Thailand - Part Two

Every travel experience is unique to the traveller, and I'm sure nobody wants to hear me ramble on about the glory of some sunset or flower or transcendent moment of meditation in some ancient Buddhist temple. If anybody reading this blog wanted to read that, I would question why in the hell she's reading this blog. So. Based on my unique travel experiences, these are my recommendations...

A Few Things I Loved Most About Thailand

Banana Crepes

I know, I know. I travel halfway around the world and the only food I rhapsodize about is banana crepes, but these were not average crepes. For one, the best banana crepes were always at some random food stand on the street - no names, no signage. In Canadian money, they cost about four pennies.

The sellers who knew how to make them the proper way, began by dumping a dangerous amount of butter on a round skillet. They added the crepe batter, and miraculously did not burn it the way I would. They grilled the bananas into the crepe batter - and that part was important. Some sellers just threw some raw bananas into a rolled up crepe - these were not proper banana crepes. These were crepes with a side of banana - not the same thing.

Once the bananas were grilled into the crepe, the crepe was folded into a square, smeared with Nutella, cut into smaller squares and eaten with a tooth pick. And then I would die from happiness. If I find anybody who can make me these crepes, I will marry them. Man, woman, serial killer, octogenarian - if you're out there and can make this for me, I want to spend my life with you.

Koh Phangan Full Moon Party

Koh Phangan (pronounced ko-pan-ya) is a beach paradise, where locals and hedonists chill together so effortlessly, it is virtually impossible to experience stress in Koh Phangan. I tried. Koh Phangan's motto should be should be, "Whatever you worry about in your daily life just forget about it for now because you're in Koh Phangan and it's time to get your party on, your groove on, your beach on and we don't even care if you wear pants."

I didn't wear pants in Koh Phangan. I rarely wore shoes. I wandered around all day in a bathing suit and either a t-shirt or skirt, but never both, because why worry? I realized I really did have to leave Koh Phangan when I found myself thinking that fisherman pants I saw other white people who had been there longer than me wearing, might actually be an inspired fashion choice. I'd just weave some beads into my hair, wrap both wrists and ankles with hemp jewellery, and rock out with my fisherman pants and a bikini top and everything would be OK. Obviously, this was a sign it was nearly time to go.

Koh Phangan is famous for its monthly full-moon parties. The days leading up to the full moon saw caravans of back-packers arriving by any mode of transport with wheels, from everywhere around the world. On a small stretch of white sand beach, 5000 people gathered while we were there, in the off-season, to dance until dawn and have sex in the water. I didn't go swimming for two days afterward for fear I'd get pregnant by jumping a wave. Sadly, I did not have sex in the water but I did pee in it with a large audience, which I don't recommend.

A friend we met during a stay in Koh Phangan announced that her and I should go "wee." She was British. We waded off into the water and I since I'd had a little bit to drink, I really had to go. I turned around to face the beach, and this was a mistake. The beach was crammed full of people grooving on the music, staring into the water. One of them yelled out to ask if we were peeing. My friend yelled yes, of course we were. He yelled back, Awesome! This is the standard response to any activity undertaken in Koh Phangan.

It would have been awesome, except my nervous bladder could not handle performing in front of a crowd. It froze. Either at least 100 people on the beach would have to turn around, or my kidneys would fail due to stress. Luckily, my bladder gave up and we could continue with the evening.

Everywhere there were people dancing, fire spinners, crazy things happenening - it was almost overload. In the hours leading up to the party street vendors sold neon body paint, and that's all some people wore. It wasn't a rave - it seemed much more organic than that. Thousands of people worshipping the moon and the water and everything in between, and they worship every month in Koh Phangan.

People

Thai people are beautiful. I don't mean physically beautiful - although they are. It's actually pretty disgusting. The women are all stunning and weigh approximately as much as my right leg, but they were all so warm and naturally kind that I couldn't hold it against any of them. In my upcoming list of things I Never Want to Experience Again in Thailand or Anywhere, I have a story to share about just how amazingly kind to me one local guy was when I went to battle with a sea urchin and lost. I'm sure there's rotten people in Thailand - but I didn't meet any.

Buddhism

I'm agnostic. If I were to believe in anything, I believe that God and I have been feuding since 1996 and that s.o.b. is winning. I don't know what I believe, but I believe in loopholes. Being agnostic rather than atheist gives me a loophole should I find myself shut out of the pearly gates -- I'll have a valid argument at the ready.

I've had arguments with people over their faith, and often I don't understand what I consider to be blind devotion at the expense of common sense and in some cases - human decency. I think gays should be allowed to marry, birth control should be readily available and women should have the right to choose what happens to their bodies - issues at odds with the faith I was raised in and my own parents still share.

Therefore I was surprised by how moved I was by religious worship in Thailand. Practicing Buddhists really live their faith - it's a part of their every day lives, every day. Buddhist shrines are everywhere. Some shrines are built by the monarchy, and are grandiose and elaborate. The shrines that moved me the most were the ones I came across in the strangest places, and were often the most humble. In a bush off of a side walk, near the edge of a parking lot, in between vendor stalls - entirely random or so it seemed.

What struck me though was that these small shrines with their small offerings of fruit and flowers demonstrated how people carried their faith with them during their most mundane moments. Waiting for a bus, buying lunch, walking to work - all moments they could use for personal reflection.

I'm still agnostic and still feuding with the God I was taught to believe in, but for a few moments, I glimpsed how religion could be a comfort to those who believe, and even those who don't know what to believe but wish they did.