Chiang Mai

We train north out of the capitol. We can’t understand how the 450 mile trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai can possibly take the 12 hours scheduled until our train pulls into the Bangkok station. Ethan turned to me and asked, “Where is the engine? Our train doesn’t have an engine.” Unlike the trains we have taken throughout Europe, there is no separate car for the engine. This was more like a streetcar or a subway car, where the engine and the car are all one unit. We had some serious issues with the lack of power when we were trying to make it up the steeper slopes, and, in fact, we slid back a few times. We even thought we’d have to get out and push on one notable occasion. Have you ever been on a train that needed to downshift for hills?

The trip itself, except for being a bit too long, was glorious, traveling through endless terraced rice paddies, interspersed with golden wats. Whilst in England (BTW, you can use a word like “whilst” only when discussing places like England), we learned that the difference between a hamlet and a town was that the latter had a church. Well, whatever the Southeast Asian equivalent, there are NO hamlets in Thailand. No matter how small the village, there was a wat and sometimes a large (read: 50’) golden Buddha, sometimes looking like it was sitting in the middle of a rice paddy. Our destination, the city of Chiang Mai, apparently has over three hundred wats. Suffice it to say, we did not try to see most of them.

We arrive late (12 hours was an underestimate of the time), and find our way to the doorstop of my friend Ken, who recently moved here from the Bahamas. We explore the cultural and natural sites of the area, including the highest mountain in Thailand. There are beautiful waterfalls, and we are puzzled by the origin of all the water up here. There are no lakes or glaciers on the mountains. The mountains look different in this part of the world. I don’t know how to describe it, but they look Asian.

Our family took a two day trek through the hill country, visiting the local hill tribes, and staying in their huts. Many tribes from the surrounding area, including Burma (Myanmar), China and Laos, have fled their homelands for freedom to maintain their identity here. Most of the villages have no roads to them, the only way to go from village to village is by hiking (now, some risk the steep slopes with motor scooters. They lived without electricity and running water until recently, although the town we visited had satellite dishes in evidence. After the trek, we took a bamboo raft down a beautiful river, with towering vegetation and an occasional elephant on either side.

Having ridden on horses, camels and ostriches, we decide that our repertoire of animal backs would not be complete without a trip on the top of a pachyderm. It is an amazingly comfortable ride, almost akin to being on a small boat rocking on gentle waves. Unfortunately, our “vessels” got hot and cooled themselves off with a bit of a shower. We were all drenched.

On our last day in Chiang Mai, Ken, Siena and I took a Thai cooking course. We made, and ate, a 6 course meal. The food was easy and quick to prepare, and, if I may say so, a-roi, which means “delicious” rolling the “r”, in Thai. After, we hopped on the night train back to Bangkok. Of course, “night” would imply that the train left and arrived during the night. We left at 4:30 p.m. and pulled into the Bangkok train station at almost 9:30 a.m.

Sawadi- caa (hello, good morning, good evening, and goodbye, spoken by a woman, in Thai. Men say sawadi- cap, if you are not forceful enough with the “p” it is a sign of not being manly…)

The Beatties