Monday/Wednesday - 29th June/1st July, 1998. We took our tuk-tuk ride around the town. We visited the Temple across the river where William lived for 3 years. There was a steel rope suspension walking bridge over the Mae Ping river. We walked across on this and in the middle William started making it rock and sway like children would do! He met many of his Monk friends at the Temple and he returned there again later by tuk-tuk on his own. He said that he now preferred “Walking For Thailand” as it can affect and help more people.

We met many very nice business people who we never meet staying at the budget Thai hotels. I’m sure our walk by now would have had more national publicity had we had a larger budget so we could stay in the more upmarket hotels in the places we visited. A businessman interviewed me, in English on video that he said he would give to Channel 7 & ITV.

I mailed 30 post cards to people we were keeping in touch with on our walk’s progress. We liked Tak very much. A lovely and charming place. Many thanks to everyone in Tak for making us so welcome. We look forward to seeing you all again on the same dates in 2552. (2009)

http://www.walking-in-thailand.com/1998.htm

Yours truly,

Escati Tiger Team Walking For Thailand.

Saturday 27th June, 1998 - “2,000 Kms Day for Dennis Peacock FCA”

We left the ‘Chakrungrao River Hotel’ in Khamphaeng Phet at 06.30 hrs and had coffee at the junction with highway 1 and started “Walking For Thailand’ the 68 kms to Tak at 07.15 hrs. Immediately we were on road construction, which continued until 15 kms south of Lampang! But we walked on the construction as the road was being made into a dual carriageway. ( A divided highway, if you are reading this from the USA!) So we had the new carriageway to ourselves with cleaner air to breathe, less traffic noise and no constant ‘wind draught’ from passing large vehicles. It was a welcome luxury and made our walking much easier and more pleasant. Now we had to watch where to put our feet! We had the road to ourselves all the way to Tak. There were many teak trees and rice & corn on the cob growing in the fields.

As we walked into ‘Wang Chao’ we had done 37 kms and I reached the magic total of 2,001 kms “Walking For Thailand”. I was very excited and amazed that I had achieved another of my goals: http://www.lombardimovie.com

We immediately saw the ‘Wang Chao Resort’ behind an Esso petrol station with a bar and karaoke machine, so we got 2 rooms for Baht 200 each and immediately William let rip on the Thai songs with the staff and locals joining in, at baht 5 a play! We celebrated my 2,000 kms with 3 large bottles of Heineken with our meal at the cafe at the petrol station. Everyone was amazed and we slept soundly all night, even with a room full of mosquitoes!

Sunday 28th June, 1998. We left at 06.30 hrs after coffee and walked on our own road and did 20 kms by noon. Again I was number 1 for the day, as today is an even day. Then we found some food and had a big meal. We rested in a bus stop sala and I slept for 90 minutes on a concrete bench, which is most uncomfortable for me. At 15.20 hrs we walked the remaining 7 kms to the entrance of Tak, off highway 1. We crossed the long bridge over the wide Mae Ping river, then we took a short cut, down the bank on the concrete support bank and walked the 2 kms beside the river into the town centre. A lovely walk. We found Bangkok Bank and William phoned the “Viang Tak II Hotel” that we had passed whilst walking to Bangkok Bank. It was a modern new hotel for westerners. We agreed that I should keep out of the way when agreeing a room rate at the ‘Thai room rates’, hence the phone call and the price given to William in Thai. We got a room for baht 550 and saw the room rates board at reception quoting the room at baht 1,250. We were learning fast! The room was very nice with a view of the market area and with air con and satellite TV. Then it poured with rain! http://www.sawadee.com/hotel/655701

We had walked 190 kms in 6 days out of 8 days and needed a break. The hotel was excellent and a nice coffee shop with a large screen TV for the world cup matches from an overhead projector, night club, disco and swimming pool. Tak is beautiful and beside the river. We stayed in our new “paradise” for 4 nights:

http://www.escati.com/maps/provinces.jpg

Yours truly,

Escati Tiger Team Walking For Thailand.

Thursday/Friday - 25th/26th June, 1998. We had a great tuk-tuk ride around town and a very wide Mae Ping river. The town was very spread out and a pleasant change to Nakhon Sawan. We met many local people who were showing a real interest in our walk and it’s purpose, rather than just the fact that we had walked a long way.

The absense of national support and publicity means we have to constantly explain why we are walking to overcome the stigma Thai people have about walking. In the western world, walking is a growing recreational pursuit for social and health reasons. But in Thailand, it is frowned on as it is associated with ‘being poor’ or ‘being a poor farmer’. This “loss of face” which is deeply rooted in Thai culture and society values and protected by Thai people ‘at all costs’ puts no value on walking, as it is associated with the feet, the lowest part of the body, within the human condition via “cultural and Buddhist principles”. Since Thailand’s economic boom and growth from it’s purely agricultural economy in the 1940’s and 1950’s less people walked with the growing prosperity mainly from the wide acquisition of motorcycles in the 1970’s onwards. This made people lazy, following the western attitude, until the fitness boom changed these attitudes in the west. Also the hot weather makes people avoid walking as it’s no longer a necessity, as it was in the days of their Parents who walked holding a ‘parasol’ for shelter from the sun. These were the elegant days in Thailand before traffic fumes, pollution and congestion. Current Thai society are largely ignorant about the fact that one can walk for a positive reason in addition to using the ‘walking vehicle’ as a ‘protest walk’ to raise people’s objections against government lack of support for sectors of the economy, particularly agriculture.

Another factor is that public transport in Thailand is very well organised, good value, and a very frequent and reliable, clean and mainly safe service for all the people with a large choice of comfort by road, rail, ferry and air. “Why walk when you can get a bus? ” I understood this challenge at the start of my ‘Walking for Thailand’ idea. Yet I didn’t let it discourage me, as the only way I could find out if the walk would succeed or fail in it’s honest intentions was to start walking…Step By Step:

http://www.escati.net/02/2006/09/walking-for-thailand-introduction

This ‘amazement value’ our walk is generating should break the barriers of the social stigma against walking, as we do what is considered humanly, physically and mentally impossible by current younger generations in Thai society, particularly in the urban areas and big cities. The Thai people are starting to support our ’Walking For Thailand’ initiative with great respect for what we are doing for Thailand and for what we have done physically, so far to Khamphaeng Phet.

We very much enjoyed our stay in Khamphaeng Phet and our grateful thanks to everyone who made us so welcome in your beautiful city.

Yours truly,

Escati Tiger Team Walking For Thailand.