Motorbike Adventures, an Elephant, and a Wet Market

On our first day in Ban Phe, Lara and I rented motorbikes and explored our new home just like we used to do when we lived in Khao Lak. It wasn’t immediately easy to find bikes, but we eventually found a home with a small sign advertising bike rentals for 180B (or $4.50.) There was no one around except a woman sleeping on a couch so I gently woke her up and, shaking the sleep out of her eyes, she happily rented us a bike. After filling the tank with three large Coke bottles of petrol, we drove along the coast east, then back west, exploring along the town’s main seaside road.

It had been a long time since I’d driven a motorbike on the left side of the road but my learning curve had to be quick because I was sharing the road with other bikes, cars, pick-up trucks, semis, stray dogs, and elephants. Okay, AN elephant. I thought it would be a while before I saw one, but there, on the first day, we saw an elephant swaying his trunk along the beach. By the time I was able to park the bike and we started walking back, the owner had lead him out to the road. Despite the cruelty of keeping an animal like that as a pet and paying bills by charging people to feed it, we couldn’t resist the elephant. We paid 20B to pet him and feed him some sugar cane.With such a quick start to the day, we hoped to see something else spectacular, but for kilometers and kilometers, all the coast had to offer was small restaurants, bars and people selling beach toys out of the back of their van. Ban Phe isn’t much of a travel destination in Thailand, but the island of Ko Samet, only two miles off the coast, is the nearest island to Bangkok. The only reason someone would spend the night in Ban Phe is because they missed their boat to Samet. I suppose that if you missed your boat all you’d want is some food and a couple drinks, thus the multitude of simple restaurants. Still, there can’t be that many people getting stuck in Ban Phe and I’m unsure how so many places are able to stay in business.Riding back west along the coastline Lara and I only found more of the same and kept driving until we eventually found a long pier extending out from a string of restaurants. We’d been looking for any reason to stop and this seemed as good as an. We parked the bike at the next available spot, right in front of one of the restaurants. In awe of all the live seafood swimming, scrabbling, scuttling along in the small Styrofoam bins, we stopped and asked the owner what kinds of seafood she had. That may seem like an stupid question but along with the shrimp, squid, and fish, there were several other sea creatures we'd never seen before. The owner was all smiles, and happily explained the full live menu in front of us. Not quite hungry yet, we thanked her kindly then went to check out the pier. The pier’s concrete was crumbling off but that didn’t stop a handful of men from lazily fishing off the end. They weren’t terribly friendly but we watched to see if they would catch anything and eventually left when they hadn't had as much as a bite, concluding we were bringing them bad luck. On the walk back to the beach we realized there was only one option for dinner that night: fresh seafood from the same sweet old lady. We returned back to the restaurant and selected out the best of the day’s catch: 5 prawns, 3 crabs, one horseshoe crab, and 5 little sea bugs that looked like lobster tails with legs. I asked her to cook them up however she saw fit, grabbed a couple beers, and we made our way to their picnic tables on the beach. We didn’t wait too long before some Tom Yam Goong was set on the table, the classic spicy yet sweet-and-sour Thai soup. Next were the crabs, all three on one plate, along with two sticks and two wooden disks. I tried to figure out how to properly use these simple tools to eat the crab, but couldn’t get past the idea of just smashing the things open. Before I bashed one of the shells in, a Thai man came over and showed us the way. He plucked each of the legs off like they were grapes from a vine, then peeled back the top shell of the crab like it was an easy-open top, exposing its strange, cooked guts. He then motioned that the sticks and discs were used to smack the legs open to get at the meat. My bashing method then seemed so primitive.


Next out was the horseshoe crab and I immediately regretted ordering it. For some reason, I had expected some good meat from the creature but it was served upside down, with the underside of its shell scraped back, exposing some strange exoskeleton of hundreds of small brown balls. I didn’t immediately give up on it, but one fork-scrape later, I moved the shell to the far side of the table and apologized to the animal for sacrificing it needlessly. The living lobster tails came out next, cooked in some incredible garlic sauce, and they were the best part of the entire meal. For once, food in Thailand tasted just like I had expected it to. The little sea bug’s flavor and texture was somewhere in between lobster and shrimp. A-roy mahk mahk; very, very delicious.

The Thai Military Precedes My Arrival With Tanks in the Streets

When I left for Thailand I promised my mother I would use good judgement and keep myself out of unnecesary, dangerous situations. These pictures might seem like evidence to the contrary, but the truth is that the political situation here is calm and, for the most part, business as usual. Tanks are still parked outside strategic political buildings but they are merely a symbolic reminder that the country is amidst a military coup and under martial law. For the most part, daily life in Thailand has remained unchanged. Thais have welcomed the coup and brought flowers for the soldiers before taking pictures in front of the tanks. Most of the Thais I have talked to are very happy about the coup, are glad Thaksin is out of power and remain very optimistic for the future of democracy in their country. If I hadn't known anything was amiss here in Thailand, I wouldn't have guessed anything out of the ordinary was happening. Here and there soldiers stand at busy intersections looking bored in their fatigues. Perhaps the most surreal thing I've seen was three soldiers standing on a streetcorner, AK-47s strapped across their chests, chatting jovially with a cute young girl who sat comfortably in plastic chair beside them. I don't know much about military coups, but when I picture them in my head, this isn't what comes to mind.

Thaksin's cronyism throughout the construction of Bangkok's new airport and his corporate tax laws that made the $1.9 billion sale of his telecom company tax exempt, have made him hated throughout Bangkok. Still, he remains popular in the poorer, rural parts of Thailand where he created cheap health care and generated economic growth. But the situation is more complex than this and some speculate that there remains an old military rivalry secretly fueling the conflict. Thaksin was formerly in a division of the army that was at ends with the society of all the leaders of the coup as well as the King's top advisor. This small rivalry was not the reason for the coup, but it sure doesn't help the situation.

Whether Bangkok seems happy about the coup or not, it's still far too premature to be calling it a success. It's a well-known fact that Thaksin was a corrupt Prime Minister but finding a politician that isn't corrupt is like looking for a pornstar that's a virgin. There still has not been mention of any PM candidates though the generals have promised to hand over power in less than two weeks. They have also promised to amend the constitution to fix whatever ailments they claim plague the current situation, but the specifics of their next move remain to be seen.

One article I read put the situation aptly saying, "Coups, like wars, are easy to begin but hard to finish." Despite the coup's popularity, perhaps the best move for Thailand would have been to wait until the October elections and hope to solve their problems democratically. Thaksin's party, if not Thaksin himself, was likely to be elected, but opting out of the election prematurly surely puts the country's stability at risk. Perhaps The Nation, the main anti-Thaksin newspaper, put it best saying General Sonthi "did the wrong thing for the right reason."

So far, daily life remains unchanged in Thailand and the bloodless coup has been run without error. I feel very safe in the country and admittedly even more so now that I am in Ban Phe, 3 hours southeast of Bangkok. Still, in the 36 hours I spent in the capitol I never once felt unsafe and everything was seemed the same as it was when I was there last only one year ago. It is great to be back in this country and I, too, like every Thai I've met, remain very optimistic for a peaceful, democratic end to the coup.