Nan Province: March 2006

I was very excited to return to Nan after my success there on the previous trip, but true to my personality, I was also a bit nervous. What if I actually misunderstood people’s receptivity to me there? What if they aren’t excited to see me?? What if I am actually not happy to back there and discover I don’t like it? What if 2 weeks is too long to spend in Nan? What if, what if, what if…? So silly that I think that way, but it is who I am – definitely. However, I got off the bus, and it felt great. I was very happy and returned directly to the guesthouse I always stay at when I am in town, the Nan Guesthouse (aptly named, I would have to say), got a room, and went to the museum. Nan has a wonderful museum, especially for a fairly small, out of the way (but important!) area and last time I had been in town, I didn’t take my notebook to the museum, and I needed to take some notes.

My first few days in Nan, I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot done, but I did call my monk friend (Phra Kongsin) to let him know I was back, and made a plan to go to Ban Nong Bua a couple of days after I talked to him. When I got to Ban Nong Bua, Phra Kongsin was still at the school where he teaches (as he had told me he would be), and Mae Bua Jan (one of the weavers) was sitting at the wat waiting for me. I was whisked off to the house of Mae Lamai, who was having a feast for lunch for some kind of celebration, I think a wedding. Many people were there, and in true Thai and Tai Lue fashion, there was an abundance of food. And what was the food?, you may ask. Well, here is where my true adventures begin, for as many of you already know, I ended up staying in Nong Bua for 10 days, and nearly each day was full of suspense of what the heck kind of food I would be eating that day. Don’t get me wrong, the food (or at least the majority of it) was utterly delicious, just very different from my sense of normal. But I am very proud of myself, because I really did make a point to eat and try everything they served me, something which is usually very difficult for me. I just how important it was to be polite and appreciative, how important food is to the culture, etc. And, in fact, I am very aware of how much they did appreciate my eating, because often when I met a new person in the village, my eating habits were discussed. I am just glad I am not a vegetarian, because I suspect this is really not a concept familiar to the Tai Lue people who love eating meat. But I digress. The food they were eating was mostly this raw meat “laab” (often written in English as “larb” which is a bit funny and a bit ridiculous, but let’s not get into that) and sticky rice. Yes, that is correct, I did say “raw meat” and by meat I mean from a water buffalo, and by “laab” I mean a kind of minced meat (with all parts of the darn buffalo) spicy dish. In fact, they did cook a very small portion of the laab, mostly for me, but one man really wanted to sure I tried the raw dish, so what could I do? I told him I had tried it already, but he didn’t exactly fall for that one, so I ate it while he watched, and damn was it pretty disgusting. They put some kind of ultra-bitter/super-sour sauce on the laab, and that really was about all I could taste, but I felt like I was hardly going to survive. Of course, I did survive, and went on to try many other things over the course of the next two weeks. That same day I also was encouraged to try this rolled-leaf-kind-of thing that reminded me a bit of the rolled grape leaves we associate with Greek food. It was kind of an after-lunch kind of thing, and I popped one into my mouth, unsure of what to expect, and it was equally as bitter as the raw meat dish, which they all knew and kind of looked at me and said “priaw?” (which translates as “sour?”) I couldn’t exactly hide that one, so I had to agree, and still had to chew up and finish the whole thing. Ugh.

After the lunch, I was able to meet with Phra Kongsin, who was so helpful and just a joy to talk to. We talked mostly about banners, although we also just chatted a bit. I realized that the sun was getting low in the sky, so I had to leave and head back to my guesthouse in the main city. We discussed briefly the possibility of my coming to stay in the village, with his parents, but I had no idea when or if it would happen. Well, two days later, I got a phone call from Phra Kongsin telling me that it was all set up and that I should come stay in Ban Nong Bua soon – over the coming weekend if possible. I tried to set it up for Sunday, but he decided for me that Saturday was better, so I was off the next day.

When I got to Ban Nong Bua the next day, I was taken to Phra Kongsin’s parents’ house. His dad wasn’t there, but his mom had skipped out on her evening aerobics to meet me. She is very sweet. His mom is basically a farmer who works in the fields every day, which is not an easy life by any stretch of the imagination. I was so thrilled they opened their house to me, but she would never let me help with anything, which made me feel a little bad. I tried to be as pleasant as possible, although for the first day or two, I had little clue what was going on. Both of Phra Kongsin’s parents speak Tai Lue, which is similar to northern Thai, both languages of which I understand only the faintest bit. In fact, the whole village speaks mostly Tai Lue or northern Thai, so I often just had to guess what was going on around me, although by the end of my 10 days, I was getting better (I think).

My stay in Ban Nong Bua was full of Buddhist ceremonies, weaving, chatting with Phra Kongsin, and teaching English to the local kids. And, of course, eating the local foods. My days pretty much revolved around the wat, as I would get up in the morning and eventually go over and sit with Mae Lamai and Mae Bua Jan, the two weavers who were my original two friends in the village, until I had to go teach English. When I originally agreed to go live in Nong Bua, I had told Phra Kongsin that I would teach English to the local kids, who were on vacation from school. Not only did I have no experience teaching English, I had no idea what to teach, so I was really not expecting to have to do it. Silly me – of course if I agree to something here in Thailand, especially if I say it to a monk, I will have to actually do it. So, for probably 7 of the 10 days I was in Ban Nong Bua I taught English in the morning at the wat. In fact, in the morning of the second day I was in the village, I heard the head of the village over the loudspeakers making his weekly announcement. And although I couldn’t understand really anything that he was saying, I was very aware all of a sudden that he was talking about me, mentioning that I was staying in Nong Bua and that I would be teaching English starting that day. Imagine my surprise! After a couple of rough days of not really knowing what I was teaching, I settled in and I think the kids got a total kick out of me. Really, I was just surprised at how good their English already was. They learn English in school in Thailand, but I was still surprised at how much the kids knew. They were a lot of fun, and I was actually very sad on the last day I taught them. At the end of each class, I always gave them the choice of coming back the next day or not, and they always wanted to. One day they even came over to me in the afternoon and invited me to come listen to them practice their traditional northern Thai instruments (don tree), which was very fun.

There are no restaurants, or places to go out and eat in Ban Nong Bua, so I was pretty much at the mercy of the people in the village to feed me. In fact the food was overwhelmingly delicious, but there were times when I really was reluctant to eat the things put in front of me. I tried my best to at least taste each and every dish, as I alluded to in a previous paragraph, and I know it was greatly appreciated. As I met people around the village, they would ask the person I was walking with (usually Mae Lamai, one of the weavers) about my eating habits. She would always tell them that I ate everything, and they always seemed impressed. However, by the end of my stay, I was getting a little burned out on eating strange things, and found that by after I left Ban Nong Bua I actually developed my first real cravings for food from home – cravings that have stayed with me to this day. So, what were the things I ate in Ban Nong Bua, you may ask. Much of it was typical northern Thai food, called “nam prik” and usually pasty combinations of spices, herbs, meats (esp. fish) perfectly eaten with sticky rice. However, the more interesting dishes make for a better story, so here is a short list of some of the things I ate in Nong Bua: raw buffalo meat laab (already mentioned), raw fish laab, ant egg soup (which has the ant eggs or larvae, or whatever, in it, but also actual ants because I can imagine it is pretty difficult to harvest the ant eggs without getting the ants as well, and separating them must be incredibly difficult), fried crickets, and my absolute least favorite, the “salad” of random pig innards (such as intestines, stomach, frankly I don’t know exactly, nor do I want to know).

The hospitality I was shown by the people in Ban Nong Bua was incredible. On many days, I would get up at 5:30 in the morning and go to the market with Mae Lamai. Everyone was curious about me, but very welcoming and friendly. In fact, each day I would go to the market, I would buy the most delicious, freshest soy milk ever, and the woman who sold it would never let me pay for it. It was a very small amount of money, but is a reflection of the generosity of the people in the village. After so many months of traveling from one location to another, I can say that Ban Nong Bua is the first place that I felt like I had a home, and I really appreciated it. It has been hard to leave, but I look forward to going back, and hopefully getting more research done. I am particularly indebted to Phra Kongsin, who took time each day that he was available to meet with me and discuss either my research directly, or Buddhism and local culture. I can imagine it takes a lot of patience to discuss these things with me, as he speaks little to no English and my understanding of Thai is quite basic. All in all, I have to say the people of Ban Nong Bua are very wonderful; it is a special place and I feel very fortunate to be welcomed into the community as much as I have. I look forward to going back.