August 6, 2012
June 17, 2012
June 11, 2012
I'm actually back from this Thailand trip for close to two months already
The purpose of this trip is to spend Songkran with my Thai family
It's been 10 years since my last trip back
I honestly didn't know what to expect
10 years can do a lot of things
My grandparents have passed on, my cousins have married, my uncle has a son and the cows are long dead
But the hospitality they've shown us is something I can never experience in Singapore
Anyway, we took a night flight and we reached Chiang Mai at 11pm
We couldn't do anything but walked to the night bazaar for some roti prata, Mum's recommendation
I had the corn and condensed milk one
Not bad!
Met up with one of my cousin who came to Chiang Mai to set up a stall at the night bazaar about a year ago
Mum's kampong is around 3 1/2 hour drive away
His wife and daughter came along too
This is what we have each morning in Chiang Mai
Super nice and cheap!
I always request for more pig blood and we had char nom yan = thai milk tea too
We didn't take any tuk tuks cos there are too many of us so we opt for songthaew, converted truck with two rows of seats which is why it's named songthaew(two rows)
It's a cheap form of transport for us, 20 baht per person(S$0.80)
I'm super glad cousin's wife came along with us! :D
My thai relatives are super nice, they can drop everything they are doing just to accompany us while we were there
Talk more about this later on
My cousin and his family runs a stall in the night bazaar but they took the effort to wake up in the morning to accompany us around Chiang Mai, thank you!
His wife knows the place very well and she helped me nego with the stall owners, I practically got every 30 to 50% off!
We didn't go to places tourists frequent though
It was those wholesale place
I also went to buy sausages and sweet meat my dad requested for
Took the opportunity to shop more cos after tomorrow, we will be in the kampong and there are literally zero shopping place
You need to drive 20 mins to get meat!
Paiseh, I went off track lol
Afterwards, we bought some sticky rice, marinated meat, pork ribs and stuffed thai sausages back to the hotel
Apparently it's a famous store, there are a lot of people!
Dad say we always eat the food there every time we come back
These are some of the tribal things I got
100% handmade!
But most of them are for crazy gang and smelly
Rested a bit after lunch and we went to the night bazaar!
Dinner first then visit cousin's stall
Really have to thank them
They braved the heat, sacrificed their sleep just to accompany us (me in particular cos I bought the most things) to shop, bring us to places with the best and cheapest things
And it's the first time I met cousin's wife and daughter, my thai relatives are too nice to us (:
They sell mirrors and fruit baskets
They also have customised key chains
We are their first customers
I saw cousin's wife dust our things and I asked why
Apparently, the first sale of the day is very important
If they dust the first item they sell, more sales would follow
Call me superstitious but there are a lot of tourists who went to their stall after us!
Cousin and us!
Really got to take my hats off him
Mum told me he is a degree holder and yet he chose to set up a stall
He used to be a monk which explains his character
Very mild tempered, happy go lucky, simple minded, easily content
He hurt his hand years ago and it was quite serious he needed surgery but the family couldn't afford it so Mum gave him money for the surgery
Wonder how my mum do this for years
Gave my uncle money to get a bike, gave my younger aunt and older uncle money to build houses, gave my cousin money to get married
And that's on top of raising us
Wed I even accompanied her to get shoes for my aunt for her traditional thai dancing
Ought to respect her more
Mum and cousin's daughter
The mirrors they are selling
One side is concave and the other convex
Soap craving
Mum bought a few
The night bazaar stretches for miles
There are quite a few street artists
If I knew I would come here to get my O level art piece LOL
Confirm A1!
Key chains I customised for crazy gang and smelly at cousin's stall!
His wife made them for me (:
Actually I made a mistake, I forgot to tell her which animal is for which name but miraculously, she only got maureen and aster's wrong!
That day, some bad things happened
We booked a van to bring us around Chiang Mai and the driver is supposed to drive us back to the kampong the next day
But he came with a missing license plate van and we got suspicious but mum told us to get in the van anyway
The driver did quite a good job actually
He brought us to Mae Sa elephant camp and some temple, quite friendly
Until we paid him
We've got a bigger problem now
We are suppose to go back kampong next day and it's their new year, it's near impossible to get a van to drive us back
We seek help from our hotel and were told the price would be twice or thrice the original amount but thankfully, mum's friend's uncle is going back to his kampong quite near ours so he could bring us back, at normal rate. Yay!
Oh ya, elephant camp lol
Very little pictures are day 2 cos I took videos of the elephant performance and it drained the camera's battery, heh
Some temple, very famous according to the van driver
Reached the temple loh!
It's a temple up the hill and we have two options to get to the temple
Walk up or take the elevator which costed very little
Mum chose to take elevator LOL
And it's one of the scariest time of my life, a big black dog went into the elevator with us!
Shit man! I hid at a corner lol
But I got to say the dog is super smart, he knows to take the elevator leh!
Other dogs ran up the hill he take elevator hahaha
We were given a piece of paper each to recite thrice as we walk three rounds
It was translated in english alphabets so it was quite ok for me
I finished reciting at 2 1/2 round and bro couldn't finish
It was scorching hot that day!
We had to remove our shoes and leave them at the shoe cabinet
The cemented floor is cooler than the coloured tiles
Such intricate cravings
This is suppose to be at the top but I'm lazy to move it up, haha
We went back hotel to rest awhile then we head to the night bazaar
It's not the same one though
This one only open during weekend but since it's very near new year, it is open as well
We saw this stall that sell drinks in bamboo!
I chose the chrysanthemum tea
Fried insects!
If you look past the appearance, they taste pretty buttery
This night bazaar has rows and rows of food stalls
We had some food there
Not bad, not bad
But the cockles are so hard to open we eventually gave up on those ):
Mei you hum chi liao
We got up bright and early to prepare for our ride back the kampong
I was dreading this day cos in my memory, the kampong has A LOT of cats and dogs
In fact, my aunt has three
Mum bought a whole styrofoam box of seafood back for relatives cos the area don't have seafood
One of the days, she bought durians on the way back
Chiang Mai don't have durians, they have to be delivered from Bangkok
We stopped along some hot spring place to have lunch
And we reached Doong Boon Nak!
It's the name of mum's kampong
There, mum gave her family a lot of things, we practically dragged 140kg of things there
I learnt a very valuable lesson that day
We packed our unwanted clothes, bags and hand phones for them and they were so appreciative
A few years ago, Mum brought back my Mr Happy shirt for them
My aunt's husband is still wearing them
I'm ashamed because I thought the shirt was out of fashion, I chucked it aside
But to my thai family, a shirt is a shirt, they don't care about the design, the pattern or how much it cost
The girls and ladies got my wallets
I was surprised the amount of unwanted wallets could be given to so many people!
Sheepishly , I still have a lot at home, heh
This time round, dad passed me a lot of his clothes for them
I thought it was nice of him since he and mum have already divorced
His clothes were given to my cousins and my uncles
Afterwards, another of cousin came over to drive us to get necessities like instant noodles, meat and fruits
At this point of time, a lot of people have started splashing water at each other
My relatives graciously let us sit in the truck( it could fit 5) while they sat at the back
I am grateful to my cousin who drove us around, it was for so many days, to super far places like 3 hour rides many times a day, not on normal roads but dirt roads
He is supposed to be resting since it was his new year holiday but he gave it up to drive us around
Almost all my relatives did that
They braved the heat, sitting at the back of the truck for hours
Back to the point, everyone in the family made it a point to cook something and bring it to grandparents' house to eat dinner with us
I appreciate it
Everyone thought that I hate going back because there are cats and dogs everywhere but that's not true, I place my thai family above them
Guess I am too comfortable with not showing feelings
For the first time among our visits back there, we didn't sleep at grandparents' house
My uncle is living there now and he has his own family
My aunt graciously let us sleep at hers
We call her On Kaew
She is the younger aunt
My older aunt is Pa Kaew
I am closest to On Kaew and her husband cos they took great care of me
Bro's favourite person there is Pa Kaew's husband
He gave him chilled fruits, brought the fan out of the house for him, gave him a lot of thai amulets
This might not seem a lot
But for these people who has little to give but yet gave so much, I am amazed, we didn't know what we do to receive so much from them
For On Kaew, she slept beside me and every night when I woke up in the middle of the night, she would ask me a ton of questions
I can understand but I can't speak much thai
She would ask if it was too hot, if I need the blanket, is it the mosquitoes, do i want more bolster, do i need the toilet
I basically shook my head until she got it right
And this is for every night
Such dedication
One night mum and bro went to see the performance in the kampong, I opt to stay in the house with aunt's husband and cousin
On Kaew came back earlier to accompany me
This is the view in front of On Kaew's house
I sat there every morning
On Kaew has a dog
He is the most timid dog I've ever seen
If you want to feed him, he will run away until you are far away then he come back to eat
He is even scared of dust particles HAHAHA
But he is the most loyal and bravest dog I've ever seen
When we went out, he will follow us
When we went out, he will follow us
When we went to the kampong's temple, he also followed us, I sat in the middle of 6 big dogs but I wasn't so scared
The last night we were staying in Thailand, we stayed at a hotel in Phayao cos it's easier for us to travel to the airport though Phayao is only 1 hour away from the kampong
The dog followed the truck and he fought with three dogs cos he wanted to protect us, wow.
It was super aggressive I really thought he will die
This dog that chose his owners over his own kind, wow
And he never play with other dogs, he stayed at On Kaew's house all day
On Kaew's husband asked me if I could stay one more night
It's so sad, cos we are going back the next day and he only asked me
I will miss them
We slept in mosquito nets cos the bugs were so deadly and incredible
Bro is still sleeping inside
He had the time of his life
The left side of the house
You can see a small part of my grandparents' house
Next year, we will be going back for one month
Will be building a house there cos mum say we should have our own house so that we won't have to trouble the rest every time we come back
On Kaew's dog!
He is actually more grayish than brown
And then after breakfast, the whole brood of us went to visit Aunty Joy' house
Aunty Joy is mum's former employee
We were resting at some lake while mum call her for her address
Aunty Joy married a malay man
There are quite a number of thai women who married muslim men in Singapore
She only spent 15k building her house!
Was supposed to go Aunty Ivy's house but we couldn't find the place
Bro and I traded place with my aunts
They sit in the truck while we sat at the back cos it was such a terrible weather!
But we got splashed with water every 5 mins so it's quite ok for us
It actually got quite cold at the end cos we were travelling high speed
But! The people there basically used any type of water to splash us!
Tap water, mud water, coloured water and ICED WATER!
Wah fuck, the iced water is super super torturing!
The whole brood of us went to visit the elders!
Basically grandpa and grandma's siblings
We didn't managed to visit them all cos some were not home
This is at grandpa's younger brother's house
That's On Kaew beside mum!
This is what we typically give the elders
In Thailand, once you start working you need to give the elders money during Songkran
Mum bought the shirt and watch in Singapore
She got them for all the elders on top of her immediate family
The lady in pink is Pa Kaew!
She is wearing the top mum got for her from Singapore
They really appreciate the things we got for them
My cousins wore dad's shirts too
They are not picky of the things you gift them
They understand the thought you put in to get them overseas, bring them there so that they can wear it for Songkran
This part, I need to learn
They have an elder sister who died at 18
Everyone say I look like her
But I saw her pictures, she is quite pretty leh HAHAHAHA
Buying cantaloupes along the road!
We bought a lot of them, each house gets quite a few!
They are two of the elders we visited
Very convenient for us cos grandpa's sister married grandma's brother! :D
I really like their house. It was built 2m above ground, they have hammocks below their house, a corner to lepak and their house is super big and clean!
They really resembled my late grandparents
I miss them a lot
Last time when we come back, mum, dad and bro always go out while I stayed home with grandparents
Grandma always woke up super early to buy breakfast for us and grandpa always sat with me
I used to take a lot of their rice to feed the chickens
Maybe I'll go dig up some old photos of us and them and post it here
I suppose this is their address?
They laugh at me when I took this picture haha
We went back the house, load a huge container with water and lots of pails
We are going to the streets to play with water too!
You know, over the past few days we kanna splash like nobody's business and we can't retaliate!
It's no use buying those toy guns! Bring huge container!
And wear dark coloured clothes cos light coloured ones can be seen through
Obviously we didn't take pictures but I found this picture
except our container is blue and there were 10 of us at the back!
We went to this stretch of road where a lot of trucks were there and it was near the river so we refilled water a lot of times, 10 baht for each refill ( S$0.40)
It was a lot of fun but Songkran is a dangerous period too
Around 2000 people died during Songkran 2012
Some are of people playing at roadside
Cars can't see them so they got knocked down
But the most common is of motorists getting splashed and losing vision, they often skid off the road or ram into other vehicles
It doesn't help that almost anyone can ride a bike in Thailand
Many times, on the way up the mountains, there was incidents where kids splashed water at the cars behind them
One of them dropped the pail they were holding onto, it hit the car at the back
The entire car went down the mountain
Everyone died in the car
We saw the corpse of a cat on the road too
The head was missing and no one can retrieve the body cos it was a very busy road
When we went back kampong, we walked to get some sand and dumped it at the temple
It was one of the tradition
The temple wrote the names of people who donate on the things they donate for
It's nice to see my grandpa's name on the main pillar of the temple (:
There are a lot of dogs at the temple! But On Kaew's dog guard us
It is last day already, we are flying back tomorrow
Mum wanted to bring us to the border across burma, the border across laos, wat rongkhun and a lot of other places but we didn't have enough time ):
We only managed mae sai and the border across laos cos we have to go back kampong to get our luggage and drive an hour to Phayao to stay there for the night, easier to travel to airport
We didn't take pictures at Mae Sai
Mae Sai is the northern most part of Thailand
I didn't buy much except local tea leaves for my Singapore uncle who suffered a stroke a few days ago and more sweet meat for dad
Quite a lot of things to buy actually
I guess I'm learning on the lessons I've been taught days earlier?
I didn't buy anything for myself
The picture below is one if the temple at the border of Laos
It was very late when we went back Doong Boon Nak to get our luggage
We wanted to have mookata, thai steamboat with them the last time again but it was closing already
We just went into some random shop, ordered whatever was left
But it was still nice though
The next day, we went to the market nearby hotel to place a container for the thai amulets Pa Kaew's husband gave bro cos it's cheaper to get it done in Thailand and it's a lot! like 20 plus amulets
Cousin already arrived with the rest
They traveled with us to the airport in even hotter weather
Again, we sat in the truck
A bit sad that we can't go back in November for Loy Krathong cos this is what I will miss
Things I got, super little considering that food were all for dad(sausage,sweet meat,perserved fruits, egg rolls) notebooks, wallets, pencil cases and key chains for friends
But it's ok, I still have next year, bring more money over!
And I will make sure to bring another cam and batteries!
It surprised me I spent less than SGD200 there for 7 days
I have the most amount of money left even though I shopped the most among us LOL
Same case as Taiwan trip!
It was a very fruitful trip that taught me so much and I feel very special knowing that I'm half thai and I have a huge family there!
I have 11 aunts and uncles and some I have never met! I've only met 6!
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