ESCATI TIGER TEAM WALKING FOR THAILAND - RESTING IN KAMPHAENG PHET

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.