Pancho had now made his first acquaintance with breaking down cars in Thailand. To anybody with even an inkling of an intellect (such as good old Pancho himself) this did not come as a surprise. The cars that one found traveling the moonscape roads tended to be as beaten up as the roads themselves. Some of the cars or trucks were even as old as the seventies, so there was no surprise in frequent break downs. What was actually surprising was the fact that a lot of them still functioned quite well. People would repair the vehicles (also motorcycles) almost indefinitely. Few people could afford to buy a brand new car. But Pancho saw this as an upside in Thailand. As with clothes and other things, objects were used up until the moment that they were well and truly useless. The new objects would start with the richer people who would use them until they felt they could discard them, either by selling or donating and so objects would be handed down through the social strata ensuring that nothing was really wasted (except for fuel through constant unnecessary use of air conditioning and using a car or a motorcycle to drive even less than 100 meters). This meant that second hand cars, even in comparatively appalling condition were a lot more expensive than in Europe for instance. What Pancho found however was that those old cars that were built in the simplest ways without fancy electronics and so forth were the ones that functioned best.
On Pancho’s trip to Surin, with his host father, mother and advisor they unfortunately traveled in a car that had a relatively complicated set up and was aging. Even before their departure Pancho’s host father was trying to get the cooling fan of the engine to work. Eventually, after about an hour long struggle things worked out and they set out on the road to the province bordering on Cambodia. Pancho’s host father came from a little village in Surin that was famous for being the home of hundreds of elephants. The elephant village. The purpose of this trip was to attend the annual Elephant show when all the village elephants, rented out throughout Thailand for labour and touristic work were expected back to perform in a huge spectacle.
But naturally, before they got close to Surin, the fan stopped working once again and the car overheated. They barely managed to find a mechanic’s garage before things would have gotten out of hand.
And so, the mechanics took the whole fan apart and started fixing what they could. Pancho and his advisor crossed the road and sat down in front of a convenience shop waiting for matters to improve. His host mother was asleep in the car and his host father was busy watching the mechanics work. Sitting around aimlessly went on for about two hours before a family friend appeared with his wife and daughter. They graciously came in two cars and offered them the big comfortable one to travel on to Surin and return it on their way back when their own car was fixed. Pancho thought this an excellent idea as by now he was quite sick of sitting around and waiting. In fact he was quite tired also.
The trip did not take too much longer but Pancho after having had a beer with his host dad (drinking and driving is an acceptable way to spend your time) could not keep his eyes open.
They reached the family house in the city of Surin quite late. Everybody (even including his Excellency Pancho Wodehouse) would only have a short night’s sleep as they would have to leave the house before dawn.
Pancho’s host father’s family being from the village none of them had to pay entry. Additionally they all had an early breakfast with some of the performers (including one especially huge elephant) as befits a guest of honour such as Pancho of course. The breakfast was very welcome as that morning was actually quite cold. It was the first time and last time that Pancho shivered in Thailand, though naturally he had to tell the Thais that this temperature was not cold at all! In fact it was just below 10 degrees. On a European scale this was not cold yet he would never have expected such a temperature in tropical Thailand. Having been surprised he of course was not dressed accordingly and had to warm himself by the fireside (that was used for cooking) and with hot coffee.
The show started around 9 o’clock and went on for 3 hours. The rising sun quickly heated up everything to the usual sweltering temperature and Pancho was happy that they had found seats that were in the shade and that had a fantastic view of the spectacle. That was of course until hundreds of Thais assembled in front of them to have a better view which meant that Pancho and theothers had to stand up in order to see.
The show itself was fantastic. Pancho had seen elephants before but never 280 at once. This fact together with a well choreographed show and the epic scale made it very enjoyable. Pancho was fortunate to have the opportunity to see this as it was held only on one weekend of the year. Part of the show was a tug of war event where 60 humans were to fight one elephant. I’ll leave it to the imagination of the reader to determine who won. However if you knew the true winner you could be surprised by the fact that Pancho himself with his Herculean strength took part in this contest.
The group returned to Phunee that same day and picked up the not yet quite fixed car on the way. They had to wait several more hours before it was road worthy again. And as usual after a trip in Thailand on returning home Pancho was in dire need of a bed and sleep.
On Pancho’s trip to Surin, with his host father, mother and advisor they unfortunately traveled in a car that had a relatively complicated set up and was aging. Even before their departure Pancho’s host father was trying to get the cooling fan of the engine to work. Eventually, after about an hour long struggle things worked out and they set out on the road to the province bordering on Cambodia. Pancho’s host father came from a little village in Surin that was famous for being the home of hundreds of elephants. The elephant village. The purpose of this trip was to attend the annual Elephant show when all the village elephants, rented out throughout Thailand for labour and touristic work were expected back to perform in a huge spectacle.
But naturally, before they got close to Surin, the fan stopped working once again and the car overheated. They barely managed to find a mechanic’s garage before things would have gotten out of hand.
And so, the mechanics took the whole fan apart and started fixing what they could. Pancho and his advisor crossed the road and sat down in front of a convenience shop waiting for matters to improve. His host mother was asleep in the car and his host father was busy watching the mechanics work. Sitting around aimlessly went on for about two hours before a family friend appeared with his wife and daughter. They graciously came in two cars and offered them the big comfortable one to travel on to Surin and return it on their way back when their own car was fixed. Pancho thought this an excellent idea as by now he was quite sick of sitting around and waiting. In fact he was quite tired also.
The trip did not take too much longer but Pancho after having had a beer with his host dad (drinking and driving is an acceptable way to spend your time) could not keep his eyes open.
They reached the family house in the city of Surin quite late. Everybody (even including his Excellency Pancho Wodehouse) would only have a short night’s sleep as they would have to leave the house before dawn.
Pancho’s host father’s family being from the village none of them had to pay entry. Additionally they all had an early breakfast with some of the performers (including one especially huge elephant) as befits a guest of honour such as Pancho of course. The breakfast was very welcome as that morning was actually quite cold. It was the first time and last time that Pancho shivered in Thailand, though naturally he had to tell the Thais that this temperature was not cold at all! In fact it was just below 10 degrees. On a European scale this was not cold yet he would never have expected such a temperature in tropical Thailand. Having been surprised he of course was not dressed accordingly and had to warm himself by the fireside (that was used for cooking) and with hot coffee.
The show started around 9 o’clock and went on for 3 hours. The rising sun quickly heated up everything to the usual sweltering temperature and Pancho was happy that they had found seats that were in the shade and that had a fantastic view of the spectacle. That was of course until hundreds of Thais assembled in front of them to have a better view which meant that Pancho and theothers had to stand up in order to see.
The show itself was fantastic. Pancho had seen elephants before but never 280 at once. This fact together with a well choreographed show and the epic scale made it very enjoyable. Pancho was fortunate to have the opportunity to see this as it was held only on one weekend of the year. Part of the show was a tug of war event where 60 humans were to fight one elephant. I’ll leave it to the imagination of the reader to determine who won. However if you knew the true winner you could be surprised by the fact that Pancho himself with his Herculean strength took part in this contest.
The group returned to Phunee that same day and picked up the not yet quite fixed car on the way. They had to wait several more hours before it was road worthy again. And as usual after a trip in Thailand on returning home Pancho was in dire need of a bed and sleep.
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