Kok Chang

The pictures and the context in this chapter has been provided by Emelie Nixon from Stockholm, Her adventures and descriptions of Kok Chang 2675 meters south of Orchidacea are fascinating and I am so happy she spent her time first writing in the guestbook (Swedish) and then sending all these mail. I thought I must make a new background colour here - in order to emphazise origine, atmosphere and particularly the sunset, but I think I have good reasons not to exaggerate. So just a little change of the tone. In fact some evenings I have seen the sky in the sun set totally take this colour. It has got in under my skin just like Emelies mail of May 6th 2007 - here translated from Swedish:   

Hi Knut!

Kok Chang is a bar (not open late in the evenings) on the way from Kata to the View Point. You take the hill up from Orchidacea Resort . . . steep as hell . . . and then after a while on the left side there is a bar . . . just after a sign showing elephants! ;-)

In Kok Chang there are elephant tracking and two (now three!) Gibbon monkeys. They live free in the bush but they use to come down and mingle with the guests.

Charlie - the male - is dark, the female is yellow. Her name is Lambjay (same as the fruit)

She is older than him. I even think he is not sexually mature yet. But they go well together. He has previously been a bar monkey always feeded by beer, so that is what he tries to steel from the guests. Thus be carful not only with your keys, sunglasses, etcetera you must watch your beer. He should NOT drink beer, because it is not good for him, something the staff look for. Easy is the name of the Thai guy in the bar. He is a very handsome, nice and dear guy. His boss 

named Shiny, is also very nice. The girls favorite. I heard that his last was an American lady when I was there. Then there are several bosses over him. The big boss and his wife also live here with their two children. All VERY nice!! 

When  I was in Thailand in July/August last year, A Swedish man (very close to the owners and the staff in Kok Chang) died in my arms, just 39 years old. His name was Frank. I had met him here and I had come close to him!

I performed heart-lung-saving in 40 minutes (before the ambulance arrived) without getting him alive. Phuket Bangkok Hospital called me one hour after he arrived to the hospital and asked me to come. When I arrived I was shown behind a curtain where heart-lung-saving still after two hours was going on. His face was blue an the body was cold! Politely they waited fo me to interupt.

After that I contacted the ministry for foreign affairs and his parents. I had to arrange for bringing his passport to the ministry, chosing a chest and transporting from the cold store to

 Wat Kata, where he got ceremonies performed by the monks. I, who did not know properly about the costumes, realise now how stupid I behaved.

Wrong! Too lightly dressed, red colours, behaviour, etcetera in front of the monks . . . I now was asked to sleep with the chest and the body in the temple, because it should not 

be left alone . . . Terrified I denied so Shiny from  Kok Chang did it. The ceremonies around the cremation . . .

When safely cremated and when the monks had finished their process I was the one to select bone pieces. Since it was not just only ashes left but bones.  

I picked some bones before the monks interrupted. Then they took the remaining bones and throw them in a waste bin near the temple! Me, Frank's brother and father witnessed terrified . . . Then it was time to throw the body (the bones). And since Frank loved Kok Chang (he lived in Kata and was every day in Kok Chang and he had planned to work and live there in some cottages to be built in the neigbourhood) the bones were thrown in a water pond behind Kok Chang.

The Gibbon monkey Charlie loved Frank and I remember the first day when I arrived to Kok Chang after Frank's death Charlie came up to me and I saw at him that he understood . . . Frank was not among us . . . he felt our mourning and that something had happened . . . The day after we had thrown the bones in Kok Chang the staff brought a baby-gibbon to Kok Chang. It was given the name Frankie, after Frank . . .

Now you know the story! To me Thailand is LOVE but also Hell as Heaven. Death is just around the corner (think of the Tsunami) but still one feels the living life very very much. I ask my self if one isn't more dead like a zombie when living here in Sweden?

Now I will return in June to Thailand and Kata together with my mother and my 11 years old son. It will be wonderful and I will be sure to visit Kok Chang. I also have to work out my mind about what happened here last year . . .

Love

Emelie

. . . Yes, it was a real trauma in Thailand. One realises how near the death it could be and that one has to take care of every second of the life. I also realised how very kind the Thai people are. We have very much to learn in the West!

During the weeks I was there I met the Kata maffia boss (that was what they said he was) Mr Kai and got the honor to have dinner in his home in his garden among the palms. It was hot and sticky and the mosquitos bit my legs ugly all over. Around the table there were seven men, me and Frank. The ladies were cooking in the kitchen and served us all the time with more food. Then they sat on the floor in the kitchen eating. I, although a woman, was alowed to sit at the table together with all the men. Frank wispered to me that it normally not happens that a woman is joining at the table and I realised that I was experiencing something very special. The youngest of the men was serving alcohol to the others.

A "home made" cigarette was passed around the table and I tasted it too. (Although I am no smoker and do not take drugs I had a puff, not deep inhaling, however . . .) 

During the ceremonies in Wat Kata the Mayor of Kata came up to me and shaked hand with me and talked a lot of things I did not understand in all the grief. Much later I was informed of who he was. 

I got to know many bar girls in Kata and Karon, incredibly nice with all their background. My prejudices about these young girls were changed now, I saw new sides of them. Nan is a business woman having many bars in Karon where nearly ALL people were hanging around. The neighbouring bars, however, were empty. I think one of the bars had the name Nans bar and her girls were so nice. They treated me very well. 

Love

Em

Thankyou Emelie!

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