Disclaimer: This blog is longer than usual, and there are more photos than usual! I traveled to Chiang Mai last week, and there is much to share!
Last Friday I was informed that I wouldn’t have school for the next week, because all of the teachers were headed off to a conference in Bangkok. So, what’s a girl to do in Southeast Asia when she suddenly learns she has 10 free days? First, she freaks out. Then she checks her flight options. (I’ve really wanted to go visit my sister in London, but it is still quite a trek to get there from Ubon). My flight options were both expensive and limited, so I decided that this week would be a great opportunity to see-another-part-of-Thailand-bus-week. While browsing the internet and my Thailand books, I learned that this very weekend happened to be the same weekend as the annual Umbrella Festival in Bo Sang, Chiang Mai. I remember seeing photographs of these beautiful umbrellas in National Geographic before, and I made up my mind that I was going to go. The only problem was that the festival was only 3 days, and it had already started. I was determined to make it to the final day of the festival…Sunday! However, this meant that I would need to quickly book a 16 hour, overnight bus to Chiang Mai. This is exactly what I did, and it was such an adventure. I find that some of my most thoughtful moments happen on these long bus rides.
While waiting for my 2pm bus (getting into Chiang Mai the next morning at 645am), I chatted with two women who were teachers at a nearby secondary school. When our bus stopped for dinner, we sat and ate together. I love making new friends! The next morning our bus got in around 6am. It was FREEZING cold, and pitch black. I had my backpack, myself, and no plan except to get to Bo Sang, and to hopefully eventually meet some of the other Fulbrights. The two women that I had been talking with the night before saw that I was waiting (and didn’t really know what I was doing...it was 6am in a place I didn't know), and they offered to take me home with them, and then drive me to Bo Sang. I went with them! One of the lady’s sisters picked her up, and we went to her home, where we had bananas and clementines and green tea. I brushed my teeth and was able to clean up a little bit. Then they drove me to Bo Sang, treated me to a sit down breakfast, and we started strolling through the fair. One of the ladies even bought me a scarf! (I have since worn it everyday). I couldn’t believe how kind these strangers were to me—obviously not expecting anything in return, or thinking that they would ever see me again (I must have looked pretty pitiful!). Regardless, meeting these women, and the adventure of going home with absolute strangers, is one of my most treasured memories from my almost four months here. I will never be able to repay these women, but I definitely plan on “paying it forward” to someone, at some point, when the opportunity unfolds itself. Never again will I look at a foreign, confused person in Chicago the same way. These little (or big!) acts of kindness have touched me forever.
At Bo Sang, I was able to meet up with 3 other Fulbrights. It was great to speak with them in fast English and hear their latest stories. I then went home with one of my friends, Kelly, to her home in Sarapee (about an hour’s drive from Chiang Mai proper). I could not get over how beautiful the looming rubber trees that lined the roads to Sarapee were. I felt like I was in some sort of kingdom where I was an itty bitty creature! One day when I went venturing into the city while Kelly had to teach, I accidentally got off the bus to soon and walked an hour and a half back to her apartment- no sidewalks, but beautiful rubber trees lining the streets. It was quite the adventure! I visited Kelly’s school one day, which is always interesting for me to compare experiences. I think that I am the only Fulbright who teaches at a school where, literally no one, speaks English. I also spent the Chinese New Year in Chiang Mai proper, which was very exciting, as many Thais are of Chinese ancestry. I did some shopping and ate lots of delicious food.
On Wednesday, I took off from Kelly’s place and went to the Royal Flora exhibit on my own. The only way I can describe Royal Flora is as if there were an Epcott Center for flowers. The exhibit was HUGE (like Disney World), and many different countries had their own “garden” within the exhibit. I was shocked to be one of the only farang there, though. Not only that, but I was wearing a Cubs hat. I caught several different people snapping photos of me. (aka You know you’re in Asia when you offer to take a picture of a group of people, but instead they want you in the picture, they want you to stand in the center, and everyone in the picture passes over their cameras). I actually think that this is one of the sweetest, most harmless things that I love about Thai culture, and I will miss being a celebrity once I am back in America. One thing in particular that I found absolutely hilarious about Royal Flora was that all of the translated English signs and English pamphlets were FULL of grammatical mistakes and very poor English. Royal Flora runs from December 2011 to March 2012, and was resurrected to commemorate the King’s birthday (the most revered man in all of Thailand). This was a multi multi million dollar, international project. Yet, they didn’t get a native English speaker to edit any of their large printed signs or pamphlets.
Another highlight of Royal Flora: Finding a 2004-2005 New Trier High School student ID in my old backpack, testing it out, and having it WORK to get me in as a student!!! I have found that many Thai people guess that I am 18...the opposite direction of age that Americans usually guess. They also go by Buddhist years (it's now year 2555), so maybe that helped me. I was naughty!
After Royal Flora, I caught a bus to Mae Hor Phra (a small town in the mountains of Chiang Mai province) to visit my friend Matt, and to see something new. I really didn’t know where I was going, and the bus driver informed me when we were at the school where Matt had told me to get off. I literally got off on the side of the road. There was no one around, but there were breathtakingly beautiful mountains. It was dusk, and mist had begun to move over the mountains. (Or as Chiang Mai students say “Thailand’s snow”). Matt met me (thank god), and we went for an amazing nighttime motorbike ride through the mountains. I absolutely loved his school, teachers, and students, when I met them the next day, and everyone spoke wonderful English. It was also very fun for me to hear the Northern dialect of Thai. They use some different words and sounds, so it was very cool. Matt took me to Buatong Falls one day, which was drop dead gorgeous. At the falls, you can literally climb down them (you get soaking wet), and swim in the lagoon at the bottom. I don’t think that there is anything in life more thrilling than swimming in a serene, jungle lagoon at the bottom of a waterfall that you have just climbed down. Ubon is flat, so everyday I enjoyed the novelty of the mountains gracing the backdrop.
Just before I boarded my 16 hour bus home, I got a really bad case of food poisoning. (Hilarious if you think about it, but I felt so sick!) I am currently on antibiotics, hoping that it’s not a parasite. However, my trip to Chiang Mai province was the perfect adventure.
Enjoy all of the umbrella pictures! They are my favorite J
The wonderful ladies who took me home with them at 6am from the Chiang Mai bus station.
Their car cover. One of the ladies loved Hello Kitty.
The look of success.
I made my goal of seeing the Umbrella Festival a reality!
(and I am so glad I did, because I will most likely not be in Thailand next January, so I don't know when I would have gotten the next chance to see it)
Just a warning...the next (many) photos are of me with umbrellas...
I call these the "fire" colored umbrellas!
Maya (left), one of the Fulbrights who lives in Chiang Rai, and me, next to a very large umbrella!
Old ladies making the umbrellas!
SO COOL
A woman painting an umbrella
Peackock Umbrella
Sherbert colored umbrellas!
Posing with some bad ass umbrellas.
ps- the scarf I have on is the scarf the ladies who took me home from the bus this morning bought for me!
Lauren, another Fulbright, and I eating Ancient Ice Cream
(ice cream that comes in cool shapes that is sold on a stick)
Not as good as klondike bars, but few things in life are as good as klondike bars.
Birds for sale! I got a kick out of the "bird feed" in the cages. Can you see?
(The birds eat peeled bananas!)
Beautiful.
If I ever do a scrapbook of my travels, this photo will have to be a backdrop of some sort.
Making umbrellas.
The woman on the left is trimming off the extra paper on her umbrella.
Papering umbrellas! Such a cool skill. I want to learn the craft of umbrella making!
Umbrellas "undersides." I feel like I am violating them!
An artist paints an umbrella
Parade! Marching band with PLUMES! Awesome.
Beauty queen, under an umbrella, of course, with floats decorated with
more umbrellas and pictures of the king.
Chinese New Year in Chiang Mai's China Town!
Cool Mushrooms
Chinese New Year Dragon!
Sugar cane being "juiced"
Rubber trees line the streets on the way to Sarapee
Royal Flora
The "Soiless Garden" greenhouses of Royal Flora.
I was way into these :)
Royal Flora
Monks on their way to ride the ferris wheel
Fresh off the bus: Mae Hor Phra
My friend, Matt, and his house (on the school's property)
Rice fields and mountains
(photo taken from motorbike)
Driving to the National Park
Just BEAUTIFUL
This is a "magic" spring. Thais put the holy water on their faces, but you can't swim in it.
The color of the water was really cool. It did seem like a holy spring!
Buatong Falls
Climbing back up the waterfall, after a lovely swim in the lagoon at the bottom.
A little pond I found and decided to swim in
We got a flat tire, and stopped at a Hilltribe village to get it fixed.
We definitely looked like dumb farang
Cool silo?
I will never forget the vibrant kelly green of fresh rice sprouts
Northern Thailand
I like this picture because it looks like we're in Park City, Utah!
Matt slightly reminds me of Hansel from Zoolander
View from dinner on the lake
At dinner, this kitten jumped on my lap...
I wanted to bring it home with me.
My favorite new teacher friend, Kruu Zara! She calls herself the "Lovely Dictator."
She kindly drove me back to the city of Chiang Mai to catch my bus home :)
