Thailand

 tuk-tuk = motorcycle cab; motorcycle engine with a small bed behind where the passengers sit

 sawngthaew = pronounced "sawng thiyo" is a pick-up truck whose bed has been converted into a seating space by adding two fold-down rows and a low metal roof where more stuff/people can go on top

 chedi = jedi = stupa = monument that contains Buddhist relics, either of Buddha himself (major stupa) or of an important monk from that particular wat (small stupa)

 wat = Buddhist temple/monastery (monks live on the temple grounds)

 Anything else you want to know, just ask!

Statue of Rama V in Old Sukhothai, Thailand. Ruins of the ancient capital.

SUKHOTAI, THAILAND, Date: Sat, 03 Nov 2001 04:35:03

We're in Sukhotai now, the ancient capital of Thailand. It's about 400 km north of Thailand. We're planning on heading west to Mae Sot on the Myanmar border. We'll ask around first to make sure it's safe. The planned itinerary is: 4 Nov: Si Satchanalai and Old Sukhotai and Ban Hat Siaw; 5 Nov: Mae sot via Tak.  After this, we're not sure of dates (where and for how long we want to stay at each place), but the general idea is: Mae Sot to Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son, south to Doi Inthanon National Park, east to Chiang Mai.  From Chiang Mai we will fly to Vientiane, Laos around 15 November. Then two weeks or so in Laos, and off to use our Vietnam visa starting 1 December-ish. We'll try to stay in Vietnam for more than our allotted two weeks (visa extension), hopefully to the end of December.  We'll keep in touch as much as possible, although the phone situation is tough here (not working and/or very expensive). It seems that we should have good access to e-mail, though we don't know about the next week or so.

BANGKOK and ANCIENT THAILAND, Date: Mon, 05 Nov 2001 06:01:00

Back on the roads

Chapter Thailand: where we become fashion experts, melt from the heat, see many Buddhas and discover our inner biker chick goddesses

Part I: "No export center, please... alright, just one store"

Getting around Bangkok by tuk tuk is easy and cheap, and it's hard and expensive, all at the same time. We got to see a lot of the major tourist sites with tuk tuk drivers waiting for us and directing us how to avoid paying admission fees, and we paid very little for the rides (ranging from nothing to about 10 baht or 25 cents). A typical ride would be: Standing Buddha, then lucky Buddha (every one that has no other distinguishing characteristic is called "lucky"), then custom tailoring store, and finally whatever destination we originally specified. The deal was that we pay little and they get free gas for taking us to the tailor shop. The catch was that we had to pretend this was our first trip to any tailor store (all five times!). The painful part was pretending to be interested in purchasing a suit or dress while our tuk tuk driver got his free gas. As we reported in our last e-mail, this scheme was part of a government promotion. Turns out the "last day of government promotion" is every day in Thailand! What a special country! The tuk tuk bargaining quickly left the price issue to focus on how long we had to stay in the store. They started at "10-15 minutes, you look!" and we got them down to "5-10 minutes, don't worry, we'll act interested."  Thanks to our tuk tuk drivers, we visited:

Standing Buddha, Reclining Buddha, Lucky Buddha #1,2, and 3, the Grand Palace, the Chinese and Indian quarters, and a Sikh temple. It was really fun touring the last half of this list. We wandered into the Sikh temple and were soon invited to take our shoes off, cover our heads, wash our hands, take part in the sacrament, bow to the scriptures, and then wash our hands again. We sat down after this, wondering what it all meant when an old Sikh man next to us (the only other person aside from the priest in the enormous prayer hall) began to chat with us. We spent the next two hours touring the temple with him, seeing the scriptures in various rooms as well as the architecture of the temple itself. The tour ended with an invitation to come to a wedding to see the ceremony and partake of the feast.

"Pictures, no problem!" Very friendly! We were also welcome to come to breakfast during the morning prayer time -- as early as 5 am, no later than 9:30. It seems that the Sikhs have the same kind of attachment to food as the Jews: food at every event, food between events, and inviting guests to eat when they come.

Part II: "Is that dog dead? And that one? Are they ALL dead?"

We set out to explore Thailand in the so called "cool season," and are afraid to ask what the hot season is like. While no Thai people ever seem to sweat, we are so wet from the heat we have begun taking 3 cold showers a day. We thought we were alone in our suffering from the heat, as we experienced several unmotivated days in Bangkok when all we wanted to do was lie on the floor with our legs and arms spread, moving not an inch. But we are not alone. The animals here have the same idea: every single dog and cat we have seen has been playing dead in the street. They lie down with their eyes closed, and do not move a centimeter no matter how close a roaring motorcycle comes to their head. If we had no shame, we would lie right down next to them. We have some dignity though. The moral of the story is: don't visit Thailand in the hot season.

Part III: "I think I know that girl..."

We were in Bangkok on the night of the Full Moon Festival, celebrated on the 11th Lunar month. This year the holiday fell on Halloween, so there were double the festivities on Khao San road, the backpacker's turf. We spent the day taking a river boat up and down the Chao Phraya, absorbing the river life, the homes and boats that line up the river banks. We then walked the streets, and were amazed by the decorations made of banana leaves and flowers, all pinned to a bamboo circle thing. It's hard to explain, but the result was a very pretty flower arrangement with a candle and incense stuck in the middle. We didn't know what this was for until later that evening when Thais flocked to the river side to light these candle floaties and lower them to the river.  The effect was that the whole river was illuminated by floating river flowers.

We went to a coffee shop and had a tasty brownie, when three guys and a girl walked in and Hagar whispered to Michael " I think I went to school with that girl." Indeed, she did. it was a girl that she has known since kindergarten and has not seen since fourth grade. just to show you how many Israelis hang around Khao San...

Part IV: Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai -- Ancient Thailand

After Bangkok, we headed north to Phitsanulok, which houses the second most important Buddha in Thailand, after the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok (housed in the Grand Palace). The Buddha was cast in 1357 to fill the newly constructed Wat Yai and has a huge flame halo around its head. Very impressive. We also saw a folk culture museum, a Buddha casting foundry (where copies of the Wat Yai Buddha are made), and were given a ride by a nice Thai gentleman from Worcester, MA, of all places! The car had air-con and when he offered us a ride all the way to Sukhothai, we got a bit giddy.

But when we told him we'd have to pick up our packs from our hotel first, the offer disappeared just like the beads of sweat which evaporated from our foreheads, as we trudged many, many miles uphill to the bus station (all right, it was fifty feet and flat, but it was hot). In Sukhothai we saw nothing because there is nothing.

Part V: Hagar is one bad biker babe.

The next day, we decided to visit Si Satchanalai, but instead of taking the bus, we rented a motorbike. Since Michael's ATV mishap in Costa Rica, neither Michael nor Hagar want Michael to drive. So Hagar hopped on the bike and after some not-so-encouraging initial riding ("Oh, gears! Crazy things, these bikes!"), we were soon on the road riding hard. As the pavement passed beneath the tires, a change was wrought on these two weary travelers. Helmets strapped tight, shades covering eyes, and wind blowing through our hair, and our inner biker chick goddesses emerged. We began to pass people (tractors and pedestrians at first), and confidence soared, as did speed. For a moment the picture of two sweaty foreigners in silly helmets on a tiny 100-cc bike disappeared and was replaced with a Harley Davidson bestraddled by two snake-bite-shot-drinking, no-bull-taking, tough-talking, smooth-walking, bad bikers (one bad biker chick, and one bad biker dude) with leather pants with butt cheeks cut out. Even Jack Kerouac couldn't touch our sense of freedom then.

We pulled over for an ice cold Coke (beer in our fantasy world), and suavely wiped the sweat from our brows. We got back on the bike, and Hagar kicked the starter. Nothing. She kicked it again. Nothing. Michael tried. Less than nothing. The laughing Thais who sold us the Coke walked over and started it for us. The key was in wrong. The next time, it was because we didn't have the lowest gear on. The last time, it was because the engine wasn't primed. Not so slick, after all.

We arrived at our destination, and drove around the historical park with our bike. We saw some incredible wats and chedis and Buddhas and remains of Buddahs all dating from the 11th to the 13th centuries. Then we climbed back on our bikes and moved on to Ban Haet Saew, where we saw the whole village working on looms underneath their stilt homes, weaving intricate Thai designs and fabrics. Finally, we rode back to New Sukhothai, where we resided in the Yuppa House, a 'family home' that had problems with the water.  Sometimes there was water for showers, sometimes we had to take showers in the owner's home. It was cozy.

Today we went to Old Sukhothai for more old temples. We rented bicycles, and rode around looking at the old religious sites among well-kept grounds of the park. It was nice, but it is a more touristy place than Si Satchanalai and the grounds were sculpted in a style reminiscent of Disneyland. We prefer the old, abandoned wild feel.

We have moved on to the west, and are now in Mae Sot, a town on the border of Myanmar. We took a bus to Tak and then changed to a minibus that dropped us off in front of a guesthouse. We would have preferred the bus station, but bus drivers here feel that it is their duty to take us to their friends' businesses. Makes sense.

Tomorrow we will cross the border into Myanmar and also visit some temples and hill tribe villages. Then we will make our way north along the border to Mae Sariang and Mae Hong Son, and off to Chiang Mai. We should be in Laos on the 15th of November.

By the way, it is Hagar's national birthday month. Now, it has been taken to international levels so everyone must celebrate Hagar's International Birthday Month. We wonder why the Thais never heard of it. It's world famous!  It's also Guy Fawkes' Day. We hope you're celebrating these two important holidays.

MAE SARIANG, THAILAND: Thu, 08 Nov 2001 03:25:19

Our adventures never end!

We have a lot to tell you, although it has only been a couple of days since our last email!

On 11/6 we spent the day in Mae Sariang, another town bordering Myanmar. We rented a motorcycle with four functioning gears (an upgrade from our last bike), and took to the road again. We did have some hassles with the renting company and it took us quite some time to get going, but once we were on the road all was forgotten.

First we went to the Myanmar border, about 5 km from town. We parked our bike and walked around the border market, which was quite interesting. The street-side part of the market was full of touristy items: cheap jade, wooden elephants and tacky jewelry. But as we descended into the depth of the market we found ourselves surrounded by a mix of every-day Thai items, from clothes to toiletries to two-channel wireless microphone and speaker systems and karaoke CDs. We even found a huge mega-box of Chocky, the chocolate poky sticks we recognized from Japan. We wandered about for a while, but the low tin roofs (about five feet) started giving us sore necks so we left.

We next headed towards a Burmese style wat, and after getting lost twice, found our way. It was a regular wat, with monks hanging out smoking, and a huge, one hundred-foot-long reclining Buddha with what looked like red lipstick and nail polish. We continued up the side road towards the next wat, whose name we still recall: Wat Phra Tat Doi Din Kiu (Ju). We climbed up a 300m high hill to find a chedi on top of a boulder balanced on the edge of a cliff. Very impressive. We also saw another chedi and Buddha in similarly scenic spots, as well as a Buddha in a cave. The view was breathtaking from the hill, as we were treated to a panoramic view of Thai rice fields leading up to the Mae Nam Salawin river which marks the border, and acres of teak and cherry wood forests on the Myanmar side. Everything was green, and the air was clean and not humid. After the wat, we decided to turn down a small dirt road just for fun, which headed in the general direction of the main road.

Michael got some courage and decided to take to the wheel. We tumbled and jumped along the rocky road, yelping and holding on tight. We slowly arrived at what looked like the town store where many guys yelled at us in excitement "sawat-dii!" So we screeched to a stop, and got off the bike, and thought to ourselves to maybe eat lunch among this friendly company. We came to the store and were greeted by an aggressive old man who shoved two glasses of ice-cold beer into our hands. Refusing was not an option (we tried!), as he shoved the glasses into our hands and then pushed the glass into our mouths so that beer was flowing everywhere. We bought two bottles of beer from the store, and plopped them down onto the table to everyone's delight. We laughed and drank for about a half an hour, communicating where we were from and that we liked Thailand, etc. Their second question after where we were from was whether or not we were married, followed by how many children we have! The phrasebook came in very handy, with lots of pointing and mispronunciations on everyone's part. One guy kept pointing to and trying to say some of the stranger questions.

All of a sudden, they found the word, "to swim" and we said, "Yes, swim." and thought we were just sharing words. Next thing we know, the old guy drags us into a truck and the rest pile into the back. They reassured us that the motorcycle will be fine and gave us the front seats. The driver smiled and showed us his picture of Rama V, to which we all bowed. We drove off towards Myanmar on a non-road and parked near the river. The guys (a bit drunk by now) flew off into the river while a few stayed just long enough to tell us, "Thailand, OK, Myanmar, rat-a-tat-tat! (gun noises)." We looked at each other, and they repeated with their hands that we should definitely NOT swim over to Myanmar.

We expressed our lack of bathing suits and were laughed at, and finally in we went with our jeans and t-shirts, leaving everything else behind. The old man was exceptionally keen on having us swim with the group, and so he shoved and pulled us into the water. We alternately floated, walked against the current, laughed, ran through the water in mini-races, and watched the old man fall down laughing. We were still trying to figure out who he was and what he was doing drinking with 20-some year-olds.

Anyway, we had a nice time and saw a few Thai and Myanmar army/border patrol boats float by. After they passed another boat pulled up. It was time to go, we were told. So we took pictures of the group, and one of the old man and the Burmese woman that was with us. She got very angry at the man when he tried to kiss her. then she climbed on the boat and was (we think) smuggled across the border. We piled onto the truck and went back to the motorcycle.

Soon after we left the town, we came upon a chedi under construction. It was very interesting to see every piece worked on carefully by hand by monks and lay locals. The monks welcomed us and asked us if we had eaten yet. We said, "Not yet" in Thai (go, phrasebook!) and they soon gave us Pepsi, bags of food and snacks, and bottles of water as if that were the most natural thing in the world to do with passing tourists. Very grateful, but with nothing to give in return, we made a small donation to the wat. The monks wouldn't accept the money, and pointed us to the equivalent of an abbot ("big boss" said one monk) to offer the donation.

We spent the rest of the day riding our bike through local Karen villages (not the refugee camps, which we saw the next day), and the night was spent at the KCB cafe chatting and playing darts with the local English speakers and a few other westerners who were volunteering at a clinic for Karen refugees. Later that evening, we tooled around town in our bike, savoring the last precious moments of freedom and choice in our transportation method. We also went to a local fair and took a ride on a Ferris wheel until we noticed that one of the cables was in less than ok shape. we quickly got off.

The next day it was time to move on to Mae Sariang. We went to the bus station and missed the 10 a.m. bus by 2 minutes. By the way, this wasn't really a bus. It is called sawngthaew (pronounced song-tyoo)-- a pick-up truck, and its bed featured two uncomfortable benches, one on each side. There was a roof too, but we spent most of the time on the floor, facing the rear and watching the scenery. in order to give you a good idea of the ride, we will list some defining features:

a)       The driver seemed to be doing his grocery shopping the whole trip. We bought good-luck flowers for the car, bananas, green beans for him and the Shan woman sitting next to us, five bamboo baskets full of charcoal from a Burmese man with tattooed legs, and a wooden moose head from a police check-point. At every stop, sellers seemed to appear from the bushes at the sound of the driver's honk, as if they were expecting us.

b)       The low roof, at first "rustic," soon became "low." Our necks started to really hurt as we twisted them in order to see out the side to avoid getting too car sick. Sitting on the floor was ruled out when we were pushed aside in favor of the charcoal.

c)       We rode with between 1 and 10 other passengers, depending on how close we were to the Karen villages. With just three of us, it was kind of fun riding and looking out at the scenery, but when there were 13 of us all jammed into the back along with the charcoal, ants from the bananas, and our bags, it got less than fun.

d)       At first, when the road was straight and flat, we remarked at the slowness and safety-consciousness of our driver, and were quite thankful. We were mistaken. Our driver was a maniac. We don't exaggerate when we say that both of us were contemplating how to save ourselves in case the truck fell off the cliff. The truck would feel like it was about to roll on most tight turns, and the driver constantly drifted over into the opposite lane in order to cut corners tighter (if anyone out there has played racing video games, he was doing exactly what you do to avoid using brakes on turns). Hagar would like to add that she has several times yelped and grabbed on to other passengers in fright. This was not China; the driver was even crazier, and this was real fear!

Despite the difficult drive, it was nice pulling into Mae Sariang, where we soon met three other travelers (a Canadian couple and an English ex-consultant) who were very friendly. We shared dinner, a movie (Cats and Dogs, now showing in Mae Sariang on someone's DVD system for hire!), and lots of great conversation. The Canadian couple had rented a 4x4 and drove us to Mae Hong Son, where we now are. It was great having fun company for such a long time.

We're planning on doing a 3 or 4 day trek from here, and then on to Chiang Mai. We'll let you know how that went when we get back (expect elephants and rafting).

MAE HONG SON, THAILAND: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 07:39:13

Well, let’s just say that the next time we plan on a trek, we'll eat only well-cooked, boiling hot vegetables the day before.  We don't exactly know what happened, but right after dinner, two nights before our trek, Hagar got sick.  So, due to a fever and a bit of stomach aches, we visited the hospital instead of the jungle.  But that gave us the following insight about the medical care in Thailand: although our doctor was only 24 years old, and wore jeans and a t-shirt, we were very pleased with the care we received. 

The hospital was spotless, we were seen right away -- it took only 10 minutes to actually see the doctor! -- we waited for lab test results at the actual lab (it took 3 minutes) and the entire doctor visit plus medications of sorts all cost less than 10 dollars.  So we give four thumbs up to the Thai medical system.  Or maybe just to this particular hospital.  If you're going to get sick in Thailand, get sick in Mae Hong Son.

Much more relaxing, but much less fun, was the elephant ride and bamboo rafting that we did.  The rafting was very uneventful, although we did pass many longboats zooming by in the water and saw interesting tribal huts on the shore.  The elephant ride was very, very uneventful, except for our bottoms, which had all the chafing they could handle.  We were seated on a wooden bench on top of the elephant's back (we got a runt, by the way).  We didn't quite fit on the bench, which was OK at first, but after an hour, we were ready to get off.  Ow.  Our elephant kept walking away from the trail and spraying us from his trunk.  That was pretty fun, we must admit.  Although in hindsight, it's kind of like elephant-sneeze-juice all over us.  Less fun.  As a final goodbye gesture, the elephant peed in the river while we waited patiently.  About a gallon and a half later (at least), he finished the slow walk up to the tourist-departure-depot.

Yesterday we went to the air port and tried to get on a flight to Chiang Mai, but all the flights for the day were full!  So we took a grueling 7-hour bus ride, which was very slow and safe, but painful.  It convinced us that, for our 12-hour bus ride (which we expect to take on Friday), we will upgrade to a 2^nd-class bus so that at least we'll have some leg room.  Thai people fit on these small buses perfectly but we are a couple of inches too bulky.

We are now in Chiang Mai, and saw some interesting wats today.  Then we took a nap, and ran into the Canadian couple that took us to Mae Hong Sot.  We hung out with them for dinner and had a great time.  We also met a nice American couple that lives in Utah now (they are from the East Coast though) and we have been spending some time with them too.  It's been refreshing to find some tourists who are less interested in beer and more interested in actually seeing Thailand.

So that is all.  Tomorrow we will return to our favorite activity -- the motorcycle!  We hope this doesn't sound whiny -- we were very disappointed about the trek, but we hope to go on one later on when we regain all our strength!  Until then, our adventures continue!

CHIANG MAI TO PRASAT PEUAI NOI, THAILAND: Tue, 20 Nov 2001 05:17:24

The chicken people who wouldn't get off the bus (the title of this email will be explained later on)

We haven't sent an email for some time because, well, nothing happened to us.  And then when stuff did start happening, we had no email connection. But here we are, your loyal emailers on the go once again.

Last time we wrote we were in Mae Hong Son, recovering from some evil food consumption.  Since then, we have taken a hellish bus ride to Chiang Mai.  There is no good bus ride, it seems.  They are either too fast or too slow.  This one was going at yak's speed, and there was enough leg room for a very short three year old, which makes the 5-and-some hours bus ride quite uncomfortable, and at the least bit, cramped.  Nicole, traveling with her husband Paul from Utah, said after two hours, "This ride is starting to really suck."  An hour later, we all sort of nodded without speaking about the suckage.  The worst thing about it was that we were going to fly to Chiang Mai, but all the flights were full, which was really odd because we hadn't seen more than 10 tourists on any given day in this dinky little town.

Once we got to Chiang Mai, we drank fruit shakes and ate Italian food.  Typical Thai stuff.  Michael had rambutan, papaya, and banana shakes while Hagar tended to stick with Thai iced tea.  Both had freshly made pasta with fresh tomato, basil, garlic, and olive oil following bruschette and salad.  More typical Thai stuff.  After a couple days in Chiang Mai, we finally saw some Thai people who didn't speak English, which was nice, because until then all we'd seen were westerners and Thais who didn't speak Thai more than once a day.  But there were some perks in Chiang Mai. 

We rented a motorcycle again, and began a trend in our day trips: we went in a loop, passing through some incredible mountain scenery, and visiting villages and parks along the way.  we stopped at the Royal Botanical Garden which was huge and very nice, and then kept driving through the surprisingly cold mountains.  In fact, it was so cold that we stopped on the way next to a fence where some guy was selling used clothing from the 80s.  It was a suspiciously well-placed vendor spot.  We ended up with two zip-up jackets,  one plain black and one bright blue with Chinese writing. We are determined to find out what the writing says and are hoping we are not offending anyone by wearing it.  One can only hope that it doesn't say "we hate Thailand" or "Communism will rule the earth" or something like that.

We pulled over for lunch after visiting a pleasant wat with a nice view and were quickly engaged in conversation by a teacher from the local school.  He asked us how long we were visiting, etc., and then got our address.  Will he write?  We're giving odds as two-to-one against.  After lunch, we saw a dirt road and decided to go down it.  Or up it, actually.  Up and up.  And then the smooth dirt road became a chunky-cement-rock-dirt road with sections where Michael jogged up while Hagar somehow maneuvered the bike safely.  The whole time thinking, of course, "How are we getting down?"  At the top, we found a Hmong village which was untouristed.  And uninteresting.  The Hmong are people just like we are people, and we walked by the town store, some homes, some chickens, trucks, motorbikes, kids, adults, grandparents, and lettuce fields.  It was a good experience to visit a "hill tribe" and find satellite TV and nothing on show for tourists.  We say this because there are advertisements by trekking companies promising tours to the Karen Long Neck villages and other people who, after escaping ethnic cleansing in Burma, have found that the only way to make a living in refugee camps is to play dress-up with clothes and jewelry they used to wear, for a few Baht.  The whole thing is depressing, and we felt good just seeing these "hill tribe" peoples working their fields and living their lives without the tourist circus following them.

The ride back was cold except for our stop at the Coffee Cottage, serving cappuccino, espresso, etc. as well as brownies and other treats.  That typical Thai stuff just won't end!  When will we get Western comforts?!  We enjoyed our tea and treats and continued on, deciding we would seek Western comforts elsewhere -- we took an overnight bus to Khong Kaen, in the northeast, quite a ways away.

The bus ride was another hellish one.  No details on this except to say: Overnight, No sleep.  Cold.  Very cold. No leg room.  Ow.  Cold.  Okay, those were details, but it was not pleasant.  And the air-con controls were OUTSIDE the bus.  We debated manufacturing ropes out of our one square foot blankets to leap outside the bus and operate the controls while moving, but decided we wouldn't take the risk of losing those precious warmth providers.  So we had to wait until the driver stopped to pee and ask him to turn it off.  Which he did, and we slept for the next half hour until he stopped again and turned it back on while we were sleeping!

There's not much to do in Khong Kaen, but we had a great time renting a bike again and touring the area for Hagar's International Birthday, recognized by all we met.  We visited Chonnabot, a village with a wonderful home industry.  At the exhibition centre (read "big store"), we were treated to an explanation (in Thai) of the mut-mee process where the threads are laid out on a rack, and "tyed" into patterns, then dyed.  After the design is dyed into the thread, the threads are re-spun into a single thread and then woven on a hand loom.  Very interesting and very beautiful.  And expensive ($100 for a tapestry!). 

We had a picnic outside of Ban Phai complete with birthday cake and other treats.  Michael sang happy birthday in three different languages. We then visited the ancient Prasat Peuai Noi, a Khmer-style wat from the 11th century.  Three prasats (like chedis) had been partly restored with some beautiful stone carvings in the lintels of the doorways.  Our drive back was through beautiful countryside, and we got to see the evening commute: luxury SUVs, pick-up trucks, and water buffalo.  The buffalo were most numerous, and would hold the other vehicles back when crossing the road to get home from a hard day at the office... er, fields.  We were also acquainted with some suicidal animals -- among them were dogs, cats, chickens and lots of mosquitoes.  The dogs and chickens were particularly keen on running in front of the motorcycle or just sleeping in the middle of the road and not getting up to the sound of our horn.  luckily we took no casualties (except for the mosquitoes).

We ate a yummy delicious Chinese dinner at the fancy hotel in town, and we still recall the menu: Birds Nest soup with crab meat; Vegetarian spring rolls; Four Kinds of Vegetables Steamed in Lotus Leaf; Snow Fish with Black Bean Sauce; E-Fu Noodles with crab meat; Steamed rice.  Happy tummies!

We also stayed at a hotel with hot water, flushing toilet and a carpet.  If only everyday was Hagar's birthday month...

From Khon Kaen, we moved to Udon Thani where we saw the Udon Sunshine nursery, home to some unique plants.  The most famous is the "dancing plant" which actually moves back and forth when sung to.  We came when the plants were "sleeping" but they still moved a little in response to our high-pitched voices (the owner kept saying "sawat-dii" in a very cute voice).  we tried three songs- the plant really liked the American anthem and actually regressed to Shnaim Sinim (the only Hebrew song we know to completion).  Joni Mitchell really didn't float its boat either.  Before we left, we smelled the first fragrant orchid in the world.  It was nice, and we took a picture.

Today we rented a motorbike in Loei (capital of the similarly named province) and made a big loop visiting nothing in particular but seeing some gorgeous countryside.  We biked along the Nam Heuang river (branches off to the west from the Mekong) which forms part of the border with Laos.  We almost ran out of gas, but found a petrol shack in a teeny town.  It was cool to have the petrol put in with a plastic hose from a medical-cup-measure-looking thing.

We tried to go to Sokhon Nakhon but were told that the bus leaves at 6 when it actually left at 5:30.  So we are now waiting for the next bus, which leaves at 1 a.m.  It 's a 6 hour bus ride and we are guaranteed to: a) get no sleep and b) be either freezing or over-heating.  So wish us luck!

Now, dear reader, your reward for reading this far: explanation of the subject... Every time the bus stopped on our trip from Udon Thani to Loei (about six hundred thirty-seven times), the bus would be rushed by three to four people selling chicken parts on sticks.  They were always arrayed like a bouquet of flowers, so we were offered the chance to buy our loved ones "a dozen chicken livers, for your birthday, honey!"  Also chicken legs squished flat and unidentifiable meat (maybe not chicken at all).  A few times, they didn't get off when the bus started moving, and we thought, "The chicken people won't leave!"  For the next half hour, they would walk up and down the bus, shoving chicken bouquets in everyone's face, bumping the tops of the skewers on the fans, sides of seats, and occasionally someone's head.  One guy put his chicken bouquet down to rest on a truck bed, where feet possibly dirtier than ours have been.  We are lucky to be vegetarian, but unlucky to not be able to communicate this in Thai.  We refused chicken bouquets quite a bit.  Even the monk next to us encouraged us to buy some liver.  "How could you refuse liver?" he seemed to say.

We're having the best time and it's crazy that three months have already passed.  We keep saying, "Geez, we have no time, gotta make sure we see such and such.  Only three more months here!" Our concept of time is a bit skewed.  We are sure that our 10 months will be over next week.

NORTHEAST THAILAND: Fri, 23 Nov 2001 19:25:46

    Nebraska of the East

Last you heard from us, we were in Loei, what you might call a "sleepy town" -- by sleepy, we mean that everyone is always sleeping. We rented a motorbike and headed out at around 10 a.m., and along the way passed not only sleeping dogs, but old men in the shade and women indoors, all asleep. The town was dark and silent by 8 p.m., so we had no choice but pay a visit to the pancake man in front of 7-Eleven. We munched on delicious deep-fried pancakes sprinkled with sugar and drowned in sweetened condensed milk. It was delicious, and we felt very hip sitting in the police-traffic-monitoring hut. The roof-thing was shaped like a giant cop hat. Purty silly! Our bus wasn't leaving until 1 a.m. and we had nothing to do, so we wrote you an email and then we went from store to store and sampled lots of little foods. We tried out another pancake man, but he wasn't as good as the original.

Finally we needed a real meal so we went into a bar that was opened till late -- it looked like it was trying to be hip but didn't quite make it.

After all, no one is awake in this town after 8 p.m.. We sat and tried to order food. We succeeded in ordering fried peanuts and steamed rice, but then were very embarrassed when the waitress ran outside, hopped on her motorbike and sped away She came back with a plastic bag full of steamed rice -- maybe from her home, maybe from another restaurant. Who knows?

We finally got on the bus at 1:45 a.m., almost an hour after it was supposed to get there. We curled up in our metal box-chairs and felt ourselvs lucky because the air-con was not working. To add pure joy to our ride, we found three heavy blankets nearby that we quickly requisitioned and slept decently for the next four to five hours, until the baby started screaming and vomited. Then the air-con went on. And that was the end of our pleasant ride.

In Sakhon Nakhon, our destination, we got super motivated and walked all around town to see the wats, the first of which was very exciting. For the first time this trip, we got to go inside of a chedi, and this one was about a thousand years old! There were many ancient Buddha statues inside, most of which were older than the chedi. We could only spend a few minutes inside, because the monks had to close it up. Still, it was a remarkable experience to see the inside of a quite structurally sound thousand year-old chedi. We walked and walked trying to "catch a sawngthaew* on the main road" but Lonely Planet failed us again. We walked the length of the road (about a kilometer and a half) before we realized there was a nice sawngthaew stop on the road next to us. We made it out to another very old wat, this one with some Hindu sculptures of Vishnu.  [*a sawngthaew is a pick-up truck with benches on the bed; "sawng" means two and "thaew" means rows. It costs 5baht which is attractive next to the 20-80 baht rides on tuk-tuks.]

We were then attracted by a beautiful sight -- unpeeled fruit. Usually the vendors peel the fruit and have them sitting out for a very long time, among the flies and other creatures, so we stay away from them. This time there were large, juicy pineapples calling us out, begging for a taste. Who are we to refuse a talking pineapple? We asked the vendor to peel us a fresh one and we had ourselves a little picnic on the grass island in the middle of a very busy highway-road.

From Sakhon Nakhon, we caught a bus to Roi Et, another provincial capital. Here, we made ourselves a little walking tour and saw a 67.8 meter high Buddha, which we half-climbed for a nice view of the town. A monk from the wat asked if he could have his picture taken with us, which made us feel just dandy asking to take our picture with him. Tourism works both ways: "Here is when I visited a wat in Roi Et, look at these westerners! Look at their costumes! They call that a 't-shirt' and say that it is very traditional in their country. I wonder what the ritual significance of the 'shoelaces' are. They tie and tie them, it's very strange. Much less convenient than our slip-on shoes. Primitives. Still, I couldn't help but find their naiveté and provincial innocence charming." And it's true: we feel really stupid tying and untying our boots every time we have to go into a building. Everyone else just kicks off their slip-ons, and no one here has laces. When we almost went on a trek, our guide had us buy cheap rubber shoes that are easier to walk in and take on/off than boots. Why did we bring them to begin with?

We also saw some more old chedis and other usual stuff. One thing that was very UN-typical was the fitness park in the middle of town surrounded by an artificial moat. All over this park were random African animals like zebras, giraffes, rhinoceroses and other things, life-size. After the park, we began to notice (no idea how we missed this before) that there were zebras in random places on the sidewalk. It reminded us of how random the potato-head sculptures are in Providence, RI. They must look even weirder to visitors.

We had a successful charades-interaction with a couple in a market. We needed a mosquito net but it wasn't in our phrasebook, so we resorted to the ole-point-and-make-noises game. We somehow related "mosquito tent" to them, and then we even asked to look at different sizes and got a rope to hang up the net! After the transaction was complete, everyone was so excited about the successful communication that the bowing didn't stop for hours. The following is translated from Thai: "Thank you." "Thank YOU." "Thank you very much." "Thank YOU very much." "Bathroom." "Hagar!" "Oops. Thank you very much." [For those of you who don't know, Hagar has some difficulty with Thai; for some reason she keeps mixing up words. Actually, there was this problem in China too. She once asked "vegetarian?" instead of "toilet" and there was much confusion everywhere.] A favorite past-time is to ask for city names that somehow come out as a combination of all the cities we've seen for the past few months. Very confusing.

We got a tuk tuk to the far away bus station but the driver just dropped us off a couple of blocks up the road next to a bus that was about to leave. This seems to happen often: we just make the bus. We were rushed on, and off we went to Ubon Ratchatani.

And here we are. We walked, saw temples, ate, and found out that "Lao influences" are quite real here. We visited a wat and chatted with some monks, only to find that they don't speak Thai any better than we do! Most of the older monks at this wat were going to university, and are from Luang Prabang, Laos. They study political science and will return to Laos when their schooling is over. We had a really nice conversation with them that started with us pointing out to them that their chickens were climbing the trees. It was a really weird sight. They would hop on to the fence, and then LEAP the 4+ feet to the tree. There was actually a line of chickens and roosters waiting on the fence for their turn on the tree. And the weirder thing was that the monks weren't surprised. They just said, "yeah, they're our boss's chickens.” Very weird.

As for Thanksgiving, we had curry and rice. And we miss all of you! As a matter of fact, we are a bit homesick, thinking of Thanksgiving with curry instead of turkey. So we tried to compensate: we had pizza last night, which was as close as we could come to turkey and stuffing. And joy of joys, they used tomato sauce instead of thousand island dressing! (Making sure to ask for tomato sauce was a hard-learned lesson from Khon Kaen.)

So now that we are ready to cross over to Laos in just a couple of hours, here is our impression of the North East of Thailand. If someone tells you that they want to see the part of Thailand that is less touristed, it sounds pretty cool. But remember this: People DON'T skip New York to visit Nebraska just because it's less touristed. It's less touristed for a reason. There is nothing here but rice!

Old Sukhothai.

Old Sukhothai.

Old Sukhothai.

Old Sukhothai.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

Grand Palace, Bangkok

Wat in Bangkok, decorated for the Loi Kratong (Full Moon) festival.

One of four major chedis at the Grand Palace, Bangkok.

Corner of a Grand Palace building. Bangkok.

Grand Palace, Bangkok

Si Satchanalai, one of Thailand's many ancient capitals.

Si Satchanalai, Thailand. Ruins of the ancient capital.

Loom at Ban Hat Saew, Thailand

Buddha, Thailand.

Chedi on a hill near Mae Sot, Thailand

Very large feminine reclining Buddha near Mae Sot, Thailand.

New chedi at new wat near Mae Sot, Thailand.

Monks building a new wat near Mae Sot, Thailand, who gave us food.

Wat on a cliff in Mae Sot, Thailand. Myanmar in the background.

Bamboo Raft in Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Town's biggest wat, Mae Hong Son, Thailand. View across the lake.

Elephant ride near Mae Hong Son, Thailand.

Wat near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Near Chiang Mai, Thailand, on the way to a Hmong village.

Wat near Chiang Mai, Thailand

Royal Botanical Gardens near Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Chinese street festival in Khong Kaen, Thailand

Prasat Poei Nuoi, near Khong Kaen, Thailand.

Prasat Puei Nuoi, Thailand.

Beautiful Lao-style chedi near Loei, northeastern Thailand near Lao border.

Motorbike in Thailand

Laos-Thailand border, NE Thailand.

With monk at Big Buddha in Roi Et

Giant Buddha, Roi Et, Thailand.

Giant Buddha in Roi Et, Thailand, getting painted.

Gong and bell in wat at Roi Et, Thailand.

Votive candle, Ubon Ratchanthani, Thailand.