A surprise in Sukhothai

We read about the Sukhothai Organic Agricultural Project and wanted to see it. It was started by a 75 year-old woman named Vanli Prasarttong-osoth who has a food nutrition degree from a U.S. university and started out as an elementary school teacher. Her husband owns the Bangkok airways so when they bought the land for the airport in Sukhothai, they developed an agricultural experiment in the rice fields adjacent to the small airport. They developed three kinds of rice, all organic, but each designed for nutritional content-- brown, black and red.

We stopped by the Sukhothai Heritage Resort to taste the rice and then headed to the agricultural station, shown in the pictures.

The trip back on Bangkok Airways was as opposite of our trip to Sukhothai as you can get (see Getting There and Around). The attendents place a orchid corsage on every passenger. The small check-in takes so little time, that you can avail yourself of one of the complimentary bicycles to ride around the grounds and see the weaving and cermics demonstrations or just settle in the outdoor waiting area and partake of the complimentary fruits, drinks and snacks while reading one of the numerous free magazines or newspapers.

As we rode in an open-air van to the plane, a staff of several attendents stood and bowed bon voyage. The whole runway is landscaped in flowers and the flight was the smoothest ever, of course, with complimentary lunch and drinks.

If you are ever in the area--be sure to check it out--and while you are there you can see the Sukhothai historical park ( the capital before Bangkok) and the Sri Satchanalai Heritage site (ancient ruins of an early Thai city)--two of the most historical sites in Thailand. Here is an old wat at the Sri Satchanalai site. We rode our bikes there through a nice village with antiques and other various crafts and offerings.

Getting There and Around

My cousins Franklin and Tresa McCallie once bragged that they took buses in Beijing. They spoke about the advantage of “traveling with the people” as a way of getting to know the country. Since Franklin is almost as tall as Yao Ming, he also attracted a lot of attention. Well, Franklin and Tresa, Katie and I have a challenge for you.

Ok, you start in Vientiane, Laos, and you have to get to Sukhothai, Thailand, which is on the other side of the country in one day—by ordinary conveyance. This is a challenge for The Amazing Race.

First you have to get to the border and cross the Mekong River, going through customs on the Thailand side. Oh, I forgot to tell you that you have to stop in Nong Khai and pick up the bags and stuff you left there. So now you have 6 bags between you because you added a bag of fabric in Laos and Supijit gave you a bag of dried Kaffir lime leaves.

The bus leaves Nong Khai every hour. It goes as far as Udon Thani, about two hours away. The driver pulls over and lets everyone out, oh well, on the side of the road somewhere. You ask “Sukhothai?” and the driver nods and points.

Beware the pointing finger!

It looks like he is pointing across the street. But there is clearly no bus terminal across the street. You ask someone else,” Sukhothai?” You never know for sure what you are saying and what they are hearing. A tuk-tuk driver acts like he knows what you need and takes all your bags and off you go.

Passing numerous lotus ponds and rice fields, he drops you off at a bus terminal and leaves. Again, you ask “Sukhothai?” More nods and selling of tickets and a pointing finger over there. You sit and wait.

On the way to the bathroom, you discover that the man taking up 3 baht for the toilet speaks English and tells you that the bus leaves in two hours and you are sitting in the wrong place—it’s over there—and he points.

The toilet isn't worth the 3 baht you gave him but you hope his English is. You move. A monk is sitting there, too, under a sign warning not to smoke.

The bus is not a Mercedes bus, but it has AC, curtains, a blanket, and water. You are in for a 6-7 hour ride over the mountains and through a national park. You are right under the TV which is playing the equivalent of Thai Country Music TV. At one point the bus is so full that people are standing in the aisle and someone is sitting on your arm rest. But you are ok with that because you are the one sitting in the seat.

Night comes. The CMT stops. The arm rest is free. Your water bottle is empty and you’ve eaten all of the boiled peanuts and sliced green mango you bought on the way.

At last, the bus comes to a terminal—it’s 11 pm. But you’re not in Sukhothai yet. It’s 60 kilometers away. You have a room in a guest house in Sukhothai waiting for you. It’s pouring rain, thunder and lightning. The next bus to Sukhothai leaves at 1 AM. There’s a taxi driver available who seems a little tipsy and doesn’t speak English. You read in Lonely Planet that there are hotels with “decent” rooms in this town that you know nothing of nor can you see where you are. People are shouting and telling you things in Thai because they can tell you don’t know anything and need their help, but of course they aren’t helping much at all.

What do you do?

Laos- a new territory

The book says to pronounce it “Wien-chang”—but no one seems to. Vientiane is the capitol of Laos just across the Mekong River from Nong Khai. The new Friendship Bridge makes it easy to go back and forth. Laos’ colonial past as part of French IndoChina is evidenced in the wide, tree-lined boulevards with circular intersections and fountains that no longer have water and are overgrown with moss and weeds.

Mom and I arrived in Vientiane a little before noon. It was a long morning getting across the border- much slower than we expected. To our good fortune, our taxi driver just happened to drop us off at a Scandinavian bakery. Alas, we finally got the long awaited pastry shop. After indulging in bread, butter, jam, cheese, and cappuccino we were ready to explore this new country. (Earlier reference--Lonely Planet described the French pastry shops which we failed to find, see Overnight Train to Ubon Ratchathani and Traveler's Nightmare.)

It didn’t take us long to realize that this was a special place- at least for our interests. There was one boutique after the next beautifully displaying both new and old silk and cotton scarves, wall hangings, bags, and much more almost all made from Laotian villagers. We were in the meca of fabric. (You can see above with our displayed purchases just how much we were enthralled. It was hard to resist it all.) Going from one store to the next always keeping the store clerks busy with opening every piece and showing us some of their finest, we never got bored. And when we were tired (which came easily with some many fabrics to look at) we just got a massage- that is a Lao massage, one of the best things that has ever happened to me. We soon learned that this was the best deal in town- for just one hour it cost $4, and this was no shabby massage- we got a special outfits, a shower, tea, and deluxe relaxation. And once again we found a nice little guesthouse to stay in.

Here is Mom enjoying a foot massage- one of the three we had in two days.

One thing we were not expecting in Laos was all the tourists. For the past week and a half we had been one of the few foreigners around always blantantly standing out. You would think after being surrounded by unfamiliarity we would embrace these fellow Westerners, but in fact it was the opposite. We observed that tourists rarely socialized with other foreigners, and we were no different. I have to admit I didn’t like being amongst all the tourists, but one benefit was the good restaurants. They had better cafes and sandwich shops than we can find in the States. We never saw one Lao restaurant, which was a shame for me. I was ready for street food again when we got back to Thailand.

Oh yeah, and if you ever go to Laos be sure to brush up on your basic math skills. Though they do take dollars and baht in many places, you will need to use some Kip and it does not come in small quantities. A meal will cost around 50,000 kip. And bargaining does not come easy, but it is well worth it to be prepared because they can get away with selling items at higher prices. With bargaining and converting between kip, dollars, and baht it is no wonder we needed a massage (at least that is what we told ourselves).

Democratic Convention in the morning

Although we got to see the Olympic ceremonies live at night, we have the opposite situation with the Democratic National Convention—it comes on live on CNN—in the morning while you are seeing it at night. The only problem is finding a TV with CNN. Almost impossible.

Most unexpected--one night in Vientaine, Laos, we went to a Japanese restaurant and the TV was on--I saw on the tape at the bottom of the screen that Obama had picked Joe Biden as his VP. It was CNN breaking news. We asked the owner if he could turn up the sound. He was delighted to have people watch it so we had a great sushi dinner and went back the next night to watch the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

Then a couple days later we were in Sukhothai, Thailand—really small place. We went to have breakfast and the restaurant was closed. So the "tuk-tuk" driver took us somewhere else and dropped us off at a hole in the wall sort of place. I noticed a large screen TV and asked the owner if he had an English channel--he smiled and changed the channel and there was Michelle Obama giving her speech on CNN International! Katie is in the picture giving an iced tea toast as we watch the live speech—for breakfast.

But since that time we have not been able to see anything. It is so frustrating. Unable to find a TV with CNN, we went to an internet cafe and tried to go to CNN online, but couldn't down load the video. Besides, the noise was horrendous— teenagers use the cafe for computer games that are brutally violent and noisy like cars crashing and gangsters shooting each other.

We are now back in Bangkok at Jim and Martina's house where we were able to watch Obama’s acceptance speech this morning after breakfast.

This election affects the whole world. We saw on Thai TV one day that McCain was head in the polls by 5 percentage points. I don’t know how most people in Thailand feel, but a guy at the bus station who didn't speak English, when he learned we were from America, said, "Obama!" and held up two thumbs.

The Thai have their own political problems right now—a half million people have descended on Bangkok for a massive demonstration demanding the resignation of the top government leaders for corruption. The government has responded with an ultimatum to disperse.

Wat on every corner, monk on every sidewalk

I don’t think I’ve ever been in an actively Buddhist country before. In Japan, China, and Korea, Buddhism is part of the history. But in Thailand, Buddhism is alive and well and a part of everyday life. Katie mentioned earlier the opening assembly at school—everyday they start with the national anthem and then a Buddhist prayer. One day a Buddhist monk was the speaker at the opening assembly and met with smaller groups during the day.

We see monks in saffron robes, young and old, everywhere. And, of course, there’s a wat (Thai temple) on every corner.

We were told that women aren’t supposed to touch or may make eye contact with a monk, so we kept our distance. One day in Laos, a young monk came up to us and wanted to practice his English. He was at a monastery in Laos which offered meditation at 4:00 everyday for foreigners. That is where most of these pictures were taken—or on the riverwalk in Nong Khai.

There were about 12 people at the meditation, all foreigners. A monk and nun attended, but the meditation was led by a British woman. We sat on pillows- the same pillows we envied to have a few days before from the Isaan region- in a pavilion. She explained some basics of being silent, not following your thoughts, just letting them go and observing your breath. After about 15 minutes of sitting, she asked us to get up and do 20 minutes of walking meditation—we walked quietly and very slowly around the pavilion on our own. Then we returned to the pillows for 20 minutes of sitting again. About half way into it, the cicada began chirping loudly just like they do in Tennessee in the summer and then the monks somewhere closeby began chanting in a high pitched monotone which sounded a lot like the cicada in human voice.

Supijit’s house was just across from a Buddhist monastery. Boss took us through it one day. The monks keep a lot of dogs. Every afternoon about 4:00 the drum struck a beat. Boss said it was reminding people to come to something, but he forgot what it was.

The thing I think that I liked best about being a neighbor to a Buddhist monastery was the bell in the morning at 5:45 am (but not so much the one at 3 am).

The bell starts slowly, softly—one, then a few short rings, pause of several seconds, then another short series of rings, this time a little longer than the first, softly, slowly. It keeps going this way for awhile—a gradual awakening from sleep. It’s not a harsh honk or a jarring command, only a call to start your day—come, it says, join me in a new beginning: The sky is turning light, the roosters have already done crowing, and the birds are fluttering.

These communal time clocks are a part of village life. I miss the chimes of church. Something is lost when the communal markers of time are replaced with individual alarms. Even if we live our own individual routines, the communal time clocks make us aware that we all share in the passing of time and the welcoming of day.

Crazy Sculptures

We went to a scultpure garden that words can't quite describe. so here are some pictures to do what I can't do.

I was quite a trek to get there but well worth it.

We stayed in Nong Khai in a lovely guesthouse (http://www.mutmee.com/) and had a terrific time. The week before there was a serious flood in the city that covered our guesthouse, but luckily due to the Thai's hard work effort they were able to clean it up in time for our arrival. So we were still able to enjoy all they had to offer. You can see our hut behind Mom.

The city still had leftover mud from the flood on the riverwalk. You can see below a man cleaning up and shoveling mud back into the beautiful brown Mekong River.

Regional Textiles

The northeast region of Thailand is known for it hand woven cotton fabrics, and the area around KhamKuenKaew is famous for triangle pillows. Supijit’s mother has a cottage industry making the pillows. Her mother was out of town, so S. took us to another pillow workshop nearby. The colors of the fabrics are bright and the pillows come in many shapes and sizes.

Fabric has become a theme of our trip that we hadn’t expected. After leaving KKK we took a bus to Nong Khai in the extreme northeast edge of Thailand on the Mekong River. Here we found a rich variety of cottons and silks in the colors of traditional Thai and Laotian designs. Textiles, like food, come from the land and are reflective of the culture and industry of the people of the area.

A bridge over the Mekong now connects Laos and Thailand. The lure of “the other side” draws us—we will set out tomorrow to cross the bridge and see what we learn from Thailand’s neighbor. Someone told us that Vientiane has many French people living there again and consequently has French bakeries. We just can’t resist—those illusive pastry shops are beguiling us again.