Our last stop in SE Asia began in Chiang Mai, Thailand. On arrival, we went to the Sunday Night Market which takes place inside the old quarter section of the city. The old quarter is about 1 mile square and is housed inside a big old crumbling wall. It’s surrounded by a moat. crazy! Since it was dry season, there wasn’t much water in it but it’s still pretty neat to have a moat in your city. The night market was extremely crowded, and at this point I think Amy and I have had quite enough of markets, so we only stayed a short while. The one highlight of this was that there was a strange old guy playing his strange old homemade instruments for change in the street.

I think he was using some kind of non western tuning, because to my ears he sounded very out of tune, but it was pretty awesome nonetheless. Unfortunately, our days in Chiang Mai were marred by the fact that Amy was bedridden with the flu I had in Laos, and since we had a really comfortable guest house, we spent a lot of time watching Thai cable and taking it easy. Still, we managed to make it out once or twice. One incredible place we went to was the Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders. It’s as kooky as the name suggests, run by a man who collected and studied mosquitoes (as did his wife) for something like 50 years. He then started doing nature paintings in his 70’s. Actually, it was pretty incredible the amount of insects, nests, bark, and other crap he had collected. A very bizarre place but a good way to spend an afternoon. That same day we had just about the best Khao Soi (Chiang Mai style curry noodles) ever. We’re thinking of going back to Chiang Mai just to have them again. The next day we made it out to the hill tribes museum, a good idea since we were thinking of going to stay with a hill tribe later in the trip. There are lots of ethnic minorities, commonly known as hill tribes, in Northern Thailand. Mostly they’re known for their colorful dress, old dialects, and a propensity to grow and smoke opium (though this has been curtailed heavily by police in the last 15 years). It was a lot of old clothes, instruments, tools, and looms, and, as everything in Thailand, an entire floor dedicated to how amazing the King is (actually, in this case it appears that the King did step in and provide some aid to struggling hill tribes in the 80’s). Chiang Mai seems like a pretty cool city. It’s laid back, there’s a good bit of art, and a great set of interconnected alleyways. But now it was time to set of for Pai, a small city in the mountains. Lots of travelers talk about how great Pai is. Well, it is very beautiful, and very calm, but it’s essentially not all that different from a place like New Hope, PA. All it has is lots of guest houses, Bob Marley bars, hip, and not so hip, shops for foreigners, and, well, foreigners. Forgive me for being a bit cynical here but what’s the point of traveling half way around the world to be somewhere that’s just like home? Well, it was quiet, and that was good, and we had a nice meal at an organic restaurant on the river.

One day in Pai was enough though, so we made plans to do another homestay, this time in the Lisu village of Nong Thong.

This was a very cool experience. Even though we were only there for a day and a half, we were very lucky to arrive on the night when the Lisu were having a New Year celebration. Actually their New Year was a month before but they hold a party to commemorate the one month anniversary. The party consists of the entire village gathering around the tree of life (in this case it was the tree stump of life), holding hands, and dancing around in a circle. The dance is led by a man who plays a traditional Lisu instrument which is a flute of sorts made out of a gourd. The songs, and dances are very repetitive, and boring, from the observers perspective, but when you join in and dance, there is a very different feel as it is extremely hypnotic, though no opium was smoked. The women all dress in their finest clothes, as do some of the young boys and men. Actually, the clothes the women wear are the same as they wear every day, only they wear very heavy and elaborate necklaces and bracelets to the celebration.

Our hosts in the village were Susannon, a Lisu woman, and Albert, her American husband.

The day after the party, Susannon took us into the hills for an edible plants walk where she showed us all sorts of food that grew naturally in the area, as well as herbs that are used for medicinal purposes.

We picked a few bags worth of food, and Susannon cooked a lot of it up that night and for breakfast the next morning. Albert is a Vipassana meditation teacher and he led a couple of meditation sessions with us. Not exactly a traditional Lisu activity, but we both enjoyed it, and have been meditating semi-regularly since then. We had to leave the next morning, back to Bangkok to catch a plane, but just as we were about to go, a friend of Albert’s came over and since he was heading back to Pai, gave us a ride to the bus there. The thing is, he came to Albert’s from an hour away, and only stayed for 15 minutes before going home.  Right before leaving, Albert discreetly handed the man a small bag. Now I’m not saying for sure but you know what I think? I think we stayed at a drug dealer’s house. Oh well, I guess we’ll never know for sure. Anyhow, back to Bangkok now to hop on that plane…we’re going to Bhutan!!!