Thailand Part 3 - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai: Motorbiking Up the Mountain Day

Loved our time in Chiang Mai - felt like a relatively big city with cool blend of industry/culture surrounded by countryside. Rented motorbikes for the first time and LOVED the first day speeding around the 8-lane city loop, climbing the mountainside on switchbacks to Wat Doi Sep, then motoring to a series of waterfalls and finally taking my own morning spin (24 hours for a 100cc motorbike cost just 200 baht = $6.00!) The mountain-top Wat was amazing - many people worshipping here. Torrential rain storm forced another afternoon break and slower pace while descending the wet curvy roads.Could feel a noticeable temperature drop as we leaned into turns heading down the mountain through fresh green countryside... beautiful, even though my helmet was an aquarium! Got Eva and other kiddo gifts at this temple bazaar. Also biked outside the city and into the evening to the state park with 10 waterfalls and damp, slippery rock trails. Good, good day.  

Chaing Mai: Flight of the Gibbon & Cooking Class Day
Peter, Josh, Tim and Megs spent the day flying through the jungle canopy - 100 ft or so above the ground! Saw gibbons, heard 'feet up' all day, and got back exhausted after all the zip-lines! I discovered the beauty of skyping Eva from our guesthouse's garden breakfast terrace and sleeping in :). Jed and I met Kenny from Bethel for lunch - small world thanks to fb! That night Jed, Peter and I took our cooking class at Asia Scenic Thai Cooking school - who knew we could make curry and stir-fried dishes! Learned about a 'bomb in your mouth' from our funny teacher and heard about RSA current politics from classmates. Shopped legendary night market - started the beauty of bargaining.

Chiang Mai: Up on an Elephant Day & My Down Day

I purposely carved out a day of "not doing" for myself - the rest of the crew took another jungle trek, this time riding on elephants up and down muddy hillsides, taking a bamboo raft, and visiting a native hill tribe village. I enjoyed the bliss of doing nothing, thinking, writing, reading, and spending a loung-ie afternoon at 'Love at First Bite' cafe - misty fans blowing in the palm trees as American 60's musak played around me and Thai couples of all ages ate quiche and cheesecake. :)

Ah-May (Amen)

Eva is steadily learning when and how to pray. Before meals that include both Peter and I (usually supper), she will stop us when we both sit down by saying "ah-may, ah-may" (amen), while nodding her head. Then she points to one of us, usually me, to signify that I should start to pray. She holds her hands together under her chin, and watches us intently, sometimes whispering along while we pray. When we say "Amen," she says "ah-may" again, and about half the time, gets upset and points to the other person to indicate that she wants someone to keep on praying.

Once we went back and forth between Peter and I praying before our meal about three times each, because Eva was so upset each time one of us ended our prayer and stopped praying. That particular instance, I was having one of those days where I didn't feel like praying at all - much less over and over as an example for my kiddo. I remember that I started to get a little teary eyed as my 1 1/2 year old kept clearly telling her mom, then her dad - then her mom, then her dad - to keep praying. She listened and engaged with us during each prayer; she was not playing or distracted by something else. Who knows what she actually got out of the content of our prayers, but I sure noticed my own content. Slowly, throughout our mini-prayer-marathon, I moved from my beginning prayers of, "thank you for our food and our day and for our daughter," to praying things like, "Thank you that you listen to us all day even when the days are hard; help me to remember to pray more God; I need you more then I realize."

It felt very profound to me to be pushed to pray by Eva, and to be praying both for her, and for me, in a more genuine way before that meal. I realized that I don't always really pray from my heart like that when I pause for a cursory prayer before a meal; heck, we don't even always pause before every meal to pray. Except now, when we're with Eva, gathered as a little family with her pointing at us, whispering along and solemnly folding her hands, smiling and watching us, listening to our every word as we talk to God and talk to her - it makes me want to do it more.

Thailand Part 2 - Sukhothai Highlights

Sukhothai: Train Rides and At Home
I loved the long travel days on the train from Bangkok to Sukhothai, and then from Sukhothai farther north to Chiang Mai. Saw the view of big cities change to outlying slums, then grasslands change to fields, then on to hills and mountains with lush vines all over and a misty sunset. Caught up with people while chugging further and further north, learned to not eat the sweet rolls served (they had a surprise black-bean-something in the middle), and read "The Shack" and talked through it forever with Megs. Listened to Imogen's "First Train Home" song, appropriately, and realized I had gone several hours in a row without thinking about Eva, for the first time on the trip. :)

We also found an amazing guesthouse, rightly named 'At Home' - and settled into teak-studded rooms with screens and shutters over big open windows, then had amazing dinners downstairs in Swiss Family Robinson-like open air family room. Singha, cards, Dreamgirls on the big screen TV, and my first taste of Massaman curry... what a place!

Sukhothai: Biking the Ruins
Had a GREAT day in the old capital of Thailand/Siam that is now home to vast acres of temple ruins and remaining statuesque buddhas. Took turns taking pictures of amazing sights - and taking pictures of each other taking pictures. :) Started being able to interact a little more with the local population, saw other people visiting the ruins from all over Asia, admiring families who gathered to worship and give offerings. Laughed at - I mean helped - Meghan when her tire on our already-low old bikes blew out.

Thailand Part I - Bangkok

In honor of Tim and Megs being back home, and since the time is already flying by... I wanted to make sure to capture some of my own mental highlights from our fab trip to Thailand last month. I know I can't remember all the details about our adventure, but between notes we took, photos, my ipod playlist and lingering impressions, I feel like I can hold on to some of the highlights from each stage of the journey. The following posts are just a few photos/experiences/songs that summed up the our trip for me, done in segments. This first post starts off with the first leg of our two-week trip:

Bangkok: Arrival
Arrived at 1 am, got off the plane on the tarmack while listening to "I Gotta Feeling" and grinning, then took crazy cab ride straight to Ko Sahn Road. "Angels" from West Wing soundtrack was playing as we 'descended' into the main streets of Bangkok and got off the highway - so appropriate. Reminded me of Burnout Revenge East Coast driving map...in some ways. :)  Learned to throw toilet paper in the garbage can and shower with everything else outside the bathroom door. Learned that one is capable of sweating even more than previously thought was possible. (Above photo is of our crew together our first night on the town in Bangkok: L-R is Tim, Jed, Peter, Liz, Josh, and Meghan - which includes two sets of siblings, two best friends, two serious camera geekheads, two married couples, five Minnesotans at heart, one Iowan for now, one Michigander, and two Chicagoans!)

Bangkok: Daytime
Saw the familiar stomping grounds for Tim and Meghan's weekends; ate at 'their' breakfast place. Whirlwind day seeing the Grand Palace/related museums/few big Wats downtown, then sitting & talking during an afternoon rainstorm about life and our futures and relationships and expectations and... life. Got street vendor Pad Thai, our first bucket, and shopped along the side streets with Megs. Bargained for fisherman pants before hitting "The Club" and soaking up the air-conditioned internet cafe that charged 1 baht per minute (roughly $2.00 an hour.)

Bangkok: Departure
Packed up for our train ride north to Sukhothai. Had real coffee in upstairs of train station while watching crazy Thai sitcom. Ran back and forth finding right train but had super helpful attendants help us out. Leaving Bangkok I realized I was feeling kind of sad - about the three year olds I had seen running around everywhere at 1:00am, the street people covering the corners just down the block from the clubs, and the fairly visible sex-trade industry that defines the party side of Bangkok. Beautiful country so far - but also complicated.