Archive for the ‘Thailand’ Category

Bangkok

Sunday, July 4th, 2010

My good friend and former roommate Martin gave me a book by American writer John Steinbeck about his travels through America with his dog Charley. At some point he writes about the nature of journeys and their length.

“I speculated with a kind of wonder on the strength of the individuality of journeys and stopped on the postulate that people don’t take trips – trips take people. That discussion, however, did not go into the life span of journeys. This seems to be variable and unpredictable. Who has not known a journey to be over and dead before the traveler returns? The reverse is also true: many a trip continues long after movement in time and space have ceased.” – John Steinbeck

My journey was over when I left the Cave Lodge for Bangkok. My few days in Bangkok have felt like waiting for my plane and my camera is a witness of this as I have taken very few pictures over the last days. At the same time I think my journey will not be over when I have returned to Amsterdam as I am sure that memories of the trip will keep bubbling up for the next weeks.

And then this was it! 7 weeks have gone by and with it my first encounter with Asia. I am glad I have so many friends (and family!) who have traveled so much, which has made me decide to go on this trip! Looking back at my posts and pictures I find it hard to realize that all these beautiful places and wonderful people happened to me in just one trip. My arrival in Kuta seems ages ago and I really feel that it was better than what I had expected of it. A little less naive, a little more open-minded and more outgoing, I hope I can keep some of the traveling mindset when time comes to go back to ‘regular life’.

P.S. I arrived back yesterday and will be in the Netherlands for the next 10 days, then I’ll head out again for a 10 day vacation (as if I didn’t get enough already ;) ) and around the 27th I will be heading to Zurich. I’m glad the weather is so good here: 24 Celsius makes it much easier to readjust!

Bangkok
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Tham Lot

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

“Mae Hong Son province – Accessible only by incredibly windy roads, this is Thailand’s most remote province. Although it’s undergone a tourist miniboom over the past decade few vistors seem to make it much further than Pai.”
- Lonely Planet Thailand

You can really feel the remoteness here. After leaving Pai by pickup-truck-converted-to-minivan for Soppong we passed through long stretches of forest divided only by some desolate villages. This definitely seems one of the poorer parts of Thailand, which could well be true as I heard it houses many Burmese refugees. Furthermore it is populated by various hill-tribes who are quite disadvantaged in Thailand as many of them lack Thai citizenship. Still, it is an extremely beautiful place with beautiful people.

The Cave Lodge lies 20 minutes (by motorbike) north of Soppong, in a village called Tam Lot. After the first night I was the only guest here. Normally the caves in the area are visited by Thais as well as ‘farang’ (foreigners) but the rainy season has just started which means it is too wet for most people and not wet enough yet for those interested in wild water kayaking. The lodge was built in the 80s by a man called John Spies, who’s life is as exciting as his name gives to believe. I read parts of his book which tells of his travels through Asia and trekking adventures in Northern Thailand riddled with drugs, disease and death. Talking with him I also found out that he contributed to the “Caves” episode of the incredible BBC documentary Planet Earth.

John discovered around 200 caves in the Pang Mapha district of which I had the priviledge to visit three. Although I had done some adventure caving in the past this experience really outdid everything! Let me leave you with a short story of our trip into “Waterfal cave”. This particular cave is formed by a small river ending in a deep waterfall. It is a long but very small cave – really more like a tunnel – which is what made it such an exciting experience. It’s width was never more than 2 meters and the height was most of the time such that you had to lie on your belly or side to squeeze underneath the stalactites while making sure you don’t get any river water in your mouth. To add to the excitement our creator had decided that this cave would make a good home for river shrimp, bats and some big spiders. And then there was the snake. On our way back Wat, my guide, picked up a stick and started mumbling in himself. At a bend in the river he signaled me to wait while he slowly rounded the corner. When he called me to join him again, he pointed up to an elevation in the cave wall. Curled up in a corner was a big, long snake, which had been in the water in front of us! Apparently Wat had already seen it on the way in, but hadn’t told me as he thought I may have been to frightened to go further into the cave. He may have been right ;)

Below the link to this post’s pictures of the Tham Lot area and my caving experiences.

Tham Lot
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Chang Mai

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

Browsing around in the airport bookshops gave me an interesting impression of the average tourist. I noticed titles such as Retiring in Thailand or Buying land and building a house in Thailand. Then I ran into a rather interesting shelf of books with titles such as Love Entrepreneurs and So many girls! So little time!. All detailing how one should go about getting an actual relationship with a Thai girl. The latter had a chapter called: “How much should I pay her to be my girlfriend” which suggested that anywhere between 5000 (€125) and 30000 (€750) Baht per month would do. The book did warn though that the more you payed the harder it would be to dump her. I guess Thailand is not just about sex tourism but also about ‘love’ tourism.

Chang Mai is very different from Kho Phi Phi, as I had hoped. And with it came the need to learn a few Thai words as less people speak English here. The only reference I have are 3 pages about the Thai language in the Lonely planet, including some simple phrases. Thai turns out to be much more complicated than Indonesian: it has its own script and also relies on intonation to convey different meanings. The same word pronounced differently can mean entirely different things. For example, the word ‘glai’ means “near” pronounced in a flat voice whereas it means “far” when pronounced with a falling intonation; very convenient ;)

The town of Chang Mai is not too big and has a historic part – surrounded by a moat and a wall of which only parts are left – and a modern part. Both parts are nice to walk through as they gave me a good impression of everyday life in Thailand. On the streets you notice many students who study at Chang Mai University: one of the bigger universities in the country. The markets were great to walk through and an intense experience for all the senses. Later on I met a German girl with whom I had dinner and also visited the night market which sold a mix of souvenirs and proper art by local artists.

The second day was filled with not much more than a good massage, some strolling around the outskirts of town and a game of pool to end the evening. Next stop Soppong from where I hope to do some caving.

Chang Mai
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