Thailand
Thailand is known as
the “Land of Smiles,” a most fitting sobriquet. What a warm, friendly country!
Larissa and I saw much of it from Bangkok to the northernmost tip of the Golden
Triangle, as well as the Angkor Wat area of Cambodia, on our most recent
globe-trotting expedition. Our trip was under the aegis of Smartours, a company that conducts
first-rate tours at prices that are astoundingly inexpensive. The tour guide we
had in Thailand, Nini, was exceptional – fun, experienced, knowledgeable, and
always finding ways to take our experiences beyond that of a normal tour. Our
hotels were both luxurious and well-located; our fellow travelers pleasant and
interesting; and the itinerary comprehensive while leaving us plenty of time on
our own (giving us opportunities to hire a private guide and driver in order to
ensure that we saw EVERYTHING in our own inimitable manic fashion.) January was
the perfect month to undertake this trip -- the weather, which can be
unbearable, was relatively cool and dry.
The gentle spirit of
Buddhism imbues every aspect of Thai life. We’d never seen a country that lived
its religion so faithfully. Temples are numerous and carefully tended. At the
same time, there is a confusing (to us outsiders) worship of the various Hindu
gods and even nature spirits -- every business and home has a spirit house, a
small lovingly cared for shrine to the resident spirits displaced by human
activity. Given this, it should come as no surprise that Thailand is replete
with vast magnificent wats. These are huge complexes, usually comprising several
chedis (roughly bell-shaped towers similar in function to pagodas), “libraries,”
a large ordination hall, the temple building itself, and occasionally cells for
resident monks. Bangkok has many that are way over-the-top spectacular, covered
with gilt and colored glass mirrors that shimmer, gleam and sparkle in the sun.
One favorite, Wat Arun, has five towers decorated with flowers, geometrics, and
figures all made out of broken Chinese porcelain.
On our trip north, we
visited some very interesting ruins of wats in the ancient Siamese capitals of
Ayutthaya and Sukhothai. In Lopburi, right in the middle of a city surrounded by
busy traffic and railroad tracks, a troop of pesky monkeys makes the remains of
the temple grounds its home. One stole the prescription sunglasses right off the
face of one of our group and took off, never to be seen again. Near Chiang Rai
we stopped at Khan Rang, a temple in the process of being built by one of
Thailand’s most successful living artists. It’s all white and mirrors and
filigree and looks like a wedding cake – can’t wait to see the finished version!
Thais are in general
agreement that the Emerald Buddha, carved out of a solid piece of jade and set
high above the worshippers on a golden platform, is their most precious Buddha
image of all. It seems like every other temple lays claim to Thailand’s second
most sacred statue of Buddha, and we saw them all—meditating, standing,
striding, and reclining—ranging from a 5-ton solid-gold Buddha to a
150-foot-long reclining Buddha.
We had many incredible
and amazing experiences in Thailand. We went to the Damnoen Saduak floating
market, traveling through canals lined with teak houses on stilts in a “James
Bond long-tailed boat” (The Man with the Golden Gun.) The market is jammed with
vendors in boats selling everything from exotic produce (we sampled mangosteens
and rambutans) to shadow boxes of scorpions and bats.
We visited a complex
of hill-tribe villages populated by the Karen (known for its “long-necked girls”
wearing multiple brass neck rings that push down the shoulders, thus elongating
the neck), Akha, and Yao tribes, who at the behest of Nini welcomed us into
their homes. We saw a pineapple plantation, a rice mill, and a bronze Buddha
foundry. We traveled the Mekong River, stopping off to get our passports stamped
in Laos.We learned about monk lifestyle and Buddhism during “Monk Chat” at Wat Chedi
Luang in Chiang Mai and gained merit by offering monks food at dawn.
A real highlight was
our visit to the Maesa Elephant
Camp, where we had an hour-long elephant ride through the forest, up and
down treacherously steep narrow paths. There, we saw a month old baby elephant
with its mother and watched elephants painting (recognizable flowers!), playing
soccer, and creating music on the harmonica.
We ate Thai and Khmer
food at every opportunity, and had some truly memorable (and cheap) meals. In
Bangkok, the Sala
Rim Naan (affiliated with the famed Oriental Hotel) offers a multi-course
Thai meal with superb traditional Thai dancing. At the Seafood Palace in
Sukhumvit, you select your dinner live from the tanks in the kitchen. The
grilled giant river prawn were UNBELIEVABLE – better than any shrimp or lobster
we’ve ever had. We had great Mekong catfish with black pepper at the Rimkok Resort, our hotel in Chiang Rai.
We got to be very fond of morning glory shoots after a visit to the Flying
Vegetable (don’t ask) in Phitsanulok and ordered them whenever we could. We ate
an assortment of (carefully selected) street foods—I even tried a fried
caterpillar. We chickened out on “jumping shrimp,” a dish with tiny live shrimp
that jump frantically when they are added to a hot chili sauce. The brave souls
that sampled it proclaimed it delicious. We had other great meals at The Riverside in Lampang, the
Antique House and The Gallery in Chiang Mai, and the Khmer
Kitchen in Siem Reap. Have we mentioned the massages yet? For $5 you can
have a “Thai massage,” for $7 an “oil massage” – not to be missed!
Mimi Santini-Ritt 2006