Song Kran is finally over, five days of mayhem, talcum powder war paint and kids packing water pistols with twin water cylinders on their backs, their teenage peers get someone to drive the family pick-up round town with a huge oil drum of water on the back which they liberally fling water out of. Motorbikes hum up and down he street with entire families riding up and down in an effort to join the fun, in no time at all the roads are slick with water and the milky scum of talcum powder paste.
The streets are lined with people who have rolled like oil drums out of their homes and shops and someone gets to hold the hose, every house has moved some huge speakers out onto the street and dance music floods up and down the street, competing and drowning each others musical choices in sonic waves (which weave in and out and in between the waves of water being flung about). Everyone is soaked all day. It has a real carnival atmosphere and the chicken on a stick sellers are out in force to support it, and did I mention the amount of beer and whisky that are consumed, All day partying takes it's toll and some revellers are at the end of the day to be seen sleeping it all off in quiet doorways.
The girls who work in the restaurant had a great time, O, in particular seemed to enjoy it, she loves any opportunity to harass farang, In fact lots of the staff here at the frog have great personalities, they like to spend their lunch breaks down swimming in the river and lounging in the hammocks in the gardens.
The Bangkok post keeps a running tally of the holiday road toll which is massive, it is rather tastelessly called a "target" which this year was down on last year (and below the projected amount by about one hundred deaths) but still massive. The mess on the streets afterward was incredible, plastic bags and empty booze bottles collected like autumn leaves in the gutters.
They have also had two lots of elections here in the last two weeks or so, the laws in this country are crazy, you can not buy alcohol on the day before or the day of an election. Even though you can't vote after 6pm on election day you still can't have a drink! I think it's so you don't get into alcohol fuelled arguments over politics but who knows! Like any law in Thailand there are those who obey it and those who pay off the cops, so certain bars (notably the girly and dodgy kind) were still open for those who need a drink to cope with the ideas involved with the politics of Thailand (trust me that's all of you!).
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Friday, April 21, 2006
Kanchan 14/04/06
Ten days again since last I wrote.
Went out to visit Grumpies new place, he has a cool little A-frame house down river, it has lots of different kinds of fruit trees and a big tree which is apparently haunted, to stop some one cutting it down the owner has poured a large circle of concrete around it perfect for sitting and fishing off. Grumpy was very pleased with his five fish he caught the day we were there. His view onto the river, with it's bluish green lilly pads surrounding a little Island is very picturesque and relaxing. The old boy who looks after the banana plantation on Grumpies land came over and we drank some beer which gave me the opportunity to learn a few more Thai words.
Hired a bike and went up to Erawan, my god, I have never seen it so crowded, it is Thai school holidays at the moment and the place was swarming with families, I still enjoyed it but the lower pools did sound much like being at the local swimming baths with the volume of kids squealing. The top pools were much quieter, the monkeys thought so to, a baby one came down and was making toward Glen's stuff, he had to leap out of the pool and rescue it a security guard turned up not long after and scared the monkeys off with his trusty catapult. The kissing fish are a lot less enthusiastic when their are so many visitors to choose from. A lovely day out.
I swam in the river here the other day, encouraged by the amount of others doing so, but the water felt greasy, the long termers tell me the cess pits leech into the river, and yesterday I saw a condom floating lazily down stream so I have decided that once was enough.
Song kran has started, Thai new year, it involves a hell of a lot of water throwing, everyone ends up soaked all the time, mostly it is concentrated in the afternoon and stops at night, so you can actually get out and go to the bank (or work) and things in a relatively normal fashion. In Bkk though on Khao san rd. the powder and water throwing goes on all night, I guess that's what happens when tradition meets the party crowd. Tomorrow night is full moon, so who knows what will happen then.
Found a good restaurant the other night, lots of Lao and Essan style food, had a great snake head fish and again had a laugh at the menu, in is not so much the food (which is often unusual) it is the way they translate it into english. they use words we would never use to describe food, I should have written some of the little gems I discovered in Lao but the ones in this restaurant included "Fried duck mouth" and "Hot and sour pork colon salad" (mmmm, up there with rectum rissoles surely). While speaking of food after Erawan we went to the Mae nam, a restaurant recommended by Earl and tried the weirdest "chinese style black eggs", the yolks were indeed black and very creamy to the taste, the "white" of the egg was a translucent dark, dark orange, they were quite tasty but very rich.
Right I am off for another soaking, later dudes, oh yeah and happy new year. (I'll try to find out which year it is, the Thai calendar is completly different to ours.)
N.J.
Went out to visit Grumpies new place, he has a cool little A-frame house down river, it has lots of different kinds of fruit trees and a big tree which is apparently haunted, to stop some one cutting it down the owner has poured a large circle of concrete around it perfect for sitting and fishing off. Grumpy was very pleased with his five fish he caught the day we were there. His view onto the river, with it's bluish green lilly pads surrounding a little Island is very picturesque and relaxing. The old boy who looks after the banana plantation on Grumpies land came over and we drank some beer which gave me the opportunity to learn a few more Thai words.
Hired a bike and went up to Erawan, my god, I have never seen it so crowded, it is Thai school holidays at the moment and the place was swarming with families, I still enjoyed it but the lower pools did sound much like being at the local swimming baths with the volume of kids squealing. The top pools were much quieter, the monkeys thought so to, a baby one came down and was making toward Glen's stuff, he had to leap out of the pool and rescue it a security guard turned up not long after and scared the monkeys off with his trusty catapult. The kissing fish are a lot less enthusiastic when their are so many visitors to choose from. A lovely day out.
I swam in the river here the other day, encouraged by the amount of others doing so, but the water felt greasy, the long termers tell me the cess pits leech into the river, and yesterday I saw a condom floating lazily down stream so I have decided that once was enough.
Song kran has started, Thai new year, it involves a hell of a lot of water throwing, everyone ends up soaked all the time, mostly it is concentrated in the afternoon and stops at night, so you can actually get out and go to the bank (or work) and things in a relatively normal fashion. In Bkk though on Khao san rd. the powder and water throwing goes on all night, I guess that's what happens when tradition meets the party crowd. Tomorrow night is full moon, so who knows what will happen then.
Found a good restaurant the other night, lots of Lao and Essan style food, had a great snake head fish and again had a laugh at the menu, in is not so much the food (which is often unusual) it is the way they translate it into english. they use words we would never use to describe food, I should have written some of the little gems I discovered in Lao but the ones in this restaurant included "Fried duck mouth" and "Hot and sour pork colon salad" (mmmm, up there with rectum rissoles surely). While speaking of food after Erawan we went to the Mae nam, a restaurant recommended by Earl and tried the weirdest "chinese style black eggs", the yolks were indeed black and very creamy to the taste, the "white" of the egg was a translucent dark, dark orange, they were quite tasty but very rich.
Right I am off for another soaking, later dudes, oh yeah and happy new year. (I'll try to find out which year it is, the Thai calendar is completly different to ours.)
N.J.
Bangkok 30/03/06
Bangkok has been much the usual. I caught the train to Hua Lamphong as I thought it would be nice to stay in China town this time, it was mid-day and hot and I didn't really know where the guesthouse was I was looking for so I ended up walking to the Chao Phraya and catching the boat to Phra Athit again, it's not so bad staying here as long as you avoid the Khao San and don't let drunk guys carry you across flooded soi's after a thunder storm.
Early in the morning I came across a boulevard of broken dreams. A klong where all these people lived along it's edges drinking at 7am (cans of beer through straws), It's funny how you can just run across these little pockets of people who evaporate with the sunrise, where do they go? I have noticed that all the beggars in Bangkok seem to congregate in Chinatown.
Today I went to check out the school I am going to teach in, it is like a Disney castle (just like I had been told it is) but it really looks kinda fake, even from a distance, it is beautifully presented with pictures of Nemo and Mickey and Minnie and other children's cartoon characters all over the place. It has two big swimming pools (complete with penguins and fake Ice?) Art rooms, Music rooms and a gym. Our language school area is still being built which could add to the chaos at the start of the year, or it could be happily ever after in this magic kingdom.
After Steve took me to look at houses and they appropriately looked like gingerbread cottages, or the houses in the Truman show or something, anyway I will look at a few more yet I am sure.
Then I went back to China town, I really like that part of town it is so crazy and cluttered but the pollution is bad, bad, bad. I saw a guy sleeping in a basket which was pretty weird.
As I was walking back to my guesthouse this storm blew up and I watched as thunder and lightening crackled all around, really close some of it! Sheets of corrugated iron getting torn from roofs and guttering thrown into the traffic in the streets, and it rained! I took shelter in an ice cream shop which was just opening as it all started and I sat there eating strawberry sundaes with the girl who ran the shop while wondering if our roof would stay on. It did, the opposite side of the road seemed to be where all the action was. You know when a storm is really bad by the amount of cockroaches that come scrambling up out of the sewers and trying to get into the shops, eurgggh.
The mechanics across the road kept fishing their belongings out of the gutter as they were being washed out of their shop and attempting to float off down the road. (Luckily being a mechanics shop most of their stuff was too heavy to float, then half an hour later the sun came up and I carried on toward my guest house, some streets were clear but others were flooded and navigating home took some doing, twice turning down offers to be carried across flooded streets, ahh the age of chivalry is not quite dead yet.
There is an election on sunday (today is Thursday), there has been a huge amount of protesting and anti-Thaksin (the prime minister) rallies, I plan to be out of town to avoid the riots when he gets back in, in fact this election may take a long time to be resolved so Thailand may be heading back into some political dire straits, I wonder if the King will have to step in and sort it out again, it seems every time I come here something like this happens I think I was here for both the political/economic crisis in 1997 and for the political protest and unrest in 1992 where some demonstrators were shot. So stay tuned, though I'm sure it's all over your tv news anyway.
Till next time.
N.J.
Early in the morning I came across a boulevard of broken dreams. A klong where all these people lived along it's edges drinking at 7am (cans of beer through straws), It's funny how you can just run across these little pockets of people who evaporate with the sunrise, where do they go? I have noticed that all the beggars in Bangkok seem to congregate in Chinatown.
Today I went to check out the school I am going to teach in, it is like a Disney castle (just like I had been told it is) but it really looks kinda fake, even from a distance, it is beautifully presented with pictures of Nemo and Mickey and Minnie and other children's cartoon characters all over the place. It has two big swimming pools (complete with penguins and fake Ice?) Art rooms, Music rooms and a gym. Our language school area is still being built which could add to the chaos at the start of the year, or it could be happily ever after in this magic kingdom.
After Steve took me to look at houses and they appropriately looked like gingerbread cottages, or the houses in the Truman show or something, anyway I will look at a few more yet I am sure.
Then I went back to China town, I really like that part of town it is so crazy and cluttered but the pollution is bad, bad, bad. I saw a guy sleeping in a basket which was pretty weird.
As I was walking back to my guesthouse this storm blew up and I watched as thunder and lightening crackled all around, really close some of it! Sheets of corrugated iron getting torn from roofs and guttering thrown into the traffic in the streets, and it rained! I took shelter in an ice cream shop which was just opening as it all started and I sat there eating strawberry sundaes with the girl who ran the shop while wondering if our roof would stay on. It did, the opposite side of the road seemed to be where all the action was. You know when a storm is really bad by the amount of cockroaches that come scrambling up out of the sewers and trying to get into the shops, eurgggh.
The mechanics across the road kept fishing their belongings out of the gutter as they were being washed out of their shop and attempting to float off down the road. (Luckily being a mechanics shop most of their stuff was too heavy to float, then half an hour later the sun came up and I carried on toward my guest house, some streets were clear but others were flooded and navigating home took some doing, twice turning down offers to be carried across flooded streets, ahh the age of chivalry is not quite dead yet.
There is an election on sunday (today is Thursday), there has been a huge amount of protesting and anti-Thaksin (the prime minister) rallies, I plan to be out of town to avoid the riots when he gets back in, in fact this election may take a long time to be resolved so Thailand may be heading back into some political dire straits, I wonder if the King will have to step in and sort it out again, it seems every time I come here something like this happens I think I was here for both the political/economic crisis in 1997 and for the political protest and unrest in 1992 where some demonstrators were shot. So stay tuned, though I'm sure it's all over your tv news anyway.
Till next time.
N.J.
kanchan 01/04/06
Last night I was out late, I went out to say goodbye to Tarryn one of the girls from my TEFL course. I went to her place and several other guys from the TEFL course showed up, we ended up in some english pub in Sukumvit, where one of the teachers from our course appeared an hour or so later. I left about 11:30 so I could catch the metro to Hua Lumphong and then I walked home through China town, I didn't realise how many people live on the streets in Bangkok, lots and lots of people sleep literally on the streets, under a blanket, with odd assortments of possessions set up around them to mark their space and make it homey. One person had a cd disk set up silver side out on top of her little pile of possessions, at the time I just thought it was odd, unusual but now I think it was her circular evil eye mirror set up to watch over her as she slept.
I made it to Khao san rd by about 1am, I had never seen the place at that time and wanted to see just how awful it can be, I was surprised it was not as awful as it could have been. As I walked down the street This guy yelled out hello and I realised it was a guy who had lived on Phangan when I was there for a year in 1997, funnily enough he didn't recognise me (we all look the same us Foreign girls). He makes a habit of clumsily trying to chat up chicks, I guess it must work often enough for him to keep at it, though how it ever works I can't understand, he is an egotist who relies entirely on meaningless flattery. (Mind you I reckon that the fact he has moved his opperation to the middle of the night on a strip where there is lots of really drunk chicks speaks volumes).
Then as I was almost home Taz, one of the other girls from the course came leaping out of a bar and dragged me in for a drink, it was good to see her again, and her boyfriend insisted on feeding me deep fried crickets, they stick in your throat a bit but otherwise very much like any other snack food, surprisingly tasteless except for the added soy. So it's a small city after all, this Bangkok place, while in the bar I bought a cool hand puppet with a squeaker and poke out tongue, it will be good for the class I tell myself, it's just an excuse I wanted it, he's so cool, I shall call him Quackers.
Arrived in Kanchan this morning, Charlie has gone to Egypt, Grumpy moves out to the country on Monday, and Earl has already moved out, people are swimming in the river again, there has been a lot of rain recently so it's had a chance to get clean, the waterfalls will be beautiful, I should go up in the next couple of days. It's nice to be out of Bkk for a few days but I suppose I should start work soon.
I made it to Khao san rd by about 1am, I had never seen the place at that time and wanted to see just how awful it can be, I was surprised it was not as awful as it could have been. As I walked down the street This guy yelled out hello and I realised it was a guy who had lived on Phangan when I was there for a year in 1997, funnily enough he didn't recognise me (we all look the same us Foreign girls). He makes a habit of clumsily trying to chat up chicks, I guess it must work often enough for him to keep at it, though how it ever works I can't understand, he is an egotist who relies entirely on meaningless flattery. (Mind you I reckon that the fact he has moved his opperation to the middle of the night on a strip where there is lots of really drunk chicks speaks volumes).
Then as I was almost home Taz, one of the other girls from the course came leaping out of a bar and dragged me in for a drink, it was good to see her again, and her boyfriend insisted on feeding me deep fried crickets, they stick in your throat a bit but otherwise very much like any other snack food, surprisingly tasteless except for the added soy. So it's a small city after all, this Bangkok place, while in the bar I bought a cool hand puppet with a squeaker and poke out tongue, it will be good for the class I tell myself, it's just an excuse I wanted it, he's so cool, I shall call him Quackers.
Arrived in Kanchan this morning, Charlie has gone to Egypt, Grumpy moves out to the country on Monday, and Earl has already moved out, people are swimming in the river again, there has been a lot of rain recently so it's had a chance to get clean, the waterfalls will be beautiful, I should go up in the next couple of days. It's nice to be out of Bkk for a few days but I suppose I should start work soon.
Vientienne 27/03/06
Back in Vietienne, just got back from a two day hike to the Elephant tower, which is a look out you stay at over night in the middle of the nature reserve "Phou Khao Khouay" It is next to a salt lick where wild elephants come to, well lick salt.
We started out in the morning, me hiking over those stupid little bamboo bridges and fallen logs in the only pair of shoes I currently have (DM mary Janes). Let me just point out that however fashionable they may or may not be they leave a lot to be desired on the hiking frontier. (I will also note while on the subject of my footwear, that an overweight German in an orange hawaian shirt and a black leather sort of waist coat thong thing covered in tatoos on Don det told me I looked weird, if he did not look so much like a biker dude, moustache and stuff I may have said something about pots and kettles but as he looked mildly deranged as well as mean my preservation instincts kicked in).
Anyway back to the hike, Lao is full of the coolest little frogs, and I mean little but they can put on a great hop, they were the first "wild" life I saw, I mean I know they are wild and all but I guess I just associate wild with things that could possibly do me damage (butterflies and dragonflies also come into this category). We had started early and as we followed the river upstream we were lucky enough to come across a little family of otters, out for their breakfast, they were quite far away and we had to be very quiet, it was hard to contain my delighted squeals (yes otters make me act like a five year old I admit it). But some of our party didn't realise that the flash on the camera is not a good idea around wild life and unfortunately they disappeared all to quickly. The fact that I did not drown said camera flasher I still view as a small miracle that may hasten my beatitude once I am gone!
So creeping about in the jungle with two guides, Mr Tho and his son Auto (OK his name wasn't really Auto but he just reminded me of the simpsons dude)a couple of Dutch guys Karl and Sven (if you think thats bad, I had a bungalow next to a German called Wolfgang for a few days) and Kathy the French flasher all trying our best to be sneaky was difficult, I am surprised we saw anything at all, I disturbed a skinny yellowish snake who was sunning himself on the path, he almost turned into a spring coiling himself out of the way so fast. This eco-tourism is great go out into the forest and see how many poor little furry, feathery and scaley buggers you can scare the bejesus out of! It was beautiful and the walk was not terribly arduous, but we didn't really see much else till we got to the tower itself, The tower is made out of wood and is basically a circle with a bunch of matresses and mosquito nets strewn about it, but it does have a great view and so we ate and drank away the late afternoon (Auto, bless his rubber jandals carried the beer and lao lao in his back pack). With the early evening sure enough first the uninspiring though apparently very rare goaty things wandered past on their way to the river and not long after the elephants rolled into view and up to the salt lick, they were great, the politics of salt licking is something I don't quite understand but the elephants know who gets first lick and you don't want to be upsetting one of them, they are BIG.
I can't believe how late we stayed up, but you just didn't want to miss anything and the plague like noise of the crickets makes it impossible to sleep even if you wanted to. The trek out the next day was very laid back, probably because we were all still dozy from lack of sleep and too much adrenalin, still nice to have a shower and put on some clean clothes. At the end of a couple of days like that you can brush the salt off your body onto a bundle of greasy fish and chips, and still have enough left over to fill half a salt shaker. (have I put you off your dinner yet?).
Went to the market this morning and there was a whole avenue of marigold and incense sellers in the dawn light it was really beautiful, the last sunset was fantastic, much clearer than yesterday, but the heat has been pretty intense, I'm sure Bangkok will be just as bad!
We started out in the morning, me hiking over those stupid little bamboo bridges and fallen logs in the only pair of shoes I currently have (DM mary Janes). Let me just point out that however fashionable they may or may not be they leave a lot to be desired on the hiking frontier. (I will also note while on the subject of my footwear, that an overweight German in an orange hawaian shirt and a black leather sort of waist coat thong thing covered in tatoos on Don det told me I looked weird, if he did not look so much like a biker dude, moustache and stuff I may have said something about pots and kettles but as he looked mildly deranged as well as mean my preservation instincts kicked in).
Anyway back to the hike, Lao is full of the coolest little frogs, and I mean little but they can put on a great hop, they were the first "wild" life I saw, I mean I know they are wild and all but I guess I just associate wild with things that could possibly do me damage (butterflies and dragonflies also come into this category). We had started early and as we followed the river upstream we were lucky enough to come across a little family of otters, out for their breakfast, they were quite far away and we had to be very quiet, it was hard to contain my delighted squeals (yes otters make me act like a five year old I admit it). But some of our party didn't realise that the flash on the camera is not a good idea around wild life and unfortunately they disappeared all to quickly. The fact that I did not drown said camera flasher I still view as a small miracle that may hasten my beatitude once I am gone!
So creeping about in the jungle with two guides, Mr Tho and his son Auto (OK his name wasn't really Auto but he just reminded me of the simpsons dude)a couple of Dutch guys Karl and Sven (if you think thats bad, I had a bungalow next to a German called Wolfgang for a few days) and Kathy the French flasher all trying our best to be sneaky was difficult, I am surprised we saw anything at all, I disturbed a skinny yellowish snake who was sunning himself on the path, he almost turned into a spring coiling himself out of the way so fast. This eco-tourism is great go out into the forest and see how many poor little furry, feathery and scaley buggers you can scare the bejesus out of! It was beautiful and the walk was not terribly arduous, but we didn't really see much else till we got to the tower itself, The tower is made out of wood and is basically a circle with a bunch of matresses and mosquito nets strewn about it, but it does have a great view and so we ate and drank away the late afternoon (Auto, bless his rubber jandals carried the beer and lao lao in his back pack). With the early evening sure enough first the uninspiring though apparently very rare goaty things wandered past on their way to the river and not long after the elephants rolled into view and up to the salt lick, they were great, the politics of salt licking is something I don't quite understand but the elephants know who gets first lick and you don't want to be upsetting one of them, they are BIG.
I can't believe how late we stayed up, but you just didn't want to miss anything and the plague like noise of the crickets makes it impossible to sleep even if you wanted to. The trek out the next day was very laid back, probably because we were all still dozy from lack of sleep and too much adrenalin, still nice to have a shower and put on some clean clothes. At the end of a couple of days like that you can brush the salt off your body onto a bundle of greasy fish and chips, and still have enough left over to fill half a salt shaker. (have I put you off your dinner yet?).
Went to the market this morning and there was a whole avenue of marigold and incense sellers in the dawn light it was really beautiful, the last sunset was fantastic, much clearer than yesterday, but the heat has been pretty intense, I'm sure Bangkok will be just as bad!
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