Doi Suthep

Doi Sutthep, Chiang Mai

My cousin and I journeyed up the mountain to the west and reached Doi Sutthep - the ancient Buddhist temple overlooking the city of Chiang

 Mai.

Kawila Stadium

Very intense and high-energy fight at Kawila Stadium in Chiang Mai; boxers kicking sharply with legs fully extended and then snapping back while the crowds roar.  

The boxers had vicious reflexes yet graceful dancelike movements in rhythm with the mesmerizing music, the tempo accelerating as the fight progressed.

Most of them looked only about 19 yrs. old and weighed only 44-55 kg - very small and compact but muscular and toned, with extreme capabilities of speed, agility, and precision.  

Wat Lampoeng

For Queen Sirikit's birthday, Pon, Fon and I went to Wat Lampoeng in Chiang Mai.  

We gave gifts of candles and incense to the monks and then watered plants in the garden.  

Lanna Music

One of my favorite places in Chiang Mai is Lanna Music School - straight down the alley of Prapakklao Soi 8.

Across from one of the city's many shining temples, it is a small school where I can practice piano in seclusion for as long as I want.

This is Jeab, my piano instructor.  She is an excellent musician, teacher, and a very inspiring person.  She teaches me not only classical piano technique, but also Thai customs, the tonality of Thai language (including Chiang Mai dialect) and various lessons from her life's experience.  Jeab has definitely become one my best friends in Chiang Mai.  

Now we are working on Valse - a Chopin piece in B minor, with a transition to B major in the middle - focusing on the dynamics and phrasing, producing the best tone out of the acoustic instrument.  

Outside of Chiang Mai, Jeab has played music in Bangkok, Phuket, and Hong Kong.  She has performed music for the Thai royal family, and will play for the Queen in December.  

AUA Chiang Mai

I just started a new job teaching at AUA Chiang Mai - a school with curriculums in both English and Thai.  The Chiang Mai branch is located in the heart of the city, and is very integrated into the community.  

It is a respected, high-quality school.  I am very happy to be working here.  The other teachers are from America, the UK, and Canada...they are bright, interesting, and have been extremely supportive.

The students - mostly Mathayom 4-6 (high school age) - are very motivated and fun to be around.  They have cool nicknames like Dream, Earth, Air,  and Noize.  

Occasionally we have students from Korea and other countries as well.   

Two of the American teachers were previously teaching English in Nagasaki, Japan for two consecutive years through the JET program.  A few of the British teachers have been teaching English at AUA Chiang Mai for almost eight years.

Last week two  main directors from AUA Bangkok branch came up to Chiang Mai to give us a seminar about effective  new teaching approaches.  It was a very inspiring and helpful way to begin this new job.  

I am also giving private lessons on the side at Triple E - a small school right down the street run by a charming Thai man named Mr. Chayaphon.

Here are some pictures of AUA Chiang Mai and its surroundings. 

Chiang Mai "walking street"

Straight down the alleyway of Phrapokklao Soi 8 -- behind the German restaurant I stay at -- the streets are alive with the sights and sounds of the Chiang Mai "walking street" Sunday market.

Across from the  brightly illuminated 3 Kings monument, young saamanen (novice monks) pray at a Buddhist shrine.

In the middle of Phrapokklao a man and woman create a puppet dance production to traditional music.

Smoke and the delicious aromas of street vendors fill the air.  

Street Vendors

Some of the best Thai food in Chiang Mai is cooked fresh on the streetside at the Sunday night market...aroi mak mak...jing jing!

Street Musicans

A young boy concentrates on his delicate hammer dulcimer music during the Sunday "walking street" festival in Chiang Mai.  

Four blind street musicians sing, strum their acoustic guitars, and drum on buckets for change in the middle of the street.  

This sign encourages people to donate money to the blind musicians.   

Beijing Dancer

Every Sunday evening, the streets of the central city of Chaing Mai are shut down for Talad Wan atit "Walking Street".

The city transforms into a festival, and the streets become crowded with the flow of hundreds of roaming people as street musicians, dancers, and street vendors cooking up all kinds of fresh Thai food take over.  

This dancer on Thanon Ratchadmoen street is from Beijing, China.

Kan and Max

Muay Sangha

Muay Thai Sangha is a small martial arts school in Chiang Mai.

Ajarn Pedro (the instructor) is originally from Spain.  He spent years learning Muay Thai and other martial arts disciplines in Spain and the United States.  He moved to Thailand in 2002 to become a Buddhist monk and open his own Muay Thai school.  He has taught beginning to advanced Muay Thai fighters from all over the world.  

Muay Thai Sangha let me observe their lesson today.  It is an extreme commitment to study here...the training is intensive and lasts for at least six hours a day, five days a week; it consists of various martial arts techniques as well as meditation and chanting exercises, with a strong foundation in Buddhist philosophy.  

Shan tribe

Expansive slash-and-burn rice fields spread across the mountains leading up to the hill-tribe village.

Here is the third village (The Shan tribe) which was very close to the border of Myanmar (Burma).  Their dialect is much closer to Burmese language than to Thai.

We ate a meal of chicken and vegetables inside the tribal hut in the Shan village after hiking up to the top of a nearby waterfall.

This young boy is from the Shan tribe.

Aek - Fearless Leader

This is Aek, our fearless leader.

Aek was a rebel fighter against the Burmese military dictatorship in the 70's.

He has many vivid stories from the Vietnam-war era.  

He came to Thailand in 1974 carrying opium and jade in exchange for (American) weapons to fight the oppressive Burmese government in a rebel uprising.

Strangely enough, his father still lives in Myanmar and works for the military.  

Ael speaks fluent English, Thai, Burmese, and is able to converse freely with many hill tribes in their various dialects.  

He is 58 years old, but shows no signs of age.  More agile than any of us, he hikes through the treacherous terrain of this jungle like it's nothing.

 His knowledge and skills were crucial in our journey through Mae Hong Son.  He also cooked for us (using ingredients he gathered from the jungle) and provided us Chinese "medicine" (rice whiskey) at the end of every night.

Our group also included 3 kids in their early 20's from Boston, MA and two members of the Karen hill tribe (from the first village) who helped us navigate through the dense jungle.  

The Fathomless Depths

On the way to the second tribal village in Mae Hong Son, Aek led us into a dark damp cave.

The crawl space was tiny - about 1 1/2 feet at the entrance - but the cave gradually opened up into pitch dark depths filled with stalagmite and stalagtite cave formations

Mae Hong Son

I just got back from three days of hiking around the mountains of Mae Hong Son.

The mountains were unbelievable...towering majestic mountains with fresh mist rolling in.  The altitude was so high that at times we walking inside clouds, which made the experience very surreal and dreamlike.

It is some of the most beautiful environment I have ever seen, but the trekking was extremely rugged and challenging...especially because it was raining on and off.  

The greatest hardship was the blood-sucking leeches, which we cursed and pried off our feet in nausea every time we crossed a river.  

We hiked about 10-18km a day through rivers, jungles, and mud...all the way up near the border of Myanmar (Burma).

We went to three different hill-tribe villages, and stayed in a bamboo hut in the second village for two nights.

Many of these backroads were used in the Vietnam war to exchange opium for weapons.  

On the final day we decided to take a raft down the river for a few kilometers.  Two men from the Karen hill-tribe led us for about an hour through knee-deep rivers and dense jungle.  

They proceeded to make a raft from scratch solely out of bamboo and bamboo leaves; we watched them from the opposite shore in the pouring rain, doubtful if the raft would be stable in the strong current.  

Sure enough, after launching off into the river we crashed hard into a log.   One of the Boston kids fell out into the water.  He was not injured, but soaking wet and pretty upset.  The hill-tribe people led us back to shore, got out their knives and attached more bamboo to the raft to make it more structurally sound.