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Busara’s Digest #11…Part #2
So now it is DAY FIVE and we are halfway through our Amazing Thailand North & Northeastern Bus Trip!!! That started at 6:30 on April 7th. We are 70 Y.E’s
(Inbounds & Outbounds). It was almost Songkran time. We went up in the mountains in minibuses to see Mae Fah Luang Royal
Garden and Doi Tung palace. These two places are very important to Thai people, because the garden was started by the (present) King’s
mother… “The Princess Mother” It is one of the most beautiful places in Thailand and it is said that she created this place to save the rain forest
and also she wanted someplace that reminded her of her home in Switzerland.
Afterwards we departed to Mae Sai and the Golden Triangle, which are right at the northern tip of Thailand. This is a place in Thailand where you can see 3 countries
at once (Laos & Burma/Myanmar). Even though we only got to spend 20 minutes at such an important place and we didn’t get to see any of the Hilltribe villages, I can
still hear the singing of little Thai girls dressed up in Hilltribe clothes…”Sorng Con, Sip Baht, Ow Mai Ka?” Which in English means something like “2 people, 10
baht, Do you want to take a photo with us?” The ending of my day was very, very interesting. We went to a house in Chaing Rai of a very famous
ajarn (teacher) in Thailand. This was actually a terrifying experience for me and I cried because I was so scared. This man…lives by himself in the
middle of nowhere. All of his houses are painted black. All of his furniture represented some sort of dead animal and it was just SPOOKY! At first
all I thought was that he was just rich and everything was just a waste of money. But after he “descended” from his “throne”’ or wherever he
came from, I began to think that he was a psycho. Let me sum up what I remember him telling us: he came to this land to die. He has already dug
his own grave and prepared his cremation materials. He didn’t really have time to answer our
“silly” questions. He believes he is God. He hates religion. He has many girlfriends but he has never loved before (one girlfriend has a boy…the boy is his son…yet he
still does not love). When he is reincarnated he will not love either. He wants to feed his mother-in-law (or one woman) to the crocodiles because he hates her. He
would not appear to see us unless we had eaten all of the refreshments that he had given us. His entire house and all the surrounding buildings were black
but the food was yellow. Oh yeah, and the bananas that he gave us were really for monkeys but good enough for us silly people to eat.
Well, after that experience some of us couldn’t forget what we had heard…it was soooo strange. Actually, we made a joke to go back there in the
middle of the night and paint all of the buildings yellow & pink & blue and other bright colors and write on the walls “YOU R GOING 2 LIVE!!!!!”
But it could only be a joke since everyone feared that maybe he would capture us and make us into furniture as well… haha!
Day six was the beginning of Songkran (Thai New Years) and the country-wide water fight began. Songkran comes from the Sanskrit meaning the
beginning of a new Solar Year. In some ways it resembles the Christian Easter. Everyone dresses in new clothing and visit their Wat (temple)
where food is offered to the monks. There is also a Public Spring Cleaning Day supported by the religious belief that everything old and useless
must be thrown away or it will bring bad luck to the owner. We traveled through Payao, Chaing Rai & Chaing Mai where we started to enjoy
Songkran. We threw water on everybody we came into contact with for about 2 hours
just to get warmed up for what we were about to experience the next day.
Friday April 13th was really Songkran and we celebrated it in the heart of Chiang Mai with “billions” of other people. Rotary gave everyone lunch
money and then set us out onto the backs of trucks as we joined in the water fight. The sight was unbelievable. I still cannot get the picture out of
my head of soooo many people throwing water everywhere. People came out on their trucks and motorcycles and some even in cars just to have
fun (don’t really ask me why since traffic wasn’t going anywhere!) We drove around the square (maybe once) in Chaing Mai for about 5 hours
(that’s how bad traffic was!) and it was awesome!!!! I think the best part
about Songkran is that you get to play in your normal clothes. It would not
be as fun if everyone had swimwear on so basically we were wet all day. I took a chance
and got some pictures while dodging buckets of water…my camera still works and the pics came out nicely. I was also surprised to see people taking water right out of
the klongs (man made rivers that are sorta dirty) and splashing it on everyone. Afterwards, my face was swollen because I got a lot of squirts in and around my eyes.
That night we went to Kan Tok Dinner where we had to sit on the floor and eat while watching a show of Northern Thailand culture. I must admit
that the north of Thailand is so different from Bangkok. Even the south is very different. At times all Y.E.’s kept joking that “we must have
crossed the BORDER and maybe we were in now in Burma/Myanmar”…that’s how different it was. Later, Rotary took us to the Night Plaza
where we shopped and shopped until we felt like making our way back to the YMCA on our own. Might I add that the YMCA was the best hotel
we stayed at…keep up the great work guys!
DAY EIGHT, we went from Chaing Mai to Lampang and to Sukhothai. We stopped at Viang Ping Orphanage where we took goodies for the little
children there. DID…YOU…KNOW… that 90% of the orphans at this particular home are adopted and many of them go to places in Europe (i.e.
Switzerland, France, Finland, Sweden, Italy & Germany). And also that 70% of them who are born with HIV never develop full-blown AIDS.
That’s what I learnt that day. Then we drove and saw Gas Stations before checking into a Thai Village in Sukhothai.
On our second to last day, we were supposed to visit the Crocodile Natural Reservior in Nakorsawan and also a Fishing farm in
Uthaithani…but we didn’t. Guess where we went!!!! To a Gas Station!!! Yeah, the only stops we made were for GAS and lunch. that wasn’t very much fun. Our last
night was spent in Uthaithani at the resort of another local Rotarian. We signed friendship books and t-shirts and talked, laughed and cried…this
was our last night together. This resort was located in the mountains and I must add something that happened that I am sure I will never forget. A
group of us went for a walk in the mountains and found this temple. So we took off our shoes (not a very good idea) and then went through the
caves and the bushes barefoot. We then found another shrine in the cave and for that moment
about 7 of us just sat there and reflected on all the good times we had. We also went around and said good qualities of everyone present. THAT event I will never
forget!!
Well, I guess you can say that was the end of my Bus Trip 2001 to the North & Northeast of Thailand. DAY TEN we did nothing much but Rotary
let us sleep in until lunchtime. So at 11:55am we ate breakfast and then at 12:00pm we ate lunch. After 10 days of going to bed at 4am, waking up
at 7am, trying to sleep all day on a bouncy bus, we were all grateful for that extra sleep. On the way home we saw one more GAS STATION while
driving through Suphanburi before we arrived in Bangkok “save & sound”…says Rotary.
Ok, that’s all for the eleventh issue of "BUSARA’S DIGEST’.
Look forward to issue twelve (12):::::::::::
COMING SOON TO A COMPUTER NEAR YOU, IN AN E-MAIL JUST FOR YOU!
SAWADEE KA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
BARBARA ZA’ FRANKS
R. Y. E. 2000-2001
Dist. 6990 (Grand Bahama) - Dist 3350 (Thailand)
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