Report 12

First day in Thailand - Bankok

Well here we are in Bangkok and email is a different animal to that in India, but then isnt almost every thing. What a contrast!

We arrived yesterday morning at about five in the morning after a very pleasant flight on Thai Airways, flight folk in beautiful thai sari equiv. and Mary given an orchid, our first glass of wine since Italy which Mary swallowed in one go and asked quickly for anoyher one before the cart moved on, I think she was afraid that they would run out.

Our first shock was that they had airconditioned buses into town and that they ran along freeways and that there were other vehicles other than trucks on the road, in fact lots of them. This seems to be a pretty civilised place and by now which is about a day later we get the feeling that this place may be a version of Hong Kong, we shall see.

We have joined the group, many of them having finished other trips in Thailand and are looking forward to a resort experience. Apart from two other Canadians from Parksville about our age the balance are all from the UK of all ages. The one thing that we have noticed here is that there are many folk from UK or are folk who are quite young. I guess this is the mecca for youth looking for a cheap good time and I sense that there are lots of things for them to get it!!!

We have tried our first thai food, looking for peanut whatever and have yet to get it, peanuts that is but wow is it hot, puts curry to shame. But we still get lemon soda which we have become addicted too.

Tonight we go south by train overnight, en route for Ko Samui. Our guide is a thai girl who is quite wonderful and smiles alot. I think I am going to get along well with her. Am practicing "sabaai dii reu" furiously. So will report more later on in the trip.

 

Report 13

Second Thailand Report

"Hello Papa" the common way of addressing the oldies in this part of the world, but this is not usually addressed to me but to Mary. The sight of an elderly person with short grey hair who is six feet tall can only be a guy, correct? But once the error is realised there is usually an infectious giggle which tends to get us off on a good footing, but the Thais in any event seem wonderfully sympathetic folk.

We are now back in Bangkok after our first trip out of the city and are awaiting joining the next group for our trip north. Our previous trip took us south by train to Sulat Thani, boat to Koh [or island] Samui then across the southern peninsula to Phuket on the Andaman Sea side of the country, a ferry to Koh Phi Phi and another ferry to Koh Lanta, a ferry to the mainland, bus ride to Trang City [no not in Vietnam] and plane back to Bangkok.

The purpose of this trip at least in our mind was to get some sun and swimming in after our hectic trip to Rahjastan and was in fact my deal with Mary to get her to come to India with me...some islands in the sun the Explore catalogue said that made Mary quite weak in the knees when she first read it. Well we left Bangkok hotel in bright sunlight, hot at about five in the evening to the train station and what a surprise, it was clean, new, full of fast food shops including KFC and a mini mart [all of this is a symbol of Thailand to me, such a contrast to India] and boarded our sleek air conditioned train as we set off into the night. The train car was spacious or rather there were not many bunks, just two, one on top off each other on either side of the corridor again a contrast to our India experience and the attendant delivered sheets and towel and the food lady took our dinner order, a choice of four, I recall. The food was so so and costly which accounted for all of the fast food at the station, but what the hell, you have to try it out, correct?

Had a great nights sleep and woke up to a cup off tea at about six, disassembled the bed and eventually arrived at Surat Thani to a host of buses to take us and dozens of back packers off to the ferry and on to Samui. At this point the weather was quite cloudy and the ferry trip in the rust bucket was quite rough, about two and a half hours, luggage in piles on the deck, Mary and I nicely situated on the deck, people everywhere but good fun. It was only when we arrived that we heard of the folks being sea sick down below that we realised that this was not a normal trip but thought of those ferries sinking in the Phillipines or was it China did cross my mind.

We eventually found our way to the beach huts by the sea, had a swim in the crashing surf, a drink at the bar [fresh lemon juice that we have discovered] and our introduction to south Thai food. We have become addicted to ginger chicken coconut soup by the way but have not yet found the peanut sauce stuff yet. Is it up north? And so to bed in our little cabin. Well the next day was very dull as our guide took us around the Island which is a big place and we discovered, a commercial area that is so touristy , hookers and all that it leaves Cancun in the dust. Do you realise that you can get any fashion label designer clothes made to measure overnight at this place, not one store but dozens upon dozens. Packpacker nerds from the UK it seemed, smoking like chimneys, eating crayfish as if it was the last meal ordering up the suits and silk dresses for the next rave in Brixton. At this point I began to question Explores judgment, what the hell is this place.

Then the next day the rains came, it just bucketted out of the sky as my mother would have said and leaves West Van as just another moist place. I must say that I did think of the water running down 16th street on a winters day, the difference here being the temperature is about 30 centigrade here and the washing you have hanging on the towel rail in your bathroom now smells worse than when you washed it. We were all condemned to barracks and then two women from UK about mid thirties, county set [they insisted on drinking wine every night, ever had a corked bottle of Kressman red chateau blotto with chili fried rice in the tropics] decided they would leave the group and go in search of the sun. Our young Thai guide took this a little personally and Mary quietly settled her down since the guide was thinking of taking the group with the two women. Fortunately this did not happen but there was a lot of whinging from the UK crowd who perfectly fulfilled my impressions of them as a nation.

Anyway the next day we set off for the next Island which was in the sun and the next as well, each island less commercial than the first, thank the lord, but they all felt a little like Tennerife or Santorini to me, bare tits and all. We snorkled and got some good swimming in, good side trips and enjoyed it but throughout the piece I kept thinking of our previous trip on the coral reef in Belize that this could have been. I felt that Explore had missed an incredible opportunity here to come forward with a typical "expedition" to uninhabitted places which abound here, islands and beaches that are extraordinary, mind blowing and leave the Goa thing to someone else. Mary does not fully agree with me on this, feels I am taking an extreme position for the hell of it [surprise, surprise] but in fact shares many of the the same feelings. It must have been the research doctor from Kent who thought the food too hot or too cold or felt the king has too large ears that must have done it for me. God I pray the folks on the next trip are all from Canada, Australia or the States.

Enough of this, we found our way back in Bangkok, Mary sixty years old and we set off to the jewel shop to get Mary some pearls, one of those long awaited purchases. And we were succesful. In the afternoon we went to the Jim Thompson house for a visit. This is an American architect who worked for the CIA after the war, came back to Thailand and made it his home, setting up or reviving the Thai silk industry. His home is next to one of the canals and is 6 local houses moved onto the site all joined together. It is now the museum for his private art collection. Thompson died mysteriously in his eighties.The museum also happened to have a silk shop where Mary found a second birthday gift...it is nice. The other wonderful gift was a call from Norma Wasty as we were in bed watching the TV, she found our phone number on the web site. Now that is a friend!.

 

Report 14

Christmas Report

We are now 4 months into our tour - heck, thats halfway. Still healthy (apart from Gary's 100 day cold), wealthy enough to continue (have been in third world countries so far) and thoroughly enjoying getting up each morning with someone to take care of us and new sites to see. Think tours are great. Explore has done well for us.

This report is written from Chaing Mai, Northern Thailand

We have just come back from a 7 day trek in Northern Thailand visiting the Hill Tribe Villages. It was an excellent adventure, lots of walking, lots of hardship and lots of rice. Some days we walked for 7 hours, through bamboo forests, through fields of bright blue flowers and up steep hills. We did see one opium poppy field but the plants were very young and intersperced with veggies, don't think that was widescale trafficing.

We stayed in village huts sleping on wood floors. We ate local food and enjoyed meeting the locals. Our guide was a hill man and from the Shan tribe and was invaluable talking to the headmen and finding out information for us.

Of course, I am 60 now. One of the negative side effects of advancing age is the inabnility to squat (for me that is) and as anyone can tell you, toilets in Asia are squatters. I have definately had my moments from attempting to lead against the back of the flimsy toilet shed, using it as a brace, and expecting the whole contraption to fall down as in cartoons and the most embarrassing was having to use the toilet paper bucket as a sort of seat! We intrepid travellers.

We are travelling with a small group of 7,. Three from the UK, two wonderfully entertaining young men from Mexico and us. We seem to enjoy each other and Thai food and whiskey too. Quite a change from the group on the Islands in the Sun adventure ( see our web site at www.hiscox.net) Tomorrow we take off for two night travelling on a rice barge towards Bagkok visiting even more temples en route. Gary is trying to figure out how he casn get to the Bridge on the River Kwai and I look forward to a visit to Jim Thompson's wonderful Thai silk shop in Bangkok.

We will be in Bali for Christmas, don't have accomodation for Christmas itself, but am sure that someone will take pity on us. It will be the beginning of a change in our travelling as we will be on our own and making our own plans. How will we do..... watch tour web site that Mark Hiscox has put together so well. Thank you Mark.

We will miss your Christmas Cards and seeing some of you over the holidays... enjoy yourselves and please keep in touch.

With love, Mary Hiscox (and Gary too)

 

Report 15

Final Thailand Report

It is six in the evening of our last full day in Thailand having just returned from our village trek. I must say that it is the type of trip I enjoy, away from the cities and the smog.

We started this trip in Bangkok after picking up the rest of the group. Only seven of us this time plus the leader, Mr Pock as we call him. Apart from ourselves are two young men from Mexicali on the US border. they have dual citizenship, speak absolutely perfect English and are a wonderful asset to the group. The elder is planning to become a Jesuit priest whom I chat to as much as possible as we wander through the country. His younger brother besotted over his girl friend as Mary helps him to collect flowers that will be pressed and put in his notebook, his Christmas present to his girl friend. There is another great soul from Lomdon, younger than us who teaches social work at the Southbank university who is good fun to chat to. She has good perception skills of folks behaviour that interests me. This of course leads me to "Billy Bunter" and a 40 year old or so narcissist who giggle together into the evening. The guys job is an interesting one in that he works for a consulting firm on a contract to collect the commercial taxes for a London borough. Hows that for contracting out!

We left Bangkok on one of my favourite night trains and got to Chang Mai in the morning. After a day exploring the city off 200,000 people or so we set off west toward the Myanmar border in a pickup truck with driver. In the afternoon we took a short walk to the first village, picked up the trekking guide and settled down for the night after a good supper cooked by Mr Pock.

The next morning we were up at dawn to pack our bags and eat breakfast, off walking at nine for five to seven hours to the next village. This was a process that was repeated for six days and was interspersed with elephant and raft rides to bring a bit of variety. We had not walked since Italy and were apprehensive how we would manage the hiking. We managed well but I must say that I felt tired at the end of the trip and welcomed two days in a very nice resort in Mae Hong Song.

The villages were quite extrordinary I thought, inhabitted by descendants of Tibetan or Chinese refugees some 300 years ago. There are a number of groups with subsets of all. We visitted Lisu, Lahu and Karen villages. In addition are the Shan, Mr Pocks group, from Burma all speaking their own dialect and Mr Pock did his best to teach us the rudimentaries, like hello, goodbye and thank you. The other interesting thing was that most of the villages had present day refugees from Myanmar of the same clans as the village.

Apparently the authorities were aware of them but remain silent since they were all working hard to support the village in the expectation that they would ultimately get citizenship. Thailand and Burma of course are age old enemies, "never hold a grudge but never forget" says Mr Pock.

The villages are basic, houses comprise a living area with a fire for cooking on the floor [usually a wooden floor with a clay hearth by the way] with a family sleeping area off one side ,usually all raised off the ground. Outside of this set of rooms is a deck with another room or set of rooms forming a long house. These latter rooms are used for storage or for the likes of us. They are very clean. Everyone is required to take off their shoes or flip flops before entering the living quarters. Animals live below, roosters, pigs or whatever. Usually there is no electric light, cold water tap on the deck and a biffy in the yard where we usually showered in the late afternoon from a big pail of water and a scoop after the hike.

The evenings were usually a hoot since Mr Pock took over the kitchen area preparing our meal which was excellent, a veg and non veg choice. He was assisted by the truck driver who delivered our bags each day [a which was a little artificial of course and many in the group were convinced that we were hiking up the same hill each day and down again and that we were only five minutes away from the previous village] and by the trek leader, a muscular young man of 25, married three times and a father of two kids.

After we had eaten Mr Pock and team then set too preparing a second meal for themselves and the family in the house, usually very much spicier than ours and probably for the family with the first the first meat in some weeks. All of this was of course supported by much local distilled whisky. How the hell these guys got up in the morning before dawn I will never know.

The evenings were also an opportunity for the local women to show us their handicrafts and there was some expectation for us to buy which many did, including myself since I am now the proud owner of a pair of Black Lahu baggy shorts, the very same as the trekking guide. For me the evenings were an opportunity to blow up balloons to give to the kids with which they had great fun; and me too. One evening a group of 25 young girls came back to our house to sing songs, sentimental songs of their heritage and even a Christian song taught to them by their teacher. We were then asked to reciprocate, managed Sweet Molly Malone and one of the Mexican lads gave a wonderful rendition of a local tune 'Querida...." something. A wonderful experience that I found breathtaking that this poor village could produce such a wonderful cultural event....especially for us.

After the treck we emerged at Mae Hong Son and were put up the resort; baths, pool and all. We refreshed ourselves for two days. Then on by truck to Chang Mai, then bus to a converted rice barge [good fun, very enjoyable and reminiscent of Kerala for another two days en route for Bangkok.

So as we ready ourselves to go to Bali tomorrow my impression of Thailand is a hard working country, many women doing labouring tasks granted, but a relatively wealthy country in food, culture and wealth. A lot of money is being spent on infrastructure, there are very many private cars and there is a significant middle class I sense. A great deal of respect for each other and ourselves which was pleasant. Yet it has that feeling of China or Vietnam [I would imagine] of many people busily working away in the paddy fields using crude instruments, not much mechanization, of oxen, pigs grazing where they can and chickens everywhere, duck farms in the streams and fishing in the rivers. And markets of unimaginable size in every village and town selling immense quantities of the same things [dried fish the smell of which will be with me forever] veggies of all sorts, and just stuff. All of this of course is overlain by Buddism, the point of view. the temples, stupas simply everywhere. A very different country to India, such a striking difference.

And tomorrow Bali.....