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Travelogue
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Thailand
Thailand page 3
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Thailand
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02/19/05
I'm
staying in a bamboo bungalow on the banks of the Maesai River at the
northernmost tip of Thailand, looking across at Myanmar (Burma) on the
opposite bank. The river is a small one and Burma is literally a stone’s
throw away.
I
just came up here yesterday by bus from Chiang Rai, a small city an
hour’s drive south, where I spent a few days hanging out and getting to
know the town. One character I met turned out to be the madam of a Chiang
Rai massage-parlor-slash-happy-house. In fact, the name of her
establishment IS “Happy House.” She volunteered to chauffer me around
for a few days and I thought it would have been an interesting way to
visit the hill villages around the infamous Golden Triangle. But it turned
out what she really wanted to do was hook me up with one of her girls for
the duration, none of whom interested me enough to want to spend any time
with them.
First
photo is Ahm, the madam. Then the girls of Happy House, not a fox among
them. (There were much prettier girls at several massage parlors a block away.)
Finally, one of the girls giving a traditional Thai massage. I don't know
who the guy is. Ahm gave me these photos.
Now
that I’m settled into this bungalow on the outskirts of Mae Sai, I think
I’ll just hang out here for a few days. A friend asked me the other day
whether I ever get tired of traveling. I've been on the road pretty much
full time since mid-March last year and, truth be known, I do occasionally
get tired of constantly moving around. That's why I just stop
someplace every so often and don't do much or go anywhere for days or even weeks at a
time. Usually, by the time I get going again the open road is a refreshing
change from the sitting still.
As
I travel,
I’m forever on the lookout for a home base, a place that says to
me, "This is it. You're home. Set a spell. Here's a house with a view
that you can afford to buy, and a community of people you can relate
to." When that happens I'll establish a homeport from which I can
make excursions that actually have a beginning and an end, but since I
don't have any idea yet where that place might be I keep poking around.
For a while I thought it might be Thailand, but now that I'm back here I
think not. It’s a wonderful place to visit, but it’s not home to me.
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In
any case, it’s good to be up here in the far northern hills of
Thailand. The air is at least a little less smoggy than down in
the central plains and much less than in the cities, and the
temperatures up here are much more comfortable. Last night I
actually needed a couple of blankets in the wee hours, it got so
cool! The days are sunny and warm, but not oppressive like they
were down south.
Thailand
is nearing the end of its dry season. The plains are parched and
even the rain forests appear dusty and thirsty. Many of the
streambeds and waterfalls are dry. Of course, that'll all change
when the monsoon arrives in April, but I won’t be here to see
it.
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As
I mentioned before, I feel inclined to fly to Bali the first week in March
and spend a month poking around there. It’s a place I’ve always wanted
to visit and, since the airfare is only about $275 round trip from Bangkok, now
seems like the time to do it. I made flight reservations a couple of days
ago.
Bali was 3,000 km from the December 26
tsunami-quake epicenter and was unaffected by that event. However, they
had some earthquakes there a couple of weeks ago. It seems that whole area
gets shaken up regularly. Always has. I guess no place is 100% safe. Hell,
some days I thought I might die of air pollution poisoning back in
Bangkok.
After Bali I’ll be facing the long series of return flights
back to the States (Bali-Bangkok-Singapore-Auckland-Tahiti-LA-NY. I'm
going to be mush by the time I land in New York!)
I’ve
heard Bali is even less expensive than Thailand. The way I like to live
and travel, I find Thailand is costing me about $1,000 a month to do
everything here I want to do. It's possible to
stay in 4-star hotels and spend much more than I do, or to do an extreme-budget trip and spend less than half
of what I spend. I've seen
rooms offered for as little as a dollar a night, but they're pretty shabby
affairs. If you were to rent a place by the month it would cost very
little, indeed, but I keep moving around and so I rent rooms or bungalows by the night. My average
room is clean, secure and civilized, with en suite shower, AC and often a
TV and costs around 500 Baht, or US$13 a night. (The riverside bungalow
I’m in right now costs just 350 Baht, or about $9 a night. It doesn’t
have AC, but up here in the hills you don’t need it.) Figure another $5
or $6 daily for food and beers, plus $3 to $5 for a massage. Round it off
to $30 a day including miscellaneous expenses, like transportation, etc. (Buses and trains are very cheap, as is flying in Thailand.) You can see how traveling
here costs $1,000 a month when
done comfortably but not extravagantly. If you were to actually buy a house and
live here, you could do so very nicely for a fraction of that, but as I said, for me
Thailand, as much as I like it, doesn't feel like home.
Continued on Thailand
page 3
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