Thailand

After a three hour catapult bus ride [that should have taken five] through the mountains of Thailand I found my way back in Chiang Mai. With nothing but an email that said, "we'll be at some place called Riverside, or Rivertine, or River Place... something. I'll be there with some friends for drinks and dinner" I set out to say goodbye to Lyndsey. I knew it could be years before I ever see her again.

I went, I looked, and I left the Riverside Bar and Restaurant after not finding her. I decided to walk a mile or so into the night market I had passed earlier. I had just made it to the market when I heard her calling from a zipping Tuk-Tuk, "TREYYY!!" Thailand just works like that. Endless serendipity. Chance encounters really defined almost every aspect of my trip.

I left the next morning for a 14 hour train ride back to Bangkok. Horrible, horrible idea. It was easily as bad as my flight to Beijing from Jacksonville. Always, always take a sleeper train. At least with a plane you feel like you're actually getting somewhere quickly.

And thus I arrived in Bangkok with a few hours to think on what I thought of the country. Thailand is an amazing place. The people are some of the happiest, peaceful people I've ever encountered. It's a ciountry that seems to have pulled off globalization as well as one could hope. In my 24+ hours looking out the windows into the countryside I never really saw any grinding poverty. Everyone seemed to have enough and then a little bit extra. They've kept the country clean. The endless stream of tourist and backpackers are welcome there and, except for some horrible exceptions, they've commodified the best assets of their nation without cheapening it. That's skill.

As for the backpackers themselves, I grew to have a healthy respect for them. It took awhile getting over my territorial anti-laowai feelings I'd developed in China. There whenever I'd see a few white people in a bar or resteraunt I'd want to leave. In Thailand, I'd let the local places be local and have fun in a place built for my own kind. Almost everyone I met respected Thai culture and wanted to learn as much as possible. You'd don't find that too often with foreigners iun China.

China, it seems sometimes we're in the business of getting the Chinese to think a little less Chinese and a little more Western. Almost every Westerner has a little crusade, something they want to change about China. Even I dream of being a musical Johnny Appleseed, spreading better music to the clubs and shops blaring 200bpm techno today. Cody wants them to dress better. Most of us want them to be able to keep a Western schedule. In Chiang Mai, though, the Thai's teach us, giving classes in everything from cooking to meditation. Gifts for the foreigners to make their own home a little happier. Food for thought, ey?