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THAILAND
Food is excellent in Thailand. We eat in restaurants or more often buy from street vendors. At most places, they make your food fresh after you order. On the traditional menu one can find noodle soups (which contains lots of vegetables), fried rice or fried noodles (again with vegetables and chicken or pork). Egg omelets are very popular as well, but we found them too greasy. Various styles of fried noodles are usually served with lime and crashed peanuts. For the first three days we are recovering from the
flue that we caught in India. On July 24, we are visiting the National museum , where we get a quick introduction to Buddhism and Thai history (from a Australian guide who is studying Thai culture and temple murals here). We also see many Buddha images of various styles and a collection of beautifully decorated royal cremation chariots. In the evening, we go to what could be called modern downtown. Air-conditioned superstores are coupled with all possible fast-food chains - McDonald, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, etc. On Friday, the next day, we are visiting the Grand palace. On the area of almost one million square meters is not only the Royal Palace (today used only for selected ceremonies), but also the temple Wat Phra Kaew. Construction started here in 1782, when the king Rama I decided to move the capitol from its original location across the river to its today's location in Bangkok. Wat Phra Kaew is astonishing. The walls of all of its buildings are decorated with gold, small colored pieces of glass and flowers made of glazed ceramics in great detail. Wat Phra Kaew (Wat = temple) houses the "Emerald Buddha", the most important Buddha image in Thailand (actually made of jade). Rama I introduced a ceremony when a new robe is given to the Emerald Buddha at the beginning of every season. Originally, the robes were two, but Rama III added one more (hot season, rainy season and cold season). Towards the evening, we visit Wat Pho. As all the Wats, it is comprised of several buildings - main stupa (tower-like structure containing Buddhist relics), several chedis (secondary towers), vithala (temple containing Buddha images, usually built to the east or west of the main stupa ) and other buildings for housing of monks, their school, etc. There is also a wall surrounding the temple. Wat Pho is the oldest and the largest temple in Bangkok. 46m-long reclining Buddha is placed in one of the buildings here. As we are still in the vithala at 5 pm, we witness regular collective prayers of the monks who live in Wat Pho. There are many young men among them. It is a tradition in Thailand, that every man becomes a monk for at least 3 months of his life (usually around the age of 19 and the best time is during the rainy season). On Saturday, July 26, we are making our last preparations for our trip to island Ko Samui - laundry, hair cut, website update and repacking (we are taking only one backpack, half of our stuff stays stored in the hotel). We are taking a night sleeper train. The train is somewhat old, but we get mattresses, sheets and pillows, all neatly prepared by the attendant. We sleep well and in the morning we are in Surat Thani, from where it is 1.5h by bus and another 1.5h by ferry to Ko Samui. KO SAMUI (27.7. - 5.8. 2003) The
tropical island of Samui (Ko = island) lays at the eastern coast
of southern Thailand.
We spent 9 days on the island. We found a bungalow directly on a beach (10m from the ocean). Our beach was small, quiet, far from the developed commercial places. We have never seen more than 10 people here. In the mornings, we would go for a stroll along the beach, swim and sun-bath during the day and spent evenings sipping fruit cocktails and playing cards on our veranda. Watching stars during a night swim was great, too. We also had a small corral reef on the side of the beach, so we snorkeled as well. The weather was great for most of the days, we only had regular evening storms. We spent the only three windy and rainy days catching up with writing of our diary and articles for Czech travel magazines. We have rented a small motorbike (100cc). We went around the island, saw pretty waterfalls and couple of times visited the main touristy area with a long beach and many shops, restaurants and bars. We also went through several local villages and met a retired German guy who moved here to enjoy the tropical climate - as many other Europeans do. It appears to us that Thai are very easy-going. A picture of a small shop keeper laying on a blanket behind his counter and watching TV is very typical. Nobody seems to be in a hurry. They are also well equipped for their long siesta. Next to every house in the country there is a small shelter on pillars, where people stay in the shade during the afternoon heat. On August 4, we are eating in our favorite restaurant - for the last time. It is a family enterprise and as a reward for being loyal customers, we always get 12 pieces of sweet fruit called rambutan free as a desert. The owner is telling us to come back. We would not mind. Maybe in a few months, who knows. Next day in the morning, we are boarding a ship to Surat Thani and from there we are heading back to Bangkok by a night train. AYUTHAYA (6. - 8. 2003) We make only a brief stop in Bangkok (to repack and send emails) and we continue north. We are heading to three historical cities: Ayuthaya, Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai, which are all on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Ayuthaya was a capitol of a Thai kingdom that
lasted for more that 400 years, from 1350 to 1767. The city center is on an island - it is surrounded by rivers from all four sides. Thai kings built many temples in the city. Remains of most of them can be found still today. The architecture shows influences of many styles, from Khmer to Ceylon, including - of course - local Thai styles. Even though mostly destroyed, the temples are very impressive. We spent two days here. Our introduction to the beauties of Ayuthaya happened the first evening during a sunset. The next day we rented a bicycle and saw several other interesting places. We have also visited a museum and learned more about the city's history and culture of its inhabitants. In the evening, we were then able to reflect on the day's influx of information drinking beer and playing cards on our veranda. SUKHOTHAI AND SI-SATCHANALAI (8. - 10.8. 2003) Sukhothai
kingdom preceeded Ayuthaya.
To get to Sukhothai, we took a train from Ayuthaya to Phitsanulok (5 hours) and then a local bus to New Sukhothai (1 hour). We stayed in a small hotel with a nice owner, with whom we spent one evening discussing Buddhism. The old city of Sukhothai was only about half an hour away. We explored it both on foot and with rented bicycles. To deal with the afternoon heat, we usually planned our visits so that we could spend several hours in the early afternoon in a museum. To get to Si-Satchanalai, we rented a motorcycle from the hotel owner. Based on his recommendation, we took some side roads and saw rice fields and country villages. We returned in the late afternoon and continued the same day to Chiang Mai (5 hours by bus) in the evening. CHIANG MAI (11.8. - 12.8. 2003) Chiang Mai is the capital of northern Thailand. The city center used to be surrounded by a wall and a moat. Remains of both can be seen even today. The city attracts tourists by its large number of temples, possibilities of trekking in the surrounding hills and opportunities to visits hill tribe villages. We were not impressed by Chiang Mai. It is a big city by now, in which we did not find the atmosphere promised by our Lonely Planet guide. We stayed only two days, visited a few temples, discussed Buddhism and other things with a Buddhist monk, and bought two books (a more detailed book about Buddhism and a shortened version of the epos Ramayana). CHIANG RAI (12. - 14.8. 2003) Chiang Rai is the best starting point for treks in the
mountains of northern Thailand. We bought a map of the area
and found several hill tribe villages that could be reached in one day.
On a rented motorbike, we set off in the early morning despite light
rain. Chiang Rai has a nice little museum. The exhibits are about the hill tribes, their origins, habits, religion, but also about opium production. So we have not only learned how to make opium from the poppy, but also discovered the fact that the Czech Republic is one of the only few countries with legal production of poppy for the poppy seeds. (The best kolaches are poppy-seed kolaches!) In the evening, we have visited a night market. Night markets are very typical in Thailand. Usually fresh produce and meals are sold at such markets, but in the touristy areas also souvenirs and handicrafts can be found. Before leaving for Laos, we had our last good portion of Thai noodles. NOTE ABOUT THAILAND We like Thailand. It is a well-developed country, but still exotic to western travelers. It has good infrastructure. Roads are sealed and in good conditions. Services are reliable. It is easy to travel here. Thai food, even though quite spicy, is very tasty. People are nice and welcoming. Their behavior must be influenced by Buddhism, which is inseparable part of life for most Thai people. Buddhism also influences temple architecture which we find very interesting and still exotic. Houses of common people were traditionally built from wood and elevated on pillars. Today, brick and stucco houses bear influence of European architecture, but maintain some of the traditional elements. History, beaches and nice sceneries all make Thailand an interesting and attractive country to visit.
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Thailand Population: 62,354,000 Population growth: 0.88 % Literacy rate: 99%
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We
are also making plans for our stay in Thailand and are trying to find
out how to arrange Lao and Vietnamese visa.
During
its times, it was one of the richest and most important cities in the
world. Major Asia trade routes were passing through Ayuthaya and there
were permanent settlements of European traders here as well. The kingdom
comprised the entire area of today's Thailand, Laos and Cambodia and a
small part of Burma. At the end, it lost to Burma invasion in 1767. Even
though Thais recovered their kingdom back within several years, Ayuthaya
was destroyed.
The
major draw is not the scenery though, but villages of hill tribes.
During the past several centuries, people of six different hill tribes,
mostly from China, Tibet and Burma, settled in the mountains of northern
Thailand. They mostly maintain their traditional way of life, living in
simple villages in the hills. Their major source of living was agriculture.
Until recently, it was the production of opium, but thanks to the
concentrated effort of the Thai government, it has largely changed and
poppy was replaced with corn, rice or fruits. Thus, the illegal
production of opium in the Golden Triangle is now concentrated mostly in
Burma. Unfortunately, its illegal smuggling through Thailand has not
been eradicated yet. 
Luckily,
the rain stopped soon. We were not as fortunate with our pick of a
village. The village of tribe Karen was largely touristy and our attempt
to trek without a guide from the village to a valley behind it failed in
a dense jungle. Our second pick was better. After a two hour hike up the
hill on a muddy trail, we reached a remote Akha village. The people were
not excited at all to see tourists, so we just slowly went through the
village, observed and stayed away. It was interesting not only to
see the village, but also the country in the valley leading to it. There
were rice and corn fields at the bottom of the valley and dense jungle
on the slopes. The entire day was sunny and hot, but as we were going
back on the motorbike, we were caught in a storm again.