Thailand, bis repetita

12 December 2012

November 30

The contrast between Laos and Thailand is pretty obvious, aside the fact they drive on the left side of the road, and I can finally overtake without taking any risks. The most obvious is the state of the roads, we’ll be able to reach Chiang Rai in no time.
We sorted out the usual paperwork (visa, carnet de passage, etc) and we were off. Two hours later, we booked in the first guesthouse that looked half decent.

The evening market is the place to be, with the street food, various stalls selling anything from clothes to bling-bling, street performers, and a crowd moving at a slow pace through this festival of colours and smells. Green curry for 80cents, and a “rotee” for desert. Rotee is a sort of pancake, stuffed with banana and egg, then covered with condensed milk and chocolate. A heart attack on a plate. First the vendor takes a small ball of dough, which he flattens on his bench, with oil. Then with a series of pretty skilled wrist movement he slams the dough on the bench, making it bigger and thinner each time, until it’s the size of a pizza and thick as your daily newspaper. Then he adds more oil, for good measure. A banana is chopped in less time it takes to say banana, and the pancake is fried on the pan, with butter, and yet more oil. You never know. Then comes the egg, and more oil. Folded in four like an envelope, with more oil still, the rotee is fried till golden then taken off the stove, but not before a nob of butter is added once more. Then the condensed milk is poured onto the rotee, along with melted chocolate.

It’s sweet, it’s sticky, it’s greasy, it’s runny and it’s hot as hell, but it’s so yummy. Pretty filling too. 90cents for cholesterol and a heart attack, cheap as!

We hired motorcycles the next day and explored the area. First there was the hot springs, where you can bathe your feet, and watch coachloads after coachloads of Chinese tourists take pictures in front of the geyser, then another one in front of the hot pool, then another one in front of a flower, and another one in front of anything they can think of. Is it narcissism or their way of saying “look at me, I’ve been there”, but they will ALL take the same pose, with the V sign, the pouted lips for chicks and no smile for blokes. They’ll queue for the picture, all with the exact same pose and the exact same background. Maybe they compare notes when they get home…
Then there were the minuscule waterfalls, accessible only after a deep rivercrossing and muddy tracks. That’s about it really. Though the tourist information in Julie’s book gave us plenty of stuff to see and do, the area is in fact not that great. Still, nothing like a motorbike ride in the sunny countryside, even on a 100cc. Oh I miss my bike!
Chiang Riai is most famous for its crazy “white temple”. Built a couple of years ago for the main building, it’s still under construction. And it’s all white, covered with broken mirror, which makes it impossible to look at without sunglasses. But the most fascinating feature is inside, the painting on the walls depicts characters from recent movies, from Star Wars to Pirate of the Caribbean and Avatar, all the recent blockbusters are there. And if you look closely you’ll also find Freddy Krueger, Chubaka, Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. Pretty unusual for a Buddhist temple but, hey, you have to be modern I suppose.

Late afternoon, we reached Chiang Mai, and went straight for a tattoo parlor. Julie had drawn both our (Matt on the elbow and I on the ribs and belly) tattoos, and we were pretty keen on getting an appointment as soon as possible.

This gave us two days to get out of town, to the nearest national park, and camp one last time before packing everything. Doi Inthanon is the highest peak in the country, 2565m above sea level, and the park is known to have frost in the morning, sometime snow. Thai will drive up the top, just to take their picture with an anorak, a pair of gloves or a beanie. We went to the furthest campsite in the park, and deployed the tent for the last time. I’m not being sentimental here, I do mean this is the last time this tent will be used. Tomorrow, it’s going to the trash. I’ve never bought such a crap quality tent. It’s supposedly a good brand, but trust me Coleman, stick to making flashlights and portable gas stoves, leave the tent business to pros. As I said in a previous post, we bought this tent Claire and I in Darwin in June, and I’ve used it maybe twenty times, not more. The zippers come off, three fiberglass poles are broken beyond repair (I pinched some from the old tent, bought in 2008 , second hand, used over 200nights, and if it wasn’t for a few leaks and one broken zipper, I’d still use it), and all rust-free metallic parts are rusted to the core. Rubbish.

It took the energy of us three and one full day to empty the car, vacuum clean it, sort out what’s to be thrown out, what’s to be stored and what’s to be taken back to Perth, eventually everything is done. I am now left with two pair of jeans, five pairs of underwear and three t-shirts. That’s it. The rest is either stained, ripped, holed, or turned into rags. Troopy is ready to be stored away. We’re all packed, ready to go. These were our last “camping dinners” as well, so we treated ourselves : shrimp Zarzuella by Julie the first night, and Indian chicken curry by yours truly the second. Cheers.

Back into Chiang Mai, we’re heading to Ugly’s tattoo parlor for my appointment. It took over five hours, and the most excruciating pain ever, but Ganesh is now part of me. I expected when the needle would be on my hip or on my ribs it would be a bit sensitive, but I did not expect that. While Ugly (that’s his name, don’t ask me why) was torturing me, I went online with my smartphone and discovered of all body parts, the belly and the ribs are the most painful bits of your body you can get a tattoo on. No shit Sherlock. Ah well, no pain no game. The result is stunning, I love it.

If you want to know why I chose Ganesh, let’s just say he’s the god of obstacles, both remover and placer of obstacles in your life. I’m known to have nine lives, to land back on my feet whatever the situation, and I wanted to symbolize this. Then there’s a few more personal details in the drawing which I won’t talk about here, but I’m really pleased with Julie’s design, and Ugly’s artwork.

Tomorrow it’s Matt’s turn, but tonight we celebrate our last night together in this trip. It’s also the night of the Loi Krathong and the Yi Peng festivals. They’re celebrated throughout Thailand and certain parts of Laos and Myanmar, also known as the Festival of Lights.. Basically, you take a slice of a trunk from a banana tree, decorate it with flowers, and candles, and let it float downstream on the river. The idea is you ask for forgiveness for the sins of the previous year, and take good resolutions for the year to come. The bigger the “krathong”, the more sins you have to be forgiven for. All rivers, ponds, lakes, etc. are lit with thousands of these floating lights and give a magical atmosphere to the cities. Along with the krathong, there’s the “lanna” which are paper lanterns, like some kind of hot air balloon with a single candle inside, launched into the starlit sky, a bit like thousands of giant jellyfishes lighting the sky for three nights. To complete the light festival, all of Chiang Mai’s streets are lit with millions of candles on the ground, on buildings, or anything really. The whole city is lit by candlelight. Superb and eerie, the city becomes one big light.

Friday 30th, Matt and Julie say their goodbyes to Troopy, as I’m heading East on my own to store it for two years. They didn’t shed a tear but I can see they’ve grown attached to the car.

The drive is only 600km heading East, so I take my time. I camp one last time outside an abandoned house somewhere in the countryside. It’s actually the first time I sleep alone in my bunk, in my car, in the outback, since, well, let me check my logbook, since August 9th, when we camped in that palm oil plantation with Sander, Zara and Linde on our way to Medan from Dumai (East coast of Sumatra, Indonesia). Since then I’ve either been in hotels, guesthouses, couchsurfs, or camping in the tent with Fred, Claire, Julie or Matt.

Aaah it’s good to be home. As much as I loved the company, I must admit there’s nothing like a night on my own, in my car. Troopy has been insulated by Jeff, so it’s pretty much soundproofed once you close the doors. Plus my bed is super comfy. I’m going to miss this.
Instead of taking the highway to Loei, I take the secondary roads, through the hills and the countryside. This is my last drive for two years, I might as well enjoy it.

I arrived around lunch in Loei, stopped at the airport in the hope of booking a flight for Bangkok, only to be told all flights have been cancelled for the whole week, so I drove down to my final destination. I will take the night bus to Bangkok instead.

Jot’s family welcomes me into their home and we share dinner that night. It’s going to take one whole day to wash the car, do my laundry, bring everything from the roofrack down inside and secure a tarp on Troopy. Who is Jot ? She’s the sister of the wife of a colleague of a good friend of mine, Anne, in Belgium. Thank you Sorjer for this, I owe you BIG time.

Goodbye Troopy, goodbye Tanami, I see you soon. Take care of each other.

Distance to-day: 1175km, total: 41857km.

That’s it. The Long Way Home, Volume One is over. Two hundred and seventy one days. I’ve done over forty thousand kilometres across seven countries, went as far West as possible in Australia (Steep Point, March 28th), as far South as possible in Malaysia (Tanjung Piai, August 25th ), as far North as I could in Laos (somewhere near Luang Namtha, November 23rd), as far high as 2.986meters (Mount Ramelau, East Timor, June 28th). It’s been epic. I’ve been lucky to be hosted in families of all religions in all seven countries, some not speaking a word of English. There’s too many stories to tell in just one page, but this has been epic from the beginning. It’s only a pause, it’s not the end. Volume One is over, Volume Two is to be written in two years, when we can afford it, and when Troopy is rebuilt with a rooftop tent, new storage and perhaps more gadgets.

Thank you all of you, with your financial support with the postcards scheme, thank you Jeff and the SCS4WD team for getting the car ready while I was in New Cal, thank you all my friends who’ve hosted me along the way, thank you Fred, Julie, Matt and Claire for joining me, thank you my family for believing in me, and most of all, thank you Claire for putting up with me and the distance. In three days I’ll be in Perth, and hopefully pretty soon I’ll be working.

Stay tuned.