Smiles
September 5th, 2020, 12:08
Last July in the morning I hopped on the Song Theow (sp) with The Mall in mind. Also I had some things to buy before we took of in the afternoon with the forest in mind.
It was just around 10:30 AM, The Mall had just opened. The baht bus was not overly crowded but at least a dozen old Thai ladies were on board ... obviously the daily cleaning crew getting there as close to opening as possible. I was, as usual at this time, the only male as well as being the lone farang.
This morning the 8 minute drive to The Mall seemed, shall we say, a tad tense. All twelve of these babes were wearing masks, but this farang was obviously about to regurgitate who-knows-what straight into all their faces en masse. Being Thai, all of the ladies were talking to each other in a lather: "Fucking dumb ass farang" ... "We'll probably die before we pick up a broom" ... This old man has a chicken neck" ... "Stupid farang wearing shorts" ... "no mask, what a cunt".
Apparently leaving home I had forgotten to mask-up, and I remember brushing past our christmas tree loaded with masks, flapping in the breeze, being a large part of dodging the virus. I jumped up, rang the buzzer, and out straight into the nearest 7-11 where I sheepishly bought a pair.
10314
We ran away from Hua Hin that same day looking to find a human being in not-having-a-mask mode. The province of Kanchanaburi might have one of those, we thought. But the masks were just as prevalent as back home where even the loggers ~ real men they are ~ flashed there coloured masks.
Nope, we were decidedly NOT in South Dakota who's inhabitants believe that having the mask is proof one's government(s) is closing in on you, taking your god-given rights, showing one's manhood. The virus is simply a hoax to large numbers of the Greatest Country in the World.
Of course, masks or no masks can never stop Thais from laughing at anything (except for the Horrible 12) .... while those folks across the Pacific just want to masturbate their long guns, and think it's another god-given right for Americans to be perpetually angry and scowling and screaming in Walmarts.
But screw Trumpism. Before we went off down the road to Kanchanaburi we stopped off at a cute little motel sitting on the very top of the Gulf of Thailand in Samut Songkhram. We were tired and bedded down.
The bed was hard tack Thai and the pillows even harder. Next morning ~ after having little sleep ~ early I walked around ~ he kept on napping I found this long wooden walking pier which, from it's start, seemed eerie and wet from the trees above.
It reminded me about the last few frames of Moonlight.
10315
At the very end one is greeted by a low sun, haze in the miles-away and the thousand of mature mangrove trees wrapping around. But most stunning was the smoothness of the ocean itself ... like a gigantic gray silk robe had been ~ by god ~ tossed over the water.
10316
Thais love weird colour mixures. When we purchased a house in Surin Province (where his Mom and numerous siblings lived). It's a lovely house and we go there at least four times a year. But while renovating the joint I had to tell him that we would be on the edge of divorce should he demand that the outside colours were to be day-glow green and an orange/pinkish disaster.
These little bungalows and motel style was a color scheme somewhat like the above. When I first got a gander of the place I couldn't say no. It was just too ghastly to turn down. We hit the sack on the nearest green one, and I made sure to mention that this is what the Surin house would have looked like if he had gotten his way. Zing!
10317
But so much for this motel. It was a dump anyway, the mangroves were it's only forgiveness.
So on to Kanchanaburi. Arrived at dusk and found the 'Good Times Resort': a charmingly silly name, but a beautiful hotel it turned out to be ... right on the river lapping at our door. But non-tourists we came for was not that.
And that lay up-river into the Heart of Darkness, so we slept in town over night and at morn turned the car to the north.
We were bent on finding the famous hotels-on-the-water into the land of forests and dams and wild tigers and plodding elephants.
Our first and second and third stoppage was environmental disaster. Up there on the road we looked down on the river. An entire side-of-mountain had been destroyed in order to squeeze as many river-boat-hotels in, the land behind was devoid of any forest tress and a child's ferris wheel had been put up in the dust. The hotels-on-water were modern and about as ugly you could manage. The daily cost was 3000 baht.
This was absolutely the last type of sleeping-time we were interested in.
Unfortunately I have no photos of this disgrace, but now when I write this I wished I had taken just a few.
Instead we were outta there. Mask or non-mask.
And then, about another 60 kilometre up river, we found what we were looking for.
This joint lay gurgling and small waves clapping against the teak rooms.
Each
10318
10322
There was not a lot of rooms, around eight I think, but each had a lookout window onto the River Kwai. Actually, rather like a lake than a river at that point . . . there was a dam about 30 kilometres to the south which caused that.
The outlook across the river/lake was serene, mask-less, noise-less.
It was exactly what I wanted to be surrounded. On the further bank, not a house, not a mouse, hardly a ripple that evening.
I asked the dear lady who run the place (750 baht!) ~ fully adorned with her mask ~ about the quietness of the forest across the water . . . she told me it was a National Park. Made sense.
10319
Mr Suphot jumped into the water a few seconds after I took this photo. "Come in babe" so refreshing. Myself? Eh, crocodiles right?
10320
All the outside furniture was either teak or mahogany. The benches especially had been around a long time and many an ass had polished many a bench. For some reason I felt somewhat religious using it (and using it I did indeed, we both needed no pillow) and ran my hand from top to bottom many times. FeelGood.
10321
And then, in early dusk we watched a a silent canoe and equally silent pair of young teenagers slide past us in slow motion.
We waved to them and they waved back. We saw them once again going back to wherever they were staying. They were as silent again.
I pulled out my little binoculars for one last look . . . no mask. Who needs one out there?
10323
It was just around 10:30 AM, The Mall had just opened. The baht bus was not overly crowded but at least a dozen old Thai ladies were on board ... obviously the daily cleaning crew getting there as close to opening as possible. I was, as usual at this time, the only male as well as being the lone farang.
This morning the 8 minute drive to The Mall seemed, shall we say, a tad tense. All twelve of these babes were wearing masks, but this farang was obviously about to regurgitate who-knows-what straight into all their faces en masse. Being Thai, all of the ladies were talking to each other in a lather: "Fucking dumb ass farang" ... "We'll probably die before we pick up a broom" ... This old man has a chicken neck" ... "Stupid farang wearing shorts" ... "no mask, what a cunt".
Apparently leaving home I had forgotten to mask-up, and I remember brushing past our christmas tree loaded with masks, flapping in the breeze, being a large part of dodging the virus. I jumped up, rang the buzzer, and out straight into the nearest 7-11 where I sheepishly bought a pair.
10314
We ran away from Hua Hin that same day looking to find a human being in not-having-a-mask mode. The province of Kanchanaburi might have one of those, we thought. But the masks were just as prevalent as back home where even the loggers ~ real men they are ~ flashed there coloured masks.
Nope, we were decidedly NOT in South Dakota who's inhabitants believe that having the mask is proof one's government(s) is closing in on you, taking your god-given rights, showing one's manhood. The virus is simply a hoax to large numbers of the Greatest Country in the World.
Of course, masks or no masks can never stop Thais from laughing at anything (except for the Horrible 12) .... while those folks across the Pacific just want to masturbate their long guns, and think it's another god-given right for Americans to be perpetually angry and scowling and screaming in Walmarts.
But screw Trumpism. Before we went off down the road to Kanchanaburi we stopped off at a cute little motel sitting on the very top of the Gulf of Thailand in Samut Songkhram. We were tired and bedded down.
The bed was hard tack Thai and the pillows even harder. Next morning ~ after having little sleep ~ early I walked around ~ he kept on napping I found this long wooden walking pier which, from it's start, seemed eerie and wet from the trees above.
It reminded me about the last few frames of Moonlight.
10315
At the very end one is greeted by a low sun, haze in the miles-away and the thousand of mature mangrove trees wrapping around. But most stunning was the smoothness of the ocean itself ... like a gigantic gray silk robe had been ~ by god ~ tossed over the water.
10316
Thais love weird colour mixures. When we purchased a house in Surin Province (where his Mom and numerous siblings lived). It's a lovely house and we go there at least four times a year. But while renovating the joint I had to tell him that we would be on the edge of divorce should he demand that the outside colours were to be day-glow green and an orange/pinkish disaster.
These little bungalows and motel style was a color scheme somewhat like the above. When I first got a gander of the place I couldn't say no. It was just too ghastly to turn down. We hit the sack on the nearest green one, and I made sure to mention that this is what the Surin house would have looked like if he had gotten his way. Zing!
10317
But so much for this motel. It was a dump anyway, the mangroves were it's only forgiveness.
So on to Kanchanaburi. Arrived at dusk and found the 'Good Times Resort': a charmingly silly name, but a beautiful hotel it turned out to be ... right on the river lapping at our door. But non-tourists we came for was not that.
And that lay up-river into the Heart of Darkness, so we slept in town over night and at morn turned the car to the north.
We were bent on finding the famous hotels-on-the-water into the land of forests and dams and wild tigers and plodding elephants.
Our first and second and third stoppage was environmental disaster. Up there on the road we looked down on the river. An entire side-of-mountain had been destroyed in order to squeeze as many river-boat-hotels in, the land behind was devoid of any forest tress and a child's ferris wheel had been put up in the dust. The hotels-on-water were modern and about as ugly you could manage. The daily cost was 3000 baht.
This was absolutely the last type of sleeping-time we were interested in.
Unfortunately I have no photos of this disgrace, but now when I write this I wished I had taken just a few.
Instead we were outta there. Mask or non-mask.
And then, about another 60 kilometre up river, we found what we were looking for.
This joint lay gurgling and small waves clapping against the teak rooms.
Each
10318
10322
There was not a lot of rooms, around eight I think, but each had a lookout window onto the River Kwai. Actually, rather like a lake than a river at that point . . . there was a dam about 30 kilometres to the south which caused that.
The outlook across the river/lake was serene, mask-less, noise-less.
It was exactly what I wanted to be surrounded. On the further bank, not a house, not a mouse, hardly a ripple that evening.
I asked the dear lady who run the place (750 baht!) ~ fully adorned with her mask ~ about the quietness of the forest across the water . . . she told me it was a National Park. Made sense.
10319
Mr Suphot jumped into the water a few seconds after I took this photo. "Come in babe" so refreshing. Myself? Eh, crocodiles right?
10320
All the outside furniture was either teak or mahogany. The benches especially had been around a long time and many an ass had polished many a bench. For some reason I felt somewhat religious using it (and using it I did indeed, we both needed no pillow) and ran my hand from top to bottom many times. FeelGood.
10321
And then, in early dusk we watched a a silent canoe and equally silent pair of young teenagers slide past us in slow motion.
We waved to them and they waved back. We saw them once again going back to wherever they were staying. They were as silent again.
I pulled out my little binoculars for one last look . . . no mask. Who needs one out there?
10323