Sawatdee ka

A word from Thailand before we leave it on our way to the Philippines.

It's been a long time since I've heard silence. Real silence. The kind of silence that is so rare, it's almost unsettling. Yanik and I went on a little hike yesterday, up into a carst mountain, which was really more like a scramble. We climbed up using our hands and feet in the red clay. Once we came up to a clearing, we came upon a clearing that made us feel like we were in pre-historic times....Hello Jurassic park! Everything was so vast, the trees so big, and the song of the cicada so loud! The rest was just silence. And I thought to myself, how sad. Silence is such a stranger to us now, that we don't even know what to do with it anymore. It truly is a limited resource and I read something about noise pollution a while back and the fact that there are hardly any truly silent places in the world anymore. It makes me wonder if there is any way to preserve it in an ever growing, changing and louder world. I would have stayed longer to just enjoy the silence but I almost felt like I shouldn't be there - like I was spoiling it somehow.

I'm currently in Ton Sai Thailand, after a hectic 4 days in Bangkok. The bustling city was fun for a while, but towards the end I felt agitated and saddened, and just wanted to leave. Yank has dubbed it "Bangkok, la maléfique". I suppose it's because there is something inherently sad in a place that attracts people based on their weaknesses: sex, drugs, alcohol, consumption (shopping, food, drinks, etc.). Needless to say we managed to enjoy ourselves... The city itself is much like what you'd expect from an Asian mega-city - stuffy, noisy, humid, and chaotic. So arriving to a tiny little paradise on the sea-side was a much-welcomed change. Everything is different. There are no cars (though I'm pretty sure I did see a truck!) and there is no pavement. I wake up to the sound of geckoes, birds, and monkeys. And it's refreshing. The travellers here are mostly climbers and people who are here to chill out. No old men with young thai girls; no gangs of 20-something-guys that want to go to a "ping pong" show; no one trying to sell you dreads, a pad thai or a fish foot massage (yes, a fish foot massage); no one constantly trying to sell you a tuk tuk ride with an obligatory stop in a jewellery shop or tailor (though I must say, I got a stellar pair of silk and wool pants, tailor made for very cheap!).

A three-hour delayed overnight bus ride later (ah developing countries….), a stop from one crooked mini van company to the next, and a boat ride later, we arrived in Ton Sai. It's pouring out now, and it has been for the past two hours or so, and that's also been relaxing. We're in our little cabana, working, listening to some music and the sound of rain, in the dark (there is no power in most places from 6 am to 6 pm) and I figured it was a good time to revive this poor excuse for a blog.

So, here's to bad blogs, the rainforest, cabanas and Thailand!