Doctor Ko

The problem with moving between voluntary projects is that you only see a very small area of a country before moving on. I felt that I could not experience just one city in Thailand, so last week I joined a tour and travelled up through the centre of the country. I knew The Family wouldn’t approve, as they resent me enjoying myself too much, however I can write about this in my blogs as they don’t bother to read them. ‘Too many words’ apparently…

I met up with my fellow travellers in a nice hotel in Bangkok. There were couples from America, Ireland and Australia. I was most fascinated  by our tour guide, Ko. He was a curious looking little Thai man with dyed ginger hair in a ponytail, dangly diamond earrings, a fake Gucci handbag, and the most feminine hands I have ever seen. He said that he was a 63 year old retired doctor, but I was quite convinced he was a 63 year old retired Ladyboy. Ko also told us that he was study for an archaeology  degree. I thought this would be a great asset as we toured the historic temples that week. How wrong I was…

The next morning we visited the iconic Grand Palace in the heart of Bangkok, the official residence of the king. I soon realised that Ko only spoke with the volume turned down, and his English was most definitely ‘Tinglish’. His encyclopaedic knowledge of every carving, pillar, and Buddha statue meant that he could make one pagoda tour last an hour. As a result, by the end of the first morning, we had managed to lose an Australian, and I had fled the Palace in search of Starbucks. Sadly Ko, didn’t read the group at all, and ploughed on regardless, relating the history of every monument and temple for a full 7 days. I unfortunately suffered from extreme ‘Temple Fatigue’ and amused myself by taking the most absurd photos I could in a temple…

It is hard to say what the highlight of this week was, however spending a night high up in the jungle with the Hmong hill tribe was pretty cool. These are an indigenous group, originally from China, who have built a rustic lodge for visitors to learn of their way of life. We slept in rustic huts, raised on stilts, and clad in woven reeds. The sounds of the jungle wildlife outside led to a pretty deafening night. The next morning when asked how I slept, I admitted to taking a sleeping tablet due to the noise of the frogs. I truly don’t think I will ever utter that sentence  again…