Maybe I loved Vietnam and Cambodia more than I thought - maybe I'm just a bit knackered - maybe the developING countries have got it right all along - or maybe it's the big, impersonal hotel I'm staying in ...
But I'm over the border in Thailand, back in a developED country where flashy cars, superhighways, designer shopping malls and great food is a fact of everyday life - and yet most of the Thai people I'm encountering (admittedly only in the service industry) - seem mighty pissed off!
Gone is the smiley banter of Cambodian street markets and instead it's replaced with a game of 'who can frown the longest' - and, if you don't buy, a bemused expression of expectation that your passing interest in someone's goods should surely have resulted in a sale
Now that all raises one big question for me - why? - when we're only such a short hop from neighbouring countries that have influenced me so positively and each other's cultures for centuries - needless to say - I have a few theories!
Number 1 - it's the type of traveller that is attracted here to Thailand and is interacting with the Thai people - maybe - it's certainly the first time on my journey that I've seen hoards of travellers crammed into a bar watching another unoriginal Adam Sandler movie that's been out 'back home' for a while - and the first time for ages I've seen a traveller involved in a rude interaction with a market seller that would have undoubtedly caused the Thai person to lose face - a big insult in this part of the world
Or number 2 - the Thai people don't know how lucky they are compared to their smaller neighbours - part of the reason for their development ahead of Cambodia and Vietnam is the well established trade links with countries from all over the world - especially the west during the 19th and 20th Centuries (lead by King Rama V - the first King from Siam - as it was then called - to visit Europe and adopt western dress)
Or number 3 - what do you expect when you stay near Th Kao San Jez!
For that's where I type from - the north end of Th Khao San - but before I get ahead of myself here's a different tactic on IIJCDI and the first 'look back' posting about a country - I'm out of Cambodia now but here's what I found out about it - if you like your history - how can you not put this amazing country on your list!
They've got all white cows - and all brown cows - and they look a bit skinny - and they've lovely water buffalo that graze like water vacuum cleaners
There's some brilliant customer service in the Foreign Correspondent's Club in Phnom Penh - and across a lot of Siem Reap
The streets are full of saffron robed, smiling, chatty, open and interesting young monks (men all do a period, e.g. 3 months, as a monk) - and you shouldn't really photograph them - at least not by sticking a camera in their face like they're an attraction
A cracking selection of replica Khmer sculptures for souvenirs (don't buy the authentic stuff - 'it belongs in a museum')
Rurally the people live in wooden houses on stilts with a welcoming flight of steps on the front and the space underneath used for relaxing, storage, socialising and keeping cool!
People display their political allegiances by putting up big signage of a political party outside their house (FUNCINPEC and Cambodian People's Party dominate)
CNN and BBC World News is watched closely - at least by a wonderful tuk tuk driver in Siem Reap called Mr Keo Yan - and again - if you ever need him - keoyan_2006@yahoo.com
Tuk tuks are the best and only way to travel - a 360 degree view of the country - and a refreshing breeze that'll cool you down better than any air conditioning unit
There's a cracking French feel and influence wherever you go - and lots of French travellers - alongside the world's best tourists - the Japanese - who dominate the Temples of Angkor - and I bloody love those guys!
The people in the hotels are so trusting - they'll happily stick a $200 flight on your room bill and tell you to 'just sort it out when you leave
A $1 book will end up costing you $11 really!
The Temples of Angkor give you the most amazing look at modern, rural, Cambodian life alongside ancient, regal, Khmer life
The gasoline comes straight out of Johnnie Walker bottles on the side of the road - it looks like a cool, refreshing lemon drink - just don't make the mistake of trying it!
If you're caught short you take a jimmy on the side of the road here - being seen in a compromising position is better than stepping on a land mine - though they've done a great job of clearing up around the Temples of Angkor
Graceful women (and long robed monks) ride side saddle on the back of speeding motos
It's double currency land - 'we'll take Cambodian riel or US dollars' - 'do you know the current strength of the dollar?!'
Anything goes on the road (I'd know from biking on it) and it's hairy, scary and a right laugh!
The whole country operates outside - and so office spaces get covered in dust - and then feather dusted down every morning!
The people have maybe even wider smiles than the Vietnamese - especially, again, when you try out their incredible Khmer language
The amok leaf in cooking rocks!
It's Buddha-tastic here - and spine tingling when you hear a big group of monks praying to a 5m stone Buddha backdropped by one of the world's greatest, ancient Buddhist temples
The team of young staff at the Mandalay Inn could teach the 'super-casinos' in Las Vegas a thing of two about customer service - they were attentive, forgiving (when I broke the shower head) and, by the end of my week and a half, friends
Cambodia - I sneaked a final last look at those Temples of Angkor on a very clear and sunny early morning (rare in this rainy season) - how I miss them!
I arrived here in Thailand after one of those 'you'll tell your god-kids about this' journeys - on the Cambodian side of the border at least - for having been picked up from the Mandalay Inn in Siem Reap on an empty bus at 07:30 - I was still in Siem Reap at 08:30 and the empty bus I had sat on earlier?! - was now so full we had to wait while the driver ran to his mate's cafe to grab a plastic chair that promptly slid around the aisle for the morning while the over-booked passenger tried to keep his backside in contact with it - and as for luggage - well - that was wherever it would fit ...
Hot, dry and dusty (well - an open window is air con of a sort - even on baked clay, dirt roads) is how I'd best describe my arrival in country and capital number 11 (OK - 11 and 10 - you've got me - China's the only country I've visited where I've not been to the capital)
And heading back to where I first started this blog I'm not really judging all of Thailand (only a tiny cross section of it) - I'm actually enjoying myself and having a great few days - there's tons of new stuff to experience and notice - like these brilliant men's toilets signs in glitzy, Bangkok shopping centres - if only Great Britain was bold enough to put it so bluntly (and amusingly) ...
Bangkok has a couple (probably more) sides lurking to it - the flashy monied side (east of the city) where all the Hong Kong-esque stuff sits - read skyscrapers and western priced shopping - and the older, more traditional, sightseeing west side (where the traveller ghetto resides)
Now Th Khao San (Th is the abbreviation for road here in Thailand) is a real melting pot of nationalities and, as I understood it, side streets of snake blood shots and go-go girls - (maybe I took the book and the film, The Beach, a bit too literally - well - I had nothing else to compare it against) - in reality - it's more of a kitten than a tiger - it's just a big street full of t-shirts that you can buy in any Top Shop in England - for the real deal of rough end, in there elbowing and haggling with hard sellers of knock off goods' - head to the markets around Mong Kok in Hong Kong - they'd scare this little lot to death!
And why do I say this so vehemently - well check out the first shot of this blog - Th Khao San has sold out to globalisation - in fact I'm just off to sip a 'mocha-choca-latte' in Starbucks when I finish !!!
The other day I spent a happy morning in Thailand's National Museum where their history is presented superbly and you get a real sense that King Rama V and the current King Rama IX (and his Queen Sirikit) are bloody, as we'd say, legends - constitutional monarchs who really care about their people and go about their lives trying to make everyone happier - except maybe the people from Myanmar - it's right to say that the 2 countries have fought each other in the annals of history forever - and resulted in the capital re-locating itself from Lopburi (west of the Chao Phraya River) to the safer, east side (also defended from the Khmers in the east by another river whose name I forget!) - in fact Bangkok has an elaborate network of canals and, with these rivers, has long been dubbed the 'Venice of the East' - my commute from here to head to the 'downtown' west uses the Khlong Saep Saen express boat!
Through history the Siamese used elephants to top effect - and they know how to make a good diorama about it these days!
And then the afternoon was dedicated to my first Thai temple called What Pho - having politely told a renegade tuk-tuk driver it WAS open despite his conviction that it was shut and that I should go with him somewhere else (a long running scam often involving fake gems and giving tuk-tuks a 'don't bother using them' name here in Bangkok)
I was right (it was open 2 hours past what the scallywag tried to tell me!) and to prove it I snapped a shot of the hugely impressive Reclining Buddha - all gold and 46metres long - for this is flashy Buddhism here in Thailand - and I'm not sure if I like it - I thought the principles of Buddhism were about giving up your worldly possessions (and to an extent your wealth) - you don't need to make something as big as possible and cover it in gold leaf to venerate it - still - the Thai's have ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Pho
But yesterday was more up my alley when it was a case of 'another day, another ancient civilisation' - here I am in hot and sunny Ayuthaya/Ayutthaya (various spellings around 1 or 2 Ts - not unlike Elliot or Elliott, Nick!) - and to be precise stood in front of What Phra Si Sanphet
Ayuthaya (as I like it!) was the civilisation that pretty much brought the Khmers and the glory of Angkor to an end - it was Siam's capital for 417 years and during it's early years they sacked Angkor Watt and made off with the bounty - covering stupors like the one's behind me in kilograms and kilograms of gold - that have long since been nicked by someone else!
Ayuthaya was interestingly different to the Temples of Angkor - there are similarly loads of temples and abandoned royal palaces - but in an urban setting that's yet another mini-Venice and, consequently, defendable - like everything in Thailand (compared to Cambodia) it was shiny, immaculately kept, lovingly restored and lacking in a bit of atmosphere as a result
But they did pull the 'still makes me smile' Asian issue with R's and L's out of the bag - something I've not seen since Japan for South East Asia is a paradise for English speakers - the literary skills of this part of the world are to be applauded - with the odd, very acceptable, slip up ...
And the lacks were to keep your daps safe while you paid a visit to Wihaan Phra Mongkhon and another behemoth of 'Flashuddhism' - a 50m tall bronze Budhha now covered in gold leaf thanks to a generous donation from the lovely Queen Sirikit (by the way - King Rama IX looks a bit like my Dad - the same spectacles and camera constantly around his neck - I can't find a specific shot of that but here's his Wikipedia page - he's got 10 years on Dad though!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhumibol_Adulyadej
And here's that enormous Buddha - located behind massive stone pillars holding up an enormous (and flashy in red of course) building that makes up the What
The afternoon in Ayuthaya was dominated by the iconic visit to What Phra Mahathat and a massive stone Buddha's head that's been engulfed by it's 'host' bodhi tree - the head was thought to have been in the process of being stolen when it's robber dropped it and it was too heavy to pick up again - an abandoned city for 100 years did the rest - our ace guide Mr Pok told us to behave ourselves around the image 'cos religion and the law are inextricably linked here - you must always place yourself lower than the Buddha (in reverence) and the sign shows you what to do - he told us that 2 guys 'I won't say where from ... nudge, nudge' (hinting USA I think - he was ace except for that moment - I hate the way everyone assumes that stuff) were locked up for 8 months in Thailand for standing over and mooning at this image - probably a scare tactic related to his tourism permit?! - it worked - I was suitably deferential - as always mind you
The beautiful face may remind you of the stuff seen around Angkor and rightly - for there's imagery and symbology shared across borders here in South Est Asia - it's all Hindu/Buddhist again here in Thailand - right up to the present day ...
For this shot was taken earlier today at the Royal Palace back in the heart of Bangkok - garudas holding their deadly enemy the nagas! - 'and a little bit more gold leaf'
It was taken on the building on the right of these below (showing the whole temple complex of the Royal Palace) - namely What Phra Kaew (or Temple of the Emerald Buddha) - remember Phnom Penh in Cambodia - there's a theme here - Thailand's version was bigger, grander, dressed in it's rainy season attire (I kid you not - the hot and cold versions were safe inside their attached museum), and worshiped by hundreds on this Sunday morning
What struck me most about the Royal Palace was it's efficiency, it's tidiness, it's compactness, it's slickness and it's theme parkness - it seemed almost ethereal - and, at risk of being locked up (you don't disrespect the monarchy in Thailand), Disneyland like - but I guess I mean that as a compliment for I have very fond memories of my trip to Walt's place - it's all in the Victorian lamp posts, the shimmering buildings and the immaculate topiary ...
So all in all it was fun - and to top the day off - the admirably respectful people of Thailand didn't accept my knee length shorts as suitable - and dressed me up in a pair of cotton trousers that were a little large and had me knowing exactly what it feels like to be a pregnant woman in a pair of MASSIVE elasticated waist trousers - still - it could have been worse - it could have been 35 degrees C and melting point for most Europeans - but then - I'm not sure what nationality I am any more ...
And that's the city and ancient bit of Thailand - I'll be back in Bangkok for a couple of days in about a week to watch a couple of movies (still not seen Wall-E!) and stock up for Nepal and maybe the greatest challenge of this journey (Everest Base Camp here I come!) - but for now - while you're returning from your holidays in the UK (I hope you all had a topper break) and getting ready for the Autumn run - I'm about to have a holiday of my own - it's knackering this professional traveller/blogger stuff you know - well - Thailand is famous for it's beaches ...
http://www.samedvilla.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment