This is Thailand. Chapter 8: Vacation with ghosts. Part 8 - Last.

I didn’t want to go back to the hotel, knowing that Piam’s ghost paranoia would return as soon as we arrived back there. We stayed for dinner in one of the local villages but eventually we had to go back especially because Apple was growing irritable and wanted to sleep.

Link to the previous post: This is Thailand. Chapter 8: Vacation with ghosts. Part 7.

In line with my predictions, Piam got quiet and turned into ice as soon as we crossed the hotel gate. This time, however, I could not be bothered. I didn’t say anything. I didn’t ask for anything. I didn’t try and get close to her in any way. I already knew how my attempts were going to end and I didn’t want any further frustration. The last night in a grand bed in a great hotel was ahead of us and I knew that nothing was going to happen. It was supposed to be romantic and erotic but it wasn’t. Maybe we should have stayed at home?

Piam watched soap operas and I got thinking about all of this ghostly stuff. Thais are very superstitious. Small, most often wooden houses on one leg stand in front of almost every house, condominium, office tower or shop. These are “spirit houses” and look like miniature houses. They are inhabited by ghosts who are supposed to safeguard the houses. You have to take care of your spirit house and its inhabitants by bringing them food and drink. Thais regularly buy coca-cola, orange juice or mineral water, open them, then leave them in front of the house with a straw for easy usage. In front of my condominium, there is a spirit house occupying a third of a car parking space. Naturally, not matter what, nobody ever parks there. The ghosts would get pissed off.

-Piam, can you tell me more about spirit houses? - I ask during a break in her soap opera.
-What are you asking about?
-Can you explain to me how you can leave a drink for the ghost but they never actually drink it? The liquid never disappears.
-They drink it and it does disappear, you just can’t see it. Ghosts exist in a parallel universe. They drink what we leave them but in reality we can’t see it.
-Sure...
-You wouldn’t understand. You Europeans can’t see it, feel it or understand it. We have proof. -
-What proof?
-We believe that...
-Belief is not proof. It’s a belief.
-For example, if you leave something for them to drink, after a few days the liquid will eventually start to disappear. Our world reflects the change in their world with a small delay.
-Piam, it’s bullshit. The water is just evaporating over time. Did you never do physics at school?
-I’ve heard about evaporation, I had physics as well. Modern teachers try to explain it to us using the European way. But we believe the way that I told you.
-Do you have any further proof?
-I once drove to a famous monk who lives 200 miles outside of Bangkok. He told me things that he shouldn’t have known. He had the power of fortelling the future.
What did he say?
-He told me that I had a husband who left me. And that I have met someone else or accepted my loss and that now my life will be better.
-Did you go with Apple?
-Yes, why?
-I could have told you the same things without his magical power...
-How?
-It’s simple. A lone girl without a ring on her finger but with a child came to visit me. It’s easy to predict that she had a husband but doesn’t anymore. She behaves normally and doesn’t cry. It means that has accepted her loss or found someone new. Logical.
-Ach, Europeans and their logic! I tell you that he had a superpower.
-Of course he had power. This “power” was intellect and deduction.
-I’m not talking to you. You don’t understand anything.

Of course I don’t understand anything. I am only a thinking, logical European for whom the only religion is science. The reason I became atheist when I was a teenager was really simple. No one could answer a simply question “why”. Why should I believe in something I can’t see? Show me some sort of proof and I’m happy to change my views. This attitude will definitely not help me settle in Thailand.

We ate breakfast early in the morning, said goodbye to the friendly owner and his daughter. We jumped into the car and began the murderous journey back to Bangkok. We skipped the plan of sightseeing around Ko Lanta Noi due to a two-hour long traffic jam before the first ferry. It seemed that due to Songkran, everybody took their cars to drive to whatever destination.

The journey seemed to last forever but we didn’t have any more major adventures. No cut fingers, no crying, no vomiting, no corrupt police officers. There were, however, many accidents on the road which caused me to reduce my speed. Almost asleep, I stopped at the gas station for yet another hit of caffeine. Awakening both spirit and body, I began to think about yet another Thai belief.

Thais believe that in the moment of the death, the ghost does not realize that he is dead. For a few days, it tries to live it’s life in a normal way like nothing has happened. I am interested to know how I can be sure that we’ve actually reached Bangkok before midnight? How do I know that I didn’t fall asleep and crashed the car under some truck? I share my observations with Piam, but upon seeing her terrified face, decide against continuing the conversation. If I was dead, I’d find out in a few days...

Image Credit: Shocking video shows woman’s ‘soul’ leaving body after fatal accident