Hello world, I’m back! Did you miss me?
“Same same but different” is a really funny English phrase that Thais invented to use when they want to explain that two things are a little similar yet different. Some clever person has even printed it on t-shirts for tourists. I crack up whenever I hear the Thais using it.
Last Monday night, our class rode the overnight train to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. It is a whole other world here compared to Bangkok’s urban chaos!! Chiang Mai is a large town, but it has a small town feel. Its terrain is mountainous and covered with forests. The train to get here was also great fun — we ate our evening meal in the dining car with its colored lights swinging back and forth and fellow Thai diners singing along with the karaoke on the overhead TV. It is also quite a challenge to keep your Tom Yum Kung soup in its bowl while eating on a train! At night, our seats folded into curtained-off bunk beds, and then attendants came around to give us sheets and pillows.
Friday June 24th was the last day of our Tulane course “Thailand’s Response to the HIV Epidemic”. It was very intense, with class from 8:30 to 5:00 PM every day consisting of a heavy lineup of lectures by program directors (UNAID, CARE, FHI, etc.) and also site visits to local NGOs and government health agencies. We spent a lot of time writing and in group discussions. It was pretty hard on all of us to be in such close quarters with the same 17 people for so long, but at least I had a great roommate (Becky!). Photos coming soon!
Surprisingly, it was sad to say goodbye to everyone from class on Friday night. The next day, most of us went our separate ways.
Yesterday (Sunday), the eight of us (including Carly) who were still in Chiang Mai, hired a minivan and driver, and grabbed our Thai nurse friend Nimh for a full day of adventures. Nimh is an extremely energetic, friendly and generous person that we met while visiting a Chiang Mai provincial hospital. She took us *everywhere* and explained everything to us all day long. (Her English is very good.)
We started our day with a trip to the Mae San Elephant Camp — about an hour outside of Chiang Mai in the mountains — for an amazing elephant show. First you get to watch the Mahout (elephant handlers) wash the elephants in the river. The elephants lie down on their sides and are completely submerged except for their trunks, while the Mahout stand on top of them with scrub brushes and wash behind their ears. Then you sit on benches around a great big grandstand-like area and watch the elephants play harmonicas, compete in a soccer match, and paint abstract paintings using a brush, paints and easel. We also got to play with elephants and feed them bananas and sugar cane. When the elephants are not in the show or giving rides, they are working. Elephants in this part of Thailand are used as natural “lawn mowers” so that people don’t have to clear foliage with machetes, and they can be seen pulling logs and transporting other materials with their trunks. Most everyone went on an elephant ride through the forest (Carly’s elephant was named Poo Porntip –age 31), but all I wanted to do was play with the baby ones and hug their trunks. I love elephants!
Then we visited a beautiful orchid farm. Incredible! Everyone received a very pretty live orange-colored orchid pin to wear all day. You’ll just have to look at the pictures to see how gorgeous that place was — my description would not do it justice. We also learned how to grow orchids in hanging pots by using chunks of charcoal.
Next, our visit to the Hmong hilltribe village far up in the mountains was extremely interesting. An tiny ancient woman showed us how to husk rice and create hemp fabric from the plant stage to final product. She must have been 80 years old or so, but she jumped up like a teenager onto a leg-powered cloth-flattening contraption to show us how it worked.
Then we traveled to another area of the countryside to go rafting for 1 hour down a beautiful, peaceful brown river with the jungle towering over us. The raft was made entirely of bamboo (see photos when I’ve uploaded them) and it was steered by two men (one at front, one at back) using long poles. At one point, everyone was silent so that we could listen to the crickets and the calls of exotic birds. We also saw fishermen casting nets and setting special fish hooks on sticks as traps for fish. Nimh found out for us how much a baby elephant costs: only 100,000 baht — about the price of a used Toyota!
Finally, Nimh invited us to her house (mansion rather) whose interior was made of highly polished teakwood. We got to eat bamboo shoot soup with sticky rice, and Thai cantaloupe with coconut milk in the kitchen with her mother-in-law, who we called Khun Yah (grandmother). Before we left, we took lots of group pictures and Khun Poo (grandfather) gave us each a set of cooking utensils made of coconut shells and wood. Nimh told us that the reason we all got along so well and found each other that day at the hospital is because we were all friends in our past life. It was a beautiful day.
Today (Monday), Carly and Erin and I are traveling from Chiang Mai to the border of Laos by bus. The name of the town where we’ll spend the night is Chiang Khong. It’s six hours from here, and our bus leaves at 1:00. Stay tuned for the upcoming adventures of Carly, Crystal and Erin!
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Anonymous
June 27, 2005 at 7:50 pm
We sure missed you! Please be careful traveling. Glad the three of you are together. Love, mom
Ben
July 3, 2005 at 5:04 pm
Hi guys. I’m having a bloody mary at moms. Were bbq’ing with janel, amy and mike. I told evryone we should eat at five so we might eat before it gets dark. I dont understand the best way to contact carly. mom 1st said she couldn’t recieve e-mail and then said just that it was expensive. I check my e-mail infrequently but if you get this, please give me more details. i really enjoy reading about your adventures and tell everyone i know all of what is happening. you guys have a good time and carly, i love you very much and can’t wait to see you.
benreitzes@yahoo.com