What a week!
As I described in my last post, my return to society was
jolting. I found Chiang Mai a bit
overwhelming; being a popular stop for backpackers and upscale tourists, it is
packed with english signs and chatter. It is almost like when you are driving and you can’t help but look at
the billboards or when someone is staging a loud conversation nearby, you can’t
help but listen. Anyway, I felt my
concentration slipping as my mind was simultaneously pulled in about eight
different directions. I hung out by
myself for the rest of the day, reading about Buddhism, trying to understand my
experience.
The next morning, I hopped a bus to Pai- pretty much every
backpacker I had ever talked to in
Thailand
raved about Pai, so I
figured it was worth checking out. You
know how people always joke around about quitting their jobs and starting a
commune on some tropical island (and then end up moving to
Charlotte
,
NC
…)-
well the search for this mythical place is over. Granted, it’s not an island, but it is set in
this random valley, surrounded by mountains. I am told the population of local Thai people is about 3,000 people, but
they were well outnumbered by foreigners (permanent residents and tourists),
mostly musicians, Japanese and Western hippies- one guy called it the
“post-Woodstock crowd. A map I bought
listed 150 guesthouses and 100 restaurants, to give you an idea of the scale of
what I am talking about. But, many of
these were scattered around the valley, so that Pai still had a small-town
feel.
This place is basically paradise, which is why so many
foreigners come here and either never leave or use it as base in between travel
and music. Most guesthouses charge about
$3 a night for a private bungalow, and double as travel agents/massage
parlors/internet cafes/bars/restaurants, where they will make you anything you
want at any time of day for no more than $1-2. [The falafel was surprisingly good].
The live music scene (both foreigners and Thai) was
ridiculous, with jazz, rock, reggae everywhere. I saw one Thai guy park his pickup truck along the main road and set up
a makeshift bar in the back, where people could just walk up and order
cocktails. I didn’t have my camera on me
at the time, so I had to settle for a later photo of a coffee/juice bar that
was being operated out of a VW van, but I think this still does a good job of
capturing the spirit of the town.
The town’s laid-back atmosphere not withstanding, I usually
get annoyed when I am surrounded by foreigners in
Thailand
, so I decided to ditch my
pack, rent a motorcycle and spend a few days exploring the countryside. Most of these motorcycles are rented
exclusively to foreigners who don’t really know hot to handle them (like me!)
so they wear out pretty quickly. To make
matters worse, the “highway†which connects all of the towns and villages in
Northern Thailand
is a one-lane, barely paved road that
winds through the mountains and jungle at incredibly steep inclines. So naturally, about 20km outside of town,
halfway up a mountain and deep into the jungle, the chain on my bike snapped.
I rode it in neutral down the hill about 1km and found an
old woman and a young boy, sitting on the side of the road. A large portion of the people in northern
Thailand
are from small hill tribes, and don’t speak Thai very well, so I had a hard
time understanding her. She managed to
convey that a bus would be coming by in about an hour, so I sat waiting, trying
not to panic. Sure enough, the bus
rolled up an hour later…headed in the wrong direction. I flagged down the first car after that, and a
really nice Thai couple drove me back to Pai. I ditched the bike by the side of the road, praying it would still be
there when I returned. Fortunately, I had paid the 75cent insurance premium, so
there was no problem at the bike rental place. They gave me a loaner bike, and I led them back to the other one. Then, it was back to the rental place for an
actual replacement.
By this time, most of the day had disappeared-it was about
6:30, but I was too stubborn to abandon my plans, so I set off for Soppong, my
original destination. The sun was still
kindof high in the sky, and Suppong was only 50km away, so I figured I would
make it there in time. I started
panicking about 20km into my journey, as the sun disappeared behind the
mountains, and I was pretty much the only one on the road. My bike stalled on the same hill and I nearly
had a heart attack. I revved the engine
a few times and it started back time. 15
minutes later it was pitch black and I was enduring a face full of insects
every second. At this point, I was
literally shivering with fear, counting down the km to Soppong. Fortunately, I reached the top of the
mountain soon, and it was smooth sailing (relatively) the rest of the way. All in all, it was probably the stupidest
thing I’ve ever done.
Soppng turned out to be little more than a few shops and
guesthouses along the highway, but in the morning thousands of minorities from
the nearby villages poured into town for the weekly market. I got pretty good
at distinguishing them from the dress of the men (in some tribes, they wear
skirts, in others long pants, in others a combination of the two). I visited some villages, which were set high
in the mountains, with stunning scenery. I wanted to get a little further of the beaten path, so I headed to a
village called Mae Lana, about 15km away in a nearby valley. The road here was significantly more
treacherous and hilly, and a few minutes after it started to rain, my bike lost
traction and I went down hard. I jumped
up quickly, so as not to lose face in front of some people sitting nearby. Only cuts and bruises thankfully.
Mae Lana turned out to be beautiful, a tiny village where
people have basically been living the same way for hundreds of years. Most of the houses were built of thatch and
wood, and notwithstanding the satellite dishes and radios, was very
traditional. Here, the family mini-van
is a motorcycle (3 people on one bike is commonplace, I even saw 5 once!) The gas station was a barrel of petrol in the
middle of town operated with a hand-pump. I hiked to a nearby village and plaid some soccer with some local kids,
scrambling over chickens, which were running around the schoolyard. Everywhere
I went, people stared and smiled-not in judgement- but in curiosity.
I got a chance to practice my Thai with the owner of the
guesthouse, who whipped up some amazing pancakes for me the next morning,
before I set off for Pai. I was about
10km from town, and remember thinking how lucky I was to have made it back
alive, with only a few complications, when I hit a patch of dirt road, my bike
slipped, and I went down really hard. I
was a mess, my clothes were torn and a little bloody, and my bike was in poor
shape. Right away, a Thai construction
worker sprinted over with a pipe and helped me bang my bike into riding
condition-literally. Two minutes later,
two Thai girls rode up and were so concerned that they invited me back to their
house to shower and change. Amazing! I ended up going to the
hospital anyway to get bandaged up- fortunately no broken bones, and only
$10. I returned the battered bike to the
rental shop, and the people were so concerned about me, not caring at all that
I had destroyed the bike. While it was
quite an ordeal, I had a smile on my face from start to finish, because of how
well people I had treated me the entire time. Not sure if I could expect this kind of treatment in
America
.
5 hours later and I was back in Chiang Mai, happy to be
“home†at my former guesthouse. The next day, I participated in a vegetarian cooking class,
which I had been hours struggling to locate. It was basically a private course, with me, two other Jews from
New York
(what are the
odds?), and the owner of the restaurant. The class began at the market, where we bought a bunch of fruits and
vegetables, spices, oils, and various other ingredients. We made variations on 10 different dishes,
which meant there were 30 dishes total- quite the feast! The New Yorkers had just come from
China
, and shared some aweful horror stories
about their experiences- my first indication that
China
would not be nearly as peaceful as
Thailand
…
I don’t mean to be suspenseful, but I ended up typing much
more than I had intended, so posting about
China
will have to wait. I have
been here for a week by the way, and while things have not unfolded completely
according to plan, I’m getting by just fine. Hope you all are well!
Original post by Jimmy Atkinson and software by Elliott Back
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