Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
me; drivers honked for no apparent reason; crowded buses teamed everywhere; rickshaws
shared the road with a fleet of modern cars: Hondas and Mercedes and BMWs honking and
pushing their way through a cacophony of traffic. It was at once a thoroughly modern city
and also one filled with people still pushing carts of vegetables.
I headed off to backpack row: Khao San Road, where I quickly found someone to put
me up for the night and went out to see the nightlife so vaunted by travelers the world over.
As you might remember,
The Beach
also made Bangkok famous for less idyllic reasons. I
was too tired to have that much fun in Bangkok. I returned back to the cheap hostel room
someone had kindly rented for me to get some sleep before another day of travel.
In the morning I headed toward the old city of Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand.
The pyramid-like temples stood from an altogether different time, reaching up to the sky
like giants in prayer. The old stone pyres were intricately designed with the faces of
Buddhist figures, reminiscent of the statues and gargoyles of Notre Dame. There I met a
local man, Kamol, who ran a taxi service. He offered to take me to his village for lunch. I
followed him a short way before we arrived in a small but thriving village that survived off
an equally small but steady tourist industry.
Kamol and I took a walk around his village as he explained his plans to open up a res-
taurant in the nearby tourist town. Shots burst in the distance, making me instantaneously
duck down.
“My wife, she makes very good Tom Kar Khai,” Kamol explained, seemingly unfazed
by the deafening sound.
I looked around, wondering why he hadn't heard the large explosion that I had just
heard. I asked him, “Is it safe here?”
“Oh, yes,” he replied, rather confused, and then continued on. “We think maybe more
falung
would like good food.”
More pops went off in quick succession, but Kamol didn't even flinch. I, on the other
hand, was seriously frightened. I stopped walking, searching for a place to hide. Where
were the shots coming from? I asked again, “Are you
sure
it's safe here? There's, like, gun-
shots.”
More pops. At that point, I asked wide-eyed, “Can we go inside?”
Finally, Kamol realized what all the fuss was about. He started to laugh, “Fireworks!
You scared of fireworks?”
