Old people

I attended my first Thai wake 2 days ago. P's cousin left on Saturday after a brain op and staying unconscious for a week in a local hospital. And for the next couple of days, we would have to make nightly trip to the temple for the wake.

P's not exceptionally close to his cousins, but coincidentally, I had met this particular cousin the most since arriving here. Wakes in Thailand bear close resemblance to those in Singapore, except that the ambiance is less sorrowful. I remember at my grandma's, we engaged these monks who chanted in a very teary tone and people were like so affected that there were weeps every night. For the Thais, monks chanted too. But Buddhist teachings on the life cycle were taught as well. Somehow, death seems more spiritual here. The ceremony would last for like 2 hours every night and there would be an in-between break whereby light snacks would be served to the guests. Not like the mini feast we have in Singapore, just some cakes and drinks.

I dont normally have to meet lotsa P's relatives cos thankfully they rarely have get-togethers with the extended family. Anywayz, I am kindda getting bored of meeting people and then repeating myself. And there would be repeated scenarios of kids' parents trying to get them to talk to you in English.

And you know how sometimes you are expected to help out on occasions like these but you feel helpless cos you totally have no clue what is to be done and what you can do. So on off, I will pretend that I dont understand people in order to get myself out of embarrassment. Told P about an incident yesterday that his aunt had asked why hadnt I helped out with the food distribution during the in-between breaks. The fact was I did, just that there were more helpers than food needed to be distributed so there was nothing left for me to distribute and so I had to make my way back to the hall. So there was this angry auntie and me, who bloody cant explain to her that I tried to help but there was nothing for me to do. P was like, forget about her, some people are just plain stupid. He always have that "most Thais are moron" attitude and ask me to totally ignore them. And so I pretended not to understand her. Somehow, old people here have the "you have to respect me" look all the time. It gets quite irritating.

Just this afternoon, sis told me that 姑丈 lost his fight with cancer and left us this morning. I am now of the age that the generation that preceded me are decaying. Sometimes I think, human are so strong emotionally. They can bear to see people leaving them and no matter how painful it was initially, they would survive that pain.

I am a parasite

Hadnt been blogging alot cos Mdm is feeling sooooo lazy.

Went out alone venturing in town cos P had to attend a dinner function with his dad, meaning I would have to eat at home with his mum, sis and nieces. Kindda needed my own space for the moment cos I really had an overdose of family dinner for the past days and so... I cleverly (or not so) excused myself out of the house. So there I was, walking aimlessly in town.

Sometimes, I wonder if it is normal to feel like how I felt. The need to just stay away from people. Esp when:

1. I cant really communicate with them
2. I HAVE to communicate with them

If it does permit, I would have love to just stay in my room and munch on some unhealthy food for dinner. But I couldnt. Locking myself away would seem unfriendly and a complete social hermit. So I had to wander on streets. Arghhh. And just the other day over family dinner, I was asked by my FIL to talk more and not keep quiet during dinner. I mean... I have been talking to people if it is necessary. Esp to the kids, who would come to me quite alot to play games and all. But talking during dinner, esp in my quarter-bucket standard thai is like... WTH. Who would have the patience to decipher my words when they are filling their stomachs? I certainly do not have the patience to search through my limited vocab bank to convey my brilliant ideas either.

And then I realise how bored I can get when P's not home with me. I am becoming a parasite. Anywayz, he wasnt attending the function willingly either, and it was boring for him to sit through hours of dinner talk with the oldies. And when he got home and saw that I had the words "bored to tears" virtually banded on my forehead, he was sorry and then was extremely sweet.

Anyway, back to accounts of my sole venture into town. Got myself "The Road Less Travelled" in this second hand bookstore that I frequent. A non-fiction kindda book which is very much like what MM would be interested in. Anwayz, I was flipping through it while having my foot massage at the night bazaar and caught this very interesting chapter on love and dependency. Read a paragraph on how the author had described loving someone as not being effortless, but effortful and going an extra mile for that special person. Got to finish up that chapter before I can share more.

Had a strange dream yesterday night. Dreamt that the allstar girls were stuck in the airport cos we couldnt decide our travel destination. We were like not concern of the price at all but just couldnt decide where to go. Strange.

Movie marathon

We had watched a couple of movies over the past few days. P and I are kindda movie fanatics and ever since the existence of Bitcomet, we have on top of checking out movies in the DVD rental shops also downloaded tonnes of new, old and some probably unknown movies.

Not sure if Ichi the Killer rings a bell. We just caught it this afternoon. It's a Japanese movie that has lots of gruesome scenes but yet very... hmm... interesting. And guess what, our very own Paulyn Sun was in the movie! Check out the poster



And then there was Planet Terror, one half of the double feature for Grindhouse.



Planet Terror is hilarious. U guys should watch it! =))

Pai liao

Yea~ Photos are ready =)) Just gotten them from P's friends yesterday. Gosh... there were 1000+ photos in all!!! It's crazy. Anyhow, I've filtered some out. Wouldnt want to be stuck by the PC uploading the photos all day long. =))

Pai's not a truly accessible place for non-locals, given the winding road up the mountain and the lack of proper transport in Pai itself. This kindda explains why most of the tourists are either locals or hardcore travellers. Unless you rent a vehicle, it's really not easy getting around. Guess this is also what made travelling to and around Pai fun. I actually like the place alot, if not for it's inaccessibility, I reckon all visitors to Chiangmai should make a trip up to Pai.

Weather's not what we had expected. P and I packed like 2 bags full of winter clothes. Mind you... they are the super super thick ones that are meant for freaking cold climate. To top these up, we even brought our own blanket, pillow, sleeping bag etc. Not all clothes were put to use cos it was very very hot and sunny in the day. Temperature dipped significantly in the night though, guess it was like under 10 degrees. I was freezing at night, esp the 1st when we were sleeping in a tent by the river. But I was expecting more!!! Like cold in the day too so that I can parade my winter collection in photos! Kidding. LOL~

Check out the stuff we packed into the car for our 3D2N trip:





Day 1

Got up at 6.30am, one of the very few days that I have to get up before the kids. Was supposed to pick up his friends at 7am and expectedly, it was delayed till 8am then 8.30am. Was hunting for pharmacies on our way to Pai. P was afraid that I'll get car sickness cos trips on winding road were rare for me. The road in Sg is forever passenger friendly, rememeber? Good thing is, I managed to survive my way up without throwing up. =))

There were many scenic stops on our way up to Pai. Our 1st was to Ob Noi Waterfall.





On our way, we were also hunting for petrol kiosks. Kiasu P was afraid that the petrol will run out (though the tank was like half-filled). Check this out... this is soooo amazing. The transfer of petrol was done using a hose!!! Amazing thailand.




Our 2nd stop was at this geyser. I forgot the name!!! A stroll to the geyser took us about 15 mins. And hmm... it was a geyser, with some steaming hot water. No eggs to cook though, unlike the Japanese ones. Lunch was at this little hut at the visitor center. Food was expensive and suck. It's like 3 times more expensive than in town!!! No pics of the lousy food.










Last stop before reaching Pai was at this place called Coffee in Love. A very famous stop-over before reaching the town. The setting was very nice. But P's coffee sucked, and it was expensive!!! Mine was okay though, but not quite worth the money.










Once we reached Pai, we checked out places to get ourselves a place to stay. Most of the accomodation were rather cheap IMO, ranging from 300-1500 baht. Basic but clean and all. We picked this place by the river and we were the only ones camping by the river!!! The ensuite rooms cost a mere 200 baht more but there were all taken. Anywayz, the tents were cleaned, with pillows and blankets provided. The shared bath was rather ok too so there aint any complains since we were only paying 300 baht for each tent, cosy enough and right next to the Pai river.




After settling ourselves for the place to stay over, we headed to town and grab some food for dinner. Since there were pits available in the campsite, we had decided to do bbq by the river. The town was very peaceful and rather empty. Kindda reminded me of my grandma's place in Melaka. Anywayz, getting food that was ready-seasoned was almost impossible so what we actually did was to get food from stalls selling bbq food! And yups... raw food so that we could have the bbq fun ourselves. And of course we were also smart enough to get some cooked food as well, plus some of the bbq must-have like corn, sweet potatoes etc.

Town of Pai:



Andddd... after getting the food, we sorta got hungry and decided to stop by one of the restaurants. The intention was to get our stomaches half-filled then we would head back for the bbq. Whatever... we ordered enough to feed ourselves to the brim. And it didnt help as the restaurant served delicious food!!! So you can imagine how much food we have taken the on the first night.



Some local vendors selling food that originates from the hill tribe - glutinous rice with sesame seed.




It was dinner, then we rested for like an hour and started the bbq which lasted till 2am. The guys were doing the usual thai activity i.e. drinking whisky. That 2 guys finished a bottle of Seagram and another half bottle of some local whiskey. Something I cannot fathom about the thais is the amount of liquor getting into their body. I wonder if their pee smelled whiskey. -.-''. When the charcoal ran out and so did the food , we were like burning all sort of things. Tissue, leaves,twigs, cupboards and even stones to keep the fire going so that the guys could sit by the fire and continue their drinking marathon. Day one ended with non-stop snores from our neighbouring tent, which kindda sounded like a tractor at work to me.






Day 2

Our day sorta started at 8am. Once everyone was washed up and packed, we went to town for breakfast. Some pics of the lodge in the early morning:





Checking out food sold by some local vendors. Cheap and yummy but tasted more like dessert than proper meal.




Breakfast was at All About Coffee, a very trendy gallery-styled cafe that served nice ABF. It's overpriced AGAIN. This place was started by two BKK executives and is said to be one of the best cafes in Thailand. Not sure how true this is, but it has received many good reviews from guidebooks. P hated the coffee though, cos he's not really a coffee person. See his Oscar-winning expression below. I guess he has the potential to join the J Team. LOL~







This dog in the cafe is super cute!!! According to pple around, he usually is unfriendly and bites!!! But he was so attached to us he even followed P to the loo.


After breakfast, we went strolling around town. There were so many arty-farty shops around Pai. It's quite amazing and the good thing was the stuff sold was not commercialized. They are not the typical tribal stuff you get. Every shop tries its best to be different from the rest. At this particular shop, we stopped over to send some postcards. MM! You should be expecting one soon (though I do not know how much faith we can place on the thai postal service).





After breakfast we went checking out for a proper place to rest for our 2nd night. Was trying to look for a place that's ensuite, resorty like. Checked out the mud house and...horror horror horror. It looked very unwelcoming. Looked like the kind of place that you will get insects sleeping with you in the middle of the night. We gave up and went hunting elsewhere. It was a pleasant surprise for us that there were cornfields and sunflower fields grown by the local tribes near the mud house resort. First time in my life that I get to see a sunflower field!!!





We went to some chinese restaurant for lunch, some place that served surprising true chinese food. Most probably the restaurant is operated by people from Yunnan who had come over to Thailand.

After visiting a few lodges, we finally found a nice and cosy place to stay over for the night!!! Ensuite rooms were all taken up, but given that the room is only 250 baht (which is even cheaper than that bloody tent), we settled for it. I super like this place. Was telling P that if one day, he cant find me around, I might have escaped there to meditate. =))







After settling ourselves into the new place and rested for a while, we went to yet another waterfall. This time we get to dip our feet into the water and spotted some caucasians sunbathing.









Last stop was at a local spa that had couple-rooms that came with outdoor shower where you can actually see lotsa stars when taking a bath and also an outdoor mineral bath! P's not very used to all these though. He's definately not a metrosexual kindda guy. Oh... I think I forgot to mention that stars gazing is as easy as 123 in Pai cos the sky's so clear. The last time I had this experience was actually way back when we were in Sydney. It's amazing how you could look up into the sky and see it filled with glittering stars. Dinner that followed was at some roadside stall. We had a very brief drinking session after meal then headed back to the resort for an early rest.






Day 3

Shame on us that we both slept till 10.30am!!! P's friends managed to get up early enough to catch the sunrise and took some awesome pics. They even strolled to a nearby temple in the early morning. Check out the pics.






When we were all ready to leave Pai back for Chiangmai, it was time for lunch and we headed back to town for some simple thai food. And before we drove out of town, we passed this restaurant that was filled with customers. Supposedly, they are famous for their thai food (som tam, bbq chicken etc.). So right after lunch, we bought more food and decided to stop over somewhere else later on our trip back. This was also when P's friends saw the municipal office right opposite the restaurant and decided to register their marriage!!! They had been through their customary few months back but had yet to go for legal registration (which is normal in Thailand but actually illegal in Sg). Interesting.



Our last walk around town and some photos before leaving Pai:




The couple's happy moments:




On our way back, we stopped by the famous Thai coffee chain, Wawee Coffee, which was next to this iron bridge that was not in use anymore. Wawee had some bikes to be rented out to customers for free so that we could ride to the bridge (which was like 500m away). P had a hard time balancing on it himself and I'd decided not to risk my life but to take a slow walk. Nice enough, P's friend came to my rescue.









Our very last stop at a rest point where we finished up the delicious som tam and bbq chicken before leaving for Chiangmai.





Had lotsa fun during the trip. Though at times, it bothered me that I cant really be part of the discussion for itinerary cos it's really hard for them to transalte everything to me in English (and also given P's friends limited vocab). I appreciated how they had tried their very much to communicate though and kept me updated, esp my hubby's attempt to be an effective and responsible translator. Hopefully by our next trip, my thai would have improved tremendously and is enough for me to fully understand what is going on all the time.