Thailand-Day 9-Chiang Rai to Chiang Saen

Another morning meant another bus ride, this time to go visit John's roommate's parents' house. His roommate comes from Chiang Sean, a town north of Chiang Rai about 20 km south of the Golden Triangle. We went there to see a more traditional, somewhat rural lifestyle. With the directions from his roommate, we simply told the driver to stop as we approached their house. As they live on the main road through town, this was pretty simple. They actually live a short distance outside of Chiang Sean. The road is lined on both sides with houses or shops, and behind the houses on each side are rice paddies, rice paddies, more rice paddies and some other crops. We began the day by just helping out with some gardening-as the father of the household was already out in the fields (and had been since the break of dawn). We helped water some plants-which was apparently all we were qualified for, and other wise just sat around. John enjoyed chatting with the mom and his roommate's sister, who was home for the weekend. It was a very peaceful setting, as the mom was very calmly and slowly splitting bamboo reeds for basket weaving.

After lunch (delicious), the dad returned, and he was quite springy and chipper for his age. He took us out to the rice paddies, where John and I both got really muddy desperately trying to manage a mechanical tiller. It was quite an experience for me, apparently all the skills I learned as a youngster on Grandpa Max's tractors are long gone. I'm not sure if we were able to slip and slide our way to any productive work, but were told at the end of the day that it was good enough that he wouldn't have to re-do it. Not sure if that was a compliment or insult.

Later in the day, after our "help" was no longer needed, we took one of their motorcycles up to the Golden Triangle. I was most excited to see Burma-as entering it as a tourist isn't so easy, and now have seen (but not entered) both North Korea and Burma, two of the world's rather more interesting (and oppressive) countries. More exciting than all the kitschy handicraft vendors was the fact that on our way there I suddenly got worried as it seemed the steering was going out-but I soon realized that we had a flat, and was able to successfully (if not smoothly) pull over. We walked the bike along (assuming that a bike mechanic would be on side of the road soon enough). Some nice girls passing by told us to turn around, as the closest was behind us. You know, the thing about Thailand, is that the sunny weather and palm trees make walking a motorcycle up the road pretty enjoyable. We chilled on some stools with some errant chickens while the motorcycle was quickly fixed.

It was a truly great visit, and one of my favorite days during the Thailand trip. I loved just hanging around with the family, seeing them go about their daily duties. The house had an awesome set-up, with an open air kitchen, dining table, and sitting area in what might be called a giant patio. The mom was very methodical in all her tasks, but never showed a bit of urgency or haste. This was incredibly different than the 100 miles a minute pace of life in China (albeit not my life). They were quite kind, and John was again a very helpful translator. We had a fantastically scrumptious dinner with the mom, dad, sister, and a niece and her boyfriend, who go to college nearby, and were visiting for the weekend. We ate traditional Thai style sitting on the raised platform, eating with our hands and sticky rice from a big communal plate. I actually felt a bit guilty, as some of the barbecued beef was so good I couldn't help but eat much more than my share. John's roommate (who I never actually met) had quite a nice family, and his dad-between helping me teach him the names of fruit in English (we got stuck at orange) and ardently inviting us to stay in the morning-was a true character.

Thailand-Day 8-Lampang-Chiang Rai

We had come to Lampang not to wander through what promised to be interesting, but not too unique temples-but to go to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. I picked this among the many, many elephant riding facilities, because it at least seemed in the guidebook to treat its elephants reasonably well, I figured it was the least I could do. It was amazing how quickly after we hopped off the bus I was on top of an elephant. If you've never ridden an elephant-I'd highly recommend it. Why? Because it's riding an elephant. It was a great ride-me in the seat, with a mahout crouching on the elephant's neck directing it along a nice trail through very peaceful and green forest including two dips in ponds. I have no problem being obvious in saying that the thing that most struck me was that elephant's are big. Giant. Huge.

John met up with me after my ride, and we caught the elephant show. Apparently, the conservatory has a bunch of elephants that are retired from the outlawed logging industry, and with not much else to do, has taught them to paint, play music instruments, and do all sorts of little tricks. The show featured the mahouts and (mostly foreign) tourists who were mahouts-in-training as part of a three day package. I'm pretty sure that the elephant in this show played the xylophone better than anyone in my third grade music class. It was on the move after the elephant park, a bus back to town, then another to Chiang Rai.

We arrived in Chiang Rai, and got a sweet ride into town from a contact (and her friend) John had there through the teahouse. We had a delicious noodle dinner at a streetside restaurant. I downed an ice cold Beer Leo with my noodles and was quite satisfied with the meal. We wandered around the streets of Chiang Rai, through some of the handicraft markets and restaurant and bar streets. It was my first time in Thailand to see how many tourists are really in Thailand, as Chiang Rai is a pretty popular destination in the north. On some streets, the only people you would see were white tourists and Thai wait staff and most signs were in English, with the occassional German or French (but not Thai). The Lonely Planet guidebook always seems to castigate any tourists that aren't totally adapting to the local way of life, don't carry a backpack, or come with package tours. Contrarily, my view is that Thailand significantly benefits economically from the tourists, the tourists love the beaches and the Buddhist culture so it seems to work out pretty well. I was once again thankful to John, as his contact let us stay in an apartment above the cafe she runs.

Thailand-Days 6 & 7-Khon Kaen-Phu Kradung-Lampang

Day 6 started out with a little bit of a search. John had headed out early to pick up his new work permit, which he got successfully, so we could head out of town with John’s passport in hand. He had roughly described the city hall to me, but when the sorngthaew got to the street it was on, there were official looking white buildings everywhere (as it was the municipal government campus). Luckily for me, John was on the side of the road, and just yelled at me as I passed by. I pressed the button as fast as I could, got out, and we were on our way. Traveling with John was great, as I did nothing but pull out the cash he told me to and was soon enough in Phu Kradung National Park. We got swindled by a tuk-tuk driver while trying to find a hotel, but the bungalows weren’t bad and seemed excellent for the absurdly cheap price. The town was at the base of the mountain, amid palm tree surrounded fields of various crops, so it made for a very peaceful (if mosquito laden) setting. As we would climb up the mountain the next morning, we had a very relaxing afternoon drinking ice cold beer (I love the SE Asian tendency to put ice in the beer) and enjoying some spicy pork fried rice at the restaurant next door. We amused ourselves the rest of the day by reading on the picnic table next to our bungalow, and taking a walk around town. By around town I really should say up and down the street, as that was about all that the town adjacent to the park had going on. We were able to wander about the local market, and pick up some mini-bananas and mandarin oranges for the hike the next day.

Up and at it, we were ready to go at 06:30 on the morning of Day 7 in Thailand. Waking up early was much easier for John-a proud morning person, than for me, but we were out waiting for a sorngthaew bright and early. And we were still out waiting for a sorngthaew about half an hour later. So much for early bird gets the worm. Our ever-helpful bungalow owner, who was gracious enough to fill our water bottles from a big metal vat of water (note sarcasm) also waited with us for the sorngthaew. Apparently he needed to be there to apply some special, local variation to waving down a truck on the side of the road. Turned out waving one’s arm would suffice. We shared the sorngthaew with five young couples. At first, I had just read that Phu Kradung was a popular place for college students and other young adults from the area to visit. Later, in talking more with John’s friend P’Ped, we learned that hiking up and camping on top of the main peak was the thing for young couples to do. So, there were John and I, about to climb (as I called it) ‘Lover’s Mountain.’ Be assured I made plenty of jokes, ad nauseam, to John.

Phu Kradung was a beautiful park, truly beautiful. I really love going to parks and climbing/hiking when over here in China. Back home, I can just hop on my bike and am in Greenbelt Park in 5 minutes, but in Changzhou, even the public parks that are around town aren’t dense enough to block out a few dirty apartment complexes piercing the generally gray sky. Contrarily, a blue sky crept through the branches as I blissfully soaked in the crisp morning air. We had a great climb up, beating the low end of the estimated climb time in the guidebook by twenty minutes-which made us both proud. The park featured both almost tropical mixed forests, deciduous forests in the middle, and coniferous forests at the top, with lots of bamboo mixed in. At some points, so many bamboo leaves were scattered and yellowing on the ground, that a golden walkway lead the way up. Upon reaching the top, I could see that why all the young lovers came-it offered picturesque views almost every 100 meters. There were waterfalls and cliffs all over the map promising as romantic a picture as you can get, but unfortunately, we were trying to hit up plenty of more places on our trip. We took a few of the paths less traveled on the way down, and unwittingly beguiled a couple to follow us. This path wasn’t for the trepidatious; the key was to never keep one’s foot on a rock too long, as it was sure to fall. I am sure that the girlfriend was sure to lambaste her boyfriend later.

We were able to get a ride back to the bus stop much easier upon exiting, and quickly took the local bus to Chumphae. A switch there, and we moved northwest towards Lampang. We arrived at the bus station a bit after 02:00, but as there should be in countries with a bid tourism industry, there was a tuk-tuk driver waiting for passengers. We had him take us to a street with a few hotels on it, but after getting one locked door, and wandering unsuccessfully through the open-air lobby of another, we finally awoke the receptionist on our third swing. We got a pretty cheap room, and though the reception looked relatively nice, the room reflected the price by being quite dusty and musty, with a bathroom that reminded me a bit too much of my days as a scout at Camp Mitigwa. But, as I love to say, it’s all the same once you’re asleep.

Thailand-Day 5-Khon Kaen

I wrangled myself out of bed in time to take a walk through much of the city to meet John for lunch. Upon getting there I was greeted with innumerable hellos from the cheery students. Like all Thais, they were super friendly and donned wide smiles. I eventually found John, who was unfortunately laying down in the nurse's office-with some weak flu-like symptoms. So I had a brief lunch at the cafeteria, which was pretty good for cafeteria food, but lacked behind the delicious meals I'd been getting at restaurants. It was very interesting to note that all the teachers wore military-esque uniforms, with different bars and epaulets noting status (or something). It was actually a pretty interesting school. It was outdoor, which is pretty standard considering Thailand's climate-but included a small museum of things important to the city, an adobe meditation hut, and an art room covered from floor to ceiling in various murals (many dinosaur themed-dinosaur excavations are a big deal in Khon Kaen).

John headed home to rest, so I wandered around town just really enjoying watching foreign people speak a foreign language, do foreign things, and generally be foreign. I sat on the steps of the 9 story wat and read my book for awhile. I didn't get too far, as people watching the groups visiting the wat was more fun. My colleague Peter has commented about this in his blog too, (and the feeling continued throughout Thailand) but it was very interesting (and relaxing) to visit temples that actually seemed as interested (if not more) in preserving a holy atmosphere for the parishioners than raking in tourist cash. Of course, I say this mostly because, living in China every "temple" I visit is generally a recently constructed edifice trying to figure out how to best place donation boxes to maximize intake without killing traffic flow. Nonetheless, the distance from the temple observed by the vendors, the lack of any hawking inside made the temple and its grounds a great place to sit and read.

In the afternoon, with John feeling better, we headed to the slums of Khon Kaen. We went to visit a family that John had briefly stayed with during his study abroad time in Khon Kaen. His study abroad program was focused on social awareness, and it used homestays with all sorts of families to help the students learn more about Thai culture. Again, I was looking at Thailand with more Chinese than American eyes. Thailand, by GDP per capita, is about 1.5 times wealthier per person than China. But, via its resident permit system for all citizens, China keeps poverty pretty isolated in the rural areas-where I think poverty tends to be more romanticized. So, visiting the slum, even after living in China, was an eye-opening, valuable experience. The houses were sometimes nothing more than a plywood lean-to with a corrugated tin roof, and all of them were in various states of getting foundations, floors, and stable walls. Rather than the shabby structures, it was the plethora of dirty kids, dirty dogs, and chickens milling about in front of most houses that made the biggest impression on me. Upon finding the house, John and I were invited to sit down with some of the family he stayed with, and the neighbors, who were sitting on a blanket, eating some papaya salad, smoking, and drinking some rice wine-to celebrate the new year. As seems to always happen, even when the people I visit are much more in need of a good meal than me, they insisted on feeding us (it was around dinner time) and we had some very tasty fried rice along with some chicken curry soup and boiled pork that wasn't bad. A few of the kids ate with us, as well as a weathered grandma, that John said had been really kind to him when he stayed there. We only had to brush an errant chick away from the food a few times during the meal, as the coop was inside the house and not 10 feet from where we ate.

Later that night, John's appetite was coming back, and I'm always up for a late night snack, so we met up with P'Ped again and had some amazing papaya salad, sticky rice (necessary to calm down the spicy salad) and some succulent roasted chicken. I again enjoyed chatting with him, his English wasn't as good as some of the other teachers, but he was super laid back and had a good sense of humor. I didn't quite know what to expect during my time in Khon Kaen, but I ended up really liking the city. It was a relatively small, hot, dusty yet vibrant city. It had lots of stray dogs (but that ended up being true everywhere in Thailand) but what was most interesting was the range of development among the businesses and homes. There is some money from the manufacturing there, and it was evident in some areas. But, along the wall to a big gated community, would be untended trash piles and basic shacks. It was great to spend some time walking around on my own, but even more rewarding to have some chats with John's friends. The one tough part about getting to know a country through tourism is you pretty much just meet hotel, restaurant, and site staff. I'm happy to have been able to ask some more personal or deeper questions to such friendly, open, well-spoken and helpful people. Talking with people like that in a laid back culture-while sipping a Coke slurpee or fresh fruit juice made me want to stay for awhile, and made it clear to me why so many foreigners have settled in Thailand.

Thailand-Day 4-Khon Kaen

My day started with a fantastic lunch of stir fried pork with veggies (mostly green peppers, green onions, onions, and peppers) and a cold beer Chang to cool down my mouth that isn't quite strong enough for the spicy Thai food. I don't know what lottery I won to be able to wake up at noon during my paid vacation, but I'm glad I turned in my ticket. I later found out from John that I had unknowingly eaten one of the main dishes of the Isan region-so apparently I just naturally seek out the local treats. Ha. I then wandered around an old and very interesting temple: Wat Pho Ban Nontan. The old temple is set on semi-wooded grounds that are very accesible, but a few blocks from any busy or wide streets, so it was a nice place to relax and catch up on some journaling and write some postcards. The ornate temple seemed to hit par for the course as Thai Buddhist temples go-lots of gold and red and unmatched ornateness. An adjoining meditation hall strangely covered in sculptures and sculpted murals of various animals in a jungle setting. I'm a big fan of tigers (born in the Chinese year of the tiger, played for the Valley Tigers in high school) so I was stoked at the placement of a fierce, growling tiger above the main entry. I'm not going to begin to ascribe any meaning to the sculptures except that the looked cool. I don't really know that anyone needs a better reason.

After a delicious Coke slurpee from 7-11 (whose presence in Thailand defines ubiquity), I met up with John Thao and checked out Khon Kaen University. This is where John's study abroad program was based when he studied in Thailand, so he knows it pretty well. It is one of the biggest and best schools in Thailand, and is the main university for the entire northeastern part of the country. It was crazily huge and spread out. I say crazily because the distance between faculties and between buildings within the faculties defies all logical and reasonable definition. It's not as if there isn't room to grow, there was empty field upon empty field during the 25 minute sorngthaew rides between different parts of campus. I don't know if they are expecting some never before seen rate of growth in the near future, or it's some sort of sorngthaew driver /gasoline marketer conspiracy cast upon the students and faculty, but it was nuts. But it was a nice enough campus and nice to mentally compare and contrast it to JTUT.

We wrapped up the day having dinner with John's boss/advisor. He is the chair of the NGO that supports the education initiative John works for (information and link in earlier post). He had an extensive career of social work as well as work with various NGOs in Thailand. We had an invigorating, at times impassioned and fairly serious talk about education, society, and the government and corporation's role in both. He held some very strong opinions about these issues. As he had brought over dinner and I being a guest in his country, I did my best to be polite. Yet, he seemed very interested in soliciting my opinions, and was often very accusatory; so I was honest and direct with him. He had no trust and considerable disgust for both government and corporations; which I don't hold, this was a sort of sticking point, as he really wanted to have me agree with everything he said. As the founder and director of the NGO, I tend to think that he is used to having his employees, volunteers, and disciples assent to his ideas. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed talking with him, exchanging ideas, and offering what little I could based on big limits to my life experience and knowledge. It was a cool experience to sit on the floor, eat noodles, sugary banana pancakes, and discuss these issues with an experienced Thai man with a withered face and long flowing hair coming off the back of his half bald, heavily tanned head. Certainly offered some variety to my time as a tourist.

Thailand-Day 3-Khon Kaen

John had the day off from work, so we wandered around town in the morning, checking out some markets, the city shrine and then grabbing another delicious, incredibly flavorful meal at a local cafe. Khon Kaen had a very nice, relaxed pace about it. Everyone gets around town on sorng thaos, which are pick-up truck taxis. I actually liked how they combine the convenience of getting on/alighting exactly where you want with the pricing of a bus system. The city isn't a big tourist draw, but rather serves as the transportation, product distribution, manufacturing, and education center for fairly undeveloped, rural northeastern Thailand (called Isan). There was a hold-up on John's visa/resident permit, so I would hang out for a few days while he got that sorted out, then we would do some traveling.

After lunch, we headed to Wat Nong Wang, which is Khon Kaen's claim to fame. It is a gorgeous nine-story, red and gold temple-piercing the clear blue sky this day. The inside of the wat (temple) was gorgeously decorated with very poignant murals in an almost realist style. They were parables all taking place among the ancestral tribes of the region (from what I could tell). The rest of the wat was filled with people making various forms of merit, or shaking sticks to get their fortune. The shaking of the sticks in jars was at first upsetting to the fairly peaceful wat, but soon blended in as part of the wat's atmosphere. One thing that I asked John about was that some young monks going through the wat were taking pictures with digital cameras (just like me). The bright, flowing orange robes make monks easy to

spot in Thailand. He explained this odd occurrence in that most families in Thailand (almost all are Buddhist) expect their sons to be ordained. Because there is such a high demand for becoming ordained, and many of them do not want to become monks by trade (if you can call it that) they go through courses of maybe a week, two weeks, or a month staying at a wat, working and learning from the permanent monks, and thus become ordained. He said they were probably some kids being ordained in a program at a temple nearby in the countryside, and come in for a visit to the big wat. It was then easier, just by age, to tell the 'real' monks from the 'temp' monks as I like to call them.

We spent the night walking around the lake, getting dinner at a nice lakeside restaurant, along with grabbing some snacks at the many night market ven

dors. My favorite were these half-dollar sized coconut mini-pancakes. We topped the evening off, having a great chat at the teahouse next to John's apartment (it's connected to the contemplative education group) with an elementary science teacher named Pi Ped. He was really cheery, did his best to talk to me in English, and was able to answer some of my questions about Buddhism. I have read this and that about it, but he explained more of his personal beliefs about Buddhism, which was helpful-because as he explained it (as do the textbooks) Buddhism is much less of an organized, prescriptive religion than the three major Western religions. As Pi Ped informed me, for Thai Buddhists (Theravada), their personal interpretation about the application of the precepts to their lives. I was actually really glad to spend an evening drinking tea and chatting with John and Pi Ped as a kind of alternative to what one normally does as a tourist.

Thailand-Day 2-Khon Kaen

Enjoyed a nice, warm morning sleeping in-making up for the 4:00 a.m. bedtime. Met up with John after his morning of teaching for a delicious lunch at a small shop down the street. I then spent a pleasant afternoon walking around the main lake in Khon Kaen, which is across the street from John’s apartment. It was a great way to relax, enjoy the warm weather (China gets cold with its sparse indoor heating even if it’s not that cold) and most of all, do some great Thai people watching. Some people may not, but I absolutely love people watching, especially in a foreign country. There tend to be so many little unknown quirks and mannerisms that are (of course) foreign. Add these with a language I can’t understand, and it makes for quite a mental challenge to figure out what people are doing, and I seldom can even guess as to why. So, with the jet lag and overnight bus still restraining my energy, I had a great time walking around the lake.

I met up with John in the late afternoon, as he was wrapping up a meeting. John teaches English to elementary school students as part of his job, but another big part of it is working within the Khon Kaen Education Initiative (his employer) to help foster and spread a contemplative education movement within the city of Khon Kaen. As breaking any social norm is hard, including educational practices, this group is using the English teachers (who are already foreign) to help introduce contemplative education to the city. John is actually kind of an educational consultant-despite (like me) having no pedagogical training or teaching experience.

After the meeting, we went to dinner with three of his colleagues-two elementary school teachers and one guy from the education ministry that’s part of the program. It was an awesome time for me. They were very kind, helpful, relaxed people. The education minister was very curious in asking me questions about my life in China, and in America. Even though he certainly had asked John and other Americans in the program the same questions, he was eager to talk to me too. I had a few questions to ask them that didn’t quite get covered in the Lonely Planet country overview, and between their English and John’s Thai, I got some great answers. We had a great conversation about the ever-present relationships of Thai women and Western men (often older), which I was pretty curious about. I learned about the role that property/business ownership plays into it (foreigners often marry to gain access to properties or business sectors restricted to Thai citizens) but overall the opinion of these three Thai people was that they don’t see the Thai women as sell-outs nor the Western men as predators, but that the marriages are usually mutually beneficial. The dinner was a tasty Thai version of hot-pot, with lots of fresh greens as garnishes, which was a touch I liked. It was a great first evening of enlightening conversation, good food, and a delightfully warm evening at the open-air restaurant.

Thailand-Day 1-Shanghai to Bangkok

Starting with this post, and continuing for quite some while, my blog will take the form of a travelogue. This is, of course, because I have been traveling for quite awhile. I can’t say enough how much I love the fact that my “job” allows me to travel so much and see places all around Asia. After a frigid, frigid wait early in the morning in Shanghai, I made it (via Hong Kong) to Bangkok in the afternoon. I was successfully able to get from the airport to the northern bus terminal, and call my buddy John Thao to tell him that I’d be arriving the next morning. Now, Bangkok is pretty easy to get around, as it sees lots of tourists. The real highlight was riding on the back of a moto-taxi to the bus station…weaving in and out of very crowded Bangkok traffic. I was able to do enough pointing to get dinner at the somewhat confusing northern bus station cafeteria (apparently I had to buy some vouchers). I was a little shocked at how busy the bus station (one of three in Bangkok) was at 20:00 on a Thursday night, but after looking at the map and seeing that Bangkok is not only the biggest and most important city, but also the center of its transportation network, it makes more sense.

I took the bus from Bangkok to Khon Kaen, the city in northeastern Thailand where John works. I was a bit concerned when the bus didn’t leave until 45 minutes after scheduled, but figured that as Thailand borders both Vietnam and Laos, I would assume that their laid back cultural trends came from Thai culture/or vice versa, thus didn’t worry too much. The bus ride was pretty comfort

able, as the bus was air-conditioned (actually chilly) and my seat was very wide and reclined a fair amount. The six plus hour trip ended at 3:45, and John was sitting there patiently waiting. We grabbed a tuk-tuk to his place and hit the hay. From what I could see through the bus windows, bus stations, and streets of Bangkok, Thai people love eating. And, with their food, who wouldn’t. I know everyone has to eat, but one of my first impressions was ubiquitous snacking.

One thing that I felt immediately after getting away from the airport was what I call English guilt. Being American gives us a very useful skill-speaking English. Of course, I only realize this when I am trying to figure out which window to buy my ticket to Khon Kaen. Or when trying to figure out the cafeteria’s coupon payment system. I understand that for these workers, and almost everyone else I encountered in Thailand, that English is the international language of business-and tourism, and in Thailand that is important. But, I still feel a bit guilty when I’m in another country and they are speaking to me in English, not me even trying to use their language. It’s the way it is, and I don’t pretend that I am doing them some favor by mispronouncing thank you in their tongue, but I can’t help but feel a bit guilty-and lucky too.

**Remember, you can find the complete albums of all my photos in my Picasa gallery-linked to the upper right