East Meets West

East Meets West

The journey from Durban, South Africa to Chiang Mai, Thailand took about twenty-four hours: a short flight from Durban to Johannesburg, an eleven hour voyage from there to Singapore, and then a three hour jaunt to Chiang Mai.

The long flight was aboard a Singapore Air Boeing 777. So far, this airline has my vote. Service was excellent (smiling attendants, hot wet towels a couple of times in flight), food was delicious (dinner and breakfast), coffee was fresh and strong, and the entertainment options were incredible. The 777 has a small video screen at each seat. We’d seen that on British Air. But this one also had a detachable remote control on the arm of the seat. Passengers have a choice of watching 60 movies on demand, about 30 TV shows, and more than 300 CDs on the audio channel (you can even program your own playlist). Or you can watch news, run an interactive language program by Berlitz in about eight languages (if you complete it they mail you a certificate), or play a dozen or so Nintendo games. Some of their flights (London to Singapore and a few others) have wireless internet available.

On the leg from Singapore to Chiang Mai I was with a plane load of Baptists from Oklahoma and Ohio on their way to conduct a VBS in Chiang Mai. We arrived at about ten o’clock in the morning. My suitcase did not. It was still in Singapore. Singapore Air assured me it would be delivered to my lodging by that afternoon. (And it was.)

With the help of my spam filter, I had missed an email from Ellen Burkette, one of the missionaries here, saying she would pick me up at the airport, so I secured a taxi and made it to the Galare Guest House (www.galare.com) on the Ping River on the east side of the city. Ellen called later to be sure I had arrived.

The Galare House provides a clean, comfortable room for a mere $22.50 USD a day. An extra $1.25 gets me a room with a LAN connection to high speed Internet. It is actually a 30 foot long cable coiled in the corner of the room. The restaurant offers some really good Thai food for about $1.75 a meal.

I showered and took a short nap and then went out to explore the city for the first time. It is a strange feeling to be in a foreign city in which I know not a single person. I will not connect with the missionaries here until Thursday. I got a map and headed out. My destination was a Starbucks that appeared to be a short walk away. My route took me by at least a dozen local coffee shops and another dozen Internet cafes and another two dozen massage parlors (Can there really be that many professional masseuses in one city?).

I walked through the Night Bazaar. It was only about 4:00 PM, and the merchants were just setting up their booths along the streets. You could smell the aroma of incense and of food cooking in curry. I wondered why people shop so late until I went for a walk this afternoon and almost collapsed from the heat.

I found the Starbucks and had a cup of coffee of the day and an expresso brownie and thought of Pat Forrester. I believe my future cups of java will be the local brew. They really like coffee here. Pat emailed me and asked me to bring back some coffee from Thailand. He suggested mixing beans from Oaxaca, Uganda, and Thailand, sprinkling in some Nescafe from South Africa, and calling it Sabbatical Blend.

I walked for about an hour, visiting some shops. I must have looked fairly comfortable, because a group of Americans stopped me and asked me for directions. I told them I’d only been here a couple of hours. Sorry. I returned to my quarters, cleaned up, and went down for a plate of Pad Thai and a pot of tea. I called Melinda at Gary Price’s house to let her know I had arrived safely, and then I spent most of the evening responding to several days of untouched email. Since I’m operating with exactly a 12 hour difference between here and home, I stayed up late corresponding live with several friends from home, shooting email back and forth. Jeff Waldo was sitting in a chair connected to a dialysis machine and the Internet and I was sitting in a bed in Chiang Mai at midnight. What a great century to live in.

I slept late today, ate breakfast, and headed out again to explore. My goal this time was the Hard Rock Café, where I was going to take a photo and get a pin for Kat, my daughter-in-law, who works for the Houston location. I never found it. Apparently it has closed.

Taxis are everywhere. They come in several varieties. One version is a red mini pick-up with a cab on back and a row of seats on each side. You see a lot of those. Then you have compact car-sized taxis, like the one I got at the airport. I see about a jillion moped-type motorcycles, like the boda-bodas in Mbarara as well. I suppose they are for rent. And ever corner has several Tuk-Tuks, three-wheeled motorcycle taxis that can carry two passengers in the covered back seat.

As I started out on my excursion, a Tuk-Tuk driver offered me a lift. I declined, telling him I wanted to walk. He opened a folded color brochure and asked if I wanted “one of these,” pointing to the paper. I looked over his should to see photos of a dozen scantily clad Asian women. “No,” I said. “I don’t think so.” I made a note not to carry on conversations with anyone unless I initiated them.

I made my way on down Charoen Prathet Road, past the “Bomb Car Rental” (I didn't know they had a branch here. What kind of insurance do you have to carry on them? Do you have to return them with a full tank of gas?) and on to the route made familiar from my walk the day before. It was so hot, I thought I was back home. At 4:30 it is 100 degrees Fahrenheit, with a 120 degree heat index. I didn’t know that until checking the weather online just now. I thought I was just being wimpy. When I left Durban on Monday, it was winter.

After a while I chose a restaurant for lunch based primarily on the fact that it was air conditioned. My walk back to the room took me by Starbucks and I felt a frappacino attack. They don’t make those in the local coffee houses. When I got back, I changed into some shorts, turned on the AC and the ceiling fan, and started working on this post.

I picked up a brochure at the Galare House office describing a walking tour of the old city that takes about three hours. They recommend doing it before noon to avoid the heat. I think I’ll take a taxi in tomorrow morning and make the walk. I’m supposed to connect with the CBF folks at 1:30 tomorrow and travel to the Suan Bua Resort where their conference is being held. Don’t click on that link and look at their webpage, because I don’t want anyone feeling sorry for me. I expect to spend the remainder of this afternoon working on my presentations.

I’m almost ready to come home. Almost. I miss you all and look forward to being back.

rrc