Siam Culture Week

July 3, 2017

The Green Lion

Thailand might be the most famous tourist destination in all of Asia. Rightfully so, because it’s a gorgeous place, but the country is especially suited for the beginning traveller. The infrastructure and loads of ho(s)tel makes it easy to get around without stress, while it’s still possible to find some quiet spots without too much tourism. That’s why most backpackers start their trip with a cheap flight to Bangkok and use that as a base to go around South-East Asia. I was one of them: my first time in Asia started with a whopping two months in Thailand.

It meant I learned how to butcher a “Hello” and a “Thank you” in Thai, but I’ve never reached more knowledge than that. Lying on a beach in the south of Thailand, I probably hadn’t experienced as much of the Thai culture as I aimed for. Oops. My bad. But now, I was visiting the country a second time and was going to do things right. The upcoming week I was going to experience Siam Culture week in a non-touristic city, to check out better what makes this country tick. This meant cooking classes, a basic language course, and loads of sightseeing.

On Tuesday we went to check out the tallest Buddha statue in Thailand and got lucky. The sky looked Photoshopped-blue with a few fluffy clouds. It seemed we died and went to photography heaven. This place is hands-down the most interesting temple I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to a bunch. One part of the terrain represents Heaven, and the other part Hell. Heaven is an all-silver blinged out temple where Donald Trump would feel right at home. Inside and out, the glitter will make your eyes burn. The monk that founded this place decided not to get cremated after his death, even though that is traditional in Buddhism. Instead, his mummified body can now be visited inside Heaven. That man must have been quite the poet. The Hell area is possibly even more fascinating: life-sized bloodied statues represent what will happen if you do bad. You can see the statues being ‘boiled alive’, stabbed, or forced to climb a cactus while naked.

The rest of the day was spent at the historical city of Ayutthaya, which used to serve as capital for the former Ayutthaya Kingdom. The old city feels as if you’re walking around a giant open-air museum. A highlight is a visit to one of the most famous Buddha heads in the world. After raids by the Burmese, all the heads and arms were cut off from statues, but this one was seemingly left and a tree grew its roots around the face. A picture of the tree is often used in travel promos for Thailand. Now guess what happened. We walked up to the statue and half that 700 year old tree crashed down right in front of us. The Photoshopped-blue sky had been replaced by an upcoming storm and the wind was strong enough to blow half the tree down. Luckily it made a deafening sound, just in time for the dozen tourist underneath to start running. All a while we watched it take place from a mere twenty meters ahead with our jaws dropped. Talk about timing. It’s a “Shoulda been there” type of thing, it was such a remarkable experience. Strangely, nobody got hurt and the Buddha head itself escaped damage by a few inches.

Another day came and another ruin: this time a Khmer temple in Lopburi, filled with monkeys. We arrived and the place was different from what I’d built in my mind. In the heart of the city they’d left one big square in between semi-modern life with a old ruin still intact. The shops across the street were swarmed with monkeys on their produce. Normal. That patch of land might be worth a bit these days, but instead of tearing the place down to replace with more buildings, they’ve left the temple as a sanctuary for the few hundred monkeys that call it home.

The people of Lopburi take care of feeding the monkeys in the early morning and afternoon. All we personally witnessed was a car pull up and the driver started throwing food out of the window. The monkeys went crazy of excitement. At a closer look, all of the food seemed to be crap wrapped in plastic. Think: individually wrapped candy, packages of juice and entire cartons of yoghurt. I’m sure the guy had good intentions, but maybe it’s not the best food to donate to animals. The monkeys bit it open, spilling it all over themselves. One dropped dropped yoghurt all over the baby she was carrying on her belly. A helpful neighbour licked the food straight off the baby’s head. Teamwork makes the dream work.

We just stuck to feeding them nuts. We made sure nobody had jewelry or sunglasses on, for them to steal. If you sat down with food in your hand, the monkeys climbed on top of you, picking lice off your hair. A few girls that were brave enough, even walked around with the animals sitting on their head or shoulder. Fun fact: the locals say they have never found the body of a monkey. This means that, every time a monkey dies, the rest will take care of it and likely bring it to a special place. I’d say my own theory sounds way more fun: maybe they just never die. HA! Magic monkeys! Then again, I should probably stop watching Hollywood movies.

The macaques weren’t the only little buggers that climbed on us this week. On thursday, we visited a local school where the kids enthusiastically ran towards the door before we could even walk in. I didn’t get a chance to say ‘Hi’ either, or one was already hugging me by the legs. Nice to meet you too, little buddy. A second one signed that she wanted me to pick her up and wave her around. The kind Dutch giant was happy to oblige. As soon as the rest saw that fun game, ten others were standing in line to be swirled around too. We then got a few high fives and were dragged by the hand to their table for colouring. Plenty of Picasso’s were made that morning. I was late for our tuk tuk, because they wouldn’t stop climbing on my back.

All in all, I definitely got to see a different side of Thailand this time. There’s so much more we did on the program. Let me end with some of the highlights:

-Managing to make my handmade bracelet look like an ugly Christmas Tree;
-Not dying while climbing 300 steps to a viewpoint;
-None of the performers laughing too hard when we tried Thai traditional dancing;
-Getting to know the girls I shared Culture week with;
-Ending the week with these girls in Bangkok;
-Not getting my face tattooed in Bangkok.