Thailand

Chiangmai Mai, Thailand

December 2nd, 2024

I have not written in my blog for a long while and it feels a little rusty to return to it.  Like so many skills writing is something one must practice often to improve at.  

I am in Chiangmai Mai, Thailand.  Chiangmai Mai is in the far north.  It is an ancient walled city.  Some of the ramparts are still there as is the encapsulating moat that surrounds the old city.  Since the 11th century Chiang Mai has exploded well beyond its ancient square enclosure.  

To get to Chiang Mai it took a 15 hour flight from Boston to Seoul, Korea then another 5 hour flight to Bangkok.  Bangkok is just as I pictured it.  It is enormous, frenetic and altogether fascinating.  I was only in Bangkok for a day.  I was suffering from the remainder of a bad cold and some serious jet lag but I did go out at night for awhile and visited the chic part of town so I could buy a good cable for my ipad and phone. Yves St. Laurent, Tiffany and Apple all had their mega stores here.  It was bright and lit up for…Christmas!  The enormous Christmas trees did surprise me even though it shouldn’t.  Capitalism has a firm grasp on Thailand it seems.

The metro system is great once you figure it out.  You buy a ticket per trip although passes are available.  At the kiosk one buys a ticket or plastic token for you next stop.  You are charged more or less by the distance you are traveling.  Once you get off the train you must surrender your ticked or the token insuring no one can skip out without paying.

One great metro stop is Bang Pho.  This stop ends up at the river where you can get a ride up or down the river to several stops.  The boats are old and beat up.  The drivers speed up to the dock throw the transmission into reverse, tie up and are gone in less than a minute.  The stern man has a whistle that he blows confirming the activities happening at the end of the boat.  When the multitudes have gotten on the stern man blows his whistle removes the docking line and the boat takes off in a cloud of diesel  smoke.

December 10, Sukhothai, Thailand

Today was another good day in Thailand.  I slept well with he air conditioner on.  I woke up grabbed my camera and 

after some coffee headed out to see the ruins of the ancient capitol of Siam.  I had read that many of the exquisite ruins can be found away from the touristy center so that was where I headed first.  The ruins are supposed to be extensive and  a bicycle was suggested.  Not surprisingly I found a shop run by an old woman who handed me the most decrepit bike.  It’s one attribute was that it was “almost” my size.  It had a handy basket for my camera bag so off I went.  Pedaling was uncomfortable as the cramped position I was in didn’t make for a Tour De France spin but the machine did what it was supposed to do and got me down the road.  The noise the thing made when applying the brakes was disconcerting but it is flat here so a good coasting stop is adequate.  I pedaled for awhile and saw a sign for a “Wat” which I will call a church though that is not what it is.  A Wat is a holy place and come in many forms.  From a real temple to an elaborate monastery as well as the ruins I saw.  

The city was enormous and must have been extraordinary in the 14th century.  Three sets of walls each with its own moat!  Inside the wall the town was an elaborate display of over abundance and reverence to Buddha.  It still takes a lot of imagination to see what it must have been like.  When I road away from the city I found myself in a beautiful area of farmer’s fields and rice paddies.  Then, out of nowhere were these amazing ruins. I spent a lot of time photographing Wat Chetaphong because it had two statues of the Buddha n plaster over brick.  This is what I had been hoping for and I hope at least one of the photos comes out.

December 18th, 2024. Home

I cut the trip short.  Leah was in a car accident and I thought it best to get home.    I think, after 3 weeks I had had enough of Thailand.  The final nail on the coffin was my last bus ride from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya.  The bus driver forgot  about me and continued past Ayutthaya and continued on to Bangkok without letting me off.  I finally got the guy’s attention but by then it was too late.  I got a little put off and forgot my iPad on the bus.  When I realized what had happened I was already at the train station ready to go back to my reserved hotel now two hours away.  I decided to go back to the bus station.  There is no easy way to get there from the train station although they are close.  I had to take a cab.  With some difficulty I told the people at the bus company what had happened.  After a long wait they took me to the bus and the driver who said he hadn’t found it.  I left and after a quick call home I made the decision to check at the Apple Store in Bangkok to see how much security I had.  It was a good move as I found out what I pretty much knew; that with apple and a  secure passcode I was ok.  It was late and I was tired after walking all over Bangkok I bought a new IPAD and found a place to stay for the night.  

At the hotel the desk clerk advised me to make a police report which I did the next day.  The police were pretty good about it and with my report in hand I hoofed back to the bus station to demonstrate how serious I was.  They, too, took it seriously and I now made it back to the bus command center.  Here everybody had a police looking uniform except one woman, “Tina”,  who was very concerned.  This process took me well into the afternoon so I made my way back to the train station to wait for the slow, crammed train back to Ayutthaya where I had a reservation for the night.  I asked for another night so I could check out the town.  The next day I found a message on my cell that Tina had found my IPAD!  I was incredulous.  I said I would come get it the next day.  After visiting the ruins of the ancient capitol of Thailand I returned  to Bangkok where Tina took me on a long, long metro ride to a police station.  She had a little trouble but eventually a uniformed policeman appeared with the missing Ipad.  

I had had enough of Thailand at this point  and, after getting some distressing news that Leah, my eldest, had been in a car wreck decided to head home.  A day and a half later I am home.  Jet lag has got a firm grip on me and I have been up going through photos since 2:30 this morning.  

My conclusion regarding my trip to Thailand is that is wasn’t as successful as I had wanted.  Poor health, a bad train ride and finding myself constantly in very touristy areas made for an overall  poor experience.  If I were to do it again I would head to the less known region of Esan in the Northeast.  I do not know for sure but I believe that is where one could find less tourism and more reality.  My feeling is that because of the massive tourism industry Thai people are forced to accommodate the world.  Although they smile, I feel as if, underneath, they are not all that happy with foreigners.