had to with money because all of the threads on SGT do these days, wasn’t at fault. ChristianPFC’s post was.

I like Christian, and have ever since he first started posting on the forums. He has a very dry sense of humor, which most posters never caught on to at first and which resulted in his catching a lot of flak for his initial trip reports. That he seldom took offense to comments made, and often joined in laughing at himself was, and is, a plus. But even jokes aside, there is little doubt that Christian can be quite thrifty. To be kind. So his recent post caught me off guard and floored me. Since he is one of the younger posters on the forums (and possibly the only poster under 40), I’m gonna go with: out of the mouth of babes. Here’s what he had to say:

“I use public busses a lot in Bangkok. But I have come to question if it is worth walking 10 minutes, then wait 10 minutes for the bus, and then walk again 10 minutes to my destination when all can be done in half the time by taxi and will cost just 50 baht more.”

Of course being Christian, he’s not quite there yet and went on to rationalize his use of the bus opens him to the possibility of meeting his future husband whereas using a taxi may not. Christian, you need to consider your future husband may be a taxi driver. Just sayin’.

I haven’t mentioned Noom in a while (which is not the same as not thinking about him because that is a daily event in my life). I have however mentioned before that we both have our little idiosyncracies that bug each other. Most of his I quickly forgive, all it takes is the flash of his smile. But my pet Noom peeve, the one I can’t get past, is just that. Whenever he decides we need to economize, he insists we take the bus. He does realize I have my limits and has not yet tried to get me on the even cheaper non-air-conditioned model, but often thinks our best method of transpo in Bangkok is a bus. Even when that means walking ten minutes to get to the bus stop, waiting ten minutes for the bus, and having it stop another ten minute walk away from where we are going. I usually flag down a taxi when I realize that’s what he’s up to. But have fallen for his trick, far too often.

What’s worse is that the bus we end up on usually gets stopped in traffic. No big surprise in Bangkok. And that then is our cue to hop off, walk up to where the traffic is flowing again, and then catch a taxi. Lessons in travel economics can be costly, even when it’s only a matter of a few additional baht. And some, ahem, never learn. I’m glad Christian is opening himself up to the possibility that time may have a higher value than cost; I hope that Noom will at sometime do the same. Especially since I’ve now exhausted this subject for a post, though in doing so have added a list of future subjects to post about. If not, I can always start a thread on the subject on SGT. I’m sure it would be a popular one.

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