Among the Mon(k)s

In case you wondered (and some of you did), I actually got my feet wet yesterday. Apart from the daily monsoonal rain, that is. I had to wade through ankle-deep water to get to a wat (temple) in Ayutthaya before I could reach a small elevated wooden walkway leading further to it. Small boats were plying the surrounding streets and an army truck was dumping sand nearby.

Of course I had read about the flooding (it being world news), but only a couple of days ago I actually entered the central plains of the Chao Praya river and could I see things for myself. The road from Suphanburi to Ayutthaya was already showing vast stretches of water on both sides and going into the city the lower-lying parts of Ayutthaya are flooded indeed, to about waist-deep. The rivers are huge and streaming rapidly. Signposts stand half under water, children are playing in their new backyard swimming pools, elephants are being taken to higher ground. It's good that many houses are built on stilts just for this reason, but this will be a huge mess to clean up. It's only part of the city and the old ruins of Ayutthaya are not affected, but I guess tourism is. Apart from a few tour groups and a handful of backpackers, it's not at all crowded in this still prime destination of Thailand.

Since I was in Ayutthaya only yesterday (which is just two hours from Bangkok), where have I been for the past week or two? I started out in Bangkok, where I had booked a room in a guesthouse in Banglamphu district, near the infamous backpackers' enclave of Khao San Road, which was packed as ever. While this is a fine place to sip a beer, watch people and/or read a book in the evening, I quickly concluded that this area of the city, for me at least, is perfect to relax after a long, exhaustive trip (like when I was here after three months in India), but to start an Asia trip, I wanted to be in Asia.

Next morning I hit Chinatown, the most congested part of Bangkok, and I immersed myself in it. I relished the feeling again of being among so many people I could not understand, the colourful, bustling markets, streets and sidewalks, scattered temples with a lot of activity going on because it was just about the start of the vegetarian festival, and the unlimited amount of street eateries where I could just sit down and eat by pointing to something that looked good. As said, I was in Bangkok before, but I didn't really get to know the city very well when I rested here after my India trip, so I wanted to acclimatize here for a couple of days first and get a better feel for the city.

I visited the must-sees of Grand Palace and Wat Pho again, but for the rest I mostly just walked, walked, walked through the older parts of the city, seeing some of the lesser known wats if I would pass a particularly nice one, and this time also making most effective use of its waterways, the river and canal taxis, which provide a much more convenient way to get somewhere than when going through Bangkok's notorious road traffic. And outside of the Khao San Road area, there's hardly a tourist to be found.

Then I made my way into West Thailand. I took the train to Nakhon Pathom, a provincial town that is well-known for its one interesting sight: the tallest Buddhist chedi (stupa) in the world and the oldest in Thailand. It is mostly visited by Asian tourists, but with an interest in Buddhism this is not to be missed. While there are only quite gruesome hotels in town, there was a very good night market with very good food. I ate some delicious Thai fish here (but more about Thai food later, I love the food).

I continued per train to Kanchanaburi, famous for its bridge over Mae Nam Khwae Yai, better known as the Bridge on the River Kwai, part of the Death Railway, the Thailand - Burma railway hewn out of solid rock by Japanese prisoners of war. The city/town is nice: many guesthouses have small wooden bungalows near the river Kwai, which are very scenic (before you imagine something luxurious now, note that hot water is absent and toilets have no flush, only scoop and bucket, they're European-style though) As for sights in town, these are evidently steeped in WWII history. I visited the bridge, some of the museums, and I actually did a day tour to some sights in the surrounding area, which are quite spread out. It's doable by public transport, but sometimes a day tour is nice to meet some people too. And in fact I met a nice Swiss couple, with which I spent the rest of the day.

The tour visited Hellfire Pass, a particularly difficult stretch of the railway where about 70% of labourers died, which was very impressive, but the other major destination was Erawan Falls. Kanchanaburi province is home to some hilly, green and rugged terrain leading up to the mountains that form the natural barrier between Thailand and Burma, and there are some beautiful and popular national parks in the area. Erawan is one of those and while the waterfall is not spectacular or very high in itself, the setting is actually very nice: it consists of seven levels of waterfalls, which you can all walk/hike/climb to. After the hike you could relax and choose one of the pools of the waterfall to swim in. Although they had told us beforehand, it was quite bizarre that fish in the pools would immediately start nibbling on your feet as soon you entered the water. Fish spas (exactly this, but then with your feet in an aquarium) are a real fad in Thailand nowadays; I now know where they get these fish from :)

You won't believe it, or maybe you will if you're one of the very few who tasted some of my Sichuan (Chinese) experiments over the past year or two, but in Kanchanaburi I also followed a Thai cooking course! In the morning we were first shown around the local market, where we got explanations of all vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, and the various meats and seafood, got to taste things (clotted pork blood in the soup, to name something extraordinary, but also look at, taste and smell the differences between herbs. Then we (there were only three people including me attending the course so we got full attention), went to the kitchen and prepared four dishes: a red curry, a soup, a stir-fry, and the all-favourite pad thai. It was really fun to do, hard work though for four dishes! We ate our results as a late lunch, but it was way too much of course. I could come back to eat the rest for dinner and I did. I came to the restaurant later that evening, my food was brought to the table and it was just really tasty and authentically Thai. That this was actually what I prepared myself was actually pretty cool I must say.

The highlight of the past two weeks, however, must be Sangkhlaburi, about 250 km west of Kanchanaburi, near the Burmese border. The road towards it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Thailand and it is indeed very scenic. It makes its way through forested limestone karst mountains and the last stretch skirts lake Kheuan Khao Laem, a huge lake formed when a dam was constructed down the river. The town is small and its inhabitants are a mixture of Thai, Mon, Karen, and Burmese. These ethnicities didn't say me that much on my first trip, but now I knew that the Mon (together with the Khmer) are the people that lived in this region before the T(h)ai came migrating down from (probably) the south of China, and the Karen are an ethnic people in Burma always in struggle (war) with the Burmese government. You might call them terrorists or freedom fighters, depending on your perspective. In any case, many of the Mon and Karen flee to Thailand to seek refuge from the Burmese government.

Thailand's longest wooden bridge crosses a section of the lake from Sanghklaburi to Wang Kha, a Mon village at the other side. The bridge is beautiful, comparable to the famous U Bein Bridge in Amarapura, Burma. It breathed a similar atmosphere as well, with this mixture of different peoples crossing over in the morning and around sunset, the lake behind it, and the floating wooden huts at the lake shore. There is nothing much to do in Sanghklaburi itself and I actually spent most of the time in Wang Kha, the Mon village at the other side of the bridge. People were very friendly there, tried to speak with me, taught me some words in Mon (as if Thai is not difficult enough), and, as it turned out, there was actually something to do in Wang Kha! The Mons told me to come next morning to bring offerings to the monks from the temple at 6am. So there I went, early in the morning, with several Mon villagers and a couple of Thai tourists (who tend to come here over for the weekend quite a lot), buying a whole plate of offerings (rice, bread, juice, sweets, etc.) and waiting for the monks to arrive. I looked at the others for the correct procedure and I put a scoop of rice in the oldest monk's bowl, then subsequently emptied my plate as the other monks passed by. I guess I earned my karma for the day.

In the afternoon I went kayaking on the lake. One of the guesthouses rented out kayaks and I could just go for the entire afternoon. The lake was very quiet, the water was warm, it was almost surreal to so serenely kayak away from the shore. I went all the way to a now submerged chedi from the old town, of which only the top is still visible. With the monsoon still going, a downpour was to be expected some time, so when I saw the clouds turn black, I made sure I kayaked to one of the wooden shacks along the lake to find shelter. It was a house, but nobody was there, so I just waited on the veranda for an hour or so during the downpour.

In the evening I went back to a coffee shop (in the non-Dutch sense of the word) at the Wang Kha end of the bridge, where I had talked to a girl (Fa) that morning, who was studying at a university in Bangkok and was now helping her father over the weekend. Their family was one of only two Thai families in the village (all the others were Mon). She spoke relatively good English, but had some questions about pronounciation in the morning, and there being nothing else to do in Sangkhlaburi, I thought I might improve my Thai a bit with her beyond the obligatory 'Hello' and 'Thank you'. But oh my, I'm not used to tonal languages, it's hard!

I had also heard from the Mon villagers that I really needed to come next morning as well, because there would be a big festival at the wat and monastery. It turned out to be the end of the Buddhist monks' rain retreat or Buddhist Lent. Traditionally monks stay within the temple grounds for three months during the rainy season, to avoid killing insects or growing seeds in this period, but also practically, it seems, because (as one Mon villager told me) monks are more vulnerable to getting sick during this time. The end of this three-month period had now come and that day turned out to be the big celebration of this in the Mon village. It was fantastic to see. All villagers were walking or driving their motorcycles towards the temple grounds around 8am and there they formed a long line along a path that the monks would take from the temple to the monastery. Men were all wearing a red longyi (a sarong, Burmese style) and a white shirt, while the women were just beautiful in their colourful long dresses. Dressed in their best attire, many liked to pose for a photo, too; they were making photographs of each other as well. When the monks finally came out of the temple, they walked in a slow line along the entire line of villagers to receive all offerings. After they had given their offerings, the villagers would talk a bit more and then go home again.

After the event I was having one last coffee at Fa's place before I would take the bus back. The only disadvantage of going to Sanghklaburi is that you have to backtrack all the way to Kanchanaburi. This is the end of the road. It goes further only into Burma. It used to be possible to do a seven-day trekking to Um Phang up north, but it is not possible anymore because of border sensitivities. Yet at Fa's place I met three Thais from Bangkok, one guy and two girls I guess in their late 20s, who had also come over for the weekend to see the festival and they offered me a ride to Kanchanaburi, where I could take the bus towards Ayutthaya. I gladly accepted, since the local bus had taken 5 hours and had the greatest trouble going up the steeper part of the hills. Now it took me only 3 hours. Then 4 hours via Suphanburi to Ayutthaya though, so it was still a long day.

In Ayutthaya I saw the flood, as mentioned in the beginning, and of course the ruins of this former capital, while yesterday I made my way to Phitsanulok by train. The train actually couldn't go the first part because of the floods, so all train passengers were put in a bus to Lopburi first, then continuing by train to Phitsanulok. This meant arriving two and a half hours late, so I slept in Phitsanulok, from where I went to Sukothai today. Here there's more (and older) ruins, but that's for a next update.

It has become way longer than I anticipated and I hope you're still with me, but if not, just read parts of it; it's also meant as a braindump for myself. I guess it's just been a busy two weeks :)

All the best,

Arnoud.