"Seis, sept, huit, neuf, dix!"
A little girl counts the rows in the aircraft as she walks past my seat. A sea of French voices wash over me before it suddenly sinks in: the holiday is over, I am going back to France. A voice screams from within.
The eleven hour overnight flight from Bangkok to London passed as if I had been drugged. I don't remember boarding, or taking off, or anything significant during the flight, except some dirty farang sat next to me occasionally coughing in my general direction. An hour or so before we landed, I woke up to the hostess announcing to the entire cabin "special meal, sir" as though being vegetarian was an unfortunate disability I had been born with. Descending into the mist over London cheered me up and I began to feel that warm sensation of returning home. But only for a moment.
The pilot kicks back and we are powering down the north runway at Gatwick. I can see a few areas of snow in the corner of fields when we take off. As I attempt to listen to the conversations going on around me, it is evident how little French I understand. When in Thailand I am a devil for tuning into strangers' conversations at every opportunity, but when it comes to French it doesn't spark a fire in the same way. It dawns on me that I may have made a mistake in boarding the plane in Bangkok. I have lost count of the number of times I have been to Thailand, but I still find it new and exciting each time I visit.
This trip was rather less frantic than some of those previous. I visited less places but stayed longer -- perhaps this is a sign of age! It all started with a few days in Bangkok staying at Pie's palace and admiring the latest modifications to his car. I arrived on Christmas Day morning to a country open as usual and oblivious to the occasion. While Britain was putting the turkey in the oven, I was feasting at a Thai vegetarian restaurant. While families gathered around to watch the Queen's speech or to fall asleep in front of Indiana Jones, I was having a two-hour Thai massage. I can definitely recommend going away for Christmas! I think I may have eaten as much as usual over Christmas, but it was all Thai, with a bit a Japanese/Korean and plenty of cake/ice-cream. When I wasn't indulging myself, one of the projects of the trip was to find a printing company to publish Luangpor's book and as I write this article it should now be going to print. Thank you to everyone who has donated money and helped me out -- especially Joob!
After I had grown tired of Bangkok traffic, I joined some friends on an overnight bus to Chiang Mai and ended up sleeping in the luggage area as the bus was over-booked! It was not that easy to escape from the Bangkok crowds as they had migrated to the north for the New Year celebrations. Luckily we were out in a village called Ban Tham where it was very peaceful. We woke up at 6am to go 'tam boon' (offer food) at the local temple and after we borrowed a bicycle to see the rest of the village. The locals were surprised to see a farang riding along the lane, between the buffalo, smiling as he went! Next we drove up towards Mae Hong Sorn (sat in the back of a truck getting my nose a bit pink) to Hwai Nam Dung, arriving in time to see the sun set on 2009. The campsite was as busy as a music festival, tents crammed in and revellers suitably unprepared for the weather, which by Thai standards was quite cool. Many thought it to be below freezing, but it just felt like a normal summer evening to me. It was cute to watch them getting excited about seeing their breath! Imagine never having experienced a temperature below 20 degrees. We lit lanterns at midnight and set them free in the night sky to let go of the past year. Unfortunately one caught fire before it took off, and one got stuck in a tree! It was up again at 6am to watch the sun rise on 2010. Apparently it is very important to rise early on New Years Day -- more so than getting a good sleep. On New Years Day I got to see Pai. Not Pai as in P'Pie, but Pai as in the place that is a famous Thai tourist spot. Then it was a long drive back to Chiang Mai, along the mountainous road with 762 hairpin bends. People say that getting car sick is part of the Pai experience. I survived, but it was a lot of travelling, and sun exposure. Anyway, we stocked up on local delicacies (nam prik num) before jumping on another overnight bus to Bangkok.
I did a lot of sleeping when I arrived back in Bangkok, but as soon as I had recovered I was off to Koh Lan for one night to get my beach fix. And some fix it was, as the island was almost deserted after the new year holiday. I dashed back to Bangkok and almost missed my flight to Phitsanulok where I was met by Joob who was stressing over having to lecture for the first time. Naresuan University is in a lovely location, not too far from the city, but surrounded by countryside so the campus is very pretty. The people are wonderful, especially the lecturers in Maths and Computer Science who all seem to specialise in karaoke and dancing. We were out every night! My workshop went down rather well, almost as well the lunch that was organised with it. The whole stay was funded by the university so I did rather well out of this part of my trip. There is talk of a possible job there so I may be returning someday.
Now passing over the Alps and they look quite snowy. At least I have skiing to look forward to in the following weeks.
After Phitsanulok it was back to Bangkok again, one day in Nakhon Pathom at the market and taking a trip along the river, and then the following day Luangpor arrived. Early on Tuesday morning I met Ken, we went to pick Luangpor up, and then Ken drove us up to Ubon at an impressive speed. We got stopped by the police one and a half times (the second time we were going to fast to stop). He managed it easily in less than six hours. Luckily Luangpor had just been to the eye hospital for a check up and they had given him some eye drops that blurred his vision. Tahn Manapo on the other hand was able to fully experience Ken's overtaking skills. We had five nights up in Ubon which seemed to fly by. At the end of it I didn't want to leave. We had a day up at Wat Keuan, a forest temple on a peninsula sticking out into a huge reservoir created by Sirintorn dam. The best day of my entire trip though was when we went to Sakhon Nakorn, Mukdahan and Nakhon Phanom. We visited Luangpuu Mun's museum, Mae Chee Kaew's nunnery, Ajahn Kinaree's temple and the big chedi at Phra Ta Phanom. I will be adding some pics!
Then on my penultimate day we had the anniversary of the death of Luangpuu Chah. A fabulous event during which I spent most of my time wandering around chatting to people and eating while trying to find the ideal position to snap photographs of Luangpor during the circumambulation ('wien tien'). At the end of the day I went to Wat Pah Nanachat to have tea with Luangpor and Mae Chee. It was a perfect end to my trip to sit listening to Luangpor in the forest as the sky got darker and darker. By the time I left it was pitch black and I had a job finding my way to get out of the temple. It was a too late to catch a bus or songtaew so I walked up to the main road and tried to flag down a car. Despite my waving and smiling, it took ten minutes for someone to stop for me. I suspect my farang skin makes me easily mistakable for a ghost. I made it back to the hotel, although only after the people who gave me a lift had tried to convince me that I should join an ordination ceremony of 100,000 monks!
Touch-down. I have just landed in Marseille. I have had my fun, tomorrow it is back to work. I am far from those places in Thailand I adore so much, but that won't stop me carrying around a piece of the magic they possess. May I and all beings be well and happy.
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