Of Nigel Mansell
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Thailand!
This time we choose to take the shuttle to go to the airport of Malpensa, is certainly much more comfortable, you do not have the problem of parking or driving licenses and alert friends to accompany you, and then the service that serves the Comazzi Ossola and the Word is a sort of rental with driver : the driver is waiting for you to return even postponing the departure of the vehicle in case of flight delays, some times are a bit 'indicators do not know exactly when the medium is present, however, be sure to arrive there. It's drizzling here in Mergozzo the sky is foggy and sad and judging from the forecasts that we peeked over the internet we do not expect anything better in Thailand.
On the plane there are many men who travel alone or in small groups of friends, most of the flocks, it makes very sad because it makes you think that these men for a holiday in Thailand has a sole purpose.
The Thai Boeing 777 is nothing short of fabulous, we have to think again about the Malpensa - Bangkok and review our positive feedback we were not were very happy when we went two years ago in Indonesia, but now much has changed. If you exclude the usual problems of limited space available for legs and the small size of the width of the seat, (but this problem present in all economy class seems that no company should be overcome despite the world's population continues to grow in height and width, the obese are more and more) Much has been done. The kitchen is always top quality with metal utensils do not break at the slightest pressure on the food, there are now dedicated screens for every passenger on which we act with an interactive remote control, as defined by the Thai, removable from the armrest of the chair . You can while away the time choosing between the many video games and board games that can be used individually or with a travel companion, or deciding which movie to see among many choices, there is also a camera underneath the plane which enables watch the takeoff and landing, along the way, unfortunately, does not work.
Eleven are still many hours away and when we land are destroyed, as if all those tracks were on the ground and then zipped: once on the ground all their weight upon us falls between the head and neck, making us tired and lethargic, making us slaves to the feeling of swing that looks like almost a kind seasick you do not leave until after several hours.
As always happens to us when we travel to Asia, left yesterday to arrive tomorrow, we took off at 13.50 hours of 16.11.2006 and we landed at 06.00 hours of 11/17/2006 or perhaps I should say at 6.00 am as we use here.
Once outside the airport, which has just been opened, we face the heat suddenly trying not to cheat by the swarm of taxi drivers. We find that just go to the ground floor to find the ones with regular meter and avoid the company "Limousine", which is very dear, and we do bring in downtown Bangkok to reach our hotel.
Friday, November 17, 2006
go down to the Hotel Bosso, Anna has booked through the internet and we can say that the course and clean, does not feel the lack of a multiple star.
I can not understand where I am, Bangkok is huge. It 's my absence, I do not ever read the guide before you leave. E 'Anna has quest'incombenza, always she shall bear the burden to read and learn, perhaps in bed before falling asleep, on all routes and the curiosities of the place we visit in the days before our departure. I do not know what to do, I do not like it, I seem to read the plot of a movie before seeing it, I do not want to influence me. I just know that we are close to a huge skyscraper, the State Tower is an entrance from the high classical style columns and a spire on top similar to that of the Capitol name in Washington, then I discover that there are others very similar in features, must be the type of architecture in vogue here in Bangkok to build the skyscrapers.
We sleep a few hours sleep to recover and try to catch up with the new time zone.
As you wake up we decided to visit the mall of electronics that have reported from Italy, we'd like to get an i-pod and maybe a cheap digital camera, they say that here we do good business. Once you find the street you need to go mad in traffic as crazy and messy, and then the multitude of people everywhere in the environment of the mall makes us lose orientation. Among the confusion that still have because of the intercontinental flight and fatigue, as well as the ongoing climate change from warm and umidissimo conditioned rooms we almost feel drunk and stagger in the confusion of people, lights and supply of goods of all fate and features.
The seat of the shopping centers are always made out of enormous structures with equally large signs, the Western-style music blaring floods the street in front the huge facades and flattened to the ground while you turn confused about ourselves by observing the magnitude of the Siam Center, Paragon, and beyond that of the MBK.
Here at the center of the city infrastructure are cyclopean, many being finalized to start the new airport that we saw for the first time this morning. One is the idea that Thai society is channeled in a rapid and uncontrolled development, is a world of enthusiastic young people, which brings our western societies old and dusty imprisoned in their own rules and structures that were once their pride . Everywhere do not see that many young girls from the beauty that strikes are very free and dress more freely and confident that we have.
In the evening we go to eat something in Kao San Road that looks like so much of the Kuta Bali, or the strip of land between Rimini and Viserba: a pit of people eating and listening to music blaring from the numerous stalls. Girls kept winking with their sexy look to attract the male audience in their night club, one on all the "Lava" and the name is already a whole program.
try to kill the fatigue with the excellent Thai beer which fortunately are frozen. The blonde goes down copious Singha and foaming in my body giving me a sense of relief and coolness in this hot and humid appicicoso, but of course my physical condition is getting worse and I can not do otherwise than check the way back to our hotel.
Saturday, November 18, 2006 We slept a lot, we woke up at half past nine, now that we've pulled together, we had breakfast and we prepared to leave were now already half past ten.
Just out from our hotel we were approached by a Tuk-Tuk driver, similar to those Indians who we met last year, but different in structure and engine. The engine emits a roar like that of a Formula 1 car, the chassis seems that a car with three wheels rather than that of a three-wheeler, so the strange contraption can fly through Bangkok's chaotic traffic at speeds much close to eighty kilometers times. Despite the performance, the Tuk-Tuk are not very recommended here in Bangkok, the smog is very dense and traveling in the back seat open air you breathe fully self by practicing a powerful spray of exhaust, fumes, vapors and cooking different smells in the streets are full all mixed with the air very humid in the capital.
We went with the idea to book the train to move to the south but we decide on the spot is perhaps better to take the plane, so docile and gentle, we do accompany the diligent agency tuk-tuk driver who is not happy We do not even pay the fare because he certainly will take the percentage for joining us in this very agency. Once inside and explained our needs, under five clocks showing different time zones, which show that between Paris and Rome is an hour's difference is that in France the same time in New York, booked Our flight to Phuket tomorrow for about eight hundred miles to the south.
return in the mall that we had already visited yesterday, MBK, the chaotic and packed of people and things, so that finally we buy the fake i-pod that we were chasing yesterday, is not Apple's but it is very cheap .
We then take a taxi to go to the Grand Palace, but it is not easy. Sometimes taxi drivers refuse to take us because it's too far away and there traffic tell us, sometimes not want to use the meter to practice charges a lump sum, and so it is always a good fight.
Once we discover a fantastic Grand Palace! We forget now the chaos of the city visiting the fabulous buildings that compose it, with their golden roofs, perhaps covered with brightly colored blocks that make great sparkling mosaics. Buddhist temples that dot the palace of the Grand Palace are among the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen.
the way back, as taxi drivers refused to take us to the hotel because according to them is too far away, we experience the river boat that slips on fast and steaming full of gray water, Chao Praya. Headquarters of multinational companies around the skyscrapers and exclusive hotels create a strange contrast. The hub that made us get communicates with the pilot-driver with a sharp and shrill whistle sounds, emitting four or five different shades managing to give the right information to start and stop the boat from the docks in a shaky millimeter.
indescribable chaos in the capital of the early evening, when people leave their jobs to return home, then walk on foot stretch of road between the pier river taxi stop from our hotel. Anna decides to get massaged, I prefer taking a shower, I'm drenched in sweat, you sweat even here properties in the shade. In the evening we go more in Kao San Road to eat: this is so gay and noisy.
There are young people everywhere, it seems that the Thais are only young, the old are very few and hardly visible, one wonders where they are. Where people when they become too old to run like the others, where they end when the old are no longer self-sufficient, even when they get sick of cancer of the respiratory tract (as smog)? Who will help them? Have adequate medical coverage? Throw them in the middle of a street because they could not afford medical expenses? Thailand
This throws you in the face of his youth, as well as throughout Asia made of millions of people, all young boys and girls and many children. This Thailand cries out his youthful vitality, his desire for progress and elbowing among the great nations, his confidence in a brighter future with respect to which, it seems that nobody around here wants to doubt. They are all taken from the frenzy to earn, move, create a better position, like all the girls that run behind the male tourists always a little 'vintage men too much for them. This Thailand accused us the freshness of his youth in which we spend our time to hide the signs of aging in our faces, in our institutions, trying to force us to our glorious history, with our ancient culture, with our dubious vaunted wisdom and superiority. We do not think that store without creating anything new, we go back to her tits and lips look better, we undergo exhausting labors in gyms, we dye her hair and replanted if we no longer, faded ideals chase, trying to oxygenate economies become asphyxiated , let us rivers of concrete hope that our city does not collapse on their heads. but meanwhile all the Thai and Asia are coming in leaps and bounds.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
The plane is gliding on the water a long time, now you can see the fishing boats come to the beach, now the track, finally sfioramo the ground and yanked wingless in Phuket.
We did not trust the local people and this time wrongly, thus rejecting a kind of shuttle we ended up with the bus to Phuket Town, nothing special, then we sort of took a taxi to reach where we reached the Baumanburi Patong Hotel we had booked the tour desk at the airport. In an official taxi
diligent and highly motivated in carrying his bizarre profession, he has crammed in what is a hold cut into the back of a truck. Hanging on the edge of the box, teetering on the street, the small, dark man did not stop to watch them carefully, checking how we were sitting on benches along the entire length and as soon as he suspected that he thought there was room not used to full, there did hold, over and over again to close the spaces and the people coming down to make room for new passengers and load that gradually picked up during the trip.
In Patong beach which is the most tourists in Phuket all know a lot of Rimini and the Romagna Riviera, mass tourism and umbrellas. The roar of jet skis is the soundtrack and the smell of suntan lotion fills the nostrils.
At night we just launched in the flow of men running through the streets where half-naked girls in the brothels attract them. It 's really sad to see these scenes, old people walking hand in hand with women slightly more than children.
Monday, November 20, 2006 Today we dedicate the entire day at sea and, if possible to organize our move to Phi-Phi Island. Patong is very touristy, you have to juggle between bathers stretched out on the floor, beach umbrellas, deckchairs and personal watercraft, and sometimes we must also look the other: sometimes a bold soaring into the sky attached to a sort of parachute making unconsciously guided by pulling boats in the water facing the beach.
In water we meet a curious character, speaks French and tells us his story. It 'grew up in Algeria, his family was French in every respect there for one hundred and thirty years, then by the French foreign policy of the sixties, Algeria was granted self-determination and they were driven out. Then Vous Etes a pied noir I say. He confirms warming even more laughs, but in recalling the facts of his life. Angry with the French and with De Gaulle, said that even the Vietnamese soldiers used it (at that time were part of France's overseas possessions) to try to scare them away from their properties in Algeria. Finally they were left to themselves and their parents were slaughtered by the strange character Arab insurgents. The man in his seventies said he then made the pilot for Air France, has traveled all over the world, I think that it is now very rich man lives in the Principality of Monaco and Thailand. He tells us that the day of the tsunami he was here on this beach, and like every morning he gave a good swim. Suddenly the water was full of crabs, some began to pick up on the shore from a distance but he saw a huge wave came. He came out of the water and began to flee. When the wave came it was at least fifty feet high as the trees around, even when he arrived he discovered that there were two, one behind the other. Around him he saw flying machines, everything was destroyed, he ended up in hospital. Now he has taken up residence on the hill that shows us, you never know it is better to be up there says.
the evening, having booked the boat to Phi-Phi Island, we found the plan did not say it's all wrapped up, we continue to walk, we go east on the road parallel to the beach, then again we cross the road closed to traffic connecting the two parallel streets. And 'the zone of destruction: SOS Save Our Souls! Hundreds of half-naked girls, the majority of beauty really unusual, we invite you to see their shows hard, you smile. Inside the premises there are only women who accept only Western men, although sometimes they move in packs seem to always just the same. Outside of some local girls with their tits out, Anna says they are transsexuals (mah I'll be getting old), are photographed. The Japanese and tourists are always distinguished as the most stupid, are photographed at their side, some couples in action to tighten the cap on young Thai, the show is really depressing: these Japanese have neither the sense nor the limit of good taste, seem to lack understanding and discernment of children raised in a perennial field trip who can not appreciate the good things, they care only photograph. Farther men with snakes, others that show pornographic pictures, all trying to sell something, take some profit from this crowd of Western horny and curious like us. Police slyly observes the scene from a distance.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006 Yesterday, we were relatively few in the sun but we managed to burn the same. We woke destroyed: perhaps the sun, maybe too much walking.
After a hearty breakfast buffet, during which absolutely can not help myself, we did a little spin to see if we could find an accommodation on Phi-Phi Island, but nothing really seems to make everything complete. Never mind, we pass with the boat we booked, we will go the same.
Phi-Phi Don, Phi-Phi Lay up with the Phi-Phi Island, stands on the sea like a cathedral in the plains, like the Gothic structures of Chartres Cathedral in the countryside of Ile de France I saw the highway while I left Paris for Brittany. The towering green cliffs reflected in the deep blue sea. The many boats moored off the most exclusive beaches we announce now that we have arrived. After landing in the chaos of tourists and newly arrived among the locals that assail us like leeches I seem to be landed on the island of Tortuga, is the haunt of pirates. There is a lot of people, someone comes and who leaves, who comes back from diving, the locals trying to sell all but luckily we also offer accommodation. We find now that we like, at the JJ Bungalow. We went well, 1,800 Baht per night, we also say here that it is sold out, and then there's not much to choose from, we want to believe it. The place is about five hundred meters from the port, in the countryside: we like it.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
not there are cars on the island of Phi-Phi Don, and Phi-Phi Lay is not even inhabited. The streets are busy only a few motor, the rest just pushed carts or bicycles to the hardworking Indigenous arms, loaded with everything. Certainly it is a big difference compared to Patong Bangkk or where it was hard to even cross the street. We went on the headland marked by signs as "Point of Vew" to enjoy the view from the island. After the steep stairways on which we threw rivers of sweat we have reached the colon, a short distance to the other, from which you can see the view. The top can also see the outline of the island. We filled the eyes of a view fabulous, you can see in its entirety the sandy isthmus that divides the two beaches, sparkling blue striped sea by fishing boats with their strange craft that I had seen in Bangkok. A long outdoor cockpit seat aft, a sort of long steel tube which is mounted on large motors that seem to be recovered from abandoned cars, the idea is that a rudimentary blender when immersed in water to allow boats to reach speeds significant in the din of the engines without mufflers.
We spent all day on the beach opposite the pier, the sea is exceptional. Meanwhile, before our eyes, the sea withdrew because of the almost dry at low tide, leaving the small bay. The steep cliffs, wild green vegetation that border the sea around the beach, make the place look really like a little paradise, a unique landscape that is worth a trip to Thailand.
the evening stroll through the local joints that were originally on the isthmus of sand, even if the tsunami had claimed destruction wherever they rebuilt everything very quickly and still have not finished, wherever there is a small yard. There are all kinds of local, French, Italian, Japanese and internet access points are infinite. In the streets you feel part of a small community, even though many of us happen to meet on the island often. Like every evening just defy the dark (much like taking in all the tropics, there is already the night at seven), there comes a time that is usually found a beautiful, the air cools and the temperature makes it almost pleasant.
Thursday, November 23, 2006 Today we are going the rounds of the Phi-Phi Island by boat is all inclusive, for 650 Baht per person, lunch, masks and fins for snorkeling and of course the passage in the boat.
Initially we turn around our island of Phi-Phi Don, then we stop in Monkey Beach where vendors have established a tacit pact with the monkeys, they need each other, animals attract tourists, so the peddlers sell their groceries and drinks in exchange grateful to give something to eat small animals, but the agreement is fragile and not just the sellers trust the monkeys take their food away from the benches. Then reached Bambolo Island off the coast of Phi-Phi we dive to see the depth. Are ten of us on the small boat that is ideal and I would say neither few nor too many. The driver of the boat fills us with information proclaiming in perfect English, I do not even understand quarter, fortunately there is Anna. Deng, as it is called the driver of the boat, feed the fish with the remnants of the pineapple that we had offered, making sure that when we find ourselves in water from a myriad of colorful fish, seem to be one of those documentaries that you see on television.
eat the lunch they have prepared lying on the white Bambolo Beach Island, then drive along the cliffs of new green overlooking the sea. Reminiscent of Capri, but unlike those they are completely covered with lush vegetation. Meanwhile the sun is hidden behind the clouds that seem to announce to the sound of a huge thunder storm. Without the warm sunlight on the rocks overlooking the sea have now acquired an almost left spectrum. The feeling is confirmed and extended when landing on Maya Beach in the Phi-Phi Lay, the beach became arcifamosa the film "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio. The beach is quiet, there were few people, apart from rare exceptions can not stay on the island. We enter the vegetation, leaving the beach and moving inland. We follow the beaten path only, as we walk the feeling of being in a ghost is confirmed. We reach the opposite end through a hole in the rocks where the log back to the sea cliff. Unfortunately
miss the sunset, there are masses of clouds below the horizon, I hoped to see him because the boat from Phi-Phi Don is impossible because of the mountains that cover the sun when it plunges into the water.
the evening we eat in the area of \u200b\u200bthe dock. There are lots of stand looking not very reassuring, it seems to be abandoned in a country fair, but we are very good, and as prices as quality. An outgoing and exuberant chef who seems to Chinese cooking at the moment, right before our eyes, because there is the kitchen, the kitchen is exposed. It 's fast and imaginative and has the lead role while the guests watch, then go from table to table to collect the compliments.
Friday, November 24, 2006
's so beautiful beach of Ao Lo Dalam, which is opposed to that of Ao Ton Sal, one that doubles as a port on the isthmus of sand Phi-Phi Don. It's like being in paradise. We tasted an air of peace and tranquility. The water is calm, from shades of green or blue depending on water depths of white sand, framed by green hills overlooking the sea.
The sea continued to retreat and then return to fill the small bay of the beach, so you can find a mirror in front of hot water or just building sand with outcrops of rock formations on the parts you can see coral timid attempts at settlements.
Before all this beauty comes from letting go and not think about anything, it feels quiet without the desire nothing more than a frozen Pineapple juice.
When the tide is looking like a chicken scratching in the sand dotted with myriad other forms of life that takes the place of those concealed by water. There are crabs, small fish that hide in the sandy bottom of the few remaining pools of water, the strange mollusks that resemble snails without shells that move along with holes that were dug in the sand and then hastily ritirarvisi not just touch them with your feet.
Everywhere around here still speak of the tragedy of the tsunami, the victims were on this lot and it is possible to happen again, the ocean around here is very high risk of earthquakes sea. The locals, however, was diligent, he rolled up his sleeves and rebuilt from scratch: the island is once again very friendly. Some say that they have altered, who has built too much, but you can not talk about dressing for those who do not even have the food, how can you deny the indisputable source of income that represents a strong presence of tourism.
At seven in the evening when the last boat has sailed and we do not expect others is like closing the door, you feel part of a small town: this island is very special.
Saturday, November 25, 2006 Today is the last day we spend in Phi-Phi Don, tomorrow with the boat we booked we will transfer to Ko Lanta.
This is an island of Circe and we are Marian Ulysses, we would not ever go there but if we do not decide who knows, could turn into pigs to us.
When the sun burns more I get to go in the small supermarket near the beach to get some ice cream or something to drink. Today while I was going to come down And I've seen the other hand, from the shelter that protects the entrance to the shop, a sort of black animal, I had the impression that it was a bat or something. I instinctively jumped back startled, then I looked around and there were two or three local boys sitting on comfortable chairs facing the entrance, laughing uproariously. They have created with the material of the bags of garbage that looks like something very much like a bat, they tied with string on the platform and each time someone passes it to him make him fall, and after a lot of fun to see reaction of the people scared. While willingly accept the joke I also laugh and I will stop watching the other unfortunates who fall victim after me of the joke. There really seems to die laughing to see a candid camera. We had dinner on the isthmus that
from the harbor, near the sea in the distance watching the fishing boats with their dim lights that were lost in the dark, intent on fishing almost every night.
Sunday, November 26, 2006 We took the ferry to Ko Lanta, our stay in Phi-Phi Island is finished. Between the two islands there are twenty miles of sea, it just get out of the bay we see the horizon the hills of Ko Lanta. Already we are on the boat approached from many brokers who work on behalf of hoteliers, then agree to stay at Lanta Long Beach Resort at the top of the island.
At the port we expect a pick-up, we settle on using the body as people here. Once there choose a nice bungalow for 600 baht with the fan only, fan: the air conditioner in the room of Phi-Phi was making us sick.
The resort is right on the long sandy beach. In the evening, thanks to Anna booked the plane to return from Krabi to Bangkok via the Internet, print out the ticket and everything is OK, it's very simple.
Internet is no longer the distances here in every remote village, in every secluded beach, just that some tourists, you are sure to find an Internet point with ADSL connection, I doubt that Lake Maggiore (where we come from us) there are all these possibilities for tourists. Here in Long Beach
you move walking on the beach, it is much faster and easier, as all the tourist facilities are all located on the beach, it would be unnecessary to reach the main road inside. At night we walk in darkness, fortunately there's the moon. We pass by small concentrations of resorts and bars lit the darkness of the beach, going to other centers that are seen illuminated in the distance. These small groups come around to the many resorts scattered along the coast, c 'is always an internet point, a small supermarket, a lot' of restaurants and bars, and the inevitable shack where they do massages.
eat near the beach in one of these conglomerates, not far from our resort, with its feet in the sand and the stars as the ceiling.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Ban Sala Dan is the capital of Ko Lanta, is like a modern version of the villages of the western film: a street and all the houses with the local government and housing around.
Among the population of Ko Lanta there seems to be a good percentage of Muslims, or perhaps more noticeable, at sunset you hear the muezzin call to prayer and the rickshaw driver who took us, like others we have seen, was a woman with the face open with the exception of the eyes. It must be said that
rickshaws that are used here are different, are formed by the kind of scooter with gears that are used in Asia to which is welded to the side in a cart with two parallel wheels, fortunately the drivers are not at all because of the medium is very unstable.
Under a scorching sun, we visited the city that does not offer anything special if the premises overlooking the canal that divides the two islands of Lanta and on which is the main port.
We had lunch in just one of those spaces, the Cat Fish. The entry consists of a feature library with books of all nationalities with two huge cats that the monitor while the canal veranda overlooking a feature that serves as a dining room. All buildings are constructed of piles parallel to the river where they sink the posts for support.
Our resort on the beach in Long Beach that is actually named Phraae Hat is lined with small wooden bungalows including ours, scattered in a small park in truth a bit 'scruffy unkempt vegetation. There is also a small swimming pool overlooking the sea. All evening stroll on the beach because the road as I have said is far and at least there is very little interesting.
always prefer to eat out of our hotel and then drive the beach at night in search of the most characteristic. The places where you can eat are always very comfortable with the staff very friendly, hygienic conditions, more or less rough, but it is better not to think. You can eat in the sea or lying on the sand in small gazebo leaning on the typical triangular Thai cushions.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006 We're back again at Ban Sala Dan, we had to confirm the flight, there were forgotten. We went in the first travel agency bearing the insignia of our airline Thai. The operator from doing very baroque, has made the necessary phone calls, then began to scribble sheets with data from our flight, then correct them several times, throwing away the package and replacing with others, took time: Finally, we asked 300 baht. Clearly we have no data daughters, Anna was the opposite, I'd also given them daughters just to take off my back to the petulant character. To close we gave him 100 baht and we left.
Every morning we have breakfast on the seashore (the tables of our resorts are next to the pool on the beach), on the evening we have dinner on the beach with your feet in the sand, after a while 'these things seem almost normal, but that when will be at home on a cold and rainy December regret for not having sufficiently appreciated.
The music is the most popular on the beaches here is the album Clandestino by Manu Chao and all the songs of Bob Marley. A Phi-Phi were many Rastas that imitated the late singer, often in public places there were photos of Marley or classic designs that represent it, and often could be seen waving flags with his face or stylized with the colors of Jamaica. I must say, however, is an excellent soundtrack for the site, reflects the desire to let things go as they go and not get too many questions.
Like every afternoon the clouds have thickened, we thought it would have fallen only a few drops as usual and then leave again place in the sun, has instead unleashed a tropical storm. The thunder was very strong, it seemed that the flashes could be cut down on our heads, then we ran to our bungalow in search of shelter. Shortly after the sun has returned, the air became cooler, and I finished reading the sixth book is the best way to enjoy the full relaxation of the beach and enjoy the sunlight on the skin. The storm has washed the air as the sky is made more clear, even the sea water has become cooler and pleasant. We found the sand on the beach all riddled like a Swiss cheese because of the violent impact of rain drops that have been slaughtered, leaving a damp and dark gray color.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006 This morning we went to Ban Raya is to visit the old town. With a sort of rickshaw or tuk-tuk that as I had mentioned here are formed by a welded in a cart to a sort of scooter resulting in a kind of side-car, we crossed across the island of Ko Lanta.
The interior is very green, the streets are largely cemented and very winding, dotted with ups and downs. Fortunately the drivers are very careful and not go faster than 70 km / h. Otherwise, with these roads would be a disaster.
reading the guide you would expect much more, in fact the most interesting are the old wooden buildings built on the coast, building survived all wild here as a parasite that attacks without quickly seizes the plant chosen. This is however a complex speech, such as You can order these people who sees tourism as a lucrative source of income and therefore built to accommodate more and more? Maybe we should make them understand the value of preserving all that old, that is their story, but I think this is very difficult, I believe that culture to preserve what is old and talks about the past is not yet part of their values , they live in the present.
We walked the length and breadth of the coast along a sort of a concrete pier that juts out into the sea. Ahead of us in the distance you can see the green cliffs and distant islands that are thrown headlong into the sea offshore, a sign of the importance of trade routes that the furrow, large commercial vessels horizon.
Sometimes as we walked we peeked into the homes of residents. The majority are composed mainly of a large empty room where they eat and do daily activities, there is no furniture or furnishings, you usually can see only one TV set to decorate the living room. The population is not rich but appears to have an acceptable standard of living and decent, not beg, but all look at us with curiosity. The majority of people have mobile phones and in each family there is always at least one of those atypical scooter with gears, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki, so are all the same. We also see brand new pick-up Japanese manufacturing, which we have prices that hover around 40,000 euros.
always pushing toward the east coast we have seen the collection of coconuts. A man with two trained monkeys, and tied by long ropes to his will, leads the animals to climb to the top of the palms and then screaming and pulling the court orders them to shake the plants to drop the nuts mature. The collection to which we are witnessing is very profitable and the monkeys come down quickly by plants as firefighters on the poles as soon as they receive the call, to go up so quickly on the others.
Back at our beach dedicate the rest of the day in the sun, is the latest.
As soon as the sun is gone we enjoyed a drink laid on the triangular Thai cushions watching what was still speaking of the star and still tinged horizon.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
We left Long Beach almost dawn, with a bus overloaded beyond belief until we headed to Krabi airport for the flight of Air Asia that have previously ordered through the Internet. We will one day leave Bangkok and the next day for Italy, we preferred to avoid the tug only, it would be too heavy.
With two first ferry we crossed the canal that divides the two islands of Ko Lanta and then what separates them from the continent.
The flight was very fast and to 15.00 Bosso we were back to our hotel where we stayed in Bangkok at the beginning of our stay in Thailand.
In Bangkok we really expect a turkish bath temperature. There was still some little thought for our feelings that we left in Italy so we slingshots to MBK that we have elected as the best shopping center. The hot and humid, then the freezing cold of local conditions, people everywhere and artificial lighting within the various stand enormous shopping mall, you cause a feeling of almost fainting, as we had experienced on our arrival in Thailand.
we used to move the famous Sky Train, a subway that travels under the ground instead of elevated, solving brilliantly mobility problems, but defacing the landscape already compromised with cyclopean concrete viaducts.
After three hours without a continuous wandering, aimlessly, and almost losing the orientation of the various merchandise madness of the mall, my head was spinning as if I had made three loops in a roller coaster, so we realized that was enough. We made a detour to the hotel to deposit the fruit of our purchases and we went by taxi to Patpong. Patpong is what can be described fully in a real puttanaio.
call you half-naked women from the local people on the street offers you sex shows and the street in the middle of the night market. Beside the brothels, in the middle of the street stalls where you can find the great occasions, bags, pens, clothes and fake watches perfectly: we have to buy something!
now it's late, we take the Sky Train and down the line that coincides with our destination, it's almost midnight.
In the chaos of the city that never goes to sleep, we enter into a Seven-Eleven, the ubiquitous small supermarkets in Thailand, we take a beer and some sandwiches and we retire to our room tree for a very frugal dinner, with the bed as a table.
Friday, December 1, 2006 We woke up early even if it was not necessary. The satellite channel HBO that we see here in Thailand shall the saga of 007 days from the original language with subtitles in Thai. The day is gray, but all the same the usual infernal heat: do not sweat, the body that exudes water continuously.
We had to leave the room but our plane did not start at midnight and winds, we bind the day without being worn out by fatigue and the heat.
Take the boat to visit Wat Po navigate this river is always a great show, the contrast between the old houses and temples with the modern skyscrapers of the corporate headquarters of the most prestigious hotels in the city is always very exciting.
The reclining Buddha of Wat Po is huge, it's all gold, a show that leaves you speechless. Around us are many other temples with many statues of Buddha, we prostrate before them, they say, without addressing their feet.
We leave the complex and we roam around but the heat is stifling. We lose lucidity. then come to his senses in the shade enjoying a sort of popsicle flavor and color indecipherable unlikely, then we decide to go to Lumpini Park, canal boat and Sky Train, and then we arrived. The park looks like Central Park in New York, lake and some look down on the skyscrapers all around. We walk under the trees hoping for a little refreshment. There are people that run under the relentless sun of midday, we in this heat not do it ever. There is a swimming pool, a fountain with an enormous stone ball that spins and a gymnasium for physical education for aspiring thugs outside Thailand. The rocker heavier end, instead of weights, sets of truck wheels. There
sleeping near the pond, get a group of students with their uniforms here that everyone uses, but they want all the tables at their disposal, we will not give up the place and then they leave. Then comes a strange little man with the inevitable yellow polo shirts with the symbol of the royal family here that many people wear, sit on the bench next to ours, sing alone, yawning noisily, and then let go as if nothing had two flatulence sound, maybe here is customary.
water of the lake, suddenly emerges a head as big as a fist of a reptile, which sometimes draws his forked tongue to sample the air. Along the edge of the pond, we can not understand: like a snake. Then we notice that it rests with his front paws on the shore to look better on the shore, we begin to think that will be a turtle, but looking more closely we find that a monitor lizard. Will be long, including tail, five feet. We follow him for a while ', is caring for the pigeons that jump to the edge of the pond to drink, and finally gets scared when I approached to photograph it further and plunges into the water with a dramatic backlash. Notice the water, this time we are sure, also a tortoise.
We spend the rest of the afternoon, awaiting the time to bring us to the airport, in a shopping center not far from the park, there are air conditioned and very comfortable seating. Finally we return to the hotel to retrieve the bags that have held us gently all day and we go into the new mega airport in Bangkok.
Saturday, December 2, 2006
The plane leaves late: it appeared written on the board of the immense airport in Bangkok. This new airport is so grand and futuristic, but especially in the main rooms of the departures and arrivals, but the rest is still to be completed, although some parts seem to still not completed but very successful, as the finish exposed concrete ceilings and no ceiling in life that leave all the pipes and cabling, electrical and air conditioning.
I do not like to be part of the generalizations, I will not be evaluated using samples of membership: age, gender, zodiac sign, class or income, etc.. It 's true sometimes generalizes too, when considering the other and wrong, and ugly to be part of "you people", "middle class" or "employees" rather than "workers", to be one of the "young" or "grown men" maybe "Alfista" or "lancisti" of "center" or "center", "Juventus" as opposed to being "Milani" instead of "Inter".
I do not especially like being "Italian" I when compared with other Italian tourists and this inevitably happens once you find yourself all at the airport. Here, I think the way we behave is not one of the best from other travelers and frankly it bothers me when I recognize the first time as an Italian, probably we all have a way of behaving and attitude, maybe we dress or gesture that in the eyes of foreigners and Italians as there inevitably bubble remains to be see whether this is a good thing.
I believe that Italian tourists are the most noisy and unruly, more than showing off their well-being ephemeral, move in a group like sheep, women are still vainly showy and excessive, sometimes vulgar to show those body parts they consider to be their best things forgetting that this can hurt the habits and customs of the countries they visit. The men then, mostly fifties, who practice sex tourism here in Thailand have it written in front of their OBJECTIVE. So
tourist, traveler and also Italian, but not only Italian tourist.
The plane landed at Malpensa airport an hour late, (the Thai has cheated us), piercing a thick blanket of clouds, giving us from the harsh climate Thai to the gray of an autumn close to the end, a young country arrembante, perhaps ignorant, a little ' limping but still innocent to a civilization old who does not think that dusting off its tarnished glories and now terrified of losing the leadership in economy and culture that still thinks he has.
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