Thailand Central – Off North
Right, I haven’t sent a group email since Indonesia – I have travelled through the peninsular of Malaysia since then, but apart from meeting a few interesting characters nothing really interested me there. Everything was just a little tame, organised, westernised and generally mediocre. I decided to leave early and pop to Thailand for my birthday (I say pop, but it was 36 hours of constant travelling)!
I spent around 3 or 4 days in Bangkok chilling out, downloading music, watching films and doing all the things you can when you’re in a city.
I also left my guitar, my main travelling bag, removed 99% of my stuff, got rid of the Lonely Planet (huge guide book) and fitted it all into my small day sack. Something I wanted to do for a long time but couldn’t leave my stuff anywhere. It’s all now filling up my girlfriends house, so thanks for that Srisami family! Being able to jump on the back of motorbikes, not having to worry about multiple bags and not having to lug weight around is a god send and it’s already become beneficial as I’ve grabbed 2 free lifts off motorbike owners already.
I first stopped off in Kananchaburi which is just a little outside Bangkok, I checked in to a guest house and rented a bike for the following day. I found the Tourist place and got myself a map then set off on a epic 150k trip to see things which look nice, my 110cc scooter did me proud, it had brakes which worked, lights, gears and everything. I found Wats, Waterfalls, Temples, Schools visited ‘The Bridge over the River Kwai’ (it’s not actually the river kwai), visited more World War 2 things and found a tiger sanctuary owned by a group of monks. The Tiger Temple, cost a few bob to get in but you actually got to touch tigers, something which I’ve wanted to do most of my life – so, I’ve got shit loads of photos of me petting huge Bengal Tigers and sitting in between them. Excellent! At night I chatted to all the locals in Thai and taught a girl how to speak English – so if you walk through Kananchaburi and hear a girl say ‘ey up mate, how’s it going’ – you know who taught her.
I’m now in Ayyuthya, after a train ride late last night with lots of drunken ‘Issan’ thais talking to me in language I couldn’t decipher – I must have agreed to something bizarre or upset them as one of the guys whilst walking past me grabbed my throat and muttered something to me. He was probabbly just in love with me, and knowing that we couldn’t communicate to each other thought it would be best to throttle me to death to save himself from the heartache of a relationship that could never be. I held my breath for a short while and he got bored and walked off.
So, today I’ve been staring at amazing old temples all morning driving around on a push bike listening to classical music on my Ipod, my Thai is improving to the extent where I can blag security guards that I am actually Thai, and I don’t want to pay the foriegn price. It has worked once. To a very confused looking guard. “I’m Thai, I was born in Chiang Mai. My mother is Thai but my Father is English”, –‘where’s your passport’ — “I’ve left it at my house”……..OK in you go!
I’ve tried it a lot since then and I’ve received warm hearted ‘fuck offs’
Tomorrow I will head north again to see more temples probabbly……..
Tags: Thailand, Travel
Rob Hasler
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