Laos, Bangkok, Korea, and Home

Even though we had two months to begin with, travel time was growing short so we decided to bypass the overland trip through Laos and across southern Thailand and opted for a flight from Luong Prabang to Thailand. We ended up flying Lao Air, in spite of their less-than-stellar reputation for safety. Luckily, I was able to do a brief visual inspection of the plan as we walked across the tarmac to board and I could see for myself that the duct tape on the wings seemed pretty secure.

We only had a short time in Bangkok with Mary but we spent a great day along the Chao-Phraya River. The lady sitting next to Maya in the photo below even shared her sweet rolls with Zak and Maya. We visited the pottery-decorated Khmer-style Wat Arun, enjoyed some cocktails at a small restaurant on the Chao-Phraya River, and prowled the shadowy-warrens of the Amulet Market. We also visited the Golden Temple at Wat Saket and hit the touristy Kaosan Road market where we picked up a variety of souvenirs. We went into nearby Chinatown for dinner on our last night in town. Zak was feeling pretty chipper on the walk over but started feeling a bit peckish when we got to the restaurant and the meal progressed. We decided to cab it back to the hotel and Zak really got the cabby’s attention when he leaned his upper body out of the cab at a red light and projectile vomited all over the median. Zak continued to be ill in the hotel as the kids and I packed up, (in a bag) in the back of the cab on the way to their, in the airport as we waited for boarding passes, etc. I was a little worried they wouldn’t let him on the plane while he was violently ill but, luckily, he seemed to have depleted himself by the time we got to the gate and he and Maya passed out pretty hard for an hour or so until we got onto our 1:15 a.m. flight. We all slept well until we arrived in South Korea the next morning. Mary would be following on a later flight.

We had a long-layover in Seoul so the kids and I got to spend a great day kicking around in Seoul. It was cool there, brown grass, bare trees but above freezing and no snow on the ground, quite a change from the heat and humidity of Bangkok. We spent the day in the Insa-Don area of Seoul, a cute little warren of narrow lanes, art galleries, old tea houses (one in which birds flew around freely), hip little shops, etc. We had lunch at this great restaurant called Sanchon. The owner/chef learned his "temple cooking" during his 18 years as a Buddhist Monk. The cuisine is all drawn from fresh vegetables gathered in the country's woods and mountains. The restaurant itself was spectacular but the food was amazing. We just followed a small group heading back down this twisty narrow little lane and stumbled on what I would be willing to bet is one of the best meals you can get in all of Korea.

George and Carol met us at the airport back in San Diego. Dad had made a very clever poster with drawings of the different events we did on the trip. The kids both promptly ran off to their respective friends’ houses. 24/7 with Dad and sibling for two months is enough for anyone; now I know why some animals eat their young.

Luong Prabang

We are now in Luang Prabang, Laos. Before we arrived I had heard that Luong Phrabang had been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Centre in part because of the blend of traditional Lao and French colonial architecture and that, until the Communist takeover in 1975, Luang Prabang was the royal capital of Laos. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting but I was surprised by just how undeveloped the city was. It was as though it had suffered from decades of neglect and tropical decay which is, I suppose, what follows in the wake of decades of colonial rule followed by decades of Communism. However, from our perspective, we found ourselves in an incredibly charming, laid-back town that time forgot. There are numerous Wats and a royal palace and many French-colonial buildings but the European-built buildings are struggling against decay and sit cheek by jowl with old wooden houses with canted floors and rusted metal roofs. Poverty and charm all wrapped up in one.

The cuisine was a bit of polyglot as well. We enjoyed Lao salads, fruit shakes, a Mekong seaweed dish, small cooked "bird," water buffalo, and other exotic dishes as well as incredible French baguettes, baked goods, and coffee. We ate baguette-sandwiches at primitive restaurants overlooking the Mekong, fine cuisine at fancy, but reasonably-priced restaurants, and particularly enjoyed dining at the bustling food stalls on the side streets of the night market. Each evening, the main street was made over into a lively street market selling handicrafts and cheap T-shirts to the tourist while the addition of small kitchens, tables, and chairs transformed the side streets into good, cheap eateries. Periodically the lights of the entire downtown area would cut out, but the vendors were clearly used to this state of affairs and had candles ready again, decay and charm in one. In keeping with the theme, we all ended up with upset tummies to some degree. Maya has the constitution and digestion of a dog; nothing seems to bother her that eating a little grass won’t cure. Mary, on the other hand, spent an entire day moving between the Reclining Buddha pose on the bed and the Praying to the Porcelain Buddha pose in the bathroom.

In the morning we would get up to watch long lines of saffron-robed monks walk down the street with their offering bowls. The good people of the city sit on the sidewalks and make offerings of rice, bananas, and other food to the monks as they walk by. The Lao women looked particularly exotic in their brilliantly-patterned long straight silk skirts and sarongs and the orange robes of the many monks shone brightly in the early morning light.

One morning, after doing our own part to gain merit by making offerings to the monks, we walked to the top of the Phou Si hill in the middle of the old city to watch the sunrise over the mountains. The city is bordered by two big rivers (the Mekong and the Nam Kahn) and from the top of the hill, it almost looks like the whole city is floating. The entire peninsular area is easily traveled by foot although we rented a bicycle to help get us all around.

On two different nights we enjoyed a great Lao Massage (about 46,000 Lao Kip/hour or about $5) and a session in a Lao herbal steam sauna. For the sauna they burn wood to fire up a big boiler of water and herbs, the steam from which is piped directly above to two small dark wood sauna closets, one for men and one for women. The key is to sit in the sauna for a bit, then get out and have some special herb tea, then back in the sauna, etc. On our last full day in town we, along with some others, hired a small truck to take us to the waterfalls outside of town. The water of the rivers was a milky-blue and the water provided a welcome relief from the tropical heat. Zak and I had fun jumping off of rope swings and down waterfalls; he is quite the water boy. Of course, on the way back, the little truck broke down but after a bit of tinkering and a little assistance, we were back on our way.

Down the Mekong

The trip down the Mekong was amazing! We were loaded on a long wooden “slow boat” with about 100 other backpacker types. The average passenger is 20 years our junior and Maya and Zak are the only kids on board. We got a late start and are loaded well beyond the maximum seating capacity. Many of the kids are sitting on the gunwales. One has a guitar and softly provides a pleasant soundtrack to the images of water buffalo on the shore and young monks splashing in the river while their companions perch among the orange robes on the rocky beach. The trip turned out to be one of those zen parenting (parenting by not parenting) moments. For two days the kids were exposed to a cosmopolitan pile of young adults laying about, playing cards, and drinking Thai Whiskey and Beerlao. Our kids, outgoing and attractive as they are, were soon enlisted in the card games and even sent from one party to another to beg or steal bottles of Thai Whiskey when supplies began to dwindle; I’m not sure whether I should be proud of their forthrightness or embarrassed by the activities. In either case, we had two beautiful sunny days for cruising down the Mekong. Laos is the only landlocked country in SE Asia and the poorest. The Mekong snakes along and through the entire country. It provides food, water, transportation, and ties the country together. I was surprised at how rocky and narrow the river was in places and not at all surprised that boat traffic shut down at night. We spent the night at the little river town of Pakbeng. Pakbeng is the kind of rural outpost where the power is only on from six in the evening until midnight. In Pakbeng I was again reminded how the Laotians do not display the same type of pleasantness as the Thais. I was lied to by touts trying to get me to visit their hotels, lied to by touts trying to get me to buy boat tickets, etc., etc. Life must just be harder requiring more guile.

The next day it was back on the river. It was hard to believe I was actually on this big old wooden boat, floating down the Mekhong, drinking beerlao, sharing Billie Holiday with Mary on the ipod, looking at the jungle and the water buffalo and the Lao kids on the banks; transcendent.

Laos

We are in Laos! We took the bus this morning from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, about a 5 hour ride. Once in Chiang Khong, we boarded a motorcycle rickshaw/tuk-tuk (motorcycle in front and two benches facing each other in the rear) to get to immigration on the banks of the Mekong. From immigration we headed down the fancy (not) border crossing at the beach where we got on a long long-tail for the ride across the river. This boat was an inboard with a fixed drive shaft going below the boat and no gearing. I was a little disappointed to finally land on the Laotian shore as the day was incredibly hot and humid and the breeze offered by the boat ride was quite refreshing. We broke a good sweat walking up the hill to immigration; heck, I had a serious sweat going just filling out the immigration documents. We bought tickets for tomorrow’s slow boat to Luong Prabang and booked a room at the Sawadee Hotel. After paying for the boat tickets and hotel and visas (1500 baht or about $45 each), I was a little low on cash so I hit the local ATM for some Laotian Kip. As near as I can tell the exchange rate is about 10,000 kip to the dollar. There are no coins in circulation and the bills go down as small as 500 kip. I wanted to pull out about $200 but I was limited to 700,000 kip per transaction which turned out to be just as well because this ATM apparently dispensed no bills smaller than 20,000 kip. This made for a serious wad of cash. So much so, I was unable to fold my wallet and, for much of the time in Laos, carried my money around in a big roll held together with a rubber band.

Once we settled in we headed over to an herbal sauna and massage place in the Red Cross building in town. The Red Cross apparently runs these throughout Laos as a means of raisign revenue for the good work they do. Mary and Zak and I first got an hour-long massage. The masseuses used a tiger balm/mentholated balm as they needed our back and muscles. There was a bit of tweaking and twisting but this was not the same as a Thai massage. After the massage, we showered and entered the herbal sauna, one for women and one for men. The saunas were heated by a large wood fire on the lower level that boiled an herbal water mixture that was vented directly to the saunas above. The idea was to spend 10 minutes or so in the sauna and then come out and drink some herbal tea. Both the herbal mixture in the saunas and the tea are unique to each spa and supposedly held in strict secrecy. There were other Laotians enjoying the sauna as well and the Lao girls looked quite exotic in their sweaty sarongs. Maya was not able to get a massage and didn’t want to sit in the sauna for long but she enjoyed running around in her sarong and playing with a younger girl who was the daughter of one of the women working there.

Elephants, etc.

Yesterday, Mary and I went for a two hour run up at the reservoir before we all headed over to Grace’s for an outing of elephant riding and other adventures. First stop was the elephants. This time, Zak and I were allowed to ride on the heads of our elephants. Every time they would walk downhill we would have the sensation of an imminent fall over the front and then, presumably, under the feet which would make for a horrible slimming technique. However, as long as we kept our legs lodged behind their ears it would have been almost impossible to fall off. I was wearing shorts and I can attest that elephants are very bristly. While on the elephants they were allowed to feed on some young bamboo growing at the edge of a deep gully. They can really rip that vegetation out; wow. After the elephants we went to a waterfall where our guide Jimmy and Zak and I went swimming. The day was hot the water was not to cold which made for a welcome and refreshing dip. Jimmy jumped off about a 25 foot ledge into the pool and we had fun trying to walk upstream against the force of the water at the base of the falls. After we got back to the red songthaew truck, Zak mentioned it sure would be fun to ride on the roof. Jimmy readily agreed and up the two scrambled; so much for seat belt laws. Luckily it was not far to the bamboo raft put in point. We had a great trip downstream past elephants and through the rapids. We had a great time.

That evening, back in Chiang Mai, all four of us loaded up on the scooter and drove over to the Wararot Market on the bank of the Ping River. I bought a big Kum Loi (floating paper lantern) and we headed up on the foot bridge over the river to launch it. Mary had not yet mastered the art of crossing the busy Thai streets but we were eventually all assembled. When we launched the Kum Loi, it first dropped (very bad luck) down to just above the surface of the river before it started to rise (good luck). There is a lesson there for us I am sure. After watching the Kum Loi join the stars, we headed out on the Riverside Restaurant Ping River cruise. It was very nice. The last photo is of all four of us on our main mode of transportation in Chiang Mai.

Cooking School

Mary arrived yesterday – Yeeaah! After getting her settled in, all four of us got on the scooter and drove to a nice restaurant overlooking the waterfall just past the zoo. From there, we got on a red truck and headed up to Doi Suthep. For dinner we headed over to the Riverside but were unable to get on the dinner cruise boat so Mary and I enjoyed a small bottle of Sam Sang with fresh juice before heading over to the Night Bazaar for food and shopping.
This morning Mary and I got up for a little run and then we were picked up by the Thai Farm people for an all-day cooking class. They took us to a market to discuss the food we would be using, then we went out to the farm where they showed us some of the food growing, how to prepare the rice, how to prepare the various dishes, etc. We ate everything we cooked and had a great time.

The Golden Triangle

Yesterday was Valentine’s Day and we celebrated with a visa run to Myanmar. This time we chartered a tour to see some other sites along the way. Our first stop was at some hot springs where we boiled some eggs and bought some pumpkin chip snacks from one of the many vendors at the site. We continued on to the White Wat, a contemporary temple built by a famous Thai artist in his home town. The contemporary spin on some classic themes - such as the hands reaching from below in the photo to the right and the contemporary levels of Hell including nuclear bombs and other technological "marvels" on a mural in the interior - were quite powerful. From there we headed to the Golden Triangle where Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet. We chartered a small boat to take us across the Mekong River to Laos. Note the attention to detail on safety gear in the photo to the left. Life on the other side of the river was starkly different than that in Thailand. Clearly this was a much more impoverished community. There were some open-air shops selling knock-off designer clothing bottles of alcohol containing snakes, scorpions, tiger penises, armadillos, etc. Now I’m always up for a libation but this stuff was enough to turn my stomach. However, there were fellow travelers braver than myself and the man offering samples was downright drunk; good for him. We returned to the boat and headed up the river along the Burmese shore. In both Laos and Myanmar/Burma, Chinese entrepreneurs had started ventures including a large casino in Burma (where no one ever wins according to our guide) and a large neo-classical hotel complex in Laos. On the Thai side of the triangle there was a huge seated gold Buddha statue on a boat-like base. The statue had been was a combined gift from Laos, Myanmar, and China to celebrate the Queen of Thailand’s birthday.

We then got back in the mini-van and headed North to Mae Sai and the official border crossing into Myanmar. Interestingly, as you can see by the photos of the clocks on the wall, the time in Myanmar is one-half hour behind the time in Thailand. I couldn’t help thinking this was more reflective of how Myanmar is one-half hour out of step with the rest of the world. After renewing our entry visas into Thailand, we stopped by an Akha hill tribe village. The older woman in the photo is wearing her traditional garb and her teeth are stained from chewing betel nuts. The older man is smoking from an opium pipe. The last photo is of me standing, on level ground, next to a woman from an ethnic Chinese community.

Thai Massage

Yesterday we finally made it over to the Women’s Correctional Institute for a massage. That’s right, the women’s prison not only sells handicrafts but the inmates also have a shop where they offer traditional Thai massage. How often do you have the opportunity to get a massage at a women’s prison, right? So the three of us headed over there and we were not disappointed. These women did not possess the typically thin Thai female body type, dainty they were not. They did however act like a typical Thai with smiles, giggles, and a lot of joking and laughing, which created a surprisingly pleasant atmosphere. I’m guessing that the woman who worked on me was in for assault and battery. She had homemade tattoos on her arms and she probably strangled her philandering husband with her bare hands. One popular technique was to lean hard on the artery pressure point at the top of the thighs. The woman working me held the point until my legs went numb and then continued to hold for what seemed like a couple of more minutes. I was starting to become concerned about the long-term health consequences of cutting off my blood flow for this long when she released the position and I could literally feel the blood whoosh back into my legs; we were clearly not in for a pleasant rub down. To make matters worse, once she rolled me over on my back (now don’t get jealous) she started saying, “I like you” and I don’t think she meant my snappy threads as we were wearing what amounted to prison pajamas. I didn’t want to lead her on but I didn’t want to burst her bubble and risk suffering a burst lumbar disk so I adopted a non-committal silence except for when I was unable to refrain from grunting in pain as she would sit behind me, put me in a full nelson, a wrestling move illegal in all civilized countries pin my feet to the ground, and crank my torso up over her knees, past her shoulder, and around her back or contort me in some other seemingly physically impossible maneuver. Every time she would say, “relak, relak, relak” (relax, relax, relax) I would endeavor to do so because I know she was about to perform some contortion on my body that was either going to break a limb or tear a ligament if I tensed up at all. Meanwhile, Maya is over there giggling as her masseuse is gently prodding Maya’s little twig arms and legs while teaching her to count to 10 in Thai. Zak described his massage as, “rough, but very good.” He says he enjoyed it very much. I have to agree that it was a very good massage even if I did feel as though I had been run over by a small truck.

Chiang Mai Climbing

Happy Birthday to me! We ended up going rock climbing today at Crazy Horse Buttress which, coincidentally, is basically the same limestone formation that contains the Muong On Cave we visited last week. Everyone did great and we had a good time. I rented gear from Chiang Mai climbing adventures and led a number of really good routes. Zak belayed me while I led and then I belayed Zak and Maya. The kids did great. This was Maya’s first time climbing and you probably won’t be surprised to hear that our little lean bundle of muscle did great on the rock.

On the ride to and from the climbing area we got to know Ta, one of the guys from the climbing shop who was guiding another client at the crag. Afterward, we joined him and his girlfriend from Princeton at their favorite market food place down by the Chiang Mai Gate - great grub for about about 35 baht ($1) per plate. We then went back to the hotel and invited Mao, the hotel manager, and her daughter Ploy to join us at a hip ice cream place - iberry - for dessert. A very nice day was had by all.

Doi Inthanon

After the Flower Festival we made our way over to Doi Inthanon, a national park and the highest point in Thailand. We were going to take a charter but decided to go by local transportation. We made the drive over in the back of a songthaew, basically a pickup truck with benches running across both sides of the be with a high shell over the top. They are essentially privately-owned people and package delivery vehicles. Red ones are for in town and yellow ones go to surrounding communities. You flag one down and if they are going the direction, you want to go, you hop in. They will also pick up and drop off packages along the way. The fare depends on how far you go. For the three of us on an 1 ½ hour trip, it cost 80 baht (about $2.30). Ours was fairly crowded so I spent the first part of the trip standing on the back platform standing outside of the vehicle. It was sort of like snowboarding on land. Once we got to Chomtung outside of the park, I tried to get on another songthaew to go up the mountain. My guidebook and the tourist office said this would be relatively easy but there were no songthaew to be found except to essentially hire one and a drive at what I felt were exorbitant rates. So, we looked around and found a place renting motorcycles. We got a little Honda scooter and headed up the mountain. They place was beautiful. We saw some incredible waterfalls and the mountain itself was covered in jungle and shrouded in mist. Finally, with much huffing and puffing and for much of the trip in first gear, the little scooter brought us to the very highest point in Thailand. Very cool.

Upon returning the scooter we learned that it was “Buddha Day.” So that evening, after returning to Chiang Mai, we went to Wat Chedi Luong and, under a full moon, joined the masses walking around the Chedi three times. Everyone carried flowers and candles and incense. It was quite beautiful. They also had some blast furnace things going in which I think they were firing some type of statue molds, probably of Buddhas, but I'm not exactly sure. Interesting nonetheless.

Chiang Mai Flower Festival

The evening after kayaking we headed down to the Buak Hat Public Park for the first night of the Chiang Mai Flower Festival. I wasn’t sure what to expect and I was mildly surprised to find the place packed. On the moat road, which was closed for the event, we browsed the bromeliads and ogled the orchids. I’m partial to orchids and I was quite impressed with both the variety and the vibrancy of the selection. There were also a number of food stalls and, inside the park, a stage, more food, some rides for the little kids, and games of chance. On stage we were first treated to some live jazz and then the contest for the Chiang Mai Flower Festival Queen 2009. The girls were of course beautiful but what was particularly spectacular were the incredibly opulent costumes, many featuring elaborate flower garlands, head ornamentation and black hair piled incredibly high. We ate and browsed and then headed over to the games of chance. Zak and I knocked down a couple of bottles of orange sugar water with the pop guns but we failed miserably trying to pop 7 balloons with 7 darts. Maya and Zak won an eraser and a kid’s hankie by scooping up floating plastic eggs but Zak’s real success came in knocking down a pyramid of cans with tennis balls. He won a large stuffed panda bear which he gave to Maya. Very fun.

The next day was the Flower Festival Parade. It was similar to parades in the U.S. in that there were marching bands, floats, and festival queens. The floats were opulent and entirely covered with flowers. The marching bands had the same absurd uniforms and the festival queens had their long black hair sculpted into incredibly elaborate structures. There were also hill-tribe dancers and music and other interesting entries, such as a group of young-women dressed as flowers and young-men dressed as plants and a sort-of song and dance troop extolling the seven virtues of Thailand. What was perhaps most novel aspect for me was the much more relaxed attitude toward the delineation between spectator and participant. People would just walk in front of a float to get a good photo or even pose their kids next to the flower queens for that perfect shot. Little care was given to accommodate the size of the floats or the bands and, on more than a couple of occasions, I saw people nearly run over or trampled upon but nobody seemed to care. They were all there to enjoy themselves as performers or spectators and did their best to help each other to that end. As a result the parade would move forward in bursts. The progress of one group might be thwarted by the crowd and then they would rush to catch up as soon as they were able. My Western mind was at first put off by the lack of order but I soon came to appreciate the relaxed nature of the whole endeavor. I guess it is kind of like the difference in attitude toward zoning regulations. Here in Thailand, you might find a simple cement-block structure added onto a house willy-nilly but if the family needs a bathroom and that is the only way they can afford to put one on, why sweat it?

After the parade, we headed back to the Flower Festival where we inspected the floats. Maya enjoyed one of her favorite Thai treats, and ice cream sandwich. This may not sound very exotic except that the ice cream sandwiches here are actually small scoops of vanilla or vanilla/coconut ice cream served between two slices of white bread. Yum. The kids also got on a small Ferris Wheel which was set up for the day. They were latched in and, little did we know, they were in for the longest Ferris Wheel ride in history. Other kids would be let on and then let off. The Braunwarth kids continued to go around and around. At some point, I had to sit down and I was just laughing every time they would pass through the bottom of the circle and start up again. They literally must have been on for forty minutes before Zak got the attention of the operator and got let off.

That night we came across more Flower Festival activities at the Tha Pae Gate near our hotel. The music and dancing were marginal, at best, but there was a particularly prolific fire breather. Nothing like the potential for self-emoliation to liven things up.

Running and Kayaking

I’ve been keeping up with my training for the Catalina Marathon next month but it has been a challenge finding a place for long runs. The first time, I tried running along the river, thinking there might be some kind of a path, but found myself largely avoiding traffic and choking on exhaust. After the run I felt like I had smoke a pack of cigarettes which seemed to kind of defeat the purpose of running in the first place. For the next couple of runs, I headed up to the sprawling grounds of Chiang Mai University. This was much better and had the added benefit of putting me right over the wall from the zoo during the morning feeding rounds. There is something kind of viscerally gripping about being all alone at dawn and hearing a tiger roaring just on the other side of a line of trees. Then, breakthrough, the kids and I headed up to the Huey Tueng Tao Reservoir North of town. The lake was nice and looked like it would be great place to run. The lake was ringed with little resorts. We lunched at one on a little bamboo platform over the water, fished for some fickle fish and played a few hands of Uno. We decided to start keeping score which makes the Uno a little more interesting. Maya "the Master" is, of course, way out in front. Zak has "a system" so he is, of course, losing. At one end of the lake was large gold Buddha statue standing palms out. From where we sat, we could just see his head poking through over the trees. For my last couple of long runs I took the motorcycle up to the Reservoir which, in addition to the road around the lake, has a great running path leading to and from the reservoir. When Mary arrived we went for a run around the reservoir and picked up the company of a little black and white dog with one of those funnel collars that kept it from chewing on stitches or whatever. He started running with a litter mate but the funnel kept him from noticing that his brother had turned back and he ended up following us half-way around the lake until he was spanked by some other dogs after straying onto their turf.

I’m always big on new experiences but reluctant to go with the established tours/tourist type of outing. So, rather than sign up for the Ping River Cruise, we headed down to a kayak rental place on the River behind the Fa Ham Wat. We were able to rent two kayaks for 240 baht (about $7). We paddled upstream to ensure an easier trip back but the river was fairly slow and shallow. We passed larger and larger houses and met a couple of river tour boats but this time of year the river did not seem to be navigable to much larger vessels. Maya did great and Zak has become a very strong paddler. We put out on the floating docks and I was pulling the kayaks out of the river when I heard a large splash behind me and turned to see Maya coming up out of the café-au-lait water, between the two floating docks, her two plastic shoes floating by her side. She quickly scrambled out, no harm done.

After kayaking, we hit the Hopf Coffee House for a little homework. It’s nice for us because Zachary can rent computer time to get his reports typed up, they’ve got wifi for me that I can use while I help Maya with her homework. The only problem is that it is a little too nice. The only locals here are working behind the counter. Oh well, we can afford a little indulgence for the sake of homework.

Markets and Food

Every Sunday evening, the brick road that runs past the end of our block is transformed into a large "walking street" market, that mainly serves the locals. It's fun to rub shoulders with the masses and eat all of the street food. The Sunday walking market is much more interesting than the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar to the SE of the old town. The Sunday market caters much more to the Thais although there is plenty to appeal to the tourist as well. One of the central attractions for us are the many food stalls in the courtyards of the Wats branching off from the main street. From banana rotis to squid kabobs to sushi, we eat like kings for just a few dollars. The photo on the right is from the courtyard of the Wat just down the street from our hotel. The one below that is of Zak with the two vendors from whom he purchased his Buddha necklace.


Ode to a banana rotee:

So brown, so sweet So delicious, what a treat,
You elicit great flair, when skillfully created, You are as fluffy as air, when savorly ated,
Your bananas are mushy but not overly so,
Your sugar it sprinkles like new fallen snow,
Then of course there’s the milk, condensed and sweetened,
When drizzled on rotis, it's soon to be eatened.

We've also learned that pretty much any kind of food can be sold from a cart mounted on the side of a small motorcycle scooter. I've seen them with meats on ice that can then be cooked over braziers mounted right on the motorcycle. Another popular treat is an ice cream sandwich although in this case, the ice cream is scooped directly between two slices of white bread - literally a sandwich.

The picture on the left is of a typical small open-air restaurant. This one overlooks the Ping River next to the Wararot Market. Perhaps not uncoincidentally, Zak is essentially passed out suffering from a stomach ailment. Maya and I tried not to let him get in the way of our meal.

One of our favorite food outings is to a buffet-style restaurant called Samsabai. The picture to the right is of us there with a group of friends. The main feature of the meal is to pick out the meat you want and then grill it on the aluminum grills in the middle of the table.

Thai Language

I have not picked up much Thai while staying here. I figured I wasn’t going to be here that long and I really wouldn’t have much use for it later. Besides, it seems pretty difficult. I have picked up a few phrases, really just basic stuff but the Thai people seem so amazed that I know anything. I'll just say hello (Sawasdee Khrap) and how are you (Sabadee Mai) in Thai and they say, "Oh you speak you Thai" with just a hint of amazement and I'll say no (mai) in Thai and they'll say, "Oh yes you do," it's really pretty funny. But honestly I just know a few simple phrases and run through the entire set of them in about four minutes.
I haven’t had the chance to use my Thai phrase book much or the following conversation at all, but I thought it interesting that the book gave the following translations under the “drinking up” section and I tried to image someone using the phrases with the aid of the book. Here is the list of phrases from top to bottom:

Cheers!
This is hitting the spot.
I feel fantastic!
I think I’ve had one too many.
I’m feeling drunk.
I feel ill.
I think I’m going to throw up.
Where’s the toilet?
I’m tired, I better go home.
Can you call a taxi for me?
I don’t think you should drive.

Pretty much everyone does speak English, some obviously better than others. Most of the people who interact with the tourists are quite fluent and almost everyone wants to show off their English and practice a little bit. For instance, when we pass kids, they will generally say, "Hello, how are you" in that stilted second-language manner people have. Maya makes things interesting. Most people assume she is Thai and speak to her in Thai and we have to explain that we are from the States and she only speaks English. I have also had to learn the term "Luk Sow" or daughter which, somewhat surprisingly, everyone seems to accept without question. You do come acrossing some interesting translations on signs. At least the bathroom signs are fairly explicit. The sign at the bottom of the pole on the left advertises "the most beautiful toilet" and this is at a Thai Air Force pubic installation. It seems that the Thai Royal Police and the Military are two entities that are well funded, in no small part as a result of their own "entrepreneurial" initiative. The picture at the bottom rignt is from a food stall at one of the night markets where we commonly eat. Instead of KFC chicken, it's KFG chicken which stand for "Kentucky Fried Guy" because Guy is the Thai word for chicken. For some reason that one just tickles my fancy.

Sankampaeng Hot Springs

Yesterday (Thursday), after a little morning homework, we drove out toward the Sankampaeng Hot Springs. The drive on the scooter took about 45 minutes. Near the hot springs, we stopped at the Muang-On Cave. You had to climb up a number of stairs to the entrance of the cave and then once inside, descend a series of concrete stairs to the chambers below. Various large alcoves and niches were occupied by gold-leaf statues of the Buddha.

The hot springs were pretty cool as well. Our first stop was a hot spring resort with beautifully manicured grounds, geysers, etc. The place was more of a spa specializing in massage, individual mineral baths, etc. The clientele primarily consisted of foreigners; in particular, we noticed a number of Korean tourists. We boiled some eggs in the source pool, ate, and played some farkel before heading over to the main Sankampaeng Springs. Again, there was no opportunity for soaking in natural pools but they did have a very nice mineral pool with a waterfall we could use for a nominal fee. This place catered more to the locals with the comforting corresponding degree of kitsch. You may have noticed that boiling eggs is a popular pastime at Thai hot spring and I can certainly understand why. It’s kind of neat to take some raw eggs, dangle them in some boiling cauldron of water and end up with perfectly done eggs. We’re partial to the medium done eggs. In our opinion, the only good yolk is a runny yolk. Besides, it’s so much fun to slurp up the gelatinous goo through pursed lips. We, like the Thais, prefer them with soy sauce. These hot springs featured an homage to the boiled egg in the form of a fountain featuring, you guessed it, a whole clutch of eggs.

Burma

We just got back from Burma or Myanmar, as the currently military leaders of hte country prefer. We hired a motorcycle rickshaw tuk-tuk at the border to took us to some Wats and other stops. One of the highlights was a visit to a Karen (one of the "hill tribes") long-neck village. The women adorn their neck with these heavy brass rings, adding more and more over time until their necks appear to be incredibly elongated (I understand that it actually pushes down the clavicles and ribs with little ill-effect on the women). The kids thought it interesting but weren't blown away the way I thought they would be. I may just be cynical, and I didn't share this with the kids, but I couldn't help feeling that the whole experience was like going to a "human zoo." We had to pay an admission to go into the compound; the women performed some dance thing for the tourists; and then they stood around while we took pictures with them. It was kind of like going to see some exotic species at a wild animal park (although I've only seen the tigers do synchronize dance on rare occasions). There is, of course, a flipside. Civil war and economic strife have made it impossible for the women to survive in their homeland and this kind of existence allows them to survive without resorting to low-paying menial labor or something worse. We've encountered a lot of people on our travels that can't be making more than a dollar or two a day. Interestingly, you really don't see hardly any beggars at all in Thailand, however in Burma we encountered quite a few. The monks were even quite aggressive with the alms bowls, VERY different than in Thailand. The vendors in the market were also pretty in your face and a couple were selling what looked like ocelot pelts and horns from some endangered animal. For some reason the guys all wanted to sell me cigarettes and viagra, must be the receding hairline. The street kids we encountered on the bridge back into Thailand literally got into a fight over the 10 baht (30 cents) I was going to give one of them; I'm embarrassed to say I was frankly disgusted. The Burmese border city of Kachiliek is not that different than the Thai border city of Mae Sai in terms of the buildings, the markets, the food, or the physical appearance of the people, but I really picked up on a different kind of vibe. The people smiled and everything but it just didn't seem as laid back and free as Thailand. I was thinking that perhaps I was just hyper-sensitive as a result of my professional training but, interestingly, I was talking to a couple of Australian students in the passport line coming back into Thailand and they volunteered the exact same information. Kind of creepy. Anyway, we had a very interesting visit. Oddly enough, back on the Thai side we came across a statue of a giant scorpion on the grounds of a Wat; odd but not creepy. Ditto for the “yellow surprise” drinking water.

Mae Sai

We are now in a little town called Mae Sai at the "northernmost point in Thailand" according to a sign near our guesthouse. We came up here because our entry visas for Thailand expire on February 1 so we are going to cross the border into Burma and return to get another 15 day entry visa. Since we have to come this far, we decided to spend a couple of days here and see the sites. We are staying at a cute little place on the river (the maesai guesthouse) overlooking the river separating Thailand from Burma. It’s very nice just hanging out next to the river playing a little Uno and watching a group of naked Burmese boys playing in the water and a Burmese woman wading into the river to dump her trash so it will flow downstream. Later on a group of older Burmese boys swam over to the Thai side and jumped from trees into a deep hole in the river. The next day we rented a scooter and drove down to some nearby caves. The first one (Tham Luang or Great Cave) goes a couple of kilometers into the mountain but we only made it a couple of score meters before the kids got freaked out because of the dark (even with our flashlights) and we had to leave. Being a quick learner, I took the kids to another cave (Tham Pla or Fish Cave). This one was on the grounds of a monastery with scores of monkeys running around and giant koi, carp, and catfish in a big pool fed by water flowing out of a small cave. We climbed about 300 steps to go into a cave set into the mountain. Inside was a temple to a large gold Buddha illuminated by shafts of light coming in from skylights far above and shrouded by the smoke from candles and incense lit by other penitents. The cave roof was dripping stalactites and fantastically sculpted folds of rock; very beautiful.