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| Sunday, 4-May-2008 00:00 |
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TheWhiteTemple,KidMonksw/ToyMachineGuns,&theGoldenHorseMonastery
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Tawan with an ever smiling Monk
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Me with good buddies Tanya and Eli
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Tawan and I at our hill resort
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Tawan with an Ahka woman
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Tawan making merit
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Kid monk with toy machine gun
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Temple of Mae Salong
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Wat in the Mist
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Nice view of terrace farming
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Tawan had never been to the northern city of Chiang Rai so we flew up for a long weekend. We took off Friday at the end of a long day at school. I was sick and tired, but we headed to the airport to endure the normal one hour plus delay from Air Asia (Air Delaysia). We'd booked a room at a novelty "love" hotel in Chiang Rai. The Red Rose Hotel had a variety of theme based romantic rooms to choose from such as: the Jungle Room, Car Room, UFO Room, Sky Room, and several cartoon rooms (not sure how cartoons are romantic). We'd booked the Star Wars room and were disappointed to learn upon our arrival that the room wasn't available due to electrical malfunctions. So we settled for one of the heavily mirrored non themed rooms.
The next day we rented a car. In my four years in Thailand, I'd never actually driven a car. I've ridden motorbikes numerous times, but had never climbed behind the the passenger side wheel. What I mean by that is that in Thailand cars have the steering wheel on the other side (passenger side) of the car. They also drive on the left side of the road and this had always felt like too much adapting to do. But, it was a rainy weekend and we wanted to head into the mountains so we rented a car for about 30 bucks a day. It really wasn't that difficult to drive but a road cone was one of my victims. The hardest adjustment was that the blinker was on the opposite side of the steering column. Every time I wanted to signal a turn, I switched on the windshield wipers.
We visited a beautiful pure white temple just outside of the city and then headed into the mountains. We stayed at a resort on the far side of a reservoir. To reach the hotel, we had to park our car and then be ferried across the reservoir by boat and then were chauffeured to the top of a mountain via fancy stretch golf cart. Both our room and the view were lovely.
One of our primary objectives was to visit the Golden Horse Monastery. I'd seen photos of the monks at the monastery who ride horses to collect their morning alms each day. I'd done a little research and learned that the monastery took in orphaned children and taught them horseback riding skills along with Muay Thai (Thai boxing). It seemed like an interesting place and we visited early morning so that Tawan could make an offering of food and supplies to the monks. About half a dozen monks rode in (mostly child monks) to collect alms from a small crowd of merit making Thais. Apparently there are usually more monks, but many were traveling to the nearby Burmese border to offer some kind of assistance. This was the same weekend that the cyclone was hitting Burma and delivering such a devestating blow. The lead monk wore a perpetual smile and emitted an incredible vibe of peace and positive feeling.
Afterward, we headed further into the mountains to spend a few days in the heavily Chinese town of Mae Salong. The town was settled by anti communist Chinese soldiers who were pushed out of China. We met some dear friends, Tanya and Eli there and sat in a tea shop with them for a long time while the owner served up several varieties of locally grown tea. She passed me a tea cup with an upside down shot glass sitting in the tea. I wasn't sure what to do with it so I pulled it out as tea spilled all over me. Tanya had a better clue and took the upside down steam filled glass out and immediately held it over her eye. Apparently, it was some type of mini sauna for one's eyeball.
Tawan and I really enjoyed our weekend in the mountains of Northern Thailand. The area used to be part of the notorious Golden Triangle where opium cultivation was prevalent. Government efforts have worked to put a stop to this and are instead encouraging indigenous people of the area to instead grow tea. Fortunately for us, this led to a wonderful opportunity for tea time with good friends in the cool, misty mountains of the north.
I made the following video with my students to help raise money for the cyclone victims in Burma. The video was actually seen by some Burmese who called my students "heroes of Burma". Of course, I was incredibly proud of them.
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| Tuesday, 15-Apr-2008 04:15 |
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NationWide WaterFights,Sea Gypsies,&Religous CardQuality Sunsets
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Little Baby Sea Turtle
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Tawan sunset
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Sea Gypsy Kids
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Tail of a Longtail
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Island kids have a good old time
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Snorkel Guide
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Every April is the Thai New which is called Songkran. It's during the hottest time of the year and is celebrated by giant water fights across the country. This year, Tawan and I drove south with our good friends David and Nipa. It was like driving through an unending car was as our car was repeatedly splashed with buckets of water, squirt guns, and powder.
We spent a few days in Khao Lak which was one of the areas hardest hit by the tsunami. We visited a neat sea turtle conservation center and I spent my 36th birthday getting a 2 hour massage on the beach.
We then took a speed boat a few hours out into the ocean and spent a few days at a National Park called Mu Ko Surin. The island was beautiful and we did some amazing snorkeling. Tawan saw a sea turtle, David saw a shark, and we all saw some BEAUTIFUL coral.
David is actually a former minister and used to be Reverend Dave. He described some of the sunsets we saw as "religious card quality sunsets." That about sums it up.
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| Thursday, 21-Feb-2008 05:30 |
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SE Asian Choppers, Monks in the Morning, and Mekong Riverboats
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In Thailand, we celebrate the New Year three times. Once on January 1st, then again for Chinese New Year in February, and one last time on my birthday in April. Not a bad deal.
For our New Year's celebration part 2, I headed back up into Laos (don't pronounce the S, thank you) with some buddies. Long time high school pal, Jason Borne is visiting for his third year for several months. We were joined by fellow fourth grade teacher, Mr. Mike Saltz.
We overnight trained our way to the border and then spent 2 hours fighting our way through immigration. Lines and more lines. The last line we had to pass through, we were asked to pay a 25 cent entrance fee to get into the country. Pretty silly. It seemed like they just wanted an excuse to throw in another line just for good measure.
It was unseasonably chilly and damp up there for the first few days. We shivered our way around the capital of Vientienne then headed farther north to Vang Vien. Mike made the entire bus pull over so he could use the bushes (sorry Mike, I told you I'd blog about it). He wasn't the only one who had to go. Bus rides are always rough when you need to go, but have no idea how much longer before they are going to stop the damn thing.
Vang Vien is an odd place. It's a little backpacker village filled with wasted hippies, nestled alongside a BEAUTIFUL river, and glorious limestone mountains. People get a little rowdy and obnoxious and there are restaurants filled with hordes of people watching FRIENDS. It's kind of creepy. Like DiCaprio said in the movie "The Beach", "people travel thousands of miles from their homes to sit and watch TV"(or something to that effect). We joked that the motto of the town could be "I'll be there for youuuuuuuuu........"
Our guesthouse, Les Jardins, was RIGHT by the river with a wonderous view of the mountains, and a small suspension bridge spanning the river. The Laos country folk would putter through the shallow river and over the bridge on their SE Asian choppers. These things are like monster rotor tillers that pull cart loads of people, lumber, bags of rice, cows, etc. They are a pretty practical and slow paced way to move around the countryside. I've been wanting to drive one for years, and I will someday.....
The three of us rented, motorbikes and headed waaaaaaaaayyyyyy out into the country. The roads were dirt and sometimes rocky. We glided through tiny villages and past bamboo homes while we dodged chicks and piglets in the road. Kids would wave and yell "sabai deeeeeee" (hello) as we drifted through another world. The backdrop to these villages were towering limestone cliffs glowing in the sunlight and casting big shadows with sunbeams breaking over the backbones of the ridges. We drove our scooters over rickety bridges and through big puddles. Borne popped his tire and we pulled over to a hut and a guy quickly changed the tube. A few hours later, it want flat again and we realized he had busted spokes. Once again, the kind people in the villages came to our aid and fixed him up.
Vang Vien can be a mess of loud mouthed tourists behaving badly, but once you step away from that, it's a lovely corner of Laos. There's one stretch of the river where the tourists float down in inner tubes, getting drunk on beer Laos and lao lao (Laos whiskey). They swoop into the river on zip lines and whoop it up. I'd done float down on a previous trip, and Mike and I took a spin on our bikes to check it out. It looked like something from Spring Break MTV with blaring music at riverside bars, and bar owners wading out into the river to snare passing tubers, using long bamboo poles.
After our Vang Vien, motorbike odyssey, we headed north through the mountains to Luang Prabang. Leaving the spring break party scene behind, we joked that we were on our way to spring break La-wang pra-bang 08 (a mispronunciation and play on some of the accents we were hearing). The town is filled with ancient temples, and monks and tourists. It sits next the big, brown Mekong river which is navigated by long narrow riverboats. There are lots of riverside cafes to enjoy the view.
In the mornings, long strings of monks emerge from the beautiful temples to collect alms from Buddhist townspeople. Mobs of tourists (like myself) wake up early to snap photos and to admire the beauty of this ancient tradition.
One day, Mike and I hopped one of the long riverboats to motor upriver to a cave filled with little Buddha statues. It was a very pleasant way to ride the Mekong as we passed little huts and kids and other riverboats.
We jumped a short flight back to Bangkok and re-entered a city brimming with buses, and taxis and dogs, and food, and people, and energy. A city we love.
For videos of Monks and SE Asian Choppers: http://scottstier.blogspot.com/
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| Tuesday, 25-Dec-2007 12:25 |
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Hermit Crabs, Hornbills, and Hammocks on Ko Hai
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Tawan and I spent the holidays on a lovely island in Southern Thailand. We relaxed, swam, read, chilled in our hammock, and stayed in a bungalow on the beach for 15 bucks a night. There were hermit crabs on the beach and hornbills in the coconut trees above our heads. We visited another island and swam through a dark tunnel called the Emerald Cave which led to a hidden beach inside the cliffs. It was used in the past by pirates to hide their treasure.
To see fire twirling and hermit crabs scurrying, you can check out the video:
http://scottstier.blogspot.com
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| Saturday, 22-Dec-2007 11:11 |
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David and Nipa Tie the Knot, Thai Style
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My good buddy David met the girl of his dreams, Nipa, and they were wed in a Thai style ceremony on the first day of our Xmas break. It was one of the most beautiful weddings I've been to and included monks and elephants! Congratulations David and Nipa!
To hear the chanting of the monks and David riding in on his elephant, you can check out a video:
http://scottstier.blogspot.com/
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| Saturday, 24-Nov-2007 08:00 |
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*:*:*Rising Stars*:*:*
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Mike and Nipa fill a lantern with hot air
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Tawan and her sister Bing laughing it up
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Megan starry eyed
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Two years ago, I traveled to Chiang Mai for the Yi Peng Festival. Rolls of tissue are soaked in wax and then lit to fill paper lanterns with hot air. These are released into the night sky as a symbol of letting go of one's worries and troubles. The glowing lanterns float waaay up into the night sky and disappear in thick swarms like stars burning out.
I'd waited two years for the full moon to again fall on a weekend so that I could go back to the festival. We went with a group of new and old teachers and had a great time enjoying the cool weather in the north.
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| Wednesday, 18-Jul-2007 03:44 |
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Up North (Sleeping Bear Dunes and Houghton Lake)
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This past summer, I took a trip with my family to northern Michigan. We rented a cabin on Houghton Lake and went to visit Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. It was really beautiful up there and we had a great time riding our bikes around and enjoying the peace and quiet.
There's a Native American story about Sleeping Bear Dunes. There was a mother bear with her two cubs near the shore of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. A forest fire forced the mother bear to begin swimming out into Lake Michigan while her young cubs followed her. She swam and swam through the night until finally the next day she reached the Michigan shore on the other side of the lake. She looked back and her two babies were not there. They had drowned in the night. She was so stricken by grief that she lied down on the Michigan beach, looking out into the lake, waiting for her cubs to come to shore. The mother bear became Sleeping Bear Dunes and her babies turned into North and South Manitou islands, just off shore.
While we were at the lake, we were all waiting in suspense for confirmation that Jason and Erin were having a baby. Finally, we got the wonderful news and indeed they will become parents this March and I WILL BE AN UNCLE!!!!!!!
Congratulations Jason and Erin and many thanks to my family and friends for an incredible summer!
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| Saturday, 7-Jul-2007 07:07 |
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The Chill Guage at the Rifle River Reads "Totally Chill"
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Jason imitates the prince of our campsite
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Randy uses his binocular vision
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Tropical waters of Lake Grouseahaven
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Every summer since I've been in Thailand, I've returned to Michigan to reunite with family and friends. This is a wonderful time of year for me and this summer a group of friends and I went up to the Rifle River to do some kayaking and camping.
I was really impressed by how beautiful the area was near the river and it was even nicer gliding across beautiful Grousehaven Lake. The waters of the lake looked very similar to the tropical waters I've seen in Thailand, only the lake was fringed with pine trees instead of palm trees. After passing through the lake, a group of us drifted down the Rifle River which was incredibly fun.
It was really great to hang out with these long time, good buddies. I really hope we can have another adventure either later this summer or next. I would also love it if we could have further adventures together in Thailand!
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| Thursday, 28-Jun-2007 03:16 |
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Bluewater Area
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Dad and a blue freighter
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Talking to a hippy in a lay-z-boy by the Blue Water Bridge
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Arm wrasling
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I went home for a month to Michigan. It was soooooo nice to be back home and it was a fun filled summer. The weather was cool and it was great to be in Michigan again with my family and friends.
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| Sunday, 24-Jun-2007 12:00 |
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Phi Ta Khon Ghosts Are Busting Out and TOTALLY ROCKIN!
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Phi Ta Khon loose on the streets
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Cutie pies riding a tiny motorbike with a mask on the front
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Totally rockin
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There's a story that the Buddha was incarnated as a really generous king. This king would give anything he had away and one day gave away the village's white elephant. The villagers got really ticked off by this and kicked him out of the village. Over time, they got over their anger and called the King back to the village. When he returned, everyone was so psyched that even the dead awoke to welcome him back.
During the Phi Ta Khon festival in the middle of the Thai countryside, people craft beautiful masks from rice baskets and bark from coconut trees and dress up like ghosts. Through this, they re-enact the return of the generous King who was the Buddha reincarnated.
Another story is tied into this festival. There was a monk who was so good at meditation that he had superpowers. He used his powers to turn himself into a white marble and decided to live in the bottom of a river. Each year the villagers go to the river and call this monk to join them. They believe his superpowers will protect them from evil spirits. After they party with this superpower monk for a few days, he returns to his life as a white marble in the river.
The village where this festival takes place is fairly remote and takes a plane ride and a few buses to get there. We stayed with a Thai family in their house amongst the rice paddies.
The festival consisted of a street filled with Phi Ta Khon (ghosts). They all wore jangling bells and really colorful clothes. And of course, each participant wore elaborately painted masks they had made themselves. They danced in the streets while scaring little kids and poking people with phalluses. It can get kind of raunchy but all in good fun.
I was in the front of a big crowd watching a parade when an eight foot tall giant "woman" doll came up to me and started making some romantic gyrations. I told this giant woman (complete with breasts and other womanly features) in Thai "mee fan laew" which means "I already have a girlfriend". The whole crowd started laughing and the woman continued on her way.
Tourists who visit the festival often like to buy one of the beautiful masks and we were told that you can offer any of the Phi Ta Khon money to buy their masks. I approached one guy who wanted about 80 bucks for his. I thought it was too steep and the next day found a striking mask and got it for about 30 bucks. I ended up carrying this huge mask on the back of motorbikes, on crowded buses, tuk tuks, pick up trucks and airplanes to get it home.
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