The Road Away From Mae Sot Is Beautiful

I leave Mae Sot on the nightbus tonight: Bangkok, Ko Chang, Angkor Wat, and then back to Bangkok for the flight home. I will miss this town.

This Bracelet Is A Blessing

When my supervisor arrived at our office today, she ushered me into her office with a smile on her face: "I have something for you, I have something for you." She pulled a chair out for me and took out of her pocket two bits of thread. "I got these for you and (the other intern) this weekend." They were two bracelets, both made of white string. She said they represent prayers for Karen culture - hope for the future, congealed in a humble, symbolic adornment. "They have already been blessed, so I won't say anything now," she explained. She slipped the string around my wrist, tied it, and pulled off the extra length. As has happened many times so far this summer, I was left speechless. After barely stammering a "Thank you," I stared (and stare now) at the threads circling my right wrist. It is a small bracelet, thin and beautiful - a striking contrast to the bulky watch on my other wrist. Power and size, strength and character...


(Another time, perhaps, I will explain these other photos. At this point, I will merely note that they are, in fact, pictures I took myself.)

More Chronicles of a Summer Told

Amazingly enough, a mere four days separates me from the end of my internship. Work days, that is. What has been most rewarding is teaching English to the younger students - no question. Sharing breakfast and lunch with them - and, since moving in with them, dinner, as well - has been rewarding in more ways than I can really describe here and now. All I can really say at this point is that there is work to be done, and I'm not sure it's getting done. What this town needs, most likely, is not two-month vacationers like myself, but people committed long-term. I hope I can become one of those latter people, sooner rather than later. I hope and even do actually think that I will return here at some point, but I don't know in what capacity. For now, it is more or less enough to know I've done what I could over the past few weeks, and I will take this fight to the United States with renewed strength in the fall.


I'm still going to refrain from saying too much about my internship work in an open forum like this. In lieu of any deeper commentary, then, I will say that Chiang Mai was definitely a good time, and possibly even beautiful. Our pre-game (turned game and then post-game) session at a Thai bar-cum-disco made it more than a little difficult to really, you know, see, but I'm going to go ahead and assume Chiang Mai is as scenic as everyone claims it is. Also, the lack of rain was great.

The most recent weekend was spent trekking in Umphang, which is about 5 hours south of Mae Sot via sawngthaew (Lonely Planet's spelling, not mine). A sawngthaew is a pick-up truck, with the bed outfitted with benches and a roof. Our ride maxed out at 19 people, including two in the cab, four on the roof (myself included), two holding on the sides, and five people on one bench and six on the other. Cozy. The views from the roof - when I was not cowering from the rain under the tarp - were breathtaking, as the road from Mae Sot to Umphant has (again, according to LP) 1190 turns. Mountains, valleys, mountains. Beautiful ones not obscured by disco pre-game goggles. The windy road, unfortunately, left several Thais in the sawngthaew sick to their stomach. Let's just say there was puking. On the tarp. While I was under it. Unawares. ("What's the coughing sound?")

The trekking itself was pretty solid. The rafting would have been better if the water weren't so damn high, a condition which served to hide any and all rapids-spawning rocks. The cliffs along the river - not to mention the impromptu rainy-season waterfalls cascading over them at every possible point, were simply spectacular. We camped that night beneath an over-hanging cliff. The next day we hiked to Teelorsu, the biggest - an imprecise adjective, I know - waterfall in SE Asia. It was, well, big. Apparently it's actually possible to swim at the bottom of it in the dry season. Not when we were there - the force of the water pounding down created really wild swirls and currents that would not have been survivable by any means. The guides said there are 90 different cascades in the waterfall.


Then we hiked another few miles to a Karen village, where we spent the night before boarding elephants that took us back to the trucks (which returned us to the town of Umphang). Staying in the village was a very uncomfortable experience. My anthro experiences were not down with that bit of the trip. The elephants were kitschy but still, really, kind of amazing. We rode them for three hours - long enough to find out that they're actually quite uncomfortable forms of transportation, despite their Hummers-got-nothin'-on-our-4WD traveling capabilities.


This weekend I'm doing some stuff that I'll have to relate at some later point. In case I haven't made it clear yet, Thailand rules. I could stay for much, much longer. Indeed, I basically just arrived. To be honest, the bucket showers and squat toilets at my current abode are a little challenging. I want to embrace them, but they're just not really...comfortable. I guess they just remind me of the fact that I'm an outsider here, which bothers me. I won't miss them, though I wish I could say I will.


(The obvious pictures go with the obvious comments. Otherwise, the Buddha shot is from the pagoda on the mountainside outside of Mae Sot and the shot of the woman with the baby - I'll decline to explain that one for now. The one up top is from Umphang, where we camped beneath the cliff. I tried to post a video, but I was unsuccessful. Ah well. Anyway, as you can see, my camera is back, though I won't say better than ever.)

(Extra credit for whoever picks up on my title of this post. Leave it in the comments. Which reminds me! I've been getting no comments lately. You are bad, bad people. I should say, though, that several people - "hipsters" all - have tried unsuccessfully to post comments. Blogspot discriminates. I swear it's not my settings.)

Postcard From Chiang Mai

Friends:

I have been derelict in my blogging duties. Thus, I offer you a brief update - perhaps with more in-depth explorations of various events to come later - of the past two weeks or so. As I am in Chiang Mai, I have limited internet access, so I have about 25 minutes until I will have to pay another 10 baht for this comp time. Cliff notes, forthwith...

USA vs. Ghana, 22/6: Myself and the other two American interns at our NGO watched this match at our office. The American to Burmese ratio was about 1:5. They were really into it. We projected the match onto a big white wall, which was quite successful. However, as you know, the US team was less successful. After the game, we attempted to finish the rice whiskey I'd purchased, but the Burmese people - one in particular - warned against it. It cost less than $1. He said, "No! No!" Then he made some crazy hand motions and said, "Jungle bumpy road. Bumpy road!" Instead, we toasted a few Beer Changs with small, whole, fried frogs - legs, head, and everything, into the mouth all at once. Very tasty. A great night.

Saturday, 24/6: After a low-key Burmese wedding reception for one of the staff of the NGO, I went with my supervisor on the back of her motorbike - along with two other Burmese girls and my supervisor's very little son - to a pagoda just outside of Mae Sot. It is up on the side of a small mountain. In order to get there, we had to climb this mountain by way of an incredibly lengthy staircase. There must have been thousands of stairs. The forest was very green and peaceful - teak and bamboo, almost exclusively. The sun, a rare commodity these days, filtered through the leaves. The pagoda was breathtaking, purchased as it was on a rock outcropping overlooking the valley. There was also a Buddha footstep: apparently Buddha was, like, 30 feet tall, judging by the size of his footprint.

Tuesday, 26/6: Myself and (), the other American intern - we went outside into the pouring monsoon rain after work (about 6pm) to join the various football matches that always take place on a big field behind our office. There were puddles easily knee deep, and I had my glasses on, which was a problem with the rain. It was ridiculously fun, though. We played a small 4 vs. 4. Most the other players, as far as I could tell, were Burmese Muslims. They were quite surprised to hear I am both Burmese *and* American. Within a few minutes, my sneakers became utterly pointless, so I played barefoot, along with () and most of the other players. One quite skilled player had cleats, which afforded him quite an advantage. I was dressed in mud by the time darkness ended the game. Mud? Cows and goats graze in the field for most of the day...

Saturday, 1/7 - Sunday, 2/7: Bangkok is best reached in the back of a pick-up truck, in some slight rain, with a crazy Canadian girl to keep you company. An 8 hr ride, and I even managed to get sunburned, which is rare. She and I spent the night on Khao San Rd., rightfully described by her as "the tourist armpit of the earth." Very touristy, lots of white folk, but all in all definitely a good time. I wore my French jersey and cheered loudly - at 4 am - when they (we?) beat Brazil. A British guy bought me a drink: "Well get on with it won't ya?!" Sunday was tame. We visited a wat - a temple, to the uninitiated - before hitting Siam Square, just to remind ourselves that while shopping malls may be indigenous to the US, they are, as well, a dangerous export. Then we went to Chet Ta Chet market (excuse my spelling error(s)), which is apparently one of the biggest markets in the world: 37 acres. Just as we got there, a cloud blacker than I'd ever seen rolled in. We wondered to each other, Is there a fire nearby? An explosion? And people just started making for the exits like crazy. Cabs pulled up, food stalls shut in seconds, and suddenly everyone had an umbrella. She and I took refuge in an indoor part of the market. I looked outside to see the heaviest rain I've ever seen in my life. By this time, I had to get to the bus terminal, so I made a break for a tuk tuk. About 50 ft. later, I turned around, tail between my legs. I waited about 15 minutes, then gave it another go, finally scoring a driver who would take me. Overnight VIP bus back to Mae Sot = mmmm gooood.

Tuesday, 4/7: I had to renew my visa, so I crossed, for the first time ever, into Burma. All it took was crossing the so-called "Friendship Bridge" over the swirling Moei River. I didn't have much time, so I didn't actually enter the small town of Myawaddy on the other side. I simply renewed my visa and came back. I did, however, rub some dirt from Burma between my fingers to see if I would feel anything. Alas, no. I need time to meditate on this event of great resonance, which - thanks to the date on the calendar - carried even more weight than it might have the day before. I spent the day interviewing other Americans in Mae Sot about what their Americanness - to use a crude word - means to them as people who have chosen to live abroad. Look for the piece this week on www.campusprogress.org. A July Fourth I will never forget, for sure.

Saturday, 8/7-9/7: Chiang Mai is, so far, beautiful. I haven't been here for long, though. I'm meeting with a few other people from Mae Sot who are here for a bit. With an Austrian doctor, I'm in a guest house in the "old city," which is full of flowering vines and mountain views. Tonight, we plan to catch the 3rd place World Cup match. Tomorrow we'll hit another market and then I'll book it back to Mae Sot so I don't miss the World Cup final.

My time is up!!! Gotta run.

Flowers, mountains, books, rain, France, Thailand, and AMAZING food - Later.