June 4
30+ hours of travel was surprisingly not too painful…. except for the fact that my feet and legs were huge and swollen to about twice their normal size for several hours after we got off the last airplane. I had also never been so desperate for a shower in my whole life; travel sized face wash and toothpaste can only go so far after so long. So when I set foot in the lush humid air of Thailand for the very first time today (outside the airport in Chiang Mai), it was with joy, relief, and cankles.
We arrived in Chiang Mai without much difficulty, but with a lot of luck. Literally 24 hours after my graduation, Mom, Dad and I packed up my room at Princeton and headed straight to Newark - making only one stop at Marshall’s for a suitcase replacement, after an unfortunate zipper incident just before we got in the car. I had a last supper of airport-style pasta and salad, made last phone calls to relatives and friends, and said goodbye to the US of A. Mom and I were both a little teary-eyed, but even while crying she reminded me to apply sunscreen BEFORE bug spray, lest both become ineffective. Thanks, Mom.
Emily (one of my roommates) met me at the gate, along with Collette, another PiA-er who was traveling with us through Bangkok. We took a 14-hour flight to Delhi (left at 8:30 pm, arrived at 8:30 pm…basically chasing the sun across the globe)… and then had a somewhat bizarre 5-hour layover, during which we were told to stand or sit in various parts of the airport without explanation, had our passports scrutinized over and over even though we were just making a connection, and discovered how the separation of “Ladies” and “Gentlemen” metal detectors makes security lines even more complicated than they are in the US.
From Delhi we took a 5-hour plane ride to Bangkok. A Buddhist monk, dressed in a traditional orange robe, was assigned to the middle seat next to me, but the moment he sat down he immediately stood up again, asked me to move out of the way, grumbled something to the flight attendant (who could not understand him), and went to find a new seat. I looked over at Emily, confused and slightly offended. Later, I found out that while the middle seat is rarely preferred by ordinary passengers, it is particularly unappealing to monks, who can’t make any physical contact with others.
Bangkok was by far our best airport experience. The Suvarnabhumi airport (yeah, I can’t pronounce it either) is brand-new and SO COOL… It has amazing architecture with really high glass ceilings and zen gardens everywhere. It was also the first place we found internet (woo!) We explored a little, enjoyed some “coffee” (read: extra sugary pre-sweetened milky stuff) and “bagel” (sort of like a fluffy croissant in a bagel shape) before parting ways with Collette and boarding our next flight to Chiang Mai. On the Thai Airways plane (which was the prettiest plane I’ve ever been on - orange, purple and pink seats and really sweet flight attendant uniforms), we sat next to a nice young guy from Chicago named Patrick. He’s been out of the army for 5 years, and said that it was “difficult adjusting” back home so he’s been traveling and living around Asia (mostly Thailand) ever since. He speaks pretty fluent Thai, and he couldn’t stop gushing about the people, the country, and the food we were about to experience. He also went on and on about how well-respected teachers (who bear the title ajarn, pronounced like “aj-aan”) are in Thailand, and that even though we are teaching English, we should make every effort to learn Thai while there. He had converted to Buddhism a few years ago and was on his way to Chiang Mai for 10 days to meet a friend and become a monk (temporarily). In doing so, he explained, he would have to shave all his hair, eyebrows included. We asked why that was, and he used an “empty cup” metaphor: Buddhists believe that in order to reach enlightenment and to learn anything new, we have to first “empty our cups” and dump everything that we though we knew out. So in becoming a monk, you have to “dump” the eyebrows, create a blank page, and start anew.
Patrick turned out to be not only a good conversationalist, but also a life saver once in Chiang Mai. He helped us with our baggage outside (in a huge thunderstorm… hello, rainy season) and got a taxi for us. He showed us to the Chiang Mai Inn in the Old City where he’d stayed before. ($6 a night and free wi-fi? Ill take it!) Emily and I had planned on just winging it and using the two Thai phrases we memorized (“thank you” [khap koon kah] and “toilet” [horng naam]) to find a place to stay, but this worked out muuuuuuch better. The taxi driver LOVED that Patrick spoke Thai, dedicated a 90s Mariah Carey love ballad on the radio to Emily, and only needed to look at the road about 75% of the time while driving in the rain. The only snafu of the day occurred later when I blew the fuse to our entire hotel room using a blow dryer… guess I better learn “I’m sorry” in Thai too.
After a shower and quick nap, we were ready to explore. We quickly discovered how many Westerners (farang) are in Chiang Mai – there were white people all over the place! We also discovered how friendly Thai people are to complete strangers… one guy, who spoke very good English, stopped and talked to us for about 20 minutes about how much he loved Chiang Mai and where we could find the best silk suits, even circling places on our map for us. We wandered aimlessly for a bit, grabbed a delicious dinner of tom yum soup, red curry, Singha beer and too-spicy-for-me papaya salad (all of which came to a grand total of $5... I can get used to this), and then went to meet up with 4 other PiA-ers who are living in Chiang Mai. After getting a little lost with our pretty inaccurate street map, we found Kelsey, Riley, Patrick (another one) and Denali sitting outside their hostel, and went with them to a street food/night market. It was great to see familiar faces, and to see how they were adjusting after their first week of Thai life – loving it, as expected. After a few hours, Emily and I were having a hard time staying awake, so after waiting out another downpour of rain, we made our way back to the hostel for a much needed full-night’s-sleep.
Next stop: Nan!
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