Category Archives: Thailand

Gràcies per continuar | Thank you for Following Along

 

Un cop caminades Tailàndia, Birmània, Pamir, Tadjikistan i Uzbekistan amb aproximadament uns 3.500 quilòmetres al sac, ara us volem tornar a donar les gràcies per seguir amb nosaltres, per seguir recolzant-nos i ajudant-nos d’una manera o altra.

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For those of you wondering, we have walked approximately 3,500 kilometers through Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, the Pamirs, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan since we set out in January 2016. It’s been an amazing, challenging, breathtaking, inspirational and not-always-easy walk so far, and we are looking forward to starting our next leg in Bangladesh and India in a few weeks when the monsoon season ends.

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Pyinmana-Yangon-Bangkok-Pyinmana

 

Aquesta entrada te el patrocini o agraeix la seva existència a la burocràcia i burrrrocràcia que ens obliga a fer una ridícula, cara i molt emprenyadora volta.  Per què? Per obtenir un altre patètic adhesiu / segell als nostres trillats i plens passaports per tal de renovar un permís d’estada a un territori, troç de terra, part del nostre meravellós planeta. Aquest molt emprenyador invent anomenat visat. 

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Curiosities From…Thailand

Traveling opens our eyes, and we see things we normally may not notice or give much thought to.

While some things may feel familiar, other things feel unique or special to a place.  We call these unique things curiosities…things that are different enough to make us shrug our shoulders and go “hmmm…what is that about?”

Lluís has done a great job keeping a running list of these curiosities during our month of walking in Thailand, and you can read it here in Catalan.  I ran out of time translating the draft before we crossed into Myanmar, so I’ll offer up my top 10 list instead, working backwards as David  Letterman did.

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Curiositats de… Tailàndia

Aquestes son algunes de les curiositats que ens agradaria comentar:

. La gent en general és super amable i riellera. Responen a les nostres salutacions amb sinceritat i un altre somriure. La gran majoria fa tot el possible per ajudar-nos. És curiós que molts d’ ells es senten com a responsables del nostre benestar fent-se seva l’auto-obligació de que estem bé.

. El millor, la gent.

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Mae Sot

 

Aquests últims dies, Mae Sot. Aquesta ciutat fronterera, porta de sortida de Tailàndia cap a Myanmar (Birmania) ha esdevingut la nostra petita base d’operacions per recuperar forces i preparar l’entrada a un nou estat.

Durant aquests dies hem estat força ocupats amb un parell de temes.

El primer i principal ha estat mirar d’ajudar, presentant-nos com a voluntaris, a alguns camps de refugiats o a algunes organitzacions humanitàries. Hem trucat forces portes, hem parlat amb gent, en nom de les persones que generosament ens han confiat alguna donació econòmica i en el nostre propi nom, hem fet dues donacions monetàries a una ONG i a una clínica (mini hospital) que ajuda a refugiats, però no hem aconseguit poder ajudar enlloc amb la nostra feina. Per això estem un xic decebuts.

El segon tema de la setmana ha estat conèixer una persona fabulosa, generosa, idealista, ciclista… així com el seu entorn personal que ens ha cuidat, ajudat i captivat.

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We Are All Connected

I take a bite of a sugar cookie and slowly sip my instant coffee. I feel safe and protected. We have been welcomed and given the green light to continue on our foot journey. I am grateful for the kindness we’ve been shown.

We accept friendship in whatever way it comes from whoever extends it. Today it comes in the form of friendly conversation, cookies and coffee from police and soldiers at one of the handful of border control checkpoints between Tak and Mae Sot.

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Kamphaeng Phet – Mae Sot

 

Ja hem arribat a Mae Sot ! L’últim punt del nostre recorregut per Tailàndia a només 5 km de Myanmar. Quan començavem a caminar allà a Bangkok ara fa tot just 4 setmanes miravem el mapa i ho veiem força lluny. Ara acabem d’arribar i ho fem molt sencers físicament i molt, molt contents i satisfets per la feina feta i les vivències/experiències viscudes.

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Finding a Safe Place to Sleep: Ban Lan Sang

The man with the big smile and kind eyes passes us his phone. He wants us to speak to his son.

“Hello again,” we say. We spoke to the young man a few minutes ago on speaker phone. His father called him when he saw we were having problems reading the menu of the restaurant we found ourselves in at the end of a 26-kilometer stretch. Thai letters are beautifully curvy, but we have no clue what they say. Both father and son wanted to make sure the cook understood that we requested our favorite, easy-on-the-stomach walking dish: fried rice with chicken and a fried egg.

“Hi. My father will take you to a homestay where you can sleep tonight, and tomorrow he will take you back to the intersection where you are now so you can continue walking. Ok?” The young man on the phone is in Bangkok, a few hundred kilometers from our finish line today, Ban Lan Sang, a speck of a town near Road 12 which will take us into the Thai hills and eventually into Myanmar. His English is very good, and our Thai is pathetically bad.

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