Fortnight in Thailand



Denny's house in
Chiang Mai

The clouds dulling my consciousness have gradually begun to dissipate, two days after my return from Thailand.  After a full, final day in Phuket on Tuesday, I flew an hour and a half to Bangkok at 5:30 p.m., connected with a 1 a.m. six-hour flight to Seoul where I spent seven hours in the airport, and then connected to a ten-hour flight to Seattle.  Thanks to the International Date Line, I arrived home on Wednesday morning.

Lots of sitting, not much sleeping.  But back-to-back viewing over the Pacific Ocean of classic favorites Oliver! and The Graduate.

Aside from the horrors of long-distance flight -- exaggerated here for comic and/or dramatic effect -- my two and a half weeks were entirely enjoyable.  Two and a half weeks that combined a return to places I've enjoyed in the past with a discovery of new charms and time spent with members of my family.

My sister Kathy has been living in a rental house outside Chiang Mai since mid-October, approximately four miles from her son Denny's house.  The two were at the airport to greet me as I slipped through immigration and customs at about 11:30 p.m.  Despite the hour, we were all in great spirits as Denny drove me to Kathy's house, where a detached bedroom awaited me, opening onto a courtyard filled with tropical growth and noisy birds.  That was to be my home for the next eight nights.

Me and my bike:
On the prowl

Denny is a sixth grade teacher at his daughter's international school, and school was in session while I was there.  I didn't, therefore, see as much of him as I would have liked -- especially as his school's in the throes of expansion from an elementary school to a unified elementary/high school, in which Denny will return to high school teaching.  But we all got together after school many evenings, as well as over the weekend.  Before he settled into his profession, Denny had joined me on many mountain treks around the world, and I always enjoy his company.

Denny's dad, Clinton, retired from medical practice, is living permanently in Chiang Mai at Denny's house.  Kathy presented me with a bicycle when I arrived, which was to be my primary transportation between our two houses, as well as a means for zooming around exploring the back roads near Kathy's house.  The ride between Denny's and Kathy's houses took about twenty minutes on small, little-trafficked roads, through rural areas.  The rides were at least as enjoyable as the destinations.  I also walked between the two houses one day, just for the exercise and the experience.

Wat Raiamontean
Old Town, Chiang Mai

Thailand is different from America, of course, in many ways.  But it's also part of the 21st century.  My first evening, we all went out for pizza.  I biked a couple of mornings to a coffee shop, as modern and as pretentious in its offerings as Starbucks, called The Mug.  And we all celebrated Christmas by driving to a nearby shopping center with a multiplex theater where we ate popcorn and watched the 2018 production of the Grinch's attempt to steal Christmas.

As fun as joining a Thai audience in watching the Grinch's antics may have been, I was even more interested in helping Denny's daughter Maury celebrate Thailand's Festival of Lights, or "Loy Krathong." The air was full of fireworks, and paper lanterns lit with candles were everywhere -- including those soaring into the air like hot air balloons. We visited Maury's school while they were preparing their own floatable lanterns, adorned with flowers, which they launched into a pond on the school property. The children, first through sixth grades, hailing from many countries including Thailand, seemed uncannily cheerful, focused, and well-behaved.

After a week of exurban life, Kathy, Clinton and I moved into Chiang Mai's "Old Town" for three nights, returning to the hotel we first discovered a year ago.  "The Three Sis" is a very nice and nicely located boutique hotel -- rooms about $70 -- immediately across the street from the most famous of Chiang Mai's many temples or "wats."  We were able to eat breakfast or imbibe pre-dinner drinks while contemplating monks (and many tourists) streaming in and out of the wat.  We also returned to "La Fourchette," an excellent French restaurant a few doors from our hotel, for our luxury dinner in Chiang Mai.

View from On the Rock
restaurant, Marina Phuket

Finally, we flew to Phuket, returning to a beach resort, the "Marina Phuket," for my fourth visit.  First visited in 2003 as part of a group trek, I've returned to the Marina Phuket with various family members in 2004, 2010, and now 2018.  The resort is a large forest preserve on a point of land protruding into the Indian Ocean, sharing a stretch of adjacent Karon Beach with the general public.  I'm amazed every time I visit by the resort's ability to survive as an oasis of nature, its quiet broken only by the cries of tropical birds, while surrounded by spaces devoted to mass tourism. 

Denny and his daughter flew down to join us for the weekend, and our four nights at the Marina Phuket made an enjoyable close to my Thailand visit.

Denny has signed a contract for another year of teaching in Chiang Mai, and my sister has every intention of returning again next fall for another stay of at least two months.  I plan to return as well, enjoying what is becoming an annual tradition.

Well worth the time it takes to get there.