The Other SIde of Thailand

(written on 21/08/09, posted on 06/10/09)

Today has been a bit of a nothing day. A few temples, chat to a Buddhist monk for a while about the Karen hill tribes north of Chiang Mai and the work that VSO is doing with Burmese refugees at the border. I try and get a massage at the Disabled Centre but no-one is there. I order a juice and some spring rolls at a bar opposite. A chain-smoking 60-something man from Birmingham shouts through the order to his baby-carrying Thai wife. The spring rolls arrive cold in the middle and I make like a shepherd and get the flock out of there. Is this the other side of Thailand I’m seeing?

I spend a few hours on the internet backing up pictures and emailing until it’s time to meet M. M is on his VSO language training today as part of his two month long in country orientation.

I get heckled on the way back by four ex-pats calling me into their bar for a beer. As I’m early and it’s 4pm on a Friday I go in. ‘Why not?!’ as they say here. Text M to tell him where I am. The bar is empty and they are rattling. We chat and I joke is this Chiang Mai on a Friday: lots of beers with the men, sitting around arguing which is what they mostly do. The depressing answer is everyday is like this in Chiang Mai. For you maybe I think. After I’ve been bought a couple of beers I escape as this lunatic with a fascination for taking photos of his penis turns up. He has on Thai silk pyjamas unbuttoned, a headband, receding curly hair and John Lennon glasses. In summary, he looks like he dropped out at Woodstock and never regained a sense of reality. All of them have been in Thailand for about eight years and some have children.

I meet M back at the hostel and we discuss the whole thing over beers. Yesterday with L we went to the night market on the way for food and went down a whole street of bars with young Thai girls and seedy looking older men. I’m not that naïve but I really don’t get it that this still happens. Even more intriguing is the fact one man was accused earlier as being a bit of a crim by one of his cronies when they were arguing. He admitted he couldn’t return to the UK to see his daughters. M tells me in 2006 when the tsunami struck, a lot of people used it to ‘disappear’. We nod at each other with knowing looks and finish another beer.

Cooking up a storm

(written 20/08/09, posted 06/10/09)

Whilst I was wondering around yesterday I booked a Thai Cookery school for today. Chiang Mai is the place for courses: meditation, Buddhism, cooking and massage mostly. I’d like to have done more but only have 6 or 7 days here.

Bus picks us up earlier than I’d like and we go to the market for a bit of a tour. I’ve never seen so many different types of rice and chillies. Everything else feels a bit like the Chinese supermarket back home. Well…that’s apart from the live fish in a tank all peering out at us.

We get to the organic farm in our songthaew. After a tour of the rows of vegetables and banana trees, I make sure I’m near the fun German couple and the other single woman from Italy. The four of us behave like naughty schoolchildren and are way behind everyone else pounding chillies into green curry paste. Lunch is amazing, if I do say so myself. My Tom Yam soup is delicious and better than I’ve had in one Thai restaurant in London. I must be going to the wrong one. The green curry is delicious although mine wasn’t hot enough so I added a couple of small green chillis whole at the end, on the advice of our rather tasty teacher. At lunch I proceed to eat one whole then cry. Luckily my equally as delicious chicken and cashew nut stir fry does the trick of washing it down.

After lunch we’re all standing around stuffed and sleepy in the heat. We make mango sticky rice for dessert though no-one can eat it apart from the German woman who had two spoonfuls of lunch, presumably so she could eat dessert. Some people make bananas in coconut milk. This looks like grey baby food to me but I bet its comfort manna from heaven. Spring rolls to finish off and we head outside to be fed juicy slices of mango. Everyone snoozes in the back on the return journey clutching their bags of food.

Back at the hostel I grab a coffee and L comes over to chat. I explain I’m waiting for M a VSO bod and invite her for a drink. She’s on her own after her friend went home. The three of us go back to the local bar for beers and then some street food. I surprisingly manage to eat even after L and I scoffed the remaining spring rolls at the hostel café. I have two weeks left in Thailand and that will be the end of my trip. I get the feeling I will be the size of a house after all these enjoyable beers and eats with lovely company.