Grandmotherly Duties

Dateline: Chiang Mai - 10/29/08



I've definitely learned a lot about my wee granddaughter. She is quite the gymnist and if she does not get signed up for the Olympics in 2023 it will be a travesty to the American people. I have never seen a child climb more consistently, in more impossible maneuvers, with more determination or patience in spite of repeated failures.



She is extremely bright. OK, I've brought my flashcards with photos of "things and stuff" like apples and animals and we have school each day. (btw - I was always miffed as a child that some artist's intrepretation of what a bear or a car or a monkey should look like was in no way connected with my reality. Use of photographics takes out that artistic license that caused me not to get 100% on my revered papers in first and second grade. So, I say, "hooray" for photos.) We've gone through a series of about 70 cards that she can already pick out from the pack and, in some way, say the name of the object. She can spot an "O" in a mire of text, or an "S", and is working on "X". She "sort of" knows a number of colors. I've truly never seen the kind of attention span she exhibits at the age of 16 months. She is, indeed, bright.



She is very talented. I present the following video as evidence - and will expect your repeated votes on American Idol throughout her tenure there.

She is demanding. That same persistent quality that puts her in good stead in her scholarly duties and her extracurricular activities also applies to her quest to get exactly what she wants when she wants it. Nana and her continue in battles and skirmishes, but I do believe that she may be winning the war.

Other stuff: There are many similarities between the food that we can get at the local "Tops" market (read - foreigner food) and the old Harris-Teeter back home. However, the varieties of food may change just slightly, to wit:

• Yogurt. We buy a good bit of yogurt in the 4-packs. Great varieties are - coconut (with small squares of soft coconut that look like gelled cornstarch); cereal - a favorite I had the unexpected opportunity to sample this morning supplementing the yogurt with bean halves, corn, and I forget what else.


• Potato Chips. Great taste from the folks that bring you all your salty snacks. Included is the porkburger flavor; the prawn, crab, and seaweed ... and I forget a number of the others.

We live next to a Chinese cemetery. So far no ghouls have threatened us. The graves are actually very distinctive from the front, and from the back the cemetery looks like hobbit-land, full of soft green-grass lumps.

The bathrooms here are generally outfitted with the usual stuff, but anything under 6 feet is generally ceramic - waterproof. Next to the western-style toilet is a rubber-hosed sprayer with about 3 feet of hose. This, we're told, is to be used for cleaning oneself, with toiletpaper used only to "dry". This comes in really handy when it's time to clean up the bathroom. Anything can be sprayed clean!

The election. Is it me - or is there more double-talk this year than in most, with candidates taking anything and everything out of context then twisting it into a new "reality".

Smells. These run the gamut. In the countryside, the smells are more "organic". Chickens smell like chickens, pigfarms like pigs, and the flowering trees and bushes embue the air with their special fragrances. In the urban markets the smells change foot by foot, from sewer gas to three-day-old fish, to squid with no smell at all, to the fragrance of eastern spices, the aroma of chicken or pork cooking over charcoal brazziers started with wood ( a smell I identify with my days in Afghanistan).

Well --- that's about all there is to post today from the other side of the clock. More later.

Thoughts, Prison, a Birthday and a Pickup

Dateline Chiangmai October 20, 2008

It's been a few days since my last post, so wanted to put some things down before they're forgotten. A number of things, including Mika's birthday (33) have come and gone.

Karina, Mika and I are currently sitting on the couch in the living room while watching TV and uploading some of the latest pictures.

Mika's Birthday was way better than I thought it would be. I was all prepared to go out to a vegetarian restaurant (the best) and to pick up a cake on the way. (really, now! did you think I had an oven?) Instead, after hauling the stroller over my shoulder and KRose in my arms, getting on the songtow, getting off at the wrong exit, walking down the sidewalk that really isn't a sidewalk - rather it's an extra retail space - for what seemed like at least five miles (I know it wasn't) and crossing who knows how many lanes of traffic (I say, "who knows" because the lane markings don't begin to define where the cars will travel), we made our way to the AIDs/Net office. We walked in to hear Mika say that the office was taking her out to dinner for her birthday.

That was great! ... and a much better time for Mika. Until you've travelled the way I do and availed yourself of all of the wonderful opportunities that arise, you'll never know what you might miss. As it was, we went to the Comeda, a fine riverside restaurant with only a few other diners. That left us to enjoy the ambience, the food, and the lounge music by ourselves. It ended up with about 15 of us, singing Happy Birthday to Mika for her 33rd after a wonderful meal of endless dishes that I can't even begin to describe. I'm not sure what all was in them - but they were great.

That, of course, brings me to what's on the TV. Generally, we watch CNN, Bloomberg, CNN World News, Al Jazeera, or one of two channels with fourth-run movies dubbed in Thai. The advertisements are quite a bit different here, and the economic development advertising agency (I'm presuming there's only one, since they all run on the same format and the announcer has the same tone in his voice) is working overtime telling business and tourists to come to "Kazakhstan, a huge country in the very heart of the Eurasian subcontinent" or to Poland, or Qatar, or "Slovakia, a big little country", or "Croatia, the Mediterranean as it once was", "Yemen - one country, many destinations". Sure.

That was on Tuesday. Then, on Saturday we were pummelled by women at the women's prison. The one-hour Thai massage we received (about $6 ) is a vocational education program run by the prison. Massage is a traditional craft here, and the money these soon-to-be-released prisoners earn goes directly into a fund they can use once they are released to help establish themselves. Of the two we sampled, one had a four year sentence, the other two years. We didn't ask what they were in for, but they were so coy and demure - and tiny - that we wondered what on earth they could have done to merit their "time". Other prisoners are trained in sewing and embroidery.

On the weekend, Jeep (from AIDs/net) asked us if we'd like to accompany her family to an outting at the Doi Inthanon National Park - which, among other things, is the site of Thailand's highest peak (2,565 meters). So ... (again, never let an opportunity pass!) ...

On Sunday morning we arrived at the Office about 8:15 AM and a number of us piled into Jeep's pickup with her husband, Add, driving. Doi is southwest of Chiang Mai - I'm not sure how far, but about two hours in the back of the pickup! We got to know Jeep, her husband, and daughter View, Ana and her husband, Song, and Noy. Mika and KRose, of course, rode in the cab. I was one of those in the back with the wind-blown hair, learning about Thailand from relatively non-English speakers. We had a ball!

Our first stop was a small market where any number of Hmong crafts/produce were sold. Fabrics, resin elephants, traditional Hmong garb, necklaces, passionfruit, roseapples, beans, eggplant, etc. I made it a point to take some pix of the little ladies manning the booths. Note: Little = 4 feet tall on a good day.

Then, off to Phra Mahathat Naphamethanidon (a chedi) built by the air force for the king's 60th birthday - and a somewhat less grand chedi built for the queen. We had been climbing up the mountain on the wrong (left) side of the road - sometimes on the right side - through scenery that was very much "Asheville-esque", until we got to the final few miles of swerves.

At that point, a mossy misty rain forest started presenting itself, and I found myself trying to teach the difference between haze, fog, and smoke to my pickup mates.

Finally, we were at the Phra, which just "appeared" out of the fog-shrouded mountain as two golden peaks Workers demonstrated how the pyramids were probably assembled ... teamwork, much like the workers at Phra were moving large amounts of stone to install an upper gardens at the King's chedi - to match the beautiful gardens (down nearly 100 steps, across a landing, then up about 100 steps) - dedicated to the queen.

The view from each of the chedis was awesome. It was chilly and the fog swirled around us as we took in this awesome structure that I had no idea existed.

The elephant, cont.

Thursday, October 9, 2008 - 7:58 PM

Well, it's been a few days since the first part of the post, and I've already forgotten most of it (so have I, you're probably saying!). Nonetheless, I'll try to go from the prior post.

So ... Karina was terrified when the elephant got close and encircled her and Mika with a trunk. So we weren't hoping for much. We walked down the path past the flea-bitten chickens, and up the steps of a pavillion with four "stations" for loading passengers. At the top were very wide and beautifully carved teak benches. We were sitting on one, worrying. Eventually, an elephant was led toward the bench at our back. We could look at the top of the elephant from over its head. From the bench, Karina had a top view of the elephant and appeared to be much more comfortable with its tonnage from that vantage, not seeing its trunk inching across the floor at our feet.

We were not to ride that elephant, however, and it was a good thing. Apparently, elephants live for so long - and retire at the age of 65 - that they are trained by one mahoot, with an apprentice mahoot that then carries on after the death of the first mahoot. Well, the elephant we had been watching was obviously in the care of the apprentice. He had placed the 6 or so pads made from old rice bags on the elephant's back, then, with difficulty, stood on the back and hoisted over a seat - which the other mahoots immediately noted as being placed incorrectly. After a number of other tries, along with girding the bundle from the elephant's tale and under its front legs. When another couple was given the go-ahead to get on, I showed that we had booked this time. It was way OK, however, when they were the led away on the beast with the slipped seat.

Ours came soon after. We were all really happy to see that our mahoot was older and more experienced! We stepped on the top of the elehant, between its shoulders on our way to the bench seat, closed, like a carnival ride, with a bar across our laps.

The sway of an elephant while sitting in a bench is, um, extreme. This was not the first time to ride an elephant for Mika and I. Sitting on the neck is the best, most gentle ride. (Of course, you have to put up with whatever the elephant happens to blow out its trunk that way.) The sway of the elephant goes from front to back and side to side. It's a bit discomforting, knowing how precarious the whole setup is (having seen the apprentice!).

In these areas, the only elephants one can ride are those that are specifically for rides. There are, then, elephant trails that one rides on. Imagine the three-toed elephant with a foot the size of a large dinner plate walking in the footprints of the ones that went down the trail before it. Now, imagine the same in mud 2 feet deep. That, my friends, is the trail - and walking down that trail is every more uh - extreme - than walking on a flat road.

So, where's the little girl that's afraid of elephants? She's the little one on the top, screaming for more, more, more!

We had tickets for a 1/2 hour ride. It felt like two on the back of a swaying elephant. ... then, towards the end of the ride a large snake crossed our path - about 15 feet in front of us. We knew, not only because we saw it, but because the mahoot jumped off quickly and chased it with his barbed stick, hacking at it wildly.

We found out the most extraordinary thing. Did you know that elephants tremble? We could tell right away that it was afraid. It had three very distinct sets of shudders.

The rest of the ride was looonnnggg, but relatively uneventful in light of the big mudholes (pictured above) and the snake.

After the elephant ride, we worked our way back to the entrance of the camp, stopping for a coconut milk drink. Our tricycle rider was there waiting for us, to take us to the next stop - the orchid farm.

After an elephant ride, what can you say about an orchid farm? There were all kinds and all colors of orchids in all stages of development. They were using tissue cultures to propogate - and had bottles of baby orchids for sale for 250 baht. Maybe another time.... try not to spend money, Nana, while the economy goes down the tube.

Competing for top spot of the day was a sorry "also-ran", the monkey training school. Purporting to be a school for monkeys to train to pick coconuts, it seemed more like a manufactured tourist post to me. Apparently, they can pick 800 to 1000 cocunuts per day. So ... their bag of tricks was unscrewing coconuts from some wire pins, riding a tricycle, shooting baskets, diving for coins - and other useful talents for a well-schooled monkey. (btw- they were pig-tailed monkeys.)

After the monkey farm we stopped at what we thought would be a butterfly farm. It turned out to be an insect farm --- all kinds of big and small insects! ... and ... not much that I really wanted to see. There was, by the way, a butterfly room - but only about two of the butterflies we were expecting to see. The guy that started this large bug collection literally "wrote the book", Thailand's Butterlies. Apparently, the guy and his family run this.

Following the bug zoo we were just too exhausted to do anything else, and made our way back to Chiangmai via our tricycle. We were pretty sure we'd make it considering the road was almost all downhill.

Elephants, monkeys, orchids, and huge bugs, Oh my!

Scooter Tricycle - dead ahead...





Beautiful blue orchids

Nana gets a monkey on her shoulder, and head, and back, and arm ...
















At the Maesa Elephant camp.









Riding the "Beast" - a new type of roller coaster.

















Saturday, October 4th, 4:56 PM
It’s been a full day already. I started my day waking up to Katy’s phone call from Asheville via Skype. I’m not so sure I’m liking having everyone laugh at me waking up... but, it was great seeing Katy and hearing that she’s going to change roommates. Right after her call, Dave called. We had a day planned to go to the elephant camp so … a quick breakfast and we were off to Mae Rim.

Of course the first stop was to get transportation there. That was easily solved by getting a songtow just outside the market next to the apartment. For that, the most dangerous part, generally, is trying to weave our way across the 4 lanes of road with a mixed bag of cars, songtows, motorcycles with sidecar passenger seats, and everywhere motorscooters (not motorcycles) driven by darn near anyone old enough to reach the pedals – and loaded with two, three or four persons and their afternoon baggage. (I’ve not yet seen the cages of chickens teetering precariously on top of it all this trip.) So, while all the vehicles whiz by obeying absolutely no discernable rules of traffic, we take our lives in our hands waiting for the “yellow” bus. This time, however, we were headed north, which meant that the songtow would be on our side of the street.

We pry ourselves into the songtow truck, Mika, me and Rose, and the “babypack” (for Karina to sit in when she wishes) along with the other eight or so passengers crammed in. Karina likes the songtow and the wind blowing in her hair from it. She’s learned from me to put her hand over her mouth and look like she’s gagging from the exhaust fumes so prevalent here.

We proceed for the 12 kilometers to Mai Rim, passing a series of military installations, including the special forces area, a few golf courses, the most well-landscaped of places I’ve seen, roadside stalls consisting of nothing more than a cart, an overhead tarp, a large pot, and, perhaps, a few picnic tables. The landscape is beautiful. Very lush. Flowering locust trees, flowering trees , flowering palms and banana trees – and trees I’ve never seen before. Beneath this roadside canopy a dirt road shoulder serves as a make-do marketplace for any vendor with any wares.
I’m so impressed with the adaptability of the Thai people and their industriousness, their imagination in making a living. If there is a way to start a business, they can do it. And they are so full of love and smiles, stopping and squealing at K Rose, wanting to hold her hand, to share in the joy of a new child.

The songtow stopped at “the stop” in Mai Rim. From there we needed to go further to get to the elephant camp. At the stop there were several other “local” songtows and a tri-motorscooter (scooter with a side car built to seat two on side benches). Well we negotiated a deal with the songtow, but decided not to take it. We walked along the road for a minute or two and were soon approached by one of the drivers we had talked to at the stop. He was willing to take us to a number of stops for 300 baht ($10 or so). We pushed ourselves into the contraption I’ll call the tricycle, and off we went.

I looked to see how may cc the engine had. I couldn’t find any numbers on the base – but I’m guessing it’s not much different than the rest of the scooters here – a maximum of 150 cc. So, figure a 150 cc scooter, a driver, an overweight grandma, a grown woman, a child and a backpack (kiddiepak). The engine on the tricycle was working way harder than it should have been.

We hadn’t gone very far at all until the driver asked that I move to the seat behind him (the motorcycle passenger seat), in order to balance the load – I presume. The elephant camp was about 4 kilometers from where we got on the cycle … most of it uphill. If I thought the engine was working hard before, it was nothing like going uphill in first gear with the motorcycle going slower and slower until it came to a stop, the smell of hot oil permeating the otherwise jungle area.

He told me to get off. Then he went up the hill – without me. So … here I am in the northeastern part of Thailand, knowing no Thai, walking up a mountain (and getting winded) and there’s no one around. My imagination was playing lots of tricks on me … most of them having to do with snakes. Indeed, there was some rustling in the bushes not far from me which, of course, did nothing to help my confidence along this road. It was about 5 minutes later when I spotted the tricycle with the driver coming back my way. It must have been that the hill I was walking up was the steepest. Too much for that poor little engine that wished it could.

Not long after, we made it to the elephant camp, a rather well-maintained tropical area with asphalt or concrete walkways shaded by tropical foliage I’d only seen in potted plants in the US, but towering over us. Orchids were growing, presumably wild, on the stems/trunk of the plants. There were a few vendor stations selling elephant souvenirs, coconut milk, and other refreshments. It reminded me of the tropical section of a zoo in the US.

We were only a few minutes from the show’s start (the tricycle slowed us down a bit with its inching along the road). A herd of about a dozen elephants with their mahoots riding on their necks began to parade around the ring in front of an audience sitting in an amphitheater of wooden benches. There was an audience of no more than 50 or so, and the elephants were walking no more than 10 feet from the audience. The mahoots began their show with the elephants marching two abreast, the lead ones carrying a “welcome” sign. They had many tricks, those elephants. They had one small elephant doing a hulahoop with its trunk, elephants kicking a large soccer ball into a goal, showing how they used the elephants for logging, and finally they had about five of the elephants do paintings. Now, I’ve seen circus elephants that paint – but the quality of these paintings were incredible. They held the brushes in their trunk, very carefully pulling the brush along. The delicacy of the paintings in the trunks of these behemoths was stunning. There was a gallery of their “expensive” paintings, as the sign said.

After the show, the elephants lined up next to the audience, waiting to be fed the sugar cane or banana bundles that were sold to the audience along the trail before the show. After eating the snacks, the mahoots invited the audience forward to have their pictures taken with the beasts. Know that we were on one side of a log fence with timbers no more than 4” thick. On the other side was the elephants.

Karina ‘s eyes were so big as she watched the elephants. When they came close, though, she was not interested in cozying up to them. The elephants reached out their trunks and she was so scared and wanted nothing to do with them any more. Meanwhile I was talked into having the elephant wrap its trunk around my neck – then put a hat on my head – and take it back off. Very delicately.

Mika and I didn’t quite know what to do with Karina given her reaction to the elephants, and the fact that we had a ticket for an elephant ride in our pocket.

… to be continued ….. (6:33 PM)