Despite the revelry on Saturday night, Phan is still a country town so we found the celebrations wrapping up just after nine and by ten, things were quiet.  We decided to call it a night so we could get an early start Sunday morning and see a few more sights before heading back to Khrungthep.

Sleeping on a coconut husk mattress, though, does not make for a good night’s sleep.  I awoke earlier than the sun and, recalling the stunning sunset the pervious night, decided to pull on some clothes and head to the roof to see if the sunrise was equally spectacular.  It was.

First the sky was very dark, then very pink, then the sky lightened and there was an intense contrast between the pink lined clouds and the blue sky.  Then the entire sky took a yellowish cast before the sun finally appeared on the hazy horizon.

Being on the rooftop all alone, listening to the birds and the insects and the barking dogs, filled me with a certain sense of peace.  Sunrises are beautiful things and, I suppose because I am a morning person, I find it very satisfying to bear witness to the start of a new day.  The moments just after the day breaks contain a whole world of possibilities and offer an open door to another opportunity to live our lives the way we mean to, rather than the way we sometimes end up living them.  If life is all about making choices, a new day gives us the chance to make new choices.

As hotel workers arrived to disassemble the remnants of last evening’s banquet, the reflective moment was shattered and so I headed back to the room and found Tawn stirring.  We met Kobfa in the lobby at seven-thirty, packed and ready to hit the road.

On the way out of Phan we stopped at a hilltop temple on the northern edge of town.  A ten-metre tall statue of the Buddha stands in front of the temple on an overlook, the entire town and surrounding fields lying under its gaze in the hazy valley below.

Interestingly, the posture of the statue is known as the “Preventing Calamities” or “Stop the Relatives Fighting” pose, with one hand raised with the palm facing outwards.  Does this statue protect Phan from natural disasters, keep family feuds to a minimum, or both?

Thais associate eight different Buddha poses with the different days of the week (two for Wednesday).  The most comprehensive information I’ve found on this in one place is at Richard Barrow’s website.  

Mr. Barrow is kind of the father of expat blogging in Thailand, a teacher who brought computer education to Samut Phrakan province southeast of Khrungthep.  Using the above link, you can explore all sorts of interesting entries and other websites he has been integral in starting.

Below, a view of what the Buddha statue sees in the hazy valley below the overlook, as well as a picture of Tawn practicing his yoga sun salutations.

We drove back towards Chiang Rai, Sophie Millman playing on the stereo and Tawn and Kobfa napping as I enjoyed the drive.

Time shifting just a bit – all the good stories have flashbacks, right? – we passed by Wat Rong Khun on the southern outskirts of Chiang Rai, which we had visited on Saturday afternoon before the banquet began. 

Known by many as “The White Temple”, Wat Rong Khun is the vision of Thai religious artist Chalermchai Kositpipat.  Khun Chalermchai, who turns 53 this Friday, is a native son of Chiang Rai province whose Buddhist art is known for its more contemporary look and feel.

This work in progress, which Chalermchai estimates will take several additional decades and for which he is training dozens of apprentices, is a work of passion and conviction.  It is a real temple, complete with monk’s quarters, which is being built bit by bit as a reflection of the artist’s vision of what heaven would look like here on earth.

The most inspiring piece, which is still only 70% complete, is the main shrine hall – the ubosot, pictured above  Strikingly white (symbolizing the Buddha’s purity) and outlined in mirrored mosaic tiles (symbolizing how the Buddha’s wisdom shines over the entire earth), the ubosot is as detailed as any gothic cathedral in Europe and is just so incredibly white in the mid-day sun.

Visitors walk a pathway over “hell”, symbolized by the upstretched hands in the moat pictured below, in order to reach “heaven”, which the ubosot represents. 

The detail work on the main building is incredible, shown below.

Inside the ubosot is a series of partially-completed murals.  The mural on the side with the main Buddha statue, finished in a matte silver color rather than the traditional gold, is more complete.  It is the mural on the back side of the entry door wall that is most fascinating, though.  It is a depiction of the evil in the world, sort of a coming armageddon, and in it you’ll find all sorts of interestingly contemporary images such as machine guns, mobile telephones, and a small picture of Keanu Reeves’ character from The Matrix.  It would be hard not to read his work as a critique of modern culture.

Below, Tawn and I pose in front of the ubosot.  The chedi on the back side shows you what the unfinished structure looks like – the clean lines are evocative of Japanese temple architecture.  The ornamentation is added later.

Two other interesting images from the temple.  To the right is the post near the entrance that warns against drunk people entering the temple grounds.  Below is the elaborate toilet building.  The entire grounds are kept spotless by the staff, making it one of the cleanest public places in Thailand.

There are several other buildings on the ground in various stages of completion.  In the end there are supposed to be nine main buildings, but the artist anticipates this will take as many as sixty more years to complete.  One of the final ones is to be a crematorium, a common feature at local temples, which he plans on using when the end of his life comes.

Flashing back to Sunday morning, we drove past the exit to Wat Rong Khun and could see the white spires reflecting the grey overcast as we continued on our way to Chiang Rai. 

Sunday mornings are sleepy in Chiang Rai.  Nearly everything was closed and it proved to be a challenge to find breakfast.  We finally ate at a coffee shop at one of the hotels, being served something that was called an American Breakfast but that somehow didn’t ring familiar.

Food had been easier to find on Saturday afternoon when we visited a well-known and busy khao soi restaurant, above.  This curried rice noodle dish (below left) is popular in the north, featuring a rich and flavorful curry broth that isn’t terribly spicy.  Usually served with chicken or beef, these noodles are very satisfying.  We had them with a side of sai oua – the herbed pork sausage, below right. 

With an additional side of som tam – green papaya salad – we had a complete meal for about 45 baht each.  There are still values to be had in Thailand!

After our “American” breakfast on Sunday morning we drove north from Chiang Rai to visit Doi Tung.  This peak is less than an hour away from the city and was the home of the Princess Mother from 1987 until her death in 1995. 

Her Royal Highness was the mother of His Majesty King Rama IX (the current King of Thailand) and one of her main activities was helping redirect hill tribes and other people of the north from the cultivation of poppies to other sources of income. 

In addition to stopping the deforestation of the Golden Triangle (as this area is known, owing to the convergence of Burma, Thailand and Laos), her works improved the health and welfare of people in this area as new cottage industries were created. 

Today you can purchase very good coffee, tea and macadamia nuts from this region along with a wide range of handicrafts such as silk and cotton fabrics, handmade papers, and beautiful pottery.

Her house, a two-level villa that combined aspects of northern Thai and Swiss architecture (she spent much of her life living in the Swiss Alps), features beautiful gardens and it showcases many of the development projects she oversaw in her life.

Below, the magnificent view looking northwards from the balcony of the villa towards Burma.

We could have spent another few hours there to fully appreciate the gardens and see more of the attractions, but our time was running short.  We descended the mountain and had just enough time for a second visit to Salungkam, the restaurant where we ate dinner on Friday night.

After we had filled ourselves once more with northern culinary delights, we headed to the airport to catch our Nok Air flight home.

Left, Tawn prepares to board “Nok Sabai” – the Bird of Contentment – for our hour-long flight back to Don Meuang Airport.

It was nice having a weekend get away and each time we take one, I’m reminded of how much more exploring we should do in Thailand.  Many areas of the Kingdom are easily accessed and each offers its own unique sights, sounds, and tastes.

We arrived in Phan, the head town in the district of the same name, about 10:00 Friday evening.  Phan is a town of about 20,000 inhabitants, with another 100,000 in the surrounding area.  There is one main street and one main hotel – the Chiang Rung – where we were to stay.  At five stories with a rooftop restaurant, the Chiang Rung Hotel is one of the tallest buildings in town with a commanding view of downtown, below.

We checked into our rooms on the fourth floor.  They were small and the decoration tired but at least they were clean.  The mattress and pillows were stuffed with coconut husks, supposedly good for your back but they proved to be the bane of our next two nights’ existence as neither Tawn nor I could sleep worth a darn.  That was the only low point of the trip so I’ll move beyond it quickly.

The six o’clock alarm came all too soon as the auspicious time for the Buddhist ceremony had been fixed at seven o’clock.  We got ready and then met Kobfa and Markus and Tam, who had arrived in Phan ahead of us.  First stop was the nearby temple to pick up the monks for the ceremony.  They were still out on their rounds collecting food donations, the first sign that time moves at a different pace in a small northern town.  By comparison, residents of Bangkok are positively Astro-Hungarian in their timeliness.

With Kobfa and I singing “Life in a Northern Town” by The Dream Academy, we departed the temple monk-less and headed to Tam and Pune’s mother’s house two blocks away.  Her two-story house, a solidly built wood structure well designed as older Thai houses are to take advantage of natural air circulation to keep it comfortable, was across the street from a morning market.  After a few minutes we determined that the ceremony was not going to start anytime soon so we headed across the street to the market, below.

This market is the real deal and would make fans of the farmers’ markets in the United States drool with excitement.  Small growers displayed their produce, whatever was in season.  Most of it had been picked just a few hours earlier or in the case of the meat products, slaughtered.

We stopped at the closest thing to a Starbucks that Phan has – the soybean milk vendor, right.

Warm soybean milk in the morning is as evocative for many Thais as Cap’n Crunch cereal is for Americans… although not for me as I was never allowed anything sweeter than Raisin Bran, much to my dentist’s delight.

As someone raised on cow’s milk, soybean milk has never quite lived up to its visual promise.  It looks like milk and my tongue is expecting that richness – that fat feeling on the tongue – that soybean cannot provide.  At best is is watery in comparison and at worst, chalky.  Still, I know it is good for you so I don’t disparage it.  I just drink coffee instead!

The sun was not yet over the horizon and there was just a slight chill to the air.  But only a slight one, not really one worthy of the scarf that Kobfa had fashionably wrapped around his neck, right.

Along with our soybean milk and coffee, we enjoyed an order to ba tong goh – Chinese donuts.  Sometimes served lightly sweetened, this unleavened bread fries up nice and light and, when the oil is fresh and properly hot, they are almost free of any trace of grease.

Of course, when the oil is not fresh or is too cool, they are an oily, soggy and thoroughly disgusting mess.

Thankfully, we were there early in the morning and the cook was well experienced in her frying so we enjoyed these light and tasty treats, with just a hint of sesame from the seeds scattered throughout the dough.

We were back at Tam and Pune’s mother’s house about eight o’clock as close friends and family members filled the second floor of the house for the ceremony.  There were eight or nine monks lining the walls with a lay person – a friend of the family – sort of filling the role of master of ceremonies.  Pune and Detlev were sitting at the front of the room to receive the blessing of the monks.

Thai Buddhist ceremonies are remarkably casual affairs.  I’ve seen this at weddings and funerals I’ve attended.  While people will have their hands folded in prayer, for the most part they chat quietly amongst themselves except for a few key prayers that everyone knows by heart.  I think those are equivalent to the Lord’s Prayer in Christian churches that are learned by rote memorization in childhood and are repeated not so much with thought given to each word as it is spoken, but instead as a string of syllables that follow one another in a particular order.

Of course, some people give much more consideration as they say the prayers.

I learned from Kobfa that the number of monks at a ceremony does not have to be an odd number.  It was my previous understanding that the number was always odd with five or more, and that you only used four monks at funerals.  He corrected my understanding and told me that four is the minimum number of monks needed to conduct a ceremony, sort of a quorum.

Some of the monks also take things pretty casually.  One of the younger monks answered a mobile phone call during the early part of the ceremony, when only the head monk was speaking.  He was discreet about it, though, using part of the sleeve of his robe to muffle the conversation.

Right: Pune, Tam and their mother.  She has not been well as she advances in years and is sometimes not fully lucid.  It appeared that she really enjoyed the ceremony and that it meant a lot to her.  I know it was important to Pune that she hold this ceremony with her mother present, and I’m sure the extra effort in having it in Phan was worth it.

The ceremony lasted about an hour and then afterwards a large meal was served to everyone in the downstairs area.  It was a simple but tasty meal and it gave us all a chance to visit some more.  A large contingent of Pune’s colleagues had rented a van and come up from Khrungthep, so she had lots of people to visit with!

In the afternoon we had some time to spend before the evening ceremony.  We actually took a trip back up to Chiang Rai but I’ll cover that in Part 3 of the entry as it fits better there.

Before the evening ceremony, Tawn and I went with Markus and Tam to look for wine.  Normally, a Thai wedding banquet has whisky, soda water, and some sort of soft drink on the table.  There were a group of us who are not whisky drinkers so we found a small liquor shop that had about two dozen bottles of wine sitting on a back shelf.  We bought four bottles, which seemed enough to get us through the festivities.

Left, Tawn waits on the curb as we figure out which questionable bottle of wine is the least risky to try.  In the end, both the Chilean Merlot and the French Cabernet were good values and tasty.

The reception was held on the rooftop restaurant at the hotel.  This is a nice space that covers the entire roof, with the central area covered and the sides open to the breeze.  There were lovely flowers and the view of the sunrise was spectacular. 

Even though things were supposed to begin at six, the guests were running on Chiang Rai time and it was nearly seven before the tables were filled.  There were about 100 people there, so it wasn’t a small event by any means.

We had a little time before the ceremony to shoot some pictures, with Kobfa trying to capture Tawn and me with the orange glow of the sunset illuminating our faces.

Before dinner started I caught a few pictures of one of the appetizers, guaitiaw luie suan – garden vegetables (in this case with minced pork) wrapped in rice noodles.  I didn’t take pictures of everything else at dinner (awww…) instead deciding to just enjoy the celebration.

Some pictures from the evening’s festivities:

Above: The evening started with Detlev and Pune being introduced to the guests and taking their places at the head of the restaurant.  Family and friends – by group – were invited to come up and perform the Northern Thai style blessing ritual.  Elsewhere in Thailand you bless the newlyweds by pouring a small amount of water over their hands.  In the north, you tie a string around their wrist.  Needless to say, by the end of the day Detlev and Pune had a lot of strings around their wrists!

There were the obligatory speeches by various phu yai – literally, “big people”.  In this case a longtime family friend, Pune’s boss, and Markus all had remarks to say.  Interestingly, the lady doing translations took many liberties with Markus’ speech.  Originally there had been a little bit of a debate between Markus and Tam over how their relationship should be identified to the guests.  Would Markus say he was Tam’s partner, his friend, or something else entirely? 

This is an interesting question because from a Western perspective it is rife with personal and political implications.  The implications get lost in the translation, though, as the equivalent Thai words do not carry the same meanings.  Ultimately, it was a moot point because the translator introduced Markus as Detlev’s cousin and never really explained his relationship to Tam instead explaining that Markus was a friend of Pune’s.

Above, Pune and Detlev, wrists full of string, take a moment to relax in the midst of the night’s proceedings.  After the speeches, Markus played two slide shows that he had made showing pictures of the bride and groom’s childhoods and the time they’ve spent together since meeting.  This is a great example of how technology has become pervasive enough that everyone can have such “high tech” features to their weddings. 

While the presentations were finishing up, I noticed that on the terrace of the restaurant there were a few cowboy-looking types tuning their fiddle and banjo.  Sure enough, they were joined by three others and the evening soon erupted into what can best be described as somewhere between Thai bluegrass and country music. 

Different from the Issan folk music popular in the country’s northeast region, the cowboy mentality of the north has borrowed heavily from the cowboy music and folklore of the western United States.  Jeans are Wranglers, belt buckles are big, and the music is an acoustic string quintet in which all the players sing.

Many of the songs were in Thai but a surprising number were American country standards, including this version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads“, John Denver’s breakthrough single. 

The guests were enthusiastically clapping, stomping and enjoying the party long past the point where, at a typical Thai wedding banquet, they would have had their fill of dinner and have departed.  Things reached a crescendo when Pune and Detlev started dancing to the music, to the guests’ enjoyment.

It was a fun evening for all involved and while this was one of the smallest and lowest-key weddings I’ve been to here in Thailand (and Tawn and I seem to go to quite a few of them), it was one of the most fun and sincere, held for the enjoyment of the bride and groom and their loved ones instead of just just to build up the face of their families.

In Part 3 I’ll talk about our final day in Chiang Rai.

This weekend Tawn and I flew to Chiang Rai, in the far north of Thailand, to attend Pune and Detlev’s wedding.  Pune is Tam’s sister and Detlev is Markus’ cousin, and they were introduced a year and a half ago at a small dinner at Tam and Markus’ apartment at which Tawn and I were present, when Detlev came to Thailand on holiday.

This was the first of three “weddings” that will occur, the other two being a civil service and then a Lutheran religious service in Germany.  Pune and Tam’s mother still lives in their hometown of Phan (an aspirated “p” sound, not an “f” at the beginning), a district in the south of Chiang Rai province.  As their mother’s health has not been so good, the decision was made to hold the Buddhist and Thai wedding in Phan rather than try to bring her down to Khrungthep.

The first entry in this series will be about our trip up to Chiang Rai.  The second will be about the wedding day itself.  The third will be about the trip home.

A little about Chiang Rai.  Located 700 km (435 miles) north of Khrungthep, Chiang Rai is the 12th largest and 13th most inhabited of Thailand’s 76 provinces.  The main town of Chiang Rai has about 65,000 inhabitants, with about 225,000 in the surrounding area.  This compares with about 7-8 million people in Khrungthep and about 700,000 in the greater Chiang Mai area.

We chose to fly to the north as we would otherwise have to take a very long bus ride or a combination train (to Chiang Mai) then bus ride, also quite long.  The flight is just over an hour and while not nearly as well-served as Chiang Mai, there are almost a dozen daily flights from which to choose.

Above: Our taxi driver’s tricked-out taxi with covers for the gear shift, parking brake, turn indicator, and windshield wiper stalk, all knit from optic yellow yarn.  Along the way we stopped at Ble’s to drop off some color samples and arrived at the old Don Meuang Airport – now used exclusively for domestic flights – about ninety minutes before departure time.

Kobfa joined us for the trip, coordinating his travel plans to match with ours, and we conveniently arrived at the airport at the same time.  Below: Tawn and Kobfa waiting in the bag security screening line.

Before departure we had enough time to eat lunch, which featured the soggiest pad thai noodles I’ve ever seen and a waitress who seemed completely unable to comprehend my Thai.  If translated, it would have sounded like this:

Chris: “I’ll have a lime soda, please.”

Waitress: “A spaghetti?”

Chris: “No, a lime soda, please.”

Waitress: “Plain water?”

Chris: “No, soda.  Lime.  Lime Soda, please.”

Tawn confirmed afterwards that it wasn’t my pronunciation. Kobfa thought that the waitress just wasn’t expecting me to order in Thai, but it continued when I ordered my food as well.

Our flight up to Chiang Rai was smooth.  We took Nok Air, a budget airline that is partially owned by THAI Airways.  Like most budget carriers here, there isn’t a lot of service.  The flight was on time, the crew was friendly, no outside food and drink was allowed but they were happy to sell you snacks and beverages.  One thing good about Nok is that they allow you to make seat assignments online at no added cost.  A full trip report will be ready soon for posting on Airliners.net.

We arrived at Chiang Rai to find it unchanged from our last visit in September 2000.  There is one runway, no taxiways, and a small four-gate terminal, two of which have jetways.  We disembarked through airstairs, allowing plenty of photo taking opportunities as we made our way to the terminal, right.

Our Hertz car rental representative was waiting for us outside the baggage claim and took us to a nearby resort hotel where they base their operations.  We rented a Honda Jazz, a car that I’ve considered as a candidate for when we replace our current car in the next few years.  Based on our rental, I don’t think I would buy it.  While it performs well and gets good mileage, the layout of the driver area is not so good, with a center console that rubs against your leg.

Bill and Ken were already in Chiang Rai, completing the final few days of a ten-day holiday to the north of the country.  Bill and his friend Kom had headed up to the Burmese border but Ken was free, so we picked him up at his hotel and had coffee with him then explored the town.  Below: Tawn, Chris, Kobfa and Ken at a bakery/coffee shop in downtown Chiang Rai.

Nearing sunset we stopped by a hilltop temple in the northwest corner of town.  I think that Tawn and I visited this temple last time we were here but after a while it is difficult to distinguish them.  As we arrived the monks were completing circumambulations of the chedi – walking around the gold-painted pagoda as they chanted, below right.  The chedis usually contain relics, either of the Buddha, royalty, or some prominent person like a monk.

We paid our respects to the Buddha images while a big black labrador rested on the mat, above left.

Afterwards, we went back to Ken’s hotel, Laluna Resort, where we met up with Bill and Kom, who had returned from their run to the border’s edge.  Below, Tawn horses around (“turtles around”?) by the side of the hotel’s pool.

Wanting to try some of the Northern Thai culinary specialties for dinner, Tawn had asked the people working the Hertz counter for recommendations.  The recommendation was Salungkam, a famous restaurant that once we arrived, we realized we had eaten at years ago.

Salungkham is in all the guide books and does a good trade in tour bus business.  Don’t let this turn you off, though, as it is worth of its reputation.

The food was so good that we actually returned on Sunday before our flight for seconds.  I’ll combine the pictures from both meals so you can see the tasty things we enjoyed!

Left: One of the North’s most famous foods is Sai Oua, a pork sausage that is heavily flavored with local herbs.  It is served grilled with a spicy red chili and garlic sauce.  Salungkam has its grill set up right at the front of the restaurant, your assurance that the sausage, pork belly, and spare ribs on the menu are as fresh as can be!

The restaurant has both an indoor seating area as well as a beautiful garden which, with the slightly cooler evenings there, make for a pleasant place to eat your evening meal.

From top left across: The grill is loaded with tasty meats which come out as this mixed grill platter of sai oua (herbed sausage) and spare ribs; pla chon na tod – fried catfish that is caught from rice paddies; nam prik ong – a sauce made from fire-roasted green chilies served with dipping vegetables and fried pork skins and a side dish of fried snow peas and shitake mushrooms; gang mapraw on gai baan – a mild Northern style soup that is not as spicy as it looks, made with young coconut palm shoots and homegrown chicken; fruit platter featuring young pineapples, which is also a northern specialty.

We ate our fill but saved room for a trip to the night market for dessert!  The night market in Chiang Rai is much smaller than the well-known one in Chiang Mai.  Nonetheless, it features the same trinkets, which seem to be imported from some central “night market trinket factory”, probably located in China.

There were two notable desserts, though: roti – a Muslim delicacy that is akin to a crepe.  Normally served with an egg, this vendor was aiming for the dessert crowd by offering many sweet toppings.  We went for roti drizzled with chocolate sauce and a little sweetened condensed milk.

Tawn also found a bua loy vendor, below.  This dish, which is akin to small gnocchi served warm in sweetened coconut milk, was done differently here, served cool with two scoops of coconut ice cream, shavings of fresh young coconut, and toasted sesame seeds.

At this point, we were completely stuffed.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take us to drive to Phan, we piled everyone back into the car (there were six of us in what is decidedly a four-seater!) and drove Ken, Bill and Kom back to their hotel.  From there, Tawn, Kobfa and I headed down the smoothly paved, wide Highway One on what turned out to be an easy thirty-minute drive down to Phan.

I’ll pick up this entry tomorrow and tell you more about Phan and Pune and Detlev’s wedding.