Summing Up

My fantasy of Thailand was that I would step off the plane and into the pages of the Arabian Nights.

I grew up on stories about Siam. My Mom told me of dancers there who could arc their hands backwards in graceful curves enhanced by impossibly long golden fingernails. The stories were wonderously strange and beautiful but as unreal to me as a magic carpet. Just the word Siam evoked pictures of colourful dancers, palms turned up and fingers curving down. I couldn't wait to see it.

I'm so lucky to have seen my childhood fantasies made real. Along the way I also saw other strange and wonderful things:



  • a floating market where locals sell their handicrafts and foods from boats
    Incredible teak carvings. Some take up to a year to complete and are carved only on commission. I can't imagine what they cost, since you're paying for a year of the craftsman's time. It takes a teak tree up to 150 years to mature for harvest

.

    vast salt flats, where lagoons of sea water are evaporated to harvest the salt. It was cheap too, but too heavy to bring back in my suitcase

  • a huge water lizard, flicking its lavender tongue at us as we passed in our James Bond boat

  • impossibly steep hillside terraces where they grow Oolong tea.

  • prawn lagoons where they raise prawns to satisfy the burgeoning overseas markets

Enormous temple cheddis covered in kilos and kilos of gold leaf. One ounce of gold covers about 10 square metres.


  • Spirit houses. Many homes have 2 shrines outside which look like fancy temples with upswept roofs. The taller is for the god, to invite his spirit to reside there and protect the family. The shorter is for the ancestors, giving their spirits a home close to the family. Or for a spouse, keeping him close by until you too pass on. Of course, if you didn't like your spouse, then you would only have the taller spirit house.

  • the fabulous bustling night markets which we've seen before but of which I never grow tired.

  • black teeth. The Yao hill tribe chew betel nuts which turn their teeth and gums black. This is considered to be very attractive and highly desirable. This tribe is also polygamous and the man may have up to 5 wives. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel_nut

  • honeymoon house. An innovation by the Yao polygamous tribe where the husband and his new wife, #2 or higher, climb a ladder to a house on stilts and the ladder is then removed for one week by the new wife's parents. This is to prevent the previous wife or wives from venting their jealousy on the new wife.


We loved Thailand. Can't wait to go back.





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