Digital Backpacker 2000 #1

December 8th: Cabbages and Condoms…

Ubon Ratchathani is one of the larger cities in Thailand, the local TAT
(Tourism Authority Thailand) tries to promote the area as “The emerald
triangle”, in counterpart to Thailand’s Golden Triangle. It refers to the
relatively intact monsoon forest in this part of the province. This area
shares borders with Laos and Cambodia, it’s safe to visit as the Khmer Rouge
seems to be sleeping for years now. From the first moments here I liked it
already. Ubon looks like the “real” Thailand to me, not that many tourists
walk the streets, the town isn’t “polluted” with hotels and restaurants
offering “Banana pancakes”. Northern – and southern Laos don’t give me this
good feeling, no one should feel sorry to “miss” Laos.

There’s one shop that rents bicycle’s now, the woman that kindly answered my
questions doesn’t look Thai to me, I can’t help for asking “Are you Thai?”.
She tells me that her German father married a Japanese woman; she was on a
“backpacking world tour” and met her later Thai husband in Ubon. Now she’s a
“housewife” and ten days ago she set this business up. I’m her fourth
customer what says something about how many people visit this town. Around
Ubol the rice fields have all turned yellow, the woman are busy weaving in
the small villages, “Farang”, the Thai word for foreigner, I hear them
softly saying. I don’t hear any sounds of “civilization”, no cars, just
water buffaloes and cows that work in the fields. I want these moments to
last forever…

Khorat is like Ubon, a former US air base, a bustling town. I ask a passing
“Farang” for a good place to go out, we go to the H2O bar. Alex worked seven
years for Berlioz, teaching English in Brazil and Thailand, now he’s working
for a NGO, he had enough of education and running the Berlioz language
school in Phuket didn’t give him that satisfaction neither. After a woman
gently drops my bottle of beer on the ground, she apologies and asks us if
we want to join their group. They’re celebrating the birthday of a 24 year
old woman, in Thailand people celebrate in a bar or restaurant with friends
and not at home. “Are you happy?” asks the birthday girl us every half hour,
after some bottles of beer and wine and three bottles of Johny Walker black
label; the answer is not difficult to guess. A girl empties her belly
content stylish on the pavement as we continue our way to the disco. It’s
great here, “I just never thought about visiting a disco” other travelers
told me, the life music plays exclusively Thai dance songs. It’s part of the
culture too.

According to UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), Thailand ranks
fifth worldwide in consumption of alcohol, behind South Korea, the Bahamas,
Taiwan and Bermuda, well ahead of Ireland and France. Hmm, I could have
guessed this! In the Netherlands I only drink beer in the summer, here it’s
every day summer. What of course doesn’t say that I drink beer here every
day!

Khorat is Thailand’s largest province, the heavy US influence that was
present in the late seventies has faded away. The retired GI’s live with
their Thai families in the area and I seldom saw them together walking the
streets. While having dinner in the restaurant next door I wondered about
the many Vietnam veterans that hung around the place, till I found out that
the VFW-cafetaria in fact is an abbreviation of the Veterans of Foreign Wars
cafetaria. The pizza, steaks and ice must attract them though it doesn’t
resemble the ones “back home”.

When looking through the list of restaurants I found one that’s called
“Cabbages and Condoms”, “Hmm a restaurant”? It turned out that the owner
kind of introduced condoms in the area, after a meal you don’t get a candy,
no, you get one condom. The restaurant is sponsored by the Population and
Community development Association and seems to be a non-profit organization.

At the outskirts of Bangkok you’ll enter a new province without even
realizing it. Half an hour from downtown Bangkok, Samut Prakan province
packs 70.000 people into 7.3 sq km. Foreigners seldom visit the major
attraction, the ancient city, they miss quit something. The park highly
impresses me, it covers more than 80 hectares and presents over one hundred
scaled down facsimiles of many of Thailand’s most famous monuments. The
owner of the park, Bangkok’s former largest Mercedes Benz dealer, passed
away this year but his guidelines are still followed. The entrance fee of
the park, 50 baht, hasn’t been raised for over thirty years. It’s a quit
escape from the pollution and traffic jams of Bangkok, a good place for long
undistracted walks.

For some people the first day in Bangkok is like the last on the titanic, I
like this town. I feels good coming back and leaving isn’t easy. I will fly
back to the Netherlands for ten days, the 20th of December I will fly to
India. I wonder what this country will bring me. “It will change you!”,
people said to me. “For the first time, I was glad to get out of a country!”
one backpacker told me, “We stayed in our hotel for one week and then flew
out!” a couple told me. Am I scared? No… jut curious what it is that some
people love this country so much and other people hate it, is there an in
between…? Can’t wait to find out!

Bangkok, 8th November