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Home Sweet Home

2006-08-11T10:02:00.000-07:00

I'm back in California! Sad to leave Thailand, but happy to be "home" for a bit. I've spent the last few days (actually one very long day - Aug 10 - extended by crossing the international dateline) traveling from Bangkok to Tokyo to Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The only notable thing about my trip home was the stop in Japan. Since I had an eight hour layover I took the train from the airport into downtown Tokyo. Without a map or any clue about what to do in Tokyo, I wandered to the Imperial Palace and found some really nice gardens to chill in for a bit (a great break after the concrete jungle that is Bangkok). After getting my fill of beautiful ponds, green trees, and Japanese bridges, I wandered around the business district of Tokyo trying to find a sushi place. Apparently Japanese bushiness people don't eat sushi for lunch, because I was unsuccessful. So I took the train back to the airport and spent the remainder of my money on soba noodles and boxed souvenirs for friends.

Now it is time to begin packing my car for the cross-country trek.

Whitewater Kayaking

2006-08-08T02:49:00.000-07:00

Flashback! Yes, two weeks ago I spent five days on the Mae Tang River learning to whitewater kayak with Siam River Adventures. It was a great experience, and I'm totally addicted.

The week started with private lessons from my friend Shannon who lives in China and has been kayaking for about 10 years. Later in the week a young Thai/Karen man named Nope, who is possibly the best native Thai kayaker in the country, started teaching me. Each day before lunch I would go on flat spot in the river and learn some technique (how to paddle, enter and exit eddies, roll, etc). In the afternoon we would set out with 3-6 kayakers, a raft or two, and a support crew along the river. I'd kayak the upper section of the river (class 3 rapids), raft the middle section (class 4-5 rapids), and jump back into the kayak for the final bit of the river.

Although I didn't master the roll during my five days on the river, I did:

1) Kayak class 1-3 rapids (occasionally without swimming!)
2) Become an expert in the eskimo rescue, which allows a kayaker to get upright without coming out of the kayak and without knowing how to roll.
3) Become bruised from neck to toe. My head had a helmet covering it, thank goodness.
4) Meet some amazing whitewater kayakers, including guys who make kayaking films, run kayak companies, and are sponsored by multiple kayak companies.

Here are some pictures to prove my stories. First off, kudos to my friends and teachers on the river. Here is some of the crew, third from the right is my teacher Shannon and second from the right is my teacher Nope:

Here is me swimming:

And here is me successfully navigating a rapid!

Sick in (of) Bangkok

2006-08-07T20:55:00.000-07:00

I hate being sick, and am very bad at it. The day I arrived in Bangkok I came down with some kind of tropical disease - fever, chills, boneaches, nausea - and have been fighting the thing ever since. I can't really get out and see the city, and staying in my room was no fun b/c it was a cheap place with no A/C and no TV.

Yesterday I checked into a very posh new hotel with all the amenties I could possibly want, including on-demand movies! This makes life a bit better, but I'm really ready to be back in the U.S. where I don't have to walk two kilometers along a busy, smoggy street to find good non-thai food.

On the plus side I did go to a fun dance show (khon, thai traditional masked theater dance) this weekend, found some yummy indian food, and laughed at the silly tourists on Khao San Road.

Off to watch some more movies in my room...

Monkeys monkeys everywhere

2006-08-04T04:27:00.000-07:00

Rebecca, you'll be proud of me -- I got off the train in Lopburi last night to see the monkeys.

For those of you who don't know about Lopburi, it is a smallish town in Central Thailand with some mildly interesting ruins, a train station, and monkeys. I planned to go straight to Bangkok on the train, but looking out the window at the train station I noticed dozens of monkeys swarming over an old wat near the train tracks. So I got off the train, befriended some guys from Holland, and found a hotel for the night.

In the search for dinner I saw my first Thai monkeys up-close. They come in all shapes and sizes -- small, lanky, round, furry, and hairless. The ling (monkey in Thai language) were hanging out on the electric and phone wires, on the tops of cars, and even on various buildings around town. Apparently they are a big tourist attraction (although a big annoyance...they bite and steal) so the city will not kill them. Plus it is very un-Buddhist to kill animals. Thus the monkeys have a happy existence, hanging out in the ruined wat during the day and in the town at night.

After a few too many beers with the guys from the Netherlands, I dragged myself out of bed the next morning to see the monkey temple and catch an early train to Bangkok. Here is a photo of a monkey with an iced coffee can -- he could almost pass for a caffeine-junky, no?

Now I am in Bangkok for the night, and probably tomorrow night as well, before going to Ko Samet (an island) for my last couple nights in Thailand.

Myanmar

2006-08-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

Now we go back in time -- to Mae Sot. After returning from my trek I crossed the border between Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) to get my passport stamped because I am nearing the end of my sixty day tourist visa.

The border is a river crossing -- Thai customs on one side, and Myanmar customs on the other. To get my visa renewed I had to have the passport stamped on the Thai side of the border, walk across the bridge, and give my passport and 500 baht to the Burmese official. At that point I was free to explore Burma, as long as I crossed back into Thailand before 5 pm.

During my walk across the bridge to the Myanmar side of the border, I met a man who said he was an English student at a Burmese refugee camp (on the Thai side) during the day, and a bartender in Myanmar at night. According to my friend, Myanmar beer is much better than Thai beer, so despite my aversion to all beer I took him out for a drink in Burma. Here is the picture of my friend pouring Myanmar beer, which was indeed better than Thai beer:

Over our drinks, my friend told me a bit about the political situation in Myanmar, the difficulty of getting a good education there, and the importance (yes!) of contact with the outside world for the citizens of Myanmar. In case you don't know, Myanmar has been a military dictatorship since the mid 1900s. Many travelers do not want to support the government economically, so they choose not to travel to Myanmar.

After our chat, I walked back over the bridge and noticed the many armed men sitting on military trucks, chillin' out. I asked my friend if I could take a picture of them and he emphatically shook his head no, telling me I would most likely not make it back into Thailand if I pointed my camera at these men. Instead I settled for a photo of the river.

Sukhothai

2006-08-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

After taking the bus from Mae Sot to Sukhothai, I had one of my most unpleasant experiences yet in Thailand.

When we arrived at the Sukhothai bus station it was pouring rain and dark outside. Instead of walking, I decided to take a tuk-tuk to a guesthouse listed in the guidebook. Said guesthouse (Ban Thai) was full, so my tuk tuk driver offered to take me to a nearby place. He dropped me off and immediately another Thai man grabbed my bag and started toting it up the stairs of the guesthouse, which appeared to have no office or entrance but just stairs and rooms. I protested, took my bag back, and asked to see a room. The tuk tuk driver led me upstairs to a room on the third floor, opened the door, but did not turn on the room light. He said, "100 baht, okay?". I turned on the light to find a nasty nasty room -- dirty sheets, water all over the floor, and rats running around. Ugh. I left as quickly as possible to the protests of the tuk tuk driver and guesthouse employee.

Luckily there was a very nice guesthouse across the street for the same price, and with clean rooms. But I will be much more wary of pushy Thai men from now on.

Anyway, Sukhothai was beautiful. The old city is about 12 km away from the new city (where I spent the night) and is a world heritage site filled with 11th and 12th century wats, buddhas, and buildings, many of them restored by the Thai government in the early 1960s. I wandered and peddle-biked around the city all day, taking photos, avoiding large tour groups, and gawking at the sheer number of amazing old structures. The most impressive architecture lies within the city walls, but many half-forgotten wats lie outside the city in agricultural and secondary forest areas. Here are a couple of pictures from the day in Sukhothai old city:

Trekking Tips

2006-08-02T06:39:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my post yesterday, I "trekked" to the biggest waterfall in Thailand, also the sixth-largest in the world, last weekend. The waterfall is named Nam Tok Thee Lor Su, which means "Waterfall Waterfall". Why, you ask? Nam Tok = Water Fall in Thai language, while Thee Lor Su = waterfall in Karen language.

The trek started at about 9 am from the front door of the resort that organizes the treks (Um Phang Hill), where we (myself, a couple from Switzerland, and a family from the Netherlands) piled into rafts and set off down a tributary of the Mekong river, which forms the Thai-Laos border farther to the north. The rafting was a bit sketchy compared to my experience on the Mae Taeng. We had two river guides (different from our trekking guides, who were also along on this portion of the trip), who I think were about 14 years old each, one at the front of the boat and one at the back. I don't think anyone taught these kids how to paddle, because the concept of ruddering didn't seem to be in their paddling vocabulary. Needless to say, we swiped the bank more than a few times on the four hour float. Luckily the river was tame and there were basically no rapids to worry about.

We had two english speaking trek guides. One was named Augustine. He is a Burmese-born man who had to flee to Thailand to escape the government in Burma. Both his parents were killed at the hands of the military dictatorship in Burma. A great communicator (he speaks Burmese, Karen, Thai, English, and a spattering of some other languages as well) Augustine was quite a character, doing impressions of silly tourists he has guided on past trips. The other guide was named Tu Tu, or "Tommy" to English speakers. He is also from Burma, but makes his home in Thailand because of political and economic reasons. We had some interesting conversations about Burmese-Thai relations during the trip, and I slowly came to realize that the concept of a border and a nation is very different in this area of the world than in North America. Very serious stuff, indeed.

After disembarking from the rafts, we walked for about three hours to the first night's camp. Our "trail" was actually a road through beautiful primary wet tropical forest:

The first night we camped at the Thee Lor Su campground, which is apparently filled with Thai tourists during the high season (december) but was empty except for a few other farang on treks the night we stayed. After a fabulous dinner and rousing game of poker using green tree leaves as money, we woke early the next morning and walked 1.5 km to the waterfall. The falls were impressive -- huge -- wet -- cold -- and not very photographable due to the mist in the air. We returned to the camp after a quick dip in the pools below the falls and hiked three hours to the next night's destination, a Karen hilltribe village.

The hike was muddy. The village was impressive. Everyone lives in bamboo huts (floors and walls made of bamboo, roofs made of metal or leaves) and the community is almost self-sustainable, growing its own vegetables, rice, and meat. Transportation is via foot, elephant, or motorbike in the dry season, and the nearest paved road is at least an hour from the village. This particular hill tribe village has been in Thailand for only about 30 years -- the people moved from Burma for political reasons but maintain their native Karen language, dress, and customs.

After spending the night in a bamboo hut and waking up around 5 am to the sound of Karen people pounding rice, we set off on the last leg of our journey -- a four hour elephant ride over the hills. Here is a picture of two of the elephants:

My elephant and mahout (elephant guide) are on the right of the picture. Each elephant wears a wooden basket on it's back, and passengers sit in the basket while the guide sits behind the elephant's ears. I shared my basket with two young girls from the Netherlands. In Chiang Mai there was plenty of elephant trekking, but the elephants there were in poor condition (skinny, with sores). Here, the elephants are treated very well. Each night the mahout lets the elephant free in the forest to eat. The next morning he calls the elephant back for the day's work.

The internet cafe is closing, so I have to go now, but here is a final photo of (left to right), me, Augustine, Tu Tu, and the family from the Netherlands the morning we left Um Phang:

More to come on Myanmar and Sukkothai soon...

Mae Sot

2006-08-01T08:02:00.000-07:00

I finally left Chiang Mai last Thursday, headed for a small town named Mae Sot on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

As transportation I took a public bus run by the Green Bus company. Apparently Green Bus is trying to do the Jet Blue thing -- if you've ever flown Jet blue you'll understand. All the snacks were green - green crackers, green soda, and green packaging. The bus was green too. So was the stewardess' outfit. I arrived in Mae Sot green around the gills from the smelly toilet and curvey roads. Enough green!

Mae Sot is an interesting mix of Thai, Burmese, Karen (hilltribe) people, and farang, as well as a mix of Muslim, Christian, and Buddhist religions. In the morning, I wandered around the Mae Sot day market and goggled at the mix of people. Both men and women wear sarongs...Muslim women walk around with covered heads...Burmese people wear grey colored makeup on their faces...everyone balances large items on their heads...and most are excited to see farang.

The items for sale at the day market matched the diversity of people. I saw the usual mix of pigs' heads, vegetables, and pad thai as well as expensive gems, baby turtles, indian food (yum yum), and smuggled whiskey from Burma. One woman sold me a funny looking green fruit, miming that it was good to eat by simply biting into it. I'd never seen this fruit before and was dubious, but for three baht decided to take the chance. A few hours later, hungry, I bit in...and immediately regretted it. My mouth puckered for the next five minutes. I think the woman was having fun with gullible farang!

After checking out the market I embarked for my next adventure: Um Phang, a very small town that is a Thai tourist destination during the dry season (Nov-Feb) due to its beautiful character and nearness to the biggest waterfall in Thailand, Thee Lor Su. The town is located in a protected area, a wildlife sanctuary that spans some of the last remaining primary rainforest in Thailand. To get to Um Phang, I paid about $5 to ride in the back of a blue truck full of Thai people, luggage, food, and a dog, on the five hour ride through the mountains. The views from the truck were gorgeous, and definitely worth the trouble of standing on the open tailgate for most of the ride. My arms were sore the next day from holding myself on the truck for so long! I arrived in Um Phang a bit wet, a bit hungry, and ready to find a nice guesthouse.

Unfortunately, the town is not set up for tourists during the off-season. It was the first place in Thailand I've been that does not have signs in English. I wandered around the town for about 1.5 hours looking for a guesthouse that was not 1) closed or 2) extremely expensive. All the Thai people in Um Phang are very friendly to farang, because we are such a rare sight -- less than 4000 farang visited Um Phang last year. The school children often waved and shouted "Hello!" when they saw me. The school boys were especially outgoing and friendly, wanting to know where I was going and where I was from. Unfortunately, none of them knew where I should go for accommodation.

I finally happened upon a small garden guesthouse with open rooms for rent for only 100 baht. A bed found, I set out to book a trip to Thee Lor Su waterfall. More on that adventure tomorrow...plus new pictures!

Massage School Pics

2006-07-19T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures from my last day of massage school. The first is a picture of our class, and the second is me with one of my favorite teachers, Noo.

Happy House

2006-07-19T21:36:00.000-07:00

I've told you plenty about my many Thailand activities. But my daily life here is probably the best thing about Thailand, and the primary reason I'm still in Chiang Mai.

I'm living in "Happy House", a small guest house run by two Thai women named pi La and pi Eh, both in their mid-thirties. (FYI, "pi" is the polite way to address anyone older than you in Thai). The guesthouse opened about 1.5 months ago, and my friend Philippa and I were some of the first guests at Happy House to stay for any reasonable length of time. During the first week of our stay we were semi-adopted by La and Eh.

In the last month I've gotten to know La's baby Kona, her husband Jason who runs the rafting/kayaking company, the neighbors who have a laundry business, the friends who are Goji Berry entrepreneurs (yes folks, just wait - Goji berry juice is the next hot health product in Thailand!), the extreme kayak film makers making a movie somewhere in northern Thailand, and the dogs Pepsi and Cola who live across the street. My room feels like home.

Sadly, I leaving Chiang Mai tomorrow and will miss Happy House and all my friends here. A quick picture of the Kona:

Right foot goes thus...Meditation

2006-07-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

I just returned from a two day silent meditation retreat near Chiang Mai. A group of twenty-five people (all foreigners, mostly from Holland and the United States) arrived at a temple called Wat Suan Dok at about 2 pm tuesday afternoon. We were given a short lecture on Buddhism by one of the monks, and then we piled into busses and drove about 30 minutes from Chiang Mai to a new mediation retreat center. The center is so new that it is not yet finished -- a work camp is set up next to the center to complete the library and dorm rooms. Luckily the most important parts of the center (the golden Buddha, temple, and kitchen) were finished.

When we arrived at the center we were assigned rooms, white clothing, and nametags that said "silence". For the next hour or so we had free time, and everyone wandered around the retreat lawn, not quite knowing what to do with free time, no books, no computers, and most importantly no talking.

At six pm we had a small dinner. Usually when people in Thailand go on Buddhist meditation retreats they do as the monks do, not eating after 11 am. I chose not to eat dinner, just to see what it would be like to go without food for an evening. As it turns out the lack of food at night is not so bad if you go to bed early -- monks are usually in their rooms by about 9:30 pm.

After dinner we met in the temple and learned about the different types of meditation. First, there is sitting meditation. The idea is to sit in a comfortable position (usually cross-legged) and focus on a single thing such as breathing in, and breathing out. Next is walking meditation. The monks demonstrated this type of meditation, picking up each foot slowly and placing it on the floor. While walking the focus should be on the feet -- the mind is thinking "Right foot goes thus. Left foot goes thus. Right foot goes thus...." The third type of meditation, lying meditation, is the most relaxing but quite dangerous because it is easy to fall asleep. Finally, counting prayer beads (108 on a string) is another type of meditation. If you get a number besides 108, you are not in the proper meditative state.

After the demos, it was our turn to try mediation. I quickly realized that sitting meditation is by far the most difficult for me. Sitting in a cross-legged position without moving for more than 5 minutes is painful. My legs begin to fall asleep. My back slumps. I fidget. I forget to focus on my breathing an instead listen to the bugs buzzing outside. The monks call this wandering mind "monkey mind". During our sitting meditation practice, each minute felt like ten. Walking meditation was quite enjoyable. I felt like I was learning how to walk again, feeling every muscle contract and release as I picked up each foot and set it down again. Lying meditation was great: I fell asleep!

To end the evening we chanted with the monks in Pali language, paying respect to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha (I think). We also chanted in English and wished compassion on all living beings. Bedtime at 9 pm was welcome, because we were awakened at 5 am by a gong for 5:30 meditation practice. Morning practice was more of the same; sitting, walking, chanting, and some yoga as well.

After the morning practice we observed the Thai tradition of offering food to the monks. In Thailand, monks do not cook. Instead, from 6-7 am each day they walk from their temple with bare feet and collect "alms" from Thai people. I've really enjoyed my early morning runs here because of this spectacle -- watching monks, dressed in saffron robes, walking barefoot throughout the city and collecting breakfast is quite a sight!

After breakfast was a discussion on Buddhism and meditation. For the first time in 12 hours we broke our silence and talked about our experiences. An interesting conversation, much too long to repeat here but by far my favorite part of the meditation retreat experience. Most importantly, perhaps, I learned that Buddhists do not consider Buddhism a religion but rather a way of life.

Finally, we practiced sitting meditation one last time, ate lunch in silence, and returned to Chiang Mai. The bus ride back was quiet -- although we did not have to keep silent any longer, my fellow retreaters and I were suddenly happy to stay with our own thoughts for a bit longer.

Back to real life, I've realized a number of things:

1) Sitting meditation is not my thing. I prefer movement, such as yoga or running, to put myself in a meditative state.

2) Monks are happy, happy people despite (or probably because of) the simple lives they lead. The monks who organized our retreat maintained a sense of calm fun all of the time.

3) A day of silence does me a great deal of good -- without constant talking, my mind becomes more clear.

Certified Thai Massage Therapist

2006-07-17T00:27:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was my last day of massage class, and after 120 hours of instruction I am now an internationally recognized Thai Massage Therapist. But don't believe it! Four weeks is definitely not enough time to learn all there is to know about Thai massage. When I come home I hope all my friends (*hint hint*) will be my massage dummies, because I need the practice.

Thai massage is very different than the classic Swedish oil massage we most often encounter in the US. First of all, the massage is done fully clothed and on the ground, not on a massage table. This aspect of the massage is nice because I can give massage almost anywhere, as long as the floor surface is soft enough. Second, Thai massage originally meant to be used in hospitals to cure sick patients, and therefore involves many more deep stretches and work on specific pressure points than Swedish massage.

The first two weeks of my course covered the very basics of Thai massage - how to move my client's body, how to position my own body, how much pressure to apply, what kind of touch to use. Thai massage requires that the bodyworker lift, stretch, press, and rotate the client's body (see pic below) and it takes plenty of physical strength to give a good Thai massage.

The second two weeks of the course covered specific medical treatments: massage for back pain, headache, shoulder pain, numbness, dizziness, etc. I've also learned all sorts of interesting pressure points on the body. Certain points can cause abortion and others can kill the client if pressed too hard. Yikes!

During the last four weeks I've also received plenty of massages from students and teachers. The teacher massages were fabulous...I felt like a new person after each two hour session. Massage can truly change one's outlook on life if done properly. The student massages weren't always so good, and occasionally I'd leave massage school more bent out of shape (literally) than when I arrived in the morning. My best moment during the last month was when one of my "clients" fell asleep during her massage. Now that I'm done with school I will try and have a massage every couple days while in Thailand, since they are so cheap here (only about $6 US for a two hour session) and receiving massage is a good learning experience.

Tomorrow I will take an overnight meditation course at Wat Suan Dok and then go to the rainforest for five days of whitewater kayaking with friends. So don't worry if you don't hear from me for a while - I will either be meditating or having sanook (fun, in Thai) in the jungle!

Rafting the Mae Tang River

2006-07-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I headed for the hills with a rafting company called Siam River Adventures that is headquartered at my guest house. The company is run by an American named Jason who takes tourists up to the river on an almost-daily basis for rafting and kayaking adventures. After three weeks in Chiang Mae I was itching to get away from the city, and Jason offered me a screaming deal for two days of rafting and an overnight stay at the jungle camp near the river.

We left Chiang Mae at about 9 am Saturday morning, and picked up a few more rafters along the way: Two American ex-pats living in Vietnam, an Italian and his Thai companion, and a college age dude from North Carolina. And yes, if you are wondering about the term "companion" you probably have the right idea. Thailand is crawling with middle aged white men who travel with young Thai women for a few weeks. The Thai women benefit because they get free food, accommodation, and activities, while the white men benefit because they get a young Thai woman. Yup, it sounds awful and IS awful. I wince everytime I see a Thai lady with a farang man many years her senior.

Anyway, back on track to the rafting. Saturday we checked out the rapids on foot before running them. The river is fairly low right now, with lots of rocks and some pretty serious technical spots -- class three and four rapids, if that means anything to you! We then lunched at the jungle lodge, located in a tiny little community in the middle of a remote rainforest valley. In many ways it reminded me of Costa Rica: lots of mixed agriculture (banana, papaya, etc) and small houses in the valley, with primary and secondary forest covering the hills.

After lunch we got suited up to run the river. I joined the Italian and Thai woman on the raft, while the rest of our travel companions took whitewater kayaks. Then we were off! Our guide, Nope, is a young Thai man who speaks very little English except the necessary paddle commands (forward! backward! stop! etc...) We had a great time navigating the rapids, swimming in the river, enjoying the ridiculously warm rain, and splashing each other for no reason at all. The raft got stuck on rocks numerous times, but never flipped because the water was so low.

In the evening we had a very chill night, with some Thai food (not spicy enough...I think my spice tolerance has gone up since I arrived here) and beer. Because of the lack of spice in the Thai food I asked for some fresh peppers to add to my stir-fry, and proceeded to chop them up using my fingernails. The food was perfectly spiced, but the space under my fingernails burnt for the next 24 hours. Which begs the question: if it hurts so bad outside, why does it taste so good to put spice into my tummy? One of the mysteries of life, I guess.

The next morning we were on the river by 9 am. This time I took the "ducky", a big blue inflatable kayak manufactured in Moscow Idaho, down the river. Apparently inflatable kayaks are like training wheels, preparing new kayakers for the real thing. I had a blast with this thing! Although I couldn't roll my boat, it was very forgiving and almost impossible to tip over, so I paddled happily down the rapids without many worries. I *did* have to switch into the raft for the really big rapids. Maybe next weekend I will try a hard kayak.

In other news, I am in my third week of massage school and loving it. We've been learning how to treat specific problems such as back pain, headaches, and shoulder pain, which should come in handy. But more on that later...right now I must go find some din-din!

Wat's up?

2006-06-27T19:17:00.000-07:00

Okay, cheesy title but irresistible.

Last week I made a pilgrimage to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a Buddhist temple overlooking Chiang Mai. This particular wat was built in the 1300s and is one of Thailand's most sacred pilgrimage destinations. You can see the temple's chedi from the city on a clear day, glinting gold in a sea of green tropical forest. Here is a close-up photo of the chedi:

The morning began trying to catch a songthaow...a red bus/taxi that costs almost nothing and takes you wherever you want to go. The only catch is that a songthaow picks up as many people as possible, so it can take quite a while to arrive at your destination. Luckily virtually everyone taking songthaow up the mountain wants to see the wat, so it was not hard to find transposition straight to the temple.

After a stomach-churning ride up the mountain, I disembarked and walked up the 297 steps to the temple. I was expecting many foreigners, but most of the people at the wat were Thai. The temple itself is nothing particularly special, but the views from the temple's observation deck were stunning:

After the wat, we continued our drive up the mountain to a small Hmong village called Doi Pui. This was by far my least favorite part of the day; the village was full of beautiful stuff for sale, but there were almost no tourists. The whole place was very sad, poor, and the vendors, although they wanted us to buy things, were not very excited about tourists tromping through their village. On the positive side I did find a very interesting article for sale:

I'm 99% sure this is in fact the name of an herb (seems like tiger private parts might be hard to come by) but I was not motivated to buy the bag so I guess I'll never know. Maybe one of my blog readers can enlighten me?

More adventure stories to come asap, including my white water rafting trip this past weekend.

Cooking School

2006-06-22T03:42:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was Iron Chef day. I signed up for a cooking class set about 17 km outside of Chiang Mai on an organic farm, hoping to bring back some knowledge of how to create Thai culinary goodness back in the United States. On the menu for the day was a meal fit for a king: sticky rice, plain rice, red curry, cashew stir fry, papaya salad, pad thai, and mango with sticky rice. Yummy!

My cooking classmates were from all over - Australia, Holland, and San Francisco. We first visited a local market where we learned how to buy coconut milk and coconut cream, fish sauce, tofu, and rice. In Thailand you can buy anything from bugs to bananas to prepared sweets at the markets. Some of the best and cheapest food is found in markets, and as long as I keep a sense of culinary adventure (many things are wrapped in banana leaves, so I'm never sure exactly what I'm getting) I eat well. Here is a picture of an ingenious device many of the market stalls use to keep away flies. As far as I can tell, it is a ceiling fan with plastic bags instead of blades:

After our trip to the market, we drove into the countryside where, for the first time in weeks, the sound of cars and motorbikes was gone. We walked around the farm and learned about what all the ingredients for our dishes look like: long beans are VERY long, miniature eggplant (also called beetlenut) is very small, and peppers come in various sizes, the smaller the spicier.

The owner of the operation, Sawat, came to talk to us about the difficulties of farming organic in Thailand. Most farmers choose not to participate in organic farming because it is not economically feasible -- growing large quantities of the same crop increases that crop's susceptibility to disease, making pesticides desirable. If an organic farmer chooses to participate in mixed agriculture, disease resistance goes up but so do the labor costs of growing the food. Thus organic is best suited for farmers who are growing only small amounts of food (i.e. for the family only, not commercially).

Then the cooking commenced. First we learned about rice. Sticky rice is steamed, while "plain rice" (jasmine rice) is cooked in a rice cooker. Next we ground our own red curry. Red curry is red because it is prepared using dried red peppers, which are less spicy ("pet" in Thai) than the fresh green peppers used in green curry. Most Thai people buy already-prepared curries from the market, but hand-made curry is created by mashing ingredients together with mortar and pestle. Hard work!

The rest of the morning was spent preparing the curry dish, the cashew dish, and my very favorite Thai dish so far: green papaya salad (som tom). The setup made me feel as if I were on a commercial TV cooking show - I had my own cooking space, with all the ingredients laid out before me, ready to go into the dishes with only minimal chopping. After preparing all this food, we ate and ate and ate, and even with great effort could not finish our food. After lunch we prepared pad thai and mango with sticky rice. And yes, I now have a recipe book so I can wow everyone back at home with my attempts at creating Thai food.

Biking biking biking

2006-06-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

This weekend was my first in Chiang Mai. On Saturday I took my rental bike and spent the entire day checking out the city from tip to tail. Besides the inner city, which is surrounded by a moat and wall, there is a huge sprawl of surrounding businesses, restaurants, and a big university (CMU - Chiang Mai University). At one point I spent about 1/2 hour learning Thai from a friendly-seeming Thai man on the street, who then proceeded to ask me for money for a bus ride to his hometown. The people here are funny - they are genuinely kind, but also want to take advantage of the farang (foreigners) whenever possible.

Saturday night we (the hostel owners and a few guests) closed up the hostel early and went out to Mexican food, which didn't taste particularly Mexican despite the fact that the ingredients were all correct - corn tortillas, beans, rice, salsa, and cheese. Afterwards we went to a farang hangout "The Rooftop Bar" which was quite trippy, decorated in rainbow colors and literally on the roof of a building, open to the air.

Sunday my friend Casey and I took a mountain biking trip through the nearby national park, Doi Suthep. Huge gorgeous rain forest, with all the plants we think of as invasive in Hawaii (bamboo, albizia, melastoma) native here. The forest is riddled with trails, small coffee plantations, and even a few hilltribe villages. It reminded me very much of Southern Costa Rica, both because of the weather (cool and humid) and the landscape. You could see the entire spread of Chiang Mai below. The gear we had to wear felt like a football costume, complete with plastic torso armor, knee and elbow pads, and leg guards. Very silly!

This week I am taking a break from massage and instead taking a Thai cooking class with some friends. We learn how to grow and shop for the food, so it should be a fun experience!

Pictures - Week 1

2006-06-16T20:38:00.000-07:00

Last Friday Scott and I walked around Bangkok, taking in the wats (Thai Buddhist temples), the food, and the thousands of Thai people in yellow shirts celebrating the King's 60th anniversary. The wats were amazing - golden and intricate. Here is an example of one of the spirals in the Grand Palace:

After checking out the wats, we wandered down to the river to see the dress rehearsal for the anniversary celebration. Fifty-two royal barges floated in front of our eyes, each intricately carved and royal outfitted. We watched the spectacle with many Thai people, who were hanging out of windows and balconies for a better view:

After riding the bus north to Chiang Mai, I found a room in the "Happy House" for a month. The two Thai sisters who own the guest house are sweet, and I've eaten dinner with them for the last three nights. They love that I eat spicy food! Thailand in the evening and morning is most beautiful. Here is the view from the guest house patio at night:

Massage classes are fabulous. I feel like mush after being massaged all week, but I'm certainly not complaining! I will take at least three more weeks of Thai massage at ITM, and maybe more at another school afterward. Here is our class on the last day of the first week of "school":

After passing our practical exams yesterday, my friend Phillipa, plus some boys from Texas staying at our hostel, went out to watch Muay Thai boxing. Muay Thai is basically violent kickboxing with some punches thrown in. During the evening we found some bugs to eat, and chowed down on crickets (mmm...crunchy), maggots (squishy and nasty), and even a cockroach (I couldn't stomach that one). The other girl in the picture is our waitress:

Thai Massage - Day One

2006-06-12T04:12:00.000-07:00

The question of the day: Where does this energy line start?

Yes, I learned about energy lines - sen - today. Apparently we all have six sen running from our feet to our hips. And it feels damn good when these lines are massaged!

Class is fun. The head teacher is named Chongkol Setthakorn ("John") and learned massage in the mid-eighties at Thailand's premier massage school in Bangkok. We begin each day with a chant and about 1/2 hour of yoga exercises (we even go upside-down for shoulder stand). Afterwards the lessons start - instruction and then practice with a partner. Thank goodness the girl I am practicing on is patient. We laugh a lot.

The class is about 80% female -- all very interesting people who decide to enroll in massage school in Thailand, from places as diverse as Holland, India, Taiwan, and Canada. A few plan to stay for the whole month, as I do.

In other news I now have a both place to stay and clothes to wear!

First the place to stay: The "Happy House" guesthouse in the old city for less than $4 per night. Wow. What a steal. Not a luxury hotel, but I have a fan, hot water, and the hardest bed I've ever slept on. I might as well be on a board with sheets. I suppose this is good for my back? The people running the place are very sweet - two sisters who must talk about every decision, including whether to let a clueless white girl from Montana stay at their place for a month. Luckily they concurred, and I can stay.

Next the clothes: Last night was the once a week night market where everything you can imagine, as long as it is beautiful and costs almost nothing, is sold. So I bought two pairs of comfy pants (and yes they are comfy - and stylish - definitely the majority of farag (foreigners) here have a pair on at any given time), a cool long red shirt that I will probably not wear 'till I get back to the US, and a tank. At about 8 pm everyone at the night market stopped what they were doing and stood to listen to the national anthem. It was amazing to see an entire commercial market go quiet with love for a king/country!

Chiang Mai by Bus

2006-06-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

Last night I departed from Bangkok via bus, headed for Chiang Mai. Only $5 for a 12 hour bus ride! A good deal all in all, especially since the trains aren't working due to flooding in the north of the country. Chiang Mai is pleasant - surrounded by lush green mountains, comprised of an inner city surrounded by a moat surrounded by an outer city.

I'm all signed up for two weeks of Thai massage at the International Training Massage School and am booked at a hostel for tonight at least. My hope is to find a discount on a long-term place in the old city, but am too beat today to go asking. This evening I will go shopping at the night market to buy clothes (since I have no clean ones to speak of at this point).

Today a friend and I rented bicycles from a kind girl whose name is "Gift" translated to English, and slowly peddled around the city goggling at the many wats, tuk tuks, fruit stands, and tourist traps. I may buy a bike if I stay here for a long time, since commuting to the massage school via foot will be quite a trek every day.

Off to find some food!

Bangkok

2006-06-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Yellow. All I see is yellow. The King's 60th birthday celebration is this weekend, and to support him everyone in Bangkok is wearing yellow shirts. Scott (who has been in Australia for five months and arrived in Thailand two days ago) and I joined in on the fun and bought ourselves yellow shirts too, complete with the kingly symbol, for only 450 baht.

We then wandered all over Bangkok, goggling at the golden temples (wats), eating random street food, and practicing our terrible thai language skills on unsuspecting Thai people. Finally we found our way to the river, where everyone in yellow tshirts had gathered to watch the rehearsal for Monday's birthday celebration: 52 barges (boats) rowed by military men floating down the river. The men were rowing in time to the chanting of men standing at the bow of each boat. Each boat (during the actual ceremony) would house a special government person: a minister, one of the Thai royal family, or even the king!

I must go now to check out of Shanti lodge and meet Scott for my much-anticipated first Thai massage, and then catch the bus to Chiang Mai.

Headshot

2006-06-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Thailand Ho!

2006-05-26T23:35:00.000-07:00

This blog will (I hope!) keep you updated on my Thailand travels. Departure date: June 7. Just 1.5 weeks to go...and so much to do...