Villages, irrespective of continents and cultures, exude a certain innate deliberate peacefulness. Reminiscing about one such place located at the tip of Thailand, Sushma Sabnis, revisits a twilight zone of tranquillity and peace she once experienced in a quiet fishing village.
What sets a village distinctly apart from a city is the ‘air’. No, I will not get into environmental jargon, I am referring to the absolute un-hurriedness of any village anywhere in the world. When you are born and brought up in a city known for its ‘fast pace’ and a ‘city that never sleeps’ kind of phrases, it seeps into your system, biologically and otherwise. Hurry to be somewhere, go get something, to live, just hurry!
The twists and turns in my life have taken me to many such obscure nameless villages, perhaps its life’s lesson to slow down a little, like a village in the Na Saton tambon, Hua Sai district of Nakorn Sri Thammarat province, in Thailand, located at the extreme southern tip of the country, where I went for a training program many years ago. I refrain from revealing its name for I believe that I would be immensely disappointed if I went back there some day and found a ‘Thai tourism’ board welcoming me. Three hours drive from the HatYai airport, was this quaint little village with no English speaking people. Everything had to be explained in sign language and the ridiculous Thai-English translation booklet, every villager guffawed at.
When I would walk down the market area, overflowing with fruits, vegetables and all kinds of sea food and meats, I would wonder if it is a village at all. Then some cute Thai kid would run across with a kite in her hand giggling yelling ‘Oy yoo, tooolist’ – and then it would dawn on me, yes, this was a village and ‘I’ am the tourist spectacle for today, from the shape of my nose, to the colour of my hair and skin, and the texture and design of my clothes, my pronunciations would be dissected by every household that I passed by on the way. For a minute I might have mocked myself, ‘Yes you, silly foreigner, in a foreign land!’. Village folk however, are smart, and every spectacle eventually becomes boring.
This was a fishing village situated on the beach. Medium sized boats lined the empty white sand beaches. The fisher folk built their log cabins on the beach. These ‘baans’ made it easier to access the coconut trees, rear some poultry and provide an easy access to the ocean when they need to set out for fishing at odd hours in the day and night. The primary income was through fisheries, and the village folk were hardworking. Thai people are gentle people. They go about their lives in quiet reverence for nature and work towards preserving rather than exploiting it.
This village reminded me of Indian villages which I have visited. How simple and similar lives are actually across continents and cultures. Food, clothing, shelter and living a life in complete harmony with nature. After having led tiresome hard days, the women and children would gather around the beach in the late evening, singing folk songs and maybe if their city bred cousin was around, one would hear a guitar strum along. The waves, the guitar and the soulful melody of a sweet voiced Thai girl who dreams looking at the stars above, what can only be described as, John Denver’s ‘sleepy blue ocean’.
I learnt to catch crabs on one such dark night. Crabs come out in the nights on the beach to forage for food. Mediteranean neon blue coloured Neptune crabs, with their thick white chelae are a rare delicacy. One would find dark shadows after nine in the night running around with buckets in hand, grabbing these pretty runners. On a moon lit night, the salt water boiled crabs seemed more than just a bounty of the sea, it seemed like a feast prepared by the sea-god Neptune himself.
This is not a village one could spot on the Thailand tourism website or even on google maps. There is nothing in the name of monuments or tourist attraction. Thankfully, so far it remains unseen, hidden, perhaps that is the secret of its quiet beauty. In a country offering levels of package deals for enjoyment and ‘life-time’ experiences, this little village embodies silence and peace, just Peace.
