I recognize that it has been a very long time since I have written anything for my blog – over a month! Thus, I am trying to remedy the situation by including something new before I head east once again, to the province of Nan in northern Thailand and then a two week stint back in Laos. I am not entirely sure why it has taken me so long to include something new on this blog. I have been busy and seeing new things that I am enjoying. I think I am also getting a bit overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do, or else I am just getting more focused. Really, to be frank, I have no idea. But what I do know is that I have spent the last month focused on exploring northern Thailand, visiting with my mom and stepdad Richard, and catching up on other things I have been needing to do, like updating my research records and photographs.
For about 2 weeks in January, I had the pleasure of showing my mom and Richard around on their first trip to Thailand. We spent a day in Bangkok, taking in sights such as the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, the Chao Phraya River and canals, and the Skytrain. We also spent 3 days and 3 nights in Mae Hong Son, a beautiful area in northwestern Thailand not far from the border with Burma. Mae Hong Son is a mountainous area whose dominant ethnic groups are the Shan, or Tai Yai, and the Karen. It was very beautiful and we really enjoyed our “resort” where we stayed. It’s called the Fern Resort and I happily recommend it to anyone traveling through Mae Hong Son willing to spend more than they would at the average guesthouse in town. The food in Mae Hong Son was fantastic and I can say we thoroughly enjoyed the indulgence of eating it. We did a lot of walking in Mae Hong Son, up hills to see a wat and on a trail in the forest surrounding our resort.


However, perhaps the most memorable part of our trip to Mae Hong Son, especially for my mom and Richard, was our return to Chiang Mai. We woke up on the day of our departure to the news that the plane that Thai Airways uses for the route between Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son was broken. As there is only one plane used for that route, there was an extremely high possibility that we would not be able to fly home that day. I couldn’t believe it, nor did I want to believe it, but it was true. Once we figured out that flying back that day was truly not a possibility, we headed straight to the airport to try to figure out how to get a ride back to Chiang Mai. Thai Airways was providing mini buses for the passengers, so we got on the first one we could. I have always heard about the windiness of the road between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai and thus had avoided it until that point. However, I didn’t realize how bad it was until it was too late to take the dramamine I had in my backpack, tucked away in the back of the van. I do think part of the horror was the driving and not just the road, because our driver was taking the road quite quickly. In fact we made it to Chiang Mai in about half the time it takes on a bus. Needless to say, both my mom and I felt quite sick and I was totally unable to enjoy the beautiful scenery we passed through. Oh well.

It took me a couple of days to recover from the departure of my mom and Richard, but after that I headed north to Chiang Rai, Doi Tung, and Chiang Saen. Although Nan was higher on my priority list this area in the far north, I had found myself in sudden need of a new visa and thus had to make plans to cross the Burmese border at Mae Sai. This is a common thing for people to do, and only required me to be in Burma for a couple of hours. I really wanted to head to the town of Kengtung about 150 kilometers north of the border, but I got started a day later than planned and had to be back in Chiang Mai about 5 or 6 days after that to meet up with Julia.

In fact I really enjoyed the far north, and getting to visit Doi Tung was particularly exciting for me. The “tung” in the name “Doi Tung” is a reference to the northern Thai banners that I am studying, and the name “Doi Tung” means (roughly) “banner mountain.” The 2 stupas built on the top of Doi Tung are frequently woven into banners here in northern Thailand as well. Thus visiting Doi Tung was a great experience and felt rather like a pilgrimage for me. I was not disappointed; the stupas are wonderful, as were the banners hanging around them.

I look forward to getting back to explore the region in further depth. However, as always seems to be the case, I had time constraints and could only do a superficial overview. I am not complaining though, because the next place I was scheduled to visit was Mae Chaem, a jewel of a region in northern Thailand that is quite famous for its cotton textiles. Luckily for me, Mae Chaem just so happens to be the place where my friend Julia is doing her fieldwork for her dissertation, thus I was scheduled to visit there with her and found out (again from Julia) about the upcoming cloth festival being held there (which is why I had to go at the very beginning of February – for the festival)…