The Road to Pai

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  Chiang Mai, Thailand
Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Throughout Asia we have seen Buddhist monks come to homes/hotels early in the morning with their bowls, and the owners would give them food, and they would say a prayer together.  On Saturday morning, Chiang Mai organized a massive giving of alms to 11,250 monks from all over the region.  The posters said it would begin at 6.09am, obviously a significant and auspicious time, so we made sure to get there by around 5.45am.  People continued to arrive for a long time after that, and in fact the ceremony didn't take place till around 7.15, by which time the area was packed.  They closed down a main road for over a mile.  People were lined on the street in two columns, kneeling, and the monks first walked all the way down, then when they came back, everyone filled their bowls with alms.  Soldiers (barefoot of course) were seated strategically along the way so that the monks could empty their overflowing bowls into large bags and continue to collect arms.  It was a very moving experience.

alms for monks

On Sunday we decided to go to Pai.  So, have you ever done one of those road trips where you just prayed for it to end?  Maybe the road to Hanna (in Maui), or crossing from 101 to 1 in California?  For those of you who know it, picture Lombard Street in San Francisco (called the curviest street in the world), and imagine driving through the mountains on that road for a couple of hours -- and that's the road to Pai.  So why did we do it?  Because we wanted to see the sleepy, laid-back little town of Pai that everyone writes about as a charming little hippie backwaters set in idyllic scenery.  And the scenery is indeed bucolic, serene, gorgeous -- jungly mountains covered with banana trees and fir trees (but how does that work??) with a seren little river flowing through the valley.  Utterly beautiful.  And the town -- did we say sleepy and laid-back?  Perhaps that's true -- but not when you go like we did on the day following the King's birthday.  That, it appears, is the day the entire Thai population decides to descend on sleepy little Pai and turn it into New Years Eve at Times Square.  Prepared for the drive back, we drugged ourselves with plenty of dramamine and then were able to enjoy the stunning scenery driving back through the mountains.

And so now it appears that somehow we have come to the end of our trip.  All of a sudden a month has gone by, which seems impossible, though it also seems forever ago that we were in Cambodia and Vietnam.  The trip has been a kind of two-in-one, with the first half careening around Bangkok (Thailand) Ankhor Wat (Cambodia) Hoi An, Hue and Hanoi (Vietnam), avoiding bad weather and enjoying the incredibly varied and diverse scenery and surroundings.  The second half has been a relaxing, interesting, thoroughly enjoyable stay with old and new friends in a dynamic, beautiful part of northern Thailand.  We've marvelled at how different some things are (did we mention squat toilets?), and how similar others are (Deal or No Deal in Korean!)

We leave early tomorrow morning.  An hour flight to Bangkok, a 3 hour layover, a 3 hour flight to Taipei, a 2 hour layover, a 12 hour flight to Los Angeles, a 3 hour layover, a 3 hour flight to Guadalajara where we will hopefully collapse into the arms of our dear friends Jan and Char and see our little Sparkle.  So, while you're eating breakfast, lunch, dinner and going to sleep, you can wonder, are we in Thailand? in Taiwan? in the USA? or just insane???!!!

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alms for monks

Pai

Pai

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