Northern Thai Winter Nights; just a story
Odes to the night. Many people have seen the night as a source of inspiration. Johann Strauss II with 'Eine Nacht in Venedig'. But there is also 'One night in Bangkok' by Murry Head and 'One night in Istanbul' about an EC final. 'Une nuit à Paris' by 10-CC and isn't there a comic called 'A night in Rome'? And then the Kreuzberger Nächte (which has been around for a long time….).
But then the northern Thai winter nights. That's of a different class. People don't always want to believe that in Thailand, a tropical country, the temperature can become uncomfortably low. Frost is possible here.
In 1998, of the year I'm not sure, but that it was around Christmas and also the newspaper I'm sure, Limburger newspaper, was told of some deaths by frost in the province of Loei. Now Loei is the province where frost occurs most often. I don't live here yet but I vacation here twice a year and understand that it's true.
The trek at the end of November
It's the late 80's and I'm in a group tour. We are trekking in the area between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai, so the most northwest in this country. It's the end of November. The local people laugh themselves a monkey. During the day it is hot and when they retire to the shade we shoulder a backpack with a sleeping bag and mat hanging underneath and head into the hills.
After a day of hill trekking, the group settles in a village in a valley 'where traditional life has retained its value. We will eat and sleep traditionally together with the original inhabitants and enjoy the sounds of nature. That's what the brochure says.
So exciting. We descend past trees and shrubs on a path where the first inhabitants of this area moved thousands of years ago and indeed experience the sounds of nature. And just when you want to hide behind a thick tree because a growling animal is chasing us, you see such an original inhabitant coming on a Honda. Gone illusion.
We sit down at a hut where we will eat and sleep traditionally. A hut on stilts and cooking under it. That front also appears to be the home of pigs, chickens, dogs and cats that live wonderfully in peace with the Honda motosaai. Tired; you are tired of trudging and night is coming soon so we crawl upstairs after dinner.
No rooms, no interior walls, no toilet
And what's there? A large open space, it will be 6 by 6 meters, no rooms, no interior walls, no toilet, but splits in the wooden floor and in the walls and the roof of corrugated iron is equipped with natural air conditioning.
But you are tired, want to pit and we plop down on the ground and in as few crevices as possible. We ignore an old wooden cupboard with bone jars in it and casually note that the whole family also sleeps there in a corner with hanging blankets. Achenebbish; poor. The family also goes to roost with the chickens.
The tour guide warns us not to go to the hole in the ground next to the fence at night, if we want to make a sanitary trip, because snakes and other creepy crawlies move around in it. That doesn't bother us men; they pee down from step 2, but the ladies take the opportunity and do a last sanitary relaxation and together too, because their loud conversation keeps the dangerous animals away.
A freezing cold wind
Then a fierce wind blows. And it is stone cold. Drags against and into the house and through the cracks on six sides and it gets cold inside. We are all freezing from the cold. All right then, clothes on in the sleeping bag, towels and stuff on it, sleeping on as few gaps as possible, as close together as possible, trying not to have to pee and we've finally rolled into a nice position like the boss of the home comes home.
He has converted the fee for the guests into spirit-rich liquid and enjoyed it with village friends and motordorie, when he returns home he sees me… We have become so captivated by the cold cracks that some of them lie with their feet against the worm-eaten cupboard. And there are a few jars with bones in it.
But those are the ancestors!
There is a cannonade that the Thai-speaking tour guide cannot understand and the result is that we have to rearrange ourselves on the crevices and finally doze off again, angry about so much injustice. Do we know much? We are not told anything.
The family gets up at 5 o'clock and a little later the house fills with cooking smells. When the sun comes out afterwards, the suffering is quickly over, especially since it is the last day of the trek. We can sit in a van again!
My winter nights
I don't live in a house on stilts, but in a house built of single bricks and with single-glazed windows that also remain open. Hilltop and detached, Isan, peripheral Nongkhai province. And then the sky opens. The world around you is cooling down and night temperatures of only plus 5 have been recorded. And that's chilly when it's 25 during the day.
We took out the electric heaters for the evening. I want to watch hot TV. The thickest blankets on the bed. My wife and foster son far…. in the evening also from the cold. Shall we buy an oil convector heater after all? The Global House has them on offer for 2.999 baht.
Well, this only lasts six weeks. What am I talking about? Our eight cats haven't asked about their wool mittens yet. And later in March the weather will be 45 Celsius or more in the middle of the afternoon.
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