Isobel Kleinman, 2000
A quick note in the wee hours of the morning after I returned to let you know I am back and what my first impressions of Thailand were. (I conked out about two hours after I got in at 2pm, unable to raise my head until I had eight full hours of sleep and am now wide awake and ready to offer you more than a quickie.) If you are not interested in reading, don't, but I figured I would put it in one place and give you the option.
Overseas Adventure Travel did a great job of letting us see the sights, stay in relative luxury most of the trip, have wonderful experiences and do it on the cheap. The 16 days of flying, hotels, food (3 square meals a day), intra-country travel and entrance fees to everything, with only one evening meal on our own was a little over $2000. If going at the height of the season, their winter, January and February, it was a little more.
As for Thailand...it was hot, even during winter, but how hot depended on location. Bangkok, pretty south was large, humid and hot. It also was a travelers delight, good food, good sights and good shopping. One cannot avoid mentioning that everywhere, the people were nice, friendly and smiling. Bangkok suffers from some of the worst traffic congestion imaginable, but all told, was bustling from 8 in the morning until midnight with vendors, restaurants, bars, bazaars and coffee houses. As to the other things happening, I cannot talk from experience, but since they do have an AIDS problem, I will leave it to your imagination. When we left for Chiang Mei, (farther north) the day time was hot, the air clean, the feeling of morning and evening air was crisp, cool and comfortable and it stayed more bearable until we got back to Bangkok. My final word is go, but don't do it between April and November because, it was HOT and this is only January.
We got to see a bit of everything, from the modern to the primitive. Most interesting were the hill top trips to see villages that bordered on Burma. They were living a life they lived hundreds of years ago. For many tribes, it almost has been a matter of choice, though electricity has not made its way into every village just yet. They could have come down the mountain and joined the rest of society. They did not, although some had access to motor bikes and did go into the city to sell their wares. We saw three villages, starting high up and working our way down. The one at the lowest altitude had electricity. Their huts had TV and electric lights, but they still lived in relative simplicity. It would have seemed shocking, but after riding past many houses on stilts and seeing that even in modern rural Thailand, Thais do not live as we do. They do not have (or need) four walls, modern furniture, carpeting, wall decoration, tables and chairs, refrigeration, a full bathroom or two and telephones, I realized that the hill tops tribe's slow move toward modern life did not leave them all that much behind.
A ride through the country, even in the city where people lived privately, showed that most houses were on stilts. The section under their houses are used for a variety of things. Mostly, it seemed like a place for a home industry (dying vats, carpentry or the like), or for storage of their food stuffs, or for shielding them from sun or for raising their animals. We were in a couple of homes. Most rolled up their bed mats and blankets, clearing the way during the day for sitting around under a roof to eat and socialize. I did not see signs of modern kitchen ovens, microwaves, ice boxes, dishwashers, dish racks, cabinets or any of the things we take for granted.
Most people were pretty mobile. They had cars or motorcycles. There was little reliance on biking. Cell phone technology has hit many but was not as widespread as in Europe. Every few blocks in the cities, there were computer outlets where a person could rent out Internet services for a few BAHTs per minute.
The fruit was wonderful. The food probably would have been too had they not made such an effort to make sure they watered down their seasonings for the palettes of the farangs. As to the aesthetic appeal... the Thais do remarkable things to make even the dumpiest of homes look well manicured. Their gardens are wonderful and remarkable. If they have no land, they just buy and pot beautiful plants, line them up one right next to each other and after repeating this twenty and more times, give the illusion of a garden. If they have arid land, they do the same, making sure to water and fertilize the potted plants only. In the jungle or on farmland, there are sections of neatly cared for gardens, arranged by pot or cultivated into the ground. Flowers are everywhere, every color and of many species. And because of Thailand, I now know how beautiful it can be when cactus bloom. Of course they were all potted - Thailand was no desert -- but they bloomed so fully and so colorfully, it made me think my next trip should be out to our desert to see it in the wild.
Then there were the temples. I would not say it was an ode to good taste, or even that they were remarkably rich and inspiring like the cathedrals in Italy. They had their own feel. Many were grand, glittering as they did in the sun, making us smile with their range of happy color, allowing us to marvel at the amount of gold covering each of their Buddhas. We were delighted in the shine the crystals and gold gave off in the light. As for the religious atmosphere, I for one could not get the solemnness that usually entraps me the moment I wander into a synagogue or church and feelings of religion and piety escaped me. Instead, I found myself laughing at the Buddhas who reclined on their side, or the "gods" that were there to protect the Buddhas, or the stories and murals that depicted what happened to people who lie, cheat on their husband or commit any of the other sins known in this world. The difference between reverence and laughter gave me an interest in finding out what all this Buddhist stuff is about, but don't worry, I will not convert.
The group I traveled with ran the gammit. In short order I found a buddy to laugh and shop with. Some of the people were smart and interesting and then there were others. In all, no one was obnoxious and though we all had our favorites. It worked out well. The 16 of us never got in anyone's hair or held up the others. So I would say, after resting from my writings and forgetting about home for a few weeks, I am ready to get back to work.