With a three-day weekend, a world of freedom opened so two friends and I decided to travel up to the north of Thailand to explore Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Pai. The north is known for it’s lush green foliage and gorgeous mountains. Unfortunately we chose to go at the worst possible time because in the month of March, all the rice farmers burn their fields in order to grow herbs and mushrooms that sprout from the ashes. Though it’s an effective practice for the farmers to earn a little extra income from the second crop, it is horrible both for the environment and visibility, so our mountain views were a little less spectacular. Even so, getting out of our Khon Kaen bubble was fun and exciting.
Khon Kaen, as it would be, is the farthest thing from a tourist destination in Thailand. Comparatively, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Pai are major tourist destinations. As we disembarked our bus in Chiang Mai, we saw countless white faces in the crowds of Thai people. I was a little taken aback, being used to being one of the only farrang around in Khon Kaen. Even more shocking was when I arrived in Pai. Pai is a world of dreaded, tattooed, pierced European backpackers. I could walk down the street without seeing a single Thai. It was a place completely catered to tourists. There were even people dressed in Karen hill tribe cultural dress performing on the street to give the tourists a taste of the ‘culture.’
As I spent time in these tourist locales using my Thai language that I have garnered so far, I spoke in Thai with locals about my life and asked them about theirs. I found that the Thais I spoke with were pleasantly surprised and even excited to encounter a farrang who had more permanence in Thailand than other tourists. I became more than just a walking moneybag to them. Gaining even the simple ability to communicate on a deeper level gave me more humanity in their eyes. One friend I made along the way, an elephant trainer, even asked my friends and I to come back and work on the elephant farm with him.
What I realized through my long weekend is how blessed I am to get more than just a few days or weeks in Thailand as a tourist, but rather months studying and seeking to gain as much understanding as possible about the culture in which I am living. Tourists who make their rounds of Thailand go to the beaches in the south, Bangkok for the big city experience, and then Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai/ Pai in the north to see pretty mountains. They stay on the tourist trail where it is easy to communicate in English. They see the sights, buy some trinkets, and then they move along to the next country. Though I have four short months, I am getting far more than any tourist might. I am gaining empathy.