Chiang Dao

Lucky January Friday the 13^th. We had Monday the 16^th off courtesy of “teachers day” so I got a group of kids together for a mountainous adventure located in a northern region called “Chiang Dao.” Chiang Dao is the 3^rd largest peak in Thailand (2,225 meters –just higher than the city of Denver) and has reputation for being a sweet spot off the tourist track plush with mountains and friendly people. My good friend Clay had been previously and not only recommended the peak, but also recommended a great spot to stay called “The Nest” as well as a 2 day guided trek up the mountain that included spending a night at the top combined with 2 days of hiking. For some reason you need to hire guides to go up this mountain if you are not Thai…hence the trek.

myself and clay

Anyway our group was 5 big and Clay and I and a few other people all met in Chiang Dao (little north of Chiang Mai) on the morning of Saturday the 14^th at the “Chiang Dao Nest.” Our spirits were a bit grim to start as Clay accidentally left a bottle of whiskey on the truck taxi we caught to “The Nest” from the Chiang Dao bus station. That would have been a nightmare in itself however it was also raining heavily and the lady who ran “The Nest” was very rude with us (very un-thai – she did go to culinary school in England) and told us that we would have a miserable time on our trek…she made sure to mention that she “wanted our money” anyway and did in fact want us to go. Clay had been to the nest 2 years prior and had actually gotten kicked out of the establishment by the very same lady who was barking at us for drunkenly singing Beatles songs in the shower at 5 in the morning with several other comrades…perhaps she remembered Clay and was upset that he had not heeded her harsh words of “never come back again.” Anyway we were soon rid of the “wicked witch of the nest” as we decided to go through with the trek and made our way down the street to her sister’s spot called “the nest 2.”

a most inviting door

The nest 2 had stellar accommodations. Delicious authentic thai food coupled with lavish bamboo bungalows complete with white cotton robes, home made soap, beautiful mountain views, and incredibly soft beds. Most Thai beds feel like rock slabs so these more forgiving, angelic sleeping pieces were most welcome. We hung around that day and got ready to go off hiking the next day. We would leave for the mountain at 9 am on Sunday the 15^th. After a few delicious scrambled eggs and some ginger green tea our guides arrived in a pick up truck to haul us off the trailhead located about 20 minutes away from our place. 3 of our guides were from Burma and the 1 leader was Thai. They were all super nice and after winding up a muddy trail in the midst of bucolic beatific greenery we stopped for a quick lunch of sticky rice coupled with a small and very rare salad. After lunch I decided to take my shoes off as the trail was soft and cool. It felt great to hike barefoot as it really gives a sense of being connected to the great, wonderful, one of a kind Earth. After a few more hours of meandering up through dense bamboo forest we arrived at our campground spot.

sunrise

The hike was great and I felt like I was walking through a big bowl of green bamboo with clear blue skies dashing across the mountain islands that protruded from the earth like big green earth teeth. We arrived at the summit at around 2 pm and had a few hours to kick around and breath in the deep clean air before we set off on a quick 30-minute hike for a nice sunset viewpoint. The faded tired old orange sun descended down into the far misty mountains with haste and the delicate orange red light warmed the expanse of green mountainous forest beneath our feet. After the sunset we ate beautiful rice and sweet green curry and even some hot soup, which all provided warmth. Our guides got stumble mouthed drunk however 1 managed to get up at around 5:45 am and was in decent enough shape to show us a different trail up a different peak to glimpse an inspiring sunrise. A blood red disc slowly came back around and the whole thing was great. After an easy breakfast of cold cereal and pineapple we headed back down the mountain to conclude a quite incredible weekend amongst good friends, good trees, and good food. 

sunset

It's a break!

Chiang Mai Dec. 23^rd – Dec 27

So the small kids and all the other kids were taking midterm tests the week of this one and the staff told me to just hit the road. I had all this free time off about 10 days to skip around the country. First things first hoped a bus to Chiang Mai arrived late on the 23^rd. Stayed with m friend Clay and one of his friends Mark at a large guest-house. Went out for drinks that night and actually got well into the whiskey that night as I turned 24 right at midnight and there was Christmas Eve right in Thailand. Must have been about 70 degrees that night as we turned into some more whiskey sitting on a rooftop reggae bar. Finished the night with a bit of dancing. The next morning on the good 24^th I was feeling rocky so took the morning slow then took most of the evening slow as well. Feasted on a spider roll and a little nigiri at a fine sushi restaurant on Hoyt Ghao Rd. Had a Thai waitress whose smile made me smile.

Called it quits early on the 24^th as I got into a half marathon run at 5 am Christmas morning. Trained a bit for the run but don’t like running a whole lot although sometimes it feels pleasant after. Actually had a great run that morning. Passed a lot of drunk people motoring in tiny tuk-tuks jeering and cheering at the crazy early morning runners. Finished the race without too much trouble and put in a decent time. When I saw the finish line I was happy and felt a happy buzzing feeling. I was sick of running at that point and was glad to finish in well. Got back to the guest house that morning around 7 am with a big run under my belt so I tucked back into bed alongside my whiskey eyed friends who were to be slow that whole day as the whiskey hit them hard. And it was a fine Christmas day as we all laid into some good food at the Riverside bar and grill for dinner just off the nice River. I laid into some Khao Soi and it was about the most delicious meal. It consisted of friend egg noodles, noodles, mushrooms, and vegetables all bathed in a nice velvet red curry. The music was good too and that drifted up to us sitting upstairs gazing out to the river. We finally had our hands on some nice beer. Figured it was Christmas and enough of those rocky Chang beers so we turned into some Belgian white ales and those were comforting. We cleaned off the dinner around 9 and hopped a truck taxi over to Club Warm-up on the other side of town near of not sure what. Met up with some of Clay’s Thai friends and we must have went to four different night clubs that night mostly turning into the Johnny Walker with splashes of soda but also a beer here or there. Had a wonderful night and was mostly laughing. Stumbled home must have been about 5:30 in the morning before Clay, Mark and I finally turned in.

Hobbits?

The 26^th was a Monday and we all thought a waterfall would be good for the bones so we all hopped in a truck taxi and you really get smothered in smog on those things if your sitting in traffic and if you feel slow from whiskey the last place you want to be is in the back of one of those red truck taxi’s idling behind traffic leaking smog. Told the driver to go straight on Hoyt Ghao Rd. up toward Doi Suthep. Transferred at the bottom of the mountain to another truck that pulled us up to the forest temple where we did indeed find our waterfall and other nice things. Temples and Saffron robes and I did see one door in the side of the cliff with detailed etchings and quite hobbit-ish. We were in among green trees and faced with soft rolling hills. Saw a carve in some stone that said “low ego” and that was among the other nice things. The good waterfall did its trick and then it was time to go eat some Mexican food on Hoyt Ghao Rd.

Indeed

 Pie Dec 27^th – Dec 29^th

We left off to the town of Pie early on the 27^th of December riding in a 10 person slate grey mini bus full of foreigners. The drive to Pie from Chiang Mai was rocky. It took 3 hours and every piece of it is a switch back.  All we did was turn back and forth and I was nearly green by the end. Arrived to Pie and booked a sub par guesthouse and started wandering on wobbly legs after that drive. Wandered down the street to pass food fenders and had a delicious friend rice dish with egg to start the night out. Slowly drifted down the main Rd. passing lot’s of reggae jewelry beaded dreaded out shops dishing out wheat grass and mushroom t-shirts and I don’t think I have seen as much wheatgrass anywhere else as in Pie. 

BIG yawn

They sure do love wheatgrass in Pie and I did have a shot or two a few days later and liked it. Ended the night of the 27^th drinking with a few girls from South Africa at the Luna Bar where mostly we just drank local Thai beer listening to a band playing some of this, some of that. We decided to all go a big set of caves the following morning and then indeed the next morning around 9 or 10 we got a knock and sure enough it was the girls. Didn’t think they would follow through with setting off to the caves but here they were. James and I had rented a set of motorbikes so that made two of us per bike and off we rolled through the cool hazy green bucolic hills of Pie. 

The hills must really bake like rust during the summer but now it was the cool season so they didn’t bake so much as they just sat heavy-laden with the mist. The drive to the caves was a bit icy and we all felt a chill. Must have went 30 Km through windy switch back mountain roads before we arrived to the Lad cave. We walked up to the entrance of the Lad cave and it was a big wide mouth with water running through. 

caves have mouths too

We paid a guide 500 baht to take us on a bamboo raft into the wide arched grey slated cave that included a 1 hour walking tour to see how the Lad cave worked on the inside. Our guide was sweet as can be and the inside of the caves were sweet but she may have been sweeter. Thai people can just be so nice and sweet.

The caves were indeed large and we trekked up stairs and through tunnels of Jurassic darkness and vampire rocks while our guide carried a gas lantern than glittered and faintly hissed and spread out a soft even glow that shadowed and danced upon the salty grey brown cave walls. James was taking pictures and the two South African girls were also a bit and I was just trying to talk Thai to the guide. We climbed a large set of stairs and at the top peered over the wooden railing to see about ten other little gas lanterns bobbing on down below just like stars and at that point they probably could have been as caves can really throw you for a loop. 

Our guide showed us a great tour and the nice thing about caves is that when you finally get out of the damned things you feel absolutely spectacular and you know that those caves aren’t any good for humans except maybe the quick jaunt through. Caves are bat country.

The next day on December 20th before we left James and I headed to a local canyon located about 10 Km south of our hostel. This canyon had a desert feel to it and as I dusted through its windy chambers I was instantly transported back to my Americorps NCCC work in the Anza Boreago desert out in San Diego county. 

Loved that work incredibly as the suns iridescent glittering off the still and silent cacti in the evening glow of dusk or the shiny clear dawn was just mellifluous. The dessert brings forth such a peaceful raw wisdom.

 After the nice canyon hike James and I crawled back in a slate grey mini bus and slowly wound back through the corkscrew route to Chiang Mai. We were to take a bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, where we would then catch a plane south to explore some of the islands. As a brief preface, James and I saw a bus that would take us from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for 280 baht…very cheap…almost too cheap. We saw this advertisement not at the bus station, but at one of those sketchy tourist booths on the side of the road with flamboyant coloring of zip line advertisement and cheap trips to Laos. I believe we were warned not to take these buses at orientation. Hey the price was great, and I didn’t have much money so that was that. Anyway we were scheduled to take the bus around 5:30 pm from the tourist booth. At around 5:30, a song-tao (truck taxi) took us along with 6 French tourists 30 minutes out of town to a random gas station. There was about 10 of us and we were told the bus would be arriving shortly as we paced around the sulky fuel station. An hour passed and then we noticed the tourist police parked in the same gas station we were at. After talking to them briefly, we found out that these “tourist buses” routinely and consistently rob people. I was surprised to learn that there is a designated person who sits underneath with the luggage and systematically rifles through all the bags taking anything of value. We were also informed that “stewardesses” routinely go through valuables on your person while you sleep on this overnight carriage. I suddenly felt like a prisoner of a 17^th century black pirated vessel bound for who knows where the hell, the floor seemingly falling out from under me as the tourist police laughed at my ignorance. Moments before I had asked if this bus would serve water or snacks, maybe a nice cool towel?…that thinking soon changed to “will they use weapons or just force?”

James, Captain Sparrow, and I in Pie - we could have used him on the pirate bus 

James, this Isralian chick named Ofri, and I decided to stay awake in shifts and guard our baggage closely. I felt like weaponless fool about to board captain hooks ship. The black, decrepit pirate shuttle finally arrived 2 hours later around 7:30 pm and immediately the tourist police surrounded the vehicle and proceeded to snap photos acquiring the license plate. The trip was actually uneventful and around 4:30 am we were shoveled off in hast near the infamous Khao Son Road; a noxious street full of dirty foreigners drinking Chang and eating pad thai. We crawled around the street for a second then got some sleep in a kitten infested Bangkok hostel near Khao Son Road. The next morning we had a flight down south. I was looking forward to this.

Just to clarify – all the buses I have taken from Thai bus terminals have been fantastic…only the sketchy tourist ones not affiliated with these terminals have been an issue.

Koh Phi Phi Dec. 30^th –Jan 3^rd

Caught a plane ride from Bangkok proper to Krabi, a southern town. Took a ferry from Krabi about 90 minutes to an island called Koh Phi Phi. In the sea now. Things become a bit more salty and I’m ready to get to the beach. Koh Phi Phi is a beautifully constructed concatenation of slate grey rock formations dotted with ineffable small green tree’s jutting over the salty sea vortex I was now suddenly a part of. There was a group of about 10 teachers or so and most of us slept in the cheapest hostel on the small island, located about 15 minutes from the beach. We arrived just in time to check in and then wandered on down to the beach for a quick dinner before jaunting down to a beach that well reminded me of San Sebastian in Spain. The beach had a large curl to it and had two large slate grey shoulders protruding outwards creating a large bowl of peaceful ocean. The only difference really between the former beach and this one was the rows of beach bars blasting house music as Europeans, Australians, Kiwi’s, and some Americans drank whiskey buckets into the early morning.

Koh Phi Phi Viewpoint

New Years day I got up a bit earlier and paid 400 baht to go on a cruise around the surrounding islands of Koh Phi Phi. I spent the day snorkeling and wandering around the many large rocky bluffs surrounding the main island. There was a group of about 10 of us in this boat and most were in rough shape. I quickly befriended a guy from Japan named Robert who responded to most of my statements with “Oh Realllllyyyyy!!” (in a rising, astonished tone).  Koh Phi was beautiful, however I was a bit flummoxed by the disparity between such pristine natural beauty and the raving madness that went on every night by the water.

Malay Bay

After a few maddening nights on a truly incredible formation of islands it was time to hop back on the ferry and head back to my small rural back woods village of Thawangpha…it was time as I was tired.

Tha Wang Pha Sports Day (early December)

Sports Day at Thawangpha was drastically different from any other celebration I have ever seen or attended. For 2 weeks, the school had half days academically so that everyone could practice sports. By sports, I mean spear throwing, the long jump, running, and high jump etc…  The entire school was divided up into 6 different colors. Each color created a massive billboard that framed 50 or 60 cheerleaders…cheering enthusiastically from the misty dawn into the deep afternoon. In each given event, 1 representative from each color would compete. As the day unfolded and the celebration commenced I felt wrapped up in a hallucinogenic Harry Potter Dr. Suess landscape only though stranger, and with much less organization.

re-defining fashion 1 purple head bow-tie at a time

Before people started shooting guns off however there was a morning parade that twisted and winded from the fresh market (located a few Km away from school) to the school grounds. The parade was divided into sections. First the blue team went and then the yellow etc… each team dressed according to their color while wielding odd instruments to show excitement yet send a message. For example, the blue team walked around totting such signs explicating warning of the dangers of doing drugs as well as unprotected sex. The yellow team created a mini moving boxing ring made of string and blown up condoms. In the middle of this mobile ring 7 or 8 students rockin’ dark shades and pink tutus danced in a whimsical iridescent display to the hum of some Martian Korean 70’s hip hop dangling out of a small speaker carried by one of the dancers. This was my favorite.

Gangsters

At one point I even joined in the blown up condom matrix dance part…I mean I had to, it was too good - these kids were just in such a weird authentically wild corner of the universe absolutely getting down to their own unique celebratory creation from start to finish...what gems! The procession of students interlaced with the marching band and the military section then snaked though some back roads and eventually weaved and winded to school around 8 in the am… where everyone gathered around the soccer field to engage in a day of goofy fun. If the “Jungle Book” ever hosted the Olympics it would be exactly what the good folks here at Tha Wang Pha Pittyakhom School put together today.

get yo freak on

Events seemed to happen almost randomly, with teachers and students milling about, wearing brightly colored cowboy hats and shooting guns off at random intervals to signal the start to a race. The Director and his top shelf staff watched on briefly under a shaded tent while I mostly just wandered around in a semi permanent state of awe, confusion, and interest. I would be attending the “teacher’s race” later in afternoon however I had the whole morning and most of the afternoon to just drift around trying to dig into the culture of the event while simultaneously trying to avoid melting under the heavy sun. After a substantial lunch of pad thai paired with green curry over rice it was time to run. The last event of the day was to feature an all teacher relay race with six teachers or so representing their respective colors. I along with 5 other amiable fellows and ladies were yellow, which was clearly illustrated by our yellow sport jerseys we had been adorning for most of the day.

team yellow rep-re-sent

I ran my heart out, but the yellow team ended up finishing 4^th out of 6 teams. After a brief award ceremony followed by some words by the Director the wonderfully twisted hilarious medieval “Tha Wang Pha sports day” had come to a successful close. Right before we called it quits however the Director slipped a quick invite to James and I with regards to spending the night at his resort. With the prospect of delicious somtom (spicy papaya salad), deep glasses of whiskey and a place to sleep looking us at in the face it was not a hard decision to make. So off we went to spend the night at the director’s resort (located about 30 minutes from school) where we would feast on barbecued veggies, and a nice vegetable soup with plenty of whiskey laden exchanges of broken Thai with broken English. The Directors uncle, niece, daughters, and wife were all in attendance and after a couple of hours gathered around the table laughing and eating it was time to rest…James and I awoke early the next morning to the sound of the Director gruffly calling out our names and before long we were riding in the back of his shiny silver truck on our way to start another Tuesday at the one and only Tha Wang Pha Pittyakhom school…

party for the Director, waterfalls

The 9^th of December proved to be one hell of a night. After getting out of school a bit early James and I discovered haphardzadly and seemingly by pure chance that the school was throwing a good bye party for the director. The director is the basically the king of our school and has been happily ruling for over 15 years in his frigidly air conditioned office adorned with a T.V. monitor running six different cameras 24/7 situated next to his 3 cell phones and small purple fake flower arrangements. The director has proved to be a very kind and gracious king as he invited James and myself over to his resort on many occasions to meet his family, eat great food, sing karaoke and most importantly above all other things, drink lot’s of whiskey. So the director is leaving our school to transfer to another, bigger school located a bit south and the 9^th of December was the night to throw down “Thai Stai”

Traditional Thai dancing

I strolled up to the entrance of the school gymnasium around 6 with a New England calendar wrapped under my arm. For parties involving the director, it’s expected to bring a gift for him. James and I realized this about 20 minutes before the party started so I quickly decided my calendar (for 2012) from home would be a fitting and practical gift. The custom involves presenting your gift to the director while a picture is taken in a swift and military esque-fashion.  I could tell that the director has danced this danced thousands of times before…the robotic smile, an arm around the shoulder, the master of the conservative yet celebratory picture…a seasoned vet in front of the camera. The gift then gets placed on one of several tables in a fast and furious pace that is likened to a enclave of elves compiling presents in a pyramid like fashion in a wooded village while the king elf looks on and smiles a polite political smile to appease the many guests gathered from different realms he has invited for this festive and celebratory occasion.

James, the Director, and I

For some reason bouquets of fake flowers coupled with large wooden framed pictures of flowers are virtually the only things people give for gifts (to my knowledge). Within the first half hour the director easily amassed hundreds of fake flowers and maybe thirty or forty pictures of flowers. I don’t really understand this. I was going to say they look pretty, but I think low maintenance is a better guess.

Get Down!

The party featured thirty or so tables each seating roughly six or seven people under the sprawling thirty foot white ceilings and spread out over the gym floor all facing a central stage that would host a lovely and elegant Thai dancing performance followed with singing and dancing followed by heavily infused whiskey renditions of the former. James and I sat with our coordinator Kru Lin and some other friends as we were slowly served dish after dish of fresh ginger fish, egg fried rice, sweet and sour fish soup, and many other dishes I can’t quite remember. Whiskey was also complimentary, which may explain my forgetfulness here.

           

I had a blast dancing with the mathematics teacher who owns a coffee shop down the road as well as just seeing the jarringly happy look on everyone’s face that a little bit of whiskey and music can so easily create. Watching my fellow Thai teachers dance was interesting too as some did a kind of reverse corkscrew while boasting a maniacal smile with a jiving of the arms side to side a rough, enthusiastic air. This occasion was also a great time for me to practice my Thai as I engaged many of the different guests at the event in conversations focusing around the single expression of “I go.”

Assistant Director, Myself, Kru Newt, james, Kru Noy, 2 guests

At every Thai party I have been to so far (that would be two) singing is expected. Both women and men (but especially the men, usually with a belly full of whiskey) love to grab the mike as the night winds on and serenade his/her fellow friends to traditional yet hip hoppy songs. Joining in with this local custom James and decided to give the director a special surprise performance and after several hours of romping around the gym eating, drinking, and trying to speak Thai James and I got on stage. I brought my mini guitar (thank you Wendel) and started off by playing “Santeria” by Sublime while James followed with “Blowin in the Wind” by Mr. Dylan. The crowd seemed to enjoy the brief but enthusiastic performance however the positive response may have been mainly due to the fact that at the time of our rendition nobody in the audience could speak or understand English.

Peace!

I trudged home (James and I live on school grounds – easy commute) around 1 in the morning or so with a whiskey leaden skull after an evening of great food and great drink amidst some of the most friendly and kind people around. I didn’t get to know the director (or his name) too well however I wish him and his family the best...”he was a good man, and thorough.”

I awoke the Saturday morning of December 10th after the big party feeling a bit too good. I was expecting a foggy hangover cloud to derange my limbs and mind for the morning however I felt capable of moving around and thinking without difficulty. I took that goodness with me via motorbike to the “Nanthanburi National Park” located 30 KM south west of me. After a quick 1-hour ride James and I entered the parks grounds, parked our bikes, and started exploring. James and I started the day hiking down a steep trail for several Km until we stumbled across a shimmering waterfall. After an hour basking beneath it’s soothing presence we thought hiking up the side of the waterfall would be good. There wasn’t much of a path and it was steep going but we eventually clawed and kitched our way up the steep side slope of damp vine entangled earth to the top of the waterfall. We weren’t rewarded with anything but a viney mesh of sinewy vine rope so with nowhere to go we immediately turned around and went down the way we had just come. Getting down was tricky as the loose earth disintegrated beneath our feet and the boulders and vines that populated the nearly thirty feet down didn’t look to inviting. All of a sudden I slipped at the top, caught myself, and watched my black water bottle hurtle out of my backpack down the abyss to the path we started on. As I have not seen a decent water bottle in Thailand yet, I was eager to find mine amongst the green and brown gnarled earth. Up and down I went, dipping into my animalistic 1 track mind vibe and clearly focusing on the task at hand. After about 20 minutes I almost fell off the small cliff and it was that close call combined with the realization that I was literally covered in dirt and blood from crawling and digging like an animal for this water bottle that I chose to just let it be. “It’s just a water bottle man.” So back up the path I walked feeling a little bummed about losing my black klean kanteen with the black Stone brewing gargoyle sticker that always reminded me the fresh, hoppy, and delicious beer so easily accessible in the states. In Thailand you can get two or maybe three types of mediocre domestic brews. They aren’t too bad, but I’m already looking forward to a nice I.P.A upon my arrival home. As we scaled back to the top of the park we gazed upon fifteen to twenty canvas stretched tents bracing the perimeter as families milled about setting up fires and snapping photos of the big old sun dipping behind the distant lush hills now softly aglow with the suns gentle orange and dark red velvety bands.

As James went off to shoot some photos I gently walked over across the prickly stands of grass to the fire-pit where a few people were poking at a small cluster of embers trying to instigate a fire. Within 10 seconds of me saying “hello” in Thai a gentleman in his young 30’s asks me in a heavy way if I would have dinner with him and his family. He asked me in such a way as one normally asks for a sincere favor with genuine and enthusiastic warmth. I was humbled by the question and as his brother brought over some beer to share with us the kindness of the Thai people simply made me smile and forget any previous so called “troubles.” This consistent and genuine kindness has made my stay quite inspiring. After a delicious meal of sticky rice, green curry, and BBQ prawns with my friend Don and his eight wonderfully kind family members James and I headed back down the windy earthen path to retrieve our motorbikes and begin the short trip back home beneath a full tented starscape highlighted by a bright full moon gleaming white strands down upon the windy road; dark tree limbs tracing by…

Thawangpha Bike Race

Welcome to another exciting annual Thawangpha throwback bike race! Every year Thawangpha throws down for a village bike race where all villagers are invited to dig their bikes out of their sun-drenched corners of space and take part in a nice bicycle stroll through the windy twisty back-roads of Thawangpha. This year I had the pleasure of joining as a fellow teacher was kind enough to lend me her bike which enjoyed a soft blue paint job streaked with yellow and orange stripes that ran down the center frame while two easy rider handle bars offered themselves up for smooth but more importantly stylish navigation. An aluminum wire carrying basket was positioned in front of the handle bars to give the rider ample room to store various accessories and although only having 3 gears the small, wind up light situated on the outside of the front tire more than made up for this by offering the rider light in the darkness.

 I got up on a Saturday at about 6:00 AM and groggily peddled down my street towards the event amidst mountains of fog. You really couldn’t see much. Thick as good peanut butter. I was just about to cross a main intersection preceding my destination when I slammed straight into an older lady on a motorbike dead stopped at the same intersection I was trying to cross. I’m not really sure what happened but I hit her pretty hard and almost did a superman through my handle bars while the poor old lady gave out a shocked gasp followed by some angry Thai and turned back at me with a twisted face as if I were a dark grey terrifyingly ghoul out of a dark and morbid Goya painting. That’s about how I felt. After several apologizes I sledged across the street in ashamed bewilderment, determined not to run into any older ladies for the remainder of the crazy fog lacquered day.

I jumped right in and started peddling while saying hello to everyone. In general, living in Thawangpha has feel of the 1960’s or 1970’s (if I were to imagine). People take things very easy, don’t get too involved in technology, have a strong connection with the land, and ware very interesting retro soccer attire. People are also extremely social, communal, and rely on face-to-face encounters rather than face to book encounters. Thawangpha is bringing face-to-face time back in a huge way.  The music is the only thing here that doesn’t really match as in general it sounds like something younger middle school girls would listen to but much, much more dramatic. Life is simple, slow, and very sweet. Delicious fruit is all around.

Back to the 411 on bike race though – it was all 80’s. People had the throwback flash bikes and wore the flash bright pink sports jackets with orange pants and flat brimmed retro hats and just cruised through the fog ash with bangin’ style and huge smiles. I think some people might have worn capes. Everything was super laid back while the race wound through tiny back alleys and side streets of amidst walls and mountains of fog. Many villagers stood outside of their abodes to watch the riders pass by. Instead of race I think the word “meandering” works better for this certain event.  The race was 21 km and as the bike I had was made for a Thai human my knees took quite the beating and I could hardly walk after. Overall, the bike race absolutely wailed: it gave me a great chance to roll through the fog laden, quite, peaceful, and close-nit community of my village amongst friends.

Motorbikes

Indeed. Motorbikes are how everyone gets around in the land of smiles. Dek dek (kids) learn how drive motorbikes young. So I got one. James and I each have a motorbike. Our coordinator Kru Lin gave us one of hers and we rented the second one from a local dealer after 30 minutes of haggling and laughing over prices but mostly irrelevant details. He let us rent the Honda bike for three and half months at a price of 5000 baht (about $150). Using these motorbikes, we explore. Gas is cheap. We whip pasts rice fields getting worked by locals with long sinewy shady tweaked out straw hats and big rubber duck boots.  We buzz through small villages on stilts with dog citizens and roosters where the people and the land understand each other and get looks from the locals that can only mean “what in gods name are you doing here?” Well, I’m not sure. But I think it’s to teach English and blend some of this friendly “it’s all good” Thai cultural fabric into the web of my self constructed identity.

James and I are men of adventure so we try to strike deep into the forest vibe and roll around the mountains searching. I guess it could be for a good trail or maybe just a good campsite. There are several national parks up in our neck of the woods so those attract us. Camping and hiking are both good. We visited one park the other day called nanthanburi national park. It was a nice space. I saw some limestone caves the other day.

If you drive these motorbikes, there aren’t really rules. You don’t need any license and you don’t really have to obey traffic laws. I guess you could drive one juggling gasoline soaked elephants while drinking chang beer out of a keg on wheels. I think James and I will go to the top of a mountain next week.

Well to sum up, Thailand is a funny place.