Saturday, November 23, 2019

Mae Sot

A lovely woman who worked for the hotel in Sukhothai drove us from Sukhothai to Mae Sot. When we got to Mae Sot and were trying to find our hotel, we first found the parking lot for it and we all kind of gasped -- the sign said the name of the hotel, and around the weedy "parking lot" were rundown-looking buildings with rusty corrugated metal and broken-down machinery. We all gasped and looked at each other -- I may have said "oh no" -- and then one of us noticed the sign. Whew. Parking lot. When we rounded the corner and found the hotel itself, what a relief! Because it's quite lovely, the Irrawaddy Resort. The Irrawaddy is a mighty, muddy river that flows north to south through Myanmar. Since Mae Sot is a border town, filled with as many Burmese people as Thai, it seems, the name resonates.

We dropped our bags, rested a minute or two, and headed out to look for our standard walkabout destinations: the markets (of which there seemed to be three: a morning market, a night market, and a hill tribe market) and the restaurants Marc had identified as possibilities for our first night. He found three interesting restaurants within a very easy walking distance of the hotel -- by which I mean on the same road, one after the other.

Except. Nope. Nada. No markets, and no restaurants! We had a variety of maps, including the ones Marc has on his phone, the one he printed out showing the location of the restaurants and our hotel, and the map provided by the hotel. Nothing. We could find nothing. We went to the area the hotel dude circled on his map, nothing. We rambled around, nothing, no night market. Stopped in a pharmacy, because Marc has learned that someone there usually speaks at least a little English, and a kind woman stepped out of the store and pointed while she gave us some directions, which were not where the hotel dude sent us so off we went. As we were wandering around, a Thai woman stood up and pointed vigorously -- she figured we were looking for the night market (why else would two old white people be wandering through her neighborhood?), and we found it. And if it was indeed the night market, how terribly disappointing it was.

Since we didn't yet know we wouldn't find the restaurants, we decided to abandon the night market and just go eat at one of the high-rated restaurants Marc identified, and then they were nowhere to be found. We wandered, we consulted and reconsulted maps, and nothing. Finally we found a standard SEAsia hole-in-the-wall kind of place, where it seems the people just do their cooking on the street and they have some tables, and you can stop and eat. Good enough!

We walked up the three concrete steps and looked at the woman at the wok with what we hoped were friendly, inquiring expressions, and she said, "Pad Thai." There was no question mark. We nodded, yes, yes, pad Thai, and then she said, "Seafood egg?" We nodded, yes, seafood egg, and found a seat at an empty table. Such a familiar kind of place for us. There was the toilet paper napkin, the small plastic basket holding chili flakes and pepper vinegar and sugar and fish sauce. And there was actually a menu, not that we could read it, so she must have just looked at us and figured "two old white people, pad Thai."

This is a particular kind of frustration that I'm just not good at managing. Actually, I'm not good at managing any frustration, except for tiny knots in tiny chains or bundles of thread. I get overwhelmed and feel like everything is bad and hopeless and I'm terrible and why bother. But when it's in a place where I cannot read any signs and no one speaks English and there is not one way to understand or be understood, ooh do I get overwhelmed. Luckily Marc doesn't. In my bitter frustration I was thinking why did we come here, why did we come to this stupid ugly place, and other such idiotic, narrow-minded thoughts.

But the next morning it all seemed better, even though I woke up with a brutal headache that stayed all day long. The early morning is very cool here, and we ate breakfast in the truly lovely space at the hotel (banana pancakes for me and grapao kai dow for Marc, and bananas, papayas, watermelon and dragon fruit) and then I went back to the room for more coffee (and to hopefully ease my headache) while Marc scouted the area for the morning market.

It didn't take too long, and there he was with the smile on his face that meant he was market-happy. It was very near by, and he was excited to show me. He'd figured out the right points to tell me: honey it's very crowded at the beginning but then it opens out and it'll be OK for you. And since he knows me so well, he nailed it. The market was great fun, and for me, the biggest fun is that he loves it so much so I love seeing him in the market. The Burmese people were easy to spot because of the thanaka they use to paint designs on their faces. Muslim men were easy to spot, and we saw at least one women fully enrobed in a burkha, eyes-only visible. It was hard to know if we saw different women or the same woman more than once.

We wandered around for a while, looking for the hill tribe market, but couldn't find it. As we got near where we thought it might be, there was a giant pagoda-type structure in the middle of a circle with a giant Ganesha, and I saw a man walking around the statue and noticed that his penis was hanging out of his pants. He seemed terribly disheveled and maybe homeless and/or mentally ill, but ugh.... for me it was upsetting and repelling.

By then the sun was up and hot, and my head was throbbing, so we went back to the hotel to rest and let me lie in the dark. When it was time for dinner, we headed to a little restaurant we'd found earlier in the day (and we never, ever did find the restaurants we'd been looking for, except for one, a tea garden restaurant, and it was closed for some unknown reason). We were surprised by how good the food was -- I wasn't expecting much, it seemed to be mostly a coffee shop -- even if the portions were a bit small. Marc had a fried chicken cutlet with an amazing basil sauce, and I had grapao kai dow, which I adore and never get enough of, and we split a spicy glass noodle and shrimp salad. With water and my Singha, the total was $9. So surprising, for the food to be as good as it was, although maybe Thai food is just always good because the ingredients are fresh and it's made very quickly on the spot.

My head hurt until just after midnight, so for me it was a hard day, a headache day, but I ended up really liking Mae Sot, and so did Marc. Finding a nice market and a good place to eat will do the trick for us every time, especially since that's one of our main reasons to travel.

So this morning we're off to Yangon, via DMK, where we will once again eat at the hidden cafeteria. Marc has been so excited to eat there again, which tickles me to death. One night in Yangon and then we'll be off to the beach at Ngapali.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Sukhothai

The reason we came to Sukhothai is because it has an airport. And then, it has an interesting hotel. This is how Marc zooms in on potential places for us on our trips -- neither of us had ever heard of Sukhothai, and once those pieces were in place, Marc started looking around to see what there was to do here.

Ruins. Wats, temples. A UNESCO World Heritage site. Huh! OK! Let's go.

Since we'd be jetlagged and shattered, Marc found us a hotel with a pool and boy was that a good decision. In fact there isn't a whole lot to do in Sukhothai beyond the ruins and the small market, and in fact it's super hot here, so having the pool to retreat to in the bulk of the day was just the right thing. Our hotel, Sawasdee Sukhothai Resort, is just fine -- our little bungalow is comfy and the AC is good and chilly, the bikes they rent are new and in great shape, and the staff are all very kind and sweet. Unobtrusive but helpful. The hotel is away from the main part of this older part of Sukhothai, and seems to be hovering at the edge of large, empty fields. It's very quiet here, and other guests seem to stay no more than a couple of days; the first day or two, we were by far the youngest people here, but then a crop of younger couples arrived. It's weird to be the youngest ones.

Our first full day we really just got the lay of the land. We were out a little too late in the morning to do the ruins, because holy HELL is it hot, so we found the market, figured out the layout of the place, swam and rested, and ate. Every night in Sukhothai we ate at the same place: Junshine Cafe/Restaurant. We don't do that, ever. On occasion we might return to a place, but we literally ate every single dinner in Sukhothai at this place. The servers were very sweet, and the first night we ate there, all the other customers (all of whom were Thai) seemed to take a special interest in us, walking near our table on the way to their own, inspecting the dishes we ordered, smiling at us and nodding. It was adorable. What did we eat there, honey? Green papaya salad, a delicious fried fish, panang curry, morning glory (twice), pad Thai, shrimp with special sauce (twice), shrimp with sweet sauce, a Thai omelet, cabbage, spicy Thai noodles, and whatever we'll eat tonight because oh yes, we're going back. They have Beer Lao (dark!), which I had every night. Marc kept looking at the information he collected about other restaurants, but each time we decided to go back to Junshine anyway.

Our "usual" table

The post-eating carnage the first night -- I forgot to take any photos but it was SO GOOD

The beer of wholehearted people

This fried fish y'all!! It was amazing. Crispy fried basil, and the orange stuff is super crispy fried we-don't-know-what
but we LOVE it

Spicy Thai noodles

After the first night, once we'd found our way around the area on bikes, we rode bikes to the restaurant and back, which is really just tricky because they drive on the wrong side of the road here, and in the dark it's a little more confusing, but it was also fun. Riding home in the dark, our tummies full of wonderful food, with light still held in the wisps of clouds just a little bit, well, I'll remember that for a very long time.

Our first night we slept nearly 11 hours straight, but after that we were in the normal jet lag routine of falling asleep very early, around 7:30pm, and waking up ready to go by 5am. Since we wanted to go to the ruins very early, before the heat hit, that was just perfect. So on our second full day, that's what we did. We were first in line at the ticket booth, and a few minutes later a couple of French dudes got in line behind us. One guy asked what time it opened and I said 6:30, and he said, "Thixth thirty?" and I nearly fell over laughing, it was tho adorable. It took all my adulting to not giggle, though I imagine my smile was filled with delight.

The ruins were just so beautiful, early in the morning. The light was gold and lit up the various wats and chedis with rose-gold, and gold-gold, and red-gold light. We rode all through the main site and then tried to find a faraway wat with no luck. Here are some of the wats and Buddhas:

One great thing about being up so early is that you can bike around through an ancient wat complex and then bike back to the hotel and it isn't even 10am yet. I felt a little shaky -- my coffee was all run out and I needed some protein -- so we ate a quick hotel breakfast, went back to the room for a quick crash nap, and then headed out to the pool. That's been the rhythm of these days in Sukhothai, lots of eating and lying around the pool (and reading for me), and then an activity and then repeat, and then dinner and then bed.

When we were up and out so early yesterday for the trip to the ruins, I saw the small tak bat ceremony happening so we decided to get up early again today and head into town at close to dawn as possible. Biking out of the hotel in the morning silence, with the sun just starting to show the clouds, is such a wonderful experience. And YES, sure enough, we arrived in time to witness the tak bat ceremony. It's very small, unlike the big Hollywood extravaganza that is the Luang Prabang ceremony, but it did have its own bits of show and flash; there is a bridge that's used for a focused bit of the morning, with nice mats and small tables to hold the offerings for the monks, who all line up on the bridge. After that, they make their way down the main road, stopping at the small businesses here and there when shopkeepers have rice to give them.

This is such an extraordinarily common and familiar feeling for me, such an experience: AWE.
Here I am. How did I get here? How can this be me, my life? Me, from where I am come,
me, here, me, where? Where am I now -- China, Thailand, Laos, Bali, Croatia, Turkey,
Norway, Greece, Peru, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Borneo? Where am I now?
Here I am again, riding a bicycle in a place I never could have dreamed I would see.
And there he is, there's Marc on his bike just behind me, or biking ahead, planner extraordinaire,
travel partner deluxe, him and me, here.

The bridge site for the "fancy" tak bat ceremony. It's still not as Hollywood as Luang Prabang.

Off to the small businesses for more lumps of rice and merit bestowed for women, one of the
few ways women can earn merit. Not that I'm bitter about that.

Oh gosh it was SUCH a beautiful morning.

We stopped for a bowl of Sukhothai noodles for breakfast. Pho it's not, all-that-tasty it's not either,
and yes I may have sprinkled an extra spoon too many of red chili flakes.

We stopped in the market for bag #2 of these tasty little donut things (rice flour, I think, and a sesame sugar coating on top, and I ate too many but you know me and a little donut thing).

Tonight we'll go to Junshine again (we may have been planning what we'd order mid-morning), and tomorrow around noon we'll leave Sukhothai for Mae Sot, on the border with Myanmar. No pool there, and no ruins, but some markets and small food stalls to explore, and yet again to learn how a new town in Southeast Asia feels.

Lucky me, lucky mud.

“God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, "Sit up!"
"See all I've made," said God, "the hills, the sea, the
sky, the stars."
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look
around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly
couldn't have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to
think of all the mud that didn't even get to sit up and
look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.”

(Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle)

Day.....one? Day how many?

Travel day was tough for this trip: Newark to Hong Kong to Bangkok [tight connection here] to Sukhothai. We also used a new place to park at Newark, and didn't have any idea what to expect, how far we'd need to walk, how regularly the shuttle would run from the lot to the terminal (it could not have worked out better!). We left EWR at 1am Saturday morning and finally arrived at our hotel in Sukhothai 27-ish hours later, but 12 hours ahead of that because of the time zone difference.

We always reserve a window and aisle seat at the back of the plane in the hope of having the middle seat empty, to give us a little more room, and it's actually surprising how often we get it. Not this time, though. Usually we take the middle seat so we can still sit together, but this trip we decided Marc would keep the aisle seat and I'd take the window, in large part because that kept him free to get up and roam around as often as he wanted. The guy between us was OK enough, a young guy who lives in Hong Kong. I mostly slept the whole trip, in that weird neck-killing, body-hurting way of being asleep but kinda not asleep but also asleep and then awake because my god the neck, I have to use both hands to move my head. Poor Marc didn't sleep at all, maybe 15 minutes all together and not all at one go.

Hong Kong at dawn, as usual

But the Hong Kong change was easy, and the Bangkok change was even easy -- customs and immigration, luggage retrieved and money changed, and final flight made. We landed in Sukhothai at a Bangkok Airways airport like the one in Trat; you are ferried from the plane in a golf cart, "baggage claim" is a guy in a pith helmet and safari clothes standing at an open area and then handing you your luggage, but in Sukhothai there was also a whole bunch of live zebras and a giraffe for some bizarre unknown reason. Also: gigantic statues of dinosaurs.

The cab ride to the hotel was easy and while we were completely mind-whacked from the jet lag and very long flights and physical exhaustion, we changed into our bathing suits and headed for the pool. Although we planned to walk to the restaurant Marc had found for us, we ended up taking a tuk-tuk, eating a magnificent meal (more on that in the next post), and then sleeping for almost 11 hours straight, without waking up even once.

All in all, except for the perfectly fine guy sitting between us on the long flight, it could not have gone better.