Last days in Thailand

First – one of the most interesting things I have seen in Thailand, the “healthy ground” at the hot springs in Ranong. We walked here to occupy ourselves as we waited for the overnight bus to return us to Bangkok. Water exits the ground at these hot springs at a steamy 65⁰C. Some Thias have fun hanging little sleeves of tiny, spotted eggs into the water to cook. There are 3 successive small pools were people dip their legs and feet, each a little cooler than the last. Some Thias, adult and children sit directly in the water and always with their clothes on. My feet loved the last 2 pools. Just off to the side was the “healthy ground”. Picture a sizeable open-air concrete pad, covered by a roof and ringed with elephant statues. The floor is painted with yellow lines as if it were a parking lot. People lay on the concrete. The day is HOT, all my clothes are damp, and we figure the concrete is meant as a cool, respite from the heat. Much to our surprise, this municipal facility is heated using the hot water from the springs. The concrete floor is warm, no HOT! This is a quiet place where people come to lie down, in their own little “parking” space. The rules for using the “healthy ground” include – no shoes, food or drink, be quiet and sleep for only 30 minutes! Too hot for me – but the concept was intriguing. Maybe we need one of these at Edale!

Cooking eggs in the hottest water!

We are one the road again. In fact, I’m experimenting with typing on the bus, it might leave me nauseous. It is a bit harder to hit the keys accurately, but a great way to use some of this 5 hour bus ride to Chiang Khong were we will cross the Mekong River into Laos. This is our first day-time trip in a while and the scenery, through hilly, forested national parkland is beautiful.

Chiang Mai – darling. We’ve had fun. This university town, second largest city in Thailand, is throbbing with tourists right now. We are in peak season. We have been staying just outside the moated old city, an area small enough to walk, yet boasting over 30 temples. We’ve visited a couple of temples, notably Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chiang Man, but have also opted to do some different and new activities. Possibly, we are suffering some temple fatigue as we did in Nepal. The old city appears to be the tourist hub; endless door-to-door bars, restaurants (many with western-style offerings amidst traditional Thai fare), coffee shops (afternoon espresso is part of our city routine), thai massage parlours, cooking schools, fish-nibbling foot spas, tour operators, guest houses and hotels, shops, crowded, dazzling markets, and food carts. We’ve been happy to find some Indian food restaurants!

We’ve been able to track down some live music a reasonable walk from our hostel. On the other side of the river the Good View and Riverside bars host 2 acts per night. Well-heeled, young Thais flock to these places even on weeknights. Most tables, and even bar stools, are reserved well in advance. It is very common to see a partially empty whiskey bottle on a table, and ice bucket with tongs. A waiter/waitress will come along sporadically and mix the drinks. Did patrons bring their own bottles, or buy them there?  Most of the bands we have seen have been 7 piece numbers, members are young. Often a male lead singer, female backup, drums, keyboard, 2 guitar and bass. They regularly play American cover tunes – old ones! We can often sing along. Some even tended a bit towards Motown! Fun, energetic, “making the scene” – a little window into what young, hip-looking Thias like. We watched two older guys (our age) finger picking guitars playing songs like “House of the Rising Sun”. One night we stopped for beer and light eats in a well-reviewed and popular spot with tourists, the vegetarian Dada Kafe. Fresh-squeezed fruit/vegetable juices, home-made breads, soups and even a club-sandwich (we only had soup)! What had us giggling, in mild astonishment, however, was the recorded music (we assume Thia bands), covers of tunes like “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree”, “Country Roads”, and “Cotton Fields Back Home”. This corroborated what I’d read, that Thias like western, countryish music. Very interesting and lots of fun.

We’ve taken in a couple of tourist attractions, in addition to the somewhat standard temple tours. We did a 1-day cooking class at the Thai Farm Cooking School. Fun, LOTS of food (I made Tom Yam soup, red chicken curry, pad thia, stir-fry with tofu and mango with sticky rice). We left quite stuffed and a little bit wiser about ingredients and more skilled with the wok. We had Thia massages at a lovely spa run by women from the Chiang Mia Women’s Prison – part of an inmate job training program. The atmosphere was very tranquil, and while the masseurs quietly chatted amongst themselves while massaging (bending and stretching would also applying – a Thia massage is quite an experience, the masseurs use hands, feet, and elbows), the entire experience was truly relaxing.

Key for me, however, was our 2 day stay at the Elephant Nature Park – a centre for both rescued and retired domestic Asian elephants. This is a large facility, housing 36 elephants including 3 babies, that has developed a booming eco-tourism piece to help feed and shelter these magnificent creatures. A full grown elephant eats about 300 lbs of food in one day! Tourists come for single day visits, overnights, and some pay about 400$/week to work as volunteers shoveling shit, washing and cutting fruits, wheel-barrowing compost around and doing other odd jobs, all for the privilege of being close to these elephants. We spent time feeding elephants, throwing water on them in the river, and for a chunk of time walking around the facility, watching and hanging with the elephants. We chatted with the vet, watched great documentaries about elephants and traditional training in Thailand (maybe you can guess why the cage they are “broken” in with is called the crusher), watched mother and 3 month old baby. It was a profound experience to be in the presence of these incredible mammals with nothing between us and them. To look directly into an elephant’s eye, to scratch the skin at the bridge of their trunk, to feel the baby wrap it’s trunk around my arm… how can I really describe? To watch the mahouts, one for each elephant, care for their charges and direct them without use of whip or hook, was just as compelling. On the other side of the experience, how tragic the elephant with mangled back foot from stepping on a landmine, or the elephant blinded by its owners for refusing to work. Overall, I was entranced and figure that my new fantasy job is elephant mahout. I was lulled by the whole experience into a deep peaceful calm, and did not want to leave.  Plus the food, all vegetarian, was fantastic!

I could write some about the phenomenon, that we see ample evidence of, of white males with Thai women (an here in Laos I've noticed them with young Asian males too), but will control myself. Sex tourism, or as I read somewhere – love that can be bought? Both Bar and I read a good novel before we came – Bangkok 8 (it was in the “take one, leave one” book collection at the redwoods state park in N California). A good read that deals with corruption, prostitution, and sex tourism in Thailand, and one that helped us think about this reality in broader terms. Suffice to say that the one time in all our travels Barry and I split up to do different things (in Chiang Mai) Barry was soon propositioned as he walked by a bar!  

Sometimes I type these posts over a day or two, depending on our schedule and battery power, and such is the case now. We have arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, for Christmas. Somewhat impulsively we took the VIP overnight bus here from Huay Xia, Laos – just across the border from Chiang Khong, Thailand. Possibly we assumed we knew what to expect – we’d taken the overnight, VIP bus twice in Thailand. In Thailand this means a comfortable seat that reclines to 135 degrees, AC, and a bus hostess (in a cute turquoise and blue outfit like an airline stewardess) who brings you a blanket, water and even snacks (although Thai snacks do not quite appeal to my Western palate – like seaweed buiscuits with honey, not bad but also not great). There is, thankfully, a toilet on board and the seats are impeccably clean. In Laos, however, we ended up in the very back seats, which do not recline. No hostess, blanket, snacks or toilet. The AC is turned on for 1 minute out of every 20, and a toilet break means squatting on the side of the road. The road itself was in such poor shape we were bounced around like someone sitting on a trampoline, while someone else jumps! Did we sleep much – no! This could be why Barry agreed to a slightly more expensive room here in LPB; it has the softest and most inviting bed we’ve seen in some time!! (By the way, expensive means 25$/night for 2 people instead of 10$, and we do have a balcony and a great patio restaurant downstairs). No doubt we will have more to say about this city later. First impressions are favourable.

Our travels continue to have good days and bad days. We learn about places and people, but also about ourselves. We both have episodes of frustration with each other, or circumstance, and must practice patience (makes me think of my mom’s saying “fake it until you make it”) and humour! We ride a remarkable roller coaster of emotion, highs followed by lows. I love being here, opening ever deeper to the joys of travel, and simultaneously long for my home and family. I think that we are so present with the experience (and sometimes there is nothing to do but ride out discomfort), that we are not fully aware of what is happening on a deeper level. Some days I question the point of doing this – to continue on this long road as outsiders, makes us actually miss our work (okay, not all the time) and the gift of connection. A number of people have shared with us their experience of travel; a lot of the impact and learning is felt upon returning home. Here’s to the lessons that will reveal themselves over time.

Season’s greetings to all. Much love. XOXOXO D