The Thai Pirate - Thai Blog and Travel Stories

Calling all Thai's and expat home owners.... Do you fancy a new Thai garden?

As you may or may not know, I work for a company called Pornchai Gardens, who specialise in Thai landscape gardening and construction. They are a great company, and I'm very lucky to work for them, my experience of Thailand has been enriched by working alongside the hard working guys and gals of the company.

Mike of my-thai-friend posted a little story on his blog recently about his Thai garden, and some of his concerns. It got me thinking that maybe I should be more up front with our services at Pornchai, as I seldom let readers of this blog know what it is I get up to in my day job.

So, if you read this blog and require any assistance with your garden, or you're looking for some advice about local plants or how to plant a successful garden in Thailand, or even if you need help purchasing or re-developing land, don't be afraid to give me a shout (we have done everything from small domestic gardens, temples, to large scale resorts / industrial units, even the odd highway). You name it, we have made them all look beautiful.

What Pornchai Gardens don't know about landscaping and construction in Thailand isn't worth knowing.

There has been a lot of blogging lately about keywords and making money from blogs, Hoo Don at Beyond the Mango Juice wrote an interesting piece on Google Adsense and asked if us bloggers should be trying to earn a crust at this blogging lark. For me, the Thai Pirate is just my silly way of communicating and remembering my experiences and keeping in contact with those who read back home. I enjoy it, and I would be a fool if I ever thought I would or could earn a living from it (although I do have the obligatory Google banners, fat lot of good they are).

In conclusion, as Pete at Frogblogger writes at the top of his sidebar, 'Blogging doesn't make any money, so we have to pay the bills somehow', and there it is, so, if you are an expat or Thai living in Thailand, and you're reading this blog, and your garden or new development could do with a make over / major make over, or you are just after some advice, look no further and give me a shout, you won't regret it. Ben.

You can find out more details on Pornchai Gardens here. That's it, plug over.

Nice tool for all bloggers - www.typealyzer.com

Calling all you bloggers, there is a fun little tool here which will give you (and your blog) a free personality review in just a few seconds. Try it: www.typealyzer.com

I have to say, mine is a little girly. It says:

Performer
The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

They enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

ooooh get me, makes me sound like a right nice pirate eh!

How about yours? Any good? Do you think your typealyze profile is accurate?

(Pic above. Could the Thai Pirate be..................................................................gay?)

Weekend away to Cha Am. Places to Visit in Thailand 11, Cha Am Beach Resort

(Someone is as pleased as me to get the weekend off to visit Cha Am).

Sutiya and I got the chance to have a night off. As we were dropping her sis back to Uni near Hua Hin, we decided to stop and spend some time there.

Not especially wanting to return to the places we have visited previously, a quick phone call home confirmed that we should head for a resort called 'Cha Am', which I'd never heard of.

The place is just 20 minutes North of Hua Hin and is very nice. The most popular form of transport amongst Cha Am-ians is the 'Jack Rien' (push bike). I have no problem remembering this as it sounds like 'Jack Ryan' the hero in Tom Clancy novels. The Thais on their 'Jack Ryan's fly all over the place, in front of cars, pirouetting on pathways, bobbing and weaving along the road. Kids and adults share up to 5 seats per bike! Whole families, happily dicing with death at every turn, with big smiles on their faces. Frustrated motorists pile up behind them, sounding their horns, desperate to go by. You catch yourself doing it, I was cycling the wrong way up the road with my bike, perusing the shops (often you can't help being in the road, the shop stalls literally push you into them) Suddenly a huge coach rolls by me with only inches to spare. Shit! The traffic does certainly keep you on your toes, and if it doesn't......be worried.

The beach is excellent, and in excellent condition. Generally a bit cleaner than the Pattaya beaches I have seen. Water is good quality, sand is clean, and there is more room than Hua Hin, which makes me think that if you are going for peace and quiet rather than nightlife, Cha Am might be a wiser choice. Plus the beach pests seem to be far tamer here.

The hotel prices are also good value too. We pulled into a rather plush looking place expecting to be hit with a fat but fitting night rate, out of our budget. We were very surprised and happy when they quoted us 1000 baht a night (20 quid). The place is worth far more (I recommend it, the Banlansuan Resort). Lovely hotel and lovely grounds with nice rooms.

Walking around the beach front and shops, it is evident that Cha Am attracts more Thais than farang, which is normally an encouraging sign as often the Thai's won't pay the extra baht for farang food, and this is the case with Cha Am. The restaurants are very reasonably priced. 

As we only stayed one night, we didn't get to see the full extent of the night offerings of Cha Am, although I hear there is an excellent night market, plus the restaurants along the beach front were pleasant, but the place is a lot quieter than Hua Hin or Pattaya, not so appropriate if you're looking for somewhere to head bang.

Lots of restaurants are situated just opposite the beach, so wherever you choose it will be a nice view, good for a couple of beers and the odd cocktail and a nice meal.

What I would recommend on your night stroll is take advantage of the excellent waffles and egg banana pan cakes made by the numerous stalls. They are fantastic, and will keep you occupied as you stroll through aisles of dresses and t shirts, following the better half. If you've had a couple, watch out for the traffic though, it gets busier at night time.

Roadside Marketing in Thailand - How to hang a 4x4m sign.

Actually, this is the wrong title, it should be 'how to take down a very heavy 4x4m sign somebody has already put up, sort, and then re-hang for the purposes of marketing your business to the masses of Thai's who drive past at 140km per hour.

4x4m is big. Especially if it is made of wood. Lots of wood. Thick wood.

So heavy we needed a crane, plus, the sign is hung on beams of wood nailed into a large tree trunk, which itself is surrounded by a 3 foot ditch of water. Interesting....

As well as this, the 'drive home' traffic is racing past at considerable speed. I was pretty much the spare tick at the wedding, to be blunt, but keen regardless. Firstly, Phi Jed took the short straw and climbed to the top of the sign (above) where he attached a thick rope from the crane winch to the wooden frame.

After going in up to their waists in the water, the other guys attacked the frame with hammers and metal pipes to dislodge the holding nails, and then up went the crane, perilously close to the overhanging electric wiring from the pylons.

Hmmm, water, crane, electric pylons. Isn't this......dangerous?

Er. Yeah. It is. Especially if you're the poor sod who has to climb up (mind you, mug was at the bottom, and would have been the first farang sandwich to have been sold at the TEE Coffee shop the following morning had it slipped. All is fair in love and sign hanging).

After getting the damn thing clear, 4 of us had to brace it as the crane lowered it to the ground. Very heavy, but part one successful. No dead to report captain.

Now the arty part. The old canvas was ripped away (Good, I didn't like it sssssh) and the new canvas is carefully aligned, folded into position and nailed to the frame. These guys have done this before! They are very precise, as the Thai's often are. They even get a small electric saw, and chop away the extra wood around the sign.

Voila! A perfect sign! The only thing is it's flat on the floor, and still heavy..... and its dark now. The guys are standing on the brake of a motorcycle to see what they are doing, ingenious to the last.

(What a fantastic new sign!) Attached once again, the crane lifts the heavy frame from the floor, and swings it un-majestically back towards its old position. Now everyone is on the home straight, and a little more careless with fatigue, so feck the electric wires, they get pinged around by the crane like huge guitar strings, and the frame is boldly pushed into position by the guys who are back up to their waists in water. bang bang bang bang, little to the left, little to the right, to me, to you, up a bit etc. you get the picture.

Perfect. These guys are stars. Night time roadside 4x4m sign hanging....... done, as Gordon would say.

Buddhism is not a philosophy....

I heard this many times when in the UK from various folk. They would say 'Buddhism.......it's not a religion, it's a philosophy......'

I don't know an awful lot about Buddhism, but I can confirm that Buddhism is not a philosophy.

I'm reading a book called 'The Pali Canon: What a Buddhist must know' by Bhikkhu P.A Payutto. There are many different viewpoints about the Pali Canon, how relevant it is to Buddhism, many say it is the direct word of Buddha, many say that the texts are deviations. The author is of the former opinion, and he states, far clearer than I can, that 'philosophy is concerned with rational speculation, the attempt to arrive at the truth of something through reasoning'.

(Pic above. Socrates - brilliant philosophical scallywag) But the important point essentially is: when a philosopher debates certain questions, they have no obligation to lead their lives in accordance with the principles they are investigating. A philosopher is able to live as they please (as seen throughout history) violence, gambling, gratuitous sex etc. Philosophers are a stubborn, bright bunch, they make their own rules.......

By contrast, a religion involves it's patrons adhering to certain practises, application of which is necessary in order to form part of that belief system, thus following a religion's fundamental principles.

Those that practice Buddhism have to conduct themselves in certain ways. Thus, Buddhism is clearly a religion, not a philosophy as quoted by various trendy UK folk.

I found that interesting, even if some may think it obvious.

Another interesting 'thing': Back some 2500 years ago, when Buddha was busy creating Buddhism, he came to realise that, sooner rather than later, he was going to die.

With this in mind, he opted to ensure that all his teachings would be set down, and that not any one monk was to be appointed as his successor. Buddha had previously seen the disruption to Jainism when its leader Nigantha Nataputta (the founder of Jainism) passed away. His disciples had failed to collect or memorise his teachings while he was alive, and thus there were heated arguments amongst the flock about how to continue after his death.

They even failed to agree as to what Nataputta had actually meant, in many cases.

According to Payutto, Buddha recognised that the maintenance of his word was essential to the maintenance of Buddhism. In a very basic nutshell, all of Buddha's teachings were arduously collected, compiled and classified, so that some kind of uniformity could be established. This process is far more complicated than I can go into, as are the descriptions for the various different doctrines (the book claims that most were compiled under the direction of Buddha, others by immediate disciples), but it is clear it took many months for all the elements to be collected and agreed on, with much of it taking place after Buddha's death.

After Buddha's cremation, an assembly of 500 senior monks (known as Arahant Elders) gathered, and it fell on their shoulders to agree and certify Buddha's teachings. This is known as the first rehearsal.

'Once agreement was reached on the content of a given subject, the elders would chant it together so that the content thus approved would be settled as the model for memorisation and transmission later on.'

In total in took the Arahant Elders 7 months to complete this historic first rehearsal.

The elders were the first ones responsible for retaining, preserving, and passing down the word of Buddha. This was done orally by chanting. The monks, upon agreement of the content, learned, memorised and transmitted the teachings from mouth to mouth to ensure the survival of Buddhism. The teachings thus agreed upon and passed down is known as Theravada Buddhism.

Fascinating! and an explanation of why chanting remains so common in Thailand, even today!

(Pic - Monks at the TEE Coffee Shop)

Some may think (as I did) that the chanting recitation method is a little risky, being that the preservation of the word of Buddha is of the utmost importance, and that possible errors in it's passing down may occur. But as the book points out, by means of mass recitation and collective chanting, this can be just as accurate as written down versions, which too are susceptible to interpretation and corruption when they are re-written down the ages.

At least when you have 10, 20, 100 or 500 people chanting in unison, all words must remain identical to the original script; deviations would be lost in the correct chanting of the other monks.

It is claimed that huge efforts were made to preserve the exact word of Buddha, so much so that the author states that the Pali Canon is, in effect, an audience with Buddha hundreds of years after his death.

The Pali Canon (left) was eventually written down  in the 1st century BC, and is itself an enormous set of scriptures containing 84,000 textual units in over 45 volumes.

Amazing to think that this tradition of Buddhism has survived so in tact over this period, passed down over hundred of years in such devoted ways, remaining unchanged from it's original form....

Many of the insights are as coherent and applicable today as they were back then, and some claim this proves them to be the work of a genius.