New Journey in Thailand - June 7, 2013

Dear friends and family. 

AoNang, Thailand
- click any photo to enlarge -

It’s been almost six months since my last blog. I’ve been living my life in Chiang Mai, tending my gardens and writing novels. Right now I’m in the seaside town of AoNang, on the west coast of Thailand. 

I want to tell you about this wonderful theater production I went to while on the island of Phuket, but I’ll fill in some blank first.  

I had never been to Phuket island, so a booked a hotel for three night in Patong, across the street from the beach on the main drag. I had no idea until the first night that the hotel butted up to the infamous Bangla Road. From 9:30 to 7:30 the next morning my walls rattled with the blare of rock and roll. I ventured out to a street filled with a hundred bars and a thousand men considering “hey mister--what you want?” sexy ladies. Bangkok, Pattaya and Patong -- where you go for what you want. 

Bangla Road, Patong

Leaving Patong, I spent the next two night in Phuket Town, which is an extremely boring city. The second night there I had to do something, so I decided to be a tourist for one night and go to the Siam Niramit show. For $65 they picked me up in a taxi and took me, and the India couple in the back seat, to the venue. The buffet was the best I had ever had--unlike most Thai buffets, this one was 75% fish and vegetarian food--tons of it feeding hundreds of people.

Before I talk about the show I want to mention the India people in the back seat. They were married and own a business which consults big tech companies and the India government--have 100 employees and offices in Dehli and New Jersey. Obviously very wealthy. We talked the twenty minutes coming and going. Interesting how my life-long religious study came into play. They were devout Hindu’s. I told them of a sub-story from my novel Shambala, about the immortal Krishna entering samsara, the cycles of birth and death in search of Rahda, his beloved, who wasn’t one of his 15,108 wives. They were in awe. They loved the story -- and wanted to order my novel.

Krishna and Prince Arjuna

When I told the man that in the story Arjuna, from the Bhagavad Gita, was Krishna’s (my character Roberts) airplane wala, he said that whenever I come to India that he would be my wala. Big offer from a wealthy man. 

btw: Shambala will be up on my website as an eBook next week. You can read it for free, and I do suggest a $10 donation, for my 2 1/2 years, eight drafts and countless hours devoted to this project.

www.ki-earth.com

Can you tell she likes me?

The 80 minute Siam Naramit production www.siamniramit.com pretty much blew my mind. As an advanced technical and off-the-charts artistic presentation it was definitely world class. It presented the history of Siam in the first half and then went into hell, the dream worlds and heaven. The segue’s were flawless. The sets incredible. The stage maybe 150 feet wide.

Here’s an example: An early set was a huge 3D scene of ancient temples - the back screen was a beautiful realistic painting, but the temples in every way looked real. Fifty costumed dancers would come on stage and dance out a story. The segue: The curtain goes down and above it is writing in several languages that says we’re now going to the Central Kingdom. It only took ten seconds but it was a magical slight of hand. Nobody noticed in those ten seconds that the stage moved back fifteen feet. The curtain was still drawn as the spotlight focused on a young man on the side of a river (where did the river come from?) He took off his shirt and dove in. (dives in water that wasn’t there twenty seconds before!!) Next thing you know ancient short boats filled with fruits and veggies and native paddlers were coming down the river (where in the heck did they come from--we never saw a stage hand or any indication of stage set-up). Then the curtain rose (maybe four minutes after it was filled with temples) and now its a full village, with big traditional 3D houses and native people walking by--eight chickens raced across the stage and I had no idea if they were real--but the goats and cows and water buffalos and elephants were real. A love story played out in dance and pantomime. At one point the main house moved aside revealing the next season, workers harvesting the fields of corn in the background, and the couple now in love. The scene ended with thunder and lightning--from fifty feet above a rain storm of water ponded down on the river between the audience and stage. 

peace

The curtain was still down but we were all mesmerized by the rain, then immediately distracted by these natives who had come into the aisle riding on real elephants through the audience, about ten feet from me. While this was happening, runners with banners raced across the stage--they stopped when the banners filled the stage--then they raised them to reveled hidden dancers who enthralled us  . . . and then they disappeared as the curtain rose with the next mind-blowing set--a ship sailing into port from China--trading goods--a Chinaman and Thai girl falling in love. At one segue there was an underwater curtain painted screen--a subset of coral appeared as it was slowly lighted--and we watched under the ocean with colorful glowing fish swimming by--so realistic--amazing--enchanting. I hardly even noticed one stage set disappearing and the other appearing. In the last set, when they get to heaven, the stage is filled with low white clouds and twelve winged angel beings gracefully fly by above the royal court. You can’t see the cables and they are so relaxed that it’s hard not to believe they were actually flying. The stage and background and all the costumed people were incredibly beautiful--I was pulled in--as though I had actually gone to heaven. No cameras allowed, but photos are on this website: www.siamniramit.com 

Old Phuket Town

So here I am in AoNang. Travel is also well orchestrated. For $22 they picked me up at my hotel in Phuket Town, drove me to the pier--for a two hour ocean ferry ride from Phuket Island to the mainland--where they picked me up and took me to my new hotel. Also seamless.

As soon as I got to my room in AoNang I decided to take a walking on the beach. When I got there I was greeted by an older (50ish) ladyboy who asked if I wanted a massage. “Mai ow, Krap,” I said. “Don’t want, thanks.” S/he decided to walk with me to show me where her massage sala was, in case I changed my mind. She was pleasant, spoke good English and we soon came to a long row of sidewall-less massage sala’s right on the beach.

AoNang beach salas

By the time we got there she talked me into a foot massage and foot scrub for $15, not by her, by two other women, both 45 years old. OK - what the heck. It actually was a lot of fun--the three of us talked and laughed for the full hour--all the conversation in Thai--the result of my last six months of study. Very unusual for them to be talking to a farang in Thai. Both of them wanted me to take them to Chiang Mai. When I told them I couldn’t afford even one of them, they told me they were free. It didn’t or won’t happen, but for whatever reason I’m more attractive here than I’ve ever been in my life. I've lived here for over a year and a half.

I have another week of travel--I’ll follow this blog with one which will include my official invitation to go to my website and read my novel: Shambala  The Path to Paradise.

With love and blessings.

David Dakan Allison

ps. please visit my website - www.ki-earth.com and consider reading Shambala. I have also finish a young adult novel titled Cat Dreams 1 and am writing Cat Dreams 2. You can read the opening chapters on my website.

Patong Beach actually reminded me of Hanalei Bay on
Kauai. Behind me in this peaceful setting is commercial
tourism gone mad. A zillion T-shirt shops with sellers
who don't speak Thai--restaurant without a word of Thai on
the menus--massage gals physically pulling you in--
tuk-tuk taxis that cost 60 cents in Chiang Mai cost $6.50
in Patong for a short ride. Expensive crazy, and you
would never know from this photo.