The first in a series of occasional reviews of local attractions which are either shooting themselves in the foot, or should be shot by firing squad immediately. Silverlake falls into foot shooting category.
The Silverlake area is close to the Buddha mountain.
Continue down the road and you come to an area populated by grapevines. There is a small shop where they sell a variety of grape products, no sign of them attempting to produce wines which is probably a good thing given that every Thai wine I have sipped has tasted of camel urine with a subtle aftertaste of ferret.
It is (was) a naturally picturesque area with vines running down to a lake with some well-tended plants and gazebos.
All very pleasant. Must be time to fuck it up. First off we have the exceedingly tacky long-necked Karen attraction.
For a fee, you can go and gawp at some sad looking ladies sat under a shabby tarpaulin (admittedly I didn’t pay, but that’s what it looks like they were doing). The relevance of long necked Karen to a vineyard next to Pattaya escapes me; other than of course they give the tourists something extra to do that they can be charged for.
I have to admit that I have also been guilty of long necked Karen gawping. But it was on the border with Burma, which is Karen homeland, and it was in a village where the women could work at weaving, like the lady below, and were living a semblance of a life in spite of being hosts to tourists.
Anyway, that sucks. But to really screw things up they need to place something entirely inappropriate right in the middle of the lovely landscape. Let’s see, what sort of structure are you never likely to see in the middle of a vineyard, or in Thailand? How about a windmill:
Looking like one of those cardboard cut-out models you used to find on the back of cereal packets, this windmill, like Margaret Thatcher, is not for turning. Presumably it is there so that tourists, having had their photographs taken with long necked Karen, can pose in front of a windmill. Burma and Holland all in one day.
Construction activity is ongoing. Expect a Ferris wheel next.