So, today's post is a dump of stuff until play resumes. No photos, just stuff.
- Bloody computers! Trying to be a good boy and do online banking to pay the bills each month and this internet cafe system sends a bloody virus with my transmission, so Barclays blocked me out. This happened in December but I didn't know until a few days ago because they don't tell you online, just in the post - brilliant! So, beware online banking is a one-way street. PS Thanks to Jackie who is trying to sort this out for me.
- Thought I'd have a couple of days resting in Chiang Rai, a city in N. Thailand with many ex-pats, so it caters for westerners, ie it has bars. Over-rested until about 2 am, and had 3 days here. Singha beer and whisky chasers (found Johnnie Walker Red Label here (1.50GBP a shot), the best blended scotch in my opinion - not as good as malt, but hey).
- Not complaining, but: just to let you know that traveling alone is not all a bed of roses. It is nackering - planning every day, sitting in buses / trucks for up to 6 hours, finding somewhere to kip, then dumping the gear and going to see what you came to see. Then night, sometimes there are only so many night markets and noodle shops you want to see. Off the tourist trail, there a no bars as such (so I sit in the noodle shops at a plastic table on a plastic chair on the pavement, drink beer and watch the locals - most ignore you, some stare at the "farang", but I have had some weird conversations with locals more drunk than me who want to try out their English skills), and no English language bookshops. Guesthouses don't have safes either, so you either take the risk of leaving documents, camera, phone, books and money behind, so I lug it around all night, even to the loo! Thailand is very safe outside of the big cities but....And then get up next day and get on the bus (or pickup truck), hoping you are on the right one as very few have anything written in English or even any type of western script, so you trust some guy in the bus station - and everyone is milling around, shouting stuff - quite exciting really.
- Books, probably the heaviest part of all my gear - travel guides and reading. But running out of something to read at night really causes me a problem, just wish they would invent lighter ones. And don't say CD's because then I have to have a laptop, battery charger and adaptor and hope there is somewhere to plug it in, AND you can't get the bloody things here anyway! Does Lonely Planet do electronic versions?
- New Year: the Thais invent them or adopt them I think. Celebrated "International New Year" on Jan 1, then they will celebrate Chinese / Vietnamese New Year (07/02 this year), and then have their own one! Mid-April time, they have a festival, called Songhkran, which is a mass water fight from what I can tell - should be symbolic water blessings but sort of get carried away. Might try and change my flight to stick around for that.
- Thai politics! Wow, what chaos, each party claiming the other rigged or bought votes. And a full-time central control board specifically set up to investigate the claims! Then they issue red and yellow cards - brilliant, one red card and the politician is sent-off and they re-run that constituency's election! If three party people get done they ban the whole party. The General Election was in December but the re-runs are still going on and the new Prime Minister only got sworn in this week - a coalition of 5 parties, that's really going to work isn't it? Its Thaksin's (the guy who bought Man City with allegedly embezzled millions) party too who won the most seats - they reckon that he is running the show from his place in Hong Kong as he is on criminal charges here.
- Ex-pats: what a mixture of nationalities and types. Seem to fall into 4 categories though: the-happily-married-to-local ones - usually running bars (although I was told of one who didn't know his wife was an illegal Burmese migrant until he tried to register the birth of his new baby!); the old bloke seen trailing around behind a local lady looking decidedly lost and sad, and still not understanding what she is happily saying to her friends; the loners, effectively retired, drifting around the bars in their chosen home city (usually somewhere easy to get new visas by a day run to Burma); and the retired couples/ singles who have bought a house and come here every European winter, they seem the happiest.
- Buddhism: the wheel of life, as I understand it you go round and round with your various , assumed to be sinful, lives until you either drop into your own personal hell, or reach Nirvana and cease to exist at all which apparently is a good thing as then you have no earthly woes. By the way, it is Year 2551 here, marked from when Buddha was enlightened in the 6th century BC in India. So that's why there is a strong entwining between Hinduism and Buddhism, he was an Indian prince, so I believe. Strangely the year clicks over on "International New Year" not Thai New Year, how does that work??
- Drinking: the Thais really love it. They eat out a lot, and have this thing where the host brings a bottle of whisky to the restaurant, the restaurant puts a trolley at the side of the table and supplies a bucket of ice and the mixers (usually soda water) and serves out the whisky all night. Once finished the party buys another bottle or flask from the place and off they go again. The empties stay on the trolley so that there are no arguments at the end! The tourist bars now do this "Buy a Bucket" thing (but you have to buy the bottle of whisky from them of course), a big thing at beach parties - sit around your bucket and share with your mates, very civilised. The type (Thai or imported) and size of bottle is a big status thing to the Thais, Johnnie Walker Black Label seems the top, not my favourite though in case anyone was asking?
- Fermented chicken tendons, whole pickled swallows and frog curry, plus roasted chestnuts are the latest seen (but not tried yet). I'm told spiders are eaten in Cambodia! We shall see. By the way, chillis still get me. And I have no idea what is in the various steaming pots on the stalls, but some of it tastes pretty good! I can nearly order food now, many places have no English menu (or any menu!), and can count pretty well too so I can pay the bus fares and bills OK. They cook everything with a base of spices, and then give you jars of chilli, chilli vinegar, sugar and fish sauce so you can add hot, sour, sweet and salt to your own taste.
- The language: tricky stuff as it has 5 tones for words, each carries a completely different meaning! So, "mai" means "new", "burn", "wood", "not" and "not??" depending on how it is said. So, "New wood doesn't burn does it?" is "Mai mai mai mai mai?" (nicked that from Lonely Planet). And "Khao" is rice, hill, white and understand, which makes for interesting thoughts on what the hell the Thais think I'm trying to say. "Khai" is egg and "Kai" is chicken too.
- More drinking: I forgot to tell you in earlier posts about the hardships of trekking. Most nights we stay in hill tribe villages and they bring in stuff to try to sell to you, mostly handwoven hats and bags and silver / leather jewellery, not for me I have to say. Can't see me with a handwoven hippy sling bag, although I see many tourists do. But the other thing they bring for the local guides, who are all mates, is "happy water". I saw all these plastic water bottles being taken into the guides, and they cut off the neck of an empty one and were using it as a communal shot glass for water from these bottles. So, I walk over and ask and find out it is the local moonshine (usually rice or corn spirit). So, I say look I'll buy a slab of beer to share from the village store or head man, can I join you? Became quite a regular thing. Good stuff, very happy, until I see the guides next day! I leave them to their drinking games after a while, and they carry on into the wee hours, while I get some kip - it softens the bamboo sleeping platform I found.
Enough I hear you say! Aiming to get a photo post out soon too, last one in Thailand.
Cheers!
Mike
No comments:
Post a Comment