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Part 41 |
The View from Nongkhai |
Published |
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2 November |
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2006 |
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Matters
Arising from Last Episode |
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Congratulations to Brendan and Noi (left) on the
birth of their son Dean John (right).
He was born on 20th October 2006 and weighed 3.87 kg
at birth. |
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I imagine that it is just
coincidence, but the last three or four episodes
have had a stronger than usual focus on life (births
of Dean and Bianca) death (Alex and Peter) and the
need to enjoy oneself in between these two events
in one's own life, epitomised by
"Enjoy your life
day by day and everyday". |
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Since we all know that
one day our life will cease, I have come to see
organised religion (in all its diverse forms) as a
way of denying that our life will cease, and as a
sort of passport beyond death. Religion offers no
proof of an 'afterlife', you are usually asked to
suspend credulity and simply 'believe'. I am not
saying that religion is wrong or bad, simply that I
see it as one way of coping with the knowledge of
death. |
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I do think that there is
however a genuine afterlife, not for the individual,
but for their genes. I have just finished reading a
magnificent book on evolutionary biology by Richard
Dawkins entitled 'The Ancestor's Tale' (for which I
publicly thank Gordon for the loan thereof). The
Ancestor's Tale is a pilgrimage: a journey of four
billion years. We modern human beings, are the
pilgrims, travelling back in time to seek out our
ancestors. Simultaneously every other living
creature is setting off on its own journey with the
same mission. Each pilgrim tells its tale along the
way, and covers the unfolding of life on Earth. Some
of the genes in our bodies were present in our
ancestors hundreds of millions of years ago. |
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I accept
Dawkin's 'tale' as being the most likely description of the
unfolding of life on Earth, based on present day
knowledge. There are those (often religious
fundamentalists) who seek to deny the evidence, with
commentary on the lines of "I cannot imagine a
sequence of events whereby such and such comes into
existence unaided. Therefore there must have been a
Creator", but I think that such denials simply serve
to illustrate the paucity of imagination of those
concerned. |
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I have also been reading 'The Way
to Freedom' by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which
comprises core teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. I have
long been attracted to Buddhism, not least because
there is no such thing as a 'militant Buddhist', (in
contrast to most other major religions). However I
was somewhat distressed to find some passages
written by His Holiness which I found simply
unacceptable. It really arises out of a conflict
between his book and that of Richard Dawkins. The
Dalai Lama says that 'consciousness does not arise
out of nothing, and it cannot turn into nothing',
and he explains how consciousness is continuous,
moving from one physical body to another. |
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I simply cannot imagine how this
statement can be reconciled with Dawkin's
description of the unfolding of life on Earth, but I
do have the humility to ask whether this is simply
due to the paucity of my own imagination? If anyone
can reconcile the two for me, please mail me. I will
be very grateful. |
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Notwithstanding my inability to
accept that consciousness does not die when the body dies, I
have no intention of abandoning other Buddhist
principles, chief of which is to live a good life,
including where possible helping those less
fortunate than myself. See also 'Happiness' later. |
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Earth : Our only home - we MUST take care of it !! |
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I
think that it would be true to say that the weather
this year (certainly in Thailand, and probably
elsewhere in the world) has been to say the least,
highly unusual. We had cold weather in March (a
month or two late), we had rain at Song Kran (a
month or two early), the rainy season wasn't as
rainy as normal, and we have now had very heavy rain
in October (see last episode). One of the predicted
consequences of global warming is that established
weather patterns will be subject to wild
fluctuations, and that weather phenomena will become
more and more extreme. |
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We are therefore very
lucky to have George Dubya's reassurance that there
is no such thing as global warming. |
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One might therefore be
surprised to learn that George Dubya's predecessor,
President Clinton, actually took global warming
seriously. Sadly not seriously enough however to do
something about it. |
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Notwithstanding George
Dubya's glib proclamation, here in October the Mekhong
river was unseasonably high. At
 a
well known Nongkhai floating restaurant, it was only
9 steps down to the access bridge where more usually
it is several dozen. I plan to take another photo
from the same spot when the river is at its lowest
(and count the steps).
Despite (or was it
perhaps because of) the height of the water in the
Mekhong, this Danish visitor appeared unable to |
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resist the urge to add to
the great flow of the river, with a small flow of
his own.
You may be able to
discern the debris in the river behind our anonymous
Dane. It was awesome to see just how much there was,
stretching almost from bank to bank. This
appeared to be quite a large tree being swept along
by the current. |
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Dan and Tony tour Issan |
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At the end of the last episode I wrote "Dan and I head off
for a short trip around Thailand tomorrow. Last time we
headed towards the setting sun, so this time we shall head
towards the rising sun and follow the River Mekhong as it
swings slowly round to point south at Mukda Han. From there
we will continue southwards and eastwards until we reach the
coast." |
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It didn't quite happen the way we
planned because on that Saturday, as we were returning from
Udonthani, one of the rear tyres of my car exploded. We had expected
to get a replacement on the Sunday, but that didn't happen
either, so it was actually Monday before we departed. As a
result of our delayed departure, Dan and I decided to eat at
'House', the restaurant where Win and Leo had had their
party in part 39. |
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There Dan was very pleased to
meet the proprietor Nona, with whom he struck up a strong
affinity. They was clearly a lot of mutual attraction.
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Nona should be pronounced to
rhyme with Lola as in the song of the same name by the
English group called the Kinks, in fact you could easily
substitute Nona's name into the song. So when we finally set
off on Monday we were singing snatches of the chorus "No -
No - No - No - No - Nona". |
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Our first stop was for lunch at Bueng Gan, where we found a
pleasant restaurant on the river. After lunch we headed to
Nakhon Panom, arriving there late afternoon. It was
disappointing that we had almost no river views for most of
the journey, but we were compensated when we found an
attractive riverside hotel with a view across to Laos (view
right from my balcony). Despite his affinity for Nona the
previous evening, Dan managed to spend an energetic but
inexpensive evening with a local girl whose name was Kung.
Sadly no photo of her. |
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The next day
we headed south from Nakhon Panom passing the new bridge
(not yet open) just north of Mukda Han, before stopping for
lunch at a cheap but very tasty restaurant in the city
itself. I persuaded Dan to pose for a photo on the terrace
of the restaurant overlooking the river. Indistinguishable
in the background is the new bridge. The river really was
that muddy brown colour, and still had enormous amounts of
debris in it. Note that Dan is still wearing that black
jumper previously featured. |
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After lunch we continued southwards, but also westwards,
turning our backs towards the river. In the late afternoon
we arrived at Yasothon, and found ourselves a decent hotel
for the night. We decided to eat in the hotel restaurant,
where Beer Chang were promoting Chang Light. I have written
before that in my view this is as close to the late lamented
Carlsberg that you can get, so naturally I ordered a bottle
which was served by this attractive young lady named Tang. I
enjoyed it so much that I ordered a second, and was rewarded
by a lot of attention from her. There's definitely something
about a woman in a uniform! |
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I mentioned above that the Mekhong is very high due to heavy
rainfall when the rainy season should have ended. Much of
Thailand has similarly suffered. Here we paused on the road
from Yasothon to Buri Ram to photograph the flooded land. In
this area there are a lot of flooded rice fields. This may
turn into a disaster, as the rice will die if the fields
stay flooded, and there will be no rice harvest.
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Dan asked me why you never see
mechanical harvesters in Thailand. The answer I gave him
based on my own experience as a rice farmer is that most
land is not absolutely flat, so it |
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has to be divided into small
fields to enable control of the water level. By contrast,
mechanical harvesters need big fields. The words were hardly
out of my mouth when we spotted this. Notice that it is a
very big field as the land around Buri Ram is very flat. But
also notice that the rice is still green, and water is
standing in the field, visible just in front of the
spectator. My guess is that although it is not yet ripe,
they are trying to save what they can of the crop, before
the rice rots and dies. |
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As I said earlier, we are
lucky to have George Dubya's reassurance that there
is no such thing as global warming. |
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We had thought that we might stay two nights in Buri Ram,
but the largest hotel was derelict, and the others we looked
at seemed decidedly run down. There was nothing particularly
attractive about Buri Ram, so we choose to go on to Korat
(Nakhon Ratchasima). |
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We stayed two nights in Korat. We
dined at a restaurant where the waitresses wore these
attractive schoolgirl style uniforms (left) and we met this
attractive lady named Aor.
With our habit
for giving nicknames to people we meet, we named her Miss
Awesome, especially as it was a good reminder how to
pronounce her name. |
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Korat is well
known for having some of the most attractive women in
Thailand, and there is definitely a 'Korat look'. There are
also some very strange sights in Korat (right). |
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On Friday morning we left Korat, and set
off for Pattaya, which we reached late afternoon. Over the
last 10 years Dan and I have visited Pattaya on a number of
occasions, and most frequently stay at the Palm Garden. It
is at the north end of Pattaya, away from the main
night-life areas, which makes it somewhat cheaper. There is
an excellent public transport system in Pattaya, buses will
stop anywhere on request, with a flat fare of 10 baht (about
£0.15). |
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In Soi Yamato which I think is Soi 13/3
is The Clinic Sports Bar, run by Derek (left), who has been
there for 16 years, which is quite a success story. Derek
has a wry Irish sense of humour, demonstrated by the
timepieces on display below. |
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Not very far from Derek's bar, Dan bumped
into this stunning katoey, and insisted that they pose
together for a photo. I think that it was only my presence
that saved Dan from spending a lot more time and finding out
a lot more about her. |
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However I don't want to give the
impression that Dan's visits to Thailand are solely about
Dan posing with girls and katoeys. |
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While we were in Pattaya, we were joined
by Oy, and her children, Manao and Khao Farng. I had
promised the children that I would take them to the seaside
(how very British I hear you cry) during the school
holidays. After I made my promise Dan changed his plans and
decided to come in October which is the month of the school
holidays. I didn't want to break my promise, so the five of
us had a week together at the seaside. |
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I bought Farng a bucket and spade and
assorted moulds, which Dan immediately took over and started
building a sandcastle. |
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This was not an isolated incident as this
shot of Dan, Manao and Farng at Rayong a few days later
demonstrates. So the truth is that Dan's visits to Thailand
are solely about Dan posing with girls and katoeys,
and building sandcastles on the
beach. |
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This guy in the amazing orange
suit was celebrating a divorce in Pattaya, which was
probably an excellent choice of venue. |
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I pose with two
children while they try to sell me something |
Khao Farng,
Oy and Manao pose while paddling |
Dan with Noot
pose with that same salesgirl |
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Some 2500 years ago,
Aristotle defined happiness as the ultimate goal for
humanity. He believed that money, possessions
and leisure
were merely ways to find it. |
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Happiness is a state, while
pleasure is a fleeting moment. The missing ingredient is
meaning. Purpose beyond yourself that comes from confronting
suffering. It seems that being happy can add years to your
life, with people who describe themselves as happy living up
to nine years longer than those who describe themselves as
unhappy. In the last episode I presented evidence
that money does not buy
you happiness. Dan retorted that it does buy you a better
class of misery. But it seems that not only will your life
be unhappier, but it will also be shorter. |
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I said earlier that I have no
intention of abandoning Buddhist principles, chief of which
is to live a good life, including where possible helping
those less fortunate than myself. I really do believe that
money does not buy happiness per se. But I find that using
my money to help others who have far less than me does bring
me happiness, because of that missing ingredient, meaning.
To me money by itself is meaningless, it is the use to which
you put it which provides meaning, and for me the greatest
meaning comes from using it to help others. |
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The English
language in
Thailand |
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 This sign
was on a building at a garage at which we stopped one day. I
am not sure what that are trying to say here. My guess is
that it is meant to be 'Simply Thai Cuisine'. |
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 This
one is much easier. The error arises because the Thai
language has no plural form of nouns, so that in Thai it
would be correct. |
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At the end of
the last episode I mentioned a Halloween Party at Surreal.
Here are a selection of photos. |
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Dr José and
Jessica co-hosted the party with Mark at Surreal |
Above Nick &
Ilona, with right Julian from the Mutmee as 'Oscar the
Grouch' |
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I am off
to Indonesia tomorrow to visit my daughter Jacq, husband
Pras, granddaughters Anisa and Chandi, and grandson Ché. I
am looking forward very much to seeing all of them, but
especially Ché, who I have yet to meet. I will be back at
the beginning of December. |
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Best Wishes to you all Tony |
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If you want copies of any of the
photos, or want to write, but you don't know
my personal email address, you can send email to :
mail@nongkhai.co.uk
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