Shallow Tourist's View of Thailand

There is a lot of Thailand we have not seen; so, I can only give a shallow, big resort view of it. Pucket Island is about half way down the country's penninsula on the west coast. It has a variety of spaces, from the very large port-city of Pucket City to water-bound hamlets accessible by only plane or boat. In between are sleepy villages to non-stop rock and roll, girly-bar, red-light districted towns like Patong, where we are staying.

Thankfully, we are in a very expensive (quiet) resort on the edge of Patong Beach. It is a refuge from all the noise and glitter of town. Nightly, in one or another of the restaurants at the resort, there is some soft (read: old-folks) rock till early in the morning. Unlike uptown, where the hard rock goes all night, until the last guy has found his date for the night and the youngsters have drunk themselves into oblivion.

For reasons hinted at but not really clearly expressed, the country's political structure has allowed prostitution to flourish among a people who seem to be so nice, polite and morally uplifted. The whole Buddhist nature of the country directs it towards niceness. As an example, a Japanese tourist was murdered last week at a remote temple site and the government and press followed up with several apologies to her parents from as high as the king and admonishments to the people to keep their faith and do no harm to others.

Patong Beach is a totally tourist based town. Its streets are lined with restaurants (with great food and prices that are good, but high compared to eating in non-touristy places), T-shirt shops, tailor shops, massage shops (mostly real), trinket and souvenir shops, and about every block there is a 7-11. And the street is lined with little Tuk-tuks, the local transportation; small trucks with seating in the back. The drivers and street hawkers are SO polite. They will urge you to come in, to ride, to look or buy: but when you say "No", they say, "Thank you!" and leave you alone.

There is a local T-shirt that says: "NO! I don't want a g*$ #&^m tuk tuk ride, a new suit or a massage!" Kind of rude to my way of thinking. Sure you hear a request about twice a minute, but they are polite.

We visited a Muslim village of the people called "Sea Gypsies" Out on the edge of the sea, picture the mangrove islands which flourish along Thailand's coast. Everything is horizontal, the sea and these long, low islands. Then, these huge limestone mountains (I believe the word is schist?) rise up a thousand feet. They are lone giants, not like a mountain range. You can see several at a time, but they are spread along the horizon.

Behind one of these limestone mountains, we found a village completely on stilts. It is a complete town, with homes, stores, restaurants, schools, children in school uniforms and a mosque. We even heard the call to prayer while we in town. The history is of a couple of fishing families coming into the area from Malaysia and staying to form this community well away from threatening neighbors. No alcohol, dogs or pigs are allowed in the town.

We've done some snorkeling on coral reefs, which is beautiful. We had threatened to get our PADI certification while we were here and do some SCUBA diving, but my asthma kicked in and I'm not sure I want to be underwater and have a coughing spell. I'm not certain how that works with a regulator. Next time. The water is so clear here, and warm, that it really makes you want to be underwater.

All in all- Gail and I think Thailand is wonderful. We are so glad we didn't miss this part of the world and hope we return to see a lot more of it. We leave tomorrow for a couple of days in Dubai, then it's back to Shelton on Dec. 8th. Well, I hate to be repetitive, but it is time to head in to town for a massage. See you soon.

Happy travels,
Dan & Gail