Before I even flew to Thailand I remember reading somewhere that Bangkok is as much a Chinese city as a Thai city, if not more. I bet Thai people don't like it being called that.. or maybe they don't care?
Either way the influence of Indian and Chinese civilizations on Thailand is very interesting, especially the deeper ties to Hinduism. I'm learning as I go along, so I don't really have anything to add to the discussion, but I find it near fascinating.
I will be posting the next set of photos in the next couple days. I just finished putting together a new gaming PC, so I haven't had much time to devote on this thread, but I will do my best to put some new content up soon.
Before I even flew to Thailand I remember reading somewhere that Bangkok is as much a Chinese city as a Thai city, if not more. I bet Thai people don't like it being called that.. or maybe they don't care?
The history of Thai-Chinese relation is... complex (featuring such hilarious episodes like ethnic Chinese politicians persecuting ethnic Chinese for being ethnic Chinese) but today Sino-Thais are almost without exception pretty well assimilated and identify as Thai even if they celebrate distinctive aspects of Chinese culture (Chinese folk religion for instance). Bangkok, being a commercial port city (and Ayutthaya before that) naturally was more exposed to Chinese influence/immigrants than the rest of the country (Southern Thailand also has a significant Chinese presence historically due to trade and tin-mining)
I think Vietnam is the only southeast Asian country (other than Singapore, I guess?) with definite Chinese influence, being part of the Sinosphere and all (Vietnamese are also almost exclusively Mahayana Buddhist instead of Theravada); other southeast Asian countries have it a bit more complicated I guess. Though in Vietnam there's also a sizeable Sino-Vietnamese population, I've heard that most Sino-Vietnamese still self-identify as Chinese, but I'm not sure how true that is; I've met and know folks of Sino-Vietnamese descent (including some distant relatives) and they seem to be able to shift between Chinese and Vietnamese with ease. Actually I myself might be distantly Sino-Vietnamese, my last name tends to only be common amongst Sino-Vietnamese, and it would explain my family's relatively high status back in Vietnam, as in contrast to most of Southeast Asia a good number of Sino-Vietnamese aren't the result of the typical Chinese diaspora but were political refugees and/or educated elites invited over.
Anyhow all that rambling aside, back on topic - I'm wondering, warpus, how the weather there has been? More specifically, how bad the humidity is. I've heard from multiple sources that southeast Asian humidity is some of the worst in the world, and that the only one that comes close would be east coast USA in the summer.
Anyhow all that rambling aside, back on topic - I'm wondering, warpus, how the weather there has been? More specifically, how bad the humidity is. I've heard from multiple sources that southeast Asian humidity is some of the worst in the world, and that the only one that comes close would be east coast USA in the summer.
It was humid but I got used to it quick. Mind you it gets quite humid here in right in the middle of the great lakes, so that probably helped. I stayed in a couple guest houses that were not equipped with air conditioning, and it wasn't a problem. I had a fan blowing air at me and that was good enough.
I got pretty good weather on my trip overall. I was there November 15th - December 15th, so during the dry season. I didn't see any serious rain until I got to Krabi, where I experienced a couple unfortunate days weather-wise. I got a lot of good weather down there too, but the weather in the south was worse overall.
My main concern on my trip weatherwise was probably the sun. Without that sunhat I wouldn't have been able to wander around as extensively as I did. Hydration was another factor - yet there always seemed to be somebody selling cold bottled somewhere nearby, no matter where you were. So that didn't matter as much either.
Good to hear you're making it relatively alive with the humidity. I dunno if Vietnam's any worse than Cambodia and Thailand, as I've never been there myself, but I remember my cousin telling me the moment he stepped out of the airport in Vietnam he started sweating oceans and oceans of sweat.
I was still on an Indian food high, walking around town, trying to find a place to watch the English Premier League football matches scheduled for that evening.. most specifically the Merseyside Derby and the West Ham vs Chelsea game.
See, the great thing about Thailand is that it's exactly 12 hours away in terms of time difference from where I live in Canada.. I'm used to games being on early Saturday morning until 2pm or so.. In Thailand they are on Saturday evening from 7:45pm until 2am. How perfect is that?
In the process of trying to find a bar showing the games I got lost. Along the way I took some pictures..
A beacon of hope in the distance.
Get your fresh fruit!
It wasn't really night, it was 7:30pm. But it was dark and I was lost. I knew my hotel was probably nearby somewhere, because I had been walking towards it, but nothing looked familiar, and the map I had didn't match up with what I was seeing. I was confused, but then saw a dimly lit place with 3 guys at a bar and a tv on the wall showing soccer. I approached them and attempted to communicate with them about the possibility of watching the games there, but this took several minutes. They were as expected the friendliest people you could imagine and not at all fitting considering the dreary atmosphere, but it took us a while to work out who was saying what and why. And either way, turns out this place would have the game on.. and beer!
I needed to get back to my room first though, to which they pointed me. And turns out the TV in my room had a channel that was showing both games! At the time in theory anyway, I found a channel with the Liverpool Everton game and figured the Chelsea game would be on later. A big assumption, but I was tired and didn't want to sit around a dark bar for 6 hours watching football - my bed was a lot more comfortable! I bought 3 large cans of beer at the bar downstairs, got the Indian food leftovers from the fridge, sat back and enjoyed 4 and a half hours of fine English football. Lukaku ended up scoring 2 goals for Everton that day, which was a fine start to the proceedings. I fell asleep well after the Chelsea game was over just after 2am.. Not a very wise move, as I had to wake up at 8am to catch a bus... but at the time it felt like the best possible end to the day.
I booked a 3 day long trek, which included an elephant ride and turns out a visit to several mountain villages and a bamboo raft ride as well, but during the booking process I didn't have much time to inquire about much of anything. All I did was compare pictures, details, and prices of the various treks offered. Then I had to jet.
On Sunday, November 25th a shuttle-bus picked me up at my hotel at 9am, drove around Chiang Mai for a bit picking up other people (2 French dudes, 2 Kiwi girls, and 3 British girls), and then drove us somewhere I thought was north of the city. All of this lasted 2 and a half hours. Googling potential sites yields way too many hits, as a lot of places around Chiang Mai offer all 3 activities in one place, and I'm not even 100% sure about the "north of the city" thing either. So who knows.
I should have asked where the hell we were, but I was just excited to be there. Plus remember how I went to sleep after 2am after watching all that soccer and drinking 3 large cans of beer in my bed? I was not exactly very alert either.
But I was alert enough to take this photo from a moving vehicle:
The beginning of the hike was not a hike at all, but rather an unexpected for me bamboo raft ride that lasted about a half an hour. Each bamboo raft got 2-3 passengers and a Thai raft captain dude who stood and navigated around with a long piece of bamboo. Unfortunately there are no pictures, as I didn't even bring my camera.. it stayed behind with my bag and other belongings.. the only time on the trip I left my valuables alone like that...
We were Ping Pong the guide, me from Canada, Leo and Pierre from France (didn't know eachother before this hike), Chloe and Morgan from New Zealand, and Jasmine and 2 other friends from somewhere in England. Together we formed an elite group of hiking commandos, stumbling though the countryside to our first destination: Lunch.. an hour and a half away.
The first leg of the hike also took us through some ricefields.
Our guide's name wasn't really Ping Pong, but that's what he wanted us to call him. Here he is leading the troops:
His English was more than good enough to communicate to us everything necessary for the hike to be successful, as well as interesting tidbits about the flora, fauna, and the customs and history of local people.
After the ricefields the rest of the hike was for the most part all uphill. There was only an hour and a half left after lunch though, so all in all not a very challenging day. Then again I had plenty of weight on my back and so got a decent workout out of it all.
That would be his "play name". Thais have two given names: a "real name" that goes with your surname, and a "play name" that you are actually known by except in formal situations. Real names are serious business and chosen to be auspicious and prestigeous, while play names are chosen, for lack of a better word, for their cuteness.
Example: my play name is "Up"; partly reflecting my mum's high hopes for me, but mostly because it's a fun sound to say. In my mum's side of the family play names start with a vowel, so I have relatives called Oh, Eh, Ek, Aim, Or, Anh, and Am.
That would be his "play name". Thais have two given names: a "real name" that goes with your surname, and a "play name" that you are actually known by except in formal situations. Real names are serious business and chosen to be auspicious and prestigeous, while play names are chosen, for lack of a better word, for their cuteness.
Example: my play name is "Up"; partly reflecting my mum's high hopes for me, but mostly because it's a fun sound to say. In my mum's side of the family play names start with a vowel, so I have relatives called Oh, Eh, Ek, Aim, Or, Anh, and Am.
That's pretty interesting, actually. I had no idea about any of that.
And I'm wondering if his name was just Ping.. I can't remember now. It's possible he was just using the phrase "Ping Pong" to explain what he was saying, as in "My name is Ping, as in Ping Pong".
And I'm wondering if his name was just Ping.. I can't remember now. It's possible he was just using the phrase "Ping Pong" to explain what he was saying, as in "My name is Ping, as in Ping Pong".
I've had to neglect this thread for a bit while I migrated from using a laptop to a desktop for everyday computing related activities. That might not sound like a huge change, because by itself t isn't.. but I'm presently coordinating a massive spring cleaning operation in and around my house. Today my messy desk got cleaned up, cables were moved and removed, the floor was vacuumed, dirty things wiped, boxes moved out of the way, and essentially everything made for a much improved home office experience.
The last thing I did was hook up one of my external drives to copy all my Thailand vacation photos to my new internal 3TB drive, and that actually just finished.
So as you see everything has fallen into place. It is time for another update.
.. and you never really appreciate that until you have to sleep right by a really loud one.
The open air hut you see on the left is where all of us slept, save for the guide and the people running the place. These were the sleeping arrangements:
The nets are for bugs. The strategy was to pile as many blankets you could on top of eachother to sleep on, as well as on top of parts of the net, so that it would stay in place and surround you on all sides. Then on top of that you put your sleeping bag, which you sleep in.
But before sleep there was plenty of time for dinner, which is being prepared here:
Coed bathrooms:
Waiting for dinner:
Quite possibly the loudest place I've ever slept at.
I could never live like that, at least not willingly, snobby privileged middle class Bangkokian that I am, unlike my dad who grew up in a tin shack and finds such accommodation romantic.
.. and you never really appreciate that until you have to sleep right by a really loud one.
Spoiler:
The open air hut you see on the left is where all of us slept, save for the guide and the people running the place. These were the sleeping arrangements:
Spoiler:
The nets are for bugs. The strategy was to pile as many blankets you could on top of eachother to sleep on, as well as on top of parts of the net, so that it would stay in place and surround you on all sides. Then on top of that you put your sleeping bag, which you sleep in.
These two make me homesick. I've spent many a night in huts not much different from those. I always get the best sleep in places like that - the absolute darkness more than compensates for any nature sounds, no matter how loud. Really strong REM sleep - amazingly vivid dreams.
From the looks of the thatching (round leaves,) you were in Mae Hong Son or Tak Province - Salaween rather than Mekong watershed. Which Hilltribes did you visit? I'd guess Karen or Lahu, but I can't tell from the architecture - obviously tourist storage sheds rather than traditional houses.
Theirs actually didn't look so bad, but then again I didn't get to go inside. We pretty much slept on boards of wood covered in blankets though, it wouldn't take much to upgrade that to a more "I live here" type of bed as opposed to a group sleeping area for passers by in an open-air hut.
We were there for the experience though.. sort of. Talking to the other people there I got the sense that nobody really knew what to expect. Some people didn't know about the elephant ride part of it, some (like me) didn't know about the bamboo raft ride, we didn't know where we would be sleeping, how long the trail was, what sort of food would be provided, and so on.. The Kiwi girls were the most informed, but they only knew bits and pieces.
Anyway, nobody really seemed to mind the sleeping arrangements too much. It was all new and exotic to most of us, the food, the culture, the climate, flora, fauna.. We were tired after the walk, well fed with good homemade food, and filled with a couple celebratory beers. It was a part of the deal and experience. The waterfall was loud, but it all turned into white noise eventually anyway.
These two make me homesick. I've spent many a night in huts not much different from those. I always get the best sleep in places like that - the absolute darkness more than compensates for any nature sounds, no matter how loud. Really strong REM sleep - amazingly vivid dreams.
From the looks of the thatching (round leaves,) you were in Mae Hong Son or Tak Province - Salaween rather than Mekong watershed. Which Hilltribes did you visit? I'd guess Karen or Lahu, but I can't tell from the architecture - obviously tourist storage sheds rather than traditional houses.
Mae Hong Son seems more likely. The distance seems to match up pretty well too. There will be pictures of villages and buildings later, so maybe that will help.
As for the hill tribes, it wasn't the Karen for sure. Not sure about Lahu. The only custom I learned about was that young girls who were not yet married wore white. That might not even be a tribe specific custom though.
I honestly didn't find the waterfall all that loud/bad at all - although being acclimatized to sleeping in the middle of large Indian cities and their traffic does help
How was the elephant ride? I've heard that they can be quite uncomfortable after even a short period of time.
As for the hill tribes, it wasn't the Karen for sure. Not sure about Lahu. The only custom I learned about was that young girls who were not yet married wore white. That might not even be a tribe specific custom though.
That actually sounds Karen; the only hilltribe I know of that does such is one branch of Karen. Are you assuming they aren't Karen because they aren't Long Necks?
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
So that didn't matter as much either.
