South Thailand
6- A little about the ways of life
South Thailand
Polychrome constructions, temples
glimpses and ... "sky pom poms"
Along the roads, in Bang Niang, we meet astonishing polychrome buildings, which seem disharmonic to some, when we only see them through the prism of our Western values.
As lively as children's toys that adults would have appropriated.
Each country has its own canons guided by local history and culture.
Others, less maintained or older, very obviously undergo the effect of the Monsoon: many tarnished facades are gangrened by humidity.
The sparkling decorations which forcefully frame the royal portraits and form a vertical tiara of golden flames are another example.
This tribute is everywhere, along the roads, in towns and villages, like a trivialization through ubiquity, whose funny is accentuated to see the stiff air of the royal poses, in any case seen from the outside.
It is said that scarcity makes value; and conversely that profusion devalues. However, in spite of the inevitable representation of the king from everywhere, the inhabitants still dedicate an unfailing respect to him; but a little less than his father.
We know what fervor at least the recently deceased former king (2016) enjoyed : a year of mourning and sometimes days of crying (are there professional mourners here ?).
Some sacrileges of unconscious tourists are still severely punished, as much to know a priori.
The end of each ridge of the roof is decorated with elegant chofa ("sky pom poms") reminiscent of the horns of an animal. They are said to represent the celestial geese or the Garuda (a mythological monster ridden by Shiva).
The overlapping triangular gables are decorated with gilded woodwork and glass mosaics.
In passing, let us remember these elegant gable ornamentations representing dragons (and not "sky pompoms"), with which the tops of "stave" churches built in the Middle Ages in Scandinavia are decorated. the rapprochement, even if it is pure chance is quite irresistible, without being able to conclude more.
It seems that the shape of these frames, - the refined tiara, but also often very loaded, that the Siamese dancers wear is similar to it - that is a kind of decorative label of the country.
It reproduces perhaps, in addition to supported and more loaded the architectural ornamentation of the temples, all in sharp and elegant spurts.
No visit to temples during our stay, simply because of the chance of our choices.
However, we have seen on several occasions the rich pediment some, elsewhere a golden Buddha in a standing position.
A lack in this stay, while the Buddhist richness of our visit to Sri Lanka had captivated us Many times.
Here and at first glance, a irrepressible impression of kitsch quickly gives way to a sensation of remarkable and abundant harmony.
Systematically masked by the dark, well-woven and ordered horizontal canvases of electric and telephone wires, punctuated with loves of perfectly circular threads - far from the inextricable and merry mess of the Caribbean -, we see several along the roads, or sometimes only the portico which delimits the entrance to their enclosure.
In gold or very rich polychrome on wooden crests, humble or arrogant, with discreet stupa (here called phra chedi ), they present some recurring figures of Buddhism, snakes-dragons, backrest of erect cobras, ...
If we trust a few Chinese or Thai opinions, and without going into the tedious detail of the organization of the temples, the curved lines turned up are of Japanese inspiration, and polychrome wood construction techniques of Chinese origin, all said to have led to an original purely Thai Buddhist style.
South Thailand,
for whom are these signs that restrict speed?
The fast road n ° 4 which runs along the coast at a distance curiously passes to 4 lanes (two lanes in each direction) only when crossing the villages, Bang Niang, Khao Lak,… .. It is limited to two lanes elsewhere as soon as 'we leave the small urban center.
The country's history explains on the occasion of an event which is almost an anecdote, (see sidebar) why driving, like in Sri Lanka, is on the left.
Which prompted us not to rent a car. Many tourists as couples rent a scooter or small motorbike, despite unfavorable recommendations from guides.
Here the speed is rarely respected. Frequently, our driver drives 30 to 40 km above the maximum speed, however explicitly displayed.
There are many overtaking in two-lane sections (one in each direction), double center line or not, with deviations required to the right of vehicles arriving in the opposite direction.
Note in the following photo with what enthusiasm the motorcycle trailer doubles precisely under the sign prohibiting overtaking, whose symbolism (different from ours) is however quite explicit.
Why Left Hand Drive in Thailand?
Failing to be able to seize and colonize the kingdom of Siam, the pragmatic England, according to its established island and expansionist principles and the well-understood interest of its economy, has undertaken a close commercial relationship with it.
The then modernist King of Siam, visiting England, could not fail to be won over by the development of the car there.
As part of this commercial relationship, Siam then imports English vehicles, necessarily equipped as at home, driver on the right, gear lever and hand brake on the left.
Traffic rules that it was necessary to create then adapt to this type of vehicle.
When we know that at the same time, France was also in the ranks, and that King Rama V visited her in 1897 and 1907, it may have finally been enough for Thailand to drive on the right ...
However, distances are measured in meters and volumes in liters, since the kingdom adopted the metric system in 1912. Far from Anglo-Saxon units.
When the road changes to 4 lanes in large villages, we imagine that it is to facilitate traffic, crossings at crossroads, deliveries ...
In fact, everyone seems to rush frantically into this release of the ability to circulate to crush the fungus even more.
And everyone there too is rolling well above top speed, despite the crowds lining the sidewalks, cyclists, double-stopped songthaew taxis, stray dogs and children.
Without fear or surprise, the habit is there, that of crossing villages literally " open grave ".
In the early morning, everyone goes about their business, buses, pedestrians, motorcycles, taxis ; it is then that the bonzes leave and go towards their temple, whose rising sun soon lights up the saffron dress.
They seem to go from house to house ; perhaps in the morning search for the offerings of the inhabitants, the only means of subsistence for these propagators of the word of the Buddha.
Only traffic lights and stops are well respected. Likewise in the villages the pedestrian crossings that the local population uses quite scrupulously.
We have therefore often seen tourists, tempted to cross outside these passages, and not necessarily French for all that, having to run to cross the double tracks, take refuge on the central median, and try the adventure to complete the crossing of the two tracks in the opposite direction.
South Thailand
songthaews, chainrings versatile, smile, courtesy and ... sacred
Here, information taken, our guides call tuk tuk which is actually the songthaew (it is also called baht bus), and not the motorized tricycle in the manner of those we have practiced in Sri Lanka.
We don't will not see any copies of real tuk tuk here during our stay.
The songthaew is a kind van taxi, the rear platform of which is fitted with two longitudinal benches which face each other under a canvas roof. The rustic and friendly cattle trailer, especially for tourists, which the inhabitants also borrow.
The trip fares from Khao Lak or Bang Niang are fixed and non-negotiable: 300 baht to go to our hotel (€ 7.50).
The amount is not the question, even if it may seem high for a 10 to 12 km trip.
On the way out, advancing on the side road, a songthaew that we take on the fly, already half occupied by customers, brings us to Khao Lak for 3 times less. So why, in the other direction, not to try to negotiate the price, for the fun and the knowledge of the degree of resistance of the local taxis?
The modest platform, surrounded by metal edges sometimes with a grid, sometimes protected by a canvas canopy, has an infinite number of uses. : fitted out, it becomes a traveling stall for local products, drinks, soups, or in its basic version, transporting children in the morning to school and in the evening when they return, transporting whole small families or a few young workers.
The simple motorcycles, numerous and agile, sometimes accumulate up to 4 people, the driver father, the mother, between whom come two children just wedged there, often still very small.
The use of the helmet is rather general but not systematic ; it hardly ever equips small children.
Fate is uncertain, reincarnation likely ; So what.
Refusing the flat rate, here we are walking along the 4 north. The taxi requested at the start meets us once, then a second time; refusal on our part.
Then, 500 meters further, a new passing taxi offers us the trip for 250 baht. No other satisfaction than knowing better the local rules and the temperament of the people. And deep inside the little one jubilation to have at least tried.
Only conclusion: you can only negotiate on the way, far from the well-known villages where taxis impose their prices and display, moreover in accordance with the law.
Besides modern generally Asian (Japanese, Korean, Chinese) cars and pick-ups, locals use a lot another less massive and more rudimentary means of transport, a kind of local sidecar, made of a body of motorcycle mounted on the side of a rolling trailer of roughly standard dimensions.
Utility and artisanal 3-wheel vehicle.
However, no more than with the king, we do not joke here with Buddha and the Western deviation of his image. : huge signs, especially when passing through the large control gate to enter (or exit) the island of Phuket remind in all languages that the image of the Buddha is sacred and that tattooing it on the skin is severely reprehensible.
The same message appears in villages like Bang Niang, where tattoo shops come and go.
The smile is present, often. But he imperceptibly tenses up when he wants to signify our too nervous Western impatience for expectations. which may seem derisory here, or our misunderstanding of local courtesy.
Thus, this posture, the "wai", where we vertically join the two hands in tilting the head to another person takes on, as with the intonations of certain words, very different meanings. The practice is so permanent that it tends, however, to appropriate it spontaneously.
It can be a hello, or a goodbye. But it is not recommended tourists to mimic (because it can only be that) this attitude.
In Thai culture, there are many nuances: respect, thanksgiving, gratitude, submission, parity, subordination, consideration of age and social level, particularly in front of a monk or the king himself. even, perhaps with contempt (?). Impossible for us to perceive them.
So we keep our codes to avoid misunderstandings.
Thailand
a bath of currency: the baht
The baht is the local currency. At the time of our visit (March 2018), 1 euro is worth 40 baht, and 1 dollar is about 31 baht when you buy it for more than $ 50.
Badly informed, we had changed before departure from euros to dollars. While small exchange offices are very happy to buy euros directly.
They are small brightly painted huts whose security seems very fragile knowing that they necessarily brew money on a daily basis.
The rates vary from one cabin to another. Our TO correspondent recommends one of them, all painted in red, which is located in the main side street in the center of Khao Lak towards the sea, at the very edge of the urban area.
The exchange in baht, the prices displayed in this currency, everything contributes to extending figures, which suggest at first glance that everything is expensive since the number is large ...
In fact, the permanent effort of conversion shows that life is appreciably cheaper than in France for example.
Obviously, the advantage is clearer again for the local tropical fruits: a delicious Victoria pineapple costs barely € 0.25 ...
We have also seen on some islands that the amount of fines for various offenses is a flat rate of 1000 baht, 25 €.
When one day, due to the lack of change, we issue a tip of only 50 baht to our driver, we are embarrassed to find that the thank you smile is rather grimacing-squeaky.
A seller sells fuel for vehicles, presented in an unusual way for us Europeans: a display of glass bottles of a liter, recovered from odds and ends, whiskey, fruit juice ..., and which carefully separates the 95 of 91.
In in both cases, the liter is sold for 40 baht, or no more than € 1. A comparatively advantageous price when we know that part of it is imported, in particular from neighboring Burma.
Another displays raw vegetables and fruits in his rudimentary shop, which seem to come from his production.
On the side of the road that crosses Bang Niang, cages are suspended from small porticoes.
These are bird cages (a kind of hoopoe), for song contests.
We see the inhabitants transporting these cages wrapped in thick sheets, to reassure their champion before the test and prevent him from getting too excited.
RFI 19/11/2016 : " The bird song competitions bring together several hundred birds and meet with remarkable popular success .... The" Orpheus Bulbuls "....., these little sparrows with nervous melodies and variations spectacular. In training as in competitions, amateurs try to make their proteges sing as loudly, as long as possible and as distinctly as possible ".
Orpheus Bulbul
South Thailand
generous tropical nature,
of colors and smells
Marlene the unconscious takes shelter under a coconut palm with heavy and hard orange nuts, and is impressed by the immense leaves of a neighboring giant grass.
Besides the traditional bougainvillea of pure decoration, and whole trees of poinsettia with the vivid flowers red already well open (this plant that we offer at home at the end of the year ... in small pots), it is here that we discover for the first time a small rubber plantation, before visiting in a more organized way another more imposing on Koh Yao Yai Island.
Nothing like travel a few kilometers under the crushing weight of the sun a bit of local roads to " feel The soul of the country, even briefly.
By taking a break when possible in the shade of the sparse trees that dot them.
So just walk away laterally from the road axis cutting the village of Khao Lak for example, so that real life can be expressed and revealed.
R apidement, restaurants, tourist accommodation, remote of the sea are scarce and more modest, then disappear.
With the necessary calm and silence, the impression of authenticity is also immediately reborn.
Then there are plantations, beautiful sparse houses which are certainly prosperous farms, with their little "house of the spirits".
Another perhaps abandoned, the land of which is undergoing heavy earthworks, lends itself even better to this request for protection. The flank of the hill is indeed gutted by development works, exposing a land of very bright ocher-saffron.
Further on, after crossing a small bridge over an abundant stream, after 1.5km, the road ends in dead end. A barrier absolutely passable Mark the entry of a private property which there approaches the slope of the small mountain.
Powerful and generous, tropical nature is also violent and of a rather exhibitionist.
She exhibits its unequaled splendors which quickly deteriorate in strong putrefactions, originally of the next cycle.
Point (or hay!) Of delicate compost from temperate climates ...
A branch of heliconia suspended motionless from its trunk presents a design so perfect, colors so regular ... it looks like a fake.
The varnished touch of curves reassures on the spot and restores the opulent and evident truth.
In a small motley orchard, a papaya tree and its huge fruits right on the trunk, and one of those prolific and nutritious banana trees.
We also see the flower of the banana tree, that long purple bud called "popot" in the French Antilles and "baba-figue" in Reunion.
And another unknown fruit whose beautiful white flower blossoms into a lascivious corolla.
Further on, barely maintained, a grove of robust and refined "porcelain roses", whose petals in scales clearly drawn are each time a little wonder.
Without perfume, their arrogant beauty is sufficient, which quickly sinks into the black decay of its large withered pistil.
Conversely, a frangipani tree, a common species in the region, detonates its many and persistent flowers of a dazzling whiteness. Their subtle perfume embalms the nostrils when you approach them, a sweet addiction just exhaled.
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Penetrating a little beyond the cul-de-sac barrier, immense trees with slender and robust ramifications let glimpse in the shade of their foliage heavy oblong fruits with a hard thorny shell (up to 5 kg and 40 cm long) that grow directly from the trunk. It's durian .
At Tang, the large Parisian distributor of Asian and tropical products, impossible not to spot it even before seeing it, because of its strong smell of sour and rancid butter, which is not an anomaly, and which is worth outside of Asia its repulsive notoriety.
There is therefore an anthology of qualifiers and descriptions funny, funny or downright too realistic around the durian (which means "thorn").
In any case, Asians are fond of it and accommodate its flesh, especially for desserts in Thailand.
One day, the hungry man had to be bold enough to grab the crust with both hands thorny and opens it, nostrils pinched, then becomes acquainted with its flesh, the taste and finally make it his treat.
What do the british and many others say our frog's legs or our slobbering snails? Or us frogs of the Irish "rumen of sheep", or simply of the "double fat" or trendy guts ... from where you want?
