Behind the Noodle Curtain

Beauty and grace in film about Thai rice farmers

A scene from Thai film Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival Nov. 14.

Two recent Thai films that I’ve seen, Nymph and Agrarian Utopia, really played with my head. I’ve been sitting here at home in Canada for seven months now hearing nothing but Big City noises: Trains, car horns, heavy gravel trucks, unmufflered heavy cruiser motorbikes, drunken voices, car alarms, clank of streetcars, diesel buses and the sounds to really tell me I’m in a western consumerist society, the waste-picking pigeons and gulls. Almost no natural sounds. In the theatres, when I was  immersed in the soundscape of these two films, I was transported  back to my home away from home. It was almost relaxing and comforting to hear the multi-layered bird, insect, animal and plant noises.

The Nymph soundtrack was brilliant, but it was peppered with some synthetic music and creature-like sounds. Agrarian Utopia, which screened at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival this weekend, was a non-stop symphony of the beauty of nature. I could ride on that rhythm all day.

Those sounds were a natural foreground as well as background to the story of two families of rice farmers in what only could be Isaan. One family is the hired labour of the other family. Both families are bending under the weight of insurmountable farm loans, the kind that could only be paid back if they win a lottery. The financial burden is the driving force behind the political angles of the story. We get a peak at some political rallies and round-the-night-time campfire talk about how greedy (now former premier) Thaksin politicians and bureaucracies are. There’s even anti-Thaksin speeches. And a few kicks at (current premier) Aphisit in opposition.

The rest is the beauty of human endeavour.

My word skills couldn’t come anywhere near to conveying the sublime images director  Uruophong Raksasad (who attended the festival) has conjured from the camera lens. We watch all of the activities on a rice farm, hunting and fishing, living off the land, “interesting” meals, bedtime chatter,  rice bagging, transport and selling, kids at play, the grace with which good-hearted farm workers carry out their tasks and listen to the families talk about their dire situation. Stunning.  Powerful. Truthful. Intimate. Colourful. Detailed. Heart-aching beauty.

As a counterpoint to the farmers’ burden is a side story (really?) of a neighbour, working his farm all alone, who doesn’t use chemicals,  fertilizer, loans, or anything else that could harm the land or his future. He’s a good humoured character so don’t expect to get teacherish lecture from an earnest, new-wave Thai environmentalist. He is a former professor, and he works his farm  in the most natural, albeit slower, way possible. His neighbours call him a fool. But the labourer  goes to him in a last ditch effort to stay in  farm country to ask him a few questions. The last scene of the movie tells you what he chose.

It’s interesting to note, I think, that there’s not a single girl or young woman in the film.  In Thai country culture, typically, young women from the farms are often the ones  who go to the big city (namely Bangkok) to get a job and help support the family. That could be in a shop, factory or go go bar. The lack of young women kind of highlights that condition so the lack of same may be deliberate.  Another reflection of the male-dominated culture is the fact that the wifely women in the film hardly say a word. In male dominated Thai society, the men have important discussions and make the decisions. Deliberate? Don’t know.

When you watch the film, ask yourself this: is it a documentary or drama?

A scene from Taiwanese film Yang-Yang, which was shown at the Toronto Reel Asian Film Festival.

I also watched the Taiwanese film Yang-Yang. If it weren’t for the electrifying actress Sandrine Pinna (French-Chinese actress), director Cheng Yu-Chieh would have empty reels. The story is about teenager Yang-Yang whose mother ends up marrying Yang-Yang’s track coach. In the deal, Yang-Yang’s friend and track rival ends up being her sister. The sister’s boyfriend takes  a liking to Yang-Yang, and, well you know the rest. The boyfriend, coach, Yang-Yang’s mom and sis are pretty much empty puppets. It seems director Cheng forgot to write a story. The camera almost swallows Yang-Yang in every scene. It’s not surprising that Pinna’s exotic looks, easy nature and formidable acting talent inspire Cheng. But that’s not enough. About 80 minutes into the film and I was thinking about leaving. Moments later, during a pointless scene, a fellow got up near me and left, as did three others. In the space of  four or five minutes, I was the fifth to leave.

I also saw the insane but likeable Malaysian film When the Full Moon Rises by Mamat Khalid. Will get around to this soon.

Asian dating sites, part 3: Looking in Thailand

There are thousands of photos and profiles of girls on the Asian dating sites. Take an  example of a typical Thailand profile. She’s pretty, she’s young, about 28, she’s available. She lives in a province of Isaan, Thailand. She speaks “some” English. She works in a hair salon. She’s looking for a suitor in the 40-55 age range. You are admiring her pictures and are considering clicking that icon that says “Show Your Interest” in the hopes of exchanging messages and maybe even making a date.

You look on the four photos, blinded by her more than average  looks, and you suddenly realize that’s a hotel bed in the room. Huh? Other pictures start to look very suspicious. A girl is casually  lying on a hotel bed. Or standing near the open door of a hotel toilet, obvious from the hotel style shampoo and soap hanging about. Or sitting in the posh lobby of a hotel. Or sitting at a bar table with foreign males all around and wearing a low-cut top and hip-baring jeans. Or posing in a photo that's been cropped in half to remove the BF, past (or present) tense. Or leaning on the railing of a fast motorboat with the Mediterranean in the background. Or sitting in the seat of a European sports sedan with a distinctly European architecture dressing the background. Or sitting on a white leather sofa in an Italian villa. Or wearing a beautiful designer blouse, with jewelry decorating the neck and cleavage, as well as a pair of designer sunglasses holding back red-dyed locks.  I could go on. Huh! I already have.

I’ve seen all of these examples on Thailovelinks.com website, probably one of the better  online dating services.  So as not to portray TLL as the only dating site or only one harboring The Three Types, there are dozens of others. Each showcases a mix of eligible girls, of which there are three types:  pay-for-play service providers; "ordinary" girls who learn how to play a number of foreigners at the same time; and a few, very few,  "ordinary" girls who might, maybe, possibly could be genuinely out to find the "one" guy. But don't hold me to that statement. Because it really, really is all about the money. And if they're on a dating site, you will very likely lose the bet if you bet against me.

Your choice will depend on what you’re looking for, of course, and which dating site.  As I said, straight pay-for-play is frequently available at the drop of an instant message. Just look for the photos I described above. Heck, they don't even have to be that risque. Now, the second type of girl is available in huge quantities. Yes, a gal has to hedge her bets, but it seems the country girls (Isaan, in particular) have MBA level skills in marketing and manipulation.

There have been hundreds, if not thousands,  of stories of guys accidentally hooking up with a Type 2 date. Several recent correspondents to Stickman (Brokenman tales, by an Englishman, Aug. 31 and Queen of Lies and Deceit, by a Canadian, Aug. 21,  2009) have told disappointing or harrowing tales about girls they've met on dating sites, Thailovelinks in one case.

That was kind of a long digression there. Back to our theme: Thailand dating site.

Many girls certainly can't  afford to have a couple of decent photos shot and buy internet time to upload a nice selection. You can see many such examples. Among the more general picture problems: out of focus, poor resolution, little or no lighting,  inappropriate makeup, poor clothing,  wrong angles, and my favourite, the girl seemingly shot from the next province with a point-and-shoot camera -- you can hardly tell the gender.  So I guess I can assume that with all of these mistakes, putting up a photo shot on a hotel bed is no more or no less than just another mistake.

I will take, any day, a picture shot in the natural light, with the girl wearing no makeup, probably in back of the farm, with rice fields flowing off into the distance. That scene tells me a lot more: there’s truth of purpose there, unlike the photos shot in the fancy digs.  As for the latter, the message is that  the girl has been auditioning other men, shall we say. And yes, they’ve been auditioning her. Fair enough.
Here are some general findings about  Thailovelinks girls:

• TLL is just one of many in an Australian company’s huge portfolio  of worldwide dating sites
• Has thousands of Thai girls as members, and a few from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos
• Most are from impoverished provinces, especially those in northeastern Thailand, otherwise called Isaan in Thai
• Very good interface, with quick links at top of member’s page. Annoying refresh function from site that, yes, does update member situations, but sometimes mucks up multiple open tabs for the site
• Profile template as limited as other sites’ profile formats. You don’t learn much about the girl through the boilerplate profile format and, because she frequently can’t say much in English, there’s little to go by except the photo album. Many do write in Thai, and fortunately there is a superb Thai-to-English translation website
• TLL is very careful to issue warnings about scams and it repeatedly show tips such as “never send money to a stranger you’ve met over the net.” TLL is very quick to delete scam posts
• Some may like this feature about the profiles but there are a quite few "working girls" on the site. But also I think there  are some legit romance seekers however
• Regular free membership upgradable to gold and platinum for cash. You cannot read messages from interested girls unless you go to gold

This is just one person's experiences with one service, although I checked out some others. The latter  seemed especially good at pawing at your wallet and throwing  ad links in your face.

In conclusion, I found it all rather frustrating, possibly thinking an introduction website might give me some leads. I made many contacts but 98.5% of them wilted after the first exchange. My biggest downfall, other than not throwing promises at their loving feet, was that I was far away. Distance makes the heart grow cold, methinks.

I actually do have one teacher in mind for my visit in December. She, who lives in Ubon, seems to be agreeable. We'll see how it goes and whether I'll ignore all my findings above. I'll report, good or bad.

That's probably all you'll want to read this time out. Next part, I will describe my experiences with chnlove.com dating site for mainland Chinese girls.

Everything goes into the pot in poorest Thailand

If you want to know what living off the land means, read this item at blog My Thai Girl: Her Papa's a Hunter Gatherer. It's something I've never read before. The author lives in Surin province,  in northeastern Thailand, an area  known as Isaan.  Here live the poorest of the poor in Thailand. So the folks there are used to hunting and foraging in the forests. Only the forests are gone, given over to vast rice fields and some fruit orchards.

But there lies a considerable amount of food in the grasses and fields of northeastern Thailand. If it crawls, hops, plods, walks, runs or swims, it can be eaten. Author Andrew Hicks describes everything that goes into the pot, all collected by his partner.  It's a fascinating and revealing piece. Really! And there are pictures!

Want to know more? Go to the link below featuring a study in "nutritional anthropology," at the United Nations University. It lists  everything local people gather and hunt, who does it by gender, why they do it and how expertise is passed down through generations. The Thai words for the animals and plants are expressed in English phonetics of the Thai words but with very few English name equivalents given.

Interesting finding in the mid-1990s study:

Most people, both rich and poor, preferred wild food to cultivated food. Therefore, wild foods were not only for the poor. People who did not hunt or gather wild foods purchased them from those who did. Some villagers also sold wild foods in a market in the town. Examples of wild food eaten daily are wild plants with jeaw or pon (spicy dips), fish (usually boiled with vegetables, curried, or roasted), frog spicy soup or dip, mushroom soup, and roasted insects.

(Note, to find the study, it's grafted onto a study in Mongolia. Use Find function and use the keyword Thai. It'll take you to the Thai wild food study lower on the page.)

• "Indigenous knowledge of wild food hunting and gathering in north-east Thailand"
• My Thai Girl is lively blog on village life in Surin province, Thailand (northeast)

Rural Thai people know how to survive. Do you?

Maybe we shouldn't feel so sorry for the horribly impoverished Thai folks. Who's going to survive if/when we're challenged for our very survival? It isn't going to be us softy westerners, brought up in world of privilege and plenty. And who live in a castle of cards (cf., financial meltdown because of worthless financial instruments and lax securities laws and co-operative regulators).

Yes, maybe all those companies employing millions of people around the world give everyone a way to earn money and a way to survive. You'll notice though it's a pretty rickety platform. So what happens when the platform collapses? What can you do to survive? Few people have any worthwhile life skills such as carpentry, farming or animal husbandry. The Thai people do though and maybe they're suffering a little bit more in the economic downturn but they will survive, says blogger Talen over at Thailand, Land of Smiles.

It's a  post that tickles the fear centre of the brain but maybe you won't buy the message. But do you want to face the most basic difficulties, i.e., growing food and making shelter, without any knowledge?  I think some of those "crazies"  in Canada who are growing their own vegetables and raising their own animals might not be quite so crazy and, if you pin them down, they might admit just a little bit of that  fear of the possibility that things might get worse.

Up to you. And me.

LINKS:

Thailand, Land of Smiles: Cold economic realities . . . for some

Retired in Thailand and Loving It has many posts on Thai food gathering

Images: bars and other features in Surin, Thailand, Part 2

Back in Surin, but this time my photos show the streets and other features of the small city. Most of the photos were taken in March this year, during the hot season. Whoa! 38, 39, 40 C every day.

I stayed at the Thong Tarin for two weeks and just wandered around, relaxing mostly, going for espresso at a shop closer to the bus station, owned by a Lao-speaking  lady and her sister, and one on the other side of the station, owned by Canadian Brian from Vancouver. Then it was brekkie at the Farang Connection or  N & N's on soi Kola. That got me to 1 in the afternoon, then it was back to the hotel to cool off for a while and a nap.

Then I was back out around 4 or 5 for a beer, then my second and last meal of the day.  Then a break at the hotel for shower and bit of TV watching. Then it was out to the bars on Sirirat and Kola till the wee hours. Sometimes, I had a noodle soup or other meat and rice dish in front of the 7-11 on Sirirat  very early in the morning. Good food. And just sat there watching the arrivals and departures of the local female population on their motorcycles. Strange but most of the travellers were girls.

Couple of curious Bangkok buddies came up for a few days to see what Surin was all about. I don't think they were impressed but were happy to check it out anyway. Or at least that was what they told me. After two weeks, I was ready to pack it in because touring in the heat of the day was just too harsh, as my friends found out one day when we walked the city. I was going to go on to Sisaket and Ubon Ratchathani, toward the Lao border.  But I'm keeping those visits till this coming winter when the daytime temps are under 35.

So here we go (by the way, all pix were taken by my trusty Canon point and shoot, namely SD850is):

 

Brian and partner, shown, at their espresso shop, which drew a lot of Thai businessmen and ladies. It faces the Majestic Hotel and bus station. It's also a 10-minute walk to the train station, behind this building.

Walk away from the bus station to the rail station along this soi and turn right.

       

 

Hmmm, came across this on a tour of town.

     

Left to right, the Surin Mall that looks like a KFC (pix 1 & 2); a Chinese temple near a night market; and the sign of an elephant, the city being famous for its annual (November) elephant roundup.

  

Came across this spectacular dinner setting  being readied  for the evening. Don't know what the celebration was for. Anyone read Thai?

   

Must transportation in Thailand, motos are used for everything and anything, this one being modified for hauling whatever.

 

I came across this "temple," still under construction. Don't know what it is for as there was no English on the signs. I asked several residents and they could not tell me -- or they didn't understand me, which is the more likely. Anyone know?

   

   

That's it for now from Surin.

I leave you with a bit of "elephantics". I had a barside view of our be-trunked friend eyeing our beer on our table at The Oasis in Surin. And, no, that's not his scooter. Photos taken with iPhone so not so great.

 

 

Images: bars and other features in Surin, Thailand, Part 1

I needed to escape Bangkok  at the end of December and so I did what any farang would do: go to Isaan. OK, maybe the smart guys go to the beaches of the south, such as Krabi, Pha Nga, Phuket, Hua Hin. I just don't do beaches. I do not enjoy lying on the beach in the blazing sun or sitting on a patio drinking impossibly sweet cocktails and  overlooking an ocean. Oceans scare me. Rivers are OK, because I can see the other side. Oceans have no side. I can't relate to them as they seem to cause some kind of short-circuit in my brain.

So off to Isaan. I have already posted some pix of Korat, my first stop. I've also covered Buriram, which I visited a couple of months later. So it's Surin's turn. In pictures. Well, quite a few more than I posted before. And I just happen to have hundreds more so you're stuck with them.

Why Isaan? It's is the source of labour for most of the rest of the country. Surin province and the rest of Isaan (39 provinces) are poor, really poor. So the kind folks there are easily lured by the money of the big towns, beach towns and cities, especially Bangkok. And, as I said before, it's mostly the region's women who migrate.  You might call this trip, going to the source. But really, I just wanted out of the intensity of Bangkok for a while. It's an all-out assault on the senses, which can be a good thing, but, like getting too much of something, you need to  forcibly remove yourself before you overload and do something like drown in a hot tub full of ice cream, or in my case, Singha with a Sang Som chaser.

Long winded intro over . . . I'll put the images in two category posts: hotels and bar district, then streets and related features. "Bar" is a popular key word in searches, which I noticed in my blog's site stats. The other biggies are, in no particular order,  Thai girls, Isaan, Washington Square, karaoke, Buriram,  etc. So I'm just going to let the photos roll with the odd comment thrown in:

 

From the top floor of the Thong Tarin Hotel, off Sirirat Road, which is seen crossing in behind the blue awning. The truck or van, running left to right in front of the 7-11, is on Sirirat. The street heading away from the view has two farang restaurant/bars, as well as a hi-so resto. Off in the distance, behind Nong Bua (lake), is the top-rung (for Surin) Majestic Hotel.

Closer view of the road leading to the bus station, just off to the right and out of view. On this street, in a kind of square. On the left side, is the well regarded Farang Connection, and to the right, across the street, is a Norwegian bar/resto, named after a motorcycle club. Scandinavians will find some of their fave foods there. Picture right is a closeup of the Majestic (900 baht a night and up. Thong Tarin is 400 baht and up, but mostly 740 or so). 

 

View out the Farang Connection, owned by Englishman Martin and his Thai wife. Good food and beer at reasonable prices. Across the street, where you see plants and green awning, is the Norway bar/resto, The Oasis.

        

Driveway to Thong Tarin, immeidately on right is outdoor resto then the Caesar Karaoke, then the entrance to the hotel. Continue down the drive to the left of the hotel entrance and you will find a large massage place, otherwise known as a "soapie."

The outdoor beer garden and resto with the blue awning, plus the building with the green roof also  belong to the Thong Tarin complex. Behind the green roof, on Sirirat, you will find many Thai bars, beer bars, food places, and around the next corner, go-go's, disco, coyote bars and the rest, some basic, some quite nice. As well, you will have no trouble finding girls. 

 

Here we are, "around the next corner" -- the entrance to main bar street, soi Kola. (I've seen it spelled Cola, but Kola seems to dominate.)

        

     

Top, from left, Speed3 disco (pic 1); coyote bars Sixties and Hard Rock (I think that's name); then looking back toward Sirirat on Kola are karaokes and the like (pic 3); Thong Tarin seen from Kola (pic 4); closeup of Rose Queen soapie behind the TT (pic 5); and the back of Speed3 (pic 6).

 

The visit started here at the Surin Railway Station. See part 2 of this post to follow. If you want any further info on the city, you can go to Surin Farang website and click on Forum. There's also the Isaan sub-forum at Thaivisa.com.

Motorcycle adventures in Asia through words and stunning photos

I'm a motorcyclist of dubious skill. My particular love is for dual-sport bikes. They're the hybrids of asphalt and dirt. While I do love riding, I know my limitations in terms of the loose stuff and challenging roads or lack of same. So I let others do the really adventurous stuff and read about it here at home in air-con comfort and on a more stable platform such as a five-wheeled office chair.

The best resource for such entertainments is Adventure Rider, advrider.com, a global forum focusing on for dual-sport riders. A subforum called Ride Reports, and pics, pics, pics contains just about the most entertaining reading you can imagine if you like exotic lands and people and food. There are some truly awesome reports by truly awesome  riders (some might say nutters) willing to attempt anything. The reports are complimented by much stunning photography, and I say this in the best professional sense. Wow.

There are many riders with a taste for Southeast Asia, some living there and some passing through on two wheels. I will list and link here some of the best reports on riding in Southeast Asia and nearby Asian routes. Warning, especially to those in Thailand with slow download speeds, the reports are loaded with high quality images and that may take some time to DL.

Another thing to keep in mind is that these stories do not dwell on motorcycling. They almost entirely focus on the people, places and things found along the way.

Here's an absolute must report, well written with panache, self-deprecation,  gut-busting humour and  complete lack of confidence in the halfway-round-the-world scheme.  Currently, there's a lovable English maniac riding from Australia to home on a 110 cc Honda named Dot. He is tracing a route through Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and beyond. Video Treat: The author, Nathan the Postman, takes you  on an axle-level video tour of Bangkok on Dot, his red Honda (scroll down to the video post).

Thailand and a little adventure: Newbie heads for Europe but chooses  Thailand instead and shoots gorgeous photos in Bangkok, Chumphon and Chiang Mai. (Heavy image load!)

Tour of Thailand on GS1200: A gigantic tour from Hat Yai, to Nong Khai, Mae Hong Son and back south. Phew.

Batang Kali Malaysia: off-roading in Malaysia

Easter Mekong Delta Tour, Vietnam. First timer rides 125 cc Chinese bike and provides some very personal potraits of people and places in southern Vietnam.

 KTM 950+Cambodia+flats=trouble...... : BeemerBoy from Chiang Mai tries to ride his KTM to Phnom Penh but flat tires and oil leaks decide otherwise.

Vietnam (Hanoi to Mai Chau): Area populated by White Tai tribe

Riding in Laos, or Why is there dirt all over me? : BeemerBoy from Chiang Mai again

Newbies from Indonesia: A 2000 km tour from Jakarta to Yogyakarta and return

North from Singapore: Malyasia and Thailand seen through gorgeous shots of scenery, buildings, food and people.

The Streets of Vietnam: Mobile Vietnamese up close and personal.

The Amazing Ujung Genteng (Indonesia): A gathering place for surfers and wind surfers becasue of teh fab beaches.

OK, that's enough. This will keep you reading all summer. One more thing: I cheated a little bit here and decided not to link to the other Asian reports because it would be just too much to cover all in one post. So part 2 will include the fantastic ride reports of those travelling through Tibet, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, China, eastern Soviet Asia and others. Enjoy . . .

Brilliant reader story on Stickman -- Thai girls not so innocent

[Update: clarifications]

I've been reading Stickman again recently. It's kind of refreshing to go back to Stick's pages. He's a late-30s-early-40s New Zealander who's lived, partied and taught in Thailand for about 7 or 8 years, I believe. He writes a weekly column on local topics and issues, and rounds up the latest bar news and rumours. It's a very popular site as is his weekly column. He has fans and detractors. I'm a fan.

For a long time, while teaching, he had to filter out any bad language and soften the night life reports and reader submissions. He's recently quit teaching (on a high note, he reports) and I think it shows. The columns and reports have more life, as it were. Maybe it feels fresh to him too since he can take the gloves off, so to speak.

I just had to take up this subject because of the brilliant reader submission he published May 5, 2009. Fantasy and Reality by "Mega" (pen name). I think any newbies to Thailand MUST read this report and maybe, maybe, save yourself some heartaches and vast amounts of money. 

For the western mind, it would appear to have a searingly cynical streak throughout. But if you read it, understand what he's trying to say and commit it to memory, then the cynicism should eventually wash away and leave you with a greater appreciation for fantasy worlds. After all, think of how many Disney Worlds, Wonderlands and other such distractions do the same thing. Only this male fantasy world involves an entire country. 

I will have some remarks later, along the lines of, this guy is writing from his own perspective, which is not the only one. Yet a lot of the details and observations are bang on. First, do read the lengthy submission, which is written beautifully and has the pace of a hugely satisfying short story. 

Warning 1: To those suffering from extreme  political correctness and/or a western superiority complex, this may do you some good. Warning 2: The language is colourful. 

The piece is written in the framework of teacher and student. Here's a taste:

From Fantasy and Reality, Stickman, May 5, 2009

"Is there anything straight up in this country [Thailand]?"

"Not often. The truth is though that we, more often than not, end up the same way. That's just the way it is. You adapt to living in the environment you're in. If you don't, you'll get chewed up and spat out. That's why a lot of us that stay here for a long time can't go back to where we're from. We get used to living a life of sensory overload. The fantasy world of living life on the edge. The reality is it's got a lot to do with the beauty of these women here, they're almost addictive. The problem is, learning to control the situation so you can enjoy it but not have it spiral out of control."

Some images from small-town Buriram, Thailand

This post is way out of sequence from actual events, and so I apologize.

I visited Buriram Feb. 28 to March 3. It's east of the big city of Korat (short for Nakhon Ratchasima), gateway to Isaan or northeastern Thailand. Afterward, I carried on to Surin, revisiting because I had such a peaceful, relaxing time there. Neither provincial capitals has many remarkable sites to see, but their respective provinces are rich in features, such as Khmer temples, basketry and silk villages, and various beautiful national parks with waterfalls. And the Cambodian border is within an hour or less of the towns. They are popular destinations for ex-pats doing visa runs into Cambodia. The less said about visa runs the better.

Why Buriram? I touched on this before, but I will review briefly. The province is very poor. Families try to scrape out a living on rice farms and other agriculture. Between harvests, family members, especially the women head to the cities and often end up working in small shops, mall boutiques, mobile phone shops, hotels, bars and restaurants. You will recognize them from their relatively darker skin. They also feature largely in the hostess and go-go bars. They are quite beautiful and it was interesting to see where they come from.

Some images of Buriram:

I arrived by train, my preferred transportation. Buses are faster but I prefer the train routes, which take you through more scenic countryside and the passenger cars are more comfortable and roomier. And the train takes you right to the main street of towns, usually.

This clock tower greets the visitor at the roundabout outside the train station, it being up the street to the right of the clock tower.

Thani Road is a main east-west  street. On it are several western restaurants, the entertainment complex (night life area) and at the other end is my hotel. One frustration was the lack of public transportation to get around at night. It seems there were no motorcycle taxis, tuk-tuks or sahmlors operating at night; the local ex-pats complain, too. So everyone rides a motorcycle, scooter or drives a car.

Here's the Bamboo, my favourite meal place in Buriram. Good food, good selection. I frequently sat under that Canadian flag! Run by Englishman David, who also runs a good hotel in the west end off town. See image below.

The Siam Orchid Hotel is in a very nice, quiet setting, which is surprising considerring the four or five karaoke places on the adjoining street. Rooms start at 500 baht ($15 Cdn).

Motorcycles (250 bt a day) and bicycles are available for rental. That blue number, second from left and below, was given to me free to ride around. Probably because I frequently went to the hotel owner's resto. A very nice man is David though and his Thai wife, who spoke very good English, was a great host.

 

The bicycle was too small for me and the tires desperately needed air but I'll be darned if I could find an air supply in town. probably on some little soi somewhere. The owner said their repair man was not around.

      

Above is Wat Klang, Buriram.

In my last hours of a four-day stay, I came across a lovely set off ponds and lakes in the middle of town but didn't have my camera. The sun was going down and I had to head out the next morning so never got a chance to photograph the town's nicest features.

Another feature of Isaan is that it's one of the hottest regions of Thailand. Everyday the sun bore down and temperatures hovered beween 37 and 40. It's also a dry part off Thailand and farmers only get one rice crop in per season. Others do at least two.l

I can't tell you why Thai girls do what they do

[Update: clarifications]

My Thai girlfriend calls Thursday morning of the 12th. Wakes me up again. She's in Chaiyaphum, in central mountainous Thailand, about halfway to Surin. She needs cash to fuel her Toyota Vigo four-door pickup truck so she can continue her journey to Surin, where I'm staying. In my sleep-deprived mind, I say okay and find an ATM to zap some cash to her account. It's easy to send anyone money at any bank through an ATM, unlike Canada (and England, I'm told).

Not long after sending the cash, I realize I should have asked some tough questions. I grab two coffees  downstairs and bring them up to my hotel room. I finish them and a couple of smokes, then call her. All she can say is her family is giving her problems and wondering why she moved to Buriram province when she had a job in Pitsanoluk province.

The main reason, as she had told me on the second day I had known her, was she didn't want to stay in her hometown where her ex-boyfriend lived. She had left the Thai man four months previously after being with him for eight years.  For a long while, he had a secret girlfriend locally. This is not a good thing in Thai culture, because she loses face in the community. She found out and told him to choose either her or the secret girlfriend. He couldn't decide so she decided for them. Broke it off.

It's very common for Thai men to have one, two or three other wives (mia noi) if they can afford to support them all. Then there's the frequent visits to brothels and karaokes, which you can find in every town in Thailand. It's a huge service industry and dwarfs that of such similar, although more visible,  services available to visiting male and female foreigners.

Soon, he went looking for her. He was heavily into the whisky, which he did often. As she told me, he beat her pretty badly. She has the visible scars on the left side of her head, her torso side and back from being  shoved onto some concrete. And her head was repeatedly plunged into  water. The thing that doesn't square with me is why her father didn't react in the Thai way. She says they had to chase the guy away from the family home a few times. Usually in Thailand, if something like this happens, the family settles the score. You don't call the police. The perpetrator of such things usually "expires." But maybe the ex-boyfriend was from a "better" family. This can make a difference.

Many Thai women will have nothing to do with Thai men after their earlier experiences. I've heard this said a hundred times. It's mostly about the fact Thai men are "butterflies." Even after marriage, they flit from lady to lady, brothel to brothel, karaoke to karaoke. And Thai men never use a condom. My girlfriend's own father, she told me, had four mia noi's and fathered five children with them. She herself had a brother and sister.

Her story is very shocking, to say the least. But stories like these are common, long-time ex-pats discover, after they start to get to know the community, the wife's relatives and exchange reports among other ex-pats. 

So she had to leave the town and her career. And ended up in Buriram province where a former school friend helped her out.

During the Thursday phone call, she says she's coming to Surin but never shows up Thursday or Friday. Friday evening she calls and I tell her I'm going to Bangkok the next day and tired of waiting for her. She wants to go to Bangkok. I say no, and tell her how she never kept her earlier promises.

How much of this Thai woman's story can I believe? Well, over the short time I knew her, the things she said had been every bit consistent. Nothing she said ever felt out of tune with what she had said previously about her family, the ex-boyfriend, her Buriram friend, her own working experience and, strangely enough, automotive ownership.

Her father has bought her a new vehicle every three or four years. She was quite knowledgeable about vehicle characteristics, pricing, residual value and continuing maintenance. Believe me, I've never had a similar discussion with any other Thais, including males.

Back to the last phone call  . . . She wanted my address to send me my backup mobile phone, which I had lent her. She had a phone but it was scratched up and ratty. I had given her my old Nokia slider the previous week before she took the lengthy bus trip to her hometown.  I said okay, not really meaning to send her the address and finally said, "hope you find what you're looking for. Good luck. Chohk dee khrap." She was silent and I said goodbye.

No calls from her since. Not a bad thing.  I can't tell you why Thai women do what they do but ex-pats I know can tell pretty similar stories.