Waiting for the Winter

Have we noticed the change? Do we realize it had happened? Never had I expected that the effects of global warming can be witnessed in the short 7 years I had lived in Thailand, at least that’s what all my surrounding friends are talking about. This winter…. ain’t no winter. I remember from the year I arrived till about 3 years ago, during the months of November to January, motorcycle taxi sheds in Bangkok will have small camp-fire set up burning in some kind of make-shift bin. Motorcycle taxi drivers could be seen cuddled up keeping themselves warm around, palms stretched out absorbing the warmth and rubbing their hands together from time to time. We walked in the cool dense air, I could have coffee outdoors under the sun and not break a sweat. Sip hot coffee from a ceramic mug in cold winter, I loved it. Where is that experience now?

Back then, there were always friends going up north and coming back to share their tales of how cold it was the chilly air they breathed and the romantic atmosphere that such months offered. But just a week ago, friends coming back from Mae Hong Song told tales of extreme heat and only the early morning hours which offered a hint of winter’s mark.

I was happy back in end of October, when the cool breeze came suddenly unexpectedly. Even down south Hua Hin was cold and I could still remember having that hot Japanese soup with me friend in the cold night air. I was sharing with my mates how great living in this Kingdom had been and that part of Unseen Thailand is the secret winter debut that not many had known. How happily telling them I was, how wrong I now am. Even the Bangkok media had predicted that this year we will be experiencing the coldest and longest winter, obviously they had been wrong so far. The cool spell was over after the first week of November and it never came again.

The winter solstice is 21 Dec 2010. The sun is now low and darkness sets in about 6pm. But where, where are you now, the long awaited winter we are all eager for?

Old Town Chiang Khan

As presumed, we planned a winter trip up north. Keyword… winter… reality, perspire like pigs. End of November, should have been cold, but Buddha decided to turn the sauna on. And so we left Bangkok at 10pm in the night. Can’t recall the entire journey, but when I woke it was near 6, and up the mountains we went in the still cool air hoping it will last.




We were in Loei and joined the flock of local travelers for the sunrise. As we hike up the pathway, many of them were already strolling the opposite way, we missed the sunrise but nevertheless, the view was still breathtaking on Phu Ruea National Park. Misty, top of the peak I was as the sunrays contest the heavenly clouds to reach my lens. First stop of the day for many on their way to Chiang Khan.




Now Chiang Khan had been the talk of many lately. Her old rustic charms attracting many of the city folks, luring them with her backwards appeal into a world where the clock ticks slower. However, the dwellers of this village just ain’t too happy about it. They had been invaded, modernization had set in with the ever increasing loads of tourist. Even farangs had started to arrive in small numbers. The concrete buildings have started to sprout, over shadowing the original rows of aging wooden houses laid along the only street. Chang Khan will turn into another Pai soon as many had already reflected.




The monks walk their daily rounds just as the sun rise. Briskly, they collect alms from the local folks, strolling a slow pace taking in the clear morning air. In contrast to that, during the peak supposed to be cold period of November till January, things are very different. Monks get overfed like fishes. We tourist like to do everything that locals do just so as to do what we tourist are suppose to do. As a result, abnormal number of people lined up the streets and we dump loads of monk-feed into their small bowl. Never mind the cookies, sticky rice and what not had already piled up like mountain, tourist continued to squeeze whatever we can into any opening we chanced upon between the packs of nutrients. I myself was one of them and it was quite obvious the monks tried to walk as fast as he could pass all of us, refusing our offerings tactically. Some, I could tell was calculating how to walk past us beyond arms reach. We tourist had stressed the monks. There should be a Monk Overfeed Protection Act set up in Chang Khan someday.


Accommodation in Chang Khan is basic. Mainly, they are home stay. This is the second time I am at it and I am still amazed that all the elderly are wiling to sacrifice their night sleep for us. For a mere THB1500, they are willing to give up the bedroom and sleep all over the living room downstairs, scattered in a way like cats would do so in a large open area. There are not resorts on Chiang Khan as yet, but in time, there will be as popularity grows.




The old town is located next to the Mekong. So one could talk local to the locals and have a boat ride out on the river for THB1000. Sail next to Laos, see them kids play the water. Wave as we did as the citizens of Laos smiled and waved back. Cycling is the core activity there, for in Chang Khan is a long street where in the night it turns into a bustling market with restaurants, drinking joints and the so many peddlers. Colorful lights reflecting off old wooden charms, a kaleidoscope, it can be quite a picture.



A packed trip up north and back, sleep deprived we were back working the third day. 60% of the time spent in the van, stopping along the way for spots of unknown attractions. That’s the way we do it here, cheap.

Full photo sets available here under Old Town Chiang Khan Nov 2010.

Pink Flowers and Weird Rocks

Blog about August, some time ago. What’s on during August? Pink flowers season they say. All Thais flock to this place called Chaiyaphum to step on them flowers… no just kidding. Thais flock there to take in the full view of these pink petals blooming all over the slopes in the midst of fresh foggy mountain air. Flowers, so many, but you gotta catch them at the right time. With global warming, it’s hard to predict when they will bloom. We were told we went late for the season. The Dog Krachaio (that’s what they call them) had already started withering.




Chaiyaphum is highlands about 5 hours from Bangkok by van. That’s what we went in. My colleagues are very good (in fact all Thais are) at organizing such tightly pack trips over a short weekend, squeezing every bit out of off work time. We left midnight on Friday, our lives in the hands of the lone driver. Woke up crusty eyed at 5am on some mysteriously misty place, thinking our van had crashed and we were in Heaven. And when sense returned, we realized we were in some national park, Thai name too long, me brain no register.


August, Thais not only flock to Chaiyaphum for the flowers, but to also pose themselves dangerously on precariously looking rocks in order to take the picture of their lifetime. The forestry here in Thailand is good at making every rock sticking out over dropping cliffs an attraction. They are also ingenious in naming theses places, one of which I visited was “Cliff of Penis Shrinkage”. It’s a myth, my penis is still looking good down there.



Other then carrying genital related names, these are one of the few rocks in the entire solar system which has the most number of humans ever stood on them. Just wondering in my mind when a crack will appear and give way, taking a lovely couple along with it.




Rock features in this region are very peculiar in shapes. Thais looked at them and christened them Radar, World Cup something and whatever they can think of. Aiming through my viewfinder, I contemplate what freaky natural erosive phenomenon could have created them over the millenniums which had past.



Thais like waterfalls. And so, if there is one in the region, we flock there like frogs looking for a pond to spawn. In my restless state, again I cannot register the name of this place, but it was packed with people. As usual, Thais swim in their full daily attire, no bikinis for eye candy. Locals, only locals, hidden away from the knowledge of farangs the place is.


And what accommodation we lodged in? Travel local, stay local. Speak their language, live their language. We bunked over in “Home Stay”. Home Stay in Thai means staying in someone’s home literally. We invaded some farmer’s house for a small fee and the usual occupants young or elderly, will find some hole sleep else where. It was about THB 2,000 or so as I can recall for their sacrifice. Where do we get such incredible deals I asked? The web forums aplenty floating around they said. In written Thai they all are, reasons now we know why we expats can’t find good cheap deals.


They had simple food for us dinner, breakfast and lunch. We can squeeze in as many as we want, they will somehow get all the mattresses and blankets for us all. Just try not to think of the odor that came along with it. I was too tired to think of it anyways. Arrived late in the night and woke early 5am for out next leg of the journey.


Rocky rides, sleep deprived. We traveled them cliffs, flowers and rocks and falls. Had fun aplenty, all within a packed 48 hours. To so many places and back again. Monday, the next work day, was terrible. Will I do it again? Yes.

Full photo set here under Pink Flowers and Weird Rocks Aug 2010.

Pai, How to Get Rich Guide

Pai, a little town up north in the middle of farmlands has been growing in popularity with both Farangs and Thais. I’ve been there and back. Most people there are mountain folks who had stayed on inherited or illegal lands for generations. Now how to get rich?


Coffee in Love, the coffee hole I will talk about, is situated along the main road with a lucky view overlooking the flat valley. So are many other small coffee joints set up to cash in on the 4 winter months where tourist arrives like packs of wild animals on a stampede. Coffee in Love is reputed as such, you never arrive in Pai unless you have visited and drank in this coffee joint. What’s so amazing about it? To me, nothing. Its all synthetic.


You have a land acquired or inherited, all you need to do is to put up some colorful tasty buildings painted in bright colors. Then buy some junk cars and refurbish them up in attractive colors with the name of the town painted all over. Put up a bunch of senseless signs that points to North Pole or far off places with their distance shown. Plant trees and flowers all over, put swings in place. Have larger then life signs erected, put some cheap tables and chairs with unique design not local to the province and scatter them all over, white seems to work. Get some stunned horses to roam around the grass, white ones seems to work too. And then sell coffee or cakes and they, the money will come.

It is just that simple, it does not take much of an investment if you already have a piece of land, oh yeah those lucky sons and daughters. But for the farmers many still, this is just a remote dream. For broken chairs and worn out tables, in wooden huts so broken they live. How to have more money to paint that pretty house or buy them fancy tables and chairs? Come, lets buy them off the land, lets turn the potential into kinetic money. Lets exploit them with our higher spending capability, so many of Bangkokians do now. The driver complained on as he drove us touring the idyllic landscapes of winter Pai.

Koh Kood - Urban Transition gone Wild

Anywhere Thais discover the last potential paradise, the sea life will die. While the resort I stayed boasted of its abundant wild sea creatures that visit the jetty in the mornings, the next resort just a hundred meters right was spear fishing the life out of the blur sting ray that ventured to the wrong place at the wrong time. The Thai guy, crouched low on the jetty platform, long spear on hand. With a quick bolt, I witnessed him probed deep into the shallow sands. And then he pulled up a good sized ray. Proudly, he walked back to his resort and everyone came gathering making him even more proud.


Koh Kood is the last island south east of Thailand before Cambodia. It is reputed to be untouched. And so it is with only one main dirt road on the island. It is an island with only the occasional Farang spotted, it is an island full of Thai tourists. It is, their land, their playground and I could see they prefer to keep it that way. Though the island is truly backwards, there are hints that points to another making of Phuket, that which is the ever strong GSM signal on the island. Even when on snorkeling trips an hour on to the middle of nowhere, you will still get strong GMS reception of 5 bars. The island has got unorganized constructions of all sorts turning the coastal parts into great balls of yellow dust. Uncontrolled exploitation of nature, sad sight.


Why are there no great concrete luxury type resorts on the island I asked? All resorts are now built on land with only temporary permits paid for at high price. There is still no official ownership of land for the resorts' owners. So the resorts are built cheap. And when things are built cheap, nature will be neglected. The owners take the risk and assume they will get the land in time, but one never knows for sure what the future holds. I for one wish the grey permits will all be taken back, the shoddy resorts destroyed and the proper developers come on in to build some environmental friendly resorts. This will reduce the number of developments. This will make the island exclusive. Proper developers hopefully will preserve the island with more consideration at least and not taint what is supposed to be crystal clear coastal waters of Koh Kood. But, this is the land of the Thais and is one of the last few island paradises where it still remains un-Farangnized. This they want, shoddy but Thai.


Shoddy but Thai? Let me elaborate further. The waterfall, is now a bath tub. It is no longer trekking in scattered groups towards the middle of jungle to find you can have almost the whole place to yourself. It was wild and noisy when I was there. It looked like a temple ground fair. It was totally littered. The parking ground was a dustbowl, the visitors in streams. The waters polluted. The freshwater fishes were dying. The crowd control was nil.



Snorkeling trips to distant islands. Ever seen dead floating groups of ants in a cup of overnight cola? Well that’s what it looked like. Boats too many, excreted oil leaking from old engines aplenty. And a thousand Thai girls, women and aunties splashed about in full clothing. Detergent residue overwhelmed the waters. The coral life whatever decent was left, will not be able to take it. They will die the fishes will be gone. Another spot of nature will be exterminated. The tourists don’t spare a thought for nature. They love it and yet they are killing it.


The soldiers came about asking each boat the number of visitors. They can monitor, they can write down the numbers, but do nothing they can to control or limit the damage to nature. This is sad, the paradise will be gone. Already it has begun. The visibilities in these waters were only a good 2 meters or so as I floated aimlessly breathing through my snorkel.


This is an island for one to experience the beginning of another hot spot. With what seems to be uncontrolled number of exploitations going on there, soon, it may well be another Koh Samet before her transition into Phuket. Money talks it works like that in Thailand. All matters of nature will be overridden, goodbye to the fishies. Go there while you can now or forever gone her natural beauty will be.

Koh Kood - The Natural Beach Resort

What’s there to do on Koh Kood? Nothing, absolutely nothing. It is not all that bad, for nothing was what I was looking for. To rest my work worn mind, to be away from my job, to be away from civilization.


Now this resort is rather pricey, but hey how can I complain because it was Thai Father’s Day then. Be warned the prices will double for such occasions, but the friendly boss came about and tried to ease the pain in everyone’s wallet by being as friend as he could. An old Chinese, he spoke Teochew and Mandarin to me.


The bungalows are wooden and only in the night you get power to the air-conditioning. Unless like I stayed, paid more I did for the Beach Sea View Deluxe. I get them luxury including heated bath water for all day long. Just one complain, the flat screen in my room was too small.


Opened my doors and out the patio I sat. Sipped my coffee and inhaled the sea breeze accompanied by my cigarette smoke. My eyes were hit so hard with the bountiful deep colors. So clear what’s above, so hypnotizing blue the horizon, so much the colors between beyond and the shores, the bands of blue to green, the clear waters breaking the rocks and sand. The reward of staring into the Gulf of Thailand from Koh Kood. The tall coconut tress swayed gently, the dogs in their state of dreams on the fresh green grass.



Lunch and dinner served, every meal made they tried to match the experience of an exquisite banquet. For this small but well maintained resort of the beach, the food served was surprisingly excellent and not too pricey. This I could see the difference, compared to some other equivalent resorts I had been to.



Majority of the guests were Thais, only 2 units of Farangs on this trip I saw. They baked their bellies in the sun doing nothing most of the day, while the fully clothed Thais drank Black and chatted as they enjoyed the sea. Canoe some did, and swam I had. Disappointingly, the water while deceiving clear from above, was not that so when I was in it. I cannot complain I was told, The Gulf of Thailand can never compare to the Indian Ocean south west of Thailand, where Similan the islands I had been.




Island paradise, one would envision the experience of a Phuket like holiday. But no, not here. There is only one main road running down the middle of the island, many parts still just dirt tracks. There will not be the up-market massage spas, and in the night the girly bars. About the only other thing to do is to go for the waterfall trekking trip. After our pickup made numerous tight passes on the single lane roads, we arrived. Packs of people in pink, it was Thai Father’s day, that’s what Thai people wear to show their love for the King.



And in the night all there is to do is laze and gaze into the night sky, drinking as usual the Thais did. Finished the Black as they chatted into the morning hours. And for the first time for many on the island this trip, they experienced unexpected winter weather. Someone up there turned on the air-conditioning to blanket the whole island that night. It was strangely abnormal.




For snorkeling trips off shores, there is a bunch of islands north between Koh Kood and Koh Chang. That I went, but it was rather disappointing the clarity of water. Food served in Styrofoam boxes, mineral waters served from ice filled coolers. We lunched on an island, sat on sand. The dirty littered beach telling a tale of uncontrolled tourism. Paradise will soon be lost.



I would have loved to have stayed a day more, doing absolutely nothing but to take an afternoon nap on the deck chairs under the shady trees. But my trip was just a short 2 nights that time instead of my normal 3. It is an island, a little bit backwards, for that ultimate holiday of having your mind at peace with the sounds of gentle splashes. I was there, enjoyed the melody orchestrated by the rocky shores of the island.