 |
| Ansen |
 |
| Freshman |
We had arranged a tour through Ron, our guesthouse owner, to various locations in Northern Thailand. It was initially only going to be Ron, Phyl & me, but Ron advised that 2 new guests, (23 yr old Freshman and 24 yr old Ansen from Shanghai, China) were going to join us. This was good news as it lowered the cost for us.
We left at 8:30 am in Ron's Land Rover, Phyl in the front seat and me in the back with the boys. We headed north, and after about 1 hour, stopped at an orchid nursery. The orchid varieties were amazing and very beautiful! Ron bought 2 to bring back to the guesthouse. The boys looked briefly, but were clearly not as interested in the flowers as were we. Our next stop was at hot springs; basically 2 pools, surrounded by a brick wall, one with a geyser that shot, continually, 15-20 feet into the air. A little lady stood at the calm pool selling small baskets of egg that you could boil in the hot water. Ansen purchased a basket and dropped them into the water, losing one of his eggs. Reflexively, he reached in to grabbed his egg, and screamed and pulled his hand out quickly.
Ansen – AHHHH!! The water is very hot.
P- Hello! Ansen, HOT SPRING!! You are boiling eggs in it! Boiling water!
He laughed and ran to the other side with his basket of eggs while Freshman took photos. Ansen is quite the character, an outgoing jokester, while Freshman (nickname for Yuen) was quieter. Back in the vehicle, we began to climb a mountain. About 30 minutes up the road, the Land Rover began to make very strange sounds, and I was thinking that there was a serious problem when, just as we approached a checkpoint, the vehicle began to overheat, smoke billowing from the engine. We all got out, joined by the border police, and looked under the hood. We pushed the vehicle to the side of the road and Ron called Emma to bring us another vehicle and get this one towed back to town.
We sat at the checkpoint watching cars and motorcycles go by and discussing life in China, the US, and Thailand. We asked Ron numerous questions about Thai culture and were surprised to learn about how lazy Thai men are. He explained that basically, the woman do most of the work, but still retain a submissive reverence for the husband. Even when the marriages end, usually due to the husband's infidelity or abusiveness, the women seem unable to cope, and with little resources, turn to the oldest profession to support themselves and their children, resulting in the large Thai sex industry.
Initially the border police were somewhat standoffish, eyeing us suspiciously and asking our countries of origin, but after we sat there for about 1.5 hours, they warmed up and talked to us. It was lunchtime and we were starving; one of the border cops brought us a bunch of vegetables he had just pulled out the ground. We couldn't decide if they were white radishes or turnips, but they kind've tasted like mild raw potatoes. We ate some nonetheless.
P- Ron, not so much in Chiang Mai, but outside of the city area, it seems like there is a lot of garbage.
Ron- Yes, it is a problem. In the city the shop owners keep their areas clean, but there are no Thai litter laws. The people don't see the necessity in not littering or in picking up trash. They don't understand what it does to the ecosystem and environment.
P- Well, when we were all standing around the hood of the car, and the border guard touched the engine, I watched him wipe his hand on a tissue and then throw it off the road into the bushes. I was thinking WTH? This is a cop doing this.
Ron – Yes, that's exactly what I mean. That's the mentality of the people.
Emma finally arrived in a small, extended cab, pick up truck. We moved our bags and climbed in, Phyl in the front and me in the back with the boys. Due to the unforeseen delay, Ron switched the order of our tour just a bit. We headed for a river restaurant famous for it's pies and ravenously ate the so very delicious, homemade pies, (Phyl- strawberry cheese cake and me- lemon meringue), as we sat watching the river. After a time Ron asked if we noticed anything unusual. None of us had noticed, but the water in this river was flowing upstream. No one could explain why this natural occurrence happened.
Back on the road, we headed to the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun), designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a recovered alcoholic, and world renowned artist. The temple is still under construction today. It is very beautiful and very delicate, looking almost like it is made of ice due to the millions of tiny mirrors covering most of the carvings. The white color represents Buddha's purity & the mirrors represent Buddha's wisdom that shines brightly all over the earth and universe. The interior of the temple is painted with very colorful murals with the back wall representing hell and the front wall showing Buddha's ascent to heaven. We then walked through a museum displaying his paintings from his first to very recent ones. Finally, we went to the factory area where temple statuary continues to be made by artisans.
We drove further north toward Mae Sai and stopped at the Karen Long Neck and Akha Hill Tribes. The story is an extremely sad one. The hill tribes were once nomadic, hunter gatherers living in the area that is currently the Burmese/Thailand border mountains. With the instability in Burma, they moved into what is now considered Thailand, but the Thai government does not recognize them as citizens, so they cannot move freely, gain employment, obtain papers such as a passport, or utilize social programs, such as public education or medical treatment, offered to Thai citizens. Basically, they are stuck, citizens of no country, on reservations inside Thailand. NGOs or nonprofit agencies try to help them and they have established an area where they sell their handicrafts, on a rotation basis, and pool the earnings to feed and cloth the people on the reservations.
They lived in structures surrounding their handicraft stalls. These homes were the most primitive we'd seen since arriving in Asia. They lacked electricity or plumbing. We walked through the 'sales area' and took photos. We purchased scarves and little purses hand made on primitive looms. We saw children with gold rings around their necks. This is the identifying feature of the long necks, gold rings around their necks. Ron advised that the story of it's origins is that, when the men were off hunting, the women worked the fields and were often attacked by tigers, who would grab the women by their throats. They began wearing rings on their necks to protect them from the tigers. I think this story is quite suspect, but it evolved into a sign of beauty. The first ring is attached at age 12, and a new ring is added every year, on their birthday, until they are married. Thus, the small children with rings around their necks were clearly decorated only for tourists. The Akha are known for the large circular disks that they insert into their earlobes, creating large holes through the earlobes.
G- Ugh! I feel sick to my stomach about that whole scene.
P- Me too. I feel like I want to be here to help them by buying things, but I also feel like this is a circus set up to exploit them.
G- Yes, I feel like it's a human zoo. We're taking photo of them and with them, and of course I want photos and that's part of how they attract people here who then buy their stuff, but the whole thing is just disturbing.
P- On the other hand, if no tourists ever came here, they'd starve to death.
Ron- It is horrible, but it does help them. This does give them a way to earn some sort of living.
G- It's just terrible. I almost wish I could just scrub the images from my mind and the bad feelings from my heart. Humanity is so inhumane. It sickens me. None of this is necessary!!
P- But, there are places even worse than this.
G- I know, if/when I see those places, it might just break my heart and give me nightmares. Hell, horrific things go on in America just like every other place.
We left Mae Sai and returned to Chiang Rai (not to be confused with Chiang Mai) where we checked into our hotel. After a 30 minute rest, we met in the lobby and headed off for a drink and to see the magnificent town square clock, designed by the White Temple creator, Chalermchai Kositpipat. We sat in a bar, next to the clock, and had a round of drinks. During our discussion of the Chiang Rai nightlife, Freshman burst into song, and it was then that we learned that quiet Freshman loved to Karaoke. Maybe he wasn't so quiet after all? At 7:00 pm, the gold, ultra ornate, clock began to gong, play music and change colors from pink to orange to blue to green. Ron had warned us about the display. It was quite the spectacle!!! Something Al Copeland would enjoy. It was so Liberacciesque and so over the top that we loved it!
The boys went off to dinner with a plan to dance the night away in the disco on the bottom floor of our hotel. We accompanied Ron to a Dutch restaurant where Phyl finally had the baked potato that she had been craving. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal, then Phyl & I walked back to the hotel while Ron headed off to meet some friends. Upon our return to the hotel, we discovered that the boys were already in their room. After watching a movie, we fell asleep, our organs vibrating to the disco beat from the loud music below.
