Pirahna Fishing in Thailand

The first time I saw the hand printed sign advertising Piranha Fishing, I was 3 hours into a mountainous motorbike trek in northeast Thailand.  My butt was aching and I had pulled off at a scenic overlook to give my rump a rest.  There, tacked to the guard rail of the overlook was a very unprofessional, hand drawn sign with a picture or two advertising Piranha Park, 8 km north of Pai.   I had not come to Thailand to fish, so I disregarded the sign. 


I arrived in Pai at 6 pm just as the sun was beginning to set.  After dark is NOT the best time to be searching an unfamiliar Thai town for a room, so I pulled out my trusty "Go Thailand" book to get a recommendation for a cheap safe room.  The book gave a few suggestions, all of which required that I first locate the bus station.  Not knowing what such a thing would like like in Thailand, I rode my bike up and down the market vendor lined streets looking for a large, official-looking station that was big enough to house a bus or two....this was wrong thinking.

I drove by this building several times before being tipped off by the long bench out front, that this might, in fact be the bus station.     Next, I was to walk about 70 yards to locate the Duang Guest House

Advertising is not exactly the strong suit of Thais (more on this later).   Fortunately, the garage door was opened when I arrived and I was given the choice of 2 alternative rooms.  I chose the one that came WITH a bathroom.  This turned out to be the DELUXE Suite, as it not only had a bathroom, it also had a fan and a TV showing all Thai programming. 

My room cost 400 baht or just under $12.  Note the outdoor sink that my neighbors who did NOT have the Deluxe room got to use.

The next day, I wandered around Pai.  I considered simply staying in my $12 room two nights in a row, but there was a part of me that wondered if changing rooms might afford me a DIFFERENT experience.   Then I stumbled upon another hand drawn sign advertising Piranha Park.  In fact, as I rambled around town, at every juncture, I seemed to bump into more of these hand drawn signs.  Finally, it occurred to me that I was getting an invitation....It was worth the trek by motorbike to at least find out who was the marketing mastermind behind all of this advertising.

Until this moment, I had gotten used to missing numerous sights in Thailand.  Along the road, there tended to be one sign saying something like "elephant tracks, 3 km"....that would be ONLY sign.   Yet Pirahna Park managed to plant a sign at exactly the right place, just when you started to doubt if you were going the right way, there would be another of those signs, in English.     When I finally arrived, I realized that though this was a fishing park, it was really about the closest place to Nirvana that I could find, at least by my standards.

The "park" consisted of 3 large ponds that I later learned were dug by the Thai government 10 years ago when the govt went up in the mountains on a mission of digging ponds for families to grow Tilapia in.

These 3 ponds were fed by fresh mountain water diverted directly from a waterfall coming off the mountain just behind the park.  The owners piped the water in, and had it cascade down their own rock water fall to oxygenate the ponds and to provide a never ending cacophony of waterfall music.

The owner also built 3 beautiful bamboo bungalows, each one with an outdoor bathroom complete with hot water shower.  Unfortunately, given it was "high season" here, all 3 bungalows were rented.   So, the owner offered to pitch me a tent to sleep in by the lake.   This for a whopping $6 / night.  At first, this seemed steep.  What I didn't realize is that it was a large tent with the most comfortable Thai pallet bed.   It was the best sleep I've had in a long time.

My tent was pitched under a pavilion on flat soft ground.   The door to the tent was only 3 feet away from the pond, and the spot came complete with a public toilet only 15 feet away.

This was the view from tent.  

I learned an old Thai method for catching fish.  Though the "novelty" fish in these ponds were Piranha, there were much more significant fish to catch.   The park was full of enormous catfish, snake-heads, carp, and numerous other types of fish I was unfamiliar with.


Turns out that the piranha, though aggressive feeders, are not the same dinosaur toothed fish that we all read about in the Amazon.   These piranha have tiny, razor sharp teeth, but they tend to eat smaller fish AND nuts and berries.    This was the first of 5 piranhas that I caught that evening. 




The owner of this park is a Thai / UK couple.  Their goal is to provide people with a beautiful place to have a fishing experience with fish they can't catch anywhere else...people are requested to release the fish so that others can enjoy the experience.

The more I poked around the Park, the more intrigued I got.   They owned numerous acres of tropical ponds and fertile farmland.   I realized that they were almost completely self sufficient.  They have large holding tanks, not for breeding, but for growing.   The fish thrive in the mountain stream fed ponds, and the breed like crazy.   He regularly nets the babies and keeps them in these separate tanks to grow them up.

The mother in law, probably in her late 50's actively farms the grounds.  In the back ground is rice, an you might be able to make out the words "pirahna park" in yellow shrubs lining the dirt road.   They grow rice, papaya, coconuts, cabbages, and I suspect numerous other vegetables...I just didn't feel comfortable going out in their farm land in my sandals...what with the cobras and all....

If it wasn't being farmed, the land was covered with the most beautiful landscaping, forever in bloom in this tropical climate.  This is landscaping just below the owners house which fronts along one of the ponds.

The owner was a builder in the UK before relocating here and marrying the Thai daughter 10 years ago.  He built this house, and all 3 of the bungalows around the ponds.   I assume there will be about 3 more bungalows added before he's done.

Oddly, I did not get a picture of the UK man.  He was very colorful and friendly, and no matter how much I raved about the haven he'd built, he just smiled and and agreed that it was a special place, in an Aw shucks, thank ya mate kind of way.   This is his wife, washing off the front porch / bar.

 

Their daughter is a cute little girl who looks completely Thai, but has her Daddies curly hair.

This was an attempt to capture the night time view from my tent using time laps with my litlle point and shoot camera.

Finally, the family dog had just given birth a to a litter of the cutest puppies.  It was fun to watch the puppies scramble for the next available teat.  Mom was incredible patient and resigne to play her role:

 

 

 

 

My Favorite Thai Street Scenes

Though I didn't take too many voyeuristic photos of people, there were a few shots that really stood out to me as favorites

Monks are seen everywhere, ranging in age from 7 to 70.  I especially liked this picture I took from the backseat of a car as we were zipping along the highway.

Though the streets are crammed with cars and scooters, I still occasionally found some old-schoolers relying on manpower.  Clearly, this one had already survived a busy day.











 Necessity is the mother of invention.  Thai's look for many ways to carry as many people with one motor scooter as possible.  I once saw a family of four squeezed on one scooter.  I thought this was an ingenious, albeit hazardous, way of transporting happy preschoolers.

These little girls were dressed to the Nine's.  They were perfoming a series of traditional dances at the very first Temple I visited.  I was struck with just how poised and grown up these little girls, roughly aged 7 - 9 appeared!

As I roamed the countryside on my motor bike, I came across a make shift volleyball court in the middle of one of the most impoverished tribal communities I'd seen.  What I saw these boys doing was AMAZING.  They were playing volleyball using soccer rules...no hands allowed.

For the most part, Thailand is dominated by "homeless" street dogs.  The well cared for "pets" are distinguished, however, as they're dressed in their Sunday best

 This little fella was waiting his turn for a ride on a bike that was being fixed.  I just loved his concentration

Money was running low so I tried out a few ways to generate some pocket change..... I'll keep my day job

International Relief - Bathroom observations

As I have just circled the Globe, I consider myself an expert in comparative Restroom practices.   Here are my observations based on comparative studies in Frankfort, Germany, Chicago, Ill, Tokyo Japan, Bangkok, (Southern) Thailand, and Chiang Mai, (Northern) Thailand

Frankfort, Germany:   Stall doors go clear to the ground such that there is less intimacy with the person seated to your left and right, and less anticipation from those outside waiting, watching the “under door dance”.

Tokyo Japan:   Heated Toilet Seats!!!!   This gets my innovation of the trip award.  I’m assuming that there must be a hygiene by-product of heating, because the down side is that it discourages you from contributing to needed commode seat turnover.   In addition, Tokyo maintains a full-time FEMALE bathroom person who stays ever busy, even nudging gentlemen “in-the-act” gently out of the way in order to clear the floor around them.   Tokyo also has the most dependable high-capacity hand dryers that actually work.  Unlike the American version, these blowers do not contain instructions that inevitable have a 4^th step scratched into the aluminum casing “rub hands on pants”.

Thailand….without exception, ALL toilets come equipped with a little water hose, similar to those that accompany most American sinks and occasionally, showers.  At minimum, there is a water faucet with bucket, if no hose is available.   There are NO pictures available for Americans instructing them in the use of said hoses.  NOR are there paper towels that one might use to dry ones’self off after hosing their backside down, after all, this would defeat the purpose….said paper towels would inevitably end up in the toilet.

Most Thai bathrooms come with toilets complete with seats.   Urinals frequently come with a breathtaking view.  AS I was cycling down a mountain from Pye, I stopped at a roadside toilet and coffee shop.   (actually, this suggests they sell both….it was actually a coffee shop and a toilet).   The Men’s room had arrows pointing in two directions.  If you went left, you found a half wall with urinals attached.  The wall stopped about chest level, and afforded you a beautiful view of the mountains and country side.   If you went right, it took you to 2 separate stalls, both of which had the doors unattached and standing, leaning against the wall.   There were no toilets inside.  Just a 3 foot high Barrell that was half full of water.   I still don’t know what its purpose was.   I quietly mingled for 10 minutes and inauspiciously followed about 7 Thai men to the men’s room just to see what happened if you didn’t ONLY need the view of the mountain.    Unfortunately, the “view” seemed to be the need of choice on this given day.

By the way, I did make a brief foray into the ladies rooms at this roadside stand.   They were very clean and private.  Each had a separate door.  The toilet looked more like a white porcelain sink embedded in the floor.  A hose was nicely mounted near by.

Most bathrooms don’t have a separate shower.  Rather, a shower is mounted on the wall of the bathroom, and the bathroom floor has a sink drain in the middle of the floor.  I guess this is equally conducive for the bottom bathers, so why bother installing a full shower stall!