The road north
Out of that sweaty melting pot of bangkok in search of some culture, at least that was the plan.... First stop Ayunthaya, one of the origional capitals of Thailand. Turned up at Bangkok train station early one morning and purchased my first ever 3rd class train ticket - unfortunately this did not mean a seat on the roof. The ticket lady, incredulous that a foreigner would travel in 3rd class, explained that 'you may not even get a seat' - clearly she knows nothing about British transportation.... The journey was brief, in theorectical time at least, about an hour and a half north of Bangkok. Experienced time was stretched however through the application of pain from a seat clearly designed by a chiroprachtor.Ayunthaya has an impressive number of venerable and crumbling wats (temples) in various styles reflecting the changes of influence through the years. This is also true of its buddha statues who pulls off an incredible posture shift from lying to sitting to walking over the almost instantaneous space of 3 centuries, makes Linford look slow...Sukuthai was 6 hours bus ride north, and an even older capital. Again sporting many a temple. Have probably seen more religous buildings in the space of those 3 days than the rest of my life combined.After our historical/cultural studies it was definately time to get get muddy and sweaty again. No, not mud wrestling but a trek into the hills surrounding the northern city of Chang Mai to see the local hill tribes. The hill tribes of Thailand (of which there are several) have lived in Thailand for hundreds of years but are not racially Thai, as the Thais stuck to the rivers and valleys of the country. Although the government is trying to modernise their lives they are still suprisingly unaffected by the modern Thailand. Mostly they still survive through subsistance farming, their villages and surrounding rainforest supplying all that they need to live. Our guide had grown up in one of the villages and still spent half of his time there with his family so was able to give a real insite into their lives. The trek itself was not of the heroic nature of our Malaysian adventures having been organised with sensible people in mind, but still had the timeless themes of dripping sweat, mud, biting insects and bathing in waterfalls. The thing is, when you wash your clothes in rivers the water may LOOK clean, but somehow when your T-shirt dries you can suddenly mould it into solid sculptures.The final day of the trek included and elephant ride and a ride down the river on bamboo raft..... Oh i couldn't wait to get on that elephant, always saw myself as a bit of a hanibal, unfortunately couldn't quite make it to northern italy in an hour. Elephant riding is definately a participation sport. Don't spend too long lining up the perfect photo, cos you'll be rolling off the back. Seated on your wobbly vehicle, bereft of aircon (except the muddy water which your steed intermitantly distributes over itself and yourself through its trunk) you can tackle 45 degree inclines with ease, just watch those low flying branches. Saying goodbye to nellie, next stop was to tackle a river on bamboo raft. Hardly whitewater stuff i felt the need to improve our journey and that of our other companions/guides with a few sea shanties. My rendition of 'what shall we do with the drunken sailor' brought cries of 'encore' from other rafts but unfortueatly was unable to persuade anyone to join me in a round of 'row row your boat'..... kill joys..... Back in Chang Mai the 'bohemian' northern city of thailand. Went to see some Thai boxing, a fairly brutal spectical. The fights are accompanied by the crazed sounds of a 3 piece band, drums and guy on snake charmer style pipe. The boxers almost move in time to their increasingly frantic melodies. The locals pressed up against one side of ring shout and wave arms as the fight gets more intense, offering new odds and urging on their bet.I'll be passing the next few days in more sedate fashion, stocking up on books in preperation for Laos and doing a 3 day thai cooking course. Tis all for now......
posted by justplainnigel @ 2:19 PM
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