Adventures out of Bangkok

Although I love Bangkok, Thailand has many subsections of culture and society that must be explored. There are different dialects, languages, tribes, cities, regional dishes and much much more. So this is where I have been and what I have done so far...

Isaan  

 Isaan is in the north-east region of Thailand, the language is slightly different a mix of Lao-Thai. The people usually have darker skin and come from agricultural backgrounds, saying that there are also big cities where many people have white collar jobs and there are people from Thai-Chinese backgrounds too. I have had two adventurers into Isaan, firstly to a Muay Thai gym and secondly to visit my friends farm. Both occasions have been through my friend Gong who had invited me to visit him and his various family members.

A typical Thai house

While at the boxing gym I got a feel for how a vast proportion of Thai's live, I was the first ever farang to go to their village. It was unspoiled, un-westernized and unlike anything I had experienced before. They took very good care of me, I was fed when hungry, doted on and taken to all of the local hot spots. When I first arrived the whole village had come to the house to see me arrive, some children were hiding behind their parents and some came rite up to me for closer inspection. After the initial buzz had died down I settled into to my new home. I shared a bed with Gong's niece Bun which was in a room with her parents bed in a traditional raised Thai house.

Below the house is free space, a concrete room on one side where the kitchen and bathroom is, and a make shift room on the other, this is where the boys slept. Every morning at 6am we would be woken up to go running, as this was a gym after all. Running would take us from the house down a wide yellowish dirt road with fields either side. It was the season when the fields were being burned, so the brilliant green of the trees stood out against the stretches of charcoal. By the time we had kicked a few rounds on the pads 'Meaa (Thai for mum) had finished cooking and breakfast was laid out on the mat ready for us to enjoy.

Everyone from the gym

One of the boys preparing to fight!

After breakfast some of the children from the village would go to school. The ones who didn't would hang about playing cards, popping in and out of each others houses watching TV and cradling various babies the
handing them back to their mothers. The adults would tend to the live stock and take care of the houses. Nok Kiew (translated into green bird) was Gong's cousin. He would take his pet cockerels from the farm to the fighting ring to win some money and have a chinwag with friends. In the evening, if there was a festival happening we would all pile into vans, jeeps and song-taws and go down. There is always a Muay Thai ring and all of the local gyms take their crew to win some money. Everyone is involved, from the adults rite down to the children. If you live at the gym, you fight.

Once when we were at a festival they announced over the speakers that a farang was there, many people came up to me and wanted to speak English with me. It was quite a shock and I felt embarrassed as I wasn't used to having so much attention. I suddenly became paranoid about what I was wearing and how I was acting as I felt hundreds of eyes on me! That didn't last for long, as again, after the initial thrill died down and everyone had had a good look i was just one of the crowd gain.

A week had passed and it was time for me to leave for Chiang Mai, my hometown at the time, and I prepared myself for the overnight journey. After this Isaan experience I fell in love with Isaan people. I found them to be gentle, kind and unpretentious. So when I had another opportunity, over a year later, to go back to my favorite province I was very excited.