Fun Adventure Friday

Fun Fridays just keep getting better and better. I thought that it would be tough to top rock climbing, spelunking, ziplining and rapelling through a cave, but the next Friday we were taken to the most perfect waterfall. This past Friday was even more stellar. We hiked up the mountain Doi Soithep, stopping at a forest monastery on the way and finally arrived at one of the most important temples in northern Thailand, Wat Doi Soithep. The hike was steep and incredibly exhausting. It was incredibly humid, raining on and off, and the altitude made it more difficult to breathe and many of us felt lightheaded. At one point I realized that we were hiking through a cloud. Once at the top we were able to explore the beautiful wat. The challenging hike was well worth it.

The wat had a long set of stairs that let up to it. The perimeter of the main temple had stalls were Buddhist nuns , maechi, sold lotus flowers and other things to offer at the temple. Buddhist nuns are rare in Thailand and are, unfortunately, not very well respected. As a religion major, it was quite a treat to see the nuns in their white robes with shaved heads. The temple had many golden Buddhas, an emerald Buddha statue, and a giant golden structure in the center in which a relic from the Buddha has supposedly been placed. The Thai people that were visiting the Temple clasped lotus flowers between their hands and walked around the golden structure with their heads bowed. There were lots of pharang (white/western people) at the temple and I felt embarrassed for many of them were not dressed riproy.

The concept of riproy is very important to Thai culture. It essentially means to be polite and proper. Unlike in the U.S. the clothes that Thai people wear are (usually) not a reflection of personal style, but rather a way of showing respect to the people around you.

At the temple women must cover their shoulders and shouldn’t wear shorts or short skirts. Those are the most basic clothing guidelines, but in general, you should look respectable. At Wat Doi Soithep I saw a man with his shirt half way unbuttoned and chest hair showing and another young traveler with his shirt off climbing up the temple steps. Going shirtless in public is a big no no. I am glad to have received cultural training from ISDSI and my home stay, but seeing all of the non-riproy pharang on Friday made me wonder how many times in the past I’d been blissfully unaware of cultural rules and had been inadvertently offensive.

While at the wat I had a neat multicultural experience when I eavesdropped on a tour of the temple being given in French.

Just outside the main temple, were the nuns were selling flowers, there was a look out and on a clear day you can see all of Chiang Mai. On Friday you could see nothing but white. As a friend of mine said, “It feels like we’re on a castle in a cloud.” Indeed sometimes I’d see parts of clouds coming down from above, slide over the roof of the wat, and feel the chill as the mist swept by me.

At the base of the temple stairs there were lots of vendors with colorful trinkets to sell. The vendors are accustomed to seeing lots of foreigners, so the prices were on the whole, a bit higher. With what little Thai we had, my friends and I were able to haggle and get the vendors to sell us things for more reasonable prices. However, my friend Erin and I had an experience that can be used as a good example for how pharang are viewed and treated by vendors:

The group was about to leave the hike had left up hungry. We went to a woman who was selling sticky rice that had been stuffed in bamboo and roasted. I’ve had these treats before and they are quite good. We repeatedly asked the woman how much they cost, but she kept ignoring us, so pressed for time, we got fed up and left. A few steps down another vendor laughed and told us in Thai that she was blind and hard of hearing. We asked how much they cost and he told us 10 baht. We returned to the woman, spoke more loudly and just as we were about to finish the transaction, another vendor a few steps us yelled, “Yee-sip Baht. Pharang!” The old woman stopped the transaction and demanded 40 baht. We were astonished.

Infestation

Ants have taken up residence in my computer. Ants are everywhere in Thailand and apparently computers are the perfect place to hide. Ajaan Mark warned us about this last week and he painted a pretty grime picture as to the fate of computers that get infested...blasted.

Cow Neow San Ky ya

Cow neow san ky ya is sticky rice with coconut milk and a sweet egg custard on top. It is one of my favorite Thai snacks. It is always a good day when I wake up and find Cow neow san ky ya wrapped in banana leaves on the table.

View of the valley

Low point on the W curve

Today I really came to appreciate the amazing people that are on this program and I fell so lucky to have the opportunity to get to know them more.

It’s our fourth week of the home-stay and things are getting rough. Even though we all like our families, communication is still exhausting. After a long day at school, we just want to go home and relax, but then, somehow, we have to muster up the energy to patiently listen to our host parents, pick out the words we understand and try to answer. Some of us can tell that always having a “stranger” around is wearing on our host families too.

Several nights ago I felt quite fed up with my host family because they really like to help me with my homework, but always tell me the answer before I can figure it out on my own. So I decided to ignore what they were telling me. It made them mad and me frustrated.

In Thailand, the students are not taught critical thinking skills in school and lessons are learned through rote memorization. As a result, my host parents don’t always understand that I want to read my homework on my own and figure things out by myself. They expect that I want the answer told to me so that I can memorize it. Cultural miscommunications, such as that, were what caused some tensions between my host mother and me yesterday.

But last night I had a great night with my host family. I think that it had a lot to do with the energy boost I got from having felt such deep connections with my new Kalamazoo-ISDSI friends. Tonight my host parents were patient with me and I was patient with them.

Plus, I used a "Thai" way to tell my host parents how I wanted to do my homework. At one point last night my host nephew would tell me the answer before I could figure it out and I asked him to go more slowly because I needed to learn it myself. I've had the same problem with my host mother, who was standing right next to my newphew. She heard me say this, told told him to stop and has now stopped telling me the answer as well. Because I was able to be direct with my nowng (my younger) in front of my host mother…my pi (my elder), I was able to let my host mother know how I wanted to go about doing my homework, without making her feel bad.

Road Rules

Stepping out onto the airport curb the first things you notice about Thai traffic is that every vehicle is going the opposite direction. Who knew? It only takes a few more seconds to realize that Thai traffic laws are nearly nonexistent. The lines painted on the roads are merely suggestions. When lines indicate that there are two lanes, there are really three, one for fast traffic, one for slow traffic and one for motorbikes. The vehicles pass extremely close to each other and motorbikes are always wizzing in between cars. Motorbikes are everywhere! Technically there is a law that you have to wear a helmet, but you’d never guess by watching the traffic. For motorbikes helmets and shoes seem to be optional. Girls wearing skirts (and aren’t the drivers) have to sit on the back of the bike side-saddle. I’ve done it before on the back of my host father’s motorbike and it is quite scary. Often times I see girls fly by with their heels inches from the ground. I hate to think of what would happen on a sharp turn. Traffic lights also seem to be pretty optional, except in really big intersections. Basically, if a Thai driver sees an opening, he or she will take it, regardless of the color of the light.

It is especially important to look both ways before crossing the street in Thailand, because even if traffic should only be flowing in one direction, I often see some motorbikes and bicyclists going the wrong way on the shoulder. This is usually because they only need to travel a short distance and don’t want to use the designated u-turn area. On all of the main roads around Chiang Mai the two sides of the roads are separated by a medium and you can only make a u-turn at certain places. For example, to get to my friend Mike Lee’s house my host father has to drive a kilometer or two past the actual turn for the neighborhood, use the u-turn and then drive back the 1-2 kilometers. Sometimes it seems inefficient, but I think that having the medium there probably prevents a lot of accidents.

Despite all of the close calls and tight two-way roads (that you thought were one way, but then suddenly see a motorbike zooming the wrong way) I’ve yet to see Thai drivers become affected by road rage. I think that the common goal of Thai culture-social harmony- and the idea of being jai yen has a big effect on traffic. To be jai yen means to be chill, quiet and subtle. These are all traits that Thai people value…much like my brother does. As a result, many Thai people don’t let things get to them. They may be bothered by something, but they wont get too upset about if there is nothing they can do to change the situation (although Thai people are on the whole passive people, they will work to change situations when the time is appropriate and they can do it without anyone losing face). I’ve seen this same attitude applied to traffic. The only times I’ve ever heard my host father honk the horn is when we are going around a sharp corner on a narrow road and he wants cars to know he is coming. I’ve seen the same use of the horn from many song tao drivers as well. I much prefer this helpful use of the horn.

Mokfah Waterfall