There was this huge departure board at the Bangkok airport. It was about 3x4 meters in size. Each departing flight was on a line consisting of a number of positions, each of which had 36 rotating flaps: all letters and numbers. When the top flight had left, all positions rattled until the second flight was displayed. Then it rattled and the third flight took the second position. And that happened about 20 times. By the time it was done, sometimes the top flight would already take off and everything would start over.
We spent many hours under that board. Political tensions were running high. The airport was cut off from the city due to heavy riots. The kerosene was almost finished. Could we still get away?
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| Front page of the Bangkok Post |
30 years ago I made my very first trip to Southeast Asia, to Thailand. The global plan was to fly north via Bangkok, descend slowly overland to the south, end up on a bounty island, and then return via Bangkok.
Chiang Mai
With a million inhabitants, Chiang Mai was the second largest city in the country and the capital of the north. The 'old city' ( muang ) lay within a square of about 1x1 kilometer, surrounded by the remains of city walls and a moat.
The larger shopping streets ran between the old center and the river. There was the noise of traffic everywhere: an endless stream of mopeds, tuk-tuks (a kind of covered tricycle mopeds with two-person rear seats, that served as taxis) and songtheaws (Japanese pickup trucks, with two benches in the back that served as busses)
Everywhere in the quiet dusty old center and also around it were dozens of temples ( Wats ). Usually located behind walls, so instantly quieter than the street. They were often somewhat neglected, had bell-shaped stupas, gabled roofs and mosaic decorations, sometimes gilded or with remnants thereof. Sometimes deserted and sometimes still in use, the monks shuffled around there, their heads shaven and wrapped in orange robes. You also regularly saw them in the street, or in the cabin of a songtheaw .
Towards the river was the Night Bazaar, a large market with 1001 stalls with items from the wider area. Clothes, souvenirs, gadgets, rarities, games: everything seemed to be for sale here.
And the Thai everywhere: smiling back when you smiled at them, leaving you alone when you left them alone, always pleasant and with an inner peace that sometimes radiated visibly.
After a few days it was a national holiday. It had been 46 years since King Bhumibhol was crowned. The king was revered as a semi-god by the Thai, his actions and thoughts (represented in books and music) were widely reported, and criticism would be unimaginable. But it were turbulent times in his kingdom. Every day there were demonstrations against the semi-military government in the square near the eastern city gate (Tha Phae), and there was also unrest in Bangkok, as we read in the English-language newspapers.
For dinner, our favorite destination AUM , a small vegetarian restaurant, soon became dominated by a photo of Sai Baba. Downstairs three small formica tables, upstairs cushions for those who wanted to eat seated on the floor (shoes off). All very simple, but of great quality and very friendly people.
We also regularly visited Daret, a large restaurant with wooden benches and red and white checkered table cloths outdoors under the trees. It was the meeting place for the itinerant backpackers, and also had good food.
On a Saturday night we went to look at some different places of entertainment. You can order a beer (Singha) at the bar or on the semi-open terrace. There were some young Thai ladies at the bar. They would come and have a chat with you and refill your glass of beer. Then they would ask for a drink that was lemonade but cost the same as expensive whiskey. The audience mainly consisted of slightly older men and/or they had already a drinks too many and/or they were quite fat and unattractive. It was no surprise that the ladies preferred to come and have a chat with M and me.
Conversations were in broken English, in the end we also started using a simplified vocabulary and sentence structure. What made it difficult was that the Thais seemed unable to put a sense of time in their language: it was never clear whether something you were talking about was in the future or in the past. Perhaps that was characteristic of the attitude to life: the present is reality. Looking back and forward was not done as much as in the west.
The Golden Triangle
Monday we got up at six o'clock, along with the sun, for a day trip to the northernmost tip of Thailand. This region used to be notorious as the world center of opium cultivation. Now it was mainly the three-country point that attracted tourists. A row of stalls selling food (including our lunch) and souvenirs had formed along the way, and children in traditional costumes had themselves photographed for ten baht .
In the background, majestically wide and imposing, lay the Mekong, one of the mightiest rivers in the world. Brown muddy flowing. On the other side the banks of Laos, and a little further on behind a branch was Myanmar (Burma). A few dozen meters below us small narrow boats were moored. Every now and then one would come by with a deafening roar from the engine - they could go pretty fast.
Over a dirt road that our van could barely navigate, we went to the next stop, the border town of Mae Sai. The border here was formed by a small, narrow river. You could cross the bridge and even take a few steps past the barriers, so that we had actually set foot on Burmese territory, but you couldn't really get in here as a foreigner. It was possible for the border residents to cross on foot, which resulted in a steady flow in both directions. In Mae Sai there were also many stalls and shops, and it was very busy.
On the way back we stopped late in the afternoon in two 'hilltribe villages'. These were ethnically different people, and the already limited economic growth of the rest of Thailand seemed to have passed them by (except for those who had discovered tourism). It looked very shabby: unpaved dirt roads, wooden huts, some free-range chickens, children who came barefoot and in a worn dress or t-shirt asking for ten baht .
Sukhothai
We liked Chiang Mai so much, with its relaxed atmosphere and the many excursion options, that we lingered longer than intended. But today we finally moved on as by our original plan: a stage to the south, 5 hours by bus to Sukhothai.
Sukhothai was much poorer, less touristy and less exposed to western influences than Chiang Mai. Most people who visited the ruins of this ancient Thai capital did so from nearby Phitsunalok. There was a still, scorching heat.
The next morning we hired a tuk-tuk with a driver, who could drive us around for a couple of hours. That took us through a very beautiful, vast area full of ruins and sometimes partially restored remains of temples, palaces, lily ponds, statues of Buddhas and elephants, ... Too much to take in. An entire city had once stood here in all its glory. And now only the remains between the open meadows, a few people looking around, otherwise it was absolutely quiet and deserted. It was also pretty hot between the stone remains.
Back to 'new' Sukhothai. Our hotel had no room for that night. Moving to another? Well, actually we had seen everything here. Maybe move on to the next destination south? ... Or-eh...? Why not back to Chiang Mai? We looked at each other again, and it was deceded. On to the bus station.
Bangkok
We had lingered in the north of Thailand for so long that we finally took the plane to Bangkok. At that time, Don Muang was the only airport in Bangkok, the international and domestic terminals were a kilometer apart. In the arrivals hall it seemed like you could only take expensive limousines into the city. Eventually we found out that there was also a city bus that stopped along the eight-lane highway that passed in front of the terminal. In the increasingly busy traffic, the bus didn't make much progress, but after more than an hour we arrived at Siam Square, the neighborhood we had chosen to look for a hotel. Not the cheapest area, between the center and the business and entertainment districts.
There was a wide range of hotels in the alley. The ones up front were a bit overpriced, the ones in the middle too shabby, but the last one in the back, Wendy's, was fine: modern and clean and cool.
Siam Square would always remain my favorite area of Bangkok. With the arrival of the Skytrain it has only become more attractive as a base.
We took a look at MBK, the large department store on Siam Square. (Later, another row of much more luxurious department stores would appear along Siam Square.)
The pedestrian flyovers also led into the complex, forcing you not only to walk through it, but were also concealed in such a way that you almost certainly had to get lost. It consisted of some large, expensive shops, and long corridors of small shops with everything you could imagine. We went to eat at the foodmarket on the top floor of the department store. It consisted of a lot of small food stalls, including a few vegetarian ones with delicious food. Strange that something you would expect outside, is upstairs in a large building.
Bangkok was a stuffy, oppressive, hot, dirty, noisy, big city. About ten million inhabitants. Wide streets with six lanes of rushing or jammed traffic. Crossing was sometimes impossible, and then you had to use one of the many pedestrian bridges. A system of toll/motorways was constructed on high concrete pillers.
In the evening we walked to Patpong, the entertainment center. It was a lot less innocent than in Chiang Mai. Much more noise, advertising and people trying to lure you in. Here's that dubious phenomenon of go-go dancers: girls in bathing suits dancing on the bar in disco light.
To the centre. First a temple with a solid gold Buddha statue. Then a long walk through Chinatown, with very narrow streets completely jammed with market stalls with all kinds of vegetables and fish. We didn't see a restaurant that was open, and it seemed impossible to get something vegetarian at the stalls on the street. Well, finally a bite of rice.
At the end of what seemed to be a dead end street, you could go through a kind of gate and you came to the stop of the riverboat, which sailed the Chao Praya like a kind of bus. We zigzagged from one bank to the other, with magnificent views of river life, boats and buildings along the bank.
From where we got off the boat we walked through the neighborhood with the low-budget hotels. We had a thick banana pancake somewhere and tasted the special atmosphere of that neighborhood. Khao San Road was not for us.
The next day again we took a bus (Skytrain/BTS and metro did not exist yet) into the center. We walked past the Democracy Monument along a field where again all kinds of demonstrations were held. Towards the royal palace, but we were not allowed in because we were wearing shorts. Smartly, some traders had anticipated this because you could buy long trousers opposite. But we only saw the white outer walls with battlements.
To Wat Po, a large monastery complex with all kinds of beautiful, partly dilapidated and partly restored stupas . And with the gigantic reclining Buddha: fifty meters long, and gilded. There was also a school in traditional Thai massage on the monastery grounds, where you could both take lessons and undergo treatment. In a hall about thirty mattresses were placed next to each other. You had to wash your feet and put on a loose-fitting cotton shirt and pants. In addition to their hands, they also used legs and feet to squeeze you into all kinds of poses. In addition to your muscles, your guts and bloodstreams were also manipulated. Blood supply from your arms and legs was pinched off for a minute...
If you got to know it a little better, through the hectic, busy, sweaty Bangkok you saw a city with its own atmosphere, charm and even tranquility.
We followed the developments in the English-language newspapers. The tension seemed to be mounting. Large demonstrations had been announced by the opposition for the weekend, which had been banned by the government. The tone grew grim. We thought it was time to leave this city.
Phuket
By plane to Phuket. A large island in the south of Thailand, on the Indian (west) coast.
Phuket town was a true provincial town, with shops and a lot of traffic. But for tourists there wasn't much. They were all on the various beaches the island had.
On Sunday we also decided to move to the coast. Behind the market the buses left for all corners of the island. Ours was a slightly larger sized truck, with four long benches in the back that could seat about fifty people. With that we drove to Patong Beach, one of the older 'resorts'. In the meantime, new beaches were developed, each targeting their own audience (more chic, more sporty, etc.).
Patong lay in a bay. The main road ran parallel to the beach. Left and right, the forested foothills of the hills ran into the sea. At the end the beach was pierced by a small river, and you could just wade past it. Or couldn't we, and did we have to cross the old uphill bridge? On the beach some palm trees provided some shade, which was welcome under the scorching sun. That very sun had put us on the wrong foot orientation-wise: we lost our direction for a while, until we realized that we were below the Tropic of Cancer, and the sun was now in the north!
In the meantime, we followed the news closely. The demonstration at the Democracy Monument in Bangkok had gotten completely out of hand. Hundreds were killed in shootings, and the chaos was complete. When we read on Tuesday that the kerosene supply at Bangkok airport was only sufficient for two more days, we decided to leave the next day. Calling the KLM office in Bangkok heeded no response (!?).
End
Although the plane to Amsterdam didn't leave until after midnight, we didn't want to risk taking the last flight out of Phuket, so at noon we went to Phuket airport. We just caught the two oçlock flight, so that we were already at the airport of Bangkok at three in the afternoon - while KLM would only leave at half past one in the morning. First we made inquiries at the KLM office. There we heard that for security reasons the employees had already stayed at the airport for a few days, and that in the meantime no traffic was possible between the city and the airport.
The long wait began. Sit down for a while. Then take a walk through the large, overcrowded departure hall. Then sit down again. Then take a trip outside over the highway and railway, where in the oppressive heat there was a small market and some shops next to the train station with wooden roofs. Then sit down again. Then have a snack in the cafeteria. Then sit down again. Then stretch out for a while in a quiet hallway on the cold floor. Then again sit in front of the large departure board, where the new flights appeared clattering. In the night we saw a lot of flight to Europe saw leave - KLM would be the last in line.
Then, at midnight: great excitement! The monitors in the departure hall switched to a live speech given by the king. All the Thais ran from behind their counters to crowd in front of the screen. The king, standing far above the parties here, had finally decided to intervene and summoned the government and opposition leader. According to Thai custom (your head should always be lower than the king's) they knelt at his feet. He ordered them to shake hands and admonished them to reconcile. And with that, the worst of the bloodshed seemed to end at least for now.
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| from left to right Chamlong Srimuang, General Suchinda Kraprayoon, King Bhumibhol |
At that exact moment we had to go through customs and to the gate for our flight back to Amsterdam.
I would go back to Thailand about 15 more times in the next 30 years, and also several times to 6 of the neighboring countries. My favorite region first was the north, then the northeast, and nowadays the south and Bangkok. Read more Thailand blogs here .
In the same 30 years, there have been more riots and mass demonstrations, and several coups by the military.
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