I'm in an optician in sukhothai to get my stupid glasses straightened.....£100 they cost me and they have as much strength as a soggy biscuit.
The optician is all super clean and professional with 5 glamorous lilac suited assistants who naturally speak next to no English. One of them produces google translate to negotiate with me. The key phrases are that the glasses may break and the shop will not be responsible. So I wait while they do their best and a farmer type with nasty sores and scars on his legs tries on specs, his family in attendance.
Lo and behold the the frames have broken, the lenses fallen out. They kindly offer me some replacement frames, but I don't want to make an impulse buy of £45 on specs right now. I graciously thank them for their efforts and depart. It's actually hot today. Cloudy blue sky. Sunlight.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Posted with Blogsy
Sunday, 25 August 2013
Si satchanalai
Well I worked it out. Those guys in chopper bar ( what a name) are the local bikers. Yesterday they turned up on their Harleys and cut off sukhothai city black shirts. They seem to be always the honoured guests with the young boy and girl, the kids of the owner, I guess jumping to attention. The boy's job is portable barman. He has a trolley full of whiskers and mixers and ice and he regularly pours out new ones for these guys....no measuring....I saw one of them using his brick like Motorola.what is it with these? Over the road, from the veranda I see a group of cops stopping, searching then taking away in the back of a pickup a couple of I don't know what's.
Sunday morning a I have a lie in til 9, a quick breakfast, and rent a motorbike, for the measly sum of 150 baht. It's manual, it tattles, the speedo doesn't work and the mirrors are floppy, so I can't see a thing behind me. Fortunately the roads, even the main ones are not too scary. There is a motorbike/ bike lane which doesn't necessarily get used by traffic just going with he flow. It's quite common to encounter a bike of motorbike or tricycle coming towards you. There isn't so much traffic, the road is mainly straight, but a bit pot holed. There are so many stray dogs lolloping around. They look like foxes, and my weedy horn is unlikely to rouse them. In fact on my return journey I very nearly did hit a dog, but this one had an owner. It crossed the road at its own pace. Even when seeing me neither sped up nor stopped. A big black thing a bit like a Labrador. I came so close to hitting it..full on braking...
Transportation in hail and deserves a mention. Motorbikes, ie 100 cc Hondas are the main form of travelling herein the north. I saw a sign indicating that helmets are essential, however, I saw maybe 3 people wearing them, some carrying them...and bikes carrying up to 4 people. I passed a husband carrying his wife pillion, she was cradling her new born baby between them. I don't know what the age is, but there are certainly 12 year old kids riding these bikes in heir flip flops and Chelsea football kit.
Them there is the Toyota pickup, the fancier ones with cab with 2 rows of seats. The pick up section is used for carrying animals, machinery, vegetables, and people. Sometimes a group of kids, sometimes a whole gang of workers from the fields.
The public transport are saewthawn, which in some places are pickups with the back area covered, but open at the sides, with 2 wooden benches face to face, and a step at the back. Luggage goes on the top, can be flagged down, goes designated routes, used by school kids, workers, traders. In sukhothai these are more like trucks with the same wooden benches, and a wooden floor. They drive incredibly slowly. The tuk tuks here are back to front, more like a ricks haw. Motorbike section at the back, front section is a 2 wheeled affair open at the front and containing 2 benches face to face. The hole thing covered by a flat roof.
There are motorbikes with side cars. The sidecar being more like a box on wheels, suitable for anything and anyone.
Some of the vehicles in the countryside are weird looking too. Something which reminds me of a horse and cart, except it is based on a motorcycle. It's a tricycle with very long handlebars, which reach back to the driver who has a seat on the cart area.
Today's trip to si satchanalai was cool. I missed the park entrance to. Begin with and explored the area, finding several ruined temples near the road and one with a massive chedi on top of a forested hill. Here I glimpsed a local family rooting for some kind of bugs, the father was banging trees with a stick, taking a drag on his cigarette and breathing the smoke into bore holes in the tree. I don't thing they were succeeding...and anyway I don't know what they were looking for exactly.
I rode out of the archaeological park, and found myself on a road flanked with paddies reflecting distant mountains. A woman was. Harvesting some rice, her daughters bagging it by the road. The paddies were swarming with birds, many of them large grey and white wading birds with long legs and beaks. A bit like storks.
When I get back to the park, I'm parking my bike and flagged down by woman from the restaurant shack place. She gets my order wrong and I have to send back the rice with pork.
I decide to ride round the park rather than cycle. It turns out to be a good idea as there is quite a lot of distance to cover. There is hardly anyone here, and each ruin I have more or less to myself. It rains a little, there is a swarm of dragon flies gathered over the road at wat Chang lom...the one with elephant chedi. On approaching I thought these were falling leaves, so big and so profuse were they. Wat chedi ched thaeo blows me away...the complex is vast and has enough ruins to last anyone a lifetime.
The final stop is outside the wall of the park. It has a Khmer tower and some bayon style carvings. Not much atmosphere though as there is construction going on around it.
The journey back is punctuated by a stop to gawp at this place ( see below ). Buddha Buddha everywhere. It's funny that I have seen so many ruins, yet I passed a number of places where temples are still being built.
Dinner is in a chilled out bar that does me a tofu Penang curry and a mango shake..awful lounges cover cd of Beatles songs and carpenters etc. etc....but more relaxing than choppers!
By the way I think I have had enough of ruins now...perhaps you have too? To finish, here is a missing Buddha!
Sunday morning a I have a lie in til 9, a quick breakfast, and rent a motorbike, for the measly sum of 150 baht. It's manual, it tattles, the speedo doesn't work and the mirrors are floppy, so I can't see a thing behind me. Fortunately the roads, even the main ones are not too scary. There is a motorbike/ bike lane which doesn't necessarily get used by traffic just going with he flow. It's quite common to encounter a bike of motorbike or tricycle coming towards you. There isn't so much traffic, the road is mainly straight, but a bit pot holed. There are so many stray dogs lolloping around. They look like foxes, and my weedy horn is unlikely to rouse them. In fact on my return journey I very nearly did hit a dog, but this one had an owner. It crossed the road at its own pace. Even when seeing me neither sped up nor stopped. A big black thing a bit like a Labrador. I came so close to hitting it..full on braking...
Transportation in hail and deserves a mention. Motorbikes, ie 100 cc Hondas are the main form of travelling herein the north. I saw a sign indicating that helmets are essential, however, I saw maybe 3 people wearing them, some carrying them...and bikes carrying up to 4 people. I passed a husband carrying his wife pillion, she was cradling her new born baby between them. I don't know what the age is, but there are certainly 12 year old kids riding these bikes in heir flip flops and Chelsea football kit.
Them there is the Toyota pickup, the fancier ones with cab with 2 rows of seats. The pick up section is used for carrying animals, machinery, vegetables, and people. Sometimes a group of kids, sometimes a whole gang of workers from the fields.
The public transport are saewthawn, which in some places are pickups with the back area covered, but open at the sides, with 2 wooden benches face to face, and a step at the back. Luggage goes on the top, can be flagged down, goes designated routes, used by school kids, workers, traders. In sukhothai these are more like trucks with the same wooden benches, and a wooden floor. They drive incredibly slowly. The tuk tuks here are back to front, more like a ricks haw. Motorbike section at the back, front section is a 2 wheeled affair open at the front and containing 2 benches face to face. The hole thing covered by a flat roof.
There are motorbikes with side cars. The sidecar being more like a box on wheels, suitable for anything and anyone.
Some of the vehicles in the countryside are weird looking too. Something which reminds me of a horse and cart, except it is based on a motorcycle. It's a tricycle with very long handlebars, which reach back to the driver who has a seat on the cart area.
Today's trip to si satchanalai was cool. I missed the park entrance to. Begin with and explored the area, finding several ruined temples near the road and one with a massive chedi on top of a forested hill. Here I glimpsed a local family rooting for some kind of bugs, the father was banging trees with a stick, taking a drag on his cigarette and breathing the smoke into bore holes in the tree. I don't thing they were succeeding...and anyway I don't know what they were looking for exactly.
I rode out of the archaeological park, and found myself on a road flanked with paddies reflecting distant mountains. A woman was. Harvesting some rice, her daughters bagging it by the road. The paddies were swarming with birds, many of them large grey and white wading birds with long legs and beaks. A bit like storks.
When I get back to the park, I'm parking my bike and flagged down by woman from the restaurant shack place. She gets my order wrong and I have to send back the rice with pork.
I decide to ride round the park rather than cycle. It turns out to be a good idea as there is quite a lot of distance to cover. There is hardly anyone here, and each ruin I have more or less to myself. It rains a little, there is a swarm of dragon flies gathered over the road at wat Chang lom...the one with elephant chedi. On approaching I thought these were falling leaves, so big and so profuse were they. Wat chedi ched thaeo blows me away...the complex is vast and has enough ruins to last anyone a lifetime.
The final stop is outside the wall of the park. It has a Khmer tower and some bayon style carvings. Not much atmosphere though as there is construction going on around it.
The journey back is punctuated by a stop to gawp at this place ( see below ). Buddha Buddha everywhere. It's funny that I have seen so many ruins, yet I passed a number of places where temples are still being built.
Dinner is in a chilled out bar that does me a tofu Penang curry and a mango shake..awful lounges cover cd of Beatles songs and carpenters etc. etc....but more relaxing than choppers!
By the way I think I have had enough of ruins now...perhaps you have too? To finish, here is a missing Buddha!
Saturday, 24 August 2013
Sukhothai
Strange atmosphere at night around the bungalow. A pack of dogs howling and barking, in the morning the echoing discordant tangly of at Thai voice maybe advertising something or giving the news. There's aalittle kitten who is desperate to be with me, on my bed, only breakfast table....
I get a sawntaewn to old sukhothai which acts as a delivery truck for the hawker stalls at the old temples.i rent a knack erred bike for 30 baht and the ticket sellers at the gate to the historical park are grumpy and unhelpful. The park itself is flat and features the partially reconstructed complexes of some pretty vast temples replete with standings and seated Buddhas. There are quite a few tourists, like me on bikes, or bigger groups on the electric shuttle or in tuk tusk. It's not a particularly serene place. It's a tourist park..but I guess I've been spoiled with the low key and more evocative Khmer ruins in the east. I grab a plate of fried vegetalian food ( that's how it is written) and a pineapple shake at a little shack, and the groups of spa airs and French trawl back to their buses, all with a bottle of coca Colain hand.
The park is all manicured and a bit dull. I take my clunky one speed bike out of the park and follow the back roads through the woods where there are dozens of ruined chedi and temples. Not as well reconstructed as the park, but a lot more evocative.the best one is here, wat sapan hin, a 200 metre climb taking me to a shell of a temple, 6 columns and a 25m standing Buddha overlooking a flat falt forested plain. I've had my 15 minutes alone.a Spanish couple arrive, the girl adopts a Buddha posture for a photo.here come some more. At least cos you have to make am effort to get here, theses people won't be asses!
I st for a mango shake by the roadside, and am on the point of returning to base when I realise ther is still more to see, and it's spectacular, a lily moated crumbly temple on an island with smashed and broken Buddhas, a Khmer style tower and a herd of cows grazing. And hardly anyone there!
I get a sawntaewn to old sukhothai which acts as a delivery truck for the hawker stalls at the old temples.i rent a knack erred bike for 30 baht and the ticket sellers at the gate to the historical park are grumpy and unhelpful. The park itself is flat and features the partially reconstructed complexes of some pretty vast temples replete with standings and seated Buddhas. There are quite a few tourists, like me on bikes, or bigger groups on the electric shuttle or in tuk tusk. It's not a particularly serene place. It's a tourist park..but I guess I've been spoiled with the low key and more evocative Khmer ruins in the east. I grab a plate of fried vegetalian food ( that's how it is written) and a pineapple shake at a little shack, and the groups of spa airs and French trawl back to their buses, all with a bottle of coca Colain hand.
The park is all manicured and a bit dull. I take my clunky one speed bike out of the park and follow the back roads through the woods where there are dozens of ruined chedi and temples. Not as well reconstructed as the park, but a lot more evocative.the best one is here, wat sapan hin, a 200 metre climb taking me to a shell of a temple, 6 columns and a 25m standing Buddha overlooking a flat falt forested plain. I've had my 15 minutes alone.a Spanish couple arrive, the girl adopts a Buddha posture for a photo.here come some more. At least cos you have to make am effort to get here, theses people won't be asses!
Friday, 23 August 2013
Journey north
I forgot to mention the mauve mountains on the horizon,the paddy fields glowing in the sunset as we enter the lower northern region. Joy division on the iPad. I'm not sure how appropriate, but it works....
Travelling to phitsanulok
This is bus is more like a plane than the local one I caught from phi mai to korat. That one was rickety, jump on and off, and full of leathery faced older people and u overstay students. They all wear uniforms too. The boy going to the technical university has a dark grey military uniform. He stands to attention on the bus holding along set square like a gun. Schools are very visible and prominent in this culture. I'm sure you wouldn't be aware of them driving through England.
Korat bus takes us past a huge school, with a green clad military sentry. The kids, all in orange shirts and black trousers, wai the guard.
Last night it rained incessantly. The night market packed up as the road became a big puddle. It must be tough when your livelihood as a trader can be rained off Like this. I do manage to get a bag of mangosteens, which always remind me of Cyrus, and longans, a huge bag of crushed dried red chillies, and a package of spring rolls which comes with an inconceivably huge bunch of salad leaves, including basil and some crunchy bitter shiny dark green ones. I have this for lunch on the bus to phitsanulok the next day.
As I was saying, it's more like a plane: liveried purser, a welcome announcement on the mic, a box of cakes and water for each passenger, and a personal appearance by both drivers who stand in the door of the cabin(the crew is sealed off from the passengers, yes, like a plane) to wai to us all. This one has air conditioning as opposed to opening the windows at speed and letting the air rush in.....
When the Rain eased momentarily I did stretch my legs to alleviate the growing sense of tedium and isolation.i haven't found a very sociable place to stay. The only other 2 guests are a cold French couple whose sum conversation is to ask if I know the whereabouts of the police station. In fact whilst over here in the east all the travellers I have met have been French. Funny how this works out. Last year in surathani everyone was German.
There are a few brave stall holders, who anyway look prepared for this, and a couple who have much better, dry and sheltered pitches. Under the ruined chedi is a barbecue stall. The woman perched on her motorbike watching a tv she has rigged and up and protected in layers of polythene.....
Dinner is a disappointing and overpriced plate of stir fried rice and veg, over which I attempt to plan meeting up with hon in ayutthya on fb. He hasn't looked at my dates,says he is busy, says we can meet at koh Changan the end of my trip, but doesn't factor in his starting work. A impasse. He then blocks me...wtf? Thais guys are flakey, confusing and full of shit......
Back to this bus. For the first 2 hours I have had to plug myself into my iPod. I should say, even though I have around 40 days of music on it, it doesn't seem able to provide the necessary soundtrack for Asia. Most of the music I have is too rooted in uk,my uk past. Some is too abrasive, some too electronic....anywayi plugged it in to drown out what we were subjected to on the tv screens on the bus. It starts with some pop videos. There was one particular one that sticks in my mind. Beautiful young man arrives in his land rover at a school camp in the countryside. I'm not sure why he is there, but on arriving the kids are excited when they see him and there is a lingering meeting of eyes with a beautiful teacher. I think he has brought them gifts as he is later surrounded by the little munchkins waiing him as the open presents. maybe they are orphans....The following scenes show her to be wonderful, caring, loving, a perfect teacher, adored by her little kids. She tucks them in under blankets, by a camp fire. A few shots of the happy couple. Then he leaves again in his land rover...touching waving goodbye scene. All the kids and woman waving. The man drives off and has a quiet moment by the river. Cut to the woman. Se returns to the class room. There is a script in chalk on the board. It startles her and she reflects. Obviously he wrote something...I have no idea what. But judging from the tone of the video it has no sexual innuendo. Probably praising her qualities as a teacher! Kind of weird.it's clearly a love some....but the kids element makes it quite obtuse.
The other videos were very amateurish. There was a rock band. I can tell this as, rebelliously, the sing had long hair. He was surrounded by a team of women dancers, who all. Had pink suitcases, the pull along type. In fact all these videos have beautiful long haired heavily made up Thai beauties, modestly dressed. Even the one with the old guy in the cowboy hat walking along the river singing and playing his guitar. Could be any of the characters I saw in pai!
There followed a video, could it have been a music video???of sepia footage of the current Thai king through the ages, looking noble, benign, respected, intelligent. Walking around villages, fishing, receiving guests, meeting the people.i can't imagine anything like this being made in uk...if it is a music video.....
But the worst thing was an hour of something called he variety show. Tv at its worst.ridiculous looking hosts: a woman ( see description of eye candy for music video) and a guy who would give timmy mallet a run for his money in the worst dressed guy in tv history. Big glasses, a green striped shirt, bow tie, pink jacket with sleeves rolled up to the elbows 80s style, and 3/4 length skinny trousers. I not sure what happens on the show. There are 2 teams of possibly celebrities. One is a. Big jovial fat guy with a shaved head who play some games, such as eating some apparently revolting bright green food. These guys are dressed I really tasteless costumes: black and white check jackets with bright yellow or green spangly hoods, hats to match. The show involves a lot of standing around and saying things that result in a lot of guffawing.the studio Audience clearly loves it. There is an extended section with motor cycle stunt riders. Actually they ride 100cc automatics, so I guess the audience identifies with them.they wheelie, do rear wheelies as they stop, ride standing on the seat...nothing very jaw dropping. There is some young teenage oh who features here. I think he asks one of the riders some questions. Maybe he has been selected for this show. He looks bemused, bashful, perplexed...anyway eventually he takes part in the final stunt. Get this: two rows of riders lie perpendicular to the approaching bike. The rows are separated by a line of purple balloons, around 8 of them. The bike approaches. The boy is also on the bike, his back is facing forwards. On the first approach the rider pulls the bike into a rear wheel wheelie but stops just short of his prone colleagues, as he would have run them over. Gasps of horror from the crowd. Close ups of the celebrities, the pretty eye candy host looks bored. Second approach...this is the stunt....the rider takes a straight line this time, pulls the rear wheelie, the boy is now hanging backwards over the handle bars. He. Is wearing a crash hat with aspire on it. All the balloons are burst in sequence, the bike clears the lines. Cue applause and adulation. The boy is overjoyed and I am underwhelmed.
One more bus to get to sukhothai and it feels like an oasis of tranquility. Staying in a bamboo hut at 300 baht. Town is small and sleepy...good!had armed curry at choppers bar...styled around the Wild West and biking and Buddhism. There is a big group of chunky middle aged Thais with a German tattooed guy, who I presumed was chopper. One of their group has brought in a job lot of 80s style Motorola phones, which he is sharing around. I don't get it it. It's like something out of only fools and horses. I notice that waiting is the way to greet here. There is a 14 year old kid serving the drinks, unmeasured. The Thai guys great him like slackly and don't make eye contact or thank him. My red curry is ok...needs much more spice. There. Ae several pairs of adventurous western females here. A guy is singing,and playing guitar and harmonica. His stage is a replica bull cart..I have 2 beers and return to sit in the near Silence outside my bungalow.
Korat bus takes us past a huge school, with a green clad military sentry. The kids, all in orange shirts and black trousers, wai the guard.
Last night it rained incessantly. The night market packed up as the road became a big puddle. It must be tough when your livelihood as a trader can be rained off Like this. I do manage to get a bag of mangosteens, which always remind me of Cyrus, and longans, a huge bag of crushed dried red chillies, and a package of spring rolls which comes with an inconceivably huge bunch of salad leaves, including basil and some crunchy bitter shiny dark green ones. I have this for lunch on the bus to phitsanulok the next day.
As I was saying, it's more like a plane: liveried purser, a welcome announcement on the mic, a box of cakes and water for each passenger, and a personal appearance by both drivers who stand in the door of the cabin(the crew is sealed off from the passengers, yes, like a plane) to wai to us all. This one has air conditioning as opposed to opening the windows at speed and letting the air rush in.....
When the Rain eased momentarily I did stretch my legs to alleviate the growing sense of tedium and isolation.i haven't found a very sociable place to stay. The only other 2 guests are a cold French couple whose sum conversation is to ask if I know the whereabouts of the police station. In fact whilst over here in the east all the travellers I have met have been French. Funny how this works out. Last year in surathani everyone was German.
There are a few brave stall holders, who anyway look prepared for this, and a couple who have much better, dry and sheltered pitches. Under the ruined chedi is a barbecue stall. The woman perched on her motorbike watching a tv she has rigged and up and protected in layers of polythene.....
Dinner is a disappointing and overpriced plate of stir fried rice and veg, over which I attempt to plan meeting up with hon in ayutthya on fb. He hasn't looked at my dates,says he is busy, says we can meet at koh Changan the end of my trip, but doesn't factor in his starting work. A impasse. He then blocks me...wtf? Thais guys are flakey, confusing and full of shit......
Back to this bus. For the first 2 hours I have had to plug myself into my iPod. I should say, even though I have around 40 days of music on it, it doesn't seem able to provide the necessary soundtrack for Asia. Most of the music I have is too rooted in uk,my uk past. Some is too abrasive, some too electronic....anywayi plugged it in to drown out what we were subjected to on the tv screens on the bus. It starts with some pop videos. There was one particular one that sticks in my mind. Beautiful young man arrives in his land rover at a school camp in the countryside. I'm not sure why he is there, but on arriving the kids are excited when they see him and there is a lingering meeting of eyes with a beautiful teacher. I think he has brought them gifts as he is later surrounded by the little munchkins waiing him as the open presents. maybe they are orphans....The following scenes show her to be wonderful, caring, loving, a perfect teacher, adored by her little kids. She tucks them in under blankets, by a camp fire. A few shots of the happy couple. Then he leaves again in his land rover...touching waving goodbye scene. All the kids and woman waving. The man drives off and has a quiet moment by the river. Cut to the woman. Se returns to the class room. There is a script in chalk on the board. It startles her and she reflects. Obviously he wrote something...I have no idea what. But judging from the tone of the video it has no sexual innuendo. Probably praising her qualities as a teacher! Kind of weird.it's clearly a love some....but the kids element makes it quite obtuse.
The other videos were very amateurish. There was a rock band. I can tell this as, rebelliously, the sing had long hair. He was surrounded by a team of women dancers, who all. Had pink suitcases, the pull along type. In fact all these videos have beautiful long haired heavily made up Thai beauties, modestly dressed. Even the one with the old guy in the cowboy hat walking along the river singing and playing his guitar. Could be any of the characters I saw in pai!
There followed a video, could it have been a music video???of sepia footage of the current Thai king through the ages, looking noble, benign, respected, intelligent. Walking around villages, fishing, receiving guests, meeting the people.i can't imagine anything like this being made in uk...if it is a music video.....
But the worst thing was an hour of something called he variety show. Tv at its worst.ridiculous looking hosts: a woman ( see description of eye candy for music video) and a guy who would give timmy mallet a run for his money in the worst dressed guy in tv history. Big glasses, a green striped shirt, bow tie, pink jacket with sleeves rolled up to the elbows 80s style, and 3/4 length skinny trousers. I not sure what happens on the show. There are 2 teams of possibly celebrities. One is a. Big jovial fat guy with a shaved head who play some games, such as eating some apparently revolting bright green food. These guys are dressed I really tasteless costumes: black and white check jackets with bright yellow or green spangly hoods, hats to match. The show involves a lot of standing around and saying things that result in a lot of guffawing.the studio Audience clearly loves it. There is an extended section with motor cycle stunt riders. Actually they ride 100cc automatics, so I guess the audience identifies with them.they wheelie, do rear wheelies as they stop, ride standing on the seat...nothing very jaw dropping. There is some young teenage oh who features here. I think he asks one of the riders some questions. Maybe he has been selected for this show. He looks bemused, bashful, perplexed...anyway eventually he takes part in the final stunt. Get this: two rows of riders lie perpendicular to the approaching bike. The rows are separated by a line of purple balloons, around 8 of them. The bike approaches. The boy is also on the bike, his back is facing forwards. On the first approach the rider pulls the bike into a rear wheel wheelie but stops just short of his prone colleagues, as he would have run them over. Gasps of horror from the crowd. Close ups of the celebrities, the pretty eye candy host looks bored. Second approach...this is the stunt....the rider takes a straight line this time, pulls the rear wheelie, the boy is now hanging backwards over the handle bars. He. Is wearing a crash hat with aspire on it. All the balloons are burst in sequence, the bike clears the lines. Cue applause and adulation. The boy is overjoyed and I am underwhelmed.
One more bus to get to sukhothai and it feels like an oasis of tranquility. Staying in a bamboo hut at 300 baht. Town is small and sleepy...good!had armed curry at choppers bar...styled around the Wild West and biking and Buddhism. There is a big group of chunky middle aged Thais with a German tattooed guy, who I presumed was chopper. One of their group has brought in a job lot of 80s style Motorola phones, which he is sharing around. I don't get it it. It's like something out of only fools and horses. I notice that waiting is the way to greet here. There is a 14 year old kid serving the drinks, unmeasured. The Thai guys great him like slackly and don't make eye contact or thank him. My red curry is ok...needs much more spice. There. Ae several pairs of adventurous western females here. A guy is singing,and playing guitar and harmonica. His stage is a replica bull cart..I have 2 beers and return to sit in the near Silence outside my bungalow.
Thursday, 22 August 2013
Banyan tree
This has to be the craziest tree in the world. It takes up an entire island and its hanging roots plunge to the ground like hundreds of trunks, in the bowls of this monster is a shrine and trees are bedecked with strings of flowers, the ground scattered with monkey, horse, and elephant statues. Am old woman pursues me asking if I want a massage. A local family come to shake prayer sticks and an excited boyreadshis fortune from the one that falls out. I catch their eye and first they want me to take their picture, then they ask me to pose with them so they can take my pic too. They are overwhelmed with joy. Scattered around are small tables and chairs where teenagers are gathered. Across the bridge back on dry land is a long open shed of benches and food stalls where I get the usual pad Thai. The rain is spotting down on me.
Tiziano terzano's is becoming even more relevant. I read his Bangkok chapter under the tree, and notice that there is actually a fortune teller lodged at the far corner of the island. More stick shakers. Some saffron figures, monks, glide through the trees. Back on dry land there is a stall selling bags of fish and turtles. Buy them and set them free for luck. It seems quite perverse that these creatures are bred and. Imprisoned and sold to bring people luck.
Cycle in the rain past the big square pond covered with lilies and water buffalo grazing the banks. I trace the site of the perimeter wall of the old town. The roads are still laid out in cruciform and the remains of each gate can be found at the ends of each cardinal artery.
Cycle in the rain past the big square pond covered with lilies and water buffalo grazing the banks. I trace the site of the perimeter wall of the old town. The roads are still laid out in cruciform and the remains of each gate can be found at the ends of each cardinal artery.
Phi mai
After the big flash it rains most of the night. Steady drizzle, but large drops that evaporate as soon as they touch you. I have a beer at the bar on the corner, seemingly staffed entirely by lady boys.
Wake up early and wander the town as it begins its day. Kids going to school, breakfast hawkers. I get a fried egg and juice.
When I enter the prasat phi mai, I'm the only person there, other than women in scarf cum masks and wide brimmed hats meditatively sweeping the dust and fallen leaves from the ruins. It's a big site and I garner that it's been largely rebuilt. There are barefooted guys precariously erected scaffolding at the west gate. There is a collection of remoulded sculptures. Regardless the place is spectacular, and is claimed to be thailands largest stone monument. The same layout as angkor wat, and apparently there is an ancient road linking the 2 places. It must be weird having this as the centre of your town. The main tower is flooded with the creepy echoing cooing of pigeons. It's a peculiar mixture of ancient, well, 1100 years old, and a place where life carries on almost obliviously. I see pictures of how it was before restorations began, the romantic in me kind of prefers it.
Wake up early and wander the town as it begins its day. Kids going to school, breakfast hawkers. I get a fried egg and juice.
When I enter the prasat phi mai, I'm the only person there, other than women in scarf cum masks and wide brimmed hats meditatively sweeping the dust and fallen leaves from the ruins. It's a big site and I garner that it's been largely rebuilt. There are barefooted guys precariously erected scaffolding at the west gate. There is a collection of remoulded sculptures. Regardless the place is spectacular, and is claimed to be thailands largest stone monument. The same layout as angkor wat, and apparently there is an ancient road linking the 2 places. It must be weird having this as the centre of your town. The main tower is flooded with the creepy echoing cooing of pigeons. It's a peculiar mixture of ancient, well, 1100 years old, and a place where life carries on almost obliviously. I see pictures of how it was before restorations began, the romantic in me kind of prefers it.
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