Thailand 2008

Rude and to direct, that is not something you can say about the Thai people. They are anything but that. Overly civilised is more what comes in mind. This is the 4th time I come to Thailand and I have to say it's also not in my top 10. Travelling in Thailand is convenient but also a bit boring. Actually for me a country is satisfying if I can take a lot of pictures. So far, in the 3 weeks that I'm here I have 3 or 4 pictures that I like, which is not that much. Also Thai people are quite introvert, so you don't have much interaction with the local people. Unlike a country like India, where there is always somebody to bother you, the people here leave you alone.

The duck, the budha and the king. This is on the
premises of a temple, I still don't understand
what Donald Duck was doing there.

I am now in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second biggest city. But what a difference with Bangkok: Chiang Mai is much more relaxed, almost no high buildings, a lot of quiet backstreets. There are many bars with sometimes some good live bands. Providing it's not Thai music they play which ranges from pretty bland music to music that resembles the sound of a cat being strangled played backwards with various speed. I arrived here on the 31th of december to celebrate the new year. When I wanted to go to the city just to do that the hotel owner asked if I wanted to drink a glass of whiskey. Well, it didn't stay with one glass. Being more a beer and wine drinker the whiskey brought me to new heights (or lows) of drunkenness. So much that when I woke up to pee I couldn't find the door of my room and I apparently thought it was a good idea to pee in my bidon. The next morning I woke up, remembering nothing and finding this strange liquid in my bidon.
My birthday was spent much more serene: camping in the mountains with the soothing sounds of different birds singing happy birthday to me. I was supposed to do a loop in the mountains. But for the first time I had to give in to the gravity (very steep hills), also the humidity didn't work in my benefit. The views weren't that rewarding either: most of the time you didn't see anything because of the trees, so what's the use of going in the mountains then? So I decided to hitchhike half of it. Pick up trucks are the most common cars in Thailand so it wasn't a problem to hitchhike with the bicycle.

Birthday present from mother nature

Although most people are really nice off course also some Thai people see the farang (Westerner) as walking banknotes. In one guesthouse I had the following conversation when I wanted to pay for the food: She: "That's 70 baht". me: "No, it's 50, 30 for the food and 20 for the coke". She (to defend herself): "I didn't know what you had". Me: "So you just say something?". She: "never mind". It's always wise to check the bill but that is also because it looks like most people never learned to count in school. For instance if you go to a shop and buy 2 things, one is 20 baht, the other 5 baht some shopkeepers will take their calculator and use it to calculate the price.

The amazing white temple near Chiang Rai, in the front
you see hell with all the hands of the unlucky souls
raised up, you can give alms to them.

Inside is a murial of september 11

The Thai love their monarchy up to a point that the king is considered some semi god. What is it that in some countries the people are so in love with their royal family? In Jordan I even met a young guy who had pictures of the funeral of the previous king on his cellphone. I don't think there is anybody in Holland who has pictures of the funeral of prince Klaus on his cellphone. I only heard that there was a site for pederasts (problably Holland is the only country where pederasts have a organisation, they even wanted to start a political party) who put pictures of the grandchild of the queen on their site. Also out of "love" for the monarchy.

Floating shrine or whatever for the king

Concerning the dogs I can say that Thailand is a bike friendly country, maybe it's because they are buddhist or maybe because in this heat they can't be bothered chasing you.