Church Services in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Yesterday the man who owns the hotel (I think his name is Sinon) was kind enough to drive me a few blocks on a motorbike to the local LDS church. There isn't one in Vietnam, I guess it isn't allowed to operate there. I was a little nervous about the ride, but at least there was a bar under the seat for me to hold onto. That is my dilemma--where do you hold on? I would feel most secure by holding onto the driver in front of me, but I'm not sure if that would be considered too "friendly". On the motorbike in the Mekong I was actually holding onto the seat but the only place I could grab was behind me--it didn't feel safe at all. Probably just takes getting used to--they don't go that fast and it's not much different than riding a bicycle.

Here is the hotel we are staying in. It is called the Little Guest House. It was recommended by the woman who was running the place in Bangkok. It is run by a couple, they live on the side above the awning. The rooms are on the other side, there must be at least 15. I think some people live here, they look like college students. But it is very quiet. The only thing is we have a room on the third floor and it's an ordeal for my mother to climb the stairs, especially in the heat. But the room is great. Her bed has satin sheets, it's really the nicest since we've been traveling. My bed is a rollaway. It actually turned out to be alot more comfortable than it looks. Happily the place also has a clothes washing machine! I bought a ten baht thing of detergent and tonight I will wash some clothes.
Here is the side entrance to the meeting house. When Sinon took me there were a few people there including a couple of missionaries. They gave me a pamphlet that had a map in case I got lost and I said I would try to be there at 9.
This is the front entrance, which is actually somewhat hidden because the church is behind a big BP hotel. But that was how I found it on the map--the BP is a big hotel and it was marked on the map, and my information said it was behind it.
There is a surprising amount of room on the grounds, compared to other places in the area. There is a big parking lot and really nice grounds.

I got some headphones and an American missionary translated the service for the 8 or 10 of us who didn't speak Thai. The building itself is pretty much like those in America, except there is not basketball hoops in the big cultural hall, just a stage and a big open area. There was a basketball hoop out in the parking lot.

There was an English speaking Sunday school class. It is team taught by a young couple from Texas who are here teaching English in a kindergarten. There were several visitors--an older couple from Oregon just traveling around, a man from Latvia here on business, a man from Vietnam on holiday, and a couple with three children--the man works at the US Consulate. So the English class was pretty full.

Afterwards we had a combined meeting back in the chapel and again there was the translation. I had to get up and introduce myself, which I always kind of dread when I am visiting somewhere but it is expected so I do it.

All in all it was a very good day. The walk to the meeting house was only 20 minutes. On the way back I stopped at a travel agent and discussed what will be next. My mother got sick from the horrible breakfast we had on the train. I also got sick but it only last a few hours for me. We had to cancel a dinner and show we were going to tonight. Maybe tomorrow we will do an elephant trek that includes rafting on a bamboo raft and riding on an ox cart as well as a lunch buffet and visit to a butterfly farm. Then the next day if all goes well we will probably take the two day trip to Luang Prabang in Laos.

I still haven't heard a peep about my G&R date, but my plan is to fly to Saigon from Luang Prabang which should put us back there by the end of the week. I hope to meet up with the other families before they move onto Hanoi.

This last photo is right near our hotel. There is a river that runs in a square around the city, and the remnants of an old wall that hundreds of years ago enclosed the city. It really is beautiful.

Night Train to Chiang Mai

Argh--still no news about the G&R date. I was sure I would hear something today. Meanwhile my mother and her Vietnamese friend are itching to call the DIA and prompt them to action. Nine months since the referral and now four weeks since the documents were certified. And I'm totally in the dark about what's going on--it is very frustrating.

In the meantime we continue our journey and stay in touch via email. Last night we took a taxi to the train station and caught the night train to Chaing Mai. It's a fourteen hour trip. We had second class sleeper berths--the cost was around $26. They were really comfortable, but they did have the a/c cranked up really high and I was cold all night beneath the thin white blanket they provide. Maybe it was because I was in an upper berth and I think that's closer to the air vents, though I never could tell where the cold air was coming from. Still it was better than not having it--it was sweltering in the non-a/c third class.

Here is the train station. At 6 PM while we waited for the 7 PM boarding time they started playing what I assume is the National Anthem. Everyone stood up and faced the portrait of the king, talking stopped--though westerners were a little slower to get into it. I have heard about people being arrested for disrespecting the king--they take it very seriously here.

As we were about to board the train another passenger offered to take a picture of us.

The car had forty seats, one facing another so people sat in pairs. Not long after we left a worker came along and made up the bunks. They were much nicer than we had expected. It was like having a little room. Luggage was kept in the metal rack, though we both kept our bags in the bed with us. I don't think there would have been a security problem (though I noticed some people locked their bags to the bars) but it was easier to sleep without worrying about my bag everytime somebody walked by.

Here is my upper berth. We also had the noisiest place in the car because we were right by the front door. For the first hour or so workers were going back and forth, taking dinner to people and getting things ready for the night. It calmed down at 10 PM but there was a continuous racket of our car knocking against the car in front.

Mother seems to enjoy riding trains and she got a scenic view the whole night, as her lower berth was right by this window. We ordered the breakfast--Mother for some reason thought it was complimentary but we had to cough up 300 baht the next morning. She also took a cup of juice from an attendant that she thought was free--then he held his hand out and asked for 40 baht.

So now we are in Chiang Mai, figuring out what to do next. We'll stay here two or three days. Then depending on what I hear from the agency we will either go somewhere else in Thailand or go to Laos (Luang Prabang) on our way back to Vietnam.

The Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Today is a short day. Our train for Chiang Mai leaves at 7:30--we've been told to catch the taxi at 6 to be sure and get through the traffic. Mother wanted to take a trip to the River Kwai (which isn't much to look at but it is well known) but there wasn't time. So we decided to go to the one place I did want to see again, Wat Pho and the Temple of the Reclining Buddha.
This is Khao San Road, the famous Bohemian backpack hotel street. Our hotel isn't far from it.
We passed the Royal Palace (which Mother went to yesterday, while I whiled away my time at the museum). We had to dodge scammers along the way. A group of people kept trying to give me corn to feed the pigeons, which they would undoubtedly would have wanted money for.
The Temple of the Reclining Buddha--it's huge. Too big to really get a good look at it because it barely fits inside the building that it is in. And it was crowded, very very crowded.
From Wat Pho we made our way to the Royal Palace wharf to catch the ferry back to the Khao San Road area. At the wharf there was a little restaurant--we stopped to have some food.
Tonight we have 2nd class sleeper berths for the 14 hour train ride to Chiang Mai. I'm excited about seeing it. I spent two weeks in Chiang Rai, which I think is a smaller version of Chiang Mai. Maybe we can ride some elephants.

In the meantime I am dying for news about when my G&R will be! I was sure I would have heard something by now!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my father's birthday. I had hoped to have Henry home long before now and this was supposed to be when they got to meet each other. Hopefully it won't be long now before I get Henry--I'm anxiously awaiting news. I was hoping I would have had some news today when I checked my email--the two families who are in Saigon now heard a week ago today and I thought I would be a week behind them.

The Thai Cozy House--I found this place on the internet. I have been pleased with it. It is in the trendly backpacking part of town. Not like the elegant Amari Watergate where I stayed the last time I was in Bangkok--isolated in an ivory tower from the real world.
This is the entrance to the hotel--a restaurant on the right where we get our "free" breakfast, and several shops on the left that are heavily promoted. They are still trying to get me to buy a suit in the tailor shop, and the beauty shop wanted to cut and style my mother's house. But we did use the travel agency to book our train tickets to Chiang Mai, so they can't complain.
We are on the fifth floor, which happens to have a balcony looking out on to the street below. Some of the sites aren't too compelling. But the balcony itself is nice with lots of plants.
One plus about this hotel--it has an elevator! It's the first time I've been in a place with an elevator since I got here.
Here's the room--not much to brag about, just two beds, a little dresser and fridge. No windows, but that keeps it quiet.

A Long Day at the Museum

We got a fairly early start today, having breakfast at the hotel and then off to the Royal Palace. On the way we passed the National Museum and decided to stop there. It was very interesting, and I hadn't seen it before, but little did I realize I'd be spenind the entire day there.
This is Mother on Tanee Road, the road the hotel is on. She steels her expression to say "No!" to the many vendors who implore us to buy their wares and taxi and tuk tuk drivers who try to scam us into riding with them. It is very frustrating because you can't tell who is trying to scam you and who is being honestly helpful with no hidden motives.

The scammers will stop you and either ask you where you are from or they will tell you Wat Pho or the Royal Palace or whatever is closed for a special occasion (it's always a lie) and they will offer to take you somewhere, which ends up being a shop of some sort where they get a commission and naive tourists often feel they must buy something to get out.

But we have had a few people genuinely be helpful and not follow us to try and get something out of us. It's hard to tell the good from the bad and it's frustrating to have to be so aloof with everyone.

I learned before when I was in Thailand--the ATM gives you 1000 baht bills and nobody but the big stores will take them. The group of librarians who came with me several years ago, we always had trouble breaking our big bills. Often we had to buy stuff we didn't really want from the big grocery stores just to have change.

I told this to Mother, but she decided to test it. It cost 40 baht each to get into the museum, and she tried to pay with a big bill. The woman would not take it. Mother tried to make her take it. A battle of wills ensued and I stepped away to a safe distance.

I hadn't planned on going to the museum but it was actually very interesting. The first exhibit hall was all about Thai history, like a history book in diorama. These models showed how the people fought using elephants, which looked fascinating.

Interestingly the early history was all about battles and which king defeated who. From the 19th century onward it was more about education and arts and literature, money and trade and technology.

The museum was started by the son of the king who was the subject of "The King and I" to house his father's extensive collection of art and artifacts.

This is the temple or wat that is on the grounds.

This house was constructed during the time that Anna Leonowens was in residence in Bangkok teaching the king's children. It is kept in a manner of the time. But don't get the idea that Anna is popular here--the local lore has it that she exagerrated her influence over the king and that much of her story is not true.

I found an exhibit hall amongst the seven or eight buildings devoted to my passion--puppetry.
Shadow Puppets.
Wayang puppets--these are Javanese.
String puppets modeled after a Chinese variety. They are like marionettes, but they are operated from beneath, by pulling a series of strings with rings on the end.

A larger string puppet, this is a demon king.

More string puppets.

I got separated from Mother in the first building, in fact I didn't see her again after about five minutes in the place. I waited for her at the front of the first hall, then went to most of the others, waited some more and had some Haagen Daaz ice cream (which I had been craving) and waited some more. Then I got up and looked at everything I hadn't seen , then went to the puppetry exhibit again. Finally at 4 PM they were closing, and the girl from the information booth brought me a note from my mother. She had waited for me (we must have just missed each other in passing) and had left at 1 for the Royal Palace!

I guess it turned out okay, except I wondered where she was. I didn't really want to go to the Royal Palace again, and I found the museum very interesting. But I really miss having our cell phones so we can keep better track of each other.
On my way back to the hotel I passed the Victory Monument (above) and an elaborate archway.

To Bangkok...via the Boulevard of Broken Backsides and a Fiasco at the Border

Along the Boulevard of Broken Backsides...
There were no lanes, sometimes we were on the left of oncoming traffic, sometimes the right.
As we found out when we reached the border, the back left tire (under me!) was completely flat. We drove the last twenty or so miles on the rim.
This is the border, looking back into Cambodia. People offered to tote your luggage on those carts, and children offered to shelter you with an umbrella. It's all a scam. I tried to be careful and still something was pickpocketed from my backpack. It was a case of 15 DVDs--luckily all were just copies I had made except for a couple from the dollar aisle at Wal Mart!

We made it to Bangkok. We left by taxi (a Toyota Camry) at 7:20 on a VERY bumpy ride of just over four hours to Poipet at the Thai border. The driver had to stop three times because of a flat and by the time we got to the border we were riding on the rim, which was on my side of the car so I got the full effect of the road. My mother said her head hit the roof of the car. The road is horrible, rumor has it the Siem Reap to Bangkok airlines pay to have the road construction delayed. It was like driving on the worst highway that is under construction in the US, but doing it at 60km an hour while passing numerous other cars, bicycles, motorbikes, ox driven carts, and pedestrians as well as the occasional herd of cattle.

The border went okay, we made it out of Cambodia and then into Thailand. But after my mother went through they pulled three people in front of me and she didn't look back so she didn't know. Then she took a wrong turn, went to customs for Thai natives instead of the foreigners' line. For well over an hour I ran around in extremely hot temperatures, dripping sweat looking for her. I couldn't backtrack and go to the border office. It was horrible. I had her photo ID from Angkor Wat showing it to people, two policeman stopped me and made me sit down for ten minutes because they said I looked sick. Finally she showed up and we took a van to Bangkok. We had planned on taking the cheaper bus but I was on the point of collapse so we took the van.

I don't seem to be able to connect my flashdrive to this computer, so I can't post photos. I will do so when I can. For now we are out and about in Bangkok.

Land Mine Museum, Balloon Ride, and Shopping and a Show before leaving

First the important news--I picked up our passports today at the travel agency with our new Vietnam visas. We are now just a plane ride away from returning to Saigon and can leave anytime I get the news that my G&R for Henry has been scheduled.

I have to admit it is stressful but traveling with my mothr and seeing incredible sites has helped pass the time. My dilemma is of course that I only have a fixed amount of time I can take off work and this is taking time away from the other side--when I return home with Henry and want to spend time with him. I suppose I'll go back to work part time to begin with to stretch the time out.

Land Mine Museum

I had seen a documentary not lon before I left home about Aki Ra, a Cambodian man who has made a life's work of getting rid of the land mines that infest the country. He takes boys and some girls who have been maimed by the mines and educates them in his school--I think he can house around 30 or 35 at a time. He also trains some of them in the art of deactivating mines.
There seems to have been some controversy around his activities and his museum. He was accused of making the country look bad and also of posing a public danger because he was accused of having mines and bombs that were still active. This turned out to be a stunt to close him down--a local military leader opened his own military museum and the supposition is that he wanted to close down the competition. But it didn't work, in spite of having been arrestd a few times Aki Ra continues his work and his museum.

Land mines
A faux minefield

Balloon Ride above Angkor Wat
I had read about a balloon ride above Angkor Wat and I was interested in doing it. It wasn't as exciting as it initially sounded--the balloon rises only 200m into the air and it is tethered to the ground by a cable. And it cost $15 for what amounted to a ten or twelve minute trip--a fortune in a town where you could get a hotel room and three big meals for that price.

Still if I didn't do it I would wonder what I had missed so when we had time left over I asked Krem to take me to the balloon site.
Nearby things like the flooded rice paddies and cattle grazing areas were crystal clear. Angkor Wat is here in the distance and it is kind of hazy in the afternoon heat. It actually looked somewhat clearer to the naked eye.
This is the mountain top temple that we visited on the first day for the sunset tour. It was the only other monument that I could clearly see and identify. I suppose some of the others were visile (Ta Prohm is said to be visible) but they would be coverd too much by trees and I didn't locate them.
As we drove around we always saw children and even some adults swimming or bathing. As we drove away from the balloon ride I was able to capture this photo of some boys in the water.


The next day (today) we just rested and did some shopping. And picked up the all important passports with the visas! This is the front of the hotel--with the huge statue blocking the entrance but it is striking.

We waited until after four to shop the old market to try and beat the heat but it was still oppressively hot. I looked in vain for a wooden carving of Angkor Wat. A couple of days ago I did buy some small replicas of the temples that I suspect are plastic, but I wanted something wooden that wasn't a generic elephant. Finally I found a four sided face like the dozens that are at Bayon and I bought that as a momento of the temples.
The hotel we are staying at, Temple Villa, also runs a hotel in the trendy part of town (a couple of blocks away) that features an all you can eat buffet and a nightly traditional dance show.
We sat on the balcony--it gave us a great view of the street but it was hard to see the stage.
Women were dressed like fish and men were dressed like monkeys in the dance show that was performed.

And so our time in Cambodia is drawing to a close, though we might have some exciting things to post tomorrow. We leave at 7 in the morning to take a 3 to 4 hour taxi ride to the Thai border. This is dangerous area--it's where most of the land mines were planted and the Khmer Rouge hang out there. Even though it is heavily traveled the roads are horrile--I have read numerous horror stories about tourists stranded in the mud or riding in the back of a hot pickup truck when they had bought a bus ticket. We are hoping to avoid this by hiring the taxi--at a cost of just $27. When we reach the border and if we can avoid the pickpockets and scammers we will catch a bus that will hopefully take us right the area where the hotel is that I booked in Bangkok.