HOME!

I'm home!

Thailand was wonderful! I was hot all the time, and ate all kinds of very strange foods (most of which were delicious, but some of which I will be happy never to see again!) and met or worked with all kinds of wonderful and interesting people. It was... restful, stressful, stimulating, exhausting, and above all a powerful experience. I thought a lot about being an immigrant, about what it means to be literate and illiterate, about what it means to be part of a culture or apart from a culture... All the stuff that travel does. ("travel broadens the mind" and all that.)

But it is great to be back!

I got off the plane a little over a week ago, and went immediately to Janet's where all my Chicago stuff is stored. I can't tell you how exciting it was to pull out a pair of jeans, t-shirts made of cotton (as opposed to the fast drying, wicking ones I took on my trip), even socks! And sweaters! WOW! I'm loving being a little bit cold after three months of sweating all the time. It amazes me, not being sticky at night when I go to bed.

I am also amazed by the lack of culture shock I am experiencing. Thailand and the US are very different, and yet... it doesn't feel all that different here. I am not sure why. The strangest thing, the thing that freaks me out, is the sun. In Thailand, the sun always rises between 5:30 and 6:00 am, it always sets between 6:30 and 7:00pm. It is dark(!) by 8:00pm. Here, the sun doesn't set until after 7:00pm. It doesn't get dark until 9:00pm or so. It is very strange, and disturbs me: I can't tell time by the sun anymore!

As much as I loved being in Thailand, I LOVE being home. It's all the little things, like knowing which way to look before crossing the street, or what is in my food, or the sub-text in a conversation, or having a conversation at all. These are the things that make being home restful and comforting. These are the things that make me think I am happy not traveling, settling down, getting a job... To that end I attended a conference -- the American Association of Museums conference -- all of last week. It was interesting. Lots of different museums and perspectives on museums. The goal was to explore, and possibly find a job in, exhibit development.

But I've been bitten by the bug. I'm not sure I really want to settle down and be mature and find job and all that. I want to keep traveling! So, I'm not sure what I will do. I have no plans. A very strange, and potentially dangerous place to be!

Bang Fie!

After leaving Wat Phou, I begin the trek back to Thailand. It was a long trek. It took me 12 hours to go 200 miles. I think I've said this before, but it seems to take a long time to travel in Thailand.

My trek started at 8:00am when I waved down the bus back to the city. I arrived in town about an hour and a half later and treated myself to a leasurely breakfast of sum tum and a lovely conversation, in English and Thai, with the young woman who made it. Then I took the smallest tuk-tuk to the bus station (basically it was a motor cycle with a side car, though the "side car" was a double-seater basket thing, rather than the low, 1920s style thing I usually think of -- it would have been sweet for a romantic ride around the city, or attached to a bicycle). At the bus station I waited for an hour or more for my bus to get full enough to justify the ride to the border, but eventually we left and arrived about an hour later . I walked across the border (a strange experience -- it was just a stretch of road, about half a mile long, with very little in the way of signage, and little -- obvious-- security). Then another bus (songtau) to another bus to the train station. Then third class (as usual) to Surin where I had arranged to meet Mook, and some of the other teachers who were at a conference.

I spent then night with Mook, in a very posh hotel -- with real western style mattresses! Thai mattresses are very thin only an inch or two thick. I was often excited to see what I thought was a thick, western mattress, only to find that it was essentially a box spring. Sigh. -- The next day I got to see (and surprise) a bunch of other teachers from the school, one from each department. It was Great to see her, and the other teachers! And funny to go to an education conference in Thai!

After the conference I hoped on a bus and headed back to Prangku. Where, unlike the first time I had tried to visit the teachers there, a month before and at the beginning of the summer, many teachers were on campus and I got to see them and talk with them, and say good-by. A very nice end to my time in Thailand. Full circle.

And I got to continue my Thai dancing career in the very place where it began. In early May, small towns in Thailand celebrate Bang Fie: the rocket festival. In Prangku it is a two day celebration. On the first day there is a parade through town. All the local neighborhoods make a rocket float and drive it through town, accompanied by dancing women. (Can you guess where this is going?) The rockets are HUGE! Nine or ten feel long, with a tail another nine or ten feet long for the fuse. Aew and I went to the parade, wandering around looking at all the rockets and being greeted by former students and fellow teachers and townsfolk everywhere. As we approached the rocket for her neighborhood, an old woman (Aew's aunt?) grabbed me and started teaching me how to dance. As the float started moving down the street she made me walk and dance with her. She made me dance down the street -- The whole way! She wouldn't let me stop! (It felt a bit like the story of the girl with the red shoes -- she loved to dance so much that she neglected her family. She was given a pair of beautiful red shoes that wouldn't let her stop dancing which she couldn't take off. Eventually she either danced her self to death, or danced her feet off (depending on the version of the story you know) and lived in misery, and repentance for the rest of her life.) The old woman kept grabbing my hand and making me dance when ever I stopped for a rest, or made signs like I wanted to go watch the rockets go by. So, I didn't get to see any of the parade. However, we did win first prize for our dancing!

The next day I scrounged up company to go to the shooting of the rockets. All the teachers were either working or claimed to be afraid of the rockets, so I went with Ju's 14-year-old brother. I can see why, honestly, but was determined to go anyway. The way it works is this: anyone can make a rocket that they then enter into the competition to see who's rocket is biggest (and yes, that is a deliberate double meaning -- The purpose of the Bang Fie is to encourage the gods to get busy and make it rain). Then, during the festival, the rockets are shot straight up into the sky. Some of these rockets are incredible. One I saw was up in the air for over 135-seconds. It went so high that it vanished into the clouds! All the gathered spectators watched and scanned the sky for signs for the falling rocket. Eventually, we saw it, falling to the horizon several miles in the distance. Hopefully not on some one's house -- a real danger from the festivities. It was great fun! But definitely a potentially dangerous holiday!

































The next day I got on the train to Bangkok. Third class. For 10 hours. Beautiful country and the ride wasn't too bad --I'm getting used to the hot, crowed compartments, and hard seats. I spent one last afternoon in the big city, then off to the airport for the long flight home.

Luang Phabang

I hardly know where to begin. I hardly know where I ended last time!

This trip has felt like a series of starts. I start doing something, and then change direction. Start doing something else, and then change direction, again. It's a bit frustrating at times. And I feel like a skipping stone: bouncing from one thing to the next without really getting deeper than the surface. Until I suddenly sink.

After leaving Ban Na, Angela and I traveled together toward Luang Phabang (a small, very restful town in the center of the northern part of Laos). We took a bus to Vang Vien, then hoped onto another bus to the tiny town of Kasi. Vang Vien is famous for the adventure experience: caving, hiking, swimming, kayaking, etc. And is in the middle of Karst topography, so is incredibly beautiful! But off we went in search of a less touristy experience. And we got it. Sort of.

Kais is basically a wide spot in the road where the buses stop for meals on the way north and south. So there are a plethora of places to eat, though they all sell the same food with only minor variations. We found a room (a bit of a dive, but what do you expect for $5 per night for two people) and spent the night recovering from our journey. One thing I have learned here it that it takes at least a day to get anywhere by public trans.

The next day, we got up and started exploring. The guide book mentions "rumored caves" and we started searching for them. Asking, in our meager Lao, "Where are the caves?" We were pointed south, along the road we had traveled the previous day and so started walking. Stopping periodically to ask again, "Are the caves this way?" Yes, yes! with a wave south, was always the answer, until we met an old woman working on a sticky rice basket. "Are the caves this way?" we ask. "Oyi!" she says, and calls her son. "Are the caves this way?" we ask, again. "No! They are the other way," the way we had just come from! What can you do but laugh! The wonderful perk though, was that we found, by pure chance, the only fluent English teacher in the town!

He and his friend acted as tour guides taking us to two caves and a waterfall. These two natural wonders mean something slightly different in Thai/Lao than in English I think. "Caves" are almost always shallow and almost always have Buddha's in them -- I think they have some sort of religious significance, though I am not sure what. "Waterfalls" are sometimes what we think of as a waterfall, but can also be what we call a "rapids" where the water falls only a foot or even a few inches. They were all beautiful though! Angela and I spent the day, just resting in the quiet and the green! Beautiful!

Next day it was on to the big city of Luang Phabang. It has become a tourist haven. It is always a shock to me to see Farang after spending weeks surrounded by Laos people, I forget that I am one too. So, as usual, in my 6-year old way, I started pointing out all the Farang I saw ("Oh, look! there is a Farang!"). This lasted until Angela dared me to point them all out! I quickly realized that I would be saying nothing but "Farang!" for days, and stopped.

Luang Phabang is a very restful city. I can't quite figure out why. Some of is the presence of all the Farang (Black, White, and Asian -- technically "Nippon" I was told by a Thai person). Some of it is the presence of the blend of Western and Eastern architecture. Some of it is the fact that during the day, all the Farang head out on tours, and those that stay in the city are very quite and slow and peaceful. Not running frantically from site to sight to see it all as quickly as possible.

Most of our days we spent being lazy, but on my last day, I did the "frantic tourist" thing and went on not one, but two "treks!" One was a lazy boat trip (2.5 hours round trip) to see the "Buddha Caves," "Whiskey Village," and "Paper Village." The latter two are villages that specialize in making whiskey and paper to sell to tourists. Cool to see the whole process, but I was more than happy to skip sampling the whiskey. The Buddha Caves are two caves on the river full of, you guessed it, Buddha statues. People take their old, damaged Buddha's to the caves as a good place to let them sink back into the Universe. It is surprisingly restful, and Romantically beautiful, to visit all the dust covered statues.

That afternoon I took a second trek to the "Waterfall." An hour by tuk-tuk to one of the most spectacular sites I've seen here. The waterfall is very tall and falls first down the cliff, and then from rich turquoise pool to rich turquoise pool. It reminded me of postcards of a tropical island, somewhere no one ever goes. Or a tiny bit of Yellowstone National Park. Awesome in the literal sense of the word.

Next day I flew (going way over budget!) down to Pakxe where I made the trek out to Wat Phou. A Khmer ruin that was one of the first World Heritage Sites in Laos. It is Huge! and, again, very beautiful. It is one of the largest ruins outside of Cambodia. Again, very Romantic climb up steep-steep stairs to two "palaces" and a temple where wonderful carvings of ancient figures are still crisp and new looking!

I had a bit of an adventure getting there. And a bit of a whirl-wind visit. Up in the morning early in LP for one last tourist moment: a fantastic view of the Monks collecting alms in the morning. This is a tradition that occurs all over Thailand and Laos. The monks go out in the morning around 5 or 6am and walk the streets with big silvery bowls (and bags). The people line the streets, kneeling, with their offerings in hand. As the monks pass by, food from the people is placed in the bowl that the monks carry. (For those who remember, Jacob got to go with the monks on the morning we spent in the Forest Temple (I didn't get to go, being a woman) -- I think I posted that story, maybe not) The corner outside my hotel was one of the most amazing places to see this event. At about 6:20am, literally hundreds of Orange clad monks filed past, one at a time, walking down the hill and around the corner. Each collecting a small handful of food from each of the 10 or so people kneeling on the corner. The sight was only marred by the presence of other Farang running around photographing the event.

Tuk-tuk to the airport and a domestic flight from the north of Laos to the south of Laos -- not really that different from domestic flights anywhere, except that the announcements were all in Lao. And the x-ray machine was at the very entrance to the airport.

In Pakxe I shared a tuk-tuk to a hotel, but changed my mind at the last minute and caught a bus to Champasake -- once the capital of one of the three kingdoms in Laos when the French colonised it, now a wide spot on the road. The most exciting part of the trip, other than the old man who spoke very good English and told me about the history of this part of the country, was the fact that the bus I was on, took a ferry ride across the river! A bus on a ferry! A ferry, mind you, that is only big enough for about 6 cars. At my hotel, I rented a motorcycle and drove like a lunatic (sans helmet) the 15km to the ruins. There I payed my 3,000kip ($3.00 US) to enter the grounds and spent the next 3 hours wandering around in the blazing sun climbing many long sets of stairs to the rather small temple on the side of the hill. It was beautiful though. And worth it. And it was very cool to explore along the cliff wall behind the temple to see all the carvings and whatnot, made in the thousand or so years since the temple was built. (As an art-historian, I have to admit a shocking lack of knowledge about this part of the world, so I can't say much more than this about it).

Going down again, I had a wonderful bowl of soup (no meat!) and as a result, got locked in! Imagine me riding my scooter around the grounds, going from closed gate to closed gate, trying to talk to people and figure out how to get home! Very comic. I eventually made it out, only to get stopped on the road by some sort of procession! Girls with "money trees" and crazy women blocking traffic on the road, offering shots of Lao-Lao to drivers, and then demanding donations for getting the drivers drunk! The often quoted excuse, "It makes me a better driver..." may actually have been true in my case.