Ba-ba Bo-bo

November 18, 2025

We had two full days in Lampang in which we saw a few things but the city has really grown and is quite spread out. Like Chiang Mai there are little alleys everywhere and you are pretty much assured that if you walk down a few there will be things you will be interested in such as old temples or old wood houses or restaurants you want to try. You could spend weeks in Lampang doing this but this is supposed to be a bike trip. Taking two days and three nights in Lampang was about all we were going to give it.

The view from our wall of glass in our room at the Pin Hotel in Lampang.

Lampang struck us as a medium-sized, very Thai city. It is the opposite of Chiang Mai when it comes to tourism. In fact, I don't remember seeing any foreign tourists. It's good to see a Thai city that is busy at work and completely Thai as a comparison to an inundated tourist place which is Chiang Mai. But, Chiang Mai has always had stuff that tourists like and want to participate in like massage schools, cooking classes and meditation centers. Lampang has none of that. At least we never saw anything for tourists other than the occasional horse cart. We had no interest in sitting in a horse cart and being paraded around the city like a tourist! The horse cart owners were all old and looked depressed and ready to throw in the towel. The horses didn't look much better.

Enormous gates are the thing up here in Lampang. They are Haripunchai style. Haripunchai was a powerful ruler of the entire northern part of Thailand. But this particular gate is not really a gate. It has four enormous doors and houses the Lampang City Pillar Shrine. Every larger town in Thailand has a city pillar shrine.

A portion of one of the doors to the City Pillar Shrine.

On the other hand we were not depressed or ready to throw in the towel. We walked a lot exploring the central market area, a few temples and continued to eat great food. I feel like we are on a food tour as much as a bike tour but that's just part of being in Thailand. We had some of the best khao soi ever and the biggest pile of pad Thai ever. It's not like us to seek out pad Thai in Thailand because there are so many other more interesting Thai dishes but we were just walking by what looked to be a really nice restaurant surrounded by plants. It was like we were in someone's house, which I guess we were. And we were treated as if we were family too. We were the only people eating there and @ $1 apiece for the pad Thai we wondered how they were making any money. If they had the tourists of Chiang Mai the place would be full every night. The family didn't seem to be concerned somehow. And that's the feeling I had in Lampang; people were chill and didn't seem worried about the lack of tourists or money. Our hotel was very large but seemed almost empty. It's interesting how tourists all glom together in certain spots. There are a few places in Thailand where there are loads of tourists but most of the country is devoid of them. Where we have cycled we have seen very few tourists and Lampang was a good example.

We have never had such a tremendous plate of pad Thai. There were a lot of fresh vegys involved. $1 each!

Inside a great khao soi restaurant. It's an old teak house and quite dark inside. Best bowl of khao soi yet.

One of the windows of the khao soi restaurant. This kind of metal work is common in Thailand. You almost never see screens on old buildings but you almost always see metal work. This one was particularly cute and well made.

I'm surprised this stuff still exists. They are very large tins of junk food. I'm not sure who buys them. I guess anyone who needs a lot of some kind of junk. There are dozens of different kinds.

Pouter campechiana or Egg Fruit. Or, Yellow Sapote. Strange that I've never even seen them, let alone eaten one.

Lampang's streets are congested anywhere near the central market.

Walking near the central market there were four men fondling and telling tall tales about their collections of Buddha amulets spread out on little tables. These guys are here and there throughout Thailand. They are a type, almost a subculture. They are all kind of rough looking like they are alcoholics or live in caves and emerge to gather among themselves to talk about their amulet collections. They are to be avoided unless you want to get taken buying an amulet that they tell you is 800 years old, at least. Or, it was blessed by some famous monk long gone or it was found in the same place a Buddha bone was found! Some tall tale will be attached to every single one of their amulets. All the amulets have stories and these guys will know a sucker when you approach, if you are a sucker. But the thing is, they all seem to believe their tales completely. They are like the original conspiracy theorists. They make up the stories and they tell them so many times the stories take on a life of their own especially inside the heads of the amulet sellers.

The amulet salesmen are also snake oil salesmen on the side. Besides their small collections of clay or stone little images of Buddha which they have placed inside protective plastic amulet cases always to be worn as necklaces, they have a few other things set up as if to mesmerize you even more. Things like horns from some sort of exotic animal. They are probably from some endangered species and illegal but the police look the other way because they just shake their heads at those guys. Every culture has to have groups of guys like these guys I'm trying to describe. I don't normally come close to them but in some sort of strange way I am glad they exist. It's like humor to me and I'm glad humor exists.

Anyway, there was a group of these guys on a slightly higher level than us behind or on top of a low cement wall. They started a conversation with Andrea while I was haggling over the price of a papaya. They asked her where she was from, a common opening, and she told them America. When we tell people, "America" they ALWAYS exclaim with a thumbs up or a big smile or an, "Oh, good country." We shrug it off. I mean, we had no control over where we were born.

Then, coming from a group like those guys the next question was going to be obvious. "Trump?" as if that is an actual question. I was haggling but I think there was a thumbs up involved at the same time that man said it. Andrea, with a thumbs down gesture, said, "Trump no good." The men, it might have been just one of them so I'll say man, was surprised by this and he switched his thumb to pointing down as well.

The man kept asking, "Trump good?" Andrea, "No, no, no. he's not good at all." The man was confused but he didn't really care one way or another. He was Thai so what does he really care! I think the way they see it, whoever is voted to be President in the United States must mean that everyone likes that person. And they do for sure like the idea of a strong man, even though Trump is the biggest coward and wimp ever. They don't know that and they can't understand things so far away in a country they don't understand. They aren't exactly worldly. Plus, as I said, they are susceptible to conspiracy theories and fictitious stories, epic stories, Trump lies, etc.

They, themselves would make up a story and tell you something like this: 'This small clay Buddha image was dug up under Wat Doi Suthep by a monk in 1649 and passed down from monk to monk and then was given to King Rama the 9th who on his way to his winter palace one day stopped his motorcade, got out and gave it to a man walking alongside the road. That man sold it to me many years ago. I knew his family. This amulet has amazing powers. You need to have it now. You also like this rice whiskey with a baby cobra inside the bottle. Make you strong. Natural Viagra too. I like you so I give you both, very good price.'

So, now I had secured my purchase of an enormous papaya.and could enter the back and forth conversation, of sorts, about Trump with the man's thumb going up and then down without care one way or another. I hardly ever use this word but this was the perfect time so I said in Thai, "Trump, ba-ba bo-bo." I added the twirling of my index finger around the side of my head. I don't think the Thais know what that gesture means but this was already an educational experience for them so I included it. All Thais know ba-ba bo-bo, an old phrase, but I never hear them actually say it. Sometime long ago I learned it from my good friend and hill tribe guide, Lo, and I use it whenever the context is perfect. It simply means CRAZY. TRUMP IS CRAZY. You should have heard the uproarious laughter from those four men! The phrase, not only ultra perfect to describe Trump, it was also right up those guys' alleys.

One of the men asked if I spoke Thai which when asked that question I always answer in Thai, "Mai dai", no, not possible, which also always gets a laughing response because I say it in Thai. Then they never believe that I really can't speak Thai. I understood one of the men say in Thai, "Oh no, if you know ba-ba bo-bo then you know Thai." That's how powerful ba-ba bo-bo is!!

This may sound strange but it was an interaction with some ordinary Thais that makes you be totally accepted by them as well as anyone nearby who overheard the whole thing and believe me, there were a lot of Thais very interested in listening to our interaction. It was a market area with loads of people around. Another way to get a whole lot of Thais to accept the tourist walking through their streets in their odd clothing, long hair, backpack, etc. is to carry an enormous papaya in a bag, or a bunch of bananas or better yet, a couple of sticks of khao lam.

Khao lam is sticky rice that has been cooked with some coconut milk inside a piece of bamboo. It's old-time snack food and I love it. The outer really hard part of the bamboo has first been striped away leaving a much thinner walled piece of bamboo. The sticks of bamboo are filled with rice that was soaked in coconut milk then the open end of the bamboo stick is plugged with some sort of leaves or coarse shavings from a coconut husk. It's a very earthy touch at the end! Then they are propped up next to a fire for I don't know how long. Then they are sold in the market or even at stands right next to the road.

They are about 30 cents apiece. You peel away the bamboo and realize a miraculous thing has occurred. The sticky rice has adhered to the tissue-thin inner membrane of the bamboo which means you can break off pieces of the sticky rice without getting your fingers all sticky. It's an age-old ingenious natural wonder snack that you can take with you on boats or buses or trains. If you have a couple of the khao lam visible as you walk the streets you will be totally accepted by any Thai. They will respect you more than you think. Also if you have a bag of fried banana pieces dangling from your handlebars.

Maybe this entry doesn't necessarily give you a good idea of what Lampang is like but at least you now know what ba-ba bo-bo means.

lovebruce

Here is an image of the intact khao lam - bamboo filled with coconut milk flavored sticky rice. This particular cup of coffee has some "coffee sugar" sprinkled on top. And sometimes coffee comes with Chinese tea.

This is what khao lam looks like after it is eaten. Sorry, I failed to take a photo of it as I peeled it. I'll do that sometime.

When a tree is growing right out of a building (our hotel) you know you are somewhere.

This store had more rice cookers, more fans, more thermos' with pumps, clocks and watches than any store I have ever seen. Oh, and also flashlights, radios, mosquito electrocution rackets and irons.

Khai yiao ma - preserved eggs Thai style. They are put in a mixture of lyme, clay, salt and rice hulls for weeks and they turn this color. Inside they are gelatinous and have a particular flavor, I'm told.

A very ingenious coffee bean roaster. I can't believe they drilled holes in the ceramic without it cracking.

Inside is a smaller ceramic pot which revolves powered by a motor behind.

Much more in use in India this is called a kadai. You see them sometimes in Thailand.

Here are a whole bunch of those things for sale that are used to attach paper money to as an offering to a temple and a way for the donator to gain merit.

These are some items for sale at what we refer to as, "Monk stores." They are buckets and baskets ready made to give to monks. Apparently they have all the goodies monks need or like.

The man I described who beats on his metal wall to scare away pigeons needs one of these banners to hang in the direction of the woman who feeds them.

I just liked this huge tree. It's what we call a 'Blessing Tree.' Everyone under them are blessed with lots of shade.

Nope, you can't pin this on me. Wrong size.

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Charlotte FloryThat was a really neat interaction with the con men. In my mind I imagined them as more sinister, in zoot suits, with hats and cigars. I’ll bet you went home with them in the way of some really great stories, too!
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2 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Charlotte FloryHaha. These particular guys were not sinister looking at all. But not many Thais ever look sinister. Thais are more fun loving than anything. These amulet salesmen will try to pull the wool over your eyes but in the end it is all just a game for them and they don't really care if you buy anything from them or not.
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2 months ago

John SolemI love the amulet salesmen story and it’s so great to have the picture to go along with it. Thank you.
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2 months ago