Caves and Houseboats

As it creeps up on April, the hottest month of the year in Thailand, there are a couple ways to escape the heat: water and caves. These pics are from Kanchanaburi province and the famous "River Kawai". The six-eight cylinder "longtails" pulling the houseboats rumble up and down the river, most with a modified pipe as a muffler. The only thing louder are the high-powered PA systems that send ripples through the canyons.

This is another fine example of using noise pollution as a marketing tool to draw participants in Thailand. Besides meditation, it seems noting is done quietly in the Kingdom. Follow your ears to the action... literally at any time of the day! Between the searing heat, unrelenting smoke of burning season, and the ear shattering noise from PA systems in every nook and cranny, the festive summer holiday season can be trying times for many foreigners living in Thailand.

My plan to escape north, to the mountains of Chiang Mai, were dashed when the Bangkok Post reported the International Airport had to turn on the runway lights, in mid-day, because of the blanketing smoke.

Ahhh... Amazing Thailand.

Khao Yai National Park

Procrastination has kept me from two things, updating my blog site and visiting Khao Yai National Park. This post now catapults me back into the world of travel writing, my hobby that has recently been lost in the working world.

About two hours away via scooter, or motorcy as they call it in Thailand, is Thailand's first national park. While two hours can not be constituted as an expedition, it is a bit challenging to make your way out of the congestion of suburban Bangkok. So therefore, to bolster my own self-worth and pride, I will think of it as a mini solo expedition.

Conquering the smoke belching trucks and rule-less streets heading towards the mountains, the air quality drastically improved after entering the park. It is a steady climb to the top with several waypoints to see waterfalls, wildlife and viewpoints. As always, morning is the time to beat the crowds. Even though on the outskirts of a population of 10,000,000 inhabitants, I had Thailand's largest park mostly to myself before 10 AM.

When life gets busy, sometimes it is easy to forget how a couple hour drive can totally change your environment and mood. It is always a gift to get back to nature, and let the worries fall off like the leaves of a tree... as John Muir once said.

Thai Art - Khon Masks

Many who visit Thailand return home with a "Khon Mask". These highly detailed masks are used in traditional theatrical performances originally created for the Royalty of Thailand. These performances began during the Ayuttaya period and are still performed today in cultural centers and periodically seen on Thai public television stations.

The masks will also appear in the more trendy pop-music stage performances, which seem to have captured the interest of nearly all Thai people in recent years. These Vegas-style stage shows, with live bands and beautiful girls and boys in extravagant costumes, can be regularly seen on television and live in cities and towns across the Kingdom.

Temple Fish

The Chao Praya river snakes through the central plains of Thailand passing the historic town of Ayuttaya before twisting through the center of Bangkok proper. The central plains, with Bangkok lying in the center, contains about half of Thailand's 50 million inhabitants. The Chao Praya river is a main artery hosting barges and tugboats carrying an array of goods from Thailand to the far reaches of the globe.

Between the large manufacturing plants, and ramshackle residential houses propped strategically up on high stilts, various temples hug the shores which are increasingly being overrun by water hyacinth. The invasive species was imported to Thailand by a former Queen hoping the water plant would grace a royal garden or two.(a story I have heard told several times but never officially confirmed) Today, the water plant clogs many of the canals and rivers deeming them virtually useless.

Many people come to the riverside temples to make merit to the Monks and the fish. It is believed that giving to the temple, or Monks in general, constitutes good karma and therefore a more prosperous life and afterlife. Along with this ritual, people also make merit by feeding the fish at the riverside temples. Since non-killing is considered one of Five Precepts of Buddhism, the fish congregate near the temples where they are well-fed and free from fishing practices.

Japanese High School Robot Club

Other than the Thai stations, cable TV in Thailand offers of a wide variety of stations from around the globe. While surfing I usually click to the Japanese station, which is mostly broadcast in English. I watched an interesting documentary about a Japanese High School robot club. To the best of my recollection this was their motto.

Change your mind and you can change your actions.
Change your actions and you can change your habits.
Change your habits and you can change your character.
Change your character and you can change you destiny.

Change

Making the transition from the northern hills of Thailand to one of the largest cities in the world requires time. Time to adjust to the culture of the city.

It is virtually impossible to go anywhere outside the Thammasat University campus without embarking on a major, and usually cluttered, highway. While this is by no means unordinary by Bangkokian standards, it is a bit unnerving to a Farang (Westerner) who, for the past few months, spent much of his time riding around in the sparsely inhabited mountains and valleys of Northern Thailand.

A long time ago, while bartending in Flagstaff Arizona, an old-timer told me that the key to success in life is one must be able to accept change. Everything changes. He had lost his wife, moved several times for business around the country, and at that moment was newly retired. Whether it be self-imposed, or simply a product of life, change is inevitable. They key is the ability to adapt to this change.

One of the beautiful things in life is change. Without change life would simply be one day ticking past the next with no real means of measurement. Even for the Buddhist Monks of Thailand, living only in orange robes and on the handouts from the lay-people, living in the same monastery year after year, days are measured by change. The goal is to change the mind. It constitutes years of effort to change the mind from discontentment to contentment, no easy task. It is about change.

So, from the days of building log homes in the rural mountains of Colorado, climbing around on the massive trusses in the crisp cold clear air gazing at the snow-covered peaks, to teaching English amidst the buzzing smoke-belching highways of Bangkok, once again change has come. From my twenty-something days to my forty-something days, change has come. And for the handful of people that read this blog, I know change has come – I hope everyone is adapting well.

Sand Temples

The Songkran Festival celebrating the Thai New Year is not just a one day event, it lasts nearly an entire week. If you don't like getting wet, you won't like Songkran. Everywhere you go, I mean everywhere you go, people will douse you, and your scooter or car, with water. From high powered squirt-guns to full garbage cans, the various modes of drenching spares nobody.

Songkran is also a festive event at the temple. Many, like this one in rural Northeast Thailand, have "sand temple" competitions. The temple parties last most of the day and well into the night. Oh yea... you may get wet.