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THAILANDIAWEB; your Tour
Operator in Thailand :
Specialist in
holidays and travels in Thailand
SOME TRAVEL DIARIES ABOUT
THAILAND
Central Thailand
 I
reluctantly dragged myself away from the idyllic peacefulness of
Laos and threw myself head first back into the chaos that is
Bangkok. My original intention was that I was going to spend as
little time as possible in Bangkok- just put in my application for
my Indian visa and get out asap. However, I unfortunately had very
bad timing and arrived at the start of Songkran- Thai New Year which
is celebrated by staging the world largest 4 day water fight! Whilst
this was happening on the other side of the city all the politic
riots and protests were under way as Im sure you saw on the news,
this meant that all the transport systems were closed down to try
and prevent any more protesters arriving. This effectively meant
that I was stuck in Bangkok for the foreseeable future so I gave up
being a pacifist, bought a gun and whole heartedly went to war! (the
water fight variety that is rather than the one with tanks and
petrol bombs!)
After 4 days of getting absolutely drenched and covered in clay,
normality (or as normal as it gets in Bangkok) was returned and I
was able to travel north up to Ayuthaya which is an Island formed by
the Mea Nam Lopburi, Chao Phraya and Pa Sak rivers all converge
before reaching the Gulf of Thailand. The rivers created a really
strong natural defence against invasion so Ayuthaya has some of the
most beautiful holi ruins and religious treasures.
My last few days in Thailand were spent at one of the worlds finest
National Parks- Khao Yai where much to my delight I saw wild
elephants as well as hundreds of different species of birds,
monkeys, gibbons, turtles and yet again the evil leeches!!
by RainbowDaisy
Back to Bangkok
If I was a normal
person I would have spent at least one of two dozen trips coming to
Thailand, as a monk, a western Farang monk attained at a small Wat
somewhere in the poor Northern provinces of the Isaan, a small
settlement where the locals survive on a barebread excistence but
where the family patriach somehow always seems to have the necessary
Thai Baht to finance a nightly trip to the village's poolhall - you
should really understand the second function of a poolhall in
Thailand by now if you have been following this blog!!!
You can be sure that one or more of the family's daughters will be
in one of this Asian Kingdom's more "upstanding" resorts, place like
Patong Beach on Phuket or maybe Pattaya, the flesh trade districts
of Bangkok, or else she has been taken to Ancient Europe by one of
her sugar daddies sending money home monthly so Dad can keep up his
little family unfriendly visits to the village one and only poolhall....
Yeah apart from becoming an adept in Vipassana meditation during my
monk's life, nice to
Waiting for customers
Waiting for customers
in Penang
keep me a friendly sociable guy once back home in Amsterdam. I could
be reseanably sure there would be plenty of charity stuff to be done
in these flea ridden backcountry Isaan hamlets, lots of Karmic
benefit to be gained...
But then I am far from normal and a completely lost soul thrown into
emotional despair every time I enter Thai soil, an endless narrative
starting in my Farang mind that screams for a solution but knows its
is a fruitless call...somehow I have over the years with the
narrative getting stronger with each trip, come to love this never
ending mental discussion with my more hidden site...
Our train is an ancient looking affair, looks a bit like a left-over
from former colonial times....this could be fun, my first overnight
traintrip in Thailand and only my second traintrip in all in this
Country Of The Smile...
Sorry Robert but you will have to wait untill the next enrty....hehehe
by heraclio
Mom and Sister
visit Thailand
My mom and sister made
it out a few weeks after my father had left (November of 08).
Unfortunately, I could not greet them in Bangkok when they first
arrived but I did remain in the loop with phone calls from my mother
all throughout there 30-some-odd hours in Bangkok. An arrival phone
call and questioning about local transport, a phone call to let me
know they had been swindled into a tuk-tuk tour of two attractions
accompanied by a few tailor shops, jewelry stores and other souvenir
shops and I think there was one more dropped call to tell me about
how they were drinking beers and talking politics at some unknown
location in Bangkok. My sister suspected the calls to be annoying
but they actually just fed my excitement for my time with them in
Chiang Mai.
The next afternoon Brian and I picked them up from the airport and
were happy to hear that they already appreciated Chiang Mai more
than dirty, smelly, old Bangkok (I say that affectionately about our
capital). We checked them in and set off
Temple at the Saturday night market
Temple at the Saturday night market
to explore the streets. They both amazed me, my mother was using
more Thai than I did in my first month here and right away my sister
joined me at a fly infested street vendor for Thailand’s famous
papaya salad. I was impressed; it took me months to eat off the
street—especially when flies were involved. Then we wandered through
the small alley sois in the old city, shared a plate of Pad Thai and
headed to the Saturday Walking Market. The walking markets in
Thailand are fabulous. An entire chunk of town will devote itself
one day a week to become a walking market where vendors selling
food, crafts, souvenirs or anything you can think of come to peddle
their wares. We also stumbled upon one of Chiang Mai’s hundreds of
Buddhist temples. Temples have become to Brian and me merely the
ordinary scenery of our city—a shame and a luxury at the same
time—so it is nice to have visitors who make us regain an
appreciation for them. We watched adorable girl’s from 6-10 perform
traditional dances in front of the temple while my mom disappeared
to make merit by inscribing a leaf and hanging it on the
Striking a Thai pose
Striking a Thai pose
temple grounds.
The next day we traveled in the back of a red pick-up truck, called
a songteaw, to Doi Suthep, a beautiful temple on the city’s Western
mountain overlooking the entire town. Legend has it that a Lanna
King sent a white elephant (they consider everything albino to be
auspicious in this country) into the jungle carrying a splintered
piece of what was believed to be the Buddha’s shoulder bone. The
elephant made it up the mountain half way, trumpeted three times and
then died and so, of course, the King built a temple in that exact
spot. The temple is gorgeous but unfortunately always under
construction. My mother and I prayed and made merit, she was
becoming quite Buddhist on this trip… and we all journeyed back home
for another night at the walking market.
 Our
next big outing was the Lampang Elephant Conservation Camp.
Elephants are everywhere in this country but unfortunately many of
them are confined to tourist camps or worse, to handlers that take
them through the streets selling bags of food to tourists. You can
hear the desperate cries of these elephants as they come up the
road. I always hope to
Food stall from Nicki's camera in Bangkok
Food stall from Nicki's camera in Bangkok
see them one day use their strength to take revenge on their
merciless handlers that are known to only feed them garbage and keep
them in pitifully sized backyards during the day. Elephants on the
streets here are lucky to see their 10th birthday where elephants in
the wild can live to 70. The Lampang Conservation Camp is one of the
few refuge spots for them. They do put on a show but only of
elephants’ talents in working in the logging industry with Mahouts.
They do also offer elephant rides but one hundred percent of the
proceeds go to their world famous elephant hospital where they take
in inbred elephants from other less caring camps. We watched the
elephants with their trainers, took a ride through the ground’s
forests, watched the elephants bathe and bought elephant dung paper!
So Thailand does recycle—yay!!!
The rest of the week my mother and sister enjoyed their days of pool
side leisure, shopping and strolls through the city until we were
supposed to take off for Hua-Hin, the King’s favorite vacation spot
in the South. Unfortunately these pesky little protests that have
been invading Bangkok since we moved here elevated to the
Photo 16
Photo 16
‘Final Battle’ as the protesters seized the Bangkok airport and
halted domestic and international flights for seven days. For my mom
and sister this meant they had to miss their two day stop over in
Hong Kong and their return flight to L.A. all together. Worst of all
we missed our 5 star resort on one of the beautiful beaches of
Thailand! Needless to say frustration persisted until it was obvious
there was nothing we could do but to enjoy what we could of where we
were. For me, I had a little extra evil joy in realizing that seven
more days with my family just landed unexpectedly in my lap. So what
did they do? Well, they checked out of their meager guest house and
into one of Chiang Mai’s finest new hotels, Le Meridian. Their giant
window overlooked all of Chiang Mai including Doi Suthep way up on
the hill. The infinity pool on the fourth floor had a similar view
plus Bloody Marys! This is about the time we started over indulging
in spas as well: oil massages, Thai body massages, foot massages,
facials, pedicures, you name it! We also celebrated Brian’s big 3-0
at one of
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Chiang Mai’s finest restaurants where he was treated to New Zealand
tenderloin, the first real bit of cow ass (as he refers to it) he’s
had here in Thailand (if you saw the cow’s in SE Asia, you’d
understand why we don’t eat them).
My mother and sister
took a few trips on their own: a private Northern Thailand tour of
Chiang Rai, the White Temple and Mae Salong, the Chinese village on
a hill. They also spent two days in Sukhothai, the royal city of
ancient Thailand. Unfortunately I was at work during all this so can
only post their pictures. When they were back we did manage to have
a great day along the Mae Rim loop where we went to the Tiger
Kingdom, they actually let you play in the tiger cages for about
fifteen minutes, then we went to the monkey center where we took
some of my favorite pictures thus far with a cheeky little monkey
named Natalie.
It was wonderful having my mom and sister out. I’m glad that my
sister thoroughly enjoyed her culinary experience here in Thailand.
With the famous food we’ve become accustomed to in Thailand, there
is nothing
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better than taking someone to your favorite restaurant to share a
plate of your favorite food and see the look on their face that
reminds you of the first time you tried such a delicacy. My mother
took a lot home with her from this trip. It was almost laughable to
Nicki and me how many people—Thai, expats and tourists—she stopped
to talk to but I think that is what she enjoyed most: learning the
way of life in Thailand and bringing a bit of its tranquility home
with her. We never made it to the beach but I wouldn't trade in our
nap in the park, days at the pool overlooking Doi Suthep, breakfast
buffets of all you can eat cheeses and our big night out at Van Bar
for any two days on a beach!
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