Continuing Thai Adventures

Most of you know that our trip to Thailand was postponed a week due to the Bangkok airport closure. During this week we were on an emotional roller coaster because, even if the airport opened, we weren't sure that we wanted to be in a place where chaos ruled and demonstrations (or worse) were the order of the day. We wanted everything to be as we had experienced it before--everyone laid back--business as usual. When the airport reopened, we took the plunge and surprise, surprise: everything is the same as it has always been. The people here are seemingly totally unaffected--when we talk about it, they are dismayed--"No, nothing is wrong--it is just Thai politics--Oh, the world thinks bad things are happening in Thailand? How strange--it is not true." Even the expats react in this way. Hey, I'm fine with it also--mai pen rai--no worries.

We had our apartment up and running within two days--the only thing we waited for was our super fast internet connection to be installed. We loved meeting up with our old friends, most of whom were still here. We were greeted at the apartment building with open arms--everyone was so happy to see us again, especially Sarinya, the owner of the restaurant on the first floor of our building--she cooks for me and knows every one of my food allergies. We enjoyed the holiday concerts and luncheons. On Christmas Day we treated ourselves to a luxurious afternoon at the spa--complete with foot bathing in water and flower petals, hot towel, facial, massage, and post-massage pampering.

Our friends, Karen and Tim Vernon, left their home in Reno to come here the weekend after Christmas. We met them in Bangkok and spent an incredible couple of days taking them to the sights, visiting the markets, shopping, and eating in great restaurants. We flew back to Chiang Mai on New Year's Eve day, arriving back at our apartment about 10:30PM. We hadn't even taken our luggage upstairs when we were hailed by Sarinya and her husband, Sak. This year in Thailand, everyone has a 5 day New Year break--it is traditional for everyone to return to their family home, wherever that is, for the holiday. Sarinya and Sak planned a trip back home for Friday and Saturday. The amazing thing is that they invited Jules and me to come along with them! They come from areas in the mountains about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai. Sak said they would pick us up in their car on Friday afternoon about 4PM. Since it was Wednesday, we thought, "OK, we have a day to recover from our Bangkok trip--how can we turn down an opportunity to see how Thai people really live and spend their time--also, it was an honor to be asked." It was New Year's Eve so we stayed up late to see from our roof garden the, at least, 10 sets of fireworks lighting up the sky all around the city. About quarter of 11 the next morning there was a knock on the door--plans had changed, could we be ready to leave in about an hour!? Wow, I packed that bag in record time for the overnight trip.

Our first stop was a pizza place just outside the city, where Sak picked up a large "Hawaiian" pizza, with pineapple chunks, ham and bacon. Some condiments also came with the pizza: a small container of cheese whiz, packets of oregano, hot pepper flakes, and--the biggest surprise--a half dozen ketchup packets! This was a special major treat for the family to enjoy. Of course, the trunk was chock full of all kinds of Thai food and stuff for their two year old baby, Prittee. Prittee is your typical firecracker of a two year old--a great kid who speaks Thai a mile a minute. And off we went.

We traveled on roads with lots of curves and went over some hilly tourain. We arrived at Sak's parents' home about an hour and a half later. They live in a lovely small teak home with a bubbling brook in the back. Cisterns of water were all around the house. One cistern was special--about 10 large frogs were kept there--we never did find out why. Have I mentioned that no one spoke more than a few words of English? So communication by words was basically non-existent--but hand gestures and a few Thai words from us and English words from them go an amazing long way toward understanding one another. Sak's father is retired and makes baskets from bamboo strips. Other people in the area surrounding their home are also in the basket making business. In every yard you can see the baskets in various stages of completion. Sak's sister, her husband and nine year old son also arrived from Chiang Mai. She told me that her son spoke English, but we could not coax a word out of him. Sarinya made lunch--she made me my special pad Thai and they all nibbled on the pizza. Thai people snack all the time--I don't think there was an hour when we weren't eating something. Bananas and pineapple came right off the tree and boiled peanuts came out of their garden. In the afternoon we drove up to the town's Wat and talked to the monk there who spoke very good English. When we returned the family began grilling the main course--meat and lots of it--beef ribs and what looked like filet mignon. On the second grill was long pieces of bamboo stuffed with rice--khao lum. These were grilled and tended to by Sak's father for about 4 hours. When done, the bamboo is stripped away and you have a delicious roll of rice (which I can eat.) Thais also love to drink scotch--100 Pipers or Johnnie Walker. So as the evening wore on, everyone's English got better and better and the laughter and jokes kept coming. Sak's sister brought out the family albums and we saw pictures of them visiting various places in Thailand. The whole ambiance was very similar to a family gathering anywhere except no one watched football games.

Jules and I were given Sak's old room and Sak, Sarinya and the baby slept on the floor on mats in the living room. I never could figure out where the rest of the folks slept. Thai houses have very little furniture. Basically, everyone lives outside. They definitely cook outside, usually in a separate little house behind the main house.

The next day, I expected that we would all go to the big Wat outside of town. The signs kept pointing to both the Wat and the Chiang Dao caves. To my surprise, we parked in the cave parking lot. Mom, dad, sister, husband, son, and Pritti, the baby, amused themselves somehow, waiting around for an hour while Sarinya and Sak took us into the cave. And what a cave it was! As an attorney, I was fascinated by the liability issues--there were few hand rails; there was no walkway or man made flooring, only uneven slippery earth. Florescent lighting went up to the main Buddha but most people got a lantern and a guide and disappeared into the blackness of the cave beyond. The cave was amazing and huge. We walked and walked viewing large formations of all shapes. We walked up to the main Buddha. Sarinya loved to climb the slippery sides up to the limestone formations. Jules decided to follow and boom! he was down. All that happened (thank goodness) was his one pair of pants were a mess of hard packed wet earth on the sides and back. Once out, we went to the inevitable market surrounding the cave and bought him a large scarf which Sarinya wrapped around his middle like a sarong. No one gave him a second glance. We went back into town to one of the local typical Thai restaurants for lunch--there were ten of us. Sarinya had packed me a special lunch which was delicious. The other nine ate several main dishes plus bowls of rice and drinks. The bill was 530 baht (about $18). We then traveled to a beautiful demonstration flower garden sponsored by the Royal Family. Rows and rows of different kind of flowers pleased the eye as far as you could see. After this, we said our goodbyes and headed off to Sarinya's home town of Phrao on the other side of the mountains. Recall that the plan was for us to spend one night away from Chiang Mai and we had packed accordingly. Obviously, if we were heading to Sarinya's home town, we were going to be gone another night. Oh well, mai pen rai, we're retired and our time is our own.

Sarinya's home town was very different from Chiang Dao, a fairly large town. Sarinya's town was more like a small village surrounded by a huge farmland. Most of the people living there are farmers. Sarinya said that she has six sisters. It is complicated but we eventually figured out that Sarinya has very close friends who are sisters to her. We met four of them with their families and ate everywhere. One set of folks were gathered around a huge hot pot cooking some kind of meat. Jules spent a half hour there and they ate constantly for that entire time and were still going strong when he left. Where do they put it? Most Thais are very tiny. It is a mystery to me. One of Sarinya's sisters grilled me a huge fish. It was very tasty-arroi mak mak. People were coming and going. We were going and coming. We stopped to visit Sarinya's mother and stepfather. She proudly showed me her six diplomas from massage schools and proceeded to massage Jules's legs. Of course, we were all sitting on the floor at the time. We finally ended up at the home of one of Sarinya's many relatives. We sat outside while they grilled the bamboo filled with rice. The night was lovely and cool. We were very peaceful.

On Saturday, Jules and I went for a walk around the village out to the major field area, surrounded by beautiful mountains. Mid-morning we were told that we were going to the market to buy salad. We took a detour. Sarinya and one of her sisters took us to Wat Sunpong--a fascinating Indian/Thai Wat complete with a large statute of Ganesh and many Indian style buildings. The pictures accompanying this narrative are worth hundreds of descriptive words. By this time, Jules and I were pinching ourselves--we were having the time of our lives. We drove to the salad market, a bright clean store filled with bowls of various cooked and raw vegetables. Sarinya discovered then that I could eat pumpkin and sweet potato. My list of food allergies in Thai language does not include all the foods I can eat, only those that I can't eat. She was very excited to find out about these new ingredients and I can only hope that my diet will be widened considerably by this discovery. We filled bags and bags of an assortment of veggies and headed back. After lunch and Pritti's nap, we headed out of town. We met up with the owner of the largest Thai house in the area set in the middle of the farmland which, we were told, his family owned. He graciously invited the foreigners up to see his home--wow! Again I hope the pictures do this place justice. We walked up the stairs to the main part of the house and it was completely empty--it was like a huge ballroom with one beautiful crystal chandelier in the middle of the room. There were several bedrooms and a completely bare kitchen area. When we headed downstairs under the house, it was obvious where everyone hung out. Mrs. owner and her son were on large tables receiving massages. Food, cooking utensils, and grills were everywhere. Jules was invited to partake of something cooking in a large pot--he said it was delicious. Mr. and Mrs owner live in Bangkok and visit the Thai house once a year at New Year's. The rest of the time it stands empty. A caretaker watches everything including two huge buffalo grazing in the field.

Once again we were on the road. It was approaching late afternoon by this time but we stopped one more time at Buatong Waterfall. This waterfall has seven levels. We managed to walk down to the first level and enjoyed the beautiful view. Prittee could not contain herself; clothes went flying and she was in the water in no time. Jules also was enticed to wade around and announced that the water was fairly warm. The waterfall is in a national park; people were camping out in tents and small cabins. Finally, we headed back to Chiang Mai. By this time it was dark. A wonderful time was had by all--especially by the two gringos who were lucky enough to be invited on this adventure.

Many of you have thought that my diet of rice, vegetables, chicken, fish and fruit was very restrictive. Below I have listed just a small portion of the kind of rice dishes found in Southeast Asia. I ate all of these in the past week
Rice, regular
Rice bun with black bean and sweetened pumpkin filling--the best dessert ever
Rice flatbread-crispy, grilled and paper thin
Rice in bamboo-- kaw lum
Sticky rice in black sesame--tasted like chocolate when I closed my eyes
Sweet rice cracker folded and filled with egg white and sugar syrup mixture--melted in your mouth
Mochi rice in red bean sauce--Japanese New Year's treat
Rice porridge-filled with chicken and vegetables