Thailand 11: January 9, 2002

We've been doing a lot of traveling over the holiday season, going North (Chiang Mai) and South (Ko Samui). There is a brief window in the calendar when the heat and humidity relent to allow wandering about, so we tried to take advantage. We had fun, though I ended up with a little more than I bargained for.

We started in Chiang Mai, where we joined our friends Scott, Lauren and Kyle for one night at the Regent. It's a Four Seasons hotel, so thank the Lord for Embassy rates. It's constructed in northern Thai or Lanna style, with sharply pitched, multi-layered roofs, which reminded me of a cross between Norwegian and Victorian architecture. At night, the resort was lit by torches and spotlights on the tops of the buildings, which made it look like they were floating. While in Chiang Mai, we visited Wat Doi Suthep (a beautiful temple that you reach by climbing 300 stairs and which has (on the few non-hazy days) a beautiful view of the Chiang Mai valley) and Phu Phing palace (once again, Mom and Dad N., no tittering about the name), which are located about 2,000 feet up in the low mountains that surround the city. December is the cool season in Thailand, so when we got up to the palace in the morning it was perhaps in the low 60s. Comfortable for long pants and short sleeves. The Thai visitors, however, thought they'd been set down in Siberia. They were wearing hats and gloves, blowing into their hands and stomping their feet. Just before we went up North, a Bangkok paper printed a picture on the front page showing frost (yes, Frost!) that had accumulated one night on a northern mountain top. Chiang Mai is also famous for its night market, a bustling area selling everything from expensive (and sometimes authentic) antiques to the cheapest tourist kitsch. We visited one evening and made a few purchases, hopefully avoiding the fakes.

A few days after returning to Bangkok, I awoke not feeling quite right. After a few days of increasing not quite rightness, Liz and I ventured to the hospital. I described my symptoms to the doctor, while Liz (clutching her Mayo Clinic Guide to Self-Care: Answers for Everyday Health Problems) queried whether I could be suffering from Vibrio vulnificus, a 50% fatal food-borne bacteria, normally ingested from eating raw oysters from the U.S. Gulf Coast. After receiving some anti-biotics, I thought I was on track for recovery and we headed down to Ko Samui for New Years.

Samui actually went well. Due to the anti-biotics, I couldn't drink, eat dairy products (not a big loss at the beach), or spend much time in the sun, but I spent most of my time reading. Our friends had rented a beach compound for the holiday, complete with a massage sala overlooking the ocean, a private swimming pool and a staff of four. The challenges we diplomats face are never ending. I had been to Samui 11 years ago and it had changed a lot. The house was on Big Buddha beach (named for the giant golden outdoor Buddha on the northern end of the bay), a quiet spot on the north of the island. However, the main drag, Chaweng Beach, had changed from a collection of low slung bungalows into a collection of semi-upscale and semi-downscale complexes. No more quiet evenings under the palms. Even so, Samui is less built up than Phuket, due to a tiny airport that does not allow large plane loads of package tour Europeans to fly direct from Germany and the UK, and due to zoning regulations that ban buildings above 3 stories. On New Year's eve, we relaxed on the beach and watched as hundreds of tiny hot-air balloons, powered by candles, were set aloft about a mile away and floated off into the sky.

A return to Bangkok brought a return to gastric adventures. Feeling that I needed a little something more to show the doctor in order to justify a second visit, I managed to redislocate my left shoulder playing softball. There's nothing like falling to the ground like a wet dish rag screaming in pain (in front of my boss and my boss's boss, by the way) from your shoulder to make you forget about your stomach. Anyway, we visited the Embassy doctor this time only to find out that I'd somehow ingested a witches brew of giardia and dissentery. A few pills later, I appear to be doing pretty well, though it may be a little while before I begin to sample street food once more.

Anyway, I'm glad the holiday season is over. More so even than the States, every restaurant or store catering to Westerners and wealthy Thai, blared the same Christmas tape over and over again. However, one night as we walked with Scott and Lauren to a hotel nearby we got to watch dueling Thai carolers crowded together around a winter light festival display. Of course, this being Thailand, it really was an opportunity for the locals to snack at the local street vendors and buy elf hats, toy reindeer, and glow-in-the-dark Christmas wands for their kids.

Last month, we went to see American Pie II at a local theater. The crowd was mixed Thai and Western. I was interested to see the reaction from the Thai viewers. In the States, we're used to high school fantasy movies (usually those dreamed up in the fevered imagination of 14 year old, lonely boys), but I wasn't sure what the Thai would make of it. Sometimes we don't realize that movies like this (fictional or not, funny or not), help form the basis of what foreigners believe our culture is. In Thailand, this is the type of movie that movie theaters carry and Thai cable TV includes similar US sitcoms. Plus, Thai teenagers love music videos. Most Thai don't watch CNN (if they can afford cable), and so don't get any real news from the U.S. Combined with the behavior from some Western tourists and its no surprise that we're not always perceived the way we think we should be. .