Chiang Rai

The longtail boat trip down the Kok River passed through green hills, very small villages, a few areas of small rapids just for excitement, and a stop at a Karen Tribe elephant village, before arriving at Chiang Rai. Feeding the elephants corn, bananas and sugar cane was fun and a little scary when they accosted me with their trunks.

I found Chiang Rai to be much more “authentically” Thai, compared to Chiang Mai. Far fewer foreigners there, but still plenty of tourist activities available. On my first night there, Andrea, a Swiss nurse I met on the boat, and I went to the Saturday night walking market. It was such a relief to be able to walk around without being hounded by all the merchants crying, “Take a look, Madame. Only 100 Baht, Madame.” We sampled a variety of food at the many different food stalls. Andrea, crazy and daring woman that she is, even tried some of the big insects, including a giant (2-3 inch) cockroach! She had to spit it out, it tasted so gross!

We watched some beautiful traditional Thai dancers and some hip hoppers, some Thai drumming and some home-grown garage bands, all set up at various stops along the street. It was great fun experiencing that with Andrea. It made me acutely aware of how I’m tiring of traveling alone. Yea, Lily is coming in just a few days!!!

Crazy me, I rented a motor scooter for the next 2 days. After observing how Thais, and before them the Japanese, drive, all on the left side of the road by the way, I felt a real adventure would be seeing how brave I could be in joining the hoards on the road. Luckily there is much less traffic in Chiang Rai, so it wasn’t too bad, but I did have to take many risks just to make it onto and/or across the street. So without any real plan and after many false starts going around in circles, I headed out to see a waterfall, and ended up having an adventure in an Akah and Lisu village. On the way there, I stopped at Chiang Rai Beach, a sandy stretch along the Kok River popular with locals. I was hungry and spotted a small som tam/green papaya salad vendor. Having learned how to make it myself, I followed her preparations very closely, nixing the small crabs and shrimp she offered to add. After mixing all the ingredients together, she tasted the mix with the mixing spoon, added some more vinegar, mixed some more, and put it on a plate for me. So much for remembering to wash your hands before eating with preparation like that. I had a good laugh about that.
Anyway, when I finally got to the hill tribes' village, a bright young girl offered to take me on her motor bike to the waterfall, and then to another more remote Akah village where an elderly (she is actually 2 years younger than I am!) Akah woman invited us into her home, gave us bananas and pineapple and, yes, brought out her crafts to sell. We also went to a football (soccer) game, looking for her boyfriend.


The next day I started off by visiting the White Temple, a gaudy modern structure, but impressive nonetheless. Then I was off on another adventure on the scooter. I headed to another waterfall, this time finding myself on an off-road tour of some remote mountainside. I wasn’t intending to go off-road; it’s just that the road disintegrated at rather frequent intervals. I never did find the waterfalls because well into this trek, I noticed that the needle on the gas gauge rapidly moved down into the red empty mark, and I was high on a mountain without a soul anywhere nearby. Yikes! So I turned around and coasted most of the way back down the mountain to the main road, and kept my fingers crossed until I came upon the first gas pump I found, and that was quite a ways down the road. Whew! I got there just in time, but my nerves were shot, as well as my body shuddering from all the bumps. (That coke-looking machine in the photo is the gas pump - I almost missed it.) Luckily, right across the street from the gas pump was the entrance to a magnificent garden started by the current king's mother in 1985 and dedicated to the all-important teak tree. I went in there and collapsed for a while, recovering from that little nerve wracking experience.

After spending the next day recovering at my guest house in Chiang Rai, I decided to go see the Mekong River at Chiang Saen. I couldn’t resist getting a Thai massage on the bank of the Mekong looking over at Laos.

Got to go catch a train. More later.

Lucky again

As luck would have it, just after I posted the last blog entry about arriving in Tha Ton, I rounded the corner and stopped at the Sunshine Bakery and Cafe to have an orange juice. (This is orange harvest time, so oranges of all sizes are plentiful, juicy and delicious.) A kind Dutch man named Gerard invited me to sit with him. We were soon joined by Liesbeth, a lovely Dutch woman. (Coincidentally, they met here in Tha Ton.) Anyway, we were talking, and Liesbeth said she had an extra bicycle and offered to let me use it. When I went with her to her house to get the bicycle, she said how she felt guilty having such a large house all to herself... Fast forward to the next morning when I joined Liesbeth at the Sunshine Cafe again, and she offered to have me move in with her!!! How perfect! So I went right away to check out of my guest house and moved my stuff to Liesbeth's house.

Having the luxury of a private house, a kitchen, access to a computer and internet and beautiful garden was ideal, especially since I was coming down with a cold. I feel so fortunate to be here. Liesbeth has a sunny disposition and a positive outlook on life. She is a retired school teacher who has lived and traveled all over the world. Liesbeth has found quite a niche for herself here in Tha Ton. She teaches English to the employees of a local hotel which doubles as a posh resort and an environmental learning center for school groups from all over Asia, in exchange for a buffet lunch daily and swimming privileges in their pool. She also teaches some children in exchange for help from their parents in gardening and other chores. Two very mischievous adolescent cats, Katie and Jungle, keep us amused.

Our neighbors are small scale farmers, so we are awakened every day to roosters, including one with a hoarse cackle right outside the window. There are water buffalo who मुंच the leaves on the back fence. I've been enjoying going to the various markets to shop for food. I prepare fruit salads from all the delicious fresh fruit that abounds here. I've also been able to put to use the lessons I learned at the cooking school in preparing dinner for Liesbeth, and occasionally Gerard too, to rave reviews.

Food is so cheap here. I can buy a couple of big bags full of veggies and fruits all for about $2.00. This is enough to make a meal of about 6 - 8 servings. But then, we can and do eat out often, usually at the Sunshine Cafe, for about $1.00 for a deliciously prepared meal.

You see us with the proprietor, Yanni, and her mom, the chief cook.

After a week enjoying the peace and quite of Tha Ton, I ventured down to Chiang Mai, four hours by bus, to get my visa for India and to do some shopping, etc. Knowing that I have a base in Tha Ton, visiting Chiang Mai was much more enjoyable than the last time when I was trying to find my place there. I got a haircut, wandered around areas that I hadn't discovered before, ate some good vegetarian food, and then came back to Tha Ton a few days later.


This time in Tha Ton has been just what I wanted in Thailand - to connect with good people, to "drop in" on their lives, to see what it's like to live here. Eternal thanks to Liesbeth for providing this opportunity to me.

These photos are of Liesbeth in her Cleopatra pose, and me in mine, right by where we saw the exotic birds, peacocks, parakeets, the hornbill, and the prehistoric ostrich.

Now it's time to move on, so tomorrow, I will take a trip down the Kok river, about three hours in a long-tail boat, to Chiang Rai. Two weeks from today, Lily and I will be flying from Bangkok, God willing the airport will remain functional, to Luang Prabang in Laos! For what happens next, check the next blog entry.

I welcome your comments, emails and blessings and send them all back to you.

Obama campaign from a Buddhist light

A quick aside here to let you know about a very interesting 2 part article by Nash Siamwalla that I recently read in The Bangkok Post about viewing the Obama campaign from a Buddhist perspective.

http://zen-sense.blogspot.com

नो इ कैन फिनाल्ली रेल्स.

Now I can finally relax! (The title will only print in Thai!!!)
(Remember, you may click on any photo to enlarge it.)


Ever since coming to Thailand 2 weeks ago, I've been tense and nervous surrounded by the craziness that is urban Thailand. The contrast with Japan is palpable. The word I always used to describe Japan was "civilized." The word that instantly came to mind to characterize Thailand for me is "chaotic." Bangkok is a jumble of noise, exhaust fumes, constant motion, cooking odors, colors, streets and sidewalks jammed, people everywhere. In addition, or in contrast, it is also a space age city with huge shopping and office complexes with multi-level walkways, escalators, sky trains, ramps, etc., that make it look like something out of a futuristic cartoon. Then venture around the corner and people are selling food on the street, literally, on a mat on the street, or on a rickety table set up on the sidewalk. There seems to be no regulation at all as to use of the sidewalks. People set up for business right on the sidewalks making shopping and eating easy, but walking difficult. Fortunately for me, on my first afternoon in Bangkok, I was able to meet up with Rebecca's friend Roger who helped me to understand the chaos that is Bangkok. Talking to him helped me to calm down a little. He led me to a pad thai place in the Ari neighborhood where I was able to eat a green papaya pad thai dinner while embracing, even enjoying the wild scene in front of me on the street.

I'd had enough of Bangkok after 24 hours, and booked a plane the next day to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Before my plane left, for some strange lapse in judgement, I decided to go to the famous Weekend market. For someone who tends towards agoraphobia, going to the weekend market was about the stupidest thing possible. Even so, I wandered through the very narrow lanes, shoulder to shoulder with the multitudes of Thais and tourists alike shopping for everything from pets to furniture. After an hour or two I finally left without purchasing a thing, not that I could fit anything else in my backpack anyway.

Finally, that evening I arrived in Chiang Mai and found an ok guest house for about $15/night, on the high side by backpacker standards in Thailand. Venturing out the next morning, I found the moat-enclosed Old City of Chiang Mai to be totally infested by foreign tourists (like me). Vacant eyed westerners wandering around in the heat browsing at the multitude of opportunities to spend their bhats. Almost every block on the eastern side of the Old City has numerous internet cafes, clothing and souvenir shops, tour operators, bike and motorbike rentals, English book shops, tailors, yoga studios, massage parlors, and of course restaurants selling hamburgers, sandwiches, pizza, and fried chicken as well as Thai food. Luckily for me, there are also over 30 vegetarian restaurants in Chiang Mai, some of them even organic. There are also over 300 wats (temple complexes) in Chiang Mai, each one extremely elaborately built and decorated with bright colors and mosaics made with mirrors and ceramic chips, most of them hundreds of years old. Needless to say, I was totally overwhelmed with all this stimulation. I had been excited about landing in Chiang Mai and was expecting to settle there for about 4 weeks until Lily joins me in mid-December. But my first reaction was major disappointment with the crazy scene I witnessed there and the tense feeling I felt within. I wanted to like it and find a home there, but I just felt disgusted (maybe that's a bit strong, but close).

My friend Tammy, who spent about 6 months in Chiang Mai last year, gave me a bunch of contacts for which I am eternally grateful. One of them was a couple, Yao and Grit, who run an organic vegetarian cooking school on their land about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai (www.yousabai.com). Not that I'm all that interested in cooking, having been on a raw foods regime for the past 2 years before leaving on this journey, but I did want to get out of town, so after a couple of days in Chiang Mai, I took a sangtao (a pick-up truck with benches in it that operates like a bus) to Mae Tiang.
Grit came to pick me up on his motorbike, and off we went, up to their mountain setting. They also teach building with adobe/mud bricks. There are NO building codes in the countryside, so they can and do build whatever they like. They seem to have a lot of fun building in this free-form, whimsical manner. We are in the dry season now, but this type of building necessitates a large overhanging roof so the bricks don't melt.

I enjoyed the cooking lessons very much, and ate all that we made for ourselves -- curries, papaya salads, spring rolls, pad thai, tofu, soy milk, etc. It turned out to be too much of a good thing, because I broke out in a rash all over my trunk that itched like crazy. I guess it was the rich, spicy food that did it, because it calmed down after a few days of eating more simply. What I enjoyed most of all was getting to know Grit, a renaissance man now doing what he likes best. In past lives he has been an engineer, a journalist, a chef, yoga instructor, and no doubt more things that I don't know about. Now he teaches cooking classes, with his wife Yao, and is building a community as well as adobe abodes. So far, he's the only Thai person with whom I've had a deep communication, and I am grateful to have connected with him.

After leaving You Sabai, I met up with Jeff and his wife Sarah on their one acre of paradise-in-the-making. Read about what they're doing at www.fairearth.co.th. They have taken a chemical laden rice field about 45 minutes north of Chiang Mai near Mae Rim and are turning it into an organic farm/agra-forest with a vast variety of plants and trees from all regions of the world, as well as fish and soon animals, creating a sustainable utopia for themselves and a model for all of us. Jeff and Sarah welcomed me into their home where I stayed overnight, but I was unable to contribute much because I had hurt my back doing yoga the day before. (It's better now.) I loved playing with their very bright 7 year-old daughter Annie.

Back in Chiang Mai agonizing about 'trying' to make a go of it there, I was still getting down on myself for not getting into the swing of the place. I went to Chabad for Shabbat and met some new people who made some suggestions for me, but it wasn't what I was looking for. The second to last straw was moving to a cheapo guest house that had kitchen and laundry privileges, etc. The room for $6/night was dismal. The only decorations on the wall were dirt smudges from previous tenants. But the very last straw came as I walked a half a block from that guest house and was bitten by a mangy dog! I was really feeling down already, but that did it. I left Chiang Mai the next morning!

By noon the next day I found myself in the small village of Ban Tha Ton, and it is here that I can finally relax। This town is more my speed -- one wat, one internet place, a few simple restaurants and shops, and for the same $15/night, I have a luxurious large beautifully decorated bungalow with a deck right over the river. It's quiet and peaceful here. The people are friendly, the pace is slow, the air is clean. I love it!!! Last night the restaurant owner where I was eating sat down with me and looked at the photos on my camera as I ate my pad thai with veggies. A monk at the monastery has befriended me and we discuss meditation and life choices.

Tha Ton is located in the far north of Chiang Mai province right on the Burmese border. This morning I walked about a kilometer or so to the border. There was no one there. Not too exciting, but there it was. From town you can look up to the top of the hills to the north and see the Myanmar army lookout posts. Drug running is still prevalent here, so police on both sides are after the smugglers.


I've been here a few days now, and I feel very happy to have finally found a part of Thailand that I can enjoy and appreciate. One of these days, I'll check out the mountain villages/hill tribes around here and eventually, head east down the river to Chiang Rai. Until then, I'll just be kicking back and revelling in the Thai village life I've found here.