Back in Bangkok

As with all the places I have been in the last 3 weeks, I didn't spend as much time in the north as I would have liked. It was a flying visit to Isahn, a flying visit to the south, and similarly I managed to cover Uttaradit, Chiang Mai and Phitsanulok in 4 days. On the plus side though, I met lots of friends: Dan, Pond, and the energitic students of Uttaradit Rajaphat University; Mod Daeng and her family (including her Mum who is my new girlfriend), plus more friends in Chiang Mai; and finally P'Fong at the Naresuan University to talk about Empirical Modelling research (although more time was spent eating!).

Now with only a few days left in Thailand, I am hanging out in Bangkok with the bestest of company. On Friday night we had a Warwick gathering at a karaoke restaurant, at which I attempted to sing various songs that I had never heard before. Yesterday I spent the whole day with the Warwick crew, heading out of Bangkok to visit Bang Pa In palace and the ancient city of Ayuthaya. Luckily we had the amazing P'Bua driving us, who (with her VIP status) was able to drive down the motorway in the wrong direction, and avoid a collision with a barrier that resulted in a whole bag of iced tea being spilt all over her car. After all this excitement, we returned to Bangkok and went for a massage! And then to top an already wonderful day, we ate sticky rice and som tam at the night market.

Going to Yala

After the amazing Issahn experience, Vic and I turned up the style, flying back to Bangkok and down to Songkhla where we were met by Joob and her father who had arranged for us to stay in the poshest hotel in town with a room overlooking the beach. We had only been there 15 minutes before I took an evening dip in the sea. As you might imagine, Joob had us treated like royalty for a few days, being driven around Songkhla and Had Yai, and eating lots of nice food (some of it free cause Joob knows half the town).

On Friday we got up early to offer food to the monks who walked past the house before sunrise. Then it was off to our next destination, and unfortunately I had to say goodbye to Sis who was returning to Bangkok for a day of shopping before going back to England. Joob and I sent her to the airport and then we headed to the bus station to catch a bus to Phuket!

We arrived in the afternoon to be greeted by Tam — my fellow computer scientist — who we were to stay with for a couple of nights in this bustling tourist destination. Actually it wasn't as touristy as I thought it might be; away from the beaches in the town there were very few tourists. The first night was a trip to Phuket FantaSea, an evening of entertainment featuring the very best of Thai culture — food, music, dancing, and animals! It is well worth a trip if you are planning a trip to Phuket, the show keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout, and I especially liked the animals. Chickens sliding around the stage, goats, birds flying around the theatre, and at least 10 elephants on stage all at one time. Issahn dancing was good too. I am going to buy me some instruments to bring back to England and form my own band!

The next day got even better with a trip to Koh Phi Phi, one of the most famous islands in Thailand, the home of the movie The Beach, and also heavily damaged by the Tsunami over a year ago. Although it has mostly been cleaned up now, you can still see places where trees have been destroyed. The island itself is beautiful, from a distance it looks like a big rock protruding out of the sea and as you get closer you realise it is covered in lush green vegetation. There are so many small islands surrounding it waiting to be explored! We had a great time on the boat tour, swimming, snorkelling and generally getting a bit of a tan. The water was so clear I was swimming underwater without any mask. I really wanted to stay there longer!

On Sunday though, I took (yet another) flight back to Bangkok and prepared myself for the final part of my trip — to the north.

Note: I didn't actually go to Yala.

Ban Yahng Noi

There is a place far from my home,

Different and opposite in every way,

Where life is disjoint from my norm,

But somehow it draws me near.

A simple lifestyle out in the country,

Spicy hot food, fresh fruit, sticky rice,

An abundance of meditative forest temples,

Is where some of the appeal lies.

But the rest is all due to the people,

Warm–hearted, kind, friendly and fun,

Thank you Por, Mair, Bom, Joob, Bank, Mew,

and all my family in Bahn Yahng Noi.

The Thai Wedding

After a night with 70 students on summer camp in Sattahib, and a night out with the liveliest farang in the best club in Khorat, we arrived in Chaiyaphum on Friday afternoon. A quick tour of the town for Vic kicked off proceedings, including a snack of som tam and sweetcorn juice at the best veggie restaurant in Thailand (or at least I think so). The main event, and the reason for our trip here, is to witness a Thai wedding, that of P'Michael and P'Ae whom I know from teaching in Chaiyaphum and summer camps all over the place. This being my first Thai wedding I was pretty excited, and I was not disappointed.

The wedding started the evening before the ceremony with a party at the school. It was great to meet so many familiar faces: teachers, students, and family that I had not seen for a year at least. The party featured performances by students from the school — the Thai dancing was really good. It was very professional, easily competing with our Warwick Grand Thai Night (and the food was better!). Most people retired to bed after the show, ready for the 6am start the next morning, and I was pleased to do the same after partying (and avoiding arrest) until the early hours of the previous night in Khorat.

Despite being told that it was strictly farang time the next morning for the wedding, Vic and I rolled up just before 7am in perfect time for the start. The ceremony was in the biggest hotel in the town, and it looked like half the town had actually turned up. There were monks for the ceremony and we started chanting and taking the precepts as soon the proceedings began. The farang were looking a bit bored and disinterested after 10 minutes, but it was good to see farang joining in. The married couple offered each of the monks some things, including a bowl and other useful monk stuffs. Then the monks broke into the parittas chanting — I couldn't help smiling at the thought of the farang (and the Thais) sitting still for this super-long chant! Luckily for them we had to go pour water on the bride and groom halfway through, which somehow took the fun out of sitting there watching them practice the art of endurance! There was food and alcohol served almost as soon as the five precepts had been taken. Luangpor would be appalled that people's precepts didn't even make it to the door with them — there were large piles of them strewn about all over the floor. After speeches, dancing, singing and a burst of karaoke, there were a few of us vegetarians getting pretty 'hungry rice'. Dan, Pond, Vic and I headed to my favourite 'J' (veggie) place where we proceeded to order nearly every dish they had.

In the afternoon, after I had caught up the family, we met up with the farang again and set off to the nearest waterfall in the National Park. It was packed with Thais who were surprised (and probably disturbed) to see 10 farang get out of a car and start wallowing around in the water, jumping off rocks, and attempting to climb up the waterfall. It was great to cool off after an exciting day and an amazing end to my first Thai wedding experience.

The evening was spent chilling out with Nong Tan and her family whom I must thank deeply for taking care of us in Chaiyaphum. Just before midnight we boarded a bus for our next destination. Before I knew it, I was woken up in Ubon bus station!

The Khorat Constabulary

We were fairly tired on Thursday evening in Khorat after two long bus journeys, but somehow the Dragonfly guys with whom we were staying persuaded us to go out for 'one drink' at midnight. Driving back to their house at 3am, having enjoyed several hours and rather too many drinks in Khorat's best club 'Zoom Zoom', we spied several policemen standing in the road up ahead. There was a fair bit of nervousness as we approached the inevitable meeting with the local constabulary, not least because of the state of the 6 occupants squeezed into the car, especially the driver Jake, who was British and drank like one too. Sure enough, we were pulled over and I have roughly translated the following conversation into English for your amusement.

"Are you drunk?" says the officer.

"No sir, I am not drunk," replies our blurry eyed Jake.

"Have you been drinking whiskey?"

"No, no whiskey!"

"Are you sure?" the officer persists.

"Yes, really, I am really not drunk."

"So why are you driving around at 3am without your lights on?"

"Oh I am so sorry officer," Jake replies having realised his huge mistake.

"Well, do not do it again."

"Ok officer."

"Off you go then!" and the officer waves them on.

Jake thanks the officer, switches on his lights and we are back on our way.

The next hour was spent laughing about how Jake, with no driving licence, got away with driving with no lights at 3am in the morning completely drunk. Very occasionally there are advantages to being a farang!

A sister's view

"My brother got us up at 7am for the third day in a row so that we could begin our travels around the country. Apparently we have many provinces to visit, but as always, nothing with Ant is certain! We made our way to the bus station to catch a bus to a place called Sattahib — all that I know is that it is near the beach. As we approached the station there were plenty of people to hurry us on to a bus. Ant was chatting away in Thai and as usual I had no idea what was going on. Eventually we were ushered onto a bus and paid the bargain fare of one pound fifty. According to Ant, the journey was supposed to be 2 hours. I settled down and caught up on some of the sleep that Ant had deprived me of."

"A couple of hours later we were awake and telephoning the camp organiser to pick us up. Ant spoke to the woman collecting the fare who assured us that we were only 'about 40 minutes' away from our destination. An hour passed and we were getting concerned, as were the people collecting us. After another hour I was beginning to regret drinking a whole bottle of water at the 2-hour stage. And also doubting my brother's ability in catching buses around Thailand. I think I would have been better off staying with the lovely girls in Bangkok — P'Bua and P'Lyn know how to organise a good trip! Eventually, after the longest 2 hours in history, we arrived in Sattahib 5 hours since leaving Bangkok."

"Ant had not told me much about this trip except that we were going to a Summer Camp where 60 English undergraduate students would be waiting to meet us. By the time we arrived they were halfway through the days' activities, so we showered and ate before the afternoon trip to temples and the beach. When we met the students they were very shy, with many of them afraid to speak English to us. By the time we had visited the temples, a few of the students had began to ask some questions and as the day progressed more of them were getting confident in asking what these two farang were doing here. They were most pleased to hear that Ant and I were brother and sister, as opposed to boyfriend and girlfriend!"

"Ant was enjoying the occasion being surrounded by cute 19 year old girls who couldn't stop smiling at him. Actually he has been surrounded by girls every day of the trip so far — no wonder he keeps coming back to Thailand. On Sunday he had lunch with 10 girls (and only 2 guys), on monday he was dining alone with 5 girls, and on Tuesday he was escorted around by 4 girls. The only time there have been less girls than guys was when we took 4 monks to Wat Phra Kaew — Ant somehow managed to find these monks to join us on a tour of Bangkok. Another random thing that happened that day was that I got a Thai lesson from the abbot of one of Bangkok's most important temples."

"Back to the Summer Camp and a trip to the beach. After feeling the warmth of the sea, everyone couldn't help being relaxed and the English started to flow. Combine this with seafood and all the Thais were happy! The evening passed with some games before heading for bed in the small hours — have to be ready for 7am in the morning for another long journey!

The Tiger Temple

Writing about web page http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/aharfield/gallery/kanchanaburi/

Words cannot explain our experience in Kanchanaburi today with 18 tigers. Thank you to Lyn and Bua for the amazing trip! :)

Bangkok — Day 1

Last night I was welcomed at the airport by Irene and her mother, who took me back to their house and gave me the most amazing meal since I left Thailand last year. Spicy aubergine salad and sour orange curry — aroi mahk mahk! I was a bit too excited to sleep, but I eventually got some rest only to wake up late this morning.

By the time I had arisen, Sis and Joob had already landed in Bangkok and eaten their first meal. Irene and I went to meet them after our amazing breakfast of Pad Thai, then we headed to Natee's house where I was welcomed by Kanom Krok — a second amazing breakfast! By this time we were already late for our lunch appointment at a funky pink restaurant to meet a big group of equally funky ex-Warwick students. I could continue detailing the food we ate, but I am sure most of the readers will have switched off by now.

After lunch, it was into town and meeting more girls, this time my friends from the north-east who I met for iced coffee. The final plan for the day was a trip out of town, to the province of Samut Songkhram at Umper Wahng. There I got my second portion of som tam as we walked around the floating market. After a proper dinner, when the remaining sunlight had dispersed, we took a boat trip around the local area to see the fire-flies. Hundreds of these tiny insects in every tree sparkling and flashing as we passed by on the river. An amazing sight. Once we had finished the boat trip we took some more time to walk around the market and fill up on other snacks and drinks more returning to Bangkok.

Everyone is quite tired now, it has been a great day, and no doubt tomorrow will be just as busy. Good night. :)

Poet on a plane?

Eagerly waiting

The magic is in the air,

Like a live Marley concert,

On a journey to another place,

Sparkling positive energy.

A hundred smiling faces,

Like a pack of playful dolphins,

The entire ocean as a playground,

Free, fearless, dwelling in the moment.

The warmth draws you in,

Like a strong brew of tea,

After a skin-soaking thunder storm,

It permeates you inner being.

An attractive uncertainty pervades,

Like the winding plot of a Shakespeare play,

Slowly, carefully, the mystery unravels,

Strengthening awareness each and every second.

Eagerly, the waiting is almost over,

Like a lucky child on the eve of Christmas,

Anticipating a stocking full of surprises,

It is time to land in Bangkok.

This is dedicated to those poets in the Buddhist Society. I know the quality is lacking, but I needed your help!

Contemplation at an airport — take two

Standing, waiting on a queue for check-in that rivals the queue for Oblivion at Alton Towers, it is time for the second lef of this journey. My first trip to the middle-east has been an experience. I hadn't known what to expect from Dubai, and I was right not to, as it is quite an amazing place. The city must be the biggest building site in the world. It has many things going for it: warm weather, good beaches, the finest hotels in the world, and a great range of food. The only negative side to the place is that it lacks culture. I have been here for just a few days and the city has that feel to it — a place where people pass through on their way to somewhere else. I am sure when it is fully developed it will be an amazing tourist destination — great for a chill-out holiday. The trip to Oman, however, was something completely different. I doubt that a similar place can be found anywhere in the world. On the dhow, we were completely disconnected from the rest of the world, surrounded by the sea and the baron landscape. This will be my fondest memory of the trip.

Waiting in the airport I am silently anticipating my arrival in Thailand. The last few days have been quietly relaxing, but now the trip will get more and more hectic as I try to pack many activities into the next two weeks as humanly possible. This is the calm before the storm — and there is nothing wrong with a good storm!

Another passport stamp

There is no shortage of unusual things about Dubai to keep me amused. Security is not a problem, cars are often left open with valuables inside. Crime is pretty much non-existant due to the harsh penalities — i.e. chopping off your hands. Skyscrapers in the desert as I already mentioned. There appears to be no order to the place, it is each man for himself. Even if you have been queueing for an hour to get somewhere, there will be plenty of people willing to jump in front. Going to the toilet in public is definitely a no no. Then there is the weekend: it occurs on a Thursday and Friday.

This happened to be of some benefit to Nic and I as we are due to fly home (for him England, and for me Thailand) on Saturday morning. So on Wednesday afternoon, we packed a spare set of clothes and a sun hat (more on my new hat later), jumped in the car, and Nic's Mum and Andy took us out of the city! A couple of hours later and we were filling in visa forms at the border to enter Oman. After a bit of a wait we were cleared to cross the border, got our passports stamped, and headed up into the mountains. There is a completely different feel in Oman, the terrain is sandy rocky mountains which is quite different to anything I have ever seen before. It is dry and baron, there are no people for miles around, but it has a beauty about it that you cannot find anywhere else. For me, the fact that you are away from the city and completely on your own is an attraction. We drove along the quiet coast road which wound up and down with some great views of the sea. After another hour we arrived out the Golden Tulip Hotel, in the area of Khasab, which would be our shelter for the night. As you would expect, I checked out the swimming pool immediately and lazed around in that warm bath as the sun was setting over the rocky mountains.

I was pleasantly surprised by the friendliness of the people of Oman, they were much more welcoming and talkative compared to the Emirati (who you rarely encounter) in Dubai. We left the hotel early the next morning and went for a day trip on a dhow — a type of 'old-fashioned' boat — around a 16 km fjord (I thought these were only found in Sweden but apparently not). The boat was laid out with carpet and cushions for us to relax on all day, all to ourselves. We set off about 10am and within an hour we had seen a group of around 20 dolphins. I don't know what it is about these animals but they seem so peaceful. Swimming alongside our dhow, I am sure that the dolphins know something that we are not aware of.

We swam, we ate lunch, we caught a huge fish (although I didn't partake in the poor fish's demise), and we passed some amazing scenery. The most impressive place of the day was telegraph island. During the 19th century, the British attempted to connect a telegraph cable between Britain and India to speed up communication. They didn't get that far, but they did run a 1250 mile underwater cable from India to Basra which passed through the fjords of Oman. Telegraph island is the place where the British manned the telegraph and relayed messages. The island is tiny, less than 50 metres in length, and there is nothing there except the remains of some huts that a few brave Brits must have lived in. It must have felt like the loneliest place in the world! I wonder how many of them knew about the benefits of meditation.

At the end of the boat trip late in the afternoon, we were all fully relaxed and ready to head back to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. By early evening we had returned — with another stamp in our passports!

First impressions of Dubai

The sky is blue, the sun is beating down on the ground, but there is a gentle breeze to keep the body cool. Sat on a wooden recliner in the shade, I recall the activities of the last 24 hours — my first in Dubai — and try to put in perspective the complete change in environment I have encountered in such a short period. From the cold, wet climate of our quiet, homely University, I have come to a warm, rich, foreign, new-age city.

The first thing that strikes you about Dubai is just how modern it is. Even after Taiwan last year where many of the buildings were towering skyscrapers, Dubai is something special and completely unique. There appear to be very few old buildings in Dubai, there are only the very new, standing bold and brash, spread far and wide across a desert landscape. They are building some of the world's tallest structures, despite there being no shortage of land to build more 'economical' buildings. As you move around the city there are skyscrapers popping up as naturally as ice-cream sellers. It looks slightly odd though that there is nothing in between except desert.

With the rate of development in Dubai over the last 10 years, it is quite difficult to understand the history of the city prior to this period. Not just the buildings, but the people too. The population is so international with many westerners coming to work and travel, and large numbers of asians, many of which are working as labourers on development of the city. You get the impression that everyone is coming and going, nobody has particularly come here to settle down. The large Indian population are very friendly — perhaps they think that the cricket will go their way this week! Last night I went to an Indian restaurant called "Govindas" that is 100% vegetarian. Best Indian food I have ever tasted, and the fact that I found veggie food on my first night was a pleasant surprise.

We also went to the old town with its amazing spice market, gold market, and what can only be described as 'junk' market. I that this is as close to the 'real' Dubai as it gets — the place where there must be some history. It was weird walking around the market whilst two competing mosques were relaying their prayers across the city and hundreds of muslims headed for evening prayers. I am intrigued by Islam, and I hope to learn something about it while I am here — whether I would be allowed anywhere near a mosque is another matter. I am not ready to risk it just yet!

Apart from the old town, the rest of the city has a similar atmosphere to any international city. It is quite like London: everybody speaks English, but very few as a first language, and the people come from all over the world. Not much in London is particularly British, and from what I have seen, not much in Dubai is particularly characteristic of an Arab country — not that I know what the characteristics are! This isn't a criticism of the place, but just the nature of large cities. Being a countryboy, I long for something different!

Contemplation at an airport

After the last month of relentless activity (Thai Night, conference paper writing, multiple trips to Norfolk, Dorset and London, and temple celebrations), I now sit in Birmingham Airport with absolutely nothing to do. I cannot remember being this calm for a long time, not even whilst drinking the many cups of tea that have granted my safe passage through the mayhem to this current moment. On reflection, I probably took on too many commitments, but I am sure this will always be the case however little I plan to do. This ego absorbs desire for pleasure and entertainment like a sponge and this mind is not yet strong enough to squeeze it dry. It is dry and empty now, ready to absorb whatever Dubai and Thailand will offer it.