I've created a north-of-Thailand bucket list for myself to ensure I see and experience all the things I want to before I leave Lampang at the end of the semester. The longer I stay in this country the bigger my list gets despite me ticking things off weekly; Thailand has so much to offer and explore that I fear I'll never be done - perhaps I'll just have to stay! One place on this list was the city of Chiang Rai which is in the far north, close to the Laos and Myanmar borders, surrounded by mountains. Not long after I met my friends in Chiang Rai it started to rain and during rainy season in Thailand it can be beautifully hot and sunny one minute and before you know a tsunami-like wall of water is thundering down from above threatening to knock you out of your fake Havaiana flip flops.
Mr Dam, one of the Thai teachers of English at my school who I drive in with every day, sometimes takes me to nearby Mae Tha village to eat ridiculously tasty khao soi, a northern Thai dish with noodles, chilies, chicken or beef, a curry-like sauce with coconut milk, garlic, shallots and lime topped with crispy pork crackling. During one of these lunch excursions, whilst driving through tiny villages populated with wooden houses on stilts, Mr Dam pointed out a house that seemed to have a lot of visitors sitting in a circle on the floor under the raised part of the building; he explained that people come from all over Thailand to speak to the ghosts of their dead loved-ones through the famous spirit medium that lives there. Ghosts are a big deal in Thailand, outside every building there's a spirit house where sweet, red food and drink is left to appease any malicious ghosts and it's common for those that lose a family member to see a spirit medium. As someone who is on the fence when it comes to matters of the afterlife I asked Mr Dam if he believed this woman and he looked at me incredulously and said that he had no doubts about her skills; when he visited her after his father, who was Chinese, passed away the elderly woman's voice changed when she became possessed with his father's ghost and she started talking to Mr Dam in fluent Chinese even though she has never learnt or spoken a word of it in her life before! A few weeks later I was told by one of the teachers that the ghosts had chosen a new spirit medium in the form of an eleven year old student. That day, in my school's gym, the girl had become possessed with the ghost of a person that the teachers used to know and after demanding to eat raw beef (?!) the spirit declared it's wishes for her to be a communication channel between their world and ours; her grandparents swiftly collected her from school and took her home in a frenzy - they don't want her to be a spirit medium as it means that she can never get married or eat meat!
I was asked to design and run a three-day seminar for Thai English teachers with two other foreign teachers - Sarah from America who I already knew as she lives in my town and Rachel, also from The States, who lives about an hour away from Lampang. All three of us are new, inexperienced teachers and so we couldn't understand why we'd been asked to run the seminar however we certainly weren't complaining as we were paid nicely for our time, put up in a swanky-for-this-part-of-Thailand hotel, spoilt rotten with incredible Thai meals and most importantly we were able to mingle with the best English speakers in the area and make lots of new Thai friends. Some of my fellow farang teachers in other parts of the country have been jammy enough to have been adopted by a Thai woman - aka 'a Thai mum' - who shows them around, invites them to their house, gives them a proper insight into 'Thai-ness' and helps them do everyday things that become a giant, confusing hassle when you can't read or speak much of a language (i.e. interpreting menus, booking bus tickets or knowing where to go to buy a button!). Before the seminar I hadn't been lucky enough to find one of these elusive angels however I found several at the seminar, in fact the teachers were fighting over who got to be our Thai mums and they were horrified that we'd had to fend for ourselves in a foreign country up until now!
One of our new adopted Thai mums, K-Pop, offered to show Sarah and I around neighboring province Lamphun. K-Pop took us on a tour of the stunning golden pagodas and mirrored temples of Lamphun and to a Thai buffet restaurant where we made our own somtam which is a salad made with green papaya, lots of chilies, limes and crushed-up mini crabs; it's one of my favourite Thai dishes and it's only a proper somtam when it's so spicy that every hole in my face leaks and I'm momentarily blinded. After Lamphun Sarah and I made our way to Chiang Mai where we met our friends, Rachel and Kiren, for the weekend - Chiang Mai has become a regular hang-out spot for us and we often spend the weekend there sampling the nightlife and wandering around the markets.
We visited Wat Rong Khun, or White Temple, in Chiang Rai - each feature is symbolic - the outreaching hands symbolise unrestrained desire and the bridge is the road to happiness if you forgo temptation and greed.
The temple was built by a local artist about twenty years ago as an offering to Lord Buddha in the hope that it would earn him immortal life.
This clock tower, in the middle of a Chiang Rai roundabout, has a music and light show every night at 8pm.
Chiang Rai night market.
Mr Dam, one of the Thai teachers of English at my school who I drive in with every day, sometimes takes me to nearby Mae Tha village to eat ridiculously tasty khao soi, a northern Thai dish with noodles, chilies, chicken or beef, a curry-like sauce with coconut milk, garlic, shallots and lime topped with crispy pork crackling. During one of these lunch excursions, whilst driving through tiny villages populated with wooden houses on stilts, Mr Dam pointed out a house that seemed to have a lot of visitors sitting in a circle on the floor under the raised part of the building; he explained that people come from all over Thailand to speak to the ghosts of their dead loved-ones through the famous spirit medium that lives there. Ghosts are a big deal in Thailand, outside every building there's a spirit house where sweet, red food and drink is left to appease any malicious ghosts and it's common for those that lose a family member to see a spirit medium. As someone who is on the fence when it comes to matters of the afterlife I asked Mr Dam if he believed this woman and he looked at me incredulously and said that he had no doubts about her skills; when he visited her after his father, who was Chinese, passed away the elderly woman's voice changed when she became possessed with his father's ghost and she started talking to Mr Dam in fluent Chinese even though she has never learnt or spoken a word of it in her life before! A few weeks later I was told by one of the teachers that the ghosts had chosen a new spirit medium in the form of an eleven year old student. That day, in my school's gym, the girl had become possessed with the ghost of a person that the teachers used to know and after demanding to eat raw beef (?!) the spirit declared it's wishes for her to be a communication channel between their world and ours; her grandparents swiftly collected her from school and took her home in a frenzy - they don't want her to be a spirit medium as it means that she can never get married or eat meat!
Thai iced coffee and beef khao soi - as they say here, "arawy maak maak" (very, very delicious!).
I'm pretty sure that the little girl behind me in the photo is the one who was taken over by the spirit.
These students - two girls and two kathoeys (boys who want to be girls) in dresses - performed an enthusiastic dance during the school's science day last month.
Another school activity - this photo was taken during craft day where many things were being made by the students from hair clips to lanterns.
I was asked to design and run a three-day seminar for Thai English teachers with two other foreign teachers - Sarah from America who I already knew as she lives in my town and Rachel, also from The States, who lives about an hour away from Lampang. All three of us are new, inexperienced teachers and so we couldn't understand why we'd been asked to run the seminar however we certainly weren't complaining as we were paid nicely for our time, put up in a swanky-for-this-part-of-Thailand hotel, spoilt rotten with incredible Thai meals and most importantly we were able to mingle with the best English speakers in the area and make lots of new Thai friends. Some of my fellow farang teachers in other parts of the country have been jammy enough to have been adopted by a Thai woman - aka 'a Thai mum' - who shows them around, invites them to their house, gives them a proper insight into 'Thai-ness' and helps them do everyday things that become a giant, confusing hassle when you can't read or speak much of a language (i.e. interpreting menus, booking bus tickets or knowing where to go to buy a button!). Before the seminar I hadn't been lucky enough to find one of these elusive angels however I found several at the seminar, in fact the teachers were fighting over who got to be our Thai mums and they were horrified that we'd had to fend for ourselves in a foreign country up until now!
P Book, the lady overseeing the seminar, bought us traditional Thai outfits which is what I am wearing here. Thai teachers wear this outfit to school on Fridays - they wrap material around them as a skirt and usually wear it with a patterned, high-neck top with wooden toggles.
Some of the colourful Thai spreads we were treated to; we were introduced to many new dishes that weekend, some of the best being hung lay, a curry with pork belly, and tab tim grob, a dessert with water chestnuts and coconut cream.
Teaching teachers how to teach...
Teachers' visit to Lampang night market.
One of our new adopted Thai mums, K-Pop, offered to show Sarah and I around neighboring province Lamphun. K-Pop took us on a tour of the stunning golden pagodas and mirrored temples of Lamphun and to a Thai buffet restaurant where we made our own somtam which is a salad made with green papaya, lots of chilies, limes and crushed-up mini crabs; it's one of my favourite Thai dishes and it's only a proper somtam when it's so spicy that every hole in my face leaks and I'm momentarily blinded. After Lamphun Sarah and I made our way to Chiang Mai where we met our friends, Rachel and Kiren, for the weekend - Chiang Mai has become a regular hang-out spot for us and we often spend the weekend there sampling the nightlife and wandering around the markets.
Making my own somtam with a giant pestle and mortar.
This temple in Lamphun, called Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, has a giant golden pagoda that houses one of the Lord Buddha's hairs.
This mirrored temple, out of the hundreds I have seen in Asia, is one of my favourites - the inner chamber was like a mirror maze.
K-Pop even took us to see her house - we had been dying to see what Thai houses look like on the inside! There's a shrine to the king on the left and the sofas are made out of wood only.
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