Leaving Chiang Mai

I had everything packed up by 9:00am, including the few dishes, the electric teapot, and left over food. I started taking things down. Pop, the manager of Baan Nai Lek, and one of the sons of the owner, came up to help bring down the rest. There wasn’t that much. I have a small rolling suitcase and my backpack. J took the big roll suitcase to LA (where she did get to see our daughter going to her flight back to Seattle). Pet, Ping, and Bon, were already downstairs loading the pickup.

We took the bike back to the bike shop and then went to the Buddha Image shopping center. Actually I should have gotten the name. It’s on the way to the airport. A market that has Buddha images, chains of all varieties to wear them on, and places that make plastic and glass covers to put the images in.


This is a whole world of its own. Ping is the expert and took me around while we were waiting. Lewis had asked if I could bring him three more images back from Thailand. We had gotten him a Buddha image at the temple near Sanaoom Luang in Bangkok back in 1968 and he wanted enough for the rest of his family. Of course, we got this done on my very last day, in the very last hour before going to the airport.







I had asked Ping to help me with this since this is his speciality. He brought me three images from his collection yesterday and today we took them to be put in covers so you can put them on chains. These are like any collectable item - there are good ones and better ones, ones that have various different meanings. There made of clay, of stone, of various metals, and he showed me one made of the eye of a coconut. In Thai you don’t use the word ‘buy’ when you purchase an image, you use the word for ‘rent’. The three he gave to me include a metal image of Rian Luang Po Chem a famous monk from Phuket, a white one, not sure what it is made of, of a monk covering his eyes, who brings wealth, and a little tiny one, Phra Rot, that protects against harm


While the man was making the plastic cases, we bought three chains for Lewis family to wear them around their necks.

There are so many worlds hidden away in Thailand and here on my last day, on the way to the airport I got to discover one more, and be reminded of how little I’ve seen, though it seems I’ve seen a lot.

I’m trying to treat this like a border run, I’ll be back soon. We’re talking about December - after the election and after the Anchorage International Film Festival. But it’s hard to leave people you’ve grown attached to.

At the airport I learned the plane would leave 45 minutes late, but I should have time to catch the Singapore flight. There’s wifi, but you have to pay for it. There was a coffee shop outside of security that said free wifi. I think I can wait.

11pm I wrote this at the Chiang Mai airport and I'm posting it from my son's apartment in Singapore. I'm in a bit of culture shock. I haven't been in Singapore since 1968 or so. I knew it had changed and all, but coming here from Chiang Mai is like going to NY City from Anchorage.

Songkran - Elder Ceremony 1

I'd totally forgotten about this, because of the land reform meeting at the hotel yesterday and today. But I'd known they were planning this late Songkran festival ceremony where the elders are ritualistically cleansed and asked for their blessings. The compound was totally transformed. It's amazing what one long cotton colored cloth and some umbrellas can do. And the motorized food stand didn't hurt either.

Doc is being the vendor here. Fortunately, everything was free.

Here the elders are being offered scented water to ritually wash themselves and bless the younger ones. The man with the white hair is the head of the board of directors of the Northern Development Foundation.

Then each had the mike for a little while. The man on the right had spoken earlier. He - I'm not sure when - walked from Chiang Mai to (I think) Ko Samui raising money along the way.

Land Reform Meeting Chiang Mai Day 2

The meeting continued today. Here's my boss presenting.
At breaks I talked to different people about the usefulness of the two days. This gentleman is working on a group trying to start up a foundation to help farmers. For him it was a chance to meet a lot of people with the same interests.
This man is Karen nationality and he said the usefulness was in understanding the necessity of learning new ways to do things. The old ways will no longer work. But we also talked about Alaska Natives and how they face many of the same problems that the Thai hill tribes (Karen are often put in that category) face. Loss of language, loss of traditional ways of living off the land, others coming into their world and forcing changes, and general loss of their culture and way of life.

My foot is much better today. It was still a little bigger than the right foot, but I managed to get it into a shoe (normally I wear sandals) and by mid morning I was walking almost normally, but I'm sure it will be a little more time (hopefully days, not weeks) before it's normal again. But the benefits of the massage were very clear when I was riding my bike up hill. I felt really loose and comfortable. I know that was the massage.

Land Reform Meeting Chiang Mai

When I was leaving the land reform meeting this afternoon, Pet said, "I told you the meetings were a waste of your time." The meeting was tedious, but not a waste. I don't quite know what was all going on. But being there at all, gave me lots of leads for questions to ask, though there isn't much time left. Farmers were there from the three different villages I've been to, so presumably from all the others as well.

The Thai word for information was said over and over and over again. But essentially, my understanding was like the Thai translation in the previous post. I knew a lot of the words, but not quite how they connected. Today was the time for the farmers to talk about their issue and the various organizations supporting the farmers also contributed.


The man on the left is the villager whose house I stayed at when I first went out to a village. The man on the left was the main village speaker at the land reform confrontation in Lamphun.



Anyone recognize this speaker? He was the man at the Fire Break Ceremony who taught us how to say hello in Karen.


The meeting was in the Best Western Hotel, so in a sense, I felt like I wasn't quite in Thai territory any more, though it was still Thai, especially the flower arrangments and the food. We were on the top floor and so I got some views of places I've been in, but never seen from above. And it was pretty clear so the mountains were very visible too.


I left a little before 5pm. It wasn't a waste of time. I have a list of questions, plus I got to connect with people I'd met before. DeLak and Kaew got to see the photos and videos I took in their villages. And some Alaska pictures. But Pet was right - the meetings could be much livlier and have a lot more participation. (Though there was a lot of opportunities to speak, there were also talking heads.) My foot was better than it had been during the night and at the airport, but I thought it was time (since there are only two days left) to get a foot massage at Wat Umong, which I pass everytday. On the way back from the hotel (only about a quarter of a mile past our office, I ran into these cows, something that has never happened before. The massage, I was told, was the best in Chiang Mai. So maybe the could fix my foot.
I told her in detail about my foot. She immediately attacked my foot and I was in great pain. This was either going to cure me or leave me permantly limping.

The right foot also hurt as did various other places on my body. When it was over she asked how it was and I could walk much easier. But a few hours later is was probably a mistake. My foot is now noticeably swollen, though I'm walking slowly, but better than before.

I'm discovering how important my feet are. And sleep too, I'll add the links in the morning.

J's Gone, two more work days

Some of the office folks took us to dinner last night, then Pet and Ew picked us up at 4:45am to get J to the airport in time for her 7am flight. [Mook, sorry I forgot to call yesterday morning , things got really rushed.] It was the first flight listed on the board and they didn't open the checkin until 5:45am. I really felt bad people had gotten up so early and then we had to wait. Meanwhile, I did something to my left foot and it was hard to walk on. But I don't think it's too serious. Nothing swollen, nothing red, nothing hot. Just hurts on the bottom when I walk. Ice this morning when I got back helped.

Some people at the office today are going to Presentation training. And there is another meeting on land reform at the Best Western Hotel near the office. I'm going to that one. Bon and I did more translation yesterday afternoon. It's really hard. The translator basically looked up words in a dictionary and put them together. Bon had to explain the Thai to me and I had to ask lots of questions before we agreed on what it should say. We ended up deciding to try to capture the meaning more than the way it was said. There's no way I could have come anywhere close without Bon. Still don't know how close it is. There are about 20 pages. I'm not going to finish this task. But I reassured them that the person they got to translate something else had done a very good job and they should go with that person to finish this.

Original Thai:
3.2) พระราชบัญญัติป่าชุมชน ที่ผ่านความเห็นชอบจากสภานิติบัญญัติแห่งชาติ ซึ่งมีเนื้อหาที่ไม่เอื้อต่อการจัดการและการใช้ประโยชน์จากป่าของชุมชน อีกทั้งยังลิดรอนสิทธิเสรีภาพของชุมชนท้องถิ่น ที่ได้รับการคุ้มครองจากรัฐธรรมนูญในการเข้าไปดูแลรักษาและใช้ประโยชน์จากทรัพยากร ตามบทบัญญัติมาตรา 66 ของรัฐธรรมนูญแห่งราชอาณาจักรไทย พ.ศ.2550 ปัจจุบันอยู่ในระหว่างการพิจารณาของศาลรัฐธรรมนูญว่าจะขัดต่อรัฐธรรมนูญหรือไม่

Translator's version:
3.2) The Community Forest Royal Act is approved from the Legislative Assembly. The content is not contributed for management and advantage from the community forest But it is deprived right liberty of local community. The constitution has protected in take care and take advantage from the resources follow by sector 66 of the provision under the Kingdom of Thailand Constitution 2007. Now is during the commitment of constitution court that is against the constitution or not. [This is one of the better sections. You can see why I couldn't just proof the translation.]

Our version:
3.2) The Community Forest Royal Act was approved by the Legislative Assembly. This law, concerning the management of forest land, is detrimental to the rights of farmers living in the forest. This appears to be in conflict with section 66 of the 2007 Constitution. The courts are deciding this question now.

Thai Activist Media Website Supporting Alaskan Cause

One of the organizations at my compound, Local Talk, works to increase the coverage of local community issues in the media. I wrote earlier about proofing the English version of their report of a program that taught youth how to be reporters and to report on their communities.

One of my projects here in my final days has been to develop a directory of the organizations and people who work in this compound. In doing that, I learned that some of the organizations have websites. Local Talk's website posts local stories, but they also fill up space with stories from elsewhere. Looking on their site today, I found this story about the problems with farmed salmon, an issue that nearly all Alaskans would agree on. (How many others could we find?)

This is a small world and everything is connected.

Chiang Mai/Fairbanks Lemon Grass Connection

J2, the film editor (end of linked post), suggested we meet at a restaurant near her place - the Lemon Grass. The waiter's English was, literally, remarkable. I was wondering if he was even Thai. English is hard for Thais - they put tones on individual syllables, while English tones are related to the whole sentence (questions rise at the end, for example); Thai words can end in only nine final consonant sounds (or vowel sounds), so English final sounds are a real challenge. But this guy's English was almost Native level.

Finally I asked him why it was so good. Turns out Gaw (my spelling) lived in Fairbanks where his dad went looking for gold and he'd had two years at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. His dad runs the Lemon Grass restaurant in Fairbanks, Our waiter was also the owner of the Chiang Mai Lemon Grass.

We also had a good talk with J2 who will be going back to LA in mid May.

Two and a Half Months is a Long Short Time

Green leaves have replaced the giant dead ones on the teak trees
Trees full of bright orange and yellow flowers have repainted the landscape
Strangers are now acquaintances and friends
Words I didn't know, now sometimes roll off my tongue
Sometimes I drag them slowly and painfully from their braincelly hiding places
I know how to get the ice and water in various restaurants
Strange streets are now familiar

But many new questions replaced the ones that got answered or forgotten
The comfortable temperatures of February are gone and even the Thais are hot

The cool dry season has become the hot dry season
But tonight's thunderstorm which has cut our electricity
And washed our streets, foretells more to come.

Drongos and coucals are now familiar friends
As are the man at the fruit stand and various shop keepers and servers
The bats that greeted us our first nights have long departed

A strange collection of buildings and people now all have names
As do things like Khao Soi and Wats Umong and Padaeng
My colleagues have taught me a lot and I hope I've left them with
a few new ideas as well.

And my old sandals, with the holey soles, will stay behind
And new ones will accompany me home.

Two and a half months is a long short time.

The Owl and the Lizards

J spotted an owl outside our window this morning and I got there in time to see it fly off. We think it might be a collared owlet, but aren't really sure.

Coming back from lunch this afternoon I saw Maya who is back from her trip to Madagascar. That's not a normal side trip from Thailand. She was a Peace Corps volunteer there and has gotten a job in the summer taking some high school kids there. So they flew her over to prepare. While we were talking I noticed a blue rubber lizard I hadn't seen before, on the tree next to us. But when I looked closer this bizarrely colored critter moved.

It was about a foot long.



As we followed him around to the other side of the tree, we found two more like this one.























A couple hours later we had a loud thunderstorm and I had to wait till the rain lightened considerably to ride home. But the temperature dropped 20˚F to 75.

Is China Ready for the Olympics?

This is NOT about China and human rights; that's been extensively covered. (Actually, not really. The protests about the torch relay has been covered, but the real issues haven't gotten that much attention. And they won't here today.)

My question is about whether China can handle all the foreigners who will descend on Beijing. When I taught in Beijing in 2004 I was impressed with how much had been prepared already for the Olympics. I'm talking about venues that were already built or being built back then. Though I wasn't impressed by the lack of consideration for pedestrians and traffic patterns as neighborhoods were leveled and huge housing developments were being put in.

But a new issue arose that raises other questions. We got J's Thailand ticket through mileage from United Airlines. Her return flight is Chiang Mai to Bangkok and Bankgok to Beijing on Thai International. Then Air China from Beijing to LA. (She'll get back to Anchorage on a separate Alaska ticket.)

So a couple of weeks ago I started trying to get her seat reservations on the return. United says to contact the partner airlines. Thai International was no problem. But the Air China part was. We could find her reservation, after some difficulty, on the Air China website, but there was no way to make the seat reservation.

I emailed and explained my problem. I got an email back a week later with two Beijing phone numbers to call. Luckily I have skype so it's reasonable. I got a recording on the first number. And the second number. They are open 8-5. It was 11am, but a Sunday. Monday I tried again. I got someone who gave me another phone number, and that was a recording. I tried both numbers several times and got recordings, but couldn't get people.

I emailed two former Chinese students who are at universities in the US. They both tried through Air China phone numbers in the US and were given the same number I had in Beijing that they couldn't get through to. Fortunately, one contacted another former student who is in Beijing who eventually was able to get through to someone who says J now has an aisle seat on that flight.

But if getting a seat assignment on the namesake airline of China is so difficult, this doesn't bode well. Their website also had special deals - except they were for 2007. And even though I chose the English option, when I got sent to the next page, it would sometimes change back into Chinese. I realize that frequent flier tickets are not the norm, but tickets issued by other carriers will be common for travelers to the Olympics. How will they handle this with phone numbers that don't work after 6pm or on weekends, or at all?

Is this an anomaly that means nothing? Or is this an early warning signal? Let's wait and see.