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EXTRACT
Mike struggled to his feet. He found kneeling and having to wai in front
of the monks extremely uncomfortable, not to mention a waste of time. Of course, he would not tell Rot that. Rot had called him and said that he would be
deployed in three weeks, before that he had two weeks leave and, instead of
Pattaya he wanted to go to see the Fireballs, if Mike would to go with
him. Mike asked when and where it was,
and where Rot was stationed. Rot was
based in Bangkok and told him the dates of his leave. Rot said he had already told Rit, and invited
him, but he couldn’t take time off.
Mike agreed to meet Rot a few days before
in Pattaya, then fly up to Udon where Rot said they could borrow his father’s
pickup.
Mike had no time for religion in
general. He had been confirmed Anglican
as a youth and attended church, but as he grew older he’d become more and more
sceptical about the church, and religions in general. He suffered Buddhism whilst in Thailand.
Rot had insisted they went to the wat
before their trip, as he had never flown before.
They were on a late afternoon flight. They got a taxi to the airport as soon as
they had finished at the wat. They checked
in, and went for a coffee at the Sky Loft.
Mike liked to watch the aircraft coming and going. Rot seemed mesmerised.
Eventually, they went through to departures
where they had a late lunch and Mike was persuaded to buy a camera for Rot. He hated hanging around in airports with
guys, they always found a shop.
The flight was smooth, although from the
time the engines started, until they were on the ground at Udon, Rot held on to
Mike. Rot’s father met them in the pickup,
took Mike to a small resort just outside the village, and then showed him the
house. The pickup was the ubiquitous
silver Toyota space cab
After eating at the house, Rot and Mike had
a few drinks at the local karaoke, before Rot dropped Mike back at the resort
and went to his father’s house to sleep.
The following day Rot borrowed the pick up
and took Mike on a tour of the area.
When they got back to the house Rot took Mike upstairs and showed him
his collection of amulets and Buddha statues.
He carefully selected one, gave it to Mike and asked him to wear it for
the rest of the trip.
Mike thought it was superstitious nonsense,
but agreed to keep the peace. He knew Rot
always wore at least one. Rot reminded
him to take it off when he showered or had sex.
Rot decided it would be a good idea if he
had a driving licence! First task was a
medical certificate. They turned up at a
clinic Rot had not been to in years, paid 50Baht, and walked away with a bit of
paper declaring him 100% fit. The doctor
who signed the paper never even saw Rot.
Rot told Mike that they had to be up early the next day for the test so
he suggested he slept with Mike.
Mike thought for a few moments and then
said, “Only if it is house rules and we have sex.”
“That’s the whole point of sleeping
together. I haven’t had good sex since
the last time in Pattaya.”
“How much bad sex have you had in the army.”
Rot laughed. “Not as much as you with the guys in
Pattaya.”
They woke at 6.30 so that they could get to
the Transport Office for eight as that was the time Rot had said he needed to
register. They arrived at 8.10. Registration had not begun. About 8.30 they called people to
register.
Rot was upset as the previous year you just
needed to pay 500Baht and they would hand you a licence. Now he had to do a mornings school as
well. But the first task was to fill out
the registration forms, which required his names to be transliterated into
English. He knew his first name, Somrot,
but wasn’t of how to spell his surname in Farang; after all, he rarely used it
in Thai, never mind Farang. Mike was
called on to transliterate, syllable by syllable. They agreed on Weangmakham.
They sat around waiting until 10. Rot and the other candidates were called to
go to school. What followed were a
couple of hours being talked at by the police, a large proportion of which most
of attendees slept through, including Rot.
Still they had attended. The
first group, which did not include Rot, then sat the theory and took the
practical test.
Rot appeared and they had lunch. Mike had not been prepared for an all day
session, although he should have guessed.
Luckily, there were some food stalls at the Transport office and they
ate Som Tam and sticky rice. After lunch,
Rot took the theory and returned, reporting he had passed. Then the practical, which involved driving up
a ramp, stopping, doing a hill start, driving between rows of cones, stopping
again. Then they had to reverse down a
parallel set of cones and drive forward to get the form signed. Rot managed this, without hitting anything,
and duly borrowed 300 Baht from Mike to go and get his licence.
Watching other candidates it was obvious to
Mike that if you did make a mistake, you weren’t failed, you just went round
the course again. No wonder the average
Thai cannot drive in traffic, he thought to himself.
The next day they relaxed at the house as
they were due to leave mid afternoon for Nong Khai. Mike asked Rot why he had invited Mike along
on the trip. He replied that he thought Mike
might be interested, and that, unless Mike had bought flights, he couldn’t have
come. He also wanted sex.
Mike thought that was a refreshingly honest
statement. He then asked if Rot was
planning to visit his girlfriend whilst they were there. Rot replied he had called her, but she had
said she was going to be in Ubon all week as there was a family funeral. “I’m not sure it true, but up to her.”
Two of Rot’s friends arrived about three to
join them. Some mats were thrown in the
back of the pick-up and the four of them drove off.
They headed up to Nong Khai and then east
along the Mekong. Mike noticed police at
every junction as they headed north and suggested Rot kept to the speed limit.
Rot responded not to worry, that the police
were there because someone important was visiting the fireballs and they were
there to keep the road clear. “They
don’t care how fast people Drive.”
As they neared their destination, the
traffic got heavier. Eventually they
reached their goal and after 20 minutes found somewhere to park.
They walked down to the riverside. Mike was amazed at the number of people. They eventually found a clear spot near the
front with a good view over the river, laid down the mats, and sat down. Rot went to buy some food and beer.
They sat and chatted. As it started to get dark, people started
releasing Khom Loy into the night sky to carry away their vices and
misfortune. Hundreds, if not thousands
of candles were set into the water upstream and slowly floated down the
river. Offerings to the Naga.
Mike had researched the festival and knew
that pink glowing balls of fire were supposed to rise from the river. He wondered if there was some trickery
involved and could find no definitive explanation anywhere.
Then there was a cheer from further up the
river. They vaguely saw something shoot
into the sky. Then about 10 minutes later,
there was a cheer in front of them. As
they watched, they saw a ball of pink fire rise from the river and then shoot
skywards.
Their first fireball.
Mike was mesmerised, and sat scanning the
river for the next one. In fact, they
saw five more before they decided it was time to leave.
Mike decided he was a romantic at heart and
that he much preferred the traditional belief that the nagas of the river
breathe out the fireballs to celebrate the return to earth of the Buddha at the
end of Lent. Why did scientists have to
try to explain everything, and no one had proven a scientific explanation
anyway.
As they walked back to the car, Rot asked Mike
if he believed.
After a few moments thought, he answered
yes.
It was a slow journey back to Nong Khai and
the main road. However, the police had
stopped oncoming traffic and the normal two-lane road now had four lanes of
traffic moving away from the river. Once
at Nong Khai and route 2 south, things speeded up. In fact, the police, waiting to close the
road, encouraged people to drive faster, they needed a clear road. They were soon doing over 130kph, as were
most other people.
Then it happened.
Rot was overtaking a pickup when the driver
swerved out into Rot’s path. Rot swerved
to avoid contact, one wheel went onto the gravel at the side of the road and Rot
started to lose control. He managed to
get the wheel back onto the tarmac, but over corrected and had to swerve again
to avoid hitting the pickup. This time
at 120kph, he had no chance.
The car careered down the central
reservation. Mike closed his eyes as he
saw a tree approaching. He heard the
smash as the pick-up went straight through it.
He felt the car bounce across the ditch at the bottom of bank and start
going up the other side. More smashes which
seemed to do little to slow the pickup.
When it hit the opposite carriageway, it launched into the air, landed
on the roof, rolled and ended up upright in a ditch on the opposite side of the
road, facing the direction they had come from.
Mike opened his eyes expecting carnage and
blood everywhere. He looked round. Everyone seemed Ok. He opened the door and got out, Rot opened
his door and did the same, and the two guys from the back, which had had no
seatbelt clambered out. They checked
each other. Mike and one of the guys had
a small cut and Rot complained of a sore shoulder. By now, a car had stopped and called the
police and rescue.
The rescue arrived in about 20 minutes,
checked them quickly and took them to a hospital in Udon. They were given a check over, and declared
fit.
The families arrived and took them to the
police station so Rot could fill in a report.
He was told to reappear at 3pm the next day to make a formal statement
and that the insurance company would be there at about 3.30. They returned to the village.
Pa’s wife set about starting a fire under a
low table on which she laid grass and leaves.
She then made Rot and Mike lie on it, covering them in a blanket. Rot explained it was an old Isaan trick to
avoid any internal damage following the accident.
The next day there was a big family outing
to the police station, and then to the site of the accident. Mike was puzzled. Rot had asked him for a shirt and pair of
shorts before they left.
Once at the police station there was some
chat between the policeman and Rot. Rot
asked for 3,000 Baht. Mike looked
puzzled. Rot explained that if he paid
the police 3,000, the police report would say whatever Rot wanted, and they
would not be charged for the damaged trees.
Mike handed over the cash and walked to
look at the pickup. The roof was caved
in on the driver’s side where they had landed.
He could tell from the bonnet where they had hit the trees. They had obviously still been doing quite a
speed when they flipped, but Mike was overall surprised how robust the car was.
The insurance agent arrived, took some
photos of the pickup and a copy of the police report. He seemed suspicious and tried to suggest
that Mike was driving. He hadn’t been
and Mike realised from something he had read that the insurance probably only
covered people with a Thai drivers licence.
It was lucky Rot had done his test.
Once the insurance agent was satisfied, they went to the scene of the
accident.
Reviewing it in daylight, Mike realised how
lucky they had been. They had travelled
over 200 metres and crossed the oncoming carriageway. They had walked away with the sum total of
one sore shoulder and two cuts. He was
amazed that the guys on the bench seat, with no seat belt, had walked away with
one small cut between them.
He could see the four damaged trees in the
path of the pickup. They were quite
substantial, but had just been snapped by the force of impact. One was about 3 inches in diameter. He looked at the deep scars in the tarmac made
by the wheel rims where they had bounced onto the road and launched into the
air. The tyres had obviously burst as
they bounced across the ditch at the bottom of the central reservation. The next marks were where they had landed on
the roof, fifteen metres away.
One of the old ladies who had come with
them took their clothes, and placed them on a length of cloth. She then lit candles and they had a short
ceremony to thank Buddha for taking care of them. She took the cloth, with the clothes inside,
and brushed them over the path of the accident.
Back at the house, the families tied white
threads around the wrists of the four survivors and chanted whilst they held hard-boiled
eggs and candles. The eggs were shelled
and then cut in half using a piece of thread and examined. They were all pronounced safe.
As they walked back to the house, Rot
turned to Mike. “You know why we
live. We all wear Buddha amulet; they
protect us. Buddha protects you because,
when we leave the river, you say that you believe. Somebody already offer me 20,000 Baht for
mine because they know it works, but I not sell.”
Back at the house, Mike sat deep in thought
about what had happened and what Rot had said to him. After a couple of hours, he went over to Rot
and told him that he wanted to learn more about Buddhism. Rot suggested they slept together then the
following morning they could get up at 6am to give alms to the monks. Mike nodded.
Rough Diamonds
ISBN : 9786162220821
Category : Books on Thailand
Pages : 311
Price
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