Rice Paddies and Water Buffaloes

So I’ve finally seen Thailand. Not the five story malls of downtown Bangkok that rival anything in the US, including Rodeo Drive. Not the Starbucks, McDonalds’ and KFC that now compete with the night markets for young Thai’s business. Traveling about six hours south to the small city of Chumphon , I saw my first rice paddies, water buffalo and rubber plantations – the Thailand of the picture books of my youth. The landscape is dramatically more jungle-like, filled with big palms, banana trees, and houses set up on stilts. In the south, the spirit houses seem to come in pairs – one bigger and set taller, another smaller and set lower to the ground – almost like mother/daughter bungalows – often painted in matching colors, and with elaborate offerings. They are, I am told, supposed to appease two different groups of ghosts – those of the heavens, and those of the earth.

Chumphon is by the sea. We were there to facilitate a leadership training for members of the local PLWHA group. Our first night, group members took us to visit the central shrine of the city – a shrine honoring naval heroes who protected the city over its history. From the shrine, one looks out on the sea and to the islands off the coast. These are the islands where locals climb the cliffs in the dark to collect swiftlets’ bird’s nests – a great delicacy in Asia. Not yet developed as a tourist area, the Chumphon beaches are sleepy and quiet. We had dinner outdoors by the beach. While people ate and sang Thai movement songs to Ott’s guitar playing, we watched the squid fishermen’s boats line the shores off the surrounding islands. Dogs slept in the street. Stray cats visited, looking for leftovers from dinner. Under the stars, with voices raised in song and the wind coming off the beach, we seemed a long way from Bangkok. Yet the idyllic nature of the setting masked the common struggles that group members in Chumphon share with thousands around the country. While they are infinitely better off than many PLWHA around the world, many had talked that day of facing stigma and discrimination, and of being less able than their peers in the city to get access to second tier ARV drugs if first tier regimens don’t work for them. This, too, is the Thailand of picture postcards – and even here – KFC, like HIV, is coming to every corner.