Northern Thailand

Hello again,

Connecting with people has been the highlight of our past few weeks of travel in Northern Thailand, not to mention the spectacular scenery. Slowing things down and staying put in one city for over a week definitely helped facilitate many of these interactions.

So after lots of bus rides, we arrived on October 6th in Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of northern Thailand. It is a lovely city surrounded by mountains and has over 300 temples making the old part of the city visually striking.

We were welcomed by Sharla and Jon, close friends of Julie and David (my sister-in-law and brother). Jon and Sharla and their two beautiful kids, Sean and Anna, have been living in Thailand as missionaries for a few years and currently help run a preschool and support foster families caring for mostly Burmese children. We had the great opportunity to spend quality time with them during our stay in Chiang Mai and get a feel for their lives in Thailand. They have such great insight into the culture and people having lived here for some time. We met some of the children they work with who are absolutely precious. Their stories are very sad but it is great to see how resilient kids can be all around the world. In October, there is a one month break for schools in Thailand, so we were not able to help out there. However, we did spend a day at the zoo with the kids which was a lot of fun. Thanks again to dear Sharla and Jon for being such amazing hosts. It was a great privilege to spend time with them.

Another highlight in Chiang Mai was the opportunity to learn more about Buddhism and meditation. Many of the temples here offer free meditation courses and a more informal exchange with Buddhist monks called "Monk Chat". Pulling up a chair and chatting with monks about anything and everything from human suffering and the transience of all things to the current political crisis in Thailand and the education system was a fantastic opportunity. The monks get to practice their English and the farang (foreigners) have a genuine opportunity to connect with some very wise and peaceful Buddhist monks. Pretty great. We also took an introduction course to meditation which was very enlightening. The tricky part of course is to keep practicing it :o)

One unexpected adventure began on our way home from the Elephant Conservation Centre which is located about an hour and a half south of Chiang Mai. Getting there was no problem as we took an intercity bus and let them know in advance we needed to get off there. However, the return consisted of flagging down a speeding bus on the side of a highway around the bend of a curve going uphill. After some time passed, we started to question our master plan. However, just about that time a Thai woman, Git, stopped to pick us up and offered to drive us to Chiang Mai. After a minute, she turned around and asked us if we knew how to write (or so we thought). "Sure we can write", we responded. She then stopped the car, got out and pointed to the driver's seat. Sure enough she was exhausted from a day of travel and was looking to take a break. Francois courageously took the wheels (the first time driving on the opposite side of the road like in the UK) and we then spent the next hour chatting about her life. What a wonderful and wise woman. She has travelled every corner of her country and now, at age 60, has started a small coffee shop in a hill-tribe village in Northern Thailand.

The next adventure happened unexpectedly. One of the family members at the small guesthouse we stayed at in Chiang Mai connected us to an orphanage and school in a mountain village called Kun Yuam, when she heard we were interested in volunteering. A Buddhist monk who works at the orphanage and was staying at the guesthouse to lead the family in prayers for several days following a death, called the orphanage and passed us the phone. The director, Anchalee, only asked when we would arrive and said she would meet us at the bus station. This was a great experience in just trusting our instincts and being fully open, withholding all expectations. Seeing as communicating any kind of details was not possible due to language barriers, we simply got off at the bus station (8 hours later) and crossed our fingers.

We were welcomed into Anchalee's home and met her kind husband and teenage daughter. They were such amazing hosts. They fed us, showed us around the orphanage, school, town, and their small farm. It is the time of year to harvest the rice so we learned a lot about this and how hard the work can be. School is not in session so the main area we could have helped out in - teaching English - was not possible. We visited with the children but many were in their local villages visiting extended family. The kids we met were very sweet and shy. Due to language barriers we couldn't communicate much. Lots of sign language though. The children live and study at the orphanage, most coming from what they referred to as "broken homes" (a term defined very largely- i.e. orphans, parents are in jail, drug/alcohol problems, etc..) and/or not having status here as Burmese refugees. The work that Anchalee and the many teachers at the orphanage do to care for the 150 children with some of the simplest resources imaginable was very humbling. And of course the generosity shown to us by Anchalee and her family was once again an experience I seem to encounter often in my travels: those living the most simply are seemingly the most prepared to share.

And one last story to finish off this long entry. After quite a bit of cajoling, I convinced Francois to rent a motorbike (that I could sit on the back of, seeing as I can barely drive a car) to get further up into the mountains and see some of the small villages. Just to put this is context....everyone drives a motorbike here. This includes young children (I've seen as small as 8), complete families (with newborn babies strapped to their back), family pets, and the list goes on... So we decided to join in on the fun and try it out. The day went great. We visited a beautiful waterfall, mud spa, and a cave with these huge fish. The hills, rice fields and hill tribe villages were endless. Francois was quite skilled and adapted to driving the motorbike very quickly. I had the easy job of sitting behind him and holding on.

We had made our last visit and were heading back to Mae Hong Son (our base town) and had a 35 minute ride ahead of us. Just as we arrived at the top of the highest hill our tire goes flat. Fortunately, an ice-cream motorcycle man (no trucks here - just a moto with a mini freezer attached), came to the rescue and brought us to a nearby repair shop. For a total of $3, they replaced the tire and we made it back safely. I kept trying to convince Francois that a little adversity makes for a much better story to tell :o) To my surprise, two days later in another great northern town, Pai, he rented a bike again. This time there were no flats.

So tomorrow we say good-bye to Thailand and cross over to Laos. We got held up here the past few days fighting our first stomach problems. Not pleasant at all, but we are feeling better. Our Thailand visa runs out tomorrow, so it is time to go.

xoxo,
Marie