Exploring the Northwest Territory: Part 1

I’ve returned from our excursion to Chiang Mai intact, and now I’ve finally got a chance to document it. In the interests of smooth literary digestion, I’ll be separating the weekend’s events into a series of bite-size posts, rather than a single magnum opus. Let’s get down to business then.

We left at 7 am last Thursday, bleary-eyed with duffel bags in tow. Once again, I’m glad to have brought an extra bag wadded up in my suitcase. Five days worth of stuff is too much for a backpack, but not enough for a suitcase. Old 1980’s duffel bag, just right. After a few hours of driving (and viewing of the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition, which we killed off over about three days and is way better than the original trilogy), we stopped for lunch at Phitsanulok, a town famous for it’s Buddha images. The grandest of these is the Phrabuddha Chinaraoj, which is a classic giant gold Buddha in the Sukhothai style, similar to its formerly concrete-encrusted cousin now residing in Trimit Temple. Lunch in Phitsanulok was fun, mostly because we ate on a series of wooden docks floating on a small pond. Any table scraps get thrown to the large school of even larger fish that have got the system all figured out. In a somewhat macabre display of cannibalism, they loved the skeletons of the fried fish we ordered.

Once we and the Lecter-fish had eaten our fill, we pressed onward to Sukhothai, the old capital of Thailand that predates Ayutthaya (the newer old capital that was sacked by the Burmese). Sukhothai’s remains are in much better shape, mostly because it did not have to contend with marauding bands of bloodthirsty armies rampaging through it. Upon checking into the hotel, the bellhop offered us a bright green “welcome drink”. Continuing my habit of consuming whatever’s offered to me, regardless of whether or not I know what it is, I downed the glass. In hindsight, this wasn’t a great idea. No one (Aeng included) was actually able to tell me what was in it, but it was noxiously sweet and tasted very strongly like bubble gum. Mmmm, I’m getting nauseous just thinking about it. Makes me glad that Rob and the Mercury Brewing crew never got it in their heads to make green bubble gum soda, cause I’m pretty sure that’s what it would have wound up like.

After dinner, instead of going back to the hotel, we drove over to a nearby Wat which was build around the remains of a former temple that flourished about 800 years ago. Turns out that it was a major Buddhist holiday (with a long name that I can neither remember nor pronounce) that night, commemorating the Buddha’s first teaching to the first monks. To celebrate, members of the congregation light candles and incense and walk three circles around the temple, one for the Buddha, one for the Dhamma (his teachings), and one for the Sangha (monkhood).

Of the six people in our group, we have two Buddhists, three Christians of varying denominations, and one miscellaneous. Guess which one I am. The Buddhists, along with Aeng, went to go get their candles, while the Christians waited off to the side. I, at first, was unsure where to go, but, in the spirit of striking a blow for cross-cultural understanding, I kicked off my shoes, grabbed a candle and away I went. Interestingly enough, I wasn’t the only white person doing laps. I did see one older guy with a beard, who I’m guessing belonged to the family that was sitting next to my “family” and looked equally embarrassed that their one kooky member had decided to partake in the local tradition.

In the crowd through, no one seemed embarrassed or even surprised to see me. I guess the extremely welcoming and open character of the Thai people strikes again. Although my candle stayed lit for all of the first fifteen feet of our three laps, I did enjoy myself. Speaking of cross-cultural understanding, I noticed a major similarity between this ceremony and all the other candlelight services I’ve been to: give a candle to a little boy, and he immediately turns into the world’s biggest pyromaniac. For them, this event was much more appealing than anything held at First Church in Ipswich, since here we had the added perk of being held outside, where there was an abundance of grass and leaves to set on fire. After relocating my shoes and my group, I headed back to the hotel. I had to retire the shirt I was wearing for the remainder of the trip though, since the incense had totally permeated everything I had on. Combined with the results of sweating in Sukothai’s cooler-though-still-pretty-darn-hot weather, the only thing that can be said is, “Holy stink”.