Farang Farang

Mortensen talks about his struggle to help create a Thai orphanage so he could help kids who were in the sex slavery and drug world, which is not uncommon in Thailand. I don’t know much about this gentleman but it sounds like he has a good heart and objective.

Thailand from M. Scott Mortensen on Vimeo.

Seeing how other cultures treat the dead and act at funerals is very interesting. In Thailand, there is often close contact with the dead body, as you can see in this video. The family is there to offer the decedent various items as objects of love. Fresh coconut juice, flowers and incense are brought to the body and laid in the casket and afterward a big bag of kindling is added, along with a bottle of some sort of flammable liquid before the body is placed in the crematorium and ignited with what looks like the strike of a match. It seems rather matter-of-fact.

Some of this may seem like silly ritual – bringing offerings to the dead person. However, in our culture it is customary to send flowers to the funeral home and even to have a wreath on the casket. It’s the same thing if you think about it for a moment.

Racing tuk-tuks is a really bad idea, but I have to admit – it looks like a lot of fun. Note that at about 1:57 the tuk-tuk does a wheelie. That’s completely badass but also dangerous as hell. Tuk-tuk drivers are not known for their safety. If you ever ride in a tuk-tuk, I recommend not egging the driver on for a race. Mooning your friends in the vehicle behind you may also not be a good idea, but I have to admit it was funny.

As I mentioned before, a tuk-tuk is 100% crumple zone, passenger seating included. It gives you all the excitement and danger of being on a motorcycle but has seating for two in the back, or possibly three if you are daring or crazy.

What I like about this video is that you get a good view of Chiang Mai’s road system and moat. The moat goes around the old part of the city and was constructed around 1400, when moats were still viable defense mechanisms. The traffic outside the moat goes clockwise and inside the moat goes anticlockwise. It’s like a square boulevard, really, and can be quite disconcerting if you are on the wrong side of the moat and see your destination fly by on the other side as the driver looks for a spot to cross the moat and reverse course.