Thankful in Thailand

There seems to be an abundance of “t” words with which I can make alliterations for my time here in Thailand. It gives me an endless supply of happiness to be able to make pretty titles. I know, that’s a little strange, but when you are traveling alone and trying to recount your travels to others, these simple things make the difference. I am having a marvelous time, particularly here in the North because I have met so many people with whom I have much in common and have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences with them. I have a lot to recount since it has been a very full and very exhilarating week. I decided that I would make the blog week Saturday to Friday, which seems to be the orientation of my experiences here in Thailand. Maybe it will change when I get to Vietnam, which is my next destination.

Jeph and Apol and the Hope House (www.hopebeyondthemountain.org)

I think one of the most unique aspects of this leg of the Thailand journey is the fact that I had so many contacts in Chiang Mai. Through the McCartys, who have been based in Chiang Mai since 2000 I believe, I met some really lovely people, including a Filipino couple working with the Hilltribe people of the northeastern portion of Thailand. My timing was quite good with Jeph and Apol because the weekend I spent in Chiang Mai they had planned a trip to visit the village where they started a pre-school. I was elated to discover that they would take me with them to that Karen village in Doi Inthanon National Park, which is a beautiful swath of land full of waterfalls and mountains. I wish I could speak more intelligently about the Hilltribe people, but it seems to me that their situation is quite complex. They face a fair amount of discrimination from mainstream Thai culture because their traditional way of life is much different from most Thais. Having their own languages—each tribe has a unique history and language—and religious beliefs, they have remained quite unassimilated to the rest of Thailand. They are called “hilltribes” because they live in the hills or mountains, but there are many tribes lumped within that category.

Jeph and Apol are missionaries from the Philippines and have been working in Thailand for more than a decade, concentrating their efforts on reaching out to the Karen people who comprise the largest of the Hilltribe grouping. Only in the last three years, though, have they been able to build a school for the people. Their main project is the Hope House, which is a boarding house for 20 school-aged kids who would otherwise not have the opportunity to go to school since they live so far removed from city centers. These kids live in the Hope house during the school year and they attend the government schools with Thai kids their age. It is a really good opportunity for them and opens up the possibility of getting better jobs and moving away from the village if they so choose. No more than three kids are selected from each village, enabling Hope House to have a broader impact on the village people. For Jeph and Apol, helping these kids and now building a pre-school gives them the chance to minister in Jesus’ name to people living on the fringe of society and in some ways neglected by the very country in which they live.

I was so blessed to have time to spend with this amazing couple that has completely immersed themselves in this work and in living in Thailand. (They both speak fluent Thai and know phrases in Karen although they usually speak Thai with the people.) They have such a great philosophy on helping people and showing the love of Christ. I think one of the best examples is when they approached this one Karen village that I visited about building the preschool. The villagers asked them what was their goal in being in their village. Jeph and Apol said that they are followers of Jesus and want to help them. The villagers asked them if they planned to build a church and they said no, we don’t want to build a church. For Jeph and Apol, building a church building is quite unimportant. What matters is reaching the hearts of the people with the love of Jesus, and some have responded. It is a slow-going process and full of many challenges, but they are committed to their work and the Lord is really blessing their efforts. Their humility and love for the people really encouraged me and I could see that the villagers really valued them. One household invited us to have lunch with them on Sunday, which was a lovely blessing and allowed us to have a little fellowship with them.

The village we visited was a collection of about 70 homes, so it was a relatively small area. We stayed the night at one of the home stay bungalows, which were built to accommodate all the trekkers to that area. It is very popular in northern Thailand to go on treks through the Hilltribe villages and it is really beautiful and serene. Even though the day proved to be outstandingly hot with sunshine, the night was cool and really peaceful. One of the really interesting components of the village visit was the drinking of free and freshly boiled coffee that they grow and roast on the premises. They sell their coffee ground and in beans, but they give free cups away as a goodwill sign and welcome to the village. I really liked that and although the coffee was strong, with enough sugar it was quite enjoyable.

Golden Triangle

On Monday, I took a tour to the northernmost part of Thailand near the city of Chiang Rai. It was called the Golden Triangle tour because one of the main destinations was a place called the Golden Triangle where Laos, Burma and Thailand meet with the convergence of the Mekong River and one other smaller river. The actual Golden Triangle is nothing much except a touristy boat ride, which costs extra and which I avoided in lieu of having a massage, and some casinos that are not allowed in Thailand but are legal in Laos. Included in the tour was a stop to a completely white temple, which was built more than a decade ago by an artist and one could definitely perceive the artistic flair in the architecture and embellishments. The combination of white and silver was quite lovely and more fetching than the traditional golden temples.

What was really fascinating, though, were the murals inside the temple designed to capture the contemporary events of the era in which the temple was constructed. Well, instead of displaying Thai events and bits of Thai culture, the murals were heavily steeped in American influence exhibiting a rendition of September 11th, Marvel Comics characters like Superman, Spiderman and Batman, and American movies such as the Matrix. After a buffet lunch close to the Mekong River, we went to the border of Thailand and Burma, which is nothing more than a gate and a lot of stores selling knick-knacks from China, Thailand and Burma plus quite a lot of beggars. One guy on the tour had to get a visa extension, so he actually entered Burma for 15 dollars and came back within 15 minutes. Apparently, it is not hard to do, although no one was quite sure how much freedom you have to really roam around Burma. I think it is more or less a means to an end with an insignificant opportunity to do a little shopping. Still, it was interesting because Myanmar—the name the military junta gave to the country—is such a closed country and has so few freedoms.

Usually, I am not much of a tour girl, but it was kind of nice to be carted around to all these places and to see some varied sites all in one day. Finally, we stopped at an Akha village, which was home to a small group of long-necked women whose necks appear lengthened because of the heavy golden rings placed around it from the age of six. In reality, they appear lengthened because the weight from the rings pushes down the shoulders and creates kind of a boat-like shape to the upper body. I did not want to see the women. You had to pay extra to get into the area in which they live and where they pose for tourists like circus animals. I don’t approve of the practice because it seriously limits the women. Their men are separated from them, which has resulted in drug use and carelessness, and their condition really confines them to these small villages. On the other hand, supposedly they are refugees from Burma and only have the freedom to stay if they can generate this income. So, I guess it is not for me to say whether it is right or wrong. I just did not feel comfortable participating in visiting a human zoo. I don’t even like animal zoos, so there is no way I would have enjoyed that experience.

Mae Hong Son

In order to fully appreciate my time in Chiang Mai, I decided to take a nine-hour bus to a small town called Mae Hong Son, which again is close to the border of Burma. The ride was full of winding roads, which were more annoying than harrowing, but they certainly left quite an impression on me considering I had to hang on for dear life or risk falling out of my rickety seat. Once I arrived at the bus station, someone met me with a poor map of the city and the name of a guesthouse in the area of the city I had planned to stay. Of course with being on a budget, I decided to walk to the town center in lieu of taking a tuk tuk. Why do I always persist in wandering out in the great unknown just to save a couple of bucks? I always tell myself that walking is both economical and healthy, but my argument has been used so frequently that it no longer holds much weight. Oh, well, it was nice to get out of the bus and regain my legs, which were tense and knotted from the ride. After getting completely turned around in a very small town, I eventually made it to a nice guesthouse that was cheap, clean and conveniently located.

It was a perfect place to enjoy being by myself. Even though I was there for a little more than 24 hours, I was able to roam around the small night market both evenings and to obtain a fantastic massage both days and to see some great temples and beautiful countryside. I rented a bicycle from the guesthouse where I was staying and I was quite impressed to see that it was a really nice mountain bike with 24 gears and good tires. With all the hills I encountered, these things were certainly appreciated. I think it got to be over 100 degrees while I was riding, so I was almost dead after riding about 6 miles. Thankfully, I chose a few good routes that provided some shaded areas at crucial points. On the first leg of the journey, I cycled out of the town towards a Hilltribe village. Near the beginning there was a fork in the road, and usually I take the wrong turn and find myself lost, but I remembered what Paige told me about choosing the direction that I did not think was right. And it worked! That is totally backwards, but it worked. My first instinct was to take the other way, and since my directional instinct is wrong about 95 percent of the time, the odds are I should take the other route. I think I have found a decent method for mitigating my lack of directional and spatial capacity. The road was ideal for cycling—calm, deserted and partially shaded—and on my short sojourn out to the village, I met a lovely elephant chained to a tree in a field on the side of the road. There was a makeshift fence with barbed wire and wooden posts, but when the elephant saw me she quickly uprooted one of the poles in order to get closer to me. I was able to touch her and feed her some of my lychees. I even got a little too close to her and her trunk swiped my face in an attempt to get my attention so I would feed her more fruit. It was so much fun! Those are the moments that make exploration so worth every sort of discomfort in not really knowing what you will find.

I was able to go through town on my way to my next destination, and I stopped for a fruit smoothie, which was so cold I had to stop myself from gulping it down too fast. I met someone passing by on his bicycle and he recommended a route for me, but when I got to the main road, it was all blacktop and looked like death to me. It was almost to mirage status, but the sun was blaring over my head and I could not justify riding into that unknown. Not being really disappointed, I decided to just ride a little more around town before returning the bike and I ended up on the outside of town. I looked over to my left and saw this lovely almost secluded temple on the side of one of the surrounding mountains. I stopped only to take a picture, but then got the idea to try to see the temple up close. I looked around and it seemed as if that was possible, so I lifted my bike over the guardrail—only to find later that there was a cycle path—and started toward the temple. I walked my bike up a dirt path that wound around a small village and made it to the temple. I was the only one there! The view was lovely and the grounds were quite nice, so I took advantage of a really nice shelter that maximized the flow of the cool breeze. I listened to the Bible on my iPod and relaxed as I cooled off from the hot expedition I was on. The Lord really blessed me, though, in finding this temple the way I did because I ended up taking a paved road downhill, which was much easier than the way I had taken up, but it was longer, so it was much better that I had taken the more direct dirt path up and taken the nicely paved road down. What a blessing! It was an ideal way to end a fabulous day of cycling, which is a perfect activity to do on one’s own.

Fun with Friends

I took the night bus back to Chiang Mai, and one of my friends through the McCartys picked me up at 4:30 am and took me to her place. I was able to get a few hours of sleep, which I had been unable to do on the bus. (I did try once, but as soon as I relaxed enough and dozed off to sleep, we hit a sharp curve and I almost fell out of my seat. That was sufficient to inform my body that sleeping was not a wise idea.)

After I had slept some hours, we went back to the McCartys place and I made banana pancakes for my friend and one of her friends she brought along. It was so good to cook again and to cook one of my favorite things. Genna, if you are reading this, I thought of you and NJ’s, even telling my friends about the plate-sized pancakes I love to eat there. I made my pancakes big as usual and ended up eating mine plus half of each of theirs. It was a bonus to be eating my favorite food with Thai people, sharing something I miss about the US with them. Our destination for the day was a place called Wiang Kum Kam, which is an area of ruins that had been excavated in the past decade to reveal a lost city of the Lanna era (13th century name for the northern kingdom of Thailand). We rented a horse-drawn carriage that transported us to the significant sites. It was a great place to visit in a small group because things like that—riding in a carriage—are always more enjoyable when you are with a friend or two. It was amusing too for the girls because they had never visited the site before our outing. I love it when it is the tourist who informs the locals what they have at their fingertips to experience.

Finally, my last day in Chiang Mai was a great culminating day of meeting with friends, even having dinner with another friend of the McCartys who works with Shan refugees in Burma. We met at a great Italian restaurant, which goes against my usual creed to eat only the local food, but my other Thai friend took me there and the ambience and food were charming. (I also had a great plate of pad Thai in Mae Hong Son only to discover that there was so much MSG—flavor enhancer—which I continued to taste it for hours after having consumer it and after having brushed my teeth twice and having eaten two pounds of lychees. I wanted something other than Thai!) She is in her early 30’s but she has been working with this refugee group for more than a decade.

Having quit university in order to move to Thailand to learn to speak Thai and Shan and to completely devote all her energy to this population, I was really moved by her story. What I think is unique about her story is the fact that she knew when she made her initial visit that this was the work she felt God was leading her to do. She said that she lost her heart and could in no way return to her home in Norway and forget about it. I really admire the path she has taken. It was a great encouragement to me to discover that there are people who are willing to sacrifice all that they know and all that they have been given in their blessed Western lives in favor of helping the needy. The dinner went way too fast, but I was glad we were able to make it work. We made the night complete by meeting up with my Thai friend at a nice bar in the city for a couple of drinks. What a splendid evening with some really wonderful people. For me the Chiang Mai area was so much more than just beautiful scenery and temples, but it was an opportunity to connect with people with whom I could identify.