Chiang Mai as a Disney Ride

I saw Josh Kurlantzick's New York Times article online and two other people sent me links.

But an influx of Thai artists and Western expatriates has turned this quiet city into a vibrant destination in its own right. Design studios have sprung up in town, fusing traditional Thai with modern twists. Age-old curries are now paired with Australian red wines and croissants. The area around Nimanhaemin Road now looks like South Beach, packed with BMWs and Art Deco homes, alongside contemporary art galleries run by young Thais with purple hair and nose rings. But traditional Chiang Mai is still there. Walk away from Nimanhaemin into the old city and you’ll see shaved monks meditating and backpackers chowing down on banana pancakes.

I have to say I was appalled by how Chiang Mai was treated. Like a Disney ride, a form of entertainment that is packaged to appeal to the New Yorker looking for something to do over the weekend.

I shouldn't be surprised. My own travel style is totally different from most people's and stems from my year as a student in Göttingen, Germany. We had to have two years of college German before going and then a six week (or was it eight?) intensive German language class before classes started in Germany. All classes were in German. I learned that being somewhere a while, learning the language, reveals a country and people one doesn't see right away. There's times for one's stereotypes to dissolve and for one to see what's happening more clearly and to reflect on things one always took for granted. If you really stay a while, you start to see your own culture through the eyes of the new one.

That year set the pattern for my preferred overseas travel style - find a reason and way to be there that puts you into the culture itself for an extended period. This means you are doing something that is, ideally, useful (besides spending money) to the local people and gets you out of the tourist/ex-pat community and into the real culture of the country. It also means a level of discomfort as you try to figure out how to do things that you do without thinking at home. And when you get past that discomfort a real feeling of satisfaction of now seeing the strange as normal. Of growing.

Using the local language is a big discomfort. Suddenly you're less articulate than a three year old. But we did learn enough Cantonese the year we were in Hong Kong to buy groceries and ask basic directions and to begin to appreciate the richness of that language. And for people to smile in appreciation that we made the effort to speak their language and not force them to speak ours in their country. It's not impossible as many told us. If we could get key phrases of that multi-toned toned Chinese dialect, every other language is well within reach. And learning some of the language is the key. (I think of all those English-only folks in the US who would freak if other countries weren't full of English signs and speakers. But maybe they don't travel abroad.)

I was overwhelmed by mastering German well enough to function in it. I was discovering that other languages were not merely translations of English. Instead, they had their own vocabulary and way of putting words together that led to concepts and ways of seeing the world that were different from how English speakers see things. So I wanted to learn yet another language - one completely different from English - and live in a totally foreign culture. That got me to Thailand through the Peace Corps when I graduated from the University.

So what's wrong with the article?

But an influx of Thai artists and Western expatriates has turned this quiet city into a vibrant destination in its own right.

Right away, the point of view is not that of someone who knows and loves Thailand (though Josh's bio says he lived in Bangkok and he does know about khao soi, but what taxi drivers could/would pay 150 baht for noodles?), but it's the voice of an outsider. Chiang Mai is a destination. A place to come to and then leave in 36 hours. It's a way to keep one's life exciting. What about the people in Chiang Mai whose streets have gotten so incredibly jammed with cars? Whose small houses and gardens are being ripped apart to build high rises for foreigners to live in? The farmers whose land is being bought from them by speculators and then sold to developers who build Western style gated communities?

Design studios have sprung up in town, fusing traditional Thai with modern twists. Age-old curries are now paired with Australian red wines and croissants. The area around Nimanhaemin Road now looks like South Beach, packed with BMWs and Art Deco homes, alongside contemporary art galleries run by young Thais with purple hair and nose rings.

What was wrong with the laid back Northern capital of Thailand with the dazzling temples, gracious people, wonderful food, and cooler climate than Bangkok and other parts of Thailand? Why does it have to be transformed into a South Beach? Why is purple hair a good thing for Thai youth? Oh, yeah, it's to make NY tourists feel at home. Sorry, I forgot. Why should Thais be importing BMW's and other luxury cars while most of the population is on motorcycles, sometimes three and four to a bike? Who are these rich Thais and how did they get rich? There's lots for you to write about Josh. But your superficial fluff makes Chiang Mai into a backdrop for rich tourists to play, not a living city full of interesting people. A variation of home with a twist that makes it a little different, yet enough like home it won't take any getting used to. It's easier to slip into, but is it good for Thais? (For you US readers, Nimanhaemin Road looks absolutely nothing like South Beach. Chiang Mai isn't anywhere near a beach even. In two months I haven't seen anyone with purple hair.)

Packed with crumbling old stupas, jewel-encrusted temples and wooden houses, Chiang Mai’s central old city hasn’t lost its old charm.

What does Josh know about Chiang Mai's old charm? According to NNDB he was born in 1976. That makes him 31, maybe 32. When was he first in Chiang Mai? I hate to break this to you, but Chiang Mai has lost 82.29% (I can make things up too) of its charm since I first was here. You have absolutely no idea how charming Chiang Mai was. But 'charm' is a somewhat condescending outsider term. More important, Chiang Mai was a comfortable place for Thais to live and visit. An important cultural center of Thailand - Thai culture, not South Beach.

This is not to say that Thailand should stay the same forever. It is part of the world and connecting with that world is important and healthy. But it should be in ways that improve the lives of Thais, not simply to make rich tourists comfortable. (I keep saying rich because Josh seems to think the backpackers are part of the tourist scenery: "Walk away from Nimanhaemin into the old city and you’ll see shaved monks meditating and backpackers chowing down on banana pancakes.")

The bumpy roads can take their toll on your legs. Rejuvenate them at the Ban Sabai Town (17/7 Charoenprathet Road; 66-53-285-204). The spa offers aromatherapy and other treatments, but the specialty is, of course, Thai massage — a method that emphasizes stretching. The masseuse pulls and prods your limbs in every direction, like a chiropractor.

I'm sorry. I have come to expect this sort of prose in the glossy tourist magazines every first class hotel leaves in the rooms, but the author of this advertising copy is purported by his publisher (Yale University) to be:

special correspondent for the New Republic and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has covered Southeast Asia and China as a correspondent for U.S. News and World Report and The Economist, and his writings on Asia have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.

Josh is supposed to be an expert on Southeast Asia and he's writing travel pieces that make Chiang Mai a product, not a living, breathing city full of people who sell vegetables and fruit all day every day, who struggle to put their kids through school driving song thaews, who teach at the university, and who, yes, manage hotels. Chiang Mai is home to people with incredible stories, not an amusement park ride.

Perhaps this is an aberration. I don't know what the NY Times pays someone to write travel fluff. Maybe Josh needed some quick cash or he got a free trip to Chiang Mai. Why is the NY Times even publishing this kind of kitsch? Maybe that's what they told him to write.

I've been working now here in Chiang Mai for two months with a group that is trying to help poor Thai farmers in the Chiang Mai area whose land has been taken or jeopardized by land speculation that is brought on by globalization and expats buying up lifestyles they couldn't afford at home. Two months is not a long time. But it's preceded by a three year stay teaching forty years ago and half a dozen trips since of a month or more. And I feel I barely know a thing.

Why is the author of a supposedly serious analysis of "How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World" writing a piece like this? It suggests to me that maybe he hasn't a clue of how China's soft power is working, nor how the West's soft power has helped turn Thailand's cities into polluted nightmares where breathing and getting around from place to place are exceedingly difficult. That's an article worthy of the NY Times. Not this guide to Chiang Mai as a Disney ride for the rich and bored.

And why am I being so crabby about this? I'm not saying people shouldn't have a good time when they travel. But you can have a good time at home. If you're going to use up all the fossil fuel it takes to get to Thailand and back, then you should really experience Thailand. You should get uncomfortable because that's when you challenge yourself and might learn something new. There are lots of places in Chiang Mai you can do this - at monk chats in various temples, just wandering the streets without a plan and talking to people along the way, at a Thai homestay, spending time in a Thai market exploring the many kinds of fruits and trying out the many incredible things to eat.

And I think partly I'm disturbed that a so called expert on Asia is giving people such travel industry hype on how to experience Asia. Josh has written about China's 'soft' power. Does he not see how all he writes about is part of the soft power of the West? And it's had some devastating impacts on many Thais.

But as I said in the beginning, my travel style was shaped early on. It takes time and work. And it's not how most people seem to travel. But I'm not alone either. I can't help but contrast Josh's piece with a blog post about a Taiwanese taxi ride I read this weekend too. This is someone who really knows about a place. The real places - inside people's hearts. This is the kind of person the NY Times should commission to write travel pieces. Travel pieces befitting a serious newspaper with moral principles.

Songkran - Chiang Mai 2551

Songkran is the Thai New Year, the end of the dry season and beginning of the rainy season. [All photos © www.whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com, use with permission only. And click any of them to enlarge it.]


Chiang Mai.com gives an overview of the holiday of Songkran.

The family sprinkling scented water from silver bowls on a Buddha image is a ritual practiced by all Thais in on the third day of Songkran, known as Wan Payawan. This is the first official day of the New Year and on this day people cleanse the Buddha images in their homes as well as in the temples with scented water. The family is dressed in traditional Thai costume and wearing leis of jasmine flower buds. The water is scented with the petals of this flower.

In addition to the cleansing of the Buddha images a traditional Songkran involves the sprinkling of water by younger people on the older people as a tribute of respect and for blessings. This is much different from the water tossing we see on the streets and is a genuinely sincere event whereby scented water is poured over the shoulder and gently down the back of the person. While pouring the water in this manner, people utter good wishes and words of blessing for the New Year. The water symbolizes cleansing, refreshment of the spirit and all good things associated with life.

There was a table at the entrance of our building with a small Buddha and some fragrant water. But when we ventured out into the streets we found the modern Chiang Mai Songkran of tossing water on passers by.

She wasn't going to just douse me and ruin the camera. She gently emptied the bucket down my back.

J had already gotten wet. But when it's 100° Fahrenheit (over 37°C) wearing wet clothes feels great.


This man had a plastic case to carry his phone in. So did a lot of other folks it turned out.

Chiff.com adds more information:

Songkran (สงกรานต์) is the traditional Thai New Year Festival which starts on April 13 every year.

The word Songkran comes from the Pali language of the Therevada Buddhist scriptures (Sankhara) and the Sanskrit word (Sankranti) for movement or change.

In ancient times, it was celebrated as a moveable feast, and set to occur as the sun moved into the Aries portion of the zodiac. In modern times the date has been fixed as April 13.

Although the Thai people officially changed the New Year to January 1 in 1940 to coincide with the Western business world, the traditional Songkran Festival is still celebrated as a national holiday.

The festival lasts for 4 days. Maha Songkran Day

is the first day of the celebrations which marks the end of the old year. April 14, Wan Nao is the day between the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new year when foods are prepared for the temples. The third day of Songkran, April 15, is Wan Thaloeng Sok - the day on which the New Year begins and on the last day, Wan Parg-bpee, the ancestors and elders are honored.

This lady will still be at it when we come back home a couple of hours later.

Even this little guy had a bucket.

There's a lot going on in this picture if you click it to enlarge it.

The shirts totally wet and the pants you can see.

There she is again, still going strong.

Even these young monks had giant squirt guns.

We slipped into Wat Suandok on the way home.

And walking past the monk housing, we learned that the older monks have power water weapons too.

All in all, people were having a great time, getting good and wet, getting other good and wet. It felt great in the hot weather, but we did see a few people shivering. We also saw some blocks of ice being slipped into the water in some of the garbage cans in the back of pickups.

Thai Elephant Beggars

We had dinner again with AM. She's going to be busy for the next couple of weeks and wanted to be sure we saw each other again before we leave.

We ended up at a Chinese Thai street restaurant where we talked till late. During dinner we were interrupted by a visitor. We'd seen an elephant walking down this road late at night a couple of times when we were in song thaews coming home. This was the first time it was up close.



Andrew Lam wrote for the Pacific News Service back in 2004:

The Asian elephant may still be a revered cultural icon in this country, gracing bas-reliefs of temples and ancient paintings of battle scenes, but it is woefully underemployed. Worse, in a country whose civilization was more or less built on the elephant's back, the mighty creature is fast disappearing. More than 100,000 existed at the beginning of last century. At the beginning of the 21st, there are less than 5,000 -- 2,000 of which are still in the wild.

Classified as an endangered species, the Asian elephant is expected to disappear from the country altogether -- except perhaps in zoos -- around 2050.

Here's the routine. The mahout (elephant handler) hands down bags of cut up sugar cane to his helper who then sells the bags for 20 Baht each. I'd been able to say no to the various kids selling flowers and the stump armed beggar who'd approached us while we were eating, but this was different. How do I justify saying no to people but not to an elephant? I'll have to ponder that. But looking into this elephant's eyes, I know there is a sentient being inside there and I think I'd never pass up a bag of sugar cane if this team came to my dinner table every night.

Then the helper gives the elephant the 20 Baht bill and it hands trunks it up to the mahout. Then you feed the sugar cane pieces to the elephant. I gave it one, then gave one of the kids working at the restaurant the rest to give to the elephant. [19/4/08: See follow up comment from an elephant expert on this topic in this post.]


Then, this environmentally conscious team has you give the elephant the empty plastic bag which he trunks up to the mahout. And then they went to the other side of the restaurant.

This is a modern elephant who gives us the real meaning of tail light while walking the night streets of Chiang Mai. This is a sad decline for the once very proud elephant (and mahout) that is a symbol of Thailand and was instrumental in Thai life over the centuries. As a reminder, here again is one of the pictures that I took ( and recently posted) in Kamphaengphet back around 1967 or 68 of those proud working elephants



This is one of the side effects of globalization, the speeding up of life around the world. The replacement of living work partners like elephants and water buffalo (kwai) by machines. Yes, we can talk about the advantages to people's lives, that people wouldn't buy the new things if they didn't want them and all that. But the main reason that people have introduced these things was to make money for themselves, not to improve people's lives. And they've done it in ways that have seriously eroded the spiritual richness that was the birthright of all Thais fifty years ago.

Alaskans can understand this too, as we still celebrate sled dogs in the face of snow machines, log cabins in the wilderness as concrete big box stores replace trees and mountain views in town, and small family fishing boats in a losing battle against factory trawlers that ravage the sea beds.

“ongoing processes of substantial increases in personnel”

Dick Cavett has some useful observations in the NY Times about the language of General Petraeaus. It reminds me of the Jim Boren's When in Doubt Mumble. It would be funny if this weren't the general who is in charge of 'winning' the Iraq war.

It reminds you of Copspeak, a language spoken nowhere on earth except by cops and firemen when talking to “Eyewitness News.” Its rule: never use a short word where a longer one will do. It must be meant to convey some misguided sense of “learnedness” and “scholasticism” — possibly even that dread thing, “intellectualism” — to their talk. Sorry, I mean their “articulation.”...

Petraeus’s verbal road is full of all kinds of bumps and lurches and awkward oddities. How about “ongoing processes of substantial increases in personnel”?

Try talking English, General. You mean more soldiers.

It’s like listening to someone speaking a language you only partly know. And who’s being paid by the syllable. You miss a lot. . .

He should try once saying — instead of “ongoing process of high level engagements” — maybe something in colloquial English? Like: “fights” or “meetings” (or whatever the hell it’s supposed to mean).

NGO Volunteers in Chiang Mai

We've not had much ex-patriot contact in the two months we've been here. But things have suddenly changed. Melissa, one of the other AJWS volunteers invited people working in OD (Organization Development) with NGO's (Non-governmental Organizations - basically non-profits) in the Chiang Mai area, to meet and talk Friday afternoon. We met at trendy Coffee 94 off Nimenhaemen Street which has a lot of foreigner accomocations. (I had a passion-fruit, banana, ginger slushie, mmmmmmm. About twice the cost of a street stand, but it was air conditioned and had wifi.) The discussion focused on how folks are doing in their placements. We had a couple of British Volunteers, two AJWS volunteers, and a Frenchman. All the others (besides me) are working with organizations involved with Burmese refugees. This is a politically tricky topic here so I won't go into it further. I did ask the Frenchman, who's been working in this area for a number of years, about the radical difference between Thakileik and Myawaddy - the two Burmese border towns we've visited. His response was: Thakileik looks more properous because 70% of the world's heroin has come through it in recent years.

Meanwhile, Ew has been talking to AM who worked as a volunteer with the Canadian Volunteer organization and said AM wanted to meet me. Well, I didn't even know that they'd had this volunteer or that she was still in Chiang Mai working with the Agricultural School at Chiang Mai University now.

So after the NGO meeting, J met me and then we met AM. Appropriately, after the meeting I'd just attended, we ate at a Burmese restaurant the other volunteers had recommended.

The dinner with AM lasted several hours not only because she had worked in my organization, but she's a very lively and interesting Canadian woman. (When I mentioned French-Canadian, she corrected me. "No, I'm a Canadian. The others are English-Canadian.")

I got a lot of background about the people in my office. Hers was a rather different perspective from mine. We figured that some of the difference stems from my age and gender compared to hers. I'm glad we met and I got to hear her stories and I'm also glad that I didn't hear these stories until now when I've had a chance to form my own impressions. It was also good to hear the Ew had been telling AM very good things about the impact I'm having at the organization. I do think I'm raising possibilities and options that haven't been raised, but it's good to hear that independently. On the other hand I also wring my hands and wonder whether my being here has done any good at all. I realized Friday that I've only been here two months, which is no time at all.

It also followed up a good meeting that afternoon with my boss about what I'm doing and what I should focus on in the two weeks I have left. This meeting had also confirmed that they thought my time there was worthwhile. Just the fact that we can talk openly about things is a good sign. He asked when Joan was scheduled to leave - two days before me. He said he'd take her to the airport. Then I asked, "What about me?" "No, you're staying here."

(Bew)Air Asia

I booked my flight to Singapre through Air Asia. It’s a low fare airline, but for new users like me, there are a couple of things to beware of:

1. You have to book each leg of the trip separately. So my Chiang Mai - Singapore trip had to be booked
A. Chiang Mai-Bangkok, then I had to start all over with the second booking
B. Bangkok - Singapore

You have to fill in the forms all over again. OK, my computer had the info ready to plug in, but still. And if the second flight isn’t available, then there’s a hefty fee for changing the first flight. It might be better to call and let them check on these things before you commit your credit card.

And if your first flight is late and you miss the connecting flight on Air Asia - you lose your fare and everything!!

2. The prices are wildly deceptive. They show you the price for the flight. The Chiang Mai - Bangkok leg was listed as 449Baht. Somewhere on the page it says not including fees and taxes. But when I got to the next page it was 1386 Baht including a fuel surchage of 550 Baht.

3. Very limited luggage. 15 Kilos (about 33 pounds) is your limit. Carry on is 7 Kilos. How much if you have more? In Thailand it is 80 Baht per kilo extra (almost $3) and between Bangkok and Singapore it’s 186 Baht per kilo.

And since each flight is separate, you have to pay the extra for each leg of the flight.

This is fine for short term trips and as long as you know all this in advance, you can plan which trips would work best on Air Asia. I’d guess the best time to use Air Asia is for single flight trips with minimal luggage.

The Racket Tailed Drongo Shot

twenty or thirty times it calls

penetrating deep into my sleeping brain
it's not even light yet, go back to sleep.

several days now this morning racket
just out our window

today it is light
I groggily get up to see


Not the drongo call I know
My brain still in bed as I watch him
fly away


[Photos © whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com All Rights Reserved]

To hear this guy, watch the video here.

Refugee Nation out of Hibernation and KyiMayMaung Too

Burmese exile Kyi May Maung put links to my Border Run posts on her blog this week. She's also got two poems in a new anthology Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, & Beyond. She has glowing praise for the book from the likes of Nobel Laureate, Nadine Gordimer, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Howard Zinn, People's History of the United States. Also lots of links to sites about Burma.

And Refugee Nation, the Laotian American theater group out of LA that wowed the audience at Out North last fall, has started writing on their blog again and will be performing in April in Berkeley.

April 25th Benefit Tickets:
Center for Lao Studies / Legacies of War

April 26th Tickets
La Pena Cultural Center

So this is a warning to my Berkeley/Oakland readers (both of you that I know of) to check it out. They offered a great view into what it means to be Laotian-American today. Their blog seems to have started in Alaska last November at the end of their national tour and petered out after they got back to LA.

Just consider for a moment all that traveling: planes, trains and automobiles from June to December in and out of town from New York, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Alaska, the miles, the people, the energy and effort, the changes in time and weather...it's exhausting! It's work!! So we felt we needed to take a breather. Calm ourselves. Be with ourselves. Be down with ourselves and during that time we took time to evaluate 2007 and all it's struggles and successes and take that knowledge to plan out the 2008 series of Refugee Nation events to come. We hope you follow us again because our batteries are fully charged and we look forward to making impact with people, places and things...promise. So come along for the ride or better yet come see us in person when we are in town. It's a lot nicer face to face, smile to smile.

Racket Tailed Drongo Video, Finally For Real

Something was snagging up this video - either some audio, some frames from the video, or the final titling. I rebuilt the video piece by piece and saved it until it started balking again. So here it is. After the title you have to wait about 10 seconds to see the drongo fly by the first time (it seems much longer). But wait for the slow motion version of each shot, especially the second one. Then you can see the tails clearly. I cut out the stills, but you can see them in the previous post.

Racket Tailed Drongo Video, Finally

[Click the picture to enlarge it]

The racket tailed drongo is always followed by these two long tail feathers which seem to disappear just before there's a wider feather and then the end of the tail. There are several that fly around here, but they've been incredibly hard to catch with the camera. [Go here for an even better shot taken the next day.]

But persistence pays off. Here are two on video. It's all explained on the video. To hear the drongo's strange electronic call, listen to the end of the video here.

[I don't know what's happening. iMovie keeps crashing while it's trying to save the video. I need to remake it I think, but I don't have time now. I'll add it in later when I get it figured out.]