Thailand

 I flew to Bangkok and was then off on my own adventure. Bangkok seemed so much bigger than 12 years ago, and with new subway and sky train lines, I found it to be quite overwhelming. I had arranged to meet some people who were working for NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) with Burmese refugees. It was interesting to hear about their work, their perspectives, and their high hopes for the country.  The next day I took a bus to Mai Sot, which is very close to the Burmese border and is where the 9 refugee camps for Karen people are located; approximately 150,00 people live in the camps. It was an all day bus ride and very boring until the last couple of hours when we finally got into the hills. 

I had a contact with World Education who had secured a pass for me to visit the largest camp, Mae La, where 50,000 people live. It was just like a Burmese village except that people live very close together, there is barbed wire, and there are many NGO offices at the entrance. I visited the high school and in the afternoon taught three classes of English, although it was extremely noisy because there were only half walls. The Karen teacher spoke quite good English and did a lot of translating. There were 25-30 students in the classes, some could speak fairly well and were able to ask astute questions. It was an interesting, but exhausting afternoon.

I went on to Mae Sariang in a “sangthaew,” the back of a pick up truck with benches along the sides. Luckily I was with four Belgiums so the all-day trip didn’t seem so long; at one point there were 18 passengers piled in and hanging out the back. I ended up doing a two-day trek with the Belgiums.The morning of the trek, we rode in the back of a pick up taxi from Mae Sariang to Mae Sam Leap on the Salawin River which is the border between Thailand and Burma. It took over an hour on a horrendously bumpy road with sheer drop offs on the sides. We rode in a long-tail boat down the river for almost an hour and then got off for our trek. We walked up hills going through harvested rice fields and followed a stream. Sometimes it was a bit rough going because we had to cross the stream at least a dozen times balancing on rocks or on bamboo logs, and at the end we were scrambling up a hillside. We arrived at a Karen village and had dinner and spent a cold night with a family. We returned the next day going down a steep, rocky, and leaf-slippery mountainside through a beautiful rain forest. There were two clumps of orchids high up in trees. It was a spectacular hike with endless hills and clouds hanging low in the distance. 

I continued traveling with the two Belgium women to Chiang Mai, a great city with fabulous markets, shops, restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and beautiful old golden temples. It was such a pleasure being in Thailand that caters to tourists with wonderful fruit shakes (my favorite is mango), and muesli, fruit and yogurt for breakfast instead of the fried eggs that one continually gets in Burma. Thai food is of course delicious, even the street food is amazing.

I met up with my daughter, Sarah, and three of her friends who had been in Bangladesh for a wedding celebration. We all took a Thai cooking class, then we did a two-day trek that included an elephant ride – the best part was when I was able to ride on the elephant’s head out of the pond after it’s morning bath.  We also were on a short rafting trip with decent rapids, and later a bamboo raft in gentle waters.  It was fun shopping with my daughter and being with her friends. Afterwards they went on to Laos and I visited a private primary school, Starfish Country School, run by a former Hamline professor just north of Chiang Mai. The children are learning English, but mostly they learn Thai. It’s a boarding school run by a foundation so the children attend free. The school has bout 50 students, mostly Hmong and Lisu students. There are lovely facilities including a swimming pool. One day I went with a Hmong social worker and several others to a Hmong village up in the hills to test three and four-year-olds for school readiness; the children were adorable. The next day a ballet production of Peter Pan was being professionally videotaped at the school. The costumes were amazing as were the children; I was very impressed. The children at the school are happy children who have no idea how lucky they are.

 My last few days were spent on the island of Ko Chang about five hours southeast of Bangkok. It was a lovely place to relax, snorkel, swim, and have massages before the long trip back home.