Let's begin with a little Thai culture. When greeting someone, or saying thank you or goodbye, you should put your palms together near your heart and bow slightly. With this gesture, you are acknowledging the higher being in that other person. Isn't that lovely?
However, Thais do not shake hands and don't generally do a lot of touching each other. You shouldn't touch a woman at all really. And women can not touch a monk. On the bus from Pai to Chiang Mai (where we are now), Kevin and I bookended three old monks in the back. We were pretty symmetrical the five of us:) When the bus hostess (or whatever you call her) handed us our little milk/honey juice box and crackers, they made sure to cover their hands with their robes before accepting them.
Finally, Thais consider the feet to be pretty gross things. They won't give massages without first washing your feet. You have to take your shoes off to go into most places and you should always take your shoes off to put your feet up on anything-even third class train seats! The big thing, however, is to never dangle your shoes off of your pack, lest they brush up against someone-disgusting.
And an easy way to communicate with Thais? same same, but different. For example: what is a waffle stuffed with taro? "same same potato, but different" :)
Kevin and I are exhausted. In four days, we trekked to a small hill-tribe village where we spent the night, then trekked out, rode an elephant who tried to throw us off of her like a rodeo then went on a hour long bamboo ride, I got a bamboo tattoo (oh yeah!) then we rode a bus for four hours on a narrow road with 762 curves from Pai to Chiang Mai. I'll elaborate a little.
From Pai, we set off on a roller coaster truck ride into the countryside to the north. What I learned: I AM able to get motion sickness-ewwww. We set off into the jungle with our 30-year old guide, Kon, a German couple and two young German women. It was pretty hot and we were slightly carsick. We took some pictures, ate some mandarin oranges, made some bamboo walking sticks, ate lunch out of banana leaf bowls and drank tea from bamboo cups (Kon made both).
We spent the night in a Lahu village. It is a collection of smaller Lahu communities which were centralized by the Thai government 60 years ago. They were on day five of a six-day New Years celebration. There was traditional dancing in costume around a tree, homemade Thai whiskey, traditional songs blared over a loud speaker until dawn (I can't begin to describe how terribly long and painful it was to listen to that all night), huts raised up to house chickens and pigs below and a fair amount of drunken Lahu people. What I learned: eight shots of Thai whiskey before dinner and four afterwards actually doesn't feel too bad in the morning. We also saw an amazing labyrinth cave called Tham Nad Lod.
The following day we rode a female elephant named Phenom who threw us off her in the water like a rodeo, then went for a lazy bamboo ride with an old guide who didn't speak any English down a river that basically cut right through the jungle. Enough said.
We broke some rules we're sure someone has laid down for us: Kevin rode a motorbike, I got a bamboo tattoo. We have both pet a lot of native animals.
So here we are in Chiang Mai-beat but ready to see this supposedly beautiful city. It's getting hotter, but the nights are still fairly cool. We're going to look into a Thai cooking course, and I would like to take a language class. Then I'm off to Bangkok to meet Mum and Auntie and Kevin to Laos. We will re-unite in Cambodia.
After 12 shots of Thai whiskey, wearing a traditional vest passed to me by a friendly Lahu man, I began to think how crazy and different all of our experiences on this planet are. I mean, he and I are both human, both live on a same planet. Same same for the most part, but so different.
Until next time,
Jordan
