To be updated on a very irregular basis.
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To be updated on a very irregular basis. |
Not doing a lot at the moment, save for walking about and stopping in for a massage. If you're unfamiliar with Thai massage, this is where a very small person with hands like vice-grips uses their body weight and some leverage to turn you into one of those origami cranes. The object seems to be to separate the muscle fibers from the bone and each other, and to press their elbows into all the right pressure points. The odd part is, it feels good - especially the foot part. Who knew that having your foot rolled into a funnel and then having your toes pulled out could be so relaxing? At $7.50 for an hour and a half (+ tip), there's no guilt involved.
Anyway, since nothing's going on, here's a few random thoughts and observations:
Some things you don't often see in America:
Took a cooking class for Northern Thai food. Quite interesting, sort of an information overload on all the different dishes. Will be fun to try them out (one at a time!) at home. The real challenge will be going back to the boat's small galley, after using a giant wok and all the counter space I needed.
Well, I've always thought of Chiang Mai as flypaper - it can be really difficult to get away. I've been planning to run off to Mae Sariang for a few days now, but it hasn't happen yet. Maybe Sunday?
I stopped in for a routine tooth inspection, and ended up getting more porcelain. Oh well, at least the money I saved by having it done here almost paid for the plane ticket. Also been hanging around Wat Suan Dok (Suan Dok Temple), where many of the monks speak English. We discuss Buddhism on the one hand, and English and the Western way of life on the other. Quite interesting - there are some from Laos, and also many of them attend the University nearby.
I've also been trying to explore business prospects - wouldn't it be nice to just stay here. Dream on! There are virtually no jobs advertised that don't involve teaching English for a pittance. But there are Westerners making a go of it, and I've been asking a lot of questions. Oddly enough, one of the monks will be going back to the real world to help support his parents, and was asking me what the good jobs are out there. Which led to a discussion of Lao economics, which is a whole other subject, on which I'll spare you the details.
So, after finishing with the dentist tomorrow evening, I should be on my way to Mae Sariang by Sunday, probably for just a few days. And then I might think about heading back to San Diego. Has it stopped raining yet?
Finally! On the move again. Will be headed off to Mae Sariang tomorrow (Sun). This is a town rather near the Burmese border, on the other side of a mountain range to the west of Chaing Mai. It's south of the beautiful but highly touristed Mae Hong Son area. There's not much of interest in the town itself, but nearby should be some interesting and remote villages, as well as a large refugee population fleeing the problems in Burma. My transport for this trip is a yellow Suzuki 400 Slingshot, a rather uncomfortable sport bike with the handlebars way up forward. Should be a lot of fun on the paved mountain roads getting there, and a silly choice on the dirt roads once I'm there. Oh, well - it won't be the first, nor the last, silly choice I've made.
It got cool (relatively speaking) and rained this morning - 17 C (62 F) at 10:00 am! I hate to even mention this to folks in California, but it's a nice break from the heat. Should be back to 35 C (95 F) in a day or two.
So, I'm at the fresh market, getting my fruit and goodies for breakfast, and and along comes a 20-something Brit fellow eating a hot dog from the 7-11. I'm thinking that this is a long way to come for a hot dog, (yuck!) and also realized that I don't recall eating ANY Western food in the two months that I've been here. Will have to duck into that pizza shop on the corner, I think.
Since I'll probably head home directly from here, I figured I'd do some shopping. Can't come to Chiang Mai and not acquire goodies! First stop - to get a bag to carry it in. We went on a luggage hunt while Holly was here, and after some searching found a decent deal at one stall at the night bazaar. It was a unique looking bag, well-made and useful, for somewhere around 350 baht ($9.20). I was looking for the place, didn't find it at first, so looked in on another vendor. Yup, he had one just like it. Asked how much. "950 baht", he says. Whoa! I offered 350, but he says "no way, can't let it go for less that 650". Even went and had a huddle with his mate, which I now recognise as a ruse to make us think that they really considered it, checked the cost, and can't go any lower. I said "forget it", and went on my way, since it didn't look like bargaining was going to get anywhere. I eventually found the place I was looking for, offered 350 right off the bat, and they said "OK", no problem. So now I'm thinking "gee - should I have offered 250?". No, it was a fair price, and while I don't find the need to squeeze every last baht out of a deal, I've always resent the outlandish prices the vendors ask (and get!) from the tourists.
Back in Chiang Mai from Mae Sariang. Way too soon, but there was another dentist's appointment to make, and he's out of town next week, so here I am. I guess if a vacation is long enough, it gets to being like home, with these routine annoyances. Anyway, Mae Sariang was much to my liking - a very traditional town alongside a river, though with nothing especially noteworthy about the town itself. All around, however, are hills and rivers with various tribes (mostly White Karen) and Thai settlements. About 45 kilometers away is the Salween river, which is also the border with Burma. There are a number of Burmese refugees in the area, both in camps under the auspices of the NGOs, and also integrated into the society as a whole. Interestingly, there are at least 6 churches in Mae Sariang, a function of the various Christian groups working with the refugee community and the large number of Christian Karen. It's not often there are more churches than Buddhist temples in these parts.
The bike trip was just fantastic, with a fairly well-paved but twisty road rising over a mountain ridge, through forests most of the way, for a total of about 200 km. Much of the wooded area was unfortunately on fire, or had recently been. There's a bit of a drought this year, plus the Thais just seem to like to burn stuff - ricefields, garbage, excess plastic, that sort of thing. The Queen made an aerial survey last week and expressed displeasure at the scope of the fires, so the PM has pronised a full investigation, etc. Anyway, my first excursion on a sport bike in about 20 years was rather a kick. Instead of slowing for turns and then powering out of them, as I do with my big road bike, it's nice to just lean over and take them at full speed. My urge to get a proper sports bike this Summer has been cured. Not because I wouldn't enjoy it, but because of the likely negative impact on my lifespan. It's way too easy to go way too fast. On the down side, I spent a day riding up dirt and gravel trails with some serious inclines, which was simply stupid. First off, with negligible suspension travel the wheels are not in contact with the road often enough, and the whiole bike tends to get launched too easily. Secondly, while the bars pull your arms forward, the tank pushes another part of your anatomy aft, especially when braking or hitting bumps. Not comfortable!
I stayed at a simple guest house, set in a traditional wooden building with very clean but basic rooms upstairs and a common area below. For 150 baht ($3.75), it was quite comfortable and friendly. It was also a waypoint for many of the NGO staff. The entire town can be walked in just over an hour, and it was nice to not have shopkeepers calling out, etc., as is common in more touristed areas.
Uphill from Mae Sariang are scores of villages, both tribal and upland Thai. It's possible, by foot, bicycle, or small motorcycle, to cross quite a large expanse of hillside - the trails are quite interconnected. I stopped off in a Karen (or Kayan or Kaliang, depending on who you talk to) village, chatted a bit, the usual. I also ran across a Lawa village, which I had been quite unfamiliar with, since there are so few of them. Another research mission, I guess. To the west, and over another beautiful mountain ridge (also on fire), lay Mae Sam Laek, on the Salween river. The river was extremely low, so the village was essentially separated from Burma by a gravel pit with a creek through it. There was just enough water to float a small boat, and there were a few in service bringing oxen and buffalo over from Burma, on their way to markets in Bangkok. Most of the boatmen were Burmese Karen refugees, who spoke English better than Thai, and made a point of making that known. One who I spoke with had lived a two day hike from the river, but fled when his village was burned by the army. A typical tale, from what I have read. The laborers, who carried goods to and from the boats, were all Muslim. I watched as they carried two 50 kilo (110 pound) bags of sugar on their backs in slings, down stairs and across rocks and sand.
On another note, I suspect that none of the Thai news is making the media in the U.S. There is a separatist movement in the Muslim majority provinces in the south, bordering on Malaysia. It's been going on for years, though at a tolerable level. The past year, though, has brought an increase in attacks. These days about three persons are assasinated every day, usually shot in the back from the back of a motorcycle. They've targeted village officials, schoolteachers, Buddhist monks, and the like. They've also been burning telephone booths on a near-daily basis, which I'm not sure I understand. That doesn't include the (successful) attacks on police stations and armories, where they's acquired new weaponry. It hasn't spread form the very south, but has certainly gotten everyone's attention.
This week I'll be getting ready to head back home (maybe . . . ), and spending time at the temple. I've discovered that, in addition to sitting meditation and walking meditation, there is eating meditation. I'm focusing on the latter, of course!
Well, I'm getting ready to head home. Not that I really want to. As a matter of fact, I might just extend a bit, who knows? Stay tuned. After 2 months, I'm trying to come to grips with spending more than a dollar or two on dinner, and not having my daily pineapple. Actually, two dollars would be fairly upscale. Street food is often in the 20 baht (50 cents) range. This is a row of vendor's carts set up right in the street, selling noodles, soups, stir-fried stuff, and barbeque:
Anyway, It's been a pretty mellow week. I spent a couple of days at a rural Buddhist temple in a program with a couple of English-speaking monks. Also indulged in a pizza, my first Farang (Westerner) food in two months.
It actually rained here last evening, which is sort of a nice change. Also, a few days ago we were swarmed with some odd kind of flying bugs - clouds of them. The geckos were very happy indeed, hanging out by the light bulbs and catching them as fast as they could swallow. Then they were gone by the next night. They didn't seem to be on the move, so my guess is that was the extent of their lifespan. Hatch, mate, fly into a light fixture, and get eaten. Gee, putting it that way, I feel sorry for them. Unlike the mozzies, who are entirely too intimate!
Have been chatting with some of the other travelers, and will pass on some of those conversations when I get a chance. On that note, I'm usually the lone American in a group. Lots of Canadians and a mix of Europeans, but very few Yanks. Or perhaps they just don't admit it (as I often don't, just to avoid that (political) discussion).
I'm Home! I'll admit that I considered delaying, up until the time I actually got on the plane. The flights (all 4 of them) were a technical success, as usual. I'm still amazed that something as big as a 747 can get off the ground, much less hang around in the air for that long. And I refuse to complain, when passing through 9 time zones in a 20 hour period. So it's with a note of humor that I'll mention that on one of the flights, to my immediate right, was a guy who needed a seatbelt extender, and whose "waist" rested on the armrests (and me). And to my immediate left was a family with a one-year-old. I did discover, though, that under these circumstances the stewardesses will give out as much wine as one can drink. Oops - that's "cabin crew", I think.
So, I have about 2 month's worth of mail, bills, etc. to go through, some boat maintenance, and maybe a few visits with long-neglected family and friends. Stay tuned for more pics as I get a chance to go through them!