Massage at women's jail and skipping around northern Thailand

I've been skipping around cities in the northern part of Thailand and it's been nice to see so many green trees, fields, mountains and also learn more about the different indigenous populations in the area (known as hill tribes).

(I ordered an orange juice at the internet cafe I am writing from and the juice has salt! It's like when I eat oranges with salt back at home.)

Last time I wrote I think I mentioned that I had been traveling with a woman from Germany. We met in Ayutthaya (the next city I went to as I made my way north from Bangkok) and traveled together for about 10 days. We went to Chiang Mai where we celebrated the Loy Krathong festival and then we did some more sightseeing around the older part of the city. Oh! And I finally got a Thai massage! I went to a women's correction facility (women's jail) where they teach inmates vocational skills. It was really cool; I wish I knew how to speak Thai (although I wonder if I'd have the guts to ask anyway) to ask them about their experiences and how long they were there, etc. The women inmates who give the massages wear these nice burgundy uniforms and we wear these hospital-like clothes (we wear pants and loose shirts) and we are on a futon mattress on the floor. This is really helpful because it lets you bend and get in all sorts of positions without letting your street clothes get in the way- and oh my goodness! The masseuse sits on the floor and uses her entire body- her feet, legs, thighs, fingers, arms, elbows- even her chin! Oh, I cracked in so many places! She had me bent in all sorts of positions, I felt like a pretzel- and she was real strong. That was a great experience (it hurt too, but it was a good pain).

Next, my German companion and I went to Tha Ton, another small town where we stayed in this really nice bungalow right by the river! It was what I had imagined the greener side of Thailand would be like. After that we went to Chiang Rai and spent a few more days where we also took a cooking course. It was just my friend and me with the cooking instructor, Suwanee. It was nice because we went to the market and picked up all the fresh ingredients and she also pointed to all these sweet desserts wrapped in banana leaves; taking the course was worth it to learn about all these foods I would have never looked twice at (I wondered- what else am I missing out on??) We cooked green curry with chicken, stir-fried vegetables, tom yam soup and sweet bananas with fresh coconut cream (there is a stall at the market that processes coconuts into cream and milk). Ah, there's nothing better than eating good food with good company. I contributed some of my own "skills" and used the left over coconut cream and prepared some pina coladas (the cooking course took place at Suwanee's home and she had plenty of Malibu rum). The food was great and we got along real well with Suwanee who has had a pretty interesting life so far. She has been living in Europe (Holland, Paris and England) for the past 12 years but had just returned to Thailand to set up her new cooking business. She says the business is not enough to make her rich, but it's enough to keep her happy (and be her own boss!). It inspires me to think about how I can move to Mexico for a few months (or years)...

My companion and I split (she was bound for Cambodia) and the next day I joined Suwanee and took a bus to a nice small town that's along the Mekong River called Chiang Sean. It was really nice to sit by the river and see Laos right across. I rode a bicycle a few more kilometers north to see the "Golden Triangle." It is the famous point where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet and only divided by the rivers. I put the name in quotation marks because there's nothing really golden about it (it's more a tourist trap with a lot of souvenir shops) but it's still an incredible view from the top of a temple. The name is actually derived from the the opium cultivation and profits made in that area (and much more politics goes along with that story, of course). Finally, yesterday we went to another city (Mae Sai) and I crossed the border to Burma and got another 30 days on my tourist visa for Thailand. It's just a border, but honestly Burma (now officially called Union of Myanmar) felt like almost another world. Much, much more poverty, and dozens of children (carrying babies on their shoulders with shawls) asking for money; it was overwhelming walking back into Thailand and it made me think about the privilege of traveling, freely crossing borders and the privilege of a passport. Looking over to Burma from the hotel I stayed at that night (with only a river diving us) reminded me of when I've been in Ciudad Juarez or Tijuana in Mexico looking over the border to see the US; the universals of border countries- so far, yet so, so far away.

Now I'm back in Chiang Rai. It's nice because it's a familiar place now and I have a good sense of the size and orientation of the town. Tomorrow morning I go on a hike to Mae Salong. I realized I didn't even write about what I learned about the political situation of the hill tribes of northern Thailand. Ok, that's definitely for next time.