Friday, October 20. Visited a “Karen” Long Neck village. One of several, located in both Thailand and Burma. Population 130. Women wear long coils (not rings)of brass around their necks. U.N. once called it a “Human Zoo”, but I saw a very poor village that had a tradition of dress that went back long before tourism. If tourists wanted to stop by and buy souvenirs that contributed to their income, so much the better. To their great credit, there was no hard selling activity. Buy something, don’t buy something. No problem.

EcoValley Elephant Care Center. Outstanding. Included a museum with well-written displays. Totally well behaved elephants. Learned how they are treated, cared for, fed and bathed. The caretakers did not ride the elephants, unlike Nepal. The only downside I heard was that they don’t necessarily enjoy being bathed so often. Several headed for the mud pit right afterwards. Dirt acts as sunscreen. We also learned the process for turning elephant dung into paper. Except for the first step, it was identical to normal paper-making. The entire experience was great.

Walked around town a little. Had spring rolls at an Irish bar and watched some world cup cricket. An American in Thailand, sitting in an Irish bar, watching Australia and Pakistan play cricket in India. Tell me we don’t live in a global environment. Afterwards I had pineapple fried rice with shrimp. Awful. Overcooked. But it cost $2 rather than $18 for the same thing in the USA. I ended up going back to The House for seconds of minced beef. Spicier than last night. Clearly, adding the right amount of spice is a lost art, regardless of location. Last stop was the Irish bar again to see how cricket was going. The game seemed endless. After more than three hours, it was only halftime.

Thursday, October 19. Not the most informative of days. Visited a wood carving studio that carved elephant images exclusively. All the carvers are older than 59, so the studio is destined to shut down someday. Immense inventory. The most impressive items were lifesized cement statues at the entrance. Hard wood is used; it’s not whittling. More like working with stone. Chisels, not jackknives. The finished products aren’t smoothed or stained, giving the appearance (to me) that they are not complete.

Next was a drive up to the highlands, where the air was cooler but still intensely humid. For a Thursday, very crowded with Thais. Can’t imagine how it would be on a weekend. At times it was a one and a half lane, two-way road. We went on a nature hike that comprised all that I despise in nature hikes. Everyone else appeared to be enjoying it, so what do I know. Our destination had a view of the village below. Nothing remarkable.

Had lunch at a place with a busy but charming backyard which looked like something out of Wonderland. Or the Shire. (There was a round door on the side of a mound.) Good family-style lunch with a little of everything. Everyone but me had some kind of coffee, which the area is famous for.

On the way back we observed some massive police activity, which Are guessed had something to do with a visit from a close relative of the King. We also experienced an intense, short-lived rain storm. Impressive amount of water fell in a span of ten minutes.

We had no set dinner plan. I asked Are for a location that would have pineapple fried rice. He recommended a place named “The House of Ginger”. On the way I saw several small places that had the item on their menu, so I wondered why he’d send me further out. Turns out the beautifully decorated restaurant is a Michelin Bib Gourmand designated restaurant (“great food, low price”). Chose to change my food choice to Stir Fried Minced Beef in Basil and Chili. Spicy and excellent. By Thai standards it was an expensive meal. By USA standards, a steal.

A short walk around the area revealed a massive number of bars. Very reminiscent of the seventies.

Wednesday, October 18. After a week of traveling alone, today I finally joined up with most of my fellow adventurers for the Pre-Extension tour of non-Bangkok Thailand. We flew to Chiang Mai, situated in the mountainous north. The humid heat was out in force and a pattern was possibly emerging of a lot of rest and recovery time. The hotel is fine, but not top-of-the-line. Folksy. I delivered laundry at 3:30 and it was returned at 5:30. Folksy is just fine.

I got a haircut! The first professional job since 2019. $11. I motioned to leave very little, but the barber interpreted my hand single to mean cut very little. It was a fine result though.

Orientation walk was typical. Two specific observations is that there are a lot of foreigners here and cannabis is popular. Many shops. “Free 1 gram” signs. Are, our trip leader, says weed became legal just last year and there is a movement to make it illegal again. (His name is actually just “R”, but he spells it “Are” to avoid confusion. Has a sister named “O”.)

Temples, massage parlors, and cannabis stores make up a sizable percentage of real estate. And scooter rentals.

Welcome dinner was nice. A selection of typical asian plates. I got a free beer for printing the manager’s photo. It’s clear that I’ll need to tolerate coconut milk as a standard ingredient in many dishes. Haven’t had to cope with curry yet. “Iced Thai Milk Tea” has become my new favorite drink.

From dinner we went to the famous night market. It was indeed impressively large. Saw an ever-present Irish Pub. We all jammed into a ubiquitous “Red Truck” taxi to return to the hotel.

Here’s a map of our itinerary:

Tuesday, October 17. Booked a round of golf at a very exclusive course; Thai Country Club. “Tiger Played Here.” To sum up, I had an interesting day of happiness and pain.

Happiness: Beautiful clubhouse and restaurant. Gorgeous course. Far fewer golfers than I expected. Played alone with no one in front or behind. No rain. Mandatory caddie, who was required to drive the cart for insurance purposes. She also put down the tee and ball, raked the bunkers, replaced divots, cleaned the ball on greens, recommended clubs, “accidentally” relocated the ball at times, supplied me with water and towel, etc. All I had to do was hit the ball.

Pain: I couldn’t hit a ball properly to save my life. Finished the front nine with a score of [classified]. Not an excuse, but in other news It was very hot and humid. No real surprise, except for how it affected me. I drank a huge amount of water throughout, but around the ninth hole my normal back pain began to be an issue. On the tenth (where Tiger’s 356 yard drive reached the green in 1997) I began to see spots and felt dizziness. Worsened on the 11th. So I asked the caddie to just give me a nickel tour of the remaining holes.

Took a much needed shower, then relaxed in the restaurant to watch others finish on the 18th. It didn’t really look like anyone was having good day. Ordered gyoza and then spaghetti (thinking of you, Debbie). Three small margaritas helped cure all ills.

I spent too much time in the gift shop. But I can claim heat exhaustion for all my purchases.

Mark Twain described golf as a fine walk, spoiled. Twain should have rented a cart and caddie, because in spite of the pain I had a very memorable day.

Monday, October 16. Redeye flight was okay. Haneda Airport has the best high tech process for exiting. Thailand’s airport is also very nice. Customs and immigration was practically a non-event. I was early to the meeting place, but my day’s guide was a little late. We had a good conversation on the long morning drive out of the city. He thought we’d miss the Train Market event and have to wait for the second one, but fortunately the train was late.

The Train Market sits along both sides of a railroad track, where customers must walk on the tracks. Not only people, but merchandise and restaurant tables are set on the tracks. Each time the train goes by everything and everyone has to squeeze out to let the train by. As soon as the train inches by, out comes the canopies, chairs, etc. Happens four times a day. It’s fascinating.

Though I’ve seen plenty of markets in my travels, this one was special, besides the train aspect. There were more kinds of seafood than I’d ever seen. The souvenirs were just typical. I had a slushy made with durian fruit. The fruit itself smelled just horrible, but the slushy was only bad. (The hotel had guidance for wifi, meal times, etc. One special note was “Durian Fruit not allowed.” Made total sense.)

Next was a coconut sugar farm. The sugar comes from the palms. Each day a section of palm is sliced off and sap is collected. This is boiled for hours. The product has a consistency of maple syrup. Very good.

Last was the floating market. We rented a paddle boat ride rather than a motorboat. One observation is that the motorboats should be banned. Loud, smelly and obtrusive. The canals are more extensive than needed, hinting that the market was once much larger. Paddling around the abandoned areas was depressing. I wondered about plumbing. But the market was remarkable. Totally different than Venice, Amsterdam and Jinghang, China. Not only did the waterside merchants grab our boat to sell their merchandise (souvenirs or food), but there were roving boats paddling around also selling things, and not being subtle about it. Bought some excellent pork sausages filled with seasoned rice. Taste was identical to gyoza.

Walking along the shoreline was definitely less fun, but still interesting. Merchants touched me to get attention though. Don’t like that.

It was a long drive in the morning and a long one getting back. Traffic is less exciting than I expected though. Compared to other countries it was downright calm. Many, many buddha statues. Duh.

Checked into the hotel and just about crashed. I did stop at the lobby bar for a complementary mocktail that was a pure joy to drink. I had planned to go on a walkabout but it was raining. Needed to keep my shoes dry for tomorrow, when I play golf at a 5-star country club. Embarrassment awaits!