7a.m., I’ve been attempting to remain sleeping even though
early morning seems to be filled with mass transportation by motorbike and
freshly awaken Thai’s having their morning conversations. Aromas of fried food, fresh fish, sticky rice,
and other traditional meals mix with the remains of carbon monoxide spewing out
of almost all motorized vehicles as they slowly fill the room. I guess it is time to wake up and have my
morning cup of instant coffee.
What do I do today? Thailand, from
what I have seen has many faces and it is up to each traveler to identify which
one fits his/her style. To sum it up,
there are two ways (both an adventure) of traveling in Thailand; one is
becoming the ultimate tourist traveling around touristy areas and if lucky you
get to interact with one or two open minded Thai’s along the way – the other is
a slow paced Thai style run through towns learning as much from the people as
you learn from the sites themselves. I
find myself inexplicably avoiding becoming the travel tourist, although I
understand how it can be appealing at times.
A traveler’s dilemma of sorts, complex in its ways, yet
simple to those who witness the differences in the way foreign people are
treated. It is almost as if some Thai’s
could predict your every move in a 2 month journey…not only that, but they can
also tell you where you will take your picture when visiting a ruin or temple. “Everyone wants to do something different and
unique”, if you come to Thailand, you will find great difficulty in displacing
yourself from the normal traveler – not only does life become a slow tick of
time, but while apart from the masses you begin to think of what it truly means
to travel. Alcohol, drugs, parties, tour
groups, etc… all part of a tourist’s world where even the most beautiful places
become tainted by the stench of foreign behavior.
Although my mind has not been made up yet, I find myself
enjoying getting lost in river walks. Even with the language barrier, you can tell
sometimes what some people might be thinking –your not suppose to be here. The difference between many places and where I
find myself, is that all who look are not judging; they simply are stating a
fact. No tourists get lost in torn down
houses by the river where trash is predominant, and if they where, why would
they be there in the first place? For
me, getting lost allowed me to find the true land of smiles, where the locals
are the ones who remind you of what it is like to smile and how it can change a
persons being. Even the scariest of hoodlums
will crack a smile in response to yours and the first thought to cross my mind
was “Ok, I’m safe”.
Each road leads to a different place, the trick is to be
content in simply traveling down that road…today’s journey took me to a crowd
of people excited at the fact that two foreigners walked pass and intent on
getting us to play their game. On the
floor there was a cardboard with six different animals (i.e. rooster, fish,
crab, shrimp, etc..) lines connected the animals like a coin machine in Las Vegas. At the end of the board was a shirtless local
with a cigarette in his hand yelling out bets or commands, in his other hand
was a plastic bowl with three cardboard dice, each side holding one of the same
animals as the board on the floor. As he
takes a drag of his cigarette and tells everyone that the game is going to
start, he slowly flicks the cardboard dice in the air and catches them by
pushing them to the floor while covering them with the bowl…now its time to
bet! You place your wager on an animal
or a line connecting two animals – when the bowl is lifted, after all, bets the
winner has correctly picked an animal on the board that matches one of the dice
(if you pick a rooster and two of the three dice have roosters, you just
doubled your earnings). After coming
back to Dragon 5, I was informed that this game is illegal and that it roots go
back to china.
