Of Iron men and beaches
Trip Start
Feb 01, 2004
1
20
44
Trip End
Jun 01, 2004
Langkawi and Krabi,
Thailand
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Since we last updated, we have seen the finish of the Ironman on Langkawi, travelled to Thailand, ridden on a longtail boat, snorkelled on great reefs, had our first two hour traditional thai massage, caved, sea canoed, said prayers with a Buddhist monk, visited a Muslim sea gypsy village entirely built on stilts and trekked on an elephant! Just too much to recount while internet rates are high and agonizingly slow!
But we can say that the Thai people are so much fun. They have a word in Thai, "sanuk" which means fun and to the Thais, anything worth doing must have an element of sanuk. They seem to approach all tasks with a sense of playfulness. Near Krabi, we saw guys fully dressed in 35 degree heat, hauling trash through mud flats to long tail boats and they were singing, laughing and cracking jokes. Maybe the famous Thaii smile comes from this desire to make "sanuk."
Thais greet you with a sawat-dii and a wai (a prayer like palms together gesture), so we've a;ready become accustomed to wai-ing back. Comportment is very important here and we are trying to model Thai behaviour as best as we can. Of course, Thainess is first and foremost defined by the ability to speak Thai which we are finding very difficult (much moreso than Malaysian). Our attempts are met by giggles and co rrections but a Thai lady who befriended us in Krabi assures us that this apparent amusement is actual appreciation so we continue with our sawat-diis, and kwawp kuns.
We already know Canadian hospitality is also legendary, but we must thank Jim N (hosting us now in Phuket) and Rita and Jamie M (whowill host us in Bangkok). We couldn't ask for more!
This trip has so exceeded anything we could have dreamed of and we are only one month into it. We trust this finds everyone as healthy and happy as we are and we'll send photos once we get to Bangkok later this week.
