The one few will ever read

“Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.” – Paul Theroux

I miss Vietnam. I miss it a lot. As the passage of time buffs away memories of frustration and homesickness, I find myself homesick for the ideals of my experience. I miss my students, their smiles, their energy. I forget their silences. I become nostalgic for the hand-sized spiders in the bathroom.

I miss the food, of course. But that's the one thing I can almost get here, though it's almost never the same. I miss speaking Vietnamese, yet I rarely conversed in it there. I was on the cusp of daring before I left, and I miss the chance I would have had to come into my own if I had stayed.

I forget the loneliness and I remember the adventure. I miss the wind in my hair, forgetting that I always wore a helmet. I miss the potential for adventure being around every corner, even though it did all become mundane after a while. I miss chasing adventure on weekends away, clinging to the back of the motorbike as my favorite pilot whizzed us over country roads.

I miss the love and care that I didn't always feel but was undeniably there. It seems that every time the pessimistic voice pops up, suggesting that I've been forgotten, that those I might have touched have moved on and left me behind, I get an email or two from former students. And it makes my day.

I miss Vietnam and the life I made there, but I am grateful to realize I have no regrets. I could have done things differently; I could have pushed further beyond my comfort zone, but I was already living thirteen time zones past it. So I think that was plenty far enough. Now I just want to go back.

Leaving Asia

Wow. Eleven months exactly, and suddenly -- well not so suddenly, as it took 30-some hours to get to the US -- I was flip-flopped to the other side of the world. I spent my last day in Thailand with elephants, but I spent my last night at a drag show, an equally suitable farewell to Thailand.

Between wats and massages and elephants and ladyboys I visited Tip twice a
day almost every day for the best smoothies I've had all year.

After all of that I went back to Kuala Lumpur to regroup and repack. For the most part this meant lounging around Marta's house, doing some last-minute souvenir shopping, and going out to eat. However, on Friday I got to do something special. Marta has been volunteering as an English teacher for Afghan refugees, and on Friday she took me and her son to meet two of the families she has been helping. They were inspiring people to meet, and I also learned a lot about refugees and resettlement and what different countries offer the refugees they receive (easy since I knew pretty much nothing about this before). Both families have suffered almost unimaginable difficulties, but it was interesting to see how one family seemed to wear their struggles, while the other exuded energy and hope. I wish for the best for both of them, but it is much easier to foresee the latter family thriving when they are finally resettled in Australia. That evening Marta and her family took me out to a farewell dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. Believe it or not this was a welcome and missed cuisine, and I got to play expert and recommend dishes for everyone.

The next day I began my long journey back to the United States. Seven hours took me from Malaysia to Japan, and then I had a nine-hour layover in Narita. With so much time on my hands, I decided to leave the airport and have a day trip in Japan. It was still early in the day, and few things were open when I got off the subway, but I figured I would wander around anyway. I was starving, and I stopped in one of the few open places for what claimed to be a salmon and cream cheese sandwich that ended up having slivers of salmon slathered in mayonnaise.

Getting comfortable on the plane

Welcome to Narita

sights around town

Fortunately, the rest of my visit went better. I walked to Narita's main attraction: Narita-san Shinsho-ji, a Shingon Buddhist temple founded in 940 that was expanded to a massive complex starting in the 1600s. The temple grounds were certainly large and impressive, but I was having a hard time appreciating them, possibly because I had no information about them and also probably in part because of my heavy backpack. However, as I wandered the grounds, leaving the temple areas and entering the scenic garden areas, I made an exciting discovery. Dismembered Japanese rhinoceros beetles were strewn along the path and were being voraciously consumed by ants. They were an exciting and unusual sighting for me, but internet research shows that they are popular pets in Asia, even being sold in vending machines. After that I also found some beautiful yellow and green spiders spinning webs between mossy rocks surrounding a waterfall.

Rhinoceros beetle carapace

feasting

For lunch I stopped at a place that had caught my attention earlier because a man was sitting at the entrance deftly slicing and cleaning live eels. Some of my favorite Japanese dishes feature eel, and so I was excited to see that almost every restaurant on the walk to the temple had an eel special. I went back to the place with the public butchering, which seemed to be one of the most popular restaurants within my price range. The restaurant was bustling, and I was entertained to hear people saying 'domo arigato', not followed by 'Mr. Roboto.'

Expert eel slicer

nom nom nom nom

Along the way to the temple I had spotted some shops where I thought I might be able to unload any unspent Yen I'd have left. Luckily, I did not do that before lunch, because after paying for my food I had little more than return subway fare left. Before leaving Japan I made two more notable sightings: a Mexican restaurant and a fancy-pants(less) Japanese toilet.
 

Enlarge to see the many options the toilet buttons offer

With that, it was a 10-hour flight into the US and another layover and flight until I reached my final destination. Now I am adjusting to eating American food (though I went out for Japanese noodle soup already), gorging on cheese, marveling at high-speed internet, and having days filled with little moments of contrast that remind me just how different a life I led for the last year. The blog may be over, but the adventure continues. Thank you for being a part of it.

"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." – Bill Bryson

Among the elephants

I had four more days in Chiang Mai after my day trip. I spent most of that time hanging out with traveler friends and being pampered (drinking smoothies and getting massages). The Brits left on Tuesday morning and I wouldn't be leaving until Thursday morning. I debated what to do with the time I had left. At first I thought about just relaxing in air-conditioned places; I felt like I had made a pretty thorough tour of the city's offerings. However, I got a sign -- literally. I was headed to breakfast one day when I saw a sign for elephant training courses. I had already heard about this activity, but for some reason I actually stopped to read more about it this time, and it piqued my interest. Here was something I could do that was very local (elephants are a big part of Thai culture) and was not something I could easily do somewhere else. I investigated and I committed. So, I spent my last day in Thailand canoodling with elephants.

Wednesday morning I got picked up, and on the way to the elephants we stopped at an orchid farm. It was pretty small, but still pretty.

Then came the main event. Only two other people, a honeymooning couple, had booked an elephant day, so we had a nice small group. First we fed the elephants pineapple and bananas and learned that each elephant consumes 250kg  of food per day. After we got on their good side with food, it was time to get up close and personal. They taught us the commands that mahouts use when riding the elephants and then it was our turn to test our skills.

Commands, spelling approximated:

• Bone - raise your trunk so I can put food in your mouth
• Song - help/let me get on you
• How - stop
• Toy - move backwards
• Pai - go forward
• Pe - turn
• Chalon - let me down

The biggest test, though, at least for me, was just getting onto the elephant to begin with.  In order to get on the elephant, it puts out its bent leg and you use its angles as steps, meanwhile using its ear as a handhold. The problem is that the leg only gets you so high, and when you're my height and not a nimble mahout you still need a big boost. I worried about hurting it but then I realized that I am about 1/50 of its weight, and am therefore a fairly insignificant addition. Once on, you sit on the neck so as not to be wobbled around by the shoulders when it walks. In conjunction to verbal commands, you gently use a dull hook on key parts of the head and shift your weight and use your feet, e.g. nudging the ear opposite the direction you want to turn. When you're ready to get off you shout 'chalon!' and the elephant lowers its head until you can jump/slide off the front.

Out of focus but still illustrates my questionable description
of how one gets on an elephant

Attempting to turn right

Preparing for landing

The three of us tried this a few times, and by the time we were done it was time for lunch. In contrast to the questionable buffet lunch provided with my Chiang Rai tour, which I was actually worried would make me sick, this lunch was both abundant and delectable. Spring rolls, chicken and potato curry, noodles and shrimp, and a glutinous rice dessert. Once we were fed and our stomachs were settled we were ready for a jungle walk. Though we had been practicing our commands, we were all relieved to know that elephant control would be up to the mahouts when we went up into the mountain. My elephant and I were clearly meant to be paired together, as she took every opportunity to eat, displaying the impressivene strength and dexterity of her trunk by ripping off the leaves of everything in her path. Most impressive was when we stopped in a bamboo grove and the elephants snapped the plants down to get at the leaves that were out of their reach.

Eating

 

Eating

Eating!

Our walk ended in a river, where we dismounted and washed our respective elephants. I don't know whether the wash made much of a difference, but the elephants certainly seemed to enjoy it.

Don't the elephants look joyful?

Splash!

Then it was time to feed them one last time and say goodbye. We went to visit a week-old elephant nearby and went to a factory that makes paper out of elephant dung, as it is mostly just fiber.

Mom and baby

Baby up close

It was a great, special day. Just in case you haven't seen enough photos of me and elephants, I leave you with one more that sums it all up pretty well. By the time this is posted I'll be in the air and on the way home, but still with more stories coming your way.

Hot, white, gold

My day trip to Chiang Rai was more or less what I expected. Essentially, it was a series of drives to photo ops and points of interest: a hot spring, Wat Rong Khun, the Golden Triangle, the Burmese border, and a hilltribe village. I could have done without most of it, but Wat Rong Khun, my main reason for taking the trip, did not disappoint. Along the way I came to the realization that a tropical agricultural landscape is normal to me and not photo-worthy. Meanwhile, when I was in Singapore's cityscape had felt foreign and necessary to document. In the Thai fields farmers hunched under bright umbrellas, making rice fields look like they were bubbling with a crop of umbrellafruits. I also saw the first of a few restaurants named Cabbages and Condoms, which I thought was an English problem but turns out to be an NGO.

Naturally, vendors cooked snacks in the hot springs

Wat Rong Khun, more commonly known as the white temple, is being built by Chalermchai Kositpipat, a local artist. He is building it as a gift to the King of Thailand, and fuses Thai aesthetic and Buddhist symbolism with contemporary references.

Golden building housing public bathrooms

The wat has been under construction for 15 years and, according to the plans, it will take at least 35 more before it is finished. I found the whole thing impressive, intriguing, and contradictory. The artist is funding the project himself because he wants to have total control over it. He chose to make the wat white because he believes that white represents purity, while gold, the more traditional color, represents human greed. However, he wants to immortalize himself by building this unique temple. That doesn't sound very humble or pure to me. He said he wants people of all faiths to feel a sense of peace when they visit his temple, but as you can see in the first few pictures, there is a macabre element to the whole thing as well. The interior of the temple is still being painted and so there are no photographs allowed. While traditional wats are decorated with murals featuring scenes from Buddha's life, this wat has an apocalyptic scene full of pop culture references: Neo, Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Harry Potter, Avatar characters, Freddy Krueger, Jack Sparrow, and Darth Vader among many others. With all this imagery it felt like there had to be some sort of symbolism, some meaning, but the lack of information and explanations left me puzzled.

We then visited the Golden Triangle, the meeting of Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos around the Mekong River. The original source of the name, though, comes from the region's opium production.

Myanmar on the left, Thailand on the right

We visited the northernmost point of Thailand and again saw Myanmar in the near distance. Thais and Burmese can cross over at will, but Thai citizens are not allowed to spend the night in Myanmar.

What wat?

Something I forgot to mention in my Bangkok post was a mistranslation that I ran into, that might be my favorite of the whole year. Outside of the Emerald Buddha Temple, there was a sign that read, "Beware of your valuable possessions." While it was intended to instruct people to be wary of theft, it seemed like a profound statement about worldly materials' effect on one's spirituality.

From Bangkok I went to Chiang Mai, more or less in the company of the friends I made in Bangkok, though we spent more time on our own in Chiang Mai. Our overnight train took an absurd seventeen hours to get us into town, but luckily it was comfortable if freezing so I won't complain much. We spent most of the afternoon looking for hostels though we did pass a few nice sights along the way, my favorite of which was a dramatically lit chedi which lent itself to some great photos. Funnily enough, our search for dinner landed us at a pseudo-Vietnamese restaurant that was ok but did not come close to anything Vietnam has to offer.

Three Kings Monument

The chedi (stupa)

The next day I started late, and had khao soy, a traditional curry soup with fried egg noodles, for lunch. After that I mostly wandered around and saw a lot of temples whose names I only remember because I took pictures of the entrance signs. The old city (it was a capital of Thailand) is contained in a square with a wall and a moat, and I was staying in the northeastern area, so Joe and I decided to take a tuk-tuk to the southwestern corner and work my way back. There are over 300 temples in Chiang Mai, so my pictures barely scratch the surface. Along the way I bought a mysterious fruit that had been tickling my curiosity. Salak, whose name I unearthed in order to write this entry, was very hit or miss. Some fruits were great, while others tasted unpleasant.

Khao Soy

Cool statue at the park on the NW corner

Wat Phrasingha Woramahawiharn

Wat Rajamontean T. Sripoom A. Muang Chiangmai

On the way back we heard some live music, and it was a jazz band jamming out in rehearsal. That night they would be performing at the opening of an exhibition featuring photography taken by one of the saxophonists during an overland trip from Brussels to Chiang Mai. We returned for the show after dinner, and while the photography left much to be desired, the music was great. The vibe and the people there were such that for a while I almost forgot I was in Asia.

The next day, Friday, I spent the morning wandering on my own. I intended to go to a particular temple but I took a wrong turn or got distracted, and ended up winding my way through the interior eastern side of the square until I made it to the southern edge and walked all the way around back to the northeast corner. I found a large market and a strange, out-of-place-looking all white building with European style statues and three white cars parked in front.

Egg truck. The driver laughed at me for taking this picture.

Strange white house, Janghuarinnakorn House

The main event of the day, though, took place at night. All of us met up for dinner and then went to see a muay thai boxing match. It started off with two local guys, then two local girls, and then the rest of the fights were between a Thai guy and a foreign fighter. I always rooted for the Thai. It was really fun to watch, and while you could hear the thwack of a good hit there was minimal gore. No blood, only sweat flying off on impact. I ended up in the front row behind the red corner, which was a great vantage point. There are fights every night,  and I'm pretty sure that if I lived in Chiang Mai I'd be going at least once a week.

Bam!

On Saturday I spent the day on my own. Having already seen a lot of the old city and its boundaries, I decided to dedicate the day to what lay beyond the walls. This mostly meant more temples.

Old City walls

Wat Chaisriphoom

Wat Pa Pao

At Wat Chiang Yeun

Unusual elephant heads on the eaves (usually mythical snakes)

My last stop was Chedi Luang, one of the most notable wats in Chiang Mai, built in the 14th century and known for it's very large stupa. By the time I got there I was hot and tired and hungry, so I spent some time just sitting in the shade and looking at the stupa/chedi. There were a lot of monks around, cleaning the stupa and roaming around presumably conducting quotidian monk activities. All of a sudden, a man pushing a wheel barrow in my direction let it drop and started running away, beating at bees around him. I thought it was strange and wondered where the bees had come from and why they were chasing him. Gradually but quickly, more people started running and eventually bees were everywhere. There wasn't a swarm, but there was a large and aggressive number. Some people were being chased, while others were just running away. It felt surreal, partly because, despite the panic indicated by the running, everyone maintained the respectful quiet requested at temples, so there was no screaming. I didn't feel particularly threatened but I didn't want to be the only target left so I decided to get up and walk away.

The chedi

Judging from this BBC article that came out later, stating that 70 monks were hospitalized from bee stings, I made the right choice. I'm lucky I made it out in one unswollen piece, because the next day I would be taking a day trip to Chiang Rai.