Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost

LINK TO CHIANG MAI PHOTOS: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.271851089495240.84554.100000110547271&l=805eb70d64&type=1


Time flies when you’re…traveling, sleep deprived, exploring Bangkok and a student. I had every intention of being a “blogger” but for all the bloggers out there: where do you find the time? I have much updating to do.

Rather than traverse my delirious memory for day-by-day accounts of my life, I offer a compendium of me – an account of the last two weeks in one entry without the luxury (or maybe burden for my readers) of dates and extensive detail.

Chiang Mai is where I left off. Four travel mates and I caught a 3^rd class train out of Bangkok and endured a 16-hour trek to the enchanted hills of the North. Although the train erupted in whiffs of urine and sweat (some of which I’ll own up to) for a $15 roundtrip my expectations were low and the ride far exceeded them. As some of you know…I don’t sleep lightly.

We arrived in Chiang Mai and with the help of a Lonely Planet guidebook stumbled into JJ’s guesthouse and managed lodging for $100baht/pp. Although the room offered just 3 bunk beds and a cold shower, the balcony terrace was littered with lounge pillows, benches, good company, and an assortment of plants. We ended up staying there all five nights for less than $20/pp. I’m pretty sure my bed didn’t even have bed bugs whereas a couple critters were spotted in another bunk. Wow – what a deal!

On the subject of bedbugs, curious - but not faint of heart readers can take a look at what we Chiang Mai travelers discovered upon our return to Bangkok.
     http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2011/05/09/national/Bed-bug-spray-blamed-for-tourists-death-in-Thailan-     30154910.html

This article actually highlights the death of a backpacker in Chiang Mai due to chemical toxins found in eradication sprays. Curiously, we didn’t even think to check our beds until we saw a maid tear a nearby room to pieces (scrubbed and mattress pulled off the frame) and were forced to plug our noses or choke on the smell of what we now assume to be bed bug treatment. Seeing the world comes with its perils.

Aside from sneaky crawlers, we had a great time. My first rendezvous with a Thai massage worked me into butter as a Thai woman tossed me around like tumbleweed. I’ve had this vision of a contraption that I could hook up to that would simply yank on my limbs for a while. I know that there are means by which stretching can occur, perhaps yoga, but my get-rich-quick scheme omitted the personal responsibility factor; it is like diet pills that attract users with slogans promising no lifestyle changes. I was certain this would work. Then shockingly and somewhat disappointingly I was thoroughly worked by a Thai woman for about $5/hr…not so sure my mechanical stretching machine – lacking breast, human touch, and banter capacity would be any match. What a day.

Irrefutably, the massage was vacation enough. Irrefutably, I could have spent all five days receiving massages. Irrefutably, Chiang Mai had too much to offer to let that fantasy manifest. Renting bikes and visiting temples, mountain air, a decrease in humidity, an abundance of vegetarian dining, and a day of Thai cooking class on a local organic farm had to be done. And they were. We rode, we awed, we ate, we read, we cooked, we drank, we napped, we laughed, we shopped, we danced (until my feet were black and my toes blistered) and we shared philosophies about the world amongst ourselves and with the many other traveling faces we encountered.  Surprisingly, the majority of backpackers we shared a laugh with were women traveling alone. This was not what I expected and I felt sheepish and fully inspired as I thought about my future travel itineraries and the travel inhibitions I’ve carried with me over the years as I’ve brainstormed vagabond stints.

More on the cooking class though…if you haven’t yet taken a look at my Chiang Mai photo album it offers the visual stimulation for drab reading. Margit, a fellow vegetarian/skillful kitcheneer, and I were picked up at out hostel and along with 5 others explored the local market prior to arriving at Sammy’s Organic Farm. The market paraded pig head, intestines, fly swarmed fungi, and an array of secret ingredients i.e. unrecognizable flora and fauna. I learned a thing or two about rice and eggs (some are aged and boiled, known as Century eggs) and confirmed a thing or two about why I am a vegetarian. And off we went. Sammy’s place was gorgeous and seeing your ingredients freshly picked, sharing knowledge about the plants, and supporting a local Thai family’s business was more than satisfying. I learned how to prepare red, green, and yellow curry pastes (with pestle and mortar), sticky rice, tom yum soup, pad thai, papaya salad, egg rolls, pumpkin custard, coconut sticky rice & mango, and friend bananas. Now if only I had a real kitchen here in Bangkok…

You might, however, be wondering how a massage and a cooking class devoured so much time…well, let me use this excerpt as a reading recommendation. While in Chiang Mai I read The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad and The Almond by Nedjma (a pseudo name used by this Muslim North African author). Both were incredible reads and both about the life of Muslims. Asne’s tale is of a Muslim family in Afganistan and Nedjma’s of a Muslim woman in Morocco – the Almond was a beautiful read about the sexual liberation and exploration of love.  I have included the prologue for interested readers and highly recommend this poetic portrayal of self-discovery – physically and mentally:

     This narrative is first of all a story of soul and of flesh. Of a love that states its name, often crudely, and is not burdened by any moral standards other than those of the heart.Through these lines, in which sperm and prayer are joined, I have attempted to break down the walls
that now separate the celestial from the terrestrial, body from soul, the mystical from the erotic.

      Literature alone has the efficacy of a "lethal weapon." So I used it. Free, crude, and in exultation. My ambition is to give back to the women of my blood the power of speech confiscated by their fathers, brothers, and husbands. In tribute to the ancient Arab civilization in which desire came in many forms, even in architecture, where love was liberated from being sinful, in which both having and giving pleasure was one of the duties of the believer.

      I raise these words as one raises a glass, to the health of Arab women, for whom recapturing the confiscated mention of the body is half the battle in the quest to healing their men. Praise be to God who created the penis straight as a lance so it may wage war inside the vagina....  Praise be to Him who bestowed upon us the gift of nibbling and sucking lips, of placing thigh against thigh, and of laying our scrotum down at the threshold of the door of Compassion.

I think that’s enough on Chiang Mai ;)

We arrived back in Bangkok late Monday night and I shaved for the first time since leaving California (this is a big deal) andddd I had my second day and first real week of classes (I guess also a big deal?). Tuesday is Thai medicine – chalked full of field trips, and Gender Studies – chalked full questions about identity; Wednesday is Thai – chalked full of tones and new consonant combinations; Thursday is Ethnic Groups of Thailand – chalked full of the abstractions of anthropology; Friday is Thai again and Modern Thai Society – chalked full of stellar professor humor and lax policies. I think I’ll like them all and hope that I don’t find myself too busy; I’ve got too much Asia on my hands to be cooped up in classrooms. Especially rooms that host THREE HOUR long classes, I’m already missing the quarter system.

***Note: There are 5 different ways to pronounce Khaa. Each tone is a melody and if it’s not pronounced correctly “to trade” can become “to kill” I’ll keep everyone informed on my progress =/ On a brighter note, I do have a Thai success story: I can now tell my taxis (IN THAI) where I live. This should prove fruitful, as I was caught in a gnarly rainstorm on Wednesday and couldn’t get a taxi to take my 7 jillion grocery bags and I home. It only took about 5 hours to go to the market and back – a market that is aprox. 2.5 miles away. Lesson learned: know how to explain where you live, learn how to bribe taxi drivers, and DO NOT go grocery shopping for too many items at once. First epic failure, many more to come.

And never, never, never leave the house without an umbrella.

The last notable experience that’s blog worthy…now that I have finished two rum & cokes trying to motivate to write this entry was Bangkok’s big night out. At least five dozen of us congregated on the roof of my complex for some pre-gaming prior to heading out to the biggest event I’ve ever attended. On the roof top of a 40fl hotel sits a helipad converted for the big night: 15 international djs, a few dance floors, and a crowd teaming with international sensation donated their time to drinks, dancing, mingling, and later – to hangovers. For the second time since I’ve arrived in Thailand I went home with black feet and blisters on my toes.

I look forward to seeing more of Thailand and continuing to learn my way around Bangkok – no longer can I manage with my meager map skills. Never before have I lived in such a bustling city and never before have I shared encounters with so few English speakers. Life is a journey and this experience has been nothing less.

Cheers to exploring the world in any way you can, and consequently yourself, in any way you can.

Jess