In February of 2020, we had plans to go to Thailand. We canceled them because of that new virus–there were 12 cases at the time in Thailand–and we were not sure of the risks. Three and a half years later we finally made it.
We went over the Chuseok holiday, which fell at the end of September in 2023. Unlike the canceled trip of 2020, which was to Bangkok, this trip went mainly to Chiang Mai, a city in the northernmost part of Thailand. It is a place of mountains rather than sea and beaches. It is also much quieter than Bangkok, but quaint and historical.
The center of the Chiang Mai is surrounded by a square moat and the remnants of a wall, both constructed to protect the city.
While in Chiang Mai we enjoyed Thai f00d—restaurants are very cheap in Thailand— walked around ornate Buddhist temples, and saw lavish Buddhist religious art.
We took a day tour to Doi Inthanon National Park, which features the highest peak in Thailand. In and near the park we saw a waterfall (I think Mae Ya) and hiked around a rain forest that was humid and cool at the same time, because it is so high up.
The tour included a visit to the monuments and gardens dedicated to the previous Thai king and his wife, and then to a very rural village settled by the Karen people, a distinct ethic and linguistic group that live in the Myanmar – Thailand border region. In addition to farming rice and raising small animals, they now grow and sell coffee as well as make clothing to sell to the tourists who come through. We brought both coffee and some beautifully woven scarves.
Though we spent most of our time in Chiang Mai, we did have a couple of nights in Bangkok. We enjoyed the night markets, rode one of the the water ferries that carry people through Bangkok, and walked around the Bangkok Grand Palace area, which was close to where we were staying. We also visited the popular Khao San road area, but it was not to our taste, being something like the Bourbon Street of Bangkok, but even more amped up than its New Orleans cousin—if one can imagine that. We had museums on our to-do list but unfortunately they were closed on the days we were there.
We were continually struck by how Thailand reminded us of New Orleans, where Teresa grew up. Not just the warmth, humidity, great food, beautiful architecture, and devotion to pleasure (most of it much more pleasing than at Khao San), but also the sense of romantic decay. A lot of Thailand is moss covered, rusting, cracking, and the like. This romantic decay is atmospheric in the way New Orleans’s decay is as well. It’s a strong contrast to Korea, and especially an area such as Songdo, which is all new and glistening, though some think it lacking character. Good bougies, we were ready to return to the latter.
And now, because this blog post is so late, we offer an MCU-like teaser to our 2024 trip to Japan, which we just finished, and which will have its own blog post soon. Japan is the opposite of Thailand’s Big Easy, especially as we spent most of our time, in February, on Japan’s cold northern Island, Hokkaido, for its annual snow festival.
When we first lived in New Orleans we were a bit surprised at the old and crumbly bits but we began to reverence them as relics of lives well lived, yet we never quite got over our love for the freshly painted. Welcome home!