THAILAND - JANUARY 2003
When
I sailed around the world while teaching on Semester at Sea in the spring of
2002, I realized that it was just as easy to go someplace across the globe as
nearby. Among the ten countries I
had visited, I was especially intrigued by Vietnam and Cambodia, and decided
that I wanted to see Thailand as well.
So
I went in January of 2003 to avoid the heat of summer and the monsoons of
spring. I stayed a week with a friend in Bangkok, visiting temples and markets,
listening to music concerts, riding water taxis, and eating wonderful food on
the streets. I bought some
wonderful silk shirts that I love to wear.
I
spent another week in Northern Thailand. I flew to Chang Mai, where my
friend had arranged for me to meet a driver who would drive me to explore the
Hill Tribes around Chang Mai, Chang Rai, and the Golden Triangle. The hill
tribes are various ethnic minorities from China and Burma who originally
survived by growing opium, but government development projects have encouraged
them to shift to other crops and to sell textiles to tourists. Once the driver stopped at a roadside
stand and bought some dried worms.
He encouraged me to try one, and it was crunchy like a Cheeto, but
without the cheese flavor!
I
also visited schools, watched kickboxing, and danced in discos, in Chang Mai
and Chang Rai. Then I flew back to
Bangkok, and my friend and I spent several days in Huahin, a seaside resort
where there was more wonderful food, as well as interesting markets and
discos. We returned to Bangkok in
time for Chinese New Year celebrations, then visited an outdoor historic museum,
and an AIDS mercy center where I met children, young adults, and middle-aged
parents who were dying from AIDS.
It
was a very meaningful trip.