Trang, a nice small town on the western side of southern Thailand and rich in Buddhist culture. I arrived in the late afternoon after a long bus ride from Satun. During the ride I met some great locals and we had a laugh trying to understand each other for about three hours. The bus was all retro décor and fitted out with numerous mounted ceiling fans and huge fat speakers belted out popular karaoke tracks that were screening at the front of the bus.
When I arrived in Trang it was late afternoon and I quickly found a cheap hotel and then went for a wander round the town. It was funny to see whole bunch of monks crammed into a tuk tuk (those crazy three wheel cars that fart up and down the street). Seeing a large monument on a distant hill I headed off in that direction in the hope of a good photo opportunity. As I neared the place I ran into an excited young man who convinced me to sit and drink beer with him while he spouted a bunch of random English words. I excused myself to pursue the day light, promising to return later. As I neared the hill I realized something was going on. There were very temporary food stalls and venders set up under the trees and amplified speaking was coming from somewhere on my left. I made my way over to a field where a large tent had been erected and huge pyramid of food stood. In the tent were two blast furnaces, roaring and issuing fierce yellow flames. Hundreds of monks (and many locals) were milling about and then everyone drew in around the perimeter of the field while the chanting ensued. As this was happening, several young men all dressed in white grabbed long poles which supported heavy iron pots, which were used to pour molten bronze into a huge clay mould. All this time the chanting continued and the people stood with their pals together. My enquiries revealed that this was a sacred moment when a new statue of Buddha was being cast. The festivities went on for some time and became quite elaborate. After a time I was lost in the complexities of the formalities and language so returned to the beer. An hour or so later I was startled into action by the explosion of powerful fireworks directly overhead. I hurried outside and stared in wonder at the spectacular display that went on for at least ten minutes. I collected dozens of great photos and was eager to get them saved away on a CD.
The next morning I made for a web café before my mission to Surat Thani. In my efforts to quickly copy and save the images and the evil computer crash I lost all my pictures from the last month. I was devastated and managed to resurrect many of them from some miraculous undelete software I located only to have the whole process happen all over again. Running low on time I had to jump a bus to Surat Thani.
Three hours later I’m checking into yet another hotel and awaiting my appointment with the director of AmeriThai, a local language school.
We met and talked for a while and before I know it I’m being offered a 4 month part time position here. Great, an opportunity to work, teach an have fun in Thailand with some spare time to pursue my own business interests.