Meditation and Motorbikes, Chiang Mai

Right now I'm in Louang Phabang, Laos and I just had my $3, 1 hour foot massage that includes the head, shoulders, back, and arms. This is simply divine! Rejuvenated, I'm ready to tackle my blog again. Don't worry, it's not all this good. I've already found cockroaches and other big bugs in my bed.

So it only took a couple of days in Chiang Mai, a city in Northern Thailand, to realize that it is exceedingly difficult to have anything other than a very touristy experience in Thailand. I feel like I'm on vacation (which technically I am but . . . ). One day a cooking class. One day some hilltribe trekking. One day elephant riding and bamboo rafting. Life is easy, Thai food is good, it must be time for a meditation retreat! I found out about the retreat when I went to "Monk Chat" with Maria, a Spanish woman I met at the train station, and learned a ton about Buddhism. This was an open forum, just myself, Maria and the monk. I found out why there are no fat monks here: they only eat twice a day - 7 a.m. when the locals give food to the monks for merit and at noon, and the food given isn't always great. However, I also found out that the older monks who sometimes are fat, may have lost "the way" and don't know a life other than monkhood. These monks stay in the monkhood, lounging about, watching TV and eating lots of food. Anyway, I thought the two-day meditation retreat would be a good cultural experience (majority of Thais are Buddhist), though exceedingly boring, especially for someone like me who enjoys rather active pursuits. They took us 1/2 hour out of the city to a beautiful International Meditation Training Center. Right away we started in on the meditation, walking style first. The entire goal of this concentration meditation is to find peace and calm by eliminating all thoughts from your brain and coming to the present moment. Obviously, this is impossible. We followed this with sitting meditation. I can't possibly explain how uncomfortable this was! I've tried to think of an analogy and just can't. Inevitably, since you are sitting cross-legged, the right foot falls asleep. This means you have about 10 minutes left. When we came out of the meditation Pra Non, our monk instructor, says, "Don't worry of the foot. It is nature's way." Great! The next morning we woke at 5 a.m. for another 5 hours of meditation, rotating between the sitting and walking styles. The previous evening I saw some progress in my meditation, but in the morning I could only pray for the end. It was clear that this much Thai meditation was going to require some therapeutic Thai massage! Truthfully, I did find the whole experience calming, and not the least bit boring, but certainly intense.

After a couple of days in Chiang Mai, I decided to check out the countryside and a British bloke I met, Andy, joined me on a bus ride to Pai. This bus ride was the worst I've had in my life to this point. It was 4 hours on an uncomfortable seat, over the wheel well, without A/C. Urgh. Pai is as touristy as Chiang Mai so we rented motorbikes and headed out. Riding down the "open road" on my 125 cc, semi-automatic (no clutch) motorbike was the most enjoyable and refreshing experience I've had in Thailand. Unbelievable mountain scenery where trees seem to grow straight out of cliffs, with the wind blowing in my hair (sorry dad, no helmet), I really felt wonderful. The first stop on our trip was to the Karen Longneck hilltribe. Visiting this village is a bit like going to the zoo. All the people feel like they are on "display" which is a bit weird, but everyone was very nice and of course with all the colorful clothing and neck rings it's visually very different. They asked me to sit down and gave me all the proper Longneck attire, headscarves and neckrings. Those rings are heavy!!! Indeed, if an adult woman was to take them off, her muscles have atrophied so much that her head would fall over, snapping her neck, and she would die. Certainly this borders on a type of women's rights issue. They either do it because the men think it looks beautiful or it started as a way to ward off evil spirits (they are animist). I never did find out which it is. However, since it's such a tourist attraction, the custom probably won't die out soon. Most of these hilltribes are refugees from the dictatorship in Myanmar so it also earns them a living.

From there, we headed to Mae Aw, a tiny village 1 km from Myanmar. This required a 40 km escapade up a very steep and winding road. Andy almost ran out of gas, and went back down to town, but I didn't know this. I freaked out a bit since there was only 20 minutes of light left, but fortunately I continued up to Mae Aw. It was amazing and tranquil, right on a lake, and I showed up just in time for dinner. There were only two other tourists in town and we stayed up late chatting and drinking. Sleeping here was another matter. First, I pulled back the sheets to find a cockroach, and then decided to sleep on top of the sheets. Then, the cacophony of sounds began. It started as dogs barking viciously back and forth across the lake. At about 3 a.m. the roosters took over. At 5 a.m. I gave up. The sunrise over the lake was spectacular and my bungalow was 5' from the water with my own mini-dock. I could have sat there all day. Back to Pai it was though, where I found Andy waiting for the bus - I had both of our tickets.



A few notes about Thailand:

1.) There are all sorts of old white men here with young Thai women. I'm not sure what to make of this other than it's clear that anyone can be a sugar daddy here.

2.) Trying to cross the street is like playing the old video game Frogger. Any Californian who waits for the little man to appear on the streetlight is simply never going to make it across the street. Thankfully, I've been successful so far (knock on wood). You really have to step out there and hope the cars slow down for you.

3.) This country is unbelievably touristy and so easy to travel in. You never need to go more than 20' to find someone who will get you a visa, bus ticket, do your laundry, send you trekking, etc. I think it's easier to travel here than in Europe. However, it's very difficult to get off the beaten path.

4.) Thai cooking - I had really felt intimidated by Thai cooking before for some reason. It turns out it's as simple as having a Cuisinart and a wok. The hardest part is tracking down the ingredients. Thankfully, they gave me a cookbook and hopefully I will remember something by the time I get home!

Other notes: It's very easy to meet people travelling. In fact, I've spent very little time by myself yet. Also, you start running into the same people all over the place. One woman who was in my cooking class in Chiang Mai, sat next to me on the bus to Chiang Khong and then I've run into her twice in Louang Phabang. Crazy.

For photos of Chiang Mai click here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39463330@N00/sets/72057594085330105/