Thailand 2006
Fore note
This is the reportage of my staying in Thailand. It wasn't exactly a travel, nor a journey as I spent some time there studying. In spite most of the diaries that I've written by that time were made by collections of letters written to my friends, this one was different. While there I wrote many notes and collected many info and when I've put them together, here it was. This travel diary, this reportage, this long story was born. I hope you'll like all that I'm about to tell you.
First Taste of Asia
It was the Summer of 2006. I still remember quite well that time. I remember the bright sunny days. Like every Summer, with the good season, people had many chances of going at the beach and having fun in the Summer nights. Exactly on that time, I was still working for a non-profit agency, and the non-profit meant that the paid personnel (that means me) had no right on choosing holidays, so, the bosses in their wisdom (for definition, a boss is always wise), decided to give me some all-summer-long work. My Summer days were flowing slowly, stuck into an humid and dark office neighboring a bus station. While many people were enjoying Summer afternoons, my only companions were the radio, that kept on reminding me how was beautiful that summer (and, in those few seconds that I daydreamt, it reminded me that I was locked down in that office), the insects crawling on the office floor, and also the blasphemies screamed out loud by the workers of the bus station while trying to repair, every day, some 30 years old bus.
It was there, in a Summer night while I was surfing the web, that after the advice of a pen-friend, I started to read about Thailand. My pen-friend is an American Expat living now in Bangkok, teaching English in some school. In short, I was amazed by Thailand, and I started wishing to go.
Then, after many days in which I couldn’t stop thinking about Thailand, I decided that, after some holidays-free years, it was my time for a new journey too. This time, I didn’t search for friends, as I wanted to go there alone. Nobody to care after, but myself. This wasn’t the first time that I went abroad alone, but in past, at least, I went to meet some friend. This time, was a full journey by myself. And which better companion that using a “Lonely Planet” travel guide (for further information www.lonelyplanet.com)? Already the name sounded good to me.
The thing that helped me out even more, was that in Summer time, in Thailand is still the rainy season, while the sunny season would start in the late Autumn. So, it looked like I could take a trip there after my holiday-free Summer.
After having decided to go to Thailand, started the “planning time”. That was a wonderful part of my journey and I still keep most of the files of that time. Of course, I left many things unplanned, and I managed to take most of the chances that I could to enjoy this trip at the best.
The journey didn’t just give me only the chance to see gorgeous landscapes, but I also meet wonderful people and I learnt more about both Asia and myself than I could ever imagine.
This is the diary of that trip. I wish to share with you this wonderful experience, hoping that, after having read this diary, you’ll wish to see the same places too.
Have a good reading!
Francesco
It was there, in a Summer night while I was surfing the web, that after the advice of a pen-friend, I started to read about Thailand. My pen-friend is an American Expat living now in Bangkok, teaching English in some school. In short, I was amazed by Thailand, and I started wishing to go.
Then, after many days in which I couldn’t stop thinking about Thailand, I decided that, after some holidays-free years, it was my time for a new journey too. This time, I didn’t search for friends, as I wanted to go there alone. Nobody to care after, but myself. This wasn’t the first time that I went abroad alone, but in past, at least, I went to meet some friend. This time, was a full journey by myself. And which better companion that using a “Lonely Planet” travel guide (for further information www.lonelyplanet.com)? Already the name sounded good to me.
The thing that helped me out even more, was that in Summer time, in Thailand is still the rainy season, while the sunny season would start in the late Autumn. So, it looked like I could take a trip there after my holiday-free Summer.
After having decided to go to Thailand, started the “planning time”. That was a wonderful part of my journey and I still keep most of the files of that time. Of course, I left many things unplanned, and I managed to take most of the chances that I could to enjoy this trip at the best.
The journey didn’t just give me only the chance to see gorgeous landscapes, but I also meet wonderful people and I learnt more about both Asia and myself than I could ever imagine.
This is the diary of that trip. I wish to share with you this wonderful experience, hoping that, after having read this diary, you’ll wish to see the same places too.
Have a good reading!
Francesco
Day 1 - Traveling after a girl's eyes
My travel begun an early morning of October. I took a plane from my city and after changing plane in Rome, I flew straight to Bangkok. The Bangkok International Airport is the gateway to reach, via plane, the most important places of both Thailand and Asia, and via land many of the cities scattered around the country. Before leaving for Thailand, I planned to start my trip in the North of Thailand, and the place that suited the most at my needs was the city of Chiang Mai.
I could summarize that my trip started after a girl's eyes, but it’d be just a little part of all the things that took me to Chiang Mai. In fact, while planning my trip, I searched the many activities that could be done in Thailand, and across many websites (I suggest: www.1stopchiangmai.com and www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com), I’ve found out that in the North of Thailand live the Kayan-Padaung Hill Tribe. The Kayan-Padaung Hill Tribe is very famous as they are also called as “The Long-Neck Women” hill tribe (in the Diary I’ll tell much more about this tribe). That was the moment that made me decide for the North of Thailand, when I’ve seen that pretty Long-Neck girl. Now I still believe that the Kayan-Padaung girls are the most beautiful ones that I’ve ever seen in Asia. While searching a way to reach the area where this Hill Tribe lives, one is near Mae Hong Son, I found that I had to pass by Chiang Mai. While searching for more information about Chiang Mai, I’ve done the most important discovery, the one that changed my travel plans and made the journey a fantastic and unforgettable trip. In fact, in Chiang Mai, among many small “Thai Massage Schools”, there is also the TMC Massage School that is internationally recognized and comes straight from the “Wat Po” Massage School (the best of Thailand). So, I enrolled in the school and I couldn’t wait to start the course there.
Looking back at that planning time, I can say that most of my trip was decided not by me, but by the charming eyes of a Kayan girl.
I could summarize that my trip started after a girl's eyes, but it’d be just a little part of all the things that took me to Chiang Mai. In fact, while planning my trip, I searched the many activities that could be done in Thailand, and across many websites (I suggest: www.1stopchiangmai.com and www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com), I’ve found out that in the North of Thailand live the Kayan-Padaung Hill Tribe. The Kayan-Padaung Hill Tribe is very famous as they are also called as “The Long-Neck Women” hill tribe (in the Diary I’ll tell much more about this tribe). That was the moment that made me decide for the North of Thailand, when I’ve seen that pretty Long-Neck girl. Now I still believe that the Kayan-Padaung girls are the most beautiful ones that I’ve ever seen in Asia. While searching a way to reach the area where this Hill Tribe lives, one is near Mae Hong Son, I found that I had to pass by Chiang Mai. While searching for more information about Chiang Mai, I’ve done the most important discovery, the one that changed my travel plans and made the journey a fantastic and unforgettable trip. In fact, in Chiang Mai, among many small “Thai Massage Schools”, there is also the TMC Massage School that is internationally recognized and comes straight from the “Wat Po” Massage School (the best of Thailand). So, I enrolled in the school and I couldn’t wait to start the course there.
Looking back at that planning time, I can say that most of my trip was decided not by me, but by the charming eyes of a Kayan girl.
My first day in Thailand started in the early afternoon at the Chiang Mai Airport. The airplane from Rome landed, as Thai Airlines like to claim “as smooth as silk”, at the Bangkok Airport that were 6.00 am. The golden tropical sunrise was painting of orange the rice fields all around the Bangkok airport. The land of rice fields, scattered of sleepy palm trees, already turned into a portrait of a dreamy landscape.
Later I took another plane and it was straight to Chiang Mai. The flights lasts about an hour, and at about mid-day I was out of the Chiang Mai airport, in the hot and good smelling tropical air.
The city of Chiang Mai (in Thai เชียงใหม่), in spite it might look small and cozy, is the second biggest city in Thailand, just after the capital city of Bangkok. The city was established in the 1296 by King Mengrai (the name Chiang Mai means “New Town”), which moved the capital of his kingdom, the Lanna Kingdom, from the city of Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. The original town was surrounded by high walls and an huge moat that followed around the square map of the town. In our days only a few pieces of walls are still standing and now people can only see the moat as the boundaries of the old city. Now, the city is becoming more and more modern, but it still has a relaxed atmosphere, and people often prefer this town than Bangkok (some people started to call Chiang Mai as “The Northern Rose”). This city, through the centuries, had a really great role into the Thai history and it's still called the "North Capital".
The day that I landed in Chiang Mai was a really nice and sunny day, so, seeing that the small Chiang Mai airport is quite near at the centre, and I was after so many hours of flight, I decided to make the way from the airport to the hotel on foot. The scene was the following. I left Italy, were was already later Autumn, with my heavy sweater. That sweater was very useful on the airplane as the air-con was very strong. So, when I got ready to walk to the city, I forgot to take it away. I loaded my two backpacks and I stepped out of the airport. The sliding doors opened. I stepped outside. It was my first step on the Thai ground. The air was hot, very hot, too hot! As I went out of the airport I came back in, where was the fresh air-con, and I took away both backpacks to take my sweater off and store it in the big one. The Police guy standing next the sliding door broke into a laugh. I loaded again my backpacks and this time I was ready to face that heat. I went outside. I checked around and I started to walk toward the centre. Some collective taxi slowed next to me asking if I needed a ride. I told them that I was fine and I kept walking. The way was quite long and easy, as I had to follow a straight street from the Airport to the city centre, and then to follow the moat up to the opposite side of the “Old town”. The walk, in spite the strong sun and the heat, was enjoyable. The biggest problem, if I could even call it so, was just to cross some streets near to the airport as there was much traffic, but as far as I got from the airport itself, more the city traffic became relaxed too.
I went along the street, passing by markets and food stalls. It was beautiful. The sun was shining hard, feeling all its strength on my skin, and after so many hours sitting inside a plane it was feeling wonderful to walk that way.
It took short before I’ve reached the hotel, and I found it at the first guess. Of course, on an hand it was because I studied carefully the map of the city, but on the other hand was because the building was standing higher than the surrounding ones, it was in different style and there was written over in huge letters “The Royal Guest House”.
The friendly staff welcomed a very sweated myself with a broad smile and after the usual check-in procedures, I was taken to my room. It was a “Lanna Style” room, that means, with nearly no-furniture (1 wardrobe, 1 TV on a table, 1 low bamboo chair and, of course, a large bed), a window without glasses that gave on the next building wall just in front of a laundry and the room had no air condition as it’d be useless with an always-open window. Beside this, the room was quite pretty.
After having unpacked my backpacks, stored my passport and credit card into the hotel safe, I went to the hall, where I waited for my time to check the day-trips at the tourist desk. Now I know that the hotel tourist desks can be a bit more expensive than the normal travel agencies, but in the end, it was my first day and it was a good training to learn how to plan the next trips. I had three days of full exploration, before the starting of my school. In the meanwhile, the bar-guy kept on asking if I wished some strong drink, but I kept on refusing as for me, just coming from Italy, it was like were the early morning hours (in spite it was mid afternoon in Thailand). Then he asked me where I was coming from. “That’s Genova, Italy, have you ever heard of it?”, “Hmmm... No, Gwenowa? No... Want you a whiskey?”, “No, thank you”, “What you name? Me Wen”, “Hi, Wen, my name is Francesco, but you can call me Franz”, “Ahhhh... Fhaaaaaahn? Want Rum? Strong Fhaaaaahn?”, “No, thank you!”, “You look girls?”, “No, I’m waiting for the tourist desk”, “Ahhh... Turish Desss! Go Spotlight (a gogo club)! Nice girls there... Want you Rum and Cola?”, “No, thank you”. Then, the tourist desk lady was free and called me. She kindly, after having rescued me from the bar-guy, shown me the catalogue and I picked a day trip, for the next day, to go and see the “Long Neck Women”, that means the Kayan-Padaung Hilltribe village.
After having taken the ticket for the next day trip, I went out of the hotel and I had a long stroll through the city. I felt twisted for the travel and the lack of sleeping hours, but the city was lovely and looked like welcoming me with a smile. The confusion of the first touch of Thailand was overwhelming, and I left for the following days the real touring for the Chiang Mai attractions. This was the first time, after my arrival, that I took some time for myself to have a quiet close look at the face of Thailand, to smell her scent, and to feel her warmth on my skin.
I was walking down the street in the old part of the city. The sun was burning and the rustle of the engine of the cars passing by was only interrupted by the voice of the people, the sound of the radio from the venues and the sound coming from the temples. I felt confused. I was walking without a destination, but I felt safe. I was going down that street, amazed by every single discovery that I made. Smell of fried food. Smell of flowers. Smell of incense from the Spirit Houses. The gold and red of the temples, the bright colors of the flowers. Red collective taxis. Beautiful dark eyes of the girls passing by. I was living inside a travel-picture but with sound. A place where pleasant surprises were behind every corner. A feeling I was longing for.
Later, I came back to my hotel, again soaked in sweat, and I fell on my bed. I woke up that was dinner time, and after a shower, I went outside to see the city by night. The shower was already a small problem. Only an handle, it read “Open/Close” water, I turned it to open and came out some yellowish water. I waited that it became clear again, and then I stepped into that boiling water. Only few days later, after that I had so many burning showers, that after such a strong sun are a challenging experience, I discovered that the small box at the opposite side of the bathroom (that it was a bit of larger than a phone booth itself) was the electrical water-heating system, that allowed to turn the boiling water into a bit less boiling water. That’s the price for having a room with hot water. I remember that I laughed when I booked and I was asked if I wanted a room with hot water. Yes, what a silly question, I thought.
It was dusk, the night fell like a warm hug on Chiang Mai, and I stepped outside. I decided to go to the “Night Market”. In fact, in past, between the old city and the Ping River, there was a very important lively market, now in the same place, every night there is the “Night Market”. The Night Market is an huge market where are sold all those things that might interest the tourists, from T-Shits to Handicrafts and food. The rule is to bargain on anything but food. It can be fun to bargain at the Night Market and tourist can take home some good stuff for a very cheap price. There near I also found a square, which address is Thannon Anusan Sunthon, with some of the best fish restaurants that I’ve ever been in all Thailand. In this square there is also a stage where Thai dancers are performing every evening traditional dances for all the evening long.
After dinner and some shopping I went back at the hotel. On the way back I decided to stop to try a real Thai Massage. The massage parlor was a two storeys building, which, at the ground floor were some massage chairs for foot massage, while in the upper floor there was a single wide room with many futon on the ground. I had a massage there, and I can’t forget it. I’m not talking about pleasure, but about real pain. The masseur wasn’t that skilled as she claimed, but I learnt it only few days later when I started my massage school, and she made me feel far too much pain. The massage parlor people, after the massage offered me some food and we spent some times talking. In this time, I learnt that the masseur even had her birthday in my same day. The food was made of some sweet fried meat, and it tasted quite good. I wondered what was inside at the same time that I was remembering the “Rule 1 of the perfect traveler” that means “Never eat anything suspicious, or bad cooked or bad preserved”. That oily sweet meat had nothing in common with those three qualities. After those few pieces of delicious meat and some cake too, both the masseurs and the owner were asking me to stay and talk still a bit, but I decided to leave. So, staggering for the pain in my leg, I came back to my hotel. On the way back, I still stopped for a beer as it felt like a blasphemy to come back at the hotel before 11.00 pm. So, once I made sure of not being anymore in the “too early time”, I came back at the hotel thinking about the next day.
While wandering for Chiang Mai, I mean in the daytime, I noticed one more thing. This city has also a strong religious heart and you can find temples and shrines almost after every corner of the city.
In the pictures above, you can see, in the second picture the “Tha Pae Gate”, one of the few pieces of the walls still standing and also the landmark that I used with my school-friends for the meetings in the evenings. The third picture is of a temple. You can see the typical “Lanna Style” with many roofs one over the other. The fourth picture was taken at the statues of the Three Kings. It's quite an important monument of this city and you often see indications to reach it. While being there, I’ve seen many people even praying before the statue for the Kings spirits. This remark the Thai strong spirituality that I’ve seen nearly everywhere.
Later I took another plane and it was straight to Chiang Mai. The flights lasts about an hour, and at about mid-day I was out of the Chiang Mai airport, in the hot and good smelling tropical air.
The city of Chiang Mai (in Thai เชียงใหม่), in spite it might look small and cozy, is the second biggest city in Thailand, just after the capital city of Bangkok. The city was established in the 1296 by King Mengrai (the name Chiang Mai means “New Town”), which moved the capital of his kingdom, the Lanna Kingdom, from the city of Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. The original town was surrounded by high walls and an huge moat that followed around the square map of the town. In our days only a few pieces of walls are still standing and now people can only see the moat as the boundaries of the old city. Now, the city is becoming more and more modern, but it still has a relaxed atmosphere, and people often prefer this town than Bangkok (some people started to call Chiang Mai as “The Northern Rose”). This city, through the centuries, had a really great role into the Thai history and it's still called the "North Capital".
The day that I landed in Chiang Mai was a really nice and sunny day, so, seeing that the small Chiang Mai airport is quite near at the centre, and I was after so many hours of flight, I decided to make the way from the airport to the hotel on foot. The scene was the following. I left Italy, were was already later Autumn, with my heavy sweater. That sweater was very useful on the airplane as the air-con was very strong. So, when I got ready to walk to the city, I forgot to take it away. I loaded my two backpacks and I stepped out of the airport. The sliding doors opened. I stepped outside. It was my first step on the Thai ground. The air was hot, very hot, too hot! As I went out of the airport I came back in, where was the fresh air-con, and I took away both backpacks to take my sweater off and store it in the big one. The Police guy standing next the sliding door broke into a laugh. I loaded again my backpacks and this time I was ready to face that heat. I went outside. I checked around and I started to walk toward the centre. Some collective taxi slowed next to me asking if I needed a ride. I told them that I was fine and I kept walking. The way was quite long and easy, as I had to follow a straight street from the Airport to the city centre, and then to follow the moat up to the opposite side of the “Old town”. The walk, in spite the strong sun and the heat, was enjoyable. The biggest problem, if I could even call it so, was just to cross some streets near to the airport as there was much traffic, but as far as I got from the airport itself, more the city traffic became relaxed too.
I went along the street, passing by markets and food stalls. It was beautiful. The sun was shining hard, feeling all its strength on my skin, and after so many hours sitting inside a plane it was feeling wonderful to walk that way.
It took short before I’ve reached the hotel, and I found it at the first guess. Of course, on an hand it was because I studied carefully the map of the city, but on the other hand was because the building was standing higher than the surrounding ones, it was in different style and there was written over in huge letters “The Royal Guest House”.
The friendly staff welcomed a very sweated myself with a broad smile and after the usual check-in procedures, I was taken to my room. It was a “Lanna Style” room, that means, with nearly no-furniture (1 wardrobe, 1 TV on a table, 1 low bamboo chair and, of course, a large bed), a window without glasses that gave on the next building wall just in front of a laundry and the room had no air condition as it’d be useless with an always-open window. Beside this, the room was quite pretty.
After having unpacked my backpacks, stored my passport and credit card into the hotel safe, I went to the hall, where I waited for my time to check the day-trips at the tourist desk. Now I know that the hotel tourist desks can be a bit more expensive than the normal travel agencies, but in the end, it was my first day and it was a good training to learn how to plan the next trips. I had three days of full exploration, before the starting of my school. In the meanwhile, the bar-guy kept on asking if I wished some strong drink, but I kept on refusing as for me, just coming from Italy, it was like were the early morning hours (in spite it was mid afternoon in Thailand). Then he asked me where I was coming from. “That’s Genova, Italy, have you ever heard of it?”, “Hmmm... No, Gwenowa? No... Want you a whiskey?”, “No, thank you”, “What you name? Me Wen”, “Hi, Wen, my name is Francesco, but you can call me Franz”, “Ahhhh... Fhaaaaaahn? Want Rum? Strong Fhaaaaahn?”, “No, thank you!”, “You look girls?”, “No, I’m waiting for the tourist desk”, “Ahhh... Turish Desss! Go Spotlight (a gogo club)! Nice girls there... Want you Rum and Cola?”, “No, thank you”. Then, the tourist desk lady was free and called me. She kindly, after having rescued me from the bar-guy, shown me the catalogue and I picked a day trip, for the next day, to go and see the “Long Neck Women”, that means the Kayan-Padaung Hilltribe village.
After having taken the ticket for the next day trip, I went out of the hotel and I had a long stroll through the city. I felt twisted for the travel and the lack of sleeping hours, but the city was lovely and looked like welcoming me with a smile. The confusion of the first touch of Thailand was overwhelming, and I left for the following days the real touring for the Chiang Mai attractions. This was the first time, after my arrival, that I took some time for myself to have a quiet close look at the face of Thailand, to smell her scent, and to feel her warmth on my skin.
I was walking down the street in the old part of the city. The sun was burning and the rustle of the engine of the cars passing by was only interrupted by the voice of the people, the sound of the radio from the venues and the sound coming from the temples. I felt confused. I was walking without a destination, but I felt safe. I was going down that street, amazed by every single discovery that I made. Smell of fried food. Smell of flowers. Smell of incense from the Spirit Houses. The gold and red of the temples, the bright colors of the flowers. Red collective taxis. Beautiful dark eyes of the girls passing by. I was living inside a travel-picture but with sound. A place where pleasant surprises were behind every corner. A feeling I was longing for.
Later, I came back to my hotel, again soaked in sweat, and I fell on my bed. I woke up that was dinner time, and after a shower, I went outside to see the city by night. The shower was already a small problem. Only an handle, it read “Open/Close” water, I turned it to open and came out some yellowish water. I waited that it became clear again, and then I stepped into that boiling water. Only few days later, after that I had so many burning showers, that after such a strong sun are a challenging experience, I discovered that the small box at the opposite side of the bathroom (that it was a bit of larger than a phone booth itself) was the electrical water-heating system, that allowed to turn the boiling water into a bit less boiling water. That’s the price for having a room with hot water. I remember that I laughed when I booked and I was asked if I wanted a room with hot water. Yes, what a silly question, I thought.
It was dusk, the night fell like a warm hug on Chiang Mai, and I stepped outside. I decided to go to the “Night Market”. In fact, in past, between the old city and the Ping River, there was a very important lively market, now in the same place, every night there is the “Night Market”. The Night Market is an huge market where are sold all those things that might interest the tourists, from T-Shits to Handicrafts and food. The rule is to bargain on anything but food. It can be fun to bargain at the Night Market and tourist can take home some good stuff for a very cheap price. There near I also found a square, which address is Thannon Anusan Sunthon, with some of the best fish restaurants that I’ve ever been in all Thailand. In this square there is also a stage where Thai dancers are performing every evening traditional dances for all the evening long.
After dinner and some shopping I went back at the hotel. On the way back I decided to stop to try a real Thai Massage. The massage parlor was a two storeys building, which, at the ground floor were some massage chairs for foot massage, while in the upper floor there was a single wide room with many futon on the ground. I had a massage there, and I can’t forget it. I’m not talking about pleasure, but about real pain. The masseur wasn’t that skilled as she claimed, but I learnt it only few days later when I started my massage school, and she made me feel far too much pain. The massage parlor people, after the massage offered me some food and we spent some times talking. In this time, I learnt that the masseur even had her birthday in my same day. The food was made of some sweet fried meat, and it tasted quite good. I wondered what was inside at the same time that I was remembering the “Rule 1 of the perfect traveler” that means “Never eat anything suspicious, or bad cooked or bad preserved”. That oily sweet meat had nothing in common with those three qualities. After those few pieces of delicious meat and some cake too, both the masseurs and the owner were asking me to stay and talk still a bit, but I decided to leave. So, staggering for the pain in my leg, I came back to my hotel. On the way back, I still stopped for a beer as it felt like a blasphemy to come back at the hotel before 11.00 pm. So, once I made sure of not being anymore in the “too early time”, I came back at the hotel thinking about the next day.
While wandering for Chiang Mai, I mean in the daytime, I noticed one more thing. This city has also a strong religious heart and you can find temples and shrines almost after every corner of the city.
In the pictures above, you can see, in the second picture the “Tha Pae Gate”, one of the few pieces of the walls still standing and also the landmark that I used with my school-friends for the meetings in the evenings. The third picture is of a temple. You can see the typical “Lanna Style” with many roofs one over the other. The fourth picture was taken at the statues of the Three Kings. It's quite an important monument of this city and you often see indications to reach it. While being there, I’ve seen many people even praying before the statue for the Kings spirits. This remark the Thai strong spirituality that I’ve seen nearly everywhere.
Top Thai Foods
- Hot and sour soup with shrimp ต้มยำกุ้ง (tom yum goong)
- Green curry with chicken แกงเขียวหวาน (gaeng kiaw waen gai)
- Fried Noodles ผัดไทย (pad tai)
- Pork fried in basil ผัดกระเพรา (pat ga-prao)
- Red curry with roast duck แกงเผ็ดเป็ดย่าง (gaeng pet bet yaang)
- Coconut soup with chicken ต้มข่าไก่ (tom kaa gai)
- Thai style salad with beef ยำเนื้อย่าง (yam neua yaang)
- Satay pork สะเต๊ะหมู (moo sa-teh)
- Fried chicken with cashew ไก่ผัดเม็ดมะม่วงหิมพานต์ (gai pat met ma-muang him-ma-paan)
- Panang curry พะแนง (pa-naeng)
Day 2 - Chiang Dao and Hill Tribes Village Day Trip
The second day of my trip I woke up that it was sunrise. That night I didn't sleep much as I wasn't still used at the Thai time, and I still felt the Italian one. To make matter worse, and to kindly help me to not to sleep, the hotel laundry started to work in the early hours, and I heard people talking aloud with the radio in the background. That night I understood the importance of a window with glass panes.
The day broke, and the sun made his way up the cloudless sky. I was told to be ready at 8 am in the hall of the hotel. So, I dressed up, I packed my backpack and I went downstairs for breakfast. The news was that the breakfast menu allowed me to chose from a range of grilled meat, or coffee, or toasted bread, or the last two together. I picked these two together. Then appeared out of the thin air the bar-guy of the previous day. I expected that he wanted to ask me if I wished some strong cocktail, but then he reached me with a sleepy smile and gave me my breakfast. The toasted bread was just bread and the coffee was something like a liquid-mud tasting of something both sweet and metallic. After half cup of that thing, I decided that I was already enough awaken and I left the hall. Some guys, the ones that I've seen the previous night standing before the TV in the hall, were still there. I wondered if they even went to sleep. By the way, when I'm talking about “the hall”, I mean, an open garden with a coverage on the building side with a swimming pool, many plants a fountain and the reception.
The minivan came to take me in perfect time, then we made a small tour of this side of the town to take some more tourist at their hotels, and then, we headed north, leaving for this new adventure.
The day broke, and the sun made his way up the cloudless sky. I was told to be ready at 8 am in the hall of the hotel. So, I dressed up, I packed my backpack and I went downstairs for breakfast. The news was that the breakfast menu allowed me to chose from a range of grilled meat, or coffee, or toasted bread, or the last two together. I picked these two together. Then appeared out of the thin air the bar-guy of the previous day. I expected that he wanted to ask me if I wished some strong cocktail, but then he reached me with a sleepy smile and gave me my breakfast. The toasted bread was just bread and the coffee was something like a liquid-mud tasting of something both sweet and metallic. After half cup of that thing, I decided that I was already enough awaken and I left the hall. Some guys, the ones that I've seen the previous night standing before the TV in the hall, were still there. I wondered if they even went to sleep. By the way, when I'm talking about “the hall”, I mean, an open garden with a coverage on the building side with a swimming pool, many plants a fountain and the reception.
The minivan came to take me in perfect time, then we made a small tour of this side of the town to take some more tourist at their hotels, and then, we headed north, leaving for this new adventure.
Checkpoint 1 - Butterfly and Orchid Farm
The first checkpoint of the trip was in the small village of Mae Rim (in Thai แม่ริม) where is placed the “Orchids and Butterfly Farm”. The place might look like a tourist trap, and maybe it even is one, but, scheduled on the beginning of a trip, it doesn't allow much shopping. So, at the beginning we were all given a small orchid to be pinned on our shirts. Then we were taken into a room where we were given a small lesson about Orchids and how they are grown by this farm. The interesting thing was to learn that only the white ones are the “natural” Thai orchids, while the colored are the results of cross-breeding with other Orchid species. After it, we were set free to wander around the farm. I started taking pictures at the flowers and butterflies. Then I took some bad ones, and I decided to delete them and make more room in my camera SD card. I opened the pictures menu and I selected “delete”, appeared “Cancel”, “Delete”, “Delete all”. All in different bright colors. Which one was the color that meant the highlighting? I guessed the greenish-yellow. It was on “Cancel” and, seen the confusion of colors, I decided to leave the pictures. I pressed “OK”. I was wrong. The highlight was the blue one. It was on “Delete all”. I lost all the pictures that I’ve taken the previous day in Chiang Mai and also all those that I took in the farm. So, I went fast again through the farm picturing all that I could again. This time I learnt a lesson too. Never delete pictures. I can do it when I download the pictures on a computer. In spite this problem with the camera, it was so nice walk there around among all those butterflies and flowers. The farm also has a long pond with two bridges over. That was a quite relaxing place. After we finished our visit, we came back to our minivan through, of course, the shop of the farm, but, as I said, it was the beginning of a trip, and everybody was unwilling to buy something and carry it all the day long. So, we passed by it, and we entered our minivan and we headed to Chiang Dao.
Checkpoint 2 - Chiang Dao
Chiang Dao - The Sacred Cave
The way that goes from Chiang Mai up to Chiang Dao starts as a broad one, becoming narrower, as far as it gets farther from Chiang Mai. The street goes up north, and will lead the tourists through forests, rice fields and valleys.
These mountains could be imagined as the end of the Himalayas, even if, it's quite unbelievable to look at these low mountains and thinking at the Himalayas' peeks. Anyway, many people, both from Thailand and abroad come to have hiking on these mountains, and I'm told that in the “cold season”, on the top of the mountains at night the temperature may even fall down at 10°C, that's very cold for a sub-tropical country such as Thailand.
In the Chiang Dao area there is a sacred place dear to the Thais. This place is a sacred cave. The stories are many about this sacred place, and it sounds like a legend says that in the beginning this cave was inhabited by an hermit that at the end he became friend with the the-wadaa (the Buddhist angels). For sure, in past this area was inhabited by people from Myanmar. While living there, they filled the cave with many Buddha statues. The thing that surprised me was that these statues, with also many others showing creatures from the "other world" were incredibly beautiful. You can see some of them in the second picture of this group. Moreover in some points of the cave are still visible some carvings in Burmese language. Deeper into the cave, a big statue is lying on a side of the walkway. This is the statue of "The Sleeping Giant". The legend says that in the past there was a giant guarding what was deep inside of the cave. In fact, in the deeper part of the cave, there's a particular statue of Buddha, and the giant, guarding it and waiting that Buddha would be back to our world, he fell asleep. With the time, while sleeping and waiting for the coming back of Buddha, he turned into stone. He will keep on guarding the cave until Buddha will awake him again. When we reached the deeper part of the cave, we found ourselves before a stairway. The stairway lies on the right-hand side, while in the end of the cave there is the statue of the hermit monk.
People have access to the top of the stairway. We climbed it, the steps of stone were slippery for the water drops falling from the ceiling, but when we reached the top, we met what we went here for. Before us there was a statue of Buddha. Across Thailand it's easy to see many of them, but this is the only one of this kind. He is reclining on his back. Like he's sleeping. Thai people come here with big respect and give him many offers. This place, perhaps induced by the feelings of the Thai people that were there too, made me feel very quiet with myself. The air was warm, very humid and the smell of incense and flowers filled the air, and it felt like being far from our own body. It was a very peaceful feeling. Soon later we walked all the way back and we stopped a bit into the fresh air on the pond outside of the cave. This pond is sacred too and once a year people come here to take some holy water to keep with them. The same fishes, that are living there are also considered holy, and people come to feed them with Papaya. In the last picture of this group you can see the top of the mountain and some of the many old temples shattered into this area. It really feels like an holy place. It was really interesting to be here, learning new things from it, and feeling it.
The way that goes from Chiang Mai up to Chiang Dao starts as a broad one, becoming narrower, as far as it gets farther from Chiang Mai. The street goes up north, and will lead the tourists through forests, rice fields and valleys.
These mountains could be imagined as the end of the Himalayas, even if, it's quite unbelievable to look at these low mountains and thinking at the Himalayas' peeks. Anyway, many people, both from Thailand and abroad come to have hiking on these mountains, and I'm told that in the “cold season”, on the top of the mountains at night the temperature may even fall down at 10°C, that's very cold for a sub-tropical country such as Thailand.
In the Chiang Dao area there is a sacred place dear to the Thais. This place is a sacred cave. The stories are many about this sacred place, and it sounds like a legend says that in the beginning this cave was inhabited by an hermit that at the end he became friend with the the-wadaa (the Buddhist angels). For sure, in past this area was inhabited by people from Myanmar. While living there, they filled the cave with many Buddha statues. The thing that surprised me was that these statues, with also many others showing creatures from the "other world" were incredibly beautiful. You can see some of them in the second picture of this group. Moreover in some points of the cave are still visible some carvings in Burmese language. Deeper into the cave, a big statue is lying on a side of the walkway. This is the statue of "The Sleeping Giant". The legend says that in the past there was a giant guarding what was deep inside of the cave. In fact, in the deeper part of the cave, there's a particular statue of Buddha, and the giant, guarding it and waiting that Buddha would be back to our world, he fell asleep. With the time, while sleeping and waiting for the coming back of Buddha, he turned into stone. He will keep on guarding the cave until Buddha will awake him again. When we reached the deeper part of the cave, we found ourselves before a stairway. The stairway lies on the right-hand side, while in the end of the cave there is the statue of the hermit monk.
People have access to the top of the stairway. We climbed it, the steps of stone were slippery for the water drops falling from the ceiling, but when we reached the top, we met what we went here for. Before us there was a statue of Buddha. Across Thailand it's easy to see many of them, but this is the only one of this kind. He is reclining on his back. Like he's sleeping. Thai people come here with big respect and give him many offers. This place, perhaps induced by the feelings of the Thai people that were there too, made me feel very quiet with myself. The air was warm, very humid and the smell of incense and flowers filled the air, and it felt like being far from our own body. It was a very peaceful feeling. Soon later we walked all the way back and we stopped a bit into the fresh air on the pond outside of the cave. This pond is sacred too and once a year people come here to take some holy water to keep with them. The same fishes, that are living there are also considered holy, and people come to feed them with Papaya. In the last picture of this group you can see the top of the mountain and some of the many old temples shattered into this area. It really feels like an holy place. It was really interesting to be here, learning new things from it, and feeling it.
The Legend of Phrom Ruesi and the Chiang Dao Cave
A Thai legend tells of a hermit named Phrom Ruesi who lived in the cave for 1000 years. According to the legend, the sage was on such intimate terms with the deity world that he convinced some 'the-wadaa' to create some magic wonders inside the caverns: a stream flowing from the pedestal of a solid-gold Buddha, the legendary town of Laplae (a fairy city where is forbidden to tell a lie), a storehouse of divine textiles, a mystical lake, a city of Nagas, heavenly food, a sacred immortal elephant and the hermits own tomb. A demon called Chao Luang Kham Daeng Khun Yak was appointed to guard these sacred artifacts which are hidden beneath the mountain.
Locals, while professing to believe in this legend, say that nobody has ever seen these marvels because no one has ever gone far enough into the caves. People have, however, heard the howling of a huge dog signaling, according to customary belief, the approaching ghost of a Buddhist monk who died within the caverns long ago.
A Thai legend tells of a hermit named Phrom Ruesi who lived in the cave for 1000 years. According to the legend, the sage was on such intimate terms with the deity world that he convinced some 'the-wadaa' to create some magic wonders inside the caverns: a stream flowing from the pedestal of a solid-gold Buddha, the legendary town of Laplae (a fairy city where is forbidden to tell a lie), a storehouse of divine textiles, a mystical lake, a city of Nagas, heavenly food, a sacred immortal elephant and the hermits own tomb. A demon called Chao Luang Kham Daeng Khun Yak was appointed to guard these sacred artifacts which are hidden beneath the mountain.
Locals, while professing to believe in this legend, say that nobody has ever seen these marvels because no one has ever gone far enough into the caves. People have, however, heard the howling of a huge dog signaling, according to customary belief, the approaching ghost of a Buddhist monk who died within the caverns long ago.
Checkpont 2 - Mar Hong Son Big Buddha
Mae Hong Son – In my way to go to meet the "Hill Tribes" I had to go to the Mae Hong Son region. Since the beginning I knew that if I wished to see the “Long Neck Women”, I had to come to this region. But the tour-agencies included this area into their day-trips because it's also both beautiful and peaceful. While we were there we climbed small hill and seen the "White Buddha" (it's painted of white to be seen from far) and from the same place we had a really nice sight of the valley.
As I wrote above, this region there's one of the few places where it's possible to visit the "Hill Tribes". These "Hill Tribe Places" aren't much more than markets, where they are wearing their typical clothes and selling many handicrafts. It's not very nice to be just in a market that feels pretty much like a "tourist trap", but I valued it like a deal... In fact, between not meeting them (their villages are on the mountains behind the forest and are also forbidden places to tourists) and seeing them like this, I chose to meet them in this way. In more, the wonderful guide that took us there, made this trip even more enjoyable. In fact, our guide Mr. Nip, gave us so many information about every different tribe that I couldn't expect (while some people I met there, were just taken there by their guide that left them alone without a word, and went for a drink). So, thanks to our wonderful guide, the trip became even more enjoyable.
As I wrote above, this region there's one of the few places where it's possible to visit the "Hill Tribes". These "Hill Tribe Places" aren't much more than markets, where they are wearing their typical clothes and selling many handicrafts. It's not very nice to be just in a market that feels pretty much like a "tourist trap", but I valued it like a deal... In fact, between not meeting them (their villages are on the mountains behind the forest and are also forbidden places to tourists) and seeing them like this, I chose to meet them in this way. In more, the wonderful guide that took us there, made this trip even more enjoyable. In fact, our guide Mr. Nip, gave us so many information about every different tribe that I couldn't expect (while some people I met there, were just taken there by their guide that left them alone without a word, and went for a drink). So, thanks to our wonderful guide, the trip became even more enjoyable.
Checkpoint 4 - Hill Tribes Village
Akha Tribe
While traveling in Thailand, the tourist will have good chance to see in the cities, mainly in the Northern ones, some people belonging to the Hill Tribes. The ones which is easier to meet are those from the Akha Hilltribe. I’ve met them, usually, when walking in the markets. These ladies are usually carrying their younger babies and trying to sell some handicrafts. With my friend David were used to call them the "Frog Ladies". Ok, if you hear it so, it sounds like a despise to their clothing (that make them looking a bit chubby too), but it's not so. In fact, their "top seller" is an handcrafted wooden frog, that if you hit it with a small wood stick makes the sound like a real frog. Usually they walk in groups and as soon as they see a foreigner, they gather around him/her trying to sell something. So, if you're walking into a market and you hear the sound of frogs, just speed up! The Akha people refer themselves as “Akha”, but Thais also call them as Gaw or the E-Gaw, but the Akhas don’t like it much. These people came to Thailand from the Yunnan province in China coming through Burma. They say that there's a legend that tell that all the Hill Tribes come from the same Akha family where the siblings had each the name of a different Tribe (Akha was the father and the sons were Lisu, Hmong, Kayan, Yao, ecc...). They decided to migrate from China to a new country and when they arrived, they had to decide where to go and live. Every sibling had to decide, but Akha gave up and didn't decide. That's why that all the other tribes have better lands and Akha people live on top of the mountains. The truth is that they were the last to come and the better places were already taken from the other tribes. In this picture you can see our guide Mr. Nip that was teaching us to make a Betel teeth tanning candy, and later taught us how to make a dragonfly pancake. This guy was very funny and let me say that he knew how to keep high the attention of the people.
While traveling in Thailand, the tourist will have good chance to see in the cities, mainly in the Northern ones, some people belonging to the Hill Tribes. The ones which is easier to meet are those from the Akha Hilltribe. I’ve met them, usually, when walking in the markets. These ladies are usually carrying their younger babies and trying to sell some handicrafts. With my friend David were used to call them the "Frog Ladies". Ok, if you hear it so, it sounds like a despise to their clothing (that make them looking a bit chubby too), but it's not so. In fact, their "top seller" is an handcrafted wooden frog, that if you hit it with a small wood stick makes the sound like a real frog. Usually they walk in groups and as soon as they see a foreigner, they gather around him/her trying to sell something. So, if you're walking into a market and you hear the sound of frogs, just speed up! The Akha people refer themselves as “Akha”, but Thais also call them as Gaw or the E-Gaw, but the Akhas don’t like it much. These people came to Thailand from the Yunnan province in China coming through Burma. They say that there's a legend that tell that all the Hill Tribes come from the same Akha family where the siblings had each the name of a different Tribe (Akha was the father and the sons were Lisu, Hmong, Kayan, Yao, ecc...). They decided to migrate from China to a new country and when they arrived, they had to decide where to go and live. Every sibling had to decide, but Akha gave up and didn't decide. That's why that all the other tribes have better lands and Akha people live on top of the mountains. The truth is that they were the last to come and the better places were already taken from the other tribes. In this picture you can see our guide Mr. Nip that was teaching us to make a Betel teeth tanning candy, and later taught us how to make a dragonfly pancake. This guy was very funny and let me say that he knew how to keep high the attention of the people.
Lisu Tribe
In my travel among the Hill Tribes people I had a chance to meet many people and I pictured many of them, of course, with their permission first. So, I pictured many girls and also some old ladies, watching to the pictures, my friends use to say that those old ladies were all "my girlfriends", so here is one... This lady is from the Lisu Hill Tribe. One of the main things that people see when they watch to a Lisu lady is her smile (like the lady in the picture). In fact, one of the main costumes of these people is that ladies tan their teeth in black. To make their teeth like this, they chew some Betel nuts mixed with some other grasses. The effect is surprising, but Mr. Nip told us that with time, the effect of Betel on the teeth is very dangerous. These people care very much to their own culture and they are used to say that "life can only be where there is culture, and where there is no culture, there is no life neither". I can say that I definitely like this quote.
The origin of the Lisu Tribe
The Lisu have a legend quite similar to those of many other tribes in Southeast Asia. Long ago there was a giant flood. There were only two survivors: one man and one woman. These two were brother and sister. They survived by living off the meat inside a giant bottle gourd. Once the water had receded, the pair set out in search of other survivors, but to their dismay, they found no one. They became convinced they must be the last remaining man and woman in the world. They realized that if they did not reproduce then mankind would disappear off the face of the planet forever. Still, they couldn't get over the fact they were brother and sister. Finally, they decided to consult the spirits. Seeing a grinding stone and a mortar on top of a hill, the pair determined to separate the two parts and roll them down opposite sides of the hill. When the grinding stone reached the base of the hill it refused to stop rolling. Instead, it persisted in rolling all the way around to the other side of the hill and reuniting with the mortar, ending up in exactly the same position it had been when on top of the hill. It did not matter what objects the pair used to test their fate, the results were identical each time. The older brother and younger sister agreed that God must have given his blessing to the union. Soon they had produced a son and a daughter which marked the new birth of the tribe.
Bibliography: The Hill tribe Museum (http://lisu.hilltribe.org/english/)
In my travel among the Hill Tribes people I had a chance to meet many people and I pictured many of them, of course, with their permission first. So, I pictured many girls and also some old ladies, watching to the pictures, my friends use to say that those old ladies were all "my girlfriends", so here is one... This lady is from the Lisu Hill Tribe. One of the main things that people see when they watch to a Lisu lady is her smile (like the lady in the picture). In fact, one of the main costumes of these people is that ladies tan their teeth in black. To make their teeth like this, they chew some Betel nuts mixed with some other grasses. The effect is surprising, but Mr. Nip told us that with time, the effect of Betel on the teeth is very dangerous. These people care very much to their own culture and they are used to say that "life can only be where there is culture, and where there is no culture, there is no life neither". I can say that I definitely like this quote.
The origin of the Lisu Tribe
The Lisu have a legend quite similar to those of many other tribes in Southeast Asia. Long ago there was a giant flood. There were only two survivors: one man and one woman. These two were brother and sister. They survived by living off the meat inside a giant bottle gourd. Once the water had receded, the pair set out in search of other survivors, but to their dismay, they found no one. They became convinced they must be the last remaining man and woman in the world. They realized that if they did not reproduce then mankind would disappear off the face of the planet forever. Still, they couldn't get over the fact they were brother and sister. Finally, they decided to consult the spirits. Seeing a grinding stone and a mortar on top of a hill, the pair determined to separate the two parts and roll them down opposite sides of the hill. When the grinding stone reached the base of the hill it refused to stop rolling. Instead, it persisted in rolling all the way around to the other side of the hill and reuniting with the mortar, ending up in exactly the same position it had been when on top of the hill. It did not matter what objects the pair used to test their fate, the results were identical each time. The older brother and younger sister agreed that God must have given his blessing to the union. Soon they had produced a son and a daughter which marked the new birth of the tribe.
Bibliography: The Hill tribe Museum (http://lisu.hilltribe.org/english/)
Hmong Tribe
While I was in this “Hilltribes Village” our guide took us around to show us the different people that were living and working there. We, the tourist, like barbarians taken for a stroll into a zoo, were interested but at the same time overflown by the information of the tour guides (I mean, the good tour guides, as some of those guides didn’t speak at all, as we were told). An endless list of names and information about the customs of the people that we were seeing, was said by our guide. So soon started the confusion about this people. So, I scribbled some info on the back of the tour reservation paper, hoping to sort something from it. I was wrong. Weeks later, when I came back home, I discovered that I crossed the information of each tribe and the name that I wrote were also spelled wrong. Just to make an example, the girl shown in this picture is of the Hmong tribe. I wrote she was of a branch of the Kayan-Paduang tribe (that I also wrote as “Karen-Paduang”). The mistake was in part after having seen the ornament that she was wearing on the ankles and under her knees, that is quite similar at those of the Kayan-Paduang girls.
When I came back home I tried to sort some sense from my notes and soon I found myself into an hard work that took me to discover a new world behind the hill tribes. All the information that I found would be worth a new book only on this subject, but here, I’ll write only what may be worth to know for a barbarian walking there. Just to feel to be less into an human zoos, and more before an opportunity new things.
Hmong people, following what scholars said, originates from Tibet and then they migrated, crossing first Siberia and the Mongolia into China around 3000 years ago, where they settled into the Yellow River region. During the 17th century in China came the Manju Dynasty and started a war to suppress the Hmong people as considered “Miao”, that means, Barbarians. Still in our days, when people want to refer to the Hmong people in despise, call them in that way. The repression forced them to move southward. In the exodus, a first group established its new home in the Xishuangbanna Province (or Sipsongpanna in Chinese 西双版纳傣族自治州), while a second group went in the north of Laos. Again, around the year 1857 the Laotian Hmongs moved to the north of Thailand, in an area between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
The Hmong are divided in two groups, White and Blue. The Hmong women traditionally make clothing for their families from cotton or hemp. Their clothing is richly decorated with magnificent embroidery and silver jewelry. Blue Hmong women wear pleated skirts with bands of red, blue and white intricately embroidered. Jackets are of black satin, with widee orange and yellow embroidered cuffs and lapels. White Hmong women wear black baggy trousers with a long wide blue cummerbund. Their jackets are simple, with blue cuffs. Hmong men make crossbows, musical instruments, and other items of wood, bamboo and rattan. Many of the men are als skilled in blacksmithing and gunsmithing. The Hmong are strict animists, whose shamans use dramatic methods to contact the spirits. So far there have been few converts to Christianity or Buddhism.
One of the most famous customs of this Hill Tribe is that women wear “Ear Lobe Tunnels” that stretch their ear lobes. They start at young age and they keep them for all their life.
While I was in this “Hilltribes Village” our guide took us around to show us the different people that were living and working there. We, the tourist, like barbarians taken for a stroll into a zoo, were interested but at the same time overflown by the information of the tour guides (I mean, the good tour guides, as some of those guides didn’t speak at all, as we were told). An endless list of names and information about the customs of the people that we were seeing, was said by our guide. So soon started the confusion about this people. So, I scribbled some info on the back of the tour reservation paper, hoping to sort something from it. I was wrong. Weeks later, when I came back home, I discovered that I crossed the information of each tribe and the name that I wrote were also spelled wrong. Just to make an example, the girl shown in this picture is of the Hmong tribe. I wrote she was of a branch of the Kayan-Paduang tribe (that I also wrote as “Karen-Paduang”). The mistake was in part after having seen the ornament that she was wearing on the ankles and under her knees, that is quite similar at those of the Kayan-Paduang girls.
When I came back home I tried to sort some sense from my notes and soon I found myself into an hard work that took me to discover a new world behind the hill tribes. All the information that I found would be worth a new book only on this subject, but here, I’ll write only what may be worth to know for a barbarian walking there. Just to feel to be less into an human zoos, and more before an opportunity new things.
Hmong people, following what scholars said, originates from Tibet and then they migrated, crossing first Siberia and the Mongolia into China around 3000 years ago, where they settled into the Yellow River region. During the 17th century in China came the Manju Dynasty and started a war to suppress the Hmong people as considered “Miao”, that means, Barbarians. Still in our days, when people want to refer to the Hmong people in despise, call them in that way. The repression forced them to move southward. In the exodus, a first group established its new home in the Xishuangbanna Province (or Sipsongpanna in Chinese 西双版纳傣族自治州), while a second group went in the north of Laos. Again, around the year 1857 the Laotian Hmongs moved to the north of Thailand, in an area between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
The Hmong are divided in two groups, White and Blue. The Hmong women traditionally make clothing for their families from cotton or hemp. Their clothing is richly decorated with magnificent embroidery and silver jewelry. Blue Hmong women wear pleated skirts with bands of red, blue and white intricately embroidered. Jackets are of black satin, with widee orange and yellow embroidered cuffs and lapels. White Hmong women wear black baggy trousers with a long wide blue cummerbund. Their jackets are simple, with blue cuffs. Hmong men make crossbows, musical instruments, and other items of wood, bamboo and rattan. Many of the men are als skilled in blacksmithing and gunsmithing. The Hmong are strict animists, whose shamans use dramatic methods to contact the spirits. So far there have been few converts to Christianity or Buddhism.
One of the most famous customs of this Hill Tribe is that women wear “Ear Lobe Tunnels” that stretch their ear lobes. They start at young age and they keep them for all their life.
Kayan Tribe
The Kayan Lahwi (Padaung) Hill Tribe probably is the most famous one. When I decided to go to Thailand, and I started planning my travel, they became one of my main purposes for the travel. Looking on internet for information about Thailand I found in many websites pictures and advertisement of trips to meet this people. Reading as I found it out, it looked like they were some Thai tribe living on the northern hills. That day, while talking with Mr. Nip soon I learnt that these people aren't Thai, but Burmese war refugees.
Who are the Kayans?
When talking about these ethnic group it’s easy to generate some confusion. So, I decided to write down a small “Karen Ethnic Chart” to ease the following reading.
To sort out some order, let’s think like an huge ethnic group, called “Karen” or “Kayin” that represent about the 7% of total population of Burma.
This group is mainly split into “Red Karen”, “White Karen” and more groups that are the following ones:
The group of “Red Karens” or “Kayans” are divided into more groups wherein you can find the “Kayan Lahwi” or “Kayan Paduan”.
Many people in Thailand, like Mr. Nip did, call them “Karen Padaung (or Paduan, or Padong)”, in spite that they don’t even refer at themselves as “Karens” but as “Kayan”. This people, as far as it’s known, should originate from Tibet and then migrated first to Mongolia and then down to Burma. Karen legends, about their origins, refer to a 'river of running sand' which ancestors reputedly crossed. Many Karen think this refers to the Gobi Desert, although they have lived in Myanmar for centuries. So, the origin of this people is still a mystery.
The same name “Padaung” comes from the Shan (Shan are ethnicity that live in Burma originating from Yunnan, China, and has common ancestors with Laotian and Thai people) “Ya Pa Daung” that means “The people whose women wear brass neck coils”. In fact, the most evident peculiarity of these people, is that the Kayan Lahwi women wear brass coils around their neck. This custom took the past foreigners to call them “Giraffe Ladies” and took them both good and bad. Some legends appeared around them, like that the brass coil would stretch the neck of these women making it much longer than usual. Then voices said that, if somebody would take the brass coil away, it cause the breaking for the cervical bones with following death. Actually both of these things were untrue. The coils don’t make the neck longer and can be taken away without problems. The truth is that, in spite it doesn’t make the neck longer, it still cause the deformation of the ribcage turning downward the clavicles and ribs. The same National Geographic made a research on these ladies through X-Rays and shown both the integrity and normal length of the neck as much as the deformation of the ribcage. This it might sound scary but Kayan people say that also the custom of Western women of breast implants sound scary too.
As I wrote, this custom took both good and bad to this people. In fact, the curiosity about this people shortly called for business. Taking advantage of the fact that many of them were refugee from Burma, they were taken into “Hill Tribe villages” where they were shown for profit at the tourists in some sort of human zoo. This practice is still alive as it’s exactly like the place where I was. In past it was also reported that some men entered in Burma, kidnapped ladies and sold them in Thailand. Some others were taken in “Human Zoos”, some were sold as wives while others were taken into brothels too. Much sadness flows out from the scars of the exploitation of these women. Like a mass decided punishment for keeping their customs alive and for their beauty too.
In our days the Kayan people started to take advantage of their own situation and dealing with the will of Thailand of keeping them, they started to own land in the lower hills, in permanent villages and developing sustainable terraced rice fields. This helped the integration of Kayan people in Thailand, and now many of them have Thai citizenship.
On the other hand, while Thai-Kayan girls are trying to get rid of their collars (just few, as most of the girls are willing to keep their customs alive), many Burmes-Kayan girl are asking to wear brass coils, as a shorter way to earn a Thai entering pass.
The Legend of the Kayan People
A long time ago a wise female dragon, named “She”, lived in the sea. She had many friends in the sea, but longed to see what humans looked like, so one day she decided to leave the sea in search of humans.
When she left the sea she saw a frog in a stream and she asked the frog whether he knew where to find a human. The frog said he was not sure, but that everyday he saw a creature flying through the sky. The creature would fly to the forest in the morning and fly back to the mountain every night. The dragon asked the frog if he could show her where the creature went at night. The frog said he could and he lead the dragon upstream towards the top of the mountain where they came upon a cave. The frog said: "I think this is where the creature lives".
The dragon asked the frog to wait outside and she entered the cave. When she entered the cave the dragon turned into a human form. She looked around the cave and could see that someone had been living there as it was dirty and there was an unmade bed and cooking pots in it.
She decided to clean the cave and make the bed. When she had finished she hid outside to see who would return that evening. That evening a man returned home and found his cave clean and tidy. He could not imagine who could have done this so he decided to go to sleep.
The next day he woke up and went to the forest to collect fruit and medicines. The dragon, in female form, came out of hiding and returned to the cave and once again cleaned it up and made the bed. Once she had finished she again went outside to hide and wait for the man to return.
That evening the man returned home to find his bed made again and his cave neat and tidy. He was now very curious to find out who was doing this. He decided that the next day he would not go deep into the forest, but return early to find out who was visiting his home.
The next day the man left as usual and the dragon woman once again set about cleaning his cave. The man only traveled half way to the forest and then turned around and returned home.
Upon his return he saw a girl cleaning his home. He thought she was very beautiful. He entered the cave and began to ask her questions, such as: "Where do you come from?" and "Why are you doing this?". The girl did not want him to know that she was a sea dragon, so she lied to him. They talked for a while and they realized very quickly that they were in love, so from that night the girl stayed with the man in the cave. However she had to be careful as when she slept her shadow was that of a dragon not of a human, so she was always careful to fall asleep after him and wake up before he did.
Many months passed and the girl was now pregnant. She felt very tired, so one day while the man was in the forest she decided to sleep a little in the afternoon. Unfortunately that day the man decided to return early and he found his wife asleep. He noticed that her shadow resembled a dragon. He was very angry as he realized he had been tricked and he left her.
Later on the girl woke up and waited for the man to return, but days passed and he did not return. Broken hearten she left the cave to return to the sea, but before she entered the sea she laid two eggs on the beach and then she disappeared into the ocean.
A monk called Tay Taa came to the beach to wash some medicinal herbs in the ocean. He saw the two eggs and decided to take them back to his home on another mountain. When he returned home he built a fire to signal his friend, another monk called Dee Ha, to come to visit him. He showed his friends the eggs and they decided to keep one each. Dee Ha returned to his home with his egg and soon after his egg hatched and inside there was a baby girl. He named her Shway-nan-dor and she was the first Kayan woman. Tay Taa's egg also began to hatch and he was so excited that he held to crack open the egg. Inside was a baby boy. He named him Tay Taa Dee Ha Ya-sah and he is believed to be the father of the Pa-o people.
Dee Ha couldn't keep the baby girl as he was a monk, so he took her to a village nearby and gave her to the headman of the village. Tay Taa decided to give the boy to the King and he added Ming to his name, so be became Tay Taa Dee Ha Ya-sah Ming.
Eighteen years passed and the king wanted Ya-sah to marry, but Ya-sah didn't like any of the girls he had seen so far. One day the king's soldiers visited Shway-nan-dor's village and they saw her. They returned and told the king and Ya-sah about this beautiful girl, so Ya-sah traveled to the village with the soldiers and immediately they saw each other they fell in love. He invited her back to the palace and she accepted. The king was delighted that Ya-sah had found a girl he loved so he gave his approval and they married.
They lived happily in the palace and they had two children, a girl and a boy. After the children were born Shway-nan-dor wanted to visit her adopted father in the village. She'd only been there for a day when she fell ill and died because the spirits were angry as on their wedding day they had not made offerings to the spirits.
When their children grew up the daughter wanted to follow the traditions of her mother and returned to the village where her mother had lived and did her hair in a style that resembled a dragon. The son followed the example of the king, his adopted father. This is the reason why in Kayan culture the women follow the path of the mother and it is believed that they wear the brass coils around their neck to resemble their ancestor, the female dragon.
Bibliography: http://www.huaypukeng.com/legend.htm
The Kayan Lahwi (Padaung) Hill Tribe probably is the most famous one. When I decided to go to Thailand, and I started planning my travel, they became one of my main purposes for the travel. Looking on internet for information about Thailand I found in many websites pictures and advertisement of trips to meet this people. Reading as I found it out, it looked like they were some Thai tribe living on the northern hills. That day, while talking with Mr. Nip soon I learnt that these people aren't Thai, but Burmese war refugees.
Who are the Kayans?
When talking about these ethnic group it’s easy to generate some confusion. So, I decided to write down a small “Karen Ethnic Chart” to ease the following reading.
To sort out some order, let’s think like an huge ethnic group, called “Karen” or “Kayin” that represent about the 7% of total population of Burma.
This group is mainly split into “Red Karen”, “White Karen” and more groups that are the following ones:
- · Red Karens or Kayans
- · S'gaw Karen
- · Pwo Karen
- · White Karen
- · Paku Karen
The group of “Red Karens” or “Kayans” are divided into more groups wherein you can find the “Kayan Lahwi” or “Kayan Paduan”.
Many people in Thailand, like Mr. Nip did, call them “Karen Padaung (or Paduan, or Padong)”, in spite that they don’t even refer at themselves as “Karens” but as “Kayan”. This people, as far as it’s known, should originate from Tibet and then migrated first to Mongolia and then down to Burma. Karen legends, about their origins, refer to a 'river of running sand' which ancestors reputedly crossed. Many Karen think this refers to the Gobi Desert, although they have lived in Myanmar for centuries. So, the origin of this people is still a mystery.
The same name “Padaung” comes from the Shan (Shan are ethnicity that live in Burma originating from Yunnan, China, and has common ancestors with Laotian and Thai people) “Ya Pa Daung” that means “The people whose women wear brass neck coils”. In fact, the most evident peculiarity of these people, is that the Kayan Lahwi women wear brass coils around their neck. This custom took the past foreigners to call them “Giraffe Ladies” and took them both good and bad. Some legends appeared around them, like that the brass coil would stretch the neck of these women making it much longer than usual. Then voices said that, if somebody would take the brass coil away, it cause the breaking for the cervical bones with following death. Actually both of these things were untrue. The coils don’t make the neck longer and can be taken away without problems. The truth is that, in spite it doesn’t make the neck longer, it still cause the deformation of the ribcage turning downward the clavicles and ribs. The same National Geographic made a research on these ladies through X-Rays and shown both the integrity and normal length of the neck as much as the deformation of the ribcage. This it might sound scary but Kayan people say that also the custom of Western women of breast implants sound scary too.
As I wrote, this custom took both good and bad to this people. In fact, the curiosity about this people shortly called for business. Taking advantage of the fact that many of them were refugee from Burma, they were taken into “Hill Tribe villages” where they were shown for profit at the tourists in some sort of human zoo. This practice is still alive as it’s exactly like the place where I was. In past it was also reported that some men entered in Burma, kidnapped ladies and sold them in Thailand. Some others were taken in “Human Zoos”, some were sold as wives while others were taken into brothels too. Much sadness flows out from the scars of the exploitation of these women. Like a mass decided punishment for keeping their customs alive and for their beauty too.
In our days the Kayan people started to take advantage of their own situation and dealing with the will of Thailand of keeping them, they started to own land in the lower hills, in permanent villages and developing sustainable terraced rice fields. This helped the integration of Kayan people in Thailand, and now many of them have Thai citizenship.
On the other hand, while Thai-Kayan girls are trying to get rid of their collars (just few, as most of the girls are willing to keep their customs alive), many Burmes-Kayan girl are asking to wear brass coils, as a shorter way to earn a Thai entering pass.
The Legend of the Kayan People
A long time ago a wise female dragon, named “She”, lived in the sea. She had many friends in the sea, but longed to see what humans looked like, so one day she decided to leave the sea in search of humans.
When she left the sea she saw a frog in a stream and she asked the frog whether he knew where to find a human. The frog said he was not sure, but that everyday he saw a creature flying through the sky. The creature would fly to the forest in the morning and fly back to the mountain every night. The dragon asked the frog if he could show her where the creature went at night. The frog said he could and he lead the dragon upstream towards the top of the mountain where they came upon a cave. The frog said: "I think this is where the creature lives".
The dragon asked the frog to wait outside and she entered the cave. When she entered the cave the dragon turned into a human form. She looked around the cave and could see that someone had been living there as it was dirty and there was an unmade bed and cooking pots in it.
She decided to clean the cave and make the bed. When she had finished she hid outside to see who would return that evening. That evening a man returned home and found his cave clean and tidy. He could not imagine who could have done this so he decided to go to sleep.
The next day he woke up and went to the forest to collect fruit and medicines. The dragon, in female form, came out of hiding and returned to the cave and once again cleaned it up and made the bed. Once she had finished she again went outside to hide and wait for the man to return.
That evening the man returned home to find his bed made again and his cave neat and tidy. He was now very curious to find out who was doing this. He decided that the next day he would not go deep into the forest, but return early to find out who was visiting his home.
The next day the man left as usual and the dragon woman once again set about cleaning his cave. The man only traveled half way to the forest and then turned around and returned home.
Upon his return he saw a girl cleaning his home. He thought she was very beautiful. He entered the cave and began to ask her questions, such as: "Where do you come from?" and "Why are you doing this?". The girl did not want him to know that she was a sea dragon, so she lied to him. They talked for a while and they realized very quickly that they were in love, so from that night the girl stayed with the man in the cave. However she had to be careful as when she slept her shadow was that of a dragon not of a human, so she was always careful to fall asleep after him and wake up before he did.
Many months passed and the girl was now pregnant. She felt very tired, so one day while the man was in the forest she decided to sleep a little in the afternoon. Unfortunately that day the man decided to return early and he found his wife asleep. He noticed that her shadow resembled a dragon. He was very angry as he realized he had been tricked and he left her.
Later on the girl woke up and waited for the man to return, but days passed and he did not return. Broken hearten she left the cave to return to the sea, but before she entered the sea she laid two eggs on the beach and then she disappeared into the ocean.
A monk called Tay Taa came to the beach to wash some medicinal herbs in the ocean. He saw the two eggs and decided to take them back to his home on another mountain. When he returned home he built a fire to signal his friend, another monk called Dee Ha, to come to visit him. He showed his friends the eggs and they decided to keep one each. Dee Ha returned to his home with his egg and soon after his egg hatched and inside there was a baby girl. He named her Shway-nan-dor and she was the first Kayan woman. Tay Taa's egg also began to hatch and he was so excited that he held to crack open the egg. Inside was a baby boy. He named him Tay Taa Dee Ha Ya-sah and he is believed to be the father of the Pa-o people.
Dee Ha couldn't keep the baby girl as he was a monk, so he took her to a village nearby and gave her to the headman of the village. Tay Taa decided to give the boy to the King and he added Ming to his name, so be became Tay Taa Dee Ha Ya-sah Ming.
Eighteen years passed and the king wanted Ya-sah to marry, but Ya-sah didn't like any of the girls he had seen so far. One day the king's soldiers visited Shway-nan-dor's village and they saw her. They returned and told the king and Ya-sah about this beautiful girl, so Ya-sah traveled to the village with the soldiers and immediately they saw each other they fell in love. He invited her back to the palace and she accepted. The king was delighted that Ya-sah had found a girl he loved so he gave his approval and they married.
They lived happily in the palace and they had two children, a girl and a boy. After the children were born Shway-nan-dor wanted to visit her adopted father in the village. She'd only been there for a day when she fell ill and died because the spirits were angry as on their wedding day they had not made offerings to the spirits.
When their children grew up the daughter wanted to follow the traditions of her mother and returned to the village where her mother had lived and did her hair in a style that resembled a dragon. The son followed the example of the king, his adopted father. This is the reason why in Kayan culture the women follow the path of the mother and it is believed that they wear the brass coils around their neck to resemble their ancestor, the female dragon.
Bibliography: http://www.huaypukeng.com/legend.htm
Checkpoint 5 - Coming back to Chiang Mai
After the visit at the “Hill Tribes Village”, we made our way back to Chiang Mai. On the way, our guide, Mr. Nip, asked us if he could stop at a market to buy his food for the evening. Of course, we said that we’d be happy to see also that market. The market itself was just made of a line of stalls next to the street. I went there and while walking around with Mr. Nip, he stopped talking with an old lady. Then, when we left, he told me that the old lady was from Nepal. He asked me “Do you know how to recognize if a girl is Nepalese or from any other place of Asia?”, “No, I don’t know! How can I?” and he replied “Just look at her smile, the Nepalese girls are those with more beautiful smile!”. Ok, now it’s clear, a beautiful smile means Nepalese... So, I guess that I’ve seen many Nepalese girls around Asia, especially in Thailand. By the way, among the expats Thailand is called LOS, that doesn’t mean “Los Angeles”, but it’s the acronym of Land Of the Smiles, still about the smiling people. My teacher once said “If you smile to people, you’ll surely receive many smiles back!”. She has a very interesting philosophy. At the market, along with many other things, Mr. Nip also bought some Dragonfly Larvae. He shown them to us, and told us that they are a very good food. He also took two from the bag and shown us that if he made one to bite the other, the one that was bitten would die in few seconds, that’s because the larvae have also some poison inside. Some girls blamed him saying “Hey Kid! Stop playing with your food!”. Then, he told us the recipe on how to make a “Dragonfly pancake” and that he’d do it for the next night... I wonder about the taste of that pancake. I regret that he didn’t invite me...
After the stop at the market, it took still a short ride before our coming back to Chiang Mai, and I’m happy to say that I loved that Day Trip both for the places that I’ve seen, for the emotions that I felt and also for the things that I’ve learnt that day.
Dragonfly Pancake Recipe
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Take the Dragonfly Larvae and place them, still alive, in the cup. Put one or two scrambled eggs in the cup with the larvae and carefully mix them with a spoon. Wait that the larvae have eaten all the egg. Then pour in the cup some coconut milk.
Warm some oil in a frypan and wait that it’ll be very hot. Then, when the frypan is very hot, pour the content of the cup on the frypan and, with a spatula, cook the pancake. Once it’s very well cooked, serve it on a dish with some vegetables and sauces. The taste, if done correctly, would be similar to a crisps pancake.
Later, after my coming back to Italy, when the adrenaline of the travel lowered, I started to think over and over this day again. At the beginning, when I didn’t know much about this people, I felt so amazed of it all. But after having been there, something changed. I entered the village as a plain, camera wielding, numb and dumb tourist. I believed in what I wanted to believe and I didn’t know the facts. But as time passed by, as much as I learnt about this people, their land, their history and present situation, more my feeling changed. The emotion of being a plain tourist turned into something different. Then I realized that, that day, I was there, in the thing that now I call the “Human Zoo”. And the at this point, I felt bad about it. I felt like that I took part into the exploitation of this people. From an occasion that took to me to Thailand, after the Kayang girl’s eyes, it became a life changing happening. This tour made me grow. I started to search for information and to learn new things about what happened and still is going on in Burma. I became aware of the Burmese genocide that in this moment no-one is talking about, and to spread information about it. Perhaps, that day I did a mistake to go there, but this mistake made grow my awareness about the World.
After the stop at the market, it took still a short ride before our coming back to Chiang Mai, and I’m happy to say that I loved that Day Trip both for the places that I’ve seen, for the emotions that I felt and also for the things that I’ve learnt that day.
Dragonfly Pancake Recipe
Ingredients:
- Dragonfly larvae
- Eggs
- Coconut Milk
- Oil
- Frying Pan
- A large cup
Instructions:
Take the Dragonfly Larvae and place them, still alive, in the cup. Put one or two scrambled eggs in the cup with the larvae and carefully mix them with a spoon. Wait that the larvae have eaten all the egg. Then pour in the cup some coconut milk.
Warm some oil in a frypan and wait that it’ll be very hot. Then, when the frypan is very hot, pour the content of the cup on the frypan and, with a spatula, cook the pancake. Once it’s very well cooked, serve it on a dish with some vegetables and sauces. The taste, if done correctly, would be similar to a crisps pancake.
Later, after my coming back to Italy, when the adrenaline of the travel lowered, I started to think over and over this day again. At the beginning, when I didn’t know much about this people, I felt so amazed of it all. But after having been there, something changed. I entered the village as a plain, camera wielding, numb and dumb tourist. I believed in what I wanted to believe and I didn’t know the facts. But as time passed by, as much as I learnt about this people, their land, their history and present situation, more my feeling changed. The emotion of being a plain tourist turned into something different. Then I realized that, that day, I was there, in the thing that now I call the “Human Zoo”. And the at this point, I felt bad about it. I felt like that I took part into the exploitation of this people. From an occasion that took to me to Thailand, after the Kayang girl’s eyes, it became a life changing happening. This tour made me grow. I started to search for information and to learn new things about what happened and still is going on in Burma. I became aware of the Burmese genocide that in this moment no-one is talking about, and to spread information about it. Perhaps, that day I did a mistake to go there, but this mistake made grow my awareness about the World.
Muang Laplae – The City of the Angels
The city of Laplae is a fantastic place that is named in some folk tales. Scholars studying on folklore said that, probably, the original “Muang Laplae” should be in one of the two places. The first possible place is the Phetchaburi region (about 150 km southward Bangkok and a few kilometers northward of Hua Hin), while the second could be Uttaradit town (about 100 Km North-East of Sukhotai and 200 South-East of Chiang Mai). The legendary town should be an underground land where live celestial beings. Some humans were accepted to live there, but they all were, one after the other, always exiled from the land as they broke the place taboos. The following legends is about the Buddhist taboo that say “Do not lie”.
For hundreds of years, this story was told and retold in the city of Phetchaburi. Long, long ago, there was nothing in the area around Wat Boonthawi and Wat Thamklap but palm trees. There were no houses, no Wats, only trees. It was strange that though palms grew everywhere in that region, near a certain cave there was a flat area where the trees didn’t grew at all. Only ground rice husks (called in Thai “klap”), laid around the cave entrance. If somebody cleared out the rice husks, the next day the place would be even more littered with the husks. People called that cave “Tham Clap” that means “The cave of the rice husks”. This was a shallow cave, without an exit in the rear of the cave.
One day, a man from Phetchaburi came to collect palms from the trees near to the cave. He climbed up on a palm and started working. Soon later a group of young girls arrived from the woods and went toward the cave. They were carrying empty market baskets hanging from poles on their shoulders. The girls swayed gracefully as they walked beneath the tree. As each girl reached the cave opening, she touched something to the cave wall and the disappeared into the cave.
The young man was curious. He watched and waited. No one emerged from the cave. Where could those beautiful girls have vanished to? He was sure that the cave had no other entrance. Descending from his palm tree, the young man searched the cave inside and out. There was no sign of the beautiful young girls.
The next day, the young man returned to the cave early in the morning. He climbed the palm tree and waited. Soon the young girls emerged from the cave again. This time their baskets were full of fresh fruit and vegetables. Talking and laughing, they walked off to the market. But as each girl emerged, she stopped and hid something in the rocks by the entrance of the cave.
As soon as the girls had gone, the young man came down the palm tree. He went straight to the cave and examined the girls hiding place. There was nothing except a pile of oddly shaped leaves. He picked one up, examined it, and then he tossed it away, before coming back to his work.
Later that evening, he heard the chattering girls returning. Quickly he hid and watched. As each girl arrived with her empty baskets, she picked a leaf from the hiding place, she touched it on the wall of the cave, and she entered. One by one, the young girls entered the cave.
But when the last girl reached into the hiding place, she gasped. There was no leaf left! The leaf was missing! Her friends already vanished into the cave and she couldn't follow them. She sat down and begun to weep.
The young man did not hesitate. He came down his palm tree and went straight to the girl. He said “Young maiden, are you crying? Can I help you in some way?”
Through her tears the girl explained that she was a citizen of Muang Laplae. That fairy land could be reached through this very cave, but she could enter only with the use of her magic leaf. And her leaf now was gone.
On hearing this, the young man told her to dry her tears. He looked around on the ground and soon he found the leaf that he tossed away. He returned to the stranded girl. In her delight in finding her precious lost leaf, this girl invited him to come back with her to Muang Laplae. Why not? Taking her hand, he followed her into the cave and into the magical land of Muang Laplae.
Of course, once he entered the fairy land, the young man had no care of returning to is home again. He fell in love with the young woman that he befriended. They were married. They lived together happily and even had a son.
Now there was a prohibition in the kingdom of Muang Laplae. No one must ever to tell a lie. Not for any reason whatsoever.
One day, when his wife went to market in Phetchaburi, the young man remained caring for his son. The child begun to cry for his mother. He played witht eh child, brought him toys, did everything he could, but his son kept crying for his mother. At last, in desperation the father lied to the child “You can stop crying, your mother is coming back right now. She will be here any minute now”.
His mother in law was passing at just that moment and heard him say this thing. All the citizens of Muang Laplae gathered in assembly. There was nothing to do but to expell the young man from the kingdom. He had broken their prohibition. He had told a lie.
Even his wife couldn’t save him. But before he left, she presented him a packet of cumin. Cumin is a spice, used to give thai curries their delicious flavour. It is just the colour of gold “Dear husband, take a good care of this cumin. Carry it home with you and look after it”.
Then she led him to the gate of the town and bid him farewell. The young man was sorry for his mistakes. He had not meant to tell a lie, and yet it had slipped out. Now it was too late. He had to leave his lovely wife and his child. Sadly, he walked back through the cave and into his own world.
It was a very hot day in the young man’s world. As he trudged toward home, he felt weighted down byt he huge packet of cumin. Thinking of his bad luck, he became frustrated with his wife. Why had she burdened him with such a heavy package? Of what use would this be to him? Stopping, he tossed most of the cumin away. He kept only a small piece of cumin, tying it to his pakhama (a multi purpose sheet of fabric).
When the young man reached home, his relatives hurried to see him. They thoguht that he had fallen from a palm tree and died in the forest. They were glad to have him back among them. The young man was so tired and hot from his long trek through the forest that he could hardly talk to them at first. He pulled off his pakhama to mop his forehead. Something heavy fell from the pakhama and landed on the ground with a thunk. Picking it up, he stopped in wonder. This was a piece of solid gold, in the shape of a cumin root.
He realized at once that he had tossed away the gift of his lovely wife. How much gold he must have had! And now, only a small piece was left. Tough the young man retraced his steps and searched everywhere, he never recovered the lost cumin roots. And though he visited the cave time and again, never more did he see the beautiful girls from the land of Muang Laplae.
The city of Laplae is a fantastic place that is named in some folk tales. Scholars studying on folklore said that, probably, the original “Muang Laplae” should be in one of the two places. The first possible place is the Phetchaburi region (about 150 km southward Bangkok and a few kilometers northward of Hua Hin), while the second could be Uttaradit town (about 100 Km North-East of Sukhotai and 200 South-East of Chiang Mai). The legendary town should be an underground land where live celestial beings. Some humans were accepted to live there, but they all were, one after the other, always exiled from the land as they broke the place taboos. The following legends is about the Buddhist taboo that say “Do not lie”.
For hundreds of years, this story was told and retold in the city of Phetchaburi. Long, long ago, there was nothing in the area around Wat Boonthawi and Wat Thamklap but palm trees. There were no houses, no Wats, only trees. It was strange that though palms grew everywhere in that region, near a certain cave there was a flat area where the trees didn’t grew at all. Only ground rice husks (called in Thai “klap”), laid around the cave entrance. If somebody cleared out the rice husks, the next day the place would be even more littered with the husks. People called that cave “Tham Clap” that means “The cave of the rice husks”. This was a shallow cave, without an exit in the rear of the cave.
One day, a man from Phetchaburi came to collect palms from the trees near to the cave. He climbed up on a palm and started working. Soon later a group of young girls arrived from the woods and went toward the cave. They were carrying empty market baskets hanging from poles on their shoulders. The girls swayed gracefully as they walked beneath the tree. As each girl reached the cave opening, she touched something to the cave wall and the disappeared into the cave.
The young man was curious. He watched and waited. No one emerged from the cave. Where could those beautiful girls have vanished to? He was sure that the cave had no other entrance. Descending from his palm tree, the young man searched the cave inside and out. There was no sign of the beautiful young girls.
The next day, the young man returned to the cave early in the morning. He climbed the palm tree and waited. Soon the young girls emerged from the cave again. This time their baskets were full of fresh fruit and vegetables. Talking and laughing, they walked off to the market. But as each girl emerged, she stopped and hid something in the rocks by the entrance of the cave.
As soon as the girls had gone, the young man came down the palm tree. He went straight to the cave and examined the girls hiding place. There was nothing except a pile of oddly shaped leaves. He picked one up, examined it, and then he tossed it away, before coming back to his work.
Later that evening, he heard the chattering girls returning. Quickly he hid and watched. As each girl arrived with her empty baskets, she picked a leaf from the hiding place, she touched it on the wall of the cave, and she entered. One by one, the young girls entered the cave.
But when the last girl reached into the hiding place, she gasped. There was no leaf left! The leaf was missing! Her friends already vanished into the cave and she couldn't follow them. She sat down and begun to weep.
The young man did not hesitate. He came down his palm tree and went straight to the girl. He said “Young maiden, are you crying? Can I help you in some way?”
Through her tears the girl explained that she was a citizen of Muang Laplae. That fairy land could be reached through this very cave, but she could enter only with the use of her magic leaf. And her leaf now was gone.
On hearing this, the young man told her to dry her tears. He looked around on the ground and soon he found the leaf that he tossed away. He returned to the stranded girl. In her delight in finding her precious lost leaf, this girl invited him to come back with her to Muang Laplae. Why not? Taking her hand, he followed her into the cave and into the magical land of Muang Laplae.
Of course, once he entered the fairy land, the young man had no care of returning to is home again. He fell in love with the young woman that he befriended. They were married. They lived together happily and even had a son.
Now there was a prohibition in the kingdom of Muang Laplae. No one must ever to tell a lie. Not for any reason whatsoever.
One day, when his wife went to market in Phetchaburi, the young man remained caring for his son. The child begun to cry for his mother. He played witht eh child, brought him toys, did everything he could, but his son kept crying for his mother. At last, in desperation the father lied to the child “You can stop crying, your mother is coming back right now. She will be here any minute now”.
His mother in law was passing at just that moment and heard him say this thing. All the citizens of Muang Laplae gathered in assembly. There was nothing to do but to expell the young man from the kingdom. He had broken their prohibition. He had told a lie.
Even his wife couldn’t save him. But before he left, she presented him a packet of cumin. Cumin is a spice, used to give thai curries their delicious flavour. It is just the colour of gold “Dear husband, take a good care of this cumin. Carry it home with you and look after it”.
Then she led him to the gate of the town and bid him farewell. The young man was sorry for his mistakes. He had not meant to tell a lie, and yet it had slipped out. Now it was too late. He had to leave his lovely wife and his child. Sadly, he walked back through the cave and into his own world.
It was a very hot day in the young man’s world. As he trudged toward home, he felt weighted down byt he huge packet of cumin. Thinking of his bad luck, he became frustrated with his wife. Why had she burdened him with such a heavy package? Of what use would this be to him? Stopping, he tossed most of the cumin away. He kept only a small piece of cumin, tying it to his pakhama (a multi purpose sheet of fabric).
When the young man reached home, his relatives hurried to see him. They thoguht that he had fallen from a palm tree and died in the forest. They were glad to have him back among them. The young man was so tired and hot from his long trek through the forest that he could hardly talk to them at first. He pulled off his pakhama to mop his forehead. Something heavy fell from the pakhama and landed on the ground with a thunk. Picking it up, he stopped in wonder. This was a piece of solid gold, in the shape of a cumin root.
He realized at once that he had tossed away the gift of his lovely wife. How much gold he must have had! And now, only a small piece was left. Tough the young man retraced his steps and searched everywhere, he never recovered the lost cumin roots. And though he visited the cave time and again, never more did he see the beautiful girls from the land of Muang Laplae.
Day 3 - Golden Triangle Day Trip
I came back from my trip to the “Long Neck Women” village that it was already evening. I came back to my hotel, but the tourist desk was already closed. So, I went fast upstairs and I took a quick, boiling, shower before changing my clothes and coming back outside. I went fast to the night market area and, before dinner, I searched for a tourist agency. For good luck, I found, quite easily, one of them that was still open (Chiang Mai is crammed with tourist agencies). I entered the agency and the kind and crazy lady shown me many day trips. I decided to pick one to the “Golden Triangle”. She warned me about the long journey, but I told her that I already made much way to get to Chiang Mai, and I wanted to see as much as I could in those few free days. The girl filled some papers and told me that the minivan would come and pick me at about 7.00 am. That meant, a very early waking up. After it, I went again into the streets at night to have some food, and visiting some pubs and disco too. The night would be very short, but I couldn’t manage to come back at the hotel so early.
The next morning, my alarm clock started that it felt like I just entered my bed. Actually, the noise from the hotel laundry helped me to not fall asleep too deeply and to wake up at a good time. I mean, that any time that I fell asleep, the guys in the laundry started screaming or pulling their radio louder.
I dressed up and I went downstairs hoping to find a breakfast. Behind the bar there was always the same sleepy guy, and he prepared for me still the same breakfast of the previous day. Both the taste of the bread and the coffee felt like they were the same of the previous day, and they probably were the same.
The minivan came in perfect time, and inside of it there were 6-7 sleepy people that welcomed me with moaning and snoring. I sat down on an empty place and I fell asleep while listening at my portable CD-player. I woke up much later, when the sun was already high in the sky and the colors of Thailand were shining brightly again.
The next morning, my alarm clock started that it felt like I just entered my bed. Actually, the noise from the hotel laundry helped me to not fall asleep too deeply and to wake up at a good time. I mean, that any time that I fell asleep, the guys in the laundry started screaming or pulling their radio louder.
I dressed up and I went downstairs hoping to find a breakfast. Behind the bar there was always the same sleepy guy, and he prepared for me still the same breakfast of the previous day. Both the taste of the bread and the coffee felt like they were the same of the previous day, and they probably were the same.
The minivan came in perfect time, and inside of it there were 6-7 sleepy people that welcomed me with moaning and snoring. I sat down on an empty place and I fell asleep while listening at my portable CD-player. I woke up much later, when the sun was already high in the sky and the colors of Thailand were shining brightly again.
Checkpoint 1 - Amphoe Wiang Pa Pao - Hot Springs
On the way between the city of Chiang Mai and the old city of Ciang Rai we passed by Ampoe Wiang Pa Pao, a small village. Apparently it’s just a place like any other scattered there around. The only clue that could give out that something special could be there, is the large amount of constructions in progress, mainly brand new hotels and resorts. The special things of this village are its hot springs. Here you can see few cisterns where the hot water is collected from the hot springs. The sulfur smell fill the air and when you come close to the springs, you can see the fog rising from the cisterns. Here local people come to collect hot water or even to boil something. There are people, like the one in the picture, that boil eggs (it only takes a few minutes) and sell them to the tourists. At this point it was hard to guess if the egg-smell came from the sulfur from the hot springs or from the eggs themselves. A girl that was traveling with us asked if people could take bath in this water, but I answered her that seen that the water temperature is about 90°C, the hot water pool would turn into a very good "Tourist soup"! Both her and the other guys laughed at my silly answer.
Checkpoint 2 - Chiang Saen - Wat Chedi Luang
After the stop at the hot springs, we went straight up north. The trip was going on very long and the landscape kept on changing. Tropical forest were changing into rice fields, the rice fields were alternated with small villages and towns, then again forest, mountains and rivers.
It took almost 5 hours from the departure that we reached the “Golden Triangle” area. Actually, we weren’t in the “Golden Triangle” yet, but we had the next checkpoint in a town called “Chiang Saen” (in Thai เชียงแสน). Watching this town on a map, it may look like just a little town like many others just occupying a little space on the map. But this is just wrong. The small town of Chiang Saen had a very important role in Thai History. In fact, it was the year 545 that the first migrants from the Chinese Yunnan founded this town. At the beginning it was called Yonok, but there aren’t many reliable information until the arrival of the King Mengrai in the 13th century. In the later Kingdoms, the most important role was during the reign of King Rama I, that the people of the town, after the Burmese invasion they took side with the Lanna Kingdom (allied with Ayuttaya). The city that was a Burmese base was defeated by the Lanna Troops and this part of Thailand came back under the Lanna Kingdom control.
In our days, beside being near to the “Golden Triangle” that attracts an huge number of tourists, there are also some very beautiful temples that should be visited. Our guide took us at the Wat Chedi Luang (this name is quite common in Thailand and can be found many temples with this name). The main thing of this temple is the ancient stupa which is 58 meters tall. This brick-made stupa dates back from 1331 and it’s simply amazing to see this towering stupa among the trees. Next to it there is also an old brick-made temple, which is now covered with a metal roof. Inside there is an huge golden Buddha statue. It was very nice to wander around that peaceful place. It felt very relaxing after all those hours spent inside the minivan. After some time, I sat under a tree, and I relaxed in that quiet spot feeling a warm wind blowing softly. The leaves waved from the branches of the tree, while the Mae Khong was flowing quietly nearby. I closed my eyes breathing deeply. The smell of resin from the tree, the smell of the Mae Khong, some flowers and the incense from the temple. The wind whistled a soft song, followed by the maracas of the leaves. Far, a drum, the engine of a long tail boat on the Mae Khong, rythmed the music for some seconds, and then again, the wind was the soloist. All that peace was broken by the call of our guide, as we had to leave for the “Golden Triangle”.
It took almost 5 hours from the departure that we reached the “Golden Triangle” area. Actually, we weren’t in the “Golden Triangle” yet, but we had the next checkpoint in a town called “Chiang Saen” (in Thai เชียงแสน). Watching this town on a map, it may look like just a little town like many others just occupying a little space on the map. But this is just wrong. The small town of Chiang Saen had a very important role in Thai History. In fact, it was the year 545 that the first migrants from the Chinese Yunnan founded this town. At the beginning it was called Yonok, but there aren’t many reliable information until the arrival of the King Mengrai in the 13th century. In the later Kingdoms, the most important role was during the reign of King Rama I, that the people of the town, after the Burmese invasion they took side with the Lanna Kingdom (allied with Ayuttaya). The city that was a Burmese base was defeated by the Lanna Troops and this part of Thailand came back under the Lanna Kingdom control.
In our days, beside being near to the “Golden Triangle” that attracts an huge number of tourists, there are also some very beautiful temples that should be visited. Our guide took us at the Wat Chedi Luang (this name is quite common in Thailand and can be found many temples with this name). The main thing of this temple is the ancient stupa which is 58 meters tall. This brick-made stupa dates back from 1331 and it’s simply amazing to see this towering stupa among the trees. Next to it there is also an old brick-made temple, which is now covered with a metal roof. Inside there is an huge golden Buddha statue. It was very nice to wander around that peaceful place. It felt very relaxing after all those hours spent inside the minivan. After some time, I sat under a tree, and I relaxed in that quiet spot feeling a warm wind blowing softly. The leaves waved from the branches of the tree, while the Mae Khong was flowing quietly nearby. I closed my eyes breathing deeply. The smell of resin from the tree, the smell of the Mae Khong, some flowers and the incense from the temple. The wind whistled a soft song, followed by the maracas of the leaves. Far, a drum, the engine of a long tail boat on the Mae Khong, rythmed the music for some seconds, and then again, the wind was the soloist. All that peace was broken by the call of our guide, as we had to leave for the “Golden Triangle”.
Checkpoint 3 - The Golden Triangle
When you read about Thailand, you often read about the "Golden Triangle". Despite it could sound like the name of a jewel, this is just the name of the place where the frontiers of Thailand, Burma and Laos meet. The place was named "Golden Triangle” as it’s a very important and lively commercial spot on the Mae Khong River. When people come here, they can rent a boat and have a small ride on the river to see the three frontiers. Of course, when I came here, I was asked if I wanted to do this river trip too. We were taken on a small wooden pier and many colored longtail boats were waiting for us. I was carried on one and we soon started our way upstream. The Mae Khong River is very huge and very trafficked too, as it’s a commercial way for the countries lying along its banks. I was sitting on the front of the boat and we were speeding so much that we were jumping over the waves that rose from the passage of other boats. First we went fast along the banks where I was shown some huts belonging at the fishermen. Then, still going upstream, we reached the real “Golden Triangle” where the three countries meet each-other. Just before the border we turned downstream and we followed the Laotian coast. The worst part was the crossing of the river. We passes through rough waters with the muddy-colored Mae Khong water sprinkling on me. We were there, speeding across the river, and I remembered that I wasn’t even wearing a life-jacket. I held tighter at the boat and after a few jumps in the middle-river streams, and after having also passed too close to some fishermen, we reached the Laotian banks of the river. At this point we landed in the so-called “Laotian Village”. This “Laotian Village” is more similar to a "duty free" area and it just look like a market with the same prices of any other place in Thailand. Here the main danger is from the drug smugglers that could come to you and ask you to bring some "tobacco" to their friends across the river. As you can easily imagine, it's not "tobacco" but Opium. If police will find you with it, you'll end in jail (or as my expat friends say “you’ll end in the Monkey House”). The most interesting thing was that as soon as we got there a lady from a shop asked us if we wished to try her snake whiskey. In fact, most of the stalls in the village sell bottles of whiskey seasoned with snakes. In fact, the ancient “medicine” said that the snakes are very healthy for many illnesses, so this whiskey should be very curative... Anyway, we were kindly asked by a lady to try her whiskey seasoned with some Cobra snake inside. All the guys in my group looked shocked, but after all those kilometers I couldn't avoid to taste something so exotic, even if it was still morning. So, I tried it. Here I broke the “Rule 1.2 of the perfect traveler” that says “Never eat/drink something looking dangerous especially if you’re on a journey”. After tasting it, I can say that it wasn't bad at all. After me, all the other guys wanted to try it too. They just needed a start. Above you can see a picture of the snake-liquor shop, with many bottles in display for the tourists. Soon later we were called back at our longtail boats and we were taken back on the Thai border. By the way the whiskey was strong and it turned the Mae Khong crossing into an unforgettable experience.
Checkpoint 5 - Golden Triangle - The border with Burma
Golden Triangle - Burma Border: After the trip on the Mae Khong river tourists can go and see the border with Burma. This time it’s impossible cross it without a visa. So, we just spent some time on our side of the border. Here people looked more poor than in the rest of Thailand. Probably many of them were Burman refugees. In this picture, you can see that girls have some kind of paste on their faces. Our guide told us that it’s called Tanakha and it's their traditional Burmese make-up. In the same picture you can even see a white man with a Thai lady (with yellow shirt). They were in the group of that day. Seen that they looked strange, with the other guys of the group (I got quite friend with two Dutch guys) supposed that he just hired her. In fact, a sad thing that I often seen there is that many girls are hired as "holiday girlfriends". You often can see advertisement or you can even bargain into clubs or pub for one. They come with you, they are funny and promise eternal love... At least their love is eternal until the end of the contract. I seen many old men with very young women, especially when I was on the islands. I even met a old men that told me that he hired a young boyfriend. That’s sad and I’ve no words for it, but I thought it’d be still right to report it in this diary.
Burma facts – The first glimpse of a genocide
Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. The Burmese Army rapes, loots, burns, tortures and kills. Civilians are shot on sight, even children. It spends billions of dollars on the military while the population goes without access to proper health care, education and food.
Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, symbolizes the struggle of Burma’s people to be free. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 82% of the seats in elections held in 1990. The people of Burma overwhelmingly rejected military rule yet the military refused to transfer power to Burma’s democratically elected leaders.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s message is a simple one - that only by fighting fear can you truly be free - a message Burma’s military fears and aims to silence.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a total of more than 15 years under house arrest. When she was released in May 2002, there was hope that it would be a step towards democracy in Burma and lead to serious political reform.
However, during a tour of northern Burma in 2003, Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters were attacked by the Union Solidarity and Development Organization (USDA), a government sponsored militia. The attack took place in Depayin on 30 May 2003. As many as 70 people were killed in the attack and over 100 people arrested, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi remained in secret detention for over three months. She was then placed under house arrest in Rangoon, where she was allowed no visitors, her phone line cut, and her post intercepted. In May 2009, she was arrested after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her house and refused to leave. She was found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to 18 months under house arrest on 11 August 2009. She was released from her third period of detention on Saturday 13th November 2010.
The dictatorship responded to international criticism over the Depayin massacre by announcing a ‘road map to democracy’ in August 2003, in an attempt to avoid further international pressure and sanctions. The sham elections held on 7th November 2010 are part of that ‘road map to democracy’.
Ahead of the elections the dictatorship increased harassment of democracy activists, banned the National League for Democracy and placed severe restrictions on parties and candidates. There were widespread allegations of voter intimidation and bribery during the election.
The elections bring in a rubber stamp parliament and a new constitution designed to legalize dictatorship and will not bring any new freedom to Burma’s people. Rather than a step towards democracy, this is a transition from military to civilian dictatorship.
Parliament will be a largely powerless body, dominated by the military. 25% of seats in the new Parliament are reserved for the military and as any change to the constitution requires a majority of more than 75 percent, this makes it impossible to promote democratic change without agreement from the military.
Real power will lie with the President, the Commander-in-Chief and the new National Defense and Security Council, who are not accountable to Parliament.
Facts:
Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. The Burmese Army rapes, loots, burns, tortures and kills. Civilians are shot on sight, even children. It spends billions of dollars on the military while the population goes without access to proper health care, education and food.
Aung San Suu Kyi, pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, symbolizes the struggle of Burma’s people to be free. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won 82% of the seats in elections held in 1990. The people of Burma overwhelmingly rejected military rule yet the military refused to transfer power to Burma’s democratically elected leaders.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s message is a simple one - that only by fighting fear can you truly be free - a message Burma’s military fears and aims to silence.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent a total of more than 15 years under house arrest. When she was released in May 2002, there was hope that it would be a step towards democracy in Burma and lead to serious political reform.
However, during a tour of northern Burma in 2003, Aung San Suu Kyi and her supporters were attacked by the Union Solidarity and Development Organization (USDA), a government sponsored militia. The attack took place in Depayin on 30 May 2003. As many as 70 people were killed in the attack and over 100 people arrested, including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi remained in secret detention for over three months. She was then placed under house arrest in Rangoon, where she was allowed no visitors, her phone line cut, and her post intercepted. In May 2009, she was arrested after an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her house and refused to leave. She was found guilty of breaking the terms of her house arrest and sentenced to 18 months under house arrest on 11 August 2009. She was released from her third period of detention on Saturday 13th November 2010.
The dictatorship responded to international criticism over the Depayin massacre by announcing a ‘road map to democracy’ in August 2003, in an attempt to avoid further international pressure and sanctions. The sham elections held on 7th November 2010 are part of that ‘road map to democracy’.
Ahead of the elections the dictatorship increased harassment of democracy activists, banned the National League for Democracy and placed severe restrictions on parties and candidates. There were widespread allegations of voter intimidation and bribery during the election.
The elections bring in a rubber stamp parliament and a new constitution designed to legalize dictatorship and will not bring any new freedom to Burma’s people. Rather than a step towards democracy, this is a transition from military to civilian dictatorship.
Parliament will be a largely powerless body, dominated by the military. 25% of seats in the new Parliament are reserved for the military and as any change to the constitution requires a majority of more than 75 percent, this makes it impossible to promote democratic change without agreement from the military.
Real power will lie with the President, the Commander-in-Chief and the new National Defense and Security Council, who are not accountable to Parliament.
Facts:
- The widespread use of forced labor
- Over 1 million people forced from their homes
- Around 2,100 political prisoners, many of whom are routinely tortured
- Widespread use of child soldiers
- Rape as a weapon of war against ethnic women and children
- Nearly half the government budget spent on the military
- One in ten babies die before their fifth birthday
Checkpoint 6 - Yao Village
After the short stop near the Burmese frontier, we had the lunch-break in a typical restaurant. Actually, the only typical thing in that restaurant was the name of the food, as the restaurant itself was in Western style and also the recipes were tailored for the tourists tastes. So, after some Pad-Tai named noodles, some sweet-that-should-be-spicy chicken, stew vegetables in sweet tomato sauce, we left the restaurant passing by the forced way through a “traditional” jewelery shop. Of course, again, the only traditional things weren’t the jewels but just the prices that were in “Thai Baht”... Soon later our not-much-speaking guide took us at an Hill Tribe village. This should be a “Yao Hilltribe” village. Actually, it was definitely a very tourist trap. Fake houses, with fake traditional tools, like wooden looms or coconut mortars with wooden grinders. Also the people were dressed with traditional dresses that looked more appropriate for a party than to work. Anyway, the guide tried to lead us to buy some junk, like 100% Polyester “silk” scarves. He told us that to recognize real silk from the polyester you have to take a flame close to it, as the silk wouldn’t burn. He shown us that, pulling his lighter under a scarf, it didn’t take aflame, but when I asked him to take it closer than 20 cm from the scarf, as he was doing, he just turned the lighter off and put it back in his pocket. Telling the truth, I didn’t like this village and I was very happy to come back at the minivan to come back to Chiang Mai.
The coming back trip lasted again about 4 hours, with a very long stop near Chiang Mai to buy some food. I waited long in that gas station, before the other guys bought much junk food that had some weird fluorescent colors. Then, after that unexplainable long wait, we came back to our van and 30 minutes later we were back in Chiang Mai.
When we reached the town, I told them to not take me at my hotel, but to leave me before Tha-Pae Gate. So, when I went down the minivan, with my body aching after so many hours just sitting, I had the pleasure to make a long walk. In the way to my hotel, I stopped again at the same tourist agency of the previous evening and I picked one more trip for the next day. This time, I decided to take an “adventure trip” with trekking in the forest and also rafting down a river.
After this, I came back to my hotel for a very hot shower and then, back outside, into the charming night of Chiang Mai.
The coming back trip lasted again about 4 hours, with a very long stop near Chiang Mai to buy some food. I waited long in that gas station, before the other guys bought much junk food that had some weird fluorescent colors. Then, after that unexplainable long wait, we came back to our van and 30 minutes later we were back in Chiang Mai.
When we reached the town, I told them to not take me at my hotel, but to leave me before Tha-Pae Gate. So, when I went down the minivan, with my body aching after so many hours just sitting, I had the pleasure to make a long walk. In the way to my hotel, I stopped again at the same tourist agency of the previous evening and I picked one more trip for the next day. This time, I decided to take an “adventure trip” with trekking in the forest and also rafting down a river.
After this, I came back to my hotel for a very hot shower and then, back outside, into the charming night of Chiang Mai.
Day 3 - The Adventure Trip
My third day of the journey started a bit later than the previous one. While getting up from the bed, that was 7.00 in the morning, I was glad to hear that the laundry guys were screaming, that means that they were all well... Their radio was screaming some loud terrible-to-listen Thai song and covered the sound of anything else.
I woke up that I felt the effect of a night of party, and I wished to sleep longer. I went downstairs and I ordered a breakfast. The usual guy was behind the bar, but this time I sat at the bar counter in spite sitting at a table. So, I discovered that the terrible coffee was nothing else than Nescafè. This thing made me cross, as I was paying as a “real” coffee a thing made by somebody that couldn’t even mix some hot water with instant-coffee.
Soon later came a jeep to take me for the trip. This time on board I’ve met some new funny guy. In particular, there were two Spanish guys, David and Toby (they were funny, and they peculiarities were that "Mr. D" liked to smoke weed already in the morning, and "Mr. T" liked to tell his stories with the “Ladyboys”). Then there were Fredrik and Sophie, a Swedish couple. Our guide was a very funny boy that with Mr. Nip became one of the best tour guides that I’ve ever had.
We first went up North, then we turned West, across the monsoonal forest, to reach our first checkpoint, the Maetaman Elephant Camp near the village of Kuet Chang, on the Mae Taeng River.
Before continuing with this Travel Diary, I wish to tell that, when I’ve taken the trip, I was asked if I wished to do also the Elephant Trekking. When I’ve booked the trip I said “yes”. The reason was that I was so excited to be in Thailand that I wished to try this too. On the other hand, later, I felt like I did something wrong. I like animals, and I don’t want to encourage the use of animals for such attractions. Anyway, the thing that made me feel “less guilty” was that in this Elephant champ, the animals looked like treated very well. Anyway, from this trip on, I always refused to do Elephant trekking (and other animal involving things) again.
I woke up that I felt the effect of a night of party, and I wished to sleep longer. I went downstairs and I ordered a breakfast. The usual guy was behind the bar, but this time I sat at the bar counter in spite sitting at a table. So, I discovered that the terrible coffee was nothing else than Nescafè. This thing made me cross, as I was paying as a “real” coffee a thing made by somebody that couldn’t even mix some hot water with instant-coffee.
Soon later came a jeep to take me for the trip. This time on board I’ve met some new funny guy. In particular, there were two Spanish guys, David and Toby (they were funny, and they peculiarities were that "Mr. D" liked to smoke weed already in the morning, and "Mr. T" liked to tell his stories with the “Ladyboys”). Then there were Fredrik and Sophie, a Swedish couple. Our guide was a very funny boy that with Mr. Nip became one of the best tour guides that I’ve ever had.
We first went up North, then we turned West, across the monsoonal forest, to reach our first checkpoint, the Maetaman Elephant Camp near the village of Kuet Chang, on the Mae Taeng River.
Before continuing with this Travel Diary, I wish to tell that, when I’ve taken the trip, I was asked if I wished to do also the Elephant Trekking. When I’ve booked the trip I said “yes”. The reason was that I was so excited to be in Thailand that I wished to try this too. On the other hand, later, I felt like I did something wrong. I like animals, and I don’t want to encourage the use of animals for such attractions. Anyway, the thing that made me feel “less guilty” was that in this Elephant champ, the animals looked like treated very well. Anyway, from this trip on, I always refused to do Elephant trekking (and other animal involving things) again.
Checkpoint 1 - The Elephant Trekking
As soon as we reached the Elephant Camp on the edge of the forest, we had just time to jump down of our car that our elephants were already waiting for us. In fact, the previous day, when we planned this trip, we were asked if we wished to have a short ride in the forest on elephant. Of course, seen that we were in a country where elephants are very popular, I decided to try the ride of one of them too. In spite of many other places where you sit on the back of your elephant and you have an the owner sitting on the same one "driving" it, in this place you had your own elephant... That means that the "drivers" were walking nearby but you have to work on your elephant too. Just as soon as we started our trip a guy asked us if we wished to buy bananas for our elephants. Ok, it sounds really like a tourist trap, but the temptation of feeding my dear elephant was too strong and I bought those bananas. My elephant liked them very much, and I also gave some bananas to the one next to mine. The elephants guy probably liked that I fed two elephants and told me that I could, if I wished, to ride mine on the very skin and not like other people sitting on benches on the back (you can see in a picture my friends that are sitting on a kind of bench). Of course, I didn't miss the occasion of riding it on that way. Ok, riding an elephant is not exactly like riding an horse. You sit on its shoulders, the skin is very rough and its few hairs are very strong (they feel almost like spikes). For almost all the time it was doing exactly what it wished, despite I was trying to drive it in every way. Only on the end I learnt how to make it turn (a bit). All I could do was holding tight at his neck with my legs, and it was really tiring after some time. Moreover I couldn’t understand what that elephant found so attractive in the grass down the slope where it was standing. We were surrounded by grass, trees, branches and roots. And that elephant kept on looking for the grass down the slope. I was still on its shoulders and every time I had to make acrobatic moves to not being shoot off its neck. I wonder what thought Mr. D of what he seen, after all the weed that he smoke. Anyway, he kept laughing all the time. At the end i can say that the ride was impressive. I had good time with my cute elephant. It was a real fun riding it and also when we were coming back to our camp, people passing by with cars were amazed by my elephant riding (I was still the only one riding it on skin). It was definitely an unforgettable experience. After it, I felt a bit like being a “Mahut”, that means, an Elephant owner.
Checkpoint 2 - The Rain Forest Trekking
After the elephant riding we left the camp for the real reason of that day trip. We wanted to enter the forest, follow a river up its way and reach a waterfall. I like having trekking, but it was my first time in a tropical forest. I already climbed mountains, but this time it was different. A very prosperous tropical forest was all around us. On every turn it felt like it was changing. We passed through a very tall trees forest with white orchid plants hanging from the trees, then we walked through a bamboo forest, then again through banana trees woods. The humidity was very high, water in the river wasn't cold but very pleasant. The air was warm and smelled of wood and flowers. Along our way we passed through two villages. The first were just housings for the trekkers that wanted to spend the night in the forest, and the next village was a place where Thai people were living. After a long walk we reached the waterfall. It made a really strong noise and wind. When I was standing next to it, I could feel that its wind was blowing toward me a really warm fog, and it felt like a deserved reward after such a walk in the heat of the tropical forest. We were a very good group and we had a very good fun together.
Checkpoint 3 - Mae Taeng River Rafting
When we came back to the Elephant Camp we had our next adventure. From the camp we could take a rubber raft and with it we could go down the river white-waters. So, we undressed our clothes, we wore life jackets, helmets and we jumped on a raft. Our guide took our backpacks and took them to the next checkpoint with car. For good luck he offered us to take some pictures with our cameras. So, after a short lesson on how our raft leader would command us, we left the shores. We were a very good team and we had a really great fun. The team before mine lost a member on the way, but we were much better and we got to the end without any problem. The rafting down the river was, for us that were newbies, quite challenging, even if the real “white-water” parts were just two short ones. In spite that this time we were facing “white-waters” it just felt like “fun”, while the previous day, when I crossed the Mae Khong I felt like I was doing something dangerous for real. So, going down a river, through white-waters making jumps on our rafts and getting wet with the sprinkles of water was a very great experience, that made me addicted to the rafting. After the ride on the rubber raft, we were told that we were scheduled for another rafting. We were taken for a short walk downstream, and here we found some bamboo rafts. These looked like just made improvised rafts. We were asked to go on the rafts, one on each raft, and a sailor took us downstream. This rafting was very quiet. We had time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the landscape around us. Rice fields were passing by on the banks of the river. Then came tropical trees with birds singing from the branches. Some bird was standing in the water looking for food too as we sailed down the river. The only thing was that my raft was all but stable. Every now and then it looked like it could capsize and water flowed over it for much of the trip. When we reached the banks were was our jeep we had time to look back one more time at the landscape. Then we landed, we changed our clothes, we had some food at the rafting camp, and we were ready to go back to our jeep.
After our rafting trip down the Mae Taeng River we took the car to come back to Chiang Mai. On the way back, or guide asked if we wished to go and see his village, as it was close by. Of course, we all agreed to see it. So, we stopped our car at an end of the village, and he took us around. Our guide shown us how farmers live in Thailand. He shown how houses are made and how to use bamboo ropes to fix their roofs. It was very interesting. Later our guide took us also at the end of the village and shown us something really interesting. First of all, let me say that many people, beside being Buddhist, they have an Animist background and believe also in spirits. On an end of the village (you can see it in the second picture) there is the "Spirits door", it looks like three poles bound together to look like a door. On a side of the door there are also two guardian statues. This door is used to keep spirits outside the village. The guide also told us that when somebody dies, the body is taken through the "Spirits door" in a way that the spirit will lose the chance to come back and will keep on the journey to the other world. There near, on a flat place there was much rice out to dry and still not far people were having party for a new building in the village. People looked very happy in the relaxed atmosphere of the village. It was so nice to spend that time in such a peaceful spot. I wished to spend some more time there and find more peace. But it was time to be back and to plan new things for the next days. David soon later started to sing on our car, mixing English, Spanish and Italian words. If was such a fun, and I regretted when, once back in Chiang Mai, we separated. But later I met many new friends.
Thai Superstitions
Thailand is a country where spirituality and superstition soak the everyday life of any person. It’s nearly impossible to meet somebody that could say “I’m not superstitious” or that doesn’t do something in that way.
The most common superstitions are:
Animals
Animals falling from the sky (or the roof)
General behavior
Home and Family
Hygiene
Laying down and sleeping
Love and Marriage
Religion
Washing Superstitions
Thailand is a country where spirituality and superstition soak the everyday life of any person. It’s nearly impossible to meet somebody that could say “I’m not superstitious” or that doesn’t do something in that way.
The most common superstitions are:
Animals
- Do not kill big animals such as elephant, horse, cow, buffalo, etc. because it is a big sin.
- Do not touch a buffalo horn because it won’t grow any more.
- Do not turn over a puppy because it will go and eat your chicken.
- Do not touch a horse’s tail because it will get sick.
- Do not hit a dog with a bamboo pole meant for carrying things because it will become rabid.
- Do not hit a cat because it is as much sinful as hitting a novice monk.
- Do not hit a cat on the head because when you grow old your head will shake like the cat did when you hit it.
- Do not rest a cow or a buffalo in the temple grounds because it is a sin.
- Do not let a black cat jump across a corpse because the dead spirit will then become an angry ghost.
- Do not raise five cats and six dogs because it will be bad luck for you.
- Do not chain a monkey because your children will have small wrists like it has been chained.
- Do not pat a cat’s back because you will make it thin.
- Do not catch a firefly because your plates and bowls will break often.
- Do not allow a husband and wife to go and see a snake together because the wife will have a miscarriage
Animals falling from the sky (or the roof)
- If the creature lands in front of you and its tail points to you: you will be lucky, you will receive precious gifts and the angels will look after you.
- If the creature lands in front of you and its tail points to your right: you will get presents from your relations.
- If the creature lands in front of you and its tail points to your left: you and your relations will be in danger or ill. You should go and make merit straight away.
- If the creature lands on your left hand: you will have good luck and you will either inherit something expensive, get a promotion or live a happy life.
- If the creature falls down and hits your right hand: bad things will happen to the people in your family. There will be no happiness in your life.
- If the creature lands in the middle of a circle of people: everyone should be careful as bad things could happen to each and every person.
- If one of these creatures falls down dead in the street while you are walking by: bad things might happen which might cause you to bleed and consequently die.
- If one of these creatures falls down in the street and manages to crawl away unassisted: bad things might happen, you will get injured or get involved in a fight.
General behavior
- Do not walk with your face down. It will make your life shorter.
- Do not walk heavily. You won’t be able to save any money.
- Do not walk across any sharp objects. It will make them unsharp.
- Do not cut your hair on Wednesday. It is bad luck for you.
- Do not cut your nails during the night-time. It will be like breaking the bones of your ancestors.
- Do not sell a needle in the middle of the night. Your shop will not be profitable.
- Do not point your finger at a rainbow. It will make your finger fall off.
- Do not insult sunshine, wind or rain because mother nature will make something bad happen to you.
- Do not bend down and look between your legs. You will see a ghost.
- Do not eat candy that has dropped on the floor. It now belongs to the ghost.
- If you have a scratch, do not attend a cremation. It will make your scratch infected.
Home and Family
- Do not say to a baby that they are cute because the ghost will come and take the baby away.
- Do not break anything on your wedding day because it is a sign that your marriage won’t last.
- Do not drop chopsticks during the Chinese New Year because you won’t make a good living.
- Do not let a woman sit on a staircase for a long time because she will have a difficult labor.
- Do not sit on pillows meant for your head because you will get a painful rash on your behind.
- Do not let your children play with shadows during the evening. The shadow guy will come and take them away.
- Do not stomp as you walk around the house. You will scare the guardian spirits of the house.
- Do not hit your parents. You will become a very bad ghost.
- Do not boil an egg in a rice cooker. It will make your life worse.
- Do not take off your clothes or sleep next to the closet. A ghost will come to haunt you.
- Do not tap repeatedly with a spoon or chopsticks on a bowl of rice. Because you are inviting a ghost to come and eat with you. The same goes for the top of the rice cooker. You will upset the rice goddess.
- Do not taste food with a large serving spoon. It will make your child look ugly.
- Do not cut the wood for the stairs with a knife. Because the ghost will make you fall down the stairs.
- Do not place a plate on top of another while you are eating. It will make you unable to pay off your debts.
- Do not say bad things to your parents. It is a really bad sin.
- Do not let toddlers who cannot talk yet eat fish. It will make their gum bleed.
- Do not sweep dirt out of the front entrance. It will make all your money go away.
- Do not sweep at night. It is bad luck.
- Do not clean the spider web at night. You will lose all your money.
- Do not open an umbrella in the house. It will make you bald.
- Do not put valuable things away at night. The ghost will see and steal it.
Do not keep broken Buddha images in the house. It will cause your family to be separated. - Do not tell other people about your bad dream when you are eating. If you do it will come true.
- Do not rock an empty cradle. Your child will become sick.
- Do not throw anything onto the roof of the house. It is bad luck.
- Do not tap a kid on his head. It will make him a bed wetter.
- Do not enter a house through the window. Bad luck will come to that house.
- Do not allow wedding guests break any plates or glasses. It will cause the couple to become separated.
- Do not plough on holy days because the rice won’t grow.
Hygiene
- Do not spit in the toilet because you will have a mole on your lips.
- Do not spit towards the sky because it is a sin.
- Do not pluck your eyebrows during the evening because bad things will happen to you.
Laying down and sleeping
- Do not sleep with your legs crossed because you will have a suffocating feeling in your dreams
- Do not put your hand across your forehead because nobody will love you.
- Do not eat while lying down because you will become a snake in your next life.
- Do not sleep naked because the angel won’t protect you.
- Do not lie down with one knee up because a very violent class of demon will suck your blood.
- Do not sleep under the beam of the house because the ghost will possess you easily.
- Do not sleep near the threshold of the house because you will have a suffocating feeling in your dreams
- Do not sleep on the gaps between the floorboards because a ghost will drag you down the hole.
- Do not count the stars while lying down because it will make your life short.
- Do not sleep in the kitchen because you will marry an old maid/man.
- Do not sleep in the early evening because the ghost will come and take your soul.
- Do not sleep while the sun is setting because you will never get up.
- Do not sleep with your head pointing west because that is where ghosts live.
- Do not lay down and read a book because it will make you stupid.
Love and Marriage
- Do not take off a ring from someone else finger because you will be taking away the people they love.
- Do not get married on odd numbered months. It is a bad omen for your marriage.
Religion
- Do not sit higher than a monk because it is a sin.
- Do not sit on the big water jars because it is a sin.
- Do not count off the names of people that have died because you will be next.
- Do not keep anything belonging to the temple inside your house because a disaster will happen to you.
- Do not offer the same food to your dead ancestors and to the monks because you will then rot in hell.
- Do not pick flowers in the temple grounds. You will go to hell when you die.
- Don’t smell the flowers you are offering to a monk or for Buddha. If you do, something bad will happen to your nose.
- Do not set up a spirit house in the shadow of a house. The owner of the house won’t be successful.
- Do not insult a Buddha image. You will go to hell.
- Do not spit or complain about the smell at a funeral. Bad things will happen to you.
- Do not wear your amulet when you go to the toilet. If you do so it will no longer be sacred.
- Do not kill yourself. It is a very bad sin.
- Do not point your finger at a monk. You will lose your finger.
- Do not insult or say bad things to a monk. In the next life you will be deaf and dumb.
Washing Superstitions
- Do not wash your clothes on the same day a relation is cremated, because the ghost will come and take you away
- Do not wash your clothes during the night-time because you will become sick whenever you wear these clothes
- Do not wash the mosquito net in the canal because a crocodile will attack you
- Do not wash the plates of food that a neighbor gave you because you will hate each other
- Do not wash your plates at night-time because you will wash away your money
- Do not wash your hands together with other people because you will die together
- Do not wash your rice cooker at night-time because you should save some for the house ghost
Later times in Thailand - Living in Chiang Mai as a student
Thannon Tha Pae (Tha Pae Street)
The city of Chiang Mai is very cozy and thanks to its small size it's very easy to travel through. The heart of the city is just the exact surface where long time ago was the walled city. Now only few pieces of walls are still standing, but the water channels that once surrounded the walled city are still there. So, when you walk around the city, you'll find yourself walking around a perfect square drawn by the water channels. On every side of the old walled city you'll meet on your path about 2-3 gates. In our days probably the main one is the Tha Pae Gate. Across Tha Pae Gate there are the two main streets of the city (cars can't cross the Gate, but there's a new street about 20 meters from it). If you're coming from the "outer city" and you'll be going to Tha Pae Gate, you'll be driving on the Thanon Tha Pae (Tha Pae Street), but as soon as you'll get through the Gate and you'll be inside the City, you'll be on Thanon Ratchadamnoen. Seen that these two streets were the two I like the most, I'll show you some temples standing there. The city of Chiang Mai is famous for its amount of temples. People said that in Chiang Mai you can find as many temples as you can find in Bangkok, but this city is so much smaller... So, it makes look the city like an "Holy City". I can't tell if this tip about the number of temples is true, but make sure that when you're in Chiang Mai you are stunned by the many temples you can see. On almost every corner you'll see temples, some of them small, while some very huge. In this group of pictures you can see Thanon Tha Pae, with its typical car traffic. This street was quite close to my hotel and here people could buy certified silk. Seen that I'm not a "silk expert", I just went to buy it here, in shops where they show a certification of real silk (without risk of buying nylon silk). Already in the beginning of the street, walking down it, there is the Wat Mahavan. One funny tip, the monk in the first two pictures is the same. That day we walked the same street and he's in many of my pictures. My friends believe that I followed him... In the third picture was taken in the Wat U Sai Kham temple and you can see the three Jade Buddha (One is very dark and you can hardly see it in this picture). I liked this temple, maybe because it was one of "my discoveries". A day, while having dinner into a restaurant on the Thanon Tha Pae I just found indications about this temple that was in a small street on a side the main one. I checked on my guide and I discovered that it had these beautiful statues, and this, for a moment, made me feel like I discovered something mysterious that not many other people knew. At least, it was out of range for those that didn’t read the Lonely Planet guide and didn’t notice that big board on the street with over written “Jade Buddha Temple – This way”.
Chiang Mai - The Temples of Thanon Ratchadamnoen
As soon you'll cross the Tha Pae Gate you'll find yourself in the Thanon Ratchadamnoen. This street crosses the whole old City from a wall to the opposite one. It just stop a block before the wall, where there's the biggest temple of the city. So, somehow, it's like the street that from the Gate will take you straight to the main temple complex. Along the street you'll see many smaller temples. I found very interesting the perfect blend among temples, houses, shops, offices and hotels. For example, many times the same walled courtyard is shared by temples, shops and parking. So, this is like to show how the religion blends into everything you meet on your way. The first picture of this group was taken to the Wat Chai Phra Kiat temple. I've got there in a day when monks were praying. I've good time to talk with a guy about the way to pray of Buddhist people. It's nice that often prayers are sung. Later I moved to the Wat Phra Singh temple complex. This is a large courtyard with many temples standing there. In more there are also many houses for the monks and also offices of monks. In the Wat Phra Singh there is a main temple (the one in the last picture of this group) and many smaller ones. Between few temples there is also a white pagoda called "The White Elephant Monument". In fact, in the Buddist religion, the day that Buddha will be back on Earth will be announced by a White Elephant. All these temples are very nice and this place is also very quiet. The day that I visited this place for the first time, while I was picturing a temple I was called by a group of ladies (about 40 and 50 yo). On the beginning I thought that I did a sacrilege picturing a temple (even if many people were doing the same), but then they were smiling, so I thought that they wished that I'd take them a picture. Soon later I discovered that they didn't want that I'd take them a picture, but they wanted a picture with me. So, they were 3-4 hugging me with an old guy taking pictures... They made me feel like a superstar, or maybe a strange animal to be pictured. Ok, I prefer the Superstar thing. People here are so friendly, and I love this country.
Thai Spirit Houses
Spirit Worship is as old as mankind itself. In Thailand the phenomenon goes back to the ancient days when the Thais were beginning their slow migration from the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam to all parts of the Southeast Asian region. Spirit Worship, or Animism, was a religion by which the entire world lived at one time, and when Buddhism came to Southeast Asia, it developed side by side with the ancient spirit religion. Today, many of the old animistic beliefs are intertwined with Buddhism and some animistic practices still exist in Thailand. One of these which is practiced by every Thai is the Spirit House.
The Spirit House can be seen at a prominent spot outside every business establishment in the country. It can be seen on a pedestal in Front of every hotel. It dresses the corner garden area of a restaurant, the Front of a bar, disco or put Spirit houses are even seen at outdoor food markets. They are built on the grounds of Buddhist temples. outside caves in the mountains, near Fishing ponds in the valleys, and occasionally in the middle of an otherwise uninhabited forest. Most importantly, however. the Thai Spirit House is built at the yard of every home.
The purpose of the Spirit House is to provide an appealing shelter for the spirits, or celestial beings, who would otherwise reside in the heavens, Find a place in large trees, or in caves, cliffs. waterfalls or other natural surroundings. According to folklore, the spirits themselves are either good or evil, but most are just finicky and mischievous, demanding respect from humans and capable of disastrous interferences if they don't get their way, The spirit of the land, for example. expects to be informed when a human intends to start a business or engage in improvements to an existing business. If the spirit is not informed, and if the human does not respectfully request permission, the spirit can indeed cause the venture to fail.
The style and construction of a spirit house may be as simple as a typical Thai-style shelter or as elaborate as a Thai palace. The exact style often depends on two Factors, which spirit the person wishes to invite and how much one can afford for the spirit house construction. Construction itself is a specialized field and only an expert Spirit House builder would be considered for proper construction. His responsibility, in addition to construction, is to be familiar with all the necessary rituals involved so that the spirit to be invited will find it an acceptable earthly abode.
The house may be permanent or temporary, made of wood, concrete or brick. At certain times the spirits are invited down only for special occasions and this is when temporary spirit houses are built. the size may vary from the very small to a large, walk-in, ground-level affair. The houses are finished with statues, small figures, or symbols of many other sorts in the center within the spirit house. In addition, there may be various animal figures, such as elephants or hones; figures of people, such as a married couple or other images; and even furniture. Outside, around the balcony that usually surrounds a spirit house, incense holders, candle sticks, and vases for flowers are placed.
There are countless gods and other celestial beings in Thai folklore, The primary spirits the Thai's are concerned with, however, are called the Phra Bhum Jowthee , or Guardian Spirits of the Land, There are nine of guardians and each offers a different type of protection. The Guardian of the House and the Guardian of the Gardens are so frequently consulted with and prayed to that they are the only two that have permanent spirit houses built for them.
The Guardian of the House is the spirit that watches over and protects the home. It is uncertain whether there is one spirit that watches over all homes, or if individual spirits do this for each home. However, all you have to do in Thailand is look around and you'll see that every home has a spirit house. Thai families who believe wholeheartedly in the spirit house and its importance light incense every morning and ask the spirit to watch over and protect the home. Others do it on ritual occasions.
The Guardian of the House includes the spirit or spirits who help In business matters, and spirit houses at business sites are of the same type. More often than not in Thailand, the business and the home are in the same location.
The Guardian of the Gardens also has a permanent spirit house shelter built for him. This spirit watches over and protects the natural surroundings, yards, gardens and orchards of the Thai family. There is a separate spirit for rice fields, so the Guardian of Gardens should not be mistaken for a spirit protecting all of agriculture. Rather, nature, flowers, plans and fruit are so important to the Thais that the Guardian of the Gardens receives a separate and permanent house of his own.
The other seven Guardians of the Land are Protector of Gates and Stairwells, who is believed to reside in the home doorstep which explains why one should never step on the doorstep of a Thai home; Protector of Animals ; Protector of Storehouses and Barns; Protector of Forests; Mountains; fields and Paddles; Protector of Temples; Protector of Waters ; and Protector of Military Forts and Defence.
The various temporary spirit houses built at times requiring the intercession of a particular spirit can be constructed at any time and at any place.
Offerings to a spirit house and the spirit who is intended to reside within can be nearly anything. The traditional offerings include flower garlands, betel leaves, bananas, rice, chicken, duck, and a wide range of other edibles and non edibles. Candles are often used while incense is usually lit daily before a spirit house.
There are spirit houses everywhere In Thailand. Some very famous ones such as the one that houses the Chiangmai City Pillar are large enough to walk into. A visit to Wat Chedi Luang in Chiangmai will give you an opportunity to see it for yourself. At these people go to make offerings and request aid from the spirits to help them in monumental tasks such as bringing in the coming rice harvest. The ritual involved at such events often involves hundreds of people with a common goal and the spirit is called upon to help all. In return the people make promises of future offerings in the event that they are successful. Thus. a return visit to repay the spirit for his help is another important part of the ritual.
The Spirit House is one of the most fundamental features of Thai life even today and it is easily the most obvious. In Thailand devotion to Buddhism most often shows itself in ritual within a temple while Thai devotion to the spirits and especially the Guardians of the land and most often shows itself in their own front yards.
Bibliography:
http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/spirit_house.html
Spirit Worship is as old as mankind itself. In Thailand the phenomenon goes back to the ancient days when the Thais were beginning their slow migration from the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam to all parts of the Southeast Asian region. Spirit Worship, or Animism, was a religion by which the entire world lived at one time, and when Buddhism came to Southeast Asia, it developed side by side with the ancient spirit religion. Today, many of the old animistic beliefs are intertwined with Buddhism and some animistic practices still exist in Thailand. One of these which is practiced by every Thai is the Spirit House.
The Spirit House can be seen at a prominent spot outside every business establishment in the country. It can be seen on a pedestal in Front of every hotel. It dresses the corner garden area of a restaurant, the Front of a bar, disco or put Spirit houses are even seen at outdoor food markets. They are built on the grounds of Buddhist temples. outside caves in the mountains, near Fishing ponds in the valleys, and occasionally in the middle of an otherwise uninhabited forest. Most importantly, however. the Thai Spirit House is built at the yard of every home.
The purpose of the Spirit House is to provide an appealing shelter for the spirits, or celestial beings, who would otherwise reside in the heavens, Find a place in large trees, or in caves, cliffs. waterfalls or other natural surroundings. According to folklore, the spirits themselves are either good or evil, but most are just finicky and mischievous, demanding respect from humans and capable of disastrous interferences if they don't get their way, The spirit of the land, for example. expects to be informed when a human intends to start a business or engage in improvements to an existing business. If the spirit is not informed, and if the human does not respectfully request permission, the spirit can indeed cause the venture to fail.
The style and construction of a spirit house may be as simple as a typical Thai-style shelter or as elaborate as a Thai palace. The exact style often depends on two Factors, which spirit the person wishes to invite and how much one can afford for the spirit house construction. Construction itself is a specialized field and only an expert Spirit House builder would be considered for proper construction. His responsibility, in addition to construction, is to be familiar with all the necessary rituals involved so that the spirit to be invited will find it an acceptable earthly abode.
The house may be permanent or temporary, made of wood, concrete or brick. At certain times the spirits are invited down only for special occasions and this is when temporary spirit houses are built. the size may vary from the very small to a large, walk-in, ground-level affair. The houses are finished with statues, small figures, or symbols of many other sorts in the center within the spirit house. In addition, there may be various animal figures, such as elephants or hones; figures of people, such as a married couple or other images; and even furniture. Outside, around the balcony that usually surrounds a spirit house, incense holders, candle sticks, and vases for flowers are placed.
There are countless gods and other celestial beings in Thai folklore, The primary spirits the Thai's are concerned with, however, are called the Phra Bhum Jowthee , or Guardian Spirits of the Land, There are nine of guardians and each offers a different type of protection. The Guardian of the House and the Guardian of the Gardens are so frequently consulted with and prayed to that they are the only two that have permanent spirit houses built for them.
The Guardian of the House is the spirit that watches over and protects the home. It is uncertain whether there is one spirit that watches over all homes, or if individual spirits do this for each home. However, all you have to do in Thailand is look around and you'll see that every home has a spirit house. Thai families who believe wholeheartedly in the spirit house and its importance light incense every morning and ask the spirit to watch over and protect the home. Others do it on ritual occasions.
The Guardian of the House includes the spirit or spirits who help In business matters, and spirit houses at business sites are of the same type. More often than not in Thailand, the business and the home are in the same location.
The Guardian of the Gardens also has a permanent spirit house shelter built for him. This spirit watches over and protects the natural surroundings, yards, gardens and orchards of the Thai family. There is a separate spirit for rice fields, so the Guardian of Gardens should not be mistaken for a spirit protecting all of agriculture. Rather, nature, flowers, plans and fruit are so important to the Thais that the Guardian of the Gardens receives a separate and permanent house of his own.
The other seven Guardians of the Land are Protector of Gates and Stairwells, who is believed to reside in the home doorstep which explains why one should never step on the doorstep of a Thai home; Protector of Animals ; Protector of Storehouses and Barns; Protector of Forests; Mountains; fields and Paddles; Protector of Temples; Protector of Waters ; and Protector of Military Forts and Defence.
The various temporary spirit houses built at times requiring the intercession of a particular spirit can be constructed at any time and at any place.
Offerings to a spirit house and the spirit who is intended to reside within can be nearly anything. The traditional offerings include flower garlands, betel leaves, bananas, rice, chicken, duck, and a wide range of other edibles and non edibles. Candles are often used while incense is usually lit daily before a spirit house.
There are spirit houses everywhere In Thailand. Some very famous ones such as the one that houses the Chiangmai City Pillar are large enough to walk into. A visit to Wat Chedi Luang in Chiangmai will give you an opportunity to see it for yourself. At these people go to make offerings and request aid from the spirits to help them in monumental tasks such as bringing in the coming rice harvest. The ritual involved at such events often involves hundreds of people with a common goal and the spirit is called upon to help all. In return the people make promises of future offerings in the event that they are successful. Thus. a return visit to repay the spirit for his help is another important part of the ritual.
The Spirit House is one of the most fundamental features of Thai life even today and it is easily the most obvious. In Thailand devotion to Buddhism most often shows itself in ritual within a temple while Thai devotion to the spirits and especially the Guardians of the land and most often shows itself in their own front yards.
Bibliography:
http://www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/spirit_house.html
Chiang Mai - School Life
Chiang Mai - Thai Massage School: The main reason for which I came and spent so long time in Chiang Mai was that I wanted to have a Thai Massage Course. Here I met really wonderful people, both as teachers and also as friends. The course was long and sometimes hard, but it was worth. Now I like to use my massage skills to help friends and relatives (and I hope many customers too). Seen that in the school there was only vegetarian food and herbal tea (not real tea and not even coffee!), often with some of my friends after lunch had a run to a coffee shop there near. Seen that we hadn't time to change our clothes, we always did all the way in our massage uniforms. We often though that we looked like a bunch of mad people just escaped by a mad house. I guess how many people thought of us in this way. We even had our name on our uniform! Yes, the “escaping mad fellows” picture now is complete. Said this, I’ve got very close with this people, and as we were all students, we started to spend time together after school too. The days of the course went by very fast, and soon, too soon, it came the graduation time. This meant that I had to wish “Goodbye” to my friends, to pack my bags, and to leave my dear Chiang Mai, hoping to come back there again. My staying at the TMC School had been a life-changing experience. I came there as a frustrated employee in desperate need of holidays. I left the place enriched of an improved self awareness, knowledge, a Diploma, new friends and a much more relaxed feeling. That’s why I’m grateful to the TMC School and my teacher, Miss Karn, too.
After School - Day 1
With this part of my travel diary I’ll take you to the Thai North/East coastline. To be more exact, it's quite close to the Cambodian border. After my long staying in the North of Thailand, I still had a few days to spend. In my original plans, I thought to go to the island of Koh Samui, but then there were problems on finding place on a plane. In more, I thought that, seen that I was alone, it'd be better to plan some days on the move, where I should spend only few hours staying on the same spot, and not lazy days on the same place. Ok, the gorgeous Koh Samui can wait for my coming back there with friends. So, I decided to go to a place that I only heard to talk to. I decided to go to Pattaya. People said that it was an exaggerate place. Seen that often people like to make things bigger than they are, I thought it would be just like the Italian city of Rimini, but I was wrong. People were right. As soon as I've got there, I thought "Damn, I don't like this place", the next hour I was thinking "Damn, I hate this place" and one hour later I was already buying tickets for my next trips far from this place. Anyway, seen that I spent time here too, let me talk to you about the city of Pattaya. I hope you'll like this part of my diary.
Pattaya - Strolling around Pattaya at day
While I was traveling across Thailand, I decided to step into the city of Pattaya. This is a fast growing city, placed on the North/East coast of Thailand quite close to the Cambodian border. The first feeling that I had when I've got here, was the hot air. In fact, the bus that took me there had freezing air condition, and as soon as I went out of it, I felt the difference between the top North and there. Here air was hot, wet and bad smelling. The smell of sulfure was mixed with the one of still water and exhaust gas from cars. The clean streets of the Northern cities were a memory, because in Pattaya the streets were very dirty of garbage. As soon as I've got here, seen that I didn't want to waste more time in hotel, I decided to get moving. I knew that on the hill on the East side of the city there was a temple. So, first I went through the small street where I had my hotel. I entered to the main street and headed East. Soon I went out of the city and I started to climb the hill. The climb wasn't much hard, but only the hot and humid air was cutting away the strength. So, beside the hot that made me weaker, what I seen made me feel pity. All the way up, especially a piece that crossed a place with woods, was packed with prostitutes nested among the garbage. It was miserable to walk and being called all the time by them. Soon later I've got out of the main street and finally turned into a smaller one. Here the sidewalks looked a bit better than before and even all people I could see were just tourists. In fact, after a short climb, I reached the temple. On a side of the square before of the temple, there is a pretty sight over the city of Pattaya. In the first three pictures you can see the city from the hill. Here I met two guys that took me the third picture. Once that I walked through the gate of the temple I found myself in a very short walkway leading in the heart of the temple. On the sides there were boys and girls selling birds. The meaning is that you can buy a bird, you can whisper it something and then set it free. While flying to the sky, he'll tell to Buddha what you whispered to it. It's interesting to see how many cats are there around too. Going straight to the temple I reached the main courtyard. Here, in the centre of it, there's a small temple. You can see it in the fourth picture. When you walk into a temple, you should mind to be covered with your clothes. There were some people that weren’t much covered and Thai people didn't like that much. When I was there, I decided to enter the small temple. Once I was inside, I left some money and took a small piece of gold that I could stick to a statue of Buddha, it's told that you can stick it in the place where you need a miracle. So, I tried this too, hoping to please Buddha. The problem was that I was very sweat and the thin leaf of gold stuck to my finger and it turned into a golden paste that I ended with spreading it on the statue than sticking it as Thais did before me. I hope no Thai seen me doing that. After this, I went to have a walk around the courtyard and watch to the beautiful statues on the sides. Each statue was showing lord Buddha standing in different position, and each statue was marked with a different day of the week. My trip continued going farther on the hill. On the end of the street there is the building of "Radio Pattaya" and the statue of the Prince. You can see them both in the fifth picture. After seeing this, I just had a stop for a cappuccino. In fact, there was a small open-air coffee shop that had the best cappuccino that I had in Thailand, it was so wonderful, tasty and foamy, definitely a cappuccino masterpiece. Anyway, air kept on being hot and wet, and this meant that soon would come rain. In fact, faster than I thought it started raining. On the beginning it was just an heavy rain, but soon it turned into a tropical storm. I took out my cap from my backpack and I started to walk all my way back to my hotel. The most time passed, the stronger it became. The best thing is that the rain was warm! It was like taking a very long shower. Anyway, the thought of the air pollution didn't make me enjoy much that rain on my skin. So, while crossing that storm, I was grateful to my waterproof cap. After that, I could finally say how a tropical storm feels like. After it, many more followed in the following years and any time I remembered that first one as the less strong one. Monsoon can be quite strong when they wish.
Pattaya - The waterside of the Walking Street
Once in Pattaya I discovered that the city is a place grown-up to satisfy any kind of people vices. That's not a good place for faint-hearten, young couples and families. But the story of the city tells that until 20 years ago, this place was a village of fishermen. Then it grew fast in the way that is now. Next to my hotel there was the heart of the Pattaya nightlife, the so called "Walking street". Beside the night clubs and beer bars (good luck that I like beer!) and more, not much hidden, kinds of entertainment, there were also some very good and cheap fish restaurants. I went in my favorite one a couple of times. This group of pictures were taken from it, to the waterside of the Walking street. In fact, here you can see how it could look until some decades ago when it was a fishermen village. Sheltered by the restaurants, you can still see some housing where people still live on the water. In the first picture of this group you can see a small temple that I liked very much. It's a Spirit House made on water. It looks like it was made to have some blessing for the living on the sea. In this restaurant I had really great food, but look out that, if a day you go to Thailand, you have to say "Mài Pèt". In fact, Thai food can be very spicy. I'm used to spicy food, but this was too much even for me. So, if you say "Mài Pèt", that means "Not spicy" and you'll still have spicy food, but not as much as it could be. So, be careful when Thai waiters say, smiling “Ok, not much spicy shrimps, just medium” as for a westerner could mean “Napalm Shrimps”. Or you keep eating that spicy until you get accustomed, or until you chili your tongue off. So, if you go and eat by yourself in Thai restaurants, you'd better learn this sentence soon!
Pan-Fried Shrimp Cake Recipe
Ingredients
12 ounces of peeled raw baby shrimp
1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
1 medium shallot, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons rice flour
Oil for pan frying
Directions:
1. Blitz the garlic and shallots in a food processor and then add the shrimp, sugar, salt, pepper and rice flour and pulse until it becomes a paste.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan on high heat and scoop the shrimp paste directly into the hot oil.
3. Flatten each scoop of shrimp paste with a spatula.
4. Pan fry both sides until golden brown, about three minutes per side.
5. Serve with fish sauce and enjoy!
Ingredients
12 ounces of peeled raw baby shrimp
1 clove of garlic, roughly chopped
1 medium shallot, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pepper
2 tablespoons rice flour
Oil for pan frying
Directions:
1. Blitz the garlic and shallots in a food processor and then add the shrimp, sugar, salt, pepper and rice flour and pulse until it becomes a paste.
2. Heat oil in a frying pan on high heat and scoop the shrimp paste directly into the hot oil.
3. Flatten each scoop of shrimp paste with a spatula.
4. Pan fry both sides until golden brown, about three minutes per side.
5. Serve with fish sauce and enjoy!
Pattaya - The Walking Street
The small city of Pattaya grew quickly in the last 20 years. It all begun when, over 20 years ago was settled here an USA Militay base. Soldiers found this small corner of Thailand like a piece of heaven and started to advertise it. So, on the beginning it turned attractive among soldiers, and as long as the news about this place went around, the more of it was spoiled. Much people started to come, and the city reacted growing quickly. Many building grew up quickly to house all the tourists that were coming every year. Unluckily, in spite of that many places grew up still keeping respect for the same place, here it didn't happen. Here all was focused on entertainment and holidays making. This was good for increase the flow of money, but the result was devastating for the city. As I wrote on the beginning of this part of diary, I was told by people that this place wasn't good, but I never listen to people and I went to check it out by myself (and this wouldn't be a good report if I didn't talk about a shameful place like Pattaya, right?). I remember a sentence from the book "The Da Vici Code" by Dan Brown, that I could use to describe Pattaya too, in fact this city is for Thailand "like a scar on the face of a beautiful lady". Before describing the pictures I'll give you two short descriptions of the city, the first about the environment and the second about nightlife. As I wrote, the city is a fast grown place, and like many places like this, it turns to be a concrete-and-bricks labyrinth. Two main streets cross the city from North to South and on the sides of them grew mainly hotels, clubs and housings. The traffic is pretty intense, but somehow flows good. The main problems are connected with the pollution. In fact, the heavy car traffic fill the air of exhaust gas. Seen that the sewer system doesn't look like draining too good, in some places the smell coming from the sewers is quite strong. Many buildings were built-up quickly with cheap concrete and often you see facades that aren't looking very good anymore. Seen that this city is on the sea, I couldn't keep far from it, but as soon as stepped on the sandy beach, something stopped me. When I stepped on the beach I thought "Damn, this is a landfill!". In the night here people come to party, prostitutes come here "to work", and in the daytime people come here taking the sun, and all of them, fill the beach with garbage. Despite there are few people trying to clean it, it's worthless. Now the beach is a blend of sand and litter. The sea water is also bad smelling and very dirty, when you step near you can see a weird foam floating on it. This place is so much far from what people think of a tropical holiday place. The life in Pattaya is based on the nightlife, and the nightlife is mainly based on nightclubs. Almost every nightclub is nothing more than a place packed with girls calling you for, first asking you to offer them a drink and then to charge you for some adult entertainment. I crossed all the city in the very first day that I was there. I can say that the north part is slightly better than the south one. Of course, I had my hotel in the south. My hotel was placed on the beginning of "The Walking Street". While walking around the place, I discovered that on the right hand side of my block there was the gay neighborhood (The Boyz Town), with only gay-oriented clubs and bars, while on my left hand side was a straight neighborhood. Now a funny thing. This one happened to me, but as I never been back in Pattaya I can’t say if it’s still so. So, first of all, many streets are packed with tailors that sell cheap low quality dresses and suits. Outside shops there are guys calling you with books showing pictures of the clothes that they can craft. In the pictures that these guys are showing, you can see some good-looking men wearing good clothes. It happened to me that a night I was walking down the beach street, more or less, near the gay neighbourhood. A guy from a tailor shop called me, he shown me the same sample book with the usual guys wearing clothes. No, I looked carefully and the guys were naked. Ok, they were wearing some strings and maybe something stamp-sized before them. So, I wondered if they can even tailor you the right (male) lover? I went by and few seconds later I broke into a loud laugh. Soon later again, I confirmed the idea to leave, but I couldn’t. I still couldn’t stay in a place where the only attraction, if I can call it so, is the mercenary sex. But the hotel prices are so low, while my funds were low too, that I couldn’t afford more roads trips with the risk of having to pay some more expensive accommodation somewhere else.
Thailand has much more to offer and I couldn’t stick into a place with the lovers-selling-tailors and that sort of stuff. Anyway, if people will come here, I could suggest (but the bars are changing their owners and names with the blink of an eye) the "Hot Tuna" bar, famous for the TVs broadcasting sport and many pool tables to play and also many other table games (but often with the game you have to "buy" also the girl that will play against you) and the "Art Cafè" that is the last one of the walking street, this is small, cozy, with very good music and ugly but absolutely funny girls (if you're lucky while drinking beer you can have for free cake or maybe seaweeds). Now I'll tell you about this group of pictures. This group of pictures were all taken in the walking street. Starting from near my hotel, where was the beginning of the street, you could find many good restaurants and a few clubs. As long as you go along the Walking street, you'd find always more nightclubs. The prices are all about the same, so picking one or the other is just the same. The only different thing is the music played there. The names are captivating, but beside it, it's just one like the other, so you'll see names like "Angelwitch", "Cats", "Dollhouse", "Living Dolls Showcase", etc... As I said one is like the other, but only one differs from the others and it's "Dollhouse" because here there's also a Thai Box ring and you can sit and watch Thai Box fights. Walking down the street, reaching the end, again will appear some more restaurant. The problem here could be to find a place where having a beer without being asked by some girl/boy to buy for her/him a drink and after it, with her/him asking you to walk her/him at your place. The good club is the last one, the "Art Cafè", where you can also buy not-so-good fakes of famous paintings. But it's worth going there for the funny three girls working there. When you reach the end of the walking street, you'll find yourself in a square, if you turn left, you'll reach the small port, where you can buy tickets for a ferry leaving the place. As you see, I didn't enjoy Pattaya that much. I hope I shown what I felt for that place. For good luck, it was the only place that disappointed me in all my journey in Thailand.
Thailand has much more to offer and I couldn’t stick into a place with the lovers-selling-tailors and that sort of stuff. Anyway, if people will come here, I could suggest (but the bars are changing their owners and names with the blink of an eye) the "Hot Tuna" bar, famous for the TVs broadcasting sport and many pool tables to play and also many other table games (but often with the game you have to "buy" also the girl that will play against you) and the "Art Cafè" that is the last one of the walking street, this is small, cozy, with very good music and ugly but absolutely funny girls (if you're lucky while drinking beer you can have for free cake or maybe seaweeds). Now I'll tell you about this group of pictures. This group of pictures were all taken in the walking street. Starting from near my hotel, where was the beginning of the street, you could find many good restaurants and a few clubs. As long as you go along the Walking street, you'd find always more nightclubs. The prices are all about the same, so picking one or the other is just the same. The only different thing is the music played there. The names are captivating, but beside it, it's just one like the other, so you'll see names like "Angelwitch", "Cats", "Dollhouse", "Living Dolls Showcase", etc... As I said one is like the other, but only one differs from the others and it's "Dollhouse" because here there's also a Thai Box ring and you can sit and watch Thai Box fights. Walking down the street, reaching the end, again will appear some more restaurant. The problem here could be to find a place where having a beer without being asked by some girl/boy to buy for her/him a drink and after it, with her/him asking you to walk her/him at your place. The good club is the last one, the "Art Cafè", where you can also buy not-so-good fakes of famous paintings. But it's worth going there for the funny three girls working there. When you reach the end of the walking street, you'll find yourself in a square, if you turn left, you'll reach the small port, where you can buy tickets for a ferry leaving the place. As you see, I didn't enjoy Pattaya that much. I hope I shown what I felt for that place. For good luck, it was the only place that disappointed me in all my journey in Thailand.
After School Day 2 - The Journey to Koh Samet
Ban Phi - The port to the islands
The day of my coming to the coast, I decided that it’d be a mere waste of time to spend the last days of the holidays in Pattaya. So, I decided to schedule some day trips in a way to spend only the night in my low-cost-but-very-good hotel in Pattaya. So, the closer beautiful place where to go would be the islands in the Rayong region. The same afternoon of my arrival in Pattaya, I searched for a Travel Agency to find a way to move away. So, I entered the one that looked more promising. It was empty. Nobody behind the counter, no clients. I turned to go out, when a voice called me “I’m cohming!”. I turned and the owner (I learnt it later) appeared from a small door behind the counter. A tight tiger dress with miniskirt was squeezing her before me, she stood there with her long black hair and just done make up. She pulled her black hair back and started to speak “Hellooo Sir! How can Hi help yhu?” she was a ladyboy. In Thailand is quite common to meet ladyboys. She informed me about many trips and connection and then she helped me to plan all. Then I told her that I also needed to find a cheap minivan for my coming back to Bangkok few days later. She shown me the advertisement of a minivan offered at a bit more than 1000 Baht. I asked about it, and she, first pulled her black hair back again, and then she said “Whyt! This prise is shit!” she made a call in which she said something impossible to understand and then, when she hung the phone, she pulled her black hair back again and smiling she said “Ok, yhu... This 600 Baht! Ok?” Of course, I took it! Then I had to wait for the next day.
The following morning I left Pattaya behind of my shoulders, and headed East with a small group that shared my same route (I still knew nobody of them). After about 45 minutes of motorway, we reached the small city of Ban Phi, in the Rayong region. Ban Phi, is a very small city, living of the commerce of its small port. Here live many fishermen and people working on the ferries that connect the mainland with the islands. Of course, there are many other commercial activities, but the port is still the heart of the city. Here, after a walk on the very long and not much safe pier, we took one of the many very colorful boats and we moved to the island. It was a great pleasure watching to those boats with their many colors in a such a clear sunny day. We entered the boat and after few minutes, with a loud roar, it first shook and then started to move forward. We were going toward the open sea across the port. Many fishing boats were coming to the port, while many more were already landed. Their colours were bright, somehow even beautifully violent for us not so accustomed to see boats painted in this way. We drifted through such a color board leaving a white line behind us, toward Ban Phi. Then, the foamy line broke, and with it, the land slid far. Far from us, as we gained the freedom of the open sea.
The day of my coming to the coast, I decided that it’d be a mere waste of time to spend the last days of the holidays in Pattaya. So, I decided to schedule some day trips in a way to spend only the night in my low-cost-but-very-good hotel in Pattaya. So, the closer beautiful place where to go would be the islands in the Rayong region. The same afternoon of my arrival in Pattaya, I searched for a Travel Agency to find a way to move away. So, I entered the one that looked more promising. It was empty. Nobody behind the counter, no clients. I turned to go out, when a voice called me “I’m cohming!”. I turned and the owner (I learnt it later) appeared from a small door behind the counter. A tight tiger dress with miniskirt was squeezing her before me, she stood there with her long black hair and just done make up. She pulled her black hair back and started to speak “Hellooo Sir! How can Hi help yhu?” she was a ladyboy. In Thailand is quite common to meet ladyboys. She informed me about many trips and connection and then she helped me to plan all. Then I told her that I also needed to find a cheap minivan for my coming back to Bangkok few days later. She shown me the advertisement of a minivan offered at a bit more than 1000 Baht. I asked about it, and she, first pulled her black hair back again, and then she said “Whyt! This prise is shit!” she made a call in which she said something impossible to understand and then, when she hung the phone, she pulled her black hair back again and smiling she said “Ok, yhu... This 600 Baht! Ok?” Of course, I took it! Then I had to wait for the next day.
The following morning I left Pattaya behind of my shoulders, and headed East with a small group that shared my same route (I still knew nobody of them). After about 45 minutes of motorway, we reached the small city of Ban Phi, in the Rayong region. Ban Phi, is a very small city, living of the commerce of its small port. Here live many fishermen and people working on the ferries that connect the mainland with the islands. Of course, there are many other commercial activities, but the port is still the heart of the city. Here, after a walk on the very long and not much safe pier, we took one of the many very colorful boats and we moved to the island. It was a great pleasure watching to those boats with their many colors in a such a clear sunny day. We entered the boat and after few minutes, with a loud roar, it first shook and then started to move forward. We were going toward the open sea across the port. Many fishing boats were coming to the port, while many more were already landed. Their colours were bright, somehow even beautifully violent for us not so accustomed to see boats painted in this way. We drifted through such a color board leaving a white line behind us, toward Ban Phi. Then, the foamy line broke, and with it, the land slid far. Far from us, as we gained the freedom of the open sea.
Koh Samet
The travel with the boat was quite short, in fact, it took a bit less than an hour to reach the island of Koh Samet. While sailing to the "Malibu Resort" that was the place where we landed, we had the chance to see part of the coastline of this island. During this trip along the coast we seen many resorts built on the shores, but they look quite mixed with the nature of the place and, at least, they don't burst out with high buildings... Of course, I'd prefer if there was much more wild nature. Anyway, one of the things that I liked the most of this place was the variety of landscapes that passed by, just before us. Every bay that we met on our sailing was different from the previous one. We could see rocky bays and beaches of white silky sand. It took to me only few minutes to fall in love with this lovely and peaceful place.
Koh Samet - Reef Diving
Once we reached the "Malibu Resort" we had time to have good relax. This time I just wanted to lay on the beach and relax. The beach was made of white silky sand and a few trees were on it, giving shadow to those who wanted lay and relax next to them. So, after a morning spent just laying, taking bath and eating mango fruit (here I bought the sweetest mango that I've ever eaten. Ok, I've never eaten one before going to Thailand). Just after dinner I was called by a guy of the "Malibu Resort" with whom I spent some time talking, while we were on the boat from Ban Phi. He came to me and asked me if I wished to join a group that was going to have diving into the reef. Seen that I love so much swimming and I also love to explore new places, I joined this trip for 150 Baht (3 euro). I had just time to take my stuff, put it into my backpack and I had to run to a speed boat. This group of people was quite big and were used two speed boats, so while going to the reef the sailors had a challenge on which one got there first. The sea was flat, but any small wave took us to jump. And any small jump felt like we were taking off to the sky, followed by a feeling of free fall down to the sea. Any jump was followed by an explosion of white foam and seawater drops sparkled into the air like hundreds rainbow crystals. The ride was exciting and at every jump I felt my adrenaline, that was already skyrocketing for the long adventure I was in, making me feel even higher. By the way, our boat was the best and we won. In the last picture of this group you can see the next speed boat. On the second boat there was almost only a group of Russians. By the way, I met the same Russians in next days in other islands, it looks like we had quite the same interests. But the small difference was that they travelled "in style", while I was with my "jumping from a ship to the next" as a crazy traveler style. As soon as we reached the first bay, the one that you can see in the second picture of this group, we were given some equipment and we jumped in water. Before jumping I noticed that someone took a life jacket, but I didn't want it. It was far too much pleasant to be in that wonderful sea, to wear a life jacket. In more, I'm quite good on diving and I couldn't dive wearing a life jacket. The sight of the reef was amazing, maybe it was because it was the first time that I've seen one. I liked to swim there, with fish following me and swimming all around me. After a short time, we were called back on our speed boat. While on board, I helped a Korean guy to get in, so soon later we started to talk and we became quite friends. Later he told me that he was surprised that I didn't use a life jacket to swim in a such deep water... My answer was that for me it was shocking that they used life jackets to swim in a such a shallow water. There I also met a Thai couple there that were very chatty and we had good fun together. The speed boat crew took us to another bay with even bigger reef, so we jumped again in water to dive into the reef. This time it was much bigger than the previous one. Here there were bigger fish and I had fun on following some. This reef was very various. It started from corals just under the surface of the water, to reef that was very deep underwater. Again, after some time in water we were called back on board. You can see this second reef bay in the third picture of this group. I was crazy of this island. Water was so nice, clean and warm, on this side of this island the nature still looked wild and landscapes were so nice. To tell all the truth, they look much like the "Cinque Terre" coastline that isn't far from Genova, but the nice smell of the tropical breeze and the tropical trees made Koh Samet even more magic.
Koh Samet - The Fish Clinic
While on the way that took us from the second reef bay to the resort, we stopped for some time to see "The Fish Clinic". Here you are free to walk in this facility with big pools in sea where fish are taken in care. Here are taken rare fish with injuries, like the turtles that you can see in these pictures and also the young sharks too. In this facility are also grown species in risk of extinction, just to ensure that these animals will be adult before being left free in sea. It was very interesting to be walking there and to see these animals.
Koh Samet - The Resort on the water
Near to the Fish Clinic there is a very small resort built in the middle of a bay, just on the water. Here we stopped for a short time. This is one of those places where you sit and you feel yourself falling into a very deep inner peace. The first picture of this group was taken from the common platform of this (very small) resort to the coast. Probably this is one of my favorite pictures that I took in Thailand. It was very nice, just be sitting there and relaxing, thinking about nothing else than to the gentle sound of the quiet sea.
Too early came the time for the boat ride that took me back at the “Malibu Resort”. The sailing wasn’t very long as, in spite we circled the island, the island itself isn’t much wide. So, we reached the beach from where we left, but there was nobody left. All the people of my group already left to come back to the mainland. I started to think that it wasn’t so bad to be stuck in such a gorgeous place, but I needed to sort the things out. Soon I recognized the guy that sold me the snorkeling trip and I spoke to him. He shown me a last speed boat on the beach where there was also the Korean guy. So I took a run and I jumped over it before it left. We were taken to a ferry already in deep water. We went on that big boat and we were taken back to Ban Phi. The heavenly Koh Samet slid away and I couldn’t help than to say “See you again, my dear Koh Samet!”.
We arrived at the Ban Phi port that the sun was setting, painting the colorful boats into an orange glow. The same seawater looked like sparkling of gold all around. The smell of the air turned from the fresh sea breeze into the smell of still seawater and oil, like every port does. We went down the boat and we walked back on the not-much-safe pier, coming back to a sleepy town in sepia colors. Melancholy for leaving such a beautiful place. The thrill of feeling the wooden boards creaking under our feet, thinking at the port water below us. Then we reached our minivan. The windshield looked like shaded, but then, when I entered, I discovered that the crazy driver pulled the air-con so strong that it became a freezer. The shading of the windows was the breath of the people inside that condensate on the glasses. I wrapped myself into the beach towel and we waited for leaving.
Soon later, but now with open windows, we left Ban-Phi to come back to the crazy Pattaya.
Too early came the time for the boat ride that took me back at the “Malibu Resort”. The sailing wasn’t very long as, in spite we circled the island, the island itself isn’t much wide. So, we reached the beach from where we left, but there was nobody left. All the people of my group already left to come back to the mainland. I started to think that it wasn’t so bad to be stuck in such a gorgeous place, but I needed to sort the things out. Soon I recognized the guy that sold me the snorkeling trip and I spoke to him. He shown me a last speed boat on the beach where there was also the Korean guy. So I took a run and I jumped over it before it left. We were taken to a ferry already in deep water. We went on that big boat and we were taken back to Ban Phi. The heavenly Koh Samet slid away and I couldn’t help than to say “See you again, my dear Koh Samet!”.
We arrived at the Ban Phi port that the sun was setting, painting the colorful boats into an orange glow. The same seawater looked like sparkling of gold all around. The smell of the air turned from the fresh sea breeze into the smell of still seawater and oil, like every port does. We went down the boat and we walked back on the not-much-safe pier, coming back to a sleepy town in sepia colors. Melancholy for leaving such a beautiful place. The thrill of feeling the wooden boards creaking under our feet, thinking at the port water below us. Then we reached our minivan. The windshield looked like shaded, but then, when I entered, I discovered that the crazy driver pulled the air-con so strong that it became a freezer. The shading of the windows was the breath of the people inside that condensate on the glasses. I wrapped myself into the beach towel and we waited for leaving.
Soon later, but now with open windows, we left Ban-Phi to come back to the crazy Pattaya.
After School Day 3 - Koh Larn
The day after my visit to Koh Samet I woke up in my very nice and clean room in my “Grand hotel” in Pattaya. The smell of the room felt like it was brand new, even if from the outside, the hotel didn’t look much alike. I woke up, still a bit of numb after the previous night outside. I opened the window curtains and I admired the beautiful sight of my window. A white-painted wall. The next building was standing there, at arm-reach. I tried to look up, but I couldn’t see even a bit of sky, so I couldn’t figure if the weather was good or bad.
I left the room and I had a very good continental breakfast. It was Milk, Coffee, Cereals with cold Milk, Jam, toasted Bread and Juice. Then I came back to my room, packed my backpack, and I went out of the gate of the hotel, where I was taken for the next trip in perfect time.
This time the trip would be to go and see Koh Larn, also known as "Coral Island". To reach Koh Larn, the best way is from Pattaya. My trip was made in a way that I had to take a long-tail boat that would take me to a bigger boat, then to an open water platform, and then take another ferry to Koh Larn. The “taking a long-tail boat” thing meant that the part of the deal included that I had to take a walk on the Pattaya sandy beach. The small minivan took us in North Pattaya, where we were asked to go to the beach, then we had to make a walk on the sand. Muddy-litterish-sand, dirty syrup-looking sea. Every step I thought about what were those hard things that I felt under my feel. This probably was a cork... This should be a paper label... This, probably is a piece of wood... This is definitely glass... Hmmm, this rubberish-wettish-lubish I prefer not guess.
Soon arrived our long-tails and I was asked to get on board of one with some westerners and what looked like an huge Indian family. I took advantage of the few steps in water to try to clean my feet from those things that were in the sand, but I’m not sure that the dirty water could help.
Then, when we were all on board, I hugged my backpack and we left to reach the first ferry. The ride was scary. In spite that the sea was quite calm, the Indian family didn’t know a simple thing and refused to learn it. The thing is that “If you’re on a damn small boat, you have to sit. If you move all on the same side, the boat will capsize”. They all jumped from a side to the other a few times. The young Indian bride said something “Hey, I’ve got SMS” and all the family jumped next to her. The top of the side of the boat touched the surface of the water. Then Miss. Groom’s Fat Mom said something like “Hey, I feel like we’re at sea!” and all the Indian guys crammed around her. The other side of the boat touching water and the fish at sea looked at us like saying “Hello!”. Then, when we reached the boat, with our sailor that was saying a big Thank You to his Lord Buddha he said “Phleess, one at thime! No all toogetther!”. The Indians jumped all together to the ferry. This time I grabbed a tire at the side of the ferry to not fall in water. So, now one of my rules is “Never go at sea on a long-tail boat with a family of Indians”.
Soon after our arrival, the boat started to pull forward and we left for our trip at sea, heading to the open water platform.
In this group of pictures I'm showing you again the Walking Street, Thanon Pattaya 2 and then the seaside. That day it was cloudy in the morning and then, after a storm, it became very sunny.
I left the room and I had a very good continental breakfast. It was Milk, Coffee, Cereals with cold Milk, Jam, toasted Bread and Juice. Then I came back to my room, packed my backpack, and I went out of the gate of the hotel, where I was taken for the next trip in perfect time.
This time the trip would be to go and see Koh Larn, also known as "Coral Island". To reach Koh Larn, the best way is from Pattaya. My trip was made in a way that I had to take a long-tail boat that would take me to a bigger boat, then to an open water platform, and then take another ferry to Koh Larn. The “taking a long-tail boat” thing meant that the part of the deal included that I had to take a walk on the Pattaya sandy beach. The small minivan took us in North Pattaya, where we were asked to go to the beach, then we had to make a walk on the sand. Muddy-litterish-sand, dirty syrup-looking sea. Every step I thought about what were those hard things that I felt under my feel. This probably was a cork... This should be a paper label... This, probably is a piece of wood... This is definitely glass... Hmmm, this rubberish-wettish-lubish I prefer not guess.
Soon arrived our long-tails and I was asked to get on board of one with some westerners and what looked like an huge Indian family. I took advantage of the few steps in water to try to clean my feet from those things that were in the sand, but I’m not sure that the dirty water could help.
Then, when we were all on board, I hugged my backpack and we left to reach the first ferry. The ride was scary. In spite that the sea was quite calm, the Indian family didn’t know a simple thing and refused to learn it. The thing is that “If you’re on a damn small boat, you have to sit. If you move all on the same side, the boat will capsize”. They all jumped from a side to the other a few times. The young Indian bride said something “Hey, I’ve got SMS” and all the family jumped next to her. The top of the side of the boat touched the surface of the water. Then Miss. Groom’s Fat Mom said something like “Hey, I feel like we’re at sea!” and all the Indian guys crammed around her. The other side of the boat touching water and the fish at sea looked at us like saying “Hello!”. Then, when we reached the boat, with our sailor that was saying a big Thank You to his Lord Buddha he said “Phleess, one at thime! No all toogetther!”. The Indians jumped all together to the ferry. This time I grabbed a tire at the side of the ferry to not fall in water. So, now one of my rules is “Never go at sea on a long-tail boat with a family of Indians”.
Soon after our arrival, the boat started to pull forward and we left for our trip at sea, heading to the open water platform.
In this group of pictures I'm showing you again the Walking Street, Thanon Pattaya 2 and then the seaside. That day it was cloudy in the morning and then, after a storm, it became very sunny.
Pattaya - The open sea, more or less
The most attractive activities to do in the daytime in Pattaya are all connected with water. In all the length of the beach you can rent jet skis and also take tickets for having some minutes of paragliding. This kind of parachuting is the one that you wear your parachute and you're pulled by a speed boat. So, if you wish to have this kind of parachuting, you have to go to an open water platform, where you can take the equipment, wear a parachute and have your flight. I didn't like the idea of doing this thing, but to reach Koh Larn, we had first to go to one of those platforms, and then, wait for the next ferry to Koh Larn. It was very impressive the way that this paragliding activity is organized. When somebody lands on the platform, there is personnel that just unplug the guy and lock the next. The speed boat just have time to slow down and then it can start again. So, during this staying on the platform waiting that our ferry was ready to load us in, I had time to see all this activity. After half of an hour of being there, in all that noise and mess, I was glad to leave it and to move to a more quiet place.
Koh Sak - The Coral Reef Walk
The travel
from the open water platform to the Koh Larn island was quite short. In fact,
the group of islands of Koh Larn is about 10 km off the Pattaya coastline.
While sailing to Koh Larn we first seen a small island called Koh Krok, you can
see it in the first picture of
this group. Behind Koh Krok there is Koh Larn that is the bigger one, you can
see it both in the first and second pictures
of this group. When still planning the trip of this day I decided to do one of
my typical crazy things. In fact, I was told in the travel agency where I
bought the day trip that, on the way to Koh Larn, I could have a stop near Koh
Sak island and here having deep diving into a reef. The Ladyboy behind the
counter of the Travel Agency told me “Youh deside go, Goh Lahn (the word “Koh”
is pronounced similar to “Goh”)? You to theeeese! Very Beautifool!” “What is
beautiful? Me?” and she answered “Yes, beautiful this... You see heh!”,
pointing her long zebra-coloured nails on the picture of the “sea-walk”
activity. Of course, I decided to do it. So, while going to Koh Larn, just
after Koh Krok, a small speed boat came closer to our ferry and a guy called
"Hei it's the boat for the sea-walk guy!!! Sea-walk guy come
here!!!", so I went on the run to the speed boat, and while still sailing
(they didn't stop even for a second) I jumped with my backpack to the speed
boat and we (me, the sailor and his boat) speeded away quickly far from the
ferry. People looked quite weird at me and the speed boat. I think they didn't
expect to see this kind of show, I mean, to see a guy jumping overboard to a
speed boat and going away from them. After few minutes of fast sailing with the
speed boat, we reached Koh Sak, that you can see it in
the fourth picture of this group. The island looks quite small and
also very beautiful. I was taken to a bigger boat equipped for the
"sea-walking". Here I could put my stuff into a locker and I was
ready for diving. I was given an helmet connected to the boat for air, I was
given a glove and I gave to my scuba-diver-guide an underwater camera that I
bought after signing in for this adventure (it was very cheap, about 10 Euro,
but you can't reload it when you finish the film). So, we jumped into the
water. With a ladder we started to going deep underwater. I was told it was
about 20 meters underwater, but I think there were much less. In fact, on the
underwater camera was written that it'd be waterproof only until 10 meters
underwater. So, seen that no water got in, I don't think it was even 20 meters
underwater. While there under, it felt quite strange. I was freely breathing
underwater, walking with my scuba-guide that was showing me around. He shown me
a beautiful coral reef, he shown me the underwater animals and then we fed
fish. That was such a fun doing that. We took out some food and I held it with
my gloved hand, as those little fish can’t recognize the difference between
food and my fingers... I was crazy of watching all these amazing animals from
close, just eating a few centimeters from my face. The sea-walk took about 20
minutes and then we came back to the boat. Here me and some other guys had time
to get ready, we were also offered a bottle of water and then, we jumped on the
next speed boat and were taken to Koh Larn.
Koh Larn - The Coral Island
The travel between Koh Sak and Koh Larn was quite short, especially because the speed boat took on sailing quite fast. We reached Koh Larn in about 10 minutes of sailing. Here, again, when we reached the beach, I was the only one that jumped down the boat. In fact, I joined again the people that started this trip to Koh Larn with me, while the other guys went on with their trip. This time, I jumped down the boat in water. I had water to my waist and keeping my backpack over my head I walked to the beach. Here I rented a bed, I left my stuff on it and I jumped back in water. This time I needed to swim. Koh Larn is a special island. In fact, despite people think it's nothing special (it's very close to Pattaya and people thinks it's spoiled), it's still much wild. In fact, seen that mountains fall straight into the sea, just like on my own land, here too there is not much free place to build. So, Koh Larn was a really pleasant discovery. Water was very clean and the white beach was very nice too. As soon as I reached the island I felt the difference between Koh Samet and here. In fact, here you could understand clearly why the island is called "The Coral Island". In fact, the sand feels a bit more coarse than in other places, but if you check it carefully, you'll notice that this sand is blended with coral. When you walk on it, you can feel small pieces of coral under your feet. As would say my massage teacher “That hees a beutifool pileeing!” that means, it’d be a very good way to have foot peeling. It was really a nice discovery to see, and to feel, this place. Years later I’ve met a girl that was showing some pictures taken in Thailand and as soon as she shown the pictured of Koh Larn, I recognized this place. Its way to be, makes it unforgettable. When I bought the ticket for this island I was told that here I'd also have dinner for free. So, while sitting for lunch I also met two Thai guys. You can see them in the second picture of this group. They are Tai (the girl) and Toa (the boy). The girl Tai told me that she was a cinema student, while the boy... Hmmm... He didn’t speak much or I didn’t pay much attention at him... Anyway, the girl was absolutely crazy and it was fun to talk to her. So, while talking, she asked me what I've seen in Thailand and among the other things I told her that I was in love with Koh Samet. When Tai heard this, she started to smile, stood up on the bench and proudly told me "You know, I'm from Rayong region, and I'm proud that you like my region!". Soon later Toa tried to take control of his girl and took her away. In the third picture of this group you can see how the Coral Island looks with its wild forest.
Pattaya - The coming back
In the late afternoon we left Koh Larn and, with a ferry, we came back to Pattaya. Again we had to take a long-tail boat that took us to a ferry. I was the first to climb over the long tail boat, but soon later arrived also the Indian family. We left the beach. The boat had a glass floor, and we could see the coral formations under us. Then the boat speeded and in short we arrived at the ferry. The Indians were at the end of the long-tail boat. The sailor said “Bee slow! Once at thime!”. The Indians all stood up at unison and started to run like an crazy herd out of control to the ladder to climb into the ferry. Again the long-tail shook, then dangerously rocked and a girl with also Mr. Indian Groom Fat Mom almost finished in water. I grabbed again a rope hanging from the boat and helped the sailor to pull the boat close to the ferry. The Indians lost balance and almost fell between the boat and the ferry. With much help from the sailors of the ferry, the Indians were pulled on board, and all the rest of people, safely entered the ferry too.
While coming back to the mainland, from the sea you can see first the coast on East of Pattaya, with the city of Jomtien. This city, that you can see in the first picture of this group grew up quickly and now it's just touching Pattaya. I didn't go there, but I was told that Jomtien is much better than Pattaya. Of course, seen that I wasn't there, I can't confirm it. But seen that they are just touching each-other I can barely believe that it's so different from the messy Pattaya. In the second picture of this group you can see Pattaya. If you notice, the big buildings on the right of the picture are the same on the left of the Jomtien picture. This just to show you that now the two cities, from the sea, just look like a big city. That evening, after a long and nice shower, I went out in the streets. I had an idea to go and eat some seafood, and then go clubbing. While I was reading the menu outside a restaurant I heard somebody calling me “Hey you! Reef Man!”. It was the Korean guy that I’ve met the previous day in Koh Samet! He was with another Korean man. They found me very funny and decided to invite me for dinner. While I was there I remembered the “Rule n. 2 of the perfect traveller” that says “Never trust unknown people offering something for free in some place that you don’t know”. But seen that I was almost without cash, I accepted. They ordered a load of things and we ate seafood like crazy. I loved that food so much. Later they told me that wished to go and take some girl from a massage parlor, but I wanted to go and take some drink and then go to some disco, so, I left them wishing them to meet them again sometimes. At least, if they’ll wish to offer me one more seafood dinner.
I came back to the hotel that it was very late, then I had just time to pack my bags for the next day.
While coming back to the mainland, from the sea you can see first the coast on East of Pattaya, with the city of Jomtien. This city, that you can see in the first picture of this group grew up quickly and now it's just touching Pattaya. I didn't go there, but I was told that Jomtien is much better than Pattaya. Of course, seen that I wasn't there, I can't confirm it. But seen that they are just touching each-other I can barely believe that it's so different from the messy Pattaya. In the second picture of this group you can see Pattaya. If you notice, the big buildings on the right of the picture are the same on the left of the Jomtien picture. This just to show you that now the two cities, from the sea, just look like a big city. That evening, after a long and nice shower, I went out in the streets. I had an idea to go and eat some seafood, and then go clubbing. While I was reading the menu outside a restaurant I heard somebody calling me “Hey you! Reef Man!”. It was the Korean guy that I’ve met the previous day in Koh Samet! He was with another Korean man. They found me very funny and decided to invite me for dinner. While I was there I remembered the “Rule n. 2 of the perfect traveller” that says “Never trust unknown people offering something for free in some place that you don’t know”. But seen that I was almost without cash, I accepted. They ordered a load of things and we ate seafood like crazy. I loved that food so much. Later they told me that wished to go and take some girl from a massage parlor, but I wanted to go and take some drink and then go to some disco, so, I left them wishing them to meet them again sometimes. At least, if they’ll wish to offer me one more seafood dinner.
I came back to the hotel that it was very late, then I had just time to pack my bags for the next day.
Pattaya - The coming back to Italy
The next day I just had to get ready to leave Pattaya and Thailand to come back to my country. On the morning I just had time to go and buy some few things, and to discover that my bank card wasn't working anymore. For good luck I already bought a few days before ticket for the minivan to come back to the airport. So, I still changed a few Euro that I had with me, in order to pay the exit-tax from Thailand, otherwise I couldn't leave the country. While talking with a girl into the Art Cafè I was told that I've been quite lucky, because I found a really cheap ticket for the minivan, because usually are almost double price! Anyway, my minivan came just in time and we left Pattaya in the early afternoon. On board of the minivan I met a very weird guy. I didn't like him at all. He was a German guy that kept on calling me "Farang" that in Thai means "foreigner", yeah, luck for him that he's an Nazi-Arian-that-thinks-to-be-Thai and also a pervert that hired a boy to take with him around Thailand... While talking, he asked what was my job, and when I told him what my profession is, and also that with my agency now are sending food to Africa. Then he told me that he despised both what I do and also that we're keeping alive African parasites! He said that "You (me) can't think to be one that can solve the World's problems", yeah, maybe it's true, alone I can't do much (but I'm still crazy about my paper recycling), but if people had more awareness of the World, we could solve, maybe not all, but many problems, yes. I don't share what he said, and I'm keeping going my way. As my massage teacher, Lady Karn, once told us "What is the magic of being here, in this school, is that we are all coming from different places of the World, taken here by one thing, the wish to make people feel better and to learn how to keep on doing it even better". I liked when she said this. That's how we felt inside that school, learning and sharing laughs and emotions with my friends. Coming back to my travel, the coming back was long and a bit of boring too. While on the plane, I reminded what my Jordan guide once told to us. Mr. Wyel once said "Travelling isn't just sitting back and staying still, or just wandering watching old stones, but the meaning of travelling is meeting a new country, meeting people living in it, feeling it, and to learn as much as we can from it. The memory of an old stone is just like a picture. The relax you have sitting back is the same you have in your country. The feeling and memory of what you learn will be part of your earth and will live with you forever". I liked these words. I feel that I lived this travel as much as I could and I now I feel a deep love for that heaven called Thailand, the Land of the Smiles.