Friday, 25 November 2016 to Thursday, 1 December 2016
It is now getting close to Christmas and my need for Quality Street chocolates – which is not available in Thailand – is once again prevalent. Before I could give it much thought, as if reading my future mind, I received an email from Lood asking for an address where he could send my Quality Street fix to. As they say, a friend in need is a friend indeed. Not wanting to screw around with wrong addresses I decided to ask Thea whether we could use their business address on Koh Samui. And of course it was not a problem, and of course we were also invited to spend Christmas with them. Wow, good to have friends in many places.

Today we finalised and booked our week’s accommodation at a hotel in Bangkok via booking.com. I also remembered to book a bike with Ian, our motorbike guy on Koh Samui, which he quickly confirmed, so all is booked and arranged until mid January 2017. Thereafter, who know?

The main news this morning – whether good or bad depends on your personal politics – was that Fidel Castro, Cuba’s leader of revolution, passed away last night aged 90. People in Cuba are mourning; Cubans that escaped to the US are celebrating. I once read a book about Che Guavara called A Revolutionary Life, in which one gleaned a lot of information about Fidel Castro as the two of them were thick as thieves. Quite extraordinary lives they lead. The book is described as “This is the definitive work on Che Guevara, the dashing rebel whose epic dream was to end poverty and injustice in Latin America and the developing world through armed revolution. Jon Lee Anderson’s biography traces Che’s extraordinary life, from his comfortable Argentine upbringing to the battlefields of the Cuban revolution, from the halls of power in Castro’s government to his failed campaign in the Congo and assassination in the Bolivian jungle.” It was a heavy read at almost 700 pages but well worth the effort.

On the way to the Sanfran Burger & Beer Restaurant where we were heading for supper tonight, we stopped off at the daily street market to gather something for dessert and there once again we saw the blind guy strutting his stuff, pretty cool, as per the short video clip below. Saturday nights we’ve seen him perform at the Saturday street market further up the road, he really seems to be an institution here in Chiang Rai.

Saturday morning and the town was busy, crazy busy, but we pushed through and around the traffic to the Central Festival Shopping Centre where our whole shopping trip was planned around Kirin. I have never met Kirin but today I was determined to do so. As we entered the Tops Supermarket I rushed to the relevant racks where I shook hands with two large Kirins, born and brewed in Japan. It was close to 13:00 (Thailand’s no alcohol start hour) so I rushed to the checkout counter with a Kirin clutched in each hand, paid up and stored them safely in the bike’s helmet hole. Okay, now we could continue shopping.

Adri and I went our separate ways and made arrangements to meet up two hours later. I was not keen on doing clothes shopping, again, and she was not keen to inspect the innards of the electronics on display, again. And so it was that I looked at the latest cell phones, tablets, cameras etc. on offer, not intending to buy but it’s always good to know what’s available. This one lady boy was dead keen to sell me a Vivo cell phone, actually not bad at all, the cell phone I mean. After Adri and I merged our earlier separate ways we did braai shopping at Tops as there was another Springbok rugby match tonight. But the braai and rugby would have to wait until after our appointment at Singha Park where festivities were planned the whole weekend.

We arrived at Singha Park early evening and somehow (don’t ask) missed the bike parking and continued to ry poer in my moer (ride much further than what I intended to). We ended up a few kilometres further on at a car parking area. We made our way stealthily back to the bike parking area via a roundabout dusty road.

As we parked I was looking about for the pay point but there was none. We were shown to an open air shuttle bus to take us to the festival area; I looked for a pay point but found none. We arrived at the area where the stage was set up for the festivities and thought finally that I would find a pay point, but there was none.

The first pay point I did find was when I paid for my first tinned Singha and Adri’s coconut at our favourite bar in the park. Classical music was playing in the background and it was only after my second Singha when we walked in the direction of the stage that we realised the classical music was produced by huge orchestra playing live. We walked along the periphery of the seating area – where tables and chairs were all set out – to right in front of the huge temporary stage. There were probably thousands of people present, eating, drinking and enjoying the music. Adri and I took a seat on the grass at the front of the stage, marvelling at the subdued sounds emanating from there.

A while later the children’s choir we saw practicing earlier in the week marched onto the stage and performed a few songs, truly amazing voices these kids have. For their last song, all went quiet, all the lights dimmed, everyone lit the candles they were provided with earlier, and in a sea of candles held high, the orchestra and choir performed the Thai Royal Anthem in memory of their King that had passed away. I managed to record the performance on my iphone, chilling, really beautiful, but you just had to be there.

Below is another song the child choir performed, wonderful.

Once the kids completed their stint the classical music continued which later morphed into what I guess could be described to classical jazz. Wow, we truly enjoyed this early evening entertainment.

Back at home the electric barbecue was started up, a Kirin beer was opened and six Cumberland sausages were placed on the grill followed by two huge pork rib chops. It was while these ribs were sizzling that I heard a loud “Woof!” or rather a “WOOF!” I knew it could not be a dog; we were on the eighth floor. And that’s when darkness descended upon us. The England/Argentina rugby match that I was watching while tending to the braai had stopped, the braai had stopped, the apartment was lit only by the dim light from the moon above. I realized our darkness was caused by the electric braai when I inadvertently stepped on its chord and nearly burned a permanent scar into the sole of my left foot. It was hot!

There are two electricity distribution boards in the condo. I flipped switches on both boards in different sequences – I felt like a switchboard operator from yesteryear – thinking that there may be a magic sequence in there somewhere. There wasn’t. Adri fetched the night-watchman on duty downstairs who popped in, popped out, and went downstairs to flip some switch there. Apparently that is where the main main switches are located. We were back in business.

In hindsight, we should have let it be as now I had to endure that rugby match that I dreaded so much, and my dread was justified, SA lost  27 – 13 to Wales, how humiliating. It was absolutely atrocious; no words no matter how vile could describe the match, so I’ll leave it at that. Is this what rock bottom look like? I fear not…

We slept in this morning, it was Sunday you see, and we did have a late night. We slept in so much that I had both my cups of coffee in bed.

I started reading, or rather listening, to an audio book this morning. The previous time I tried this I was fast asleep in no time, having to rewind to somewhere in the past every time I woke up. It was then that I gave up on audio books. But it seemed like a waste as we get one audio book of our choice as part of the deal at Scribd every month. I was well rested this morning and no matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep, I listened to about 1.5 hours, it was great!

The rest of the day we spent reading and relaxing. It was late afternoon when Adri ventured out to the street market to buy freshly cooked veggies to be had with our leftover braai from last night. Long beans and pumpkin made it home to join the Cumberland sausages and the half eaten pork chops on the plate, with freshly made chips also added to the mix. Dessert was mounds of vanilla ice cream covered with copious amounts of toffee liqueur that was drizzled or rather dumped over it. It should have been Amarula liqueur though but I never did find Amarula in Thailand. The only bottle I ever did have here was one that David graciously presented me with when he returned to Koh Samui after a spell back home.

I tried to log into my FNB account in SA and it would not accept my password even though I knew it was correct. I tried a second time from the Ipad app but still it refused me entry. Steely cold chills ran down by back. I moved to my laptop and tried there, yet again I was refused. Trust me, I am 100% sure of the password and also 100% sure that I typed it in correctly (and yes, that’s two words). Maybe access to the account was blocked due to some criminal in the underworld that tried to log into my account? Who knows, but this left me with a dilemma. I tried to reset my password and then my user name and password but to no avail, the system put a stop to all the tricks I tried. Oh well, this would have to wait for another day.

After the password fiasco I thought I was awake enough to continue with my audio book. I was just in time to hear the final sentences of “Thank you for purchasing this audio book. Please leave a review and…” Huh? Turns out I forgot to press pause this morning. After a lot of rewinding and forwarding I finally found where I had left off this morning and started listening. But alas, it was 10 minutes later and I was fast asleep. I rewound once, listened, fell asleep, got pissed off with myself, switched off and went to bed.

I tried to silence my mind with yoga Monday morning after the noise in my head became unbearable due to the password issue of last night. It made not an iota of a difference, the sound levels just increased and yes, I had to wait a few more hours before SA started opening and operating.

It was just past midday that I sent an email to my banker who promptly came back to say “This is a problem, esp since you are in Thailand”. No shit, Sherlock!! She then continues “Are you sure the CAPS is off on the keyboard? What error does it give you?” Notice how she cleverly nudged me to look at my caps by putting “CAPS” in caps. Duh, I mean, really duh. I immediately gave up on my banker and contacted the FNB helpdesk.

Tembu answered and he was just great to deal with. Patience is a virtue and Tembu has bucket loads of that. It was a long drawn-out process with verification upon verification that needed to be done, and quite understandably so, but 40 minutes or so later I was back in business with a brand new user name and password. Oh, and another thing, my banker could apparently not assist me in the past with changing my OTP channel from my cell number to my email; Tembu did this without missing a beat. And the changing of this OTP channel was of course necessitated due to MTN that cancelled their pre-paid cell roaming agreement with the Thai service providers earlier this year. Arseholes!

Last week I commented that we have so much to be thankful for, and that idea was reinforced when I read this article. There are so many people living in such desperate conditions but still they live and mostly without complaining. And then we go to a restaurant and complain about the quality of the service and the food, the beer’s not cold enough or the wine is too cold. Just for one short minute put yourself in Ali Kawu’s shoes, or maybe he did not even have shoes… And his is just one story of the billions or so others that are possibly worse off than Ali… Man, we have so much to be grateful for, and I am.

It was later on in the evening when I was searching News24 for info on the ANC NEC members’ debate on whether Zuma would be forced to step down or not. I clicked on a link and was redirected to Radio 702’s web site to The Money Show’s page. The Money Show is presented each weeknight by Bruce Whitfield between 18:00 and 20:00 offering a wrap-up of the day’s business news as well as insight into trends and expert advice on all things money-related. I have fond memories of driving home from work in the evenings between Pretoria and Johannesburg and listening to Bruce, always interesting, always insightful. Bruce has a very sharp mind, business brain and wit, his show never disappoints. It was 23:37 Thai time and five hours back in SA put me right in the middle of his show. I started up my TuneIn app, searched for 702 and voila, there was Bruce’s voice, as clear as if he was doing the interview in the condo next door, still as entertaining as ever.

Tuesday was spent mostly on admin, blogging and preparing our minds for our trip to the Golden Triangle planned for tomorrow. This trip was initially planned for last weekend but plans can and do change. We forfeited this GT sojourn for a trip to the Singha Park festivities over the weekend, and we were not disappointed.

The Golden Triangle is, or rather was, the main opium-producing area in Southeast-Asia with an area of around 950 000 square kilometres that overlaps the mountains of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Most of the world’s heroin came from the Golden Triangle until early in the 21st century when Afghanistan became the world’s largest producer. And just as a note of interest, from the many species of poppies only the Papaver somniferum can be used to produce opium, so don’t try and get high on the poppies in your park.

Thailand has been very successful in its approach to opium replacement, replacing opium cultivation with cultivation of legal crops such as cabbage, lettuce, kidney beans, tea, coffee, peaches, apples, herbs, and decorative flowers. Today you won’t find any poppy plantations here, or not that the government knows about in any case. The sinister Golden Triangle of yesteryear is merely a memory and today it designates simply the meeting of the Mekong and Ruak Rivers, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos come together.

I was reading up on the Golden Triangle and comments from people that have been there. Some seem to feel that it is a tourist trap as there is really nothing to see apart from two rivers merging and the fact that all three countries lie there naked before your eyes. Yes, one goes to see this but you also go there to learn about the history of opium by visiting the opium museums and to enjoy the views of the Mekong River. For heavens, sake, what did these dudes expect to see, a huge golden triangle platform built in the middle of the river where the countries’ borders meet? Uhm, now there’s a thought…

After a quick bite for breakfast Wednesday morning we headed north in search of opium. We had travelled, oh, about one kilometre when the bike made a big gasp, stalled, then continued, gasped again, stalled, then… “Man, why was this happening now?” I thought incredulously. The orange light came on and disappeared with each gasp for no apparent reason, maybe the two were connected, maybe not. With the fourth gasp I stopped, switched off, switched on, started up and after that it was fine. Good sense told us to turn around, we did not.

We rode north until we reached Mae Chan where we took a right turn to head in a northeasterly direction towards Chiang Saen. The highway to Chiang Saen is in good repair but is not particularly pretty. There are houses and small businesses along most of the way, one dwelling deep, and one never seems to get out into the countryside, although one really is.

There was nothing on the road to keep my thoughts entertained so I had to do that all on my own, and of course visions of a gasping bike returned. And that’s when I remembered that we had very limited, if any, cell airtime left, for incase we needed to call Soon – our bike guy – should one of these gasps develop into one final gulp. Thankfully the rest of the trip was uneventful and as we entered Chiang Saen we topped up at the very first AIS Buddy we saw. We never did have to make use of that top-up, there was neither a gasp nor a gulp, only a gallop, the rest of the trip.

We continued on through town until we ran out of road at a t-junction. Looking past the t-junction our eyes feasted on the mighty Mekong River which was right there in front of us, it’s always wonderful for me to see a body of water. I just love water, I love being near water, preferably the sea but canals, rivers and lakes will do just fine, I am an Aquarian after all! Wiki says “Aquarius is a constellation of the zodiac, situated between Capricornus and Pisces. Its name is Latin for ‘water-carrier’. It is found in a region often called the Sea due to its profusion of constellations with watery associations such as Cetus the whale, Pisces the fish, and Eridanus the river.” So there here you have it, all explained!

At the t-junction we turned left towards Sob Ruak village and rode mostly next to the Mekong, marveling at it with glee. Ten kilometers further we arrived in Sob Ruak, parked the bike, and spent some time hypnotically staring at the confluence of the Mekong and Ruak Rivers, watching the goings-on on the Laos and Myanmar side of the rivers, and of course took the mandatory pictures.

We then came upon a stall that sells coconut kernels, i.e. the whole flesh of the coconut with its juices still intact inside. The coconut guy was busy preparing some and allowed us to watch. He first takes a meat cleaver and clears the husk around the midriff of the coconut until he reaches the white flesh. He then takes a thin very flexible plastic knife and inserts that between the kernel and the husk and carefully maneuvers that knife to loosen and remove the top, and then the bottom part of the husk. This kernel is sold with a straw punch through the flesh and once you gorged yourself on that wonderfully fresh coconut water, the coconut flesh is right there in your hand to eat and enjoy. This is quite a job and now I understand why you do not find this very often.

We then headed through and out of town to where we had booked a room for the night at the Greater Mekong Lodge. As we arrived we realised we were at the Anantara Golden Triangle Hotel. Somebody, somehow, must have updated maps.me with the wrong information. I later found out that the room rate for the Anantara is 32 000 baht per night, no wonder my u-turn was made so effortlessly! We were gently persuaded to go all the way back to the main road, cross it, and somewhere there we would find our lowly but lovely hotel at a mere 1 000 baht per night. By the way, I subsequently updated OpenStreetMaps with the correct location of the Greater Mekong Lodge.

Our hotel happened to be located within the very large and beautiful and perfectly manicured grounds and gardens of the Hall Of Opium Museum so after checking in and taking a quick power nap we rode down to get our opium fix. At first glance one could be forgiven for thinking that it is a tourist trap, especially because foreigners pay a bit more than locals, but having walked through it the 200 baht person I feel is well worth it.

You enter the museum through a tunnel

immersed in a purple neon haze with house music surrounding your senses. Sculpted into the tunnel walls, here and there in patches, are bizarre and screwed up images of people, animals and all things weird and twisted, creating the sense that one is on an opium trip, I can only guess here. After what felt like a hundred or more metres of tunneling, one emerges into the actual museum. First you watch a film on opium and its history in a smart little theatre and then you proceed to the various displays in different rooms on two

or three floors. The displays and information provided are absolutely first class, well prepared, well thought out and well presented. We felt that it was absolutely worth the two hours we spent there. It was really great, no samples provided though!

The museum highlighted all the dark sides of opium of which there are aplenty but the one that stood out for me was the Opium Wars, herewith a very quick overview thereof. England’s British East India Company imported vast amounts of opium from India into China who subsequently banned it and thus destroyed all the opium, 1210 tons of it. England did not take kindly to the destruction of their drugs and the killing of their drug trade and started the First Opium War with China between 1839 and 1840. And they claimed they went to war to promote its commitment to global free trade. Free trade in drugs? At some stage British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone criticized it as “a war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated in its progress to cover this country with permanent disgrace”.

And if that was not enough, they waged a Second Opium War against China between 1856 and 1860. Wiki states that “The Second Opium War refers to one of the British tactical objectives: legalising the opium trade, expanding coolie trade, opening all of China to British merchants, and exempting foreign imports from internal transit duties”. Wow, so not only were the English trafficking in drugs but also in humans. Oh dear, those English were really shocking shits…

On exiting the museum we did not recognize anything, remotely … one emerges at a very different spot as where you enter. Tourists were met by their minivans and its drivers, but our bike did not have the good sense to make the same journey. Being a bit disorientated we walked alongside the building thinking we might get to the entrance, but nope, nothing there folks. We trekked back and past the exit through some beautiful gardens and a few hundred metres further up we were eventually reunited with our bike. I assume there is supposed to be a shuttle for people like us, but there wasn’t.

Back in town we rode up the hill to a Buddhist Temple from where one gets a wonderful view down towards the Golden Triangle below. We also visited the Wat Phar Pu Khao and Wat Pra That Phu Khao situated around the same hillock, and then went looking for a beer. We had not had anything to eat or drink since a toasted cold meat and cheese sarmie (sandwich) this morning, no coffee on the road, we needed some nourishment.

Our first stop was the Serene Hotel located right on the Mekong with sweeping views thereof. The hotel is ultra modern and beautiful inside but its outside is painted in a hideous high-gloss green. This was really weird so we went looking for a place less so. We found a spot alongside the river where many little local restaurants are crammed in next to each other under a ramshackle structure of steel covered with a tent-type material. This unintentional shabby chic look is carried through to the plastic tables and chairs that are not so neatly arranged on the dirt floor. Very local, we felt right at home, and that big Chang was ice-cold.

We spotted the Mekong Pizza Restaurant earlier and as we stopped to interrogate the menu a young English couple sitting outside, without being prompted, commented that the pizzas there were just fantastic. We were sold so we headed back there for dinner. The place was delightfully decorated and painted inside, very civilized indeed. Adri ordered the tuna salad; she was not in the mood for pizza but ended up devouring a third of mine. That meat lover’s pizza went down so well, thin crust, plenty of cheese with just enough ingredients on there to make it really tasty. Din-dins was really great!

Adri seemed to have kapped (hit) a bit of low blood pressure Wednesday evening as she suffered a rather uncomfortable headache. This morning the headache was still with us until we had finished our breakfast after which it miraculously disappeared, like magic. We speculated it was due to us not having anything to eat for most of the day yesterday, maybe we should be eating less, but more often during the day.

We were waiting for breakfast with a very strong, very good black brew in front of me. Two slices of toast arrived, accompanied by butter and marmalade. Knowing Thai breakfasts, we immediately assumed that it was breakfast and we started tucking into those with gusto.  A few minutes later though the real breakfast of eggs, ham, sausages and tomato arrived; it was a welcome addition to the toast.

The hotel is just great. The staff, to a man and woman, is really efficient and super friendly with everyone we came across greeting us with a smile and a gentle wai. The rooms inside are well maintained and absolutely clean and really comfortable. The outside, even though it is not a bother, seems to need some maintenance which I am sure will be done in due course. There are rooms within the hotel complex and additional bungalow type rooms on stilts, just down the way from the main hotel, where we were housed. One is so close to nature here, simply wonderful.

It was time to slowly make our way back home but first we wanted to visit the other opium museum in town called the House Of Opium Museum – not to be confused with the Hall Of opium Museum we visited yesterday – that is located in the centre of the village. This one is a low-key affair at 50 baht per person, but interesting nevertheless. We were in and out of there within 20 minutes or so and agreed that if we had to choose between the two, we would definitely go for the Hall rather than the House.

We then arrived in and rode around Chiang Saen, a lovely little town with a lovely promenade along the Mekong where one can sit and enjoy a picnic. We noticed a farang and his Thai wife doing just that, wonderful. One can only assume that the place is buzzing and beautiful at sunset. I could not fathom why the Sob Ruak village had not created such a promenade; it makes a world of difference to the environment and the enjoyment thereof. Just across from the promenade we found a wonderful little coffee shop with amazing coffee. We whiled away at least an hour there listening to their music, drinking their coffee and reading the news over their lightening fast Wi-Fi.

Before leaving town we stopped off at the Wat Pong Sanuk as well as the Wat Phra That Chedi Luang, the latter is specifically picturesque.

We had just passed through Mae Chan on our final stretch back to Chiang Rai when we came across pineapple stands, probably in excess of a hundred of them stretched out along the road for more than a kilometre or so. How does one decide which one to stop at? You just apply your brakes and the one where the bike comes to a standstill is where you do your business. You can either buy the whole fruit or go for the already peeled pineapple cut into bite sized pieces, offered in a plastic bag. We’ve often had these at street markets but these were so good, probably the best and syrupy sweetest we’ve ever had.

We had a wonderful two days at the Mekong but it is always good to get back to home sweet home.

We relaxed with reading and listening to lovely general rock music from an internet music station. There were plenty of songs that I knew, plenty that I didn’t, but all were good. As an example, I have never previously heard The Mountains Win Again by Blues Traveler, not a bad song at all, take a listen to it below.

Later on I wanted to check on a few things on my GPS software around the Golden Triangle area and by accident I opened Apple Maps which I do not normally use. And then I got holy, sorry wholly, confused. With the information I had at hand having been there I could simply not plot that area exactly on this software. It’s then that I realized that their map around the Golden Triangle is just so very wrong, to the point of it being pathetic. It seems like the Mekong River, that mighty Mekong, disappears right there by the Golden Triangle where it’s supposed to flow north… but it’s just not there! Wow!

I thought I should do my duty and advise Apple of the error in their ways, their map’s ways. I selected “Report An Issue” and then they wanted me to agree to “Reports may include your location and contact information”. Not likely Apple, fix you own maps, I’m trying to do you a favour.

It was later in the evening that we learned that Thailand now has a new king. The BBC reported that “Thai Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, 64, has become the country’s new king, succeeding his much-revered late father King Bhumibol Adulyadej. He accepted the throne in a televised broadcast following an invitation from parliament, formalising his accession… He becomes King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun, the 10th monarch of the Chakri dynasty, but will also be known as Rama X.”

I was sad to read that Andrew Sachs, or Manual, from that delightful BBC sitcom with John Cleese called Fawlty Towers, had died at the age of 86. What a wonderful actor he was playing the hapless Spanish waiter in that series, Fawlty Towers would not have been the same without him. The following two hilarious clips follow on form each other, so please watch them in sequence.

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