the bus to thaton was a crazy green with polished cielings so that we could see our reflections in the metal- it screamed vegas. the air became sweeter as we pulled away: the smell of bamboo and horses on the outskirts of chiang mai gave way to even subtler scents- of honeysuckle and bananas. i peered at locals piled into a pickup truck, adorned with bright linens and colored headdresses. the mountains are not peaked like they are in america, but clustered fists covered with lush foliage. i am pleased to be outside of the city now, away from the pollution and the hustle.
when we arrived, i tripped and fell from the bus. a terrible dizzy spell and a sickness i've never felt followed and i couldn't sit up straight at the bar where we had looked for shade. out of no where, a thai woman with rough dreadlocks saw me and ran to get a key and lay me down in one of her rooms. she but tiger balm under my nose and some rust colored powder on my tongue, instructing me to wash it down with water. she returned to the room with a wet towel and wiped me down, instructing me to rest. she had such a calm, serene authority to her, that i never questioned her motives or techniques. i let her nurse me and make me soup and lecture me that evening about not wearing long pants. i turned out to be very sick- though i'm not sure what it was. perhaps my body just needed some time to adjust to this new culture or to purge itself before starting again. i'm not sure, but i had a hard time getting out of bed for the next two days. i slept most of the time in thaton.
that is, with the exception of visiting the karan hill tribe outside of the city. the karan are a indigenous people to northern thailand who elongate their necks using gold coils of metal that stretch out their necks and knees. they look like giraffes, walking down the street trying to hold the weight upright. in addition to these, there are women with elaborate headdresses and black teeth, some of which have stretched out earlobes. the groups of women (i'm not really sure where the men are) sell handmade scarves and trinkets for tourists who pay to come and see them in their "natural habitat", which is strange because it gives them a freak show quality which i found really awkward and distasteful. i felt bad taking their picture. i kept looking at the little girls with these massive coils around their necks and knees and wondering if they did it for their own cultural reasons or if they do it so that tourists will come and gawk at them and give them money. i have a feeling its the latter, which made me feel strange.
mae kok river
thaton to chiang rai via bamboo raft
from february 28th to march 1st, monika, jenny and i pulled a huckleberry finn in the most authentic way imaginable: we floated on a handmade bamboo raft down the mae kok river. it was the most leisurely pleasurable experience so far on the trip because it got us far away from other foreigners, and go slow enough to really absorb everything around us. our raft was about 20 feet long, most of which was a covered hut where the three of us played uno, read or listened to music most of the day. the rest was the bow and stern where our guides stood and steered the vessel that they had assembled for the purpose of our adventure down river. the bow is handled by me, a dark old Thai with laugh marks entrenched in his face. he's always pointing to things and asking for them in english. when he messes up, he laughs hysterically and turns his head, revealing the mole on his neck from which 3 long silver hairs burst like streamers. tan, the stern, is much more mellow and reserved. he rarely tries to speak or respond to us, he just smiles and smokes from his long, hand-rolled cigarette. tan always wears a straw hat that, since he looks so young, makes him seem even more like one of mark twain's characters, except he wears a bright green t-shirt that says, "happy halloween" on it. tan's always the one sneaking up on us with plates full of fresh fruit- papaya, watermelon or pineapple that he's literally just sliced up with his all purpose machete.
over the days on the river, tan and me taking care of us was the main theme. they liked to try and joke with us in their limited english- entice us to sing and then laugh at our silly songs or what they hear as garbled language. we stopped in 3 villages along the way, meeting many small children who loved to show us through the streets of the village. pointing out where they live or showing off their little brother, the pregnant ox or the local mission. when we would return to the boat, tan and me usually had lunch of noodle soup ready or, if we were camping the night, had begun setting up the grill for dinner. every evening we slept on the raft under mosquito nets after feasting on fresh fish grilled on the open fire over a handmade bamboo grill.
on our last day, we went to a hot spring that had been made into a spa and soaked, relaxing away the sore necks from sleeping on the hard floor. then we continued to float until we came to an elephant camp. here, at my request, we had worked in a stop at a place to ride elephants. we automatically bought food to feed our elephants, which made all of the others acts giddy and perform for the possibility of getting fed. one balanced in a tripod using her trunk and front legs, kicking her back legs up gleefully. the others were equally excited and blocked my way with their trunks- sticking the moist, pointy end toward me and sucking in torrents of air. we paid our money and were off- two guides, three girls and two massive elephants rocking down the road. we switched places a few times, so that in the end the guide was walking and giving verbal commands as i rode on the elephant's enormous, bristly head.
chiang rai- chiang khong
shortly after the elephant camp, we arrived at our stop for chiang rai. a driver met us there, we said our goodbyes to tan and me, and we were off to chiang rai. though chiang rai is a pretty big city and there is probably a lot to see, we decided to head directly for the smaller border town of chiang khong and stay at a guesthouse there. we relaxed and had a hot shower, did laundry, played with the guesthouse kittens and had our thai massages. the matron's mother and i bonded over a game of charades, trying to find the thai translation for "ginger" i finally went into the kitchen, but still couldn't find it, so jenny looked it up online. king is the word. so grandma and i had ginger tea together and then i was invited to share breakfast: purple sticky rice that you mash with your hands and then press into a second dish- pork with stewed garlic and vegetables. as we were talking, it turns out that she lived in osaka for 5 years, so we spoke a little japanese and she pulled out her pictures from 20 years ago and how happy she looks beneath the sakura blossoms. now it's time to raise our gaze to the other side of the mekong, the river that you see if you look out beyond the guesthouse as you sip your ginger tea. that's the city we're moving too. houay xai, laos. a whole new country. a whole new chapter.
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