Holidays Reminisce

[The_Phenom]

Thailand 2017 – parte dos: My return to Chiangrai
Part 6

In the company of pussies. On our way to the Chiangrai bus terminal to catch an old rickety bus back to the farm, we happened to pass by a cat cafe; a coffee and snacks joint adorned with cats as temporary companions. The place is aptly named CAT “n” A CUP, with a large clowder of adorable pussies populating the floor and wall shelves. Though I’m not particularly enamored of them, they don’t repulse me and so when Jeffrey suggested we chill out for a while inside, I had no objections. We were to end up resting our bums on the floor cushions by the low table for over an hour as Jeffrey fully immersed himself in playing with the cuties. By the by, I warmed up to them and started shooting close-ups of these little adorables.

This was when we first stepped in. The cafe slowly filled up as the mid afternoon wore on. With more people, the cats then left their comfy shelves and baskets to mingle around so as to partake of the cat food being dished out. I was seated at the end of the cafe premises with my back resting against the wall for a commanding view of the goings-on. ▼

Here are a few out of the tens of portraits I shot of the largely docile felines: ▼

Snack time for one of the cafe’s permanent residents. ▼

And no, that’s mine and it stayed mine though one of the fluffies did try to covertly sneak a sip. ▼

I was using a long telezoom lens of up to effectively 400mm, so I was not really as in-your-face as the photos might convey. Still, it required lots of patience as cats generally would not keep their eyes fixed on a camera lens for long. Soon, my attention waned and I looked to other beings to occupy my time as Jeffrey was still well focused on his newfound temporary friends. No more felines for my camera but the feminine patrons of the cafe could help kill my time, surreptitiously.

This “yawning” lady was at a considerable distance away but directly across from my table and as such I was keeping half an eye on her for an opportune shot. ▼

She then noticed the camera trained in her direction, shot me a defiant pout and turned back to whatever she was doing. ▼

This other happened to turn towards me at the moment I clicked the shutter. She reacted; by acknowledging me with a light smile. In the background, the previous lady appeared about to scratch or even dig her nose with her right pinky. I don’t know, but I suspect she might “kill” me if I happened to clearly catch her unwomanly act on camera. ▼

On the other hand, this fairer half of an engrossed couple was not even aware that she was in my crosshairs. ▼

And neither did this pair of young sisters. They were too busy with you-know-what! ▼

Wat Tham Pla or Temple of the Fish Cave. The temple was founded by a Burmese monk, hence its Burmese architectural influence… It got its name from the fish pond flowing out of the cave. Besides the carps, its also home to primates. There are so many of them that periodically, blanks would be fired from a shotgun to shoo them off to the upper caves and surrounding trees.

The gateway to the compound, the temple proper, and the hillpeak white chedi behind the temple. The latter is also visible in the top left of the preceding adjacent image. ▼

This kid was with his father, both praying devoutly and placing their marks on a long running roll of saffron cloth scroll for visitors. Then he decided to get playful for my camera. Kids will always be kids. ▼

The aquatic creatures that contribute to part of the place’s name.▼

And the little simian co-inhabitants. ▼

This picturesque “mountain & lake resort” is adjacent to Wat Tham Pla but since I am blind to the Thai script which is as good as French or Greek to me, I couldn’t let on the name. ▼

Khun Nam. A popular relaxation area surrounded by lush vegetation, this secluded pond formed by mountain waters, near where I stayed only got crowded in the afternoons and super jam-packed during their holidays. We went in the late morning with only a few souls around, and the food stalls just readied for the later throngs to come. Its full title, though not often referred to as such, is Khun Nam Nang Non or Lagoon of the Sleeping Lady.

*Hardly any person in the mornings. These ladies had the place all to themselves…….or so they thought! ▼

• 

Another pouting lass! (or is she the same one as the “yawning lady” in the cat cafe above? Could also be a close relative? Well, I don’t know. Such a doppelganger!) She with a companion were preparing to indulge in some selfie moments when she spotted me, longlensed camera in hand at a distance, waiting for the right moments to catch her in her act. With that momentary light pursing of her lips, she then nonchalantly went about doing what she set out to do. ▼

Fried creepies & crawlies. Thai delicacies, but I wouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole. ▼

to be continued… …Next up: the cave of the “trapped boy football team”, the border town with Myanmar, and my temporary “home”.

[The_Phenom]

Thailand 2017 – parte dos: My return to Chiangrai
Part 7

Tham Luang. Referred to as Tham Luang Caves which is a redundancy as Tham already means cave. Its just like that ambiguous spicy soup Tom Yam which is also erroneously called Tom Yam Soup. Tom means soup and Yam is basically sour & spicy but let’s not digress further. Being close neighbors with the aforementioned Khun Nam, it forms part of the Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Nature Park.

The main cave is rather large and long; 6 to 8 km, or so I was told. In times long gone by, whole villages would hide themselves in its caverns when raiders from beyond the borders invaded the peace. The stream that run through the main tunnel and its tributaries help sustain them for long periods, with of course the rations that were stocked and also brought along by the refugees.
<<Six months after my visit there, a local football team of 12 young teenagers and their 25 year old coach got themselves trapped for 17 days.
No, I did not venture beyond the cave entrance as my companion Jeffrey got cold feet. (There’s a reason why the huge majority of my travels were sans campanions as I do not have to compromise my plans. That said, it’s fine to not be alone sometimes.)>>

The caves and various statues around it. The 3 ladies in a shed who according to local lore had waited forlornly in vain for their absent significant other. ▼

Except for the Saturday night that we bed down in Chiangrai city, our lodging was at a modern “farmhouse” in an agricultural village a scant 8 km from the border town of Mae Sai. Now, a large sign at beside the checkpoint announce it as the northernmost point of Thailand. Well, that’s not exactly true but what’s letting a little inaccuracy get in the way of a touristy proclamation? To be pedantic, the bridge crossing is at the latitude of 20.444 whilst at 20.464 is the pretty much nowhere unnamed road in Tambon Ko Chang. This translates to about a km further north, and 6 km to the east along the Mae Kok river, but let’s get back to that official northernmost piece of real estate.

Previously restricted to the nationals of the two bordering countries, in recent years, it became possible for foreigners to hop into Tachilek, but not much beyond for a short visit. We did attempt to go over but somehow the uncharacteristically curt, grouchy and unfriendly lady immigration officer (maybe its just not her day) found fault, where there was none, with my travel documents. Not wishing to enter into an argument, and with a scant 2 hours before the border closes, we changed our minds. No loss there.

The arch towards which is the crossing into the Burmese town of Tachilek. ▼

View from the other side of the road. ▼

Temples at the border. ▼

Roadside shopping beside the temples. ▼

A mother and her son shopping at the stalls. ▼

A food pushcart in the same area.▼

Ban Chong. No we did not tour this farm village. We lived there….for a few days. It was our “base of operations” as it is centered on most of the above places we planned to and had visited. That I have connections there made the decision a no brainer though city bred and cultivated Jeffrey was initially apprehensive about staying in a rural, and to him rudimentary abode.

His preconceived misgivings evaporated into the cool thin, largely unpolluted air when he set foot in the village. Its not what he thinks it is. Most of the dwellings there are of modern design and are effectively bungalows with their concrete and glazed tiles construction. All the conveniences of life are there; air-conditioning and heaters for the hot and cold seasons respectively, broadband internet, running water, flush toilets and of course 24/7 electricity to make it all work.

Waking up before dawn to observe the morning sun slowly creeping forth from the front door, its progressively stronger rays striking the mountain sides at the back, our farmhouse abode surrounded by paddy fields and some vegetable plots offers unrivaled vista of the serene countryside. Doi Chong, the village’s beloved hills viewed from that particular angle resembles a heavily pregnant lady lying on her back, face upwards to eternally gaze forlornly at the sky, and the stars.

Top pics: The village’s iconic mountain at an exactly coincidental time of 8.38am on different days. Middle pair: evening shots spaced 5 minutes apart. Last two on another early morning, first with heavy mists but ten minutes later, golden rays broke through, with the village temple in the foreground. ▼

At times, even though bright daylight had already broken through, the early mists still stubbornly envelop the rice fields, oblivious to the call of the sun to disperse. ▼

Village market. It opens way before dawn, with popular foodstuffs being sold out soon after sunrise. Packets of glutinous rice and meat/vegetables were purchased to be given as alms to monks. Thai monks do eat meat as they are of the Theravada (Doctrine of the Elders) school of Buddhism which do not specifically forbid the consumption of animal products. ▼

Monks from a nearby temple (barely discernible at the top left corner of the pic) setting out on their daily early morning round of alms collection. ▼

After about an hour, with ample food in their pushcart courtesy of the villagers, they would head back, with the light misty air gone, and the rising sun’s rays casting long shadows off their single-file figures. ▼

We don’t go hungry, what with this friendly auntie (sadly she passed away 3 years later) running a cooked food stall by her home near where we stayed. From early morning to early evening, she could whip up our noodles on demand; wet or dry. There’s fried rice too if we want it. As for late evenings, well there’s always the village sundry stores to run to. Then there’s the mixed roast rice from a Mae Sai mall that’s heavenly, especially the crispy roasted pork. They don’t make it like that back home, at least not at our counterpart generic food courts and food centres. Next pic is another delicious grub, homemade porkchop & porkball soupy noodles on the road to Doi Tung. Lastly, Lanna or Northern Thai food at “home” accompanied by local Beer Chang to wash it all down. ▼

Small is sweet, really really sweet with nary a trace of sourness. That’s the thumb and fingers of my left hand positioning the miniature saparot while my right is holding the camera with the aperture set at fully opened for the background blur. Steady hands, eh? No lah, as it was very bright, I used an extremely high shutter speed to mask my shakes. The peanuts, bought from Mae Salong have black and brown striped skins though the shells are nothing out of the ordinary. Tastes great and the crunchiness is just right, neither too hard nor too soft. ▼

That’s the last supermoon of the year on the evening of December 3. It was already quite high above the horizon when I finally got to an unobstructed spot, and away from extraneous lights. At least half an hour earlier would had been better but still……… ▼

And oh yes, the breaking dawn as the sun begins its daily rise over the horizon beyond the rice fields. ▼

These then are all the places we managed to visit. There are a lot more that were left out due to the constraints of that precious commodity known as Time. There’s never enough of it. Even those score or so destinations we fitted in during the 4 ½ days were sometimes rushed affairs, skipping certain areas within the premises. Much as we like to spend another hour exploring Baan Dam, we couldn’t afford it.

We didn’t get to go inside the pagoda and Guanyin statue at Wat Huay Pla Kang nor did we head for the Royal Villa while in Mae Fah Luang Gardens. There’s also another opium museum in Sop Ruak we left out of as do a few other spots in Mae Salong. We opted out of even just one of the good number of beautiful waterfalls such as Pong Phrabat and Huay Mae Sai that dotted Chiangrai as they would all involve considerable hiking to get to from the nearest accessible road or unpaved track. Well, perhaps another day or perhaps not. Who knows!

In closing, there is another province/town I would very much like to re-visit……sooner rather than later. That’s Yasothon in Isaan or the northeast region. 32 long years had gone by since I joined in their festivities of Bun Bang Fai or Rocket Festival. Oh, the excitement and sometimes heartburn (witnessing unfortunate accidents) of giant homemade primitive rockets being fired into the hot arid air in the dry season of May. I still remember vividly the misfiring and exploding gunpowder-filled bamboo (and sometimes PVC) tubes of up to 10 metres high. I had seen quite a few injuries, some really serious. There were even cases where fatalities occurred but I was lucky not to come across any such during that trip.

Oh, and kop khun mak krup (thank you very much) for putting up with this l—o—n—g piece of scribbling and rambling.

The end - that can be… … … …

[Walshy07]

In 1988 when I was 13 I went to Menorca and there was this stunning Swedish girl called Tina who I thought was about 18 she had an amazing figure - It was amazing.
Anyways one night Im go off on my own to get an ice cream and this girl approaches me, we get talking and she is only 14.
After taking a stroll we end up behind the hotel and started having a good old snog and grope.
We then snogged every day until I went home. i was gutted. My first heartbreak.
I wonder what she looks like now?

Is this the kind of reminiscing you wanted?